Our year in pictures.

As my last post of 2011, I wanted to reflect on our past year. Its fun to see where we were a year ago. Already a lot has changed. Lots of new opportunities came along with blessings.

Our past year in pictures:

January:
Still in the first trimester but reading literally 100,001 baby names to come up with the ONE name we would choose for our baby.

February

Image 1: Winter. Seems to be a big part of your life in February in North Dakota.   

 

Image 2: We also started our baby registry which I spent the next few months researching and perfecting.

 

March

BIG MONTH! We after lots of discussion decided to find out what we were having. 

Image 1: In front of Essentia Health and shows the disc from our ultrasound and the envelopes containing cards with the gender written inside.

 Image 2: Our ultrasound

Image 3: Our cake that revealed we were having a boy. This picture still gives me strong emotions!!

April: Projects Galore and an Anniversary.

Image 1: Our nursery. A huge project. April was a month of lots of projects to help prepare for our baby.

Image 2: A picture Mitch captured. It is a facebook reminder of our anniversary. :) We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!

Image 3: Our wedding picture from 2006 but seemed appropriate for the anniversary mention.

May: The month of fruit eating and tons of baby showers.

 

Image 1: I spent a lot of May eating pineapple along with other types of fruit. I had insane cravings for it and ate tons. This picture seemed appropriate! :)

 Image 2: Baby shower 1 with my family's side.

 Image 3: Baby shower 2 with my work buddies. I miss them!

Image 4: Baby shower 3 with Mitch's side of the family.

 

June: Summed up easily with baby classes and a babymoon.

 

Image 1: A picture from 6th floor of Essentia Health where we visited for baby classes and later delivered.

 Image 2: A picture in front of the Sioux Falls zoo. Our last getaway as a couple.

July: A life changing month filled with by the minute changing emotions.

 

August: Our life was Nuts. New baby + Busiest month of photography for Mitch = blur.

 

Image 1: Mitch's life for most of the month. He had booked a few weddings before we knew we were expecting and many of Fargo's biggest events happened that month in which he was obligated to shoot. Busy daddy.

Image 2: Jack in his car seat. We seemed to be on the go a lot and when Mitch had his busy weekends, Jack and I hit the road to visit my parents at their farm to get away and of course to get some help with Jack :)

 

September: Jack. Enough said. 

 

Image 1: A picture I love and we took in September.

Image 2: Jack sleeping. He did a lot of it. I tried to :)

No pictures for this but I decided to stay home with Jack rather than go back to teaching. Kind of a bittersweet decision. As a teacher you invest so much into your classroom and its hard to give it up. However, I do have a pretty great little baby to spend my days with ;)

Lastly, I met a great group of girls who I meet up with to hang out with every month. Definitely something a stay at home mom needs--a chance to get away for some girl talk. For that, I am grateful.

October: The start of Force hockey and an epic costume.

 

Image 1: Daddy and Jack shooting the game. Something that occurs almost every weekend from mid October- April.

Image 2: A cute costume I made for Jack that I swear became epic. I, of course, couldn't have been more pleased because come on, look at him.

November: A getaway trip to San Diego.

Mitch and I were able to get away for a few days to San Diego. Mitch shot a wedding and I relaxed. An refreshing break from my new job of mommyhood.

December: Christmas prep

 

Image 1: Jack as a Christmas elf, smiling because smiling is his favorite--elf :)

Image 2: Jack's Christmas Loot. The kid seriously got the whole toy store. Its fun though because he just got to the point where he likes to play with toys.

Whew! What a year!

Lucky Us!

Here's to an amazing 2012!

Cheers to the New Year!

New Years Endeavors.

I am not one to usually make a resolution. Every year I make a mental note of things I want to work on but I rarely make an out loud statement promising to do something. I kind of feel like the big new years resolution idea is just a hype and typically sets up a person for failure. I do have goals but I want to call mine something different since I don't want to fall under the hype of it all. Then I found the word endeavor. Definition: to exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive. Exactly. That seems right. So we will call it my New Years Endeavor.

Well what is it, you ask?
My New Years Endeavor is to start recycling.
I am almost a little ashamed to admit that I haven't been. I had good intentions and actually several years back I did. But then I stopped when the items all started to pile up and I quit hauling it to the recycling center.
But now with having a future I need to protect for our little Jack and having tons of garbage (lots of it being recyclable) I have decided that its important to me. I have wanted to start for a while, but never made the move to make it happen. Today I did it. I schemed up a system that I hope will work for us. (I even made it cute and took pictures to show) :)

I first cleaned out under my sink and then found a box that would fit the space. A diaper box! Awesome. Not too hard to find with an infant in the house :)

Then I made it cute!

I simply wrapped them with wrapping paper and then made some clip art and font on the computer. Then I mod podged over the whole outside of the box so that in case something dripped on it, my hard work wouldn't be wasted ;) Then I stretched a force flex garbage bag to fit inside the box.

The finished product at work:

I am excited about the project and hopefully I can keep the enthusiasm. My plan now is to haul it to the recycling center. If that becomes a hassle I guess I will have to figure out curb pickup.

Now that the recycling project is up and running I can focus on some other minor 2012 endeavors of mine:

• Work on my fitness. Having a baby was hard on my body. Enough said.
• Develop a cleaning schedule for my house and stick to it for the most part. I need to work on this.
• Always keep re-organizing to be more efficient. Organizing makes me feel great and who doesn't love the feeling of being organized?!?
• Use my meal planning board more often and eat out less. It started out well....
• Organize and keep printing Jack's pictures so I keep on top of them. We have a million and I am not going to know the dates they were taken in a few months.
• Organize my recipe box. Or maybe find a way to file all the random torn out magazine recipe pages into my recipe box. 
• Enjoy my little guy Jack. He is growing up really fast suddenly and I don't want to miss a thing.

What about you? Do you make resolutions or do you make endeavors? :)

Share the Love.

We are already less than a week away from Christmas and I can't believe it!

Excitement is building though because this Christmas is going to be even more special this year. It will be our first Christmas as a family of 3 (+ the pets). It might make for an interesting car ride but will be so exciting to share our traditions with Jack and to see him explore some new toys!

What brought me to this post today was my facebook status. I simply said "Wouldn't it be great if your mailbox was filled with letters and pictures from loved ones all year around?!?! I love Christmas cards! Thank you to all of you who sent them to us. They are nicely displayed on our kitchen cupboards :)"

Since I took the time to display them a little nicer this year, I figured I would share the pictures of my display. I found the idea on pinterest.

You just run a festive ribbon down your cupboards and clip the cards/pictures to it! Super easy but a little fancier way to display them.

 

Can't you just feel the love? I sure can! I love seeing them up on our cupboards every day.

And to share the love....

Christmas Tunes.

So the last few years I have been listening to this cd...

 If you love A Capella, I suggest them. 

This year, I discovered some new cds and have been jamming to them for well over a month! 

Check them out!

Love me lots of Michael Buble!!

 With a side of Justin Bieber

and a dash of.....

What are you listening to this season?

Spook Me Mommy.

So I found out lately Jack likes to be scared. It makes him laugh...A lot. This video shows it all!

(Sorry the video doesn't turn the right way. Not sure why)

Scentsy Spirit.

So I have been super busy lately. I am trying to pull together my Scentsy goodies for my first party on Friday!!

 Check out my website to see what the product is about and to find lots of stuff to add to your list for Santa ;)

I also have been busy turning my house into a Christmas wonderland. Its the only holiday that I really go all out decorating for.

Above my kitchen cupboards...

Three of my Four trees... (the 4th one is on the fritz so no picture yet)

Aww. I just love the magic feeling of Christmas lights :)

Thankful.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

This has been a great year for our family! 

So much to be thankful for...

• Our healthy, super happy, cute baby boy Jack
• Mitch working hard to provide for our family so that I can stay home with Jack
• Our awesome and supportive families
• Our friends who provide us with lots of laughter and relief from life's stresses
• Our pets--unconditional love
• Our house and items that help us to have a comfortable life that others aren't as fortunate to have.
• mJoy Photography's continuous growth and the wonderful opportunities it presents to us and friendships we have made through it.
• And I definitely have to give a shoutout to my amazing husband who has had to provide me with more support than I thought possible with me becoming a new mommy. Without him, I would have simply been lost. Such a blessing to have someone by your side through all of life's adventures.

We are beyond lucky and fortunate! 

Now onto a less serious note, I am so lucky to have found pinterest. Seriously obsessed. Can't give enough love on my blog for pinterest. Check it out... After my blog :)

Anyways, a while back someone had pinned a turkey shirt from etsy onto their "pinterest board". I saw it and knew I had to make it for Jack. So I did.

Here it is:

He will be wearing it home to the farm for the weekend to see my family. 

Can't wait to put it on him! He is going to love it I am sure!

And now with Thanksgiving over... Onto Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year.

I know what we will be listening to on our drive home :)

Feel Good Blogs (link)

Rough week? Maybe you are feeling like this....

or this...

Or you know what, you can be feeling like this......

And still enjoy this link!!

Check it out! Its awesome and definitely good at burning up your free time.

It's http://feelgoodblogs.com/   
This link has a link to three different blogs.... Mother glow, welcome home blog, and ring on the finger. All of them contain videos of what the subject is... (mother glow- videos of pregnancy news being shared, welcome home blog-soldiers returning home, and ring on the finger-engagement surprise videos!)

Feel good videos. We could all use these just make sure to have your tissues ready. Some of them are real good!  :)

Anyways, soon we will heading out on a trip. Mitch gets to photograph a wedding in San Diego. I could use some sunshine and a break. So excited. Maybe more so though once my suitcase is packed and its more realistic!

Hope this link holds you over until I can blog again ;)

Baby Giggle.

Jack is finding his giggle and it could not be cuter. He has had two outbursts which of course weren't on camera but this captures a piece of his giggle.

(Video Backstory: Jack loves his new jumper but hasn't quite figured out the whole jumping thing. So I am saying "jump" and bouncing up as I say it--clearly a very funny idea to Jack)

Enjoy!

Lawn Gnome.

Ok so this kid has some of the cutest pictures but these may be my new favorites....

There is no way you can look at these pictures without giggling, right? 

They are just my favorite.

I bought the boots and already had the pants and shirt on hand. I made his belt, beard and hat though :). 

 And to answer some questions we have already received...

No he isn't for sale. He can not be your yard ornament.
And...

No he is not sponsored by Travelocity.   :)

Gonna be hard to top this costume next year.

Happy Halloween!