Around the house

Last weekend I got together with my little sister to take her senior pictures. It was raining outside, so we decided to do indoor shots until we get some clear weather...which will hopefully be tomorrow! That day made me realize I haven't picked up my camera in what felt like forever. The battery was dead and the memory card was almost full. After some charging and downloading/deleting files we were ready to go. It got me thinking though about the convenience of phones these days.  More often than not I accept that my phone camera will do and that I don't need to haul around my big heavy Nikon. Yes, it is more convenient to just have my phone when we go out on adventures, but the picture quality, control, and creativity you get from using a SLR camera is incomparable.
            So this morning, I pulled out my camera, and just took some simple photographs around the house to please my heart and my itch for taking pictures WITHOUT my phone. I tried so hard to broaden my subject this morning too! (It is so hard to NOT take pictures of just my kids...they're so darn cute!)

getting ready to make leather finger cuffs for Jeremy to wear when he is using his woodworking files

blooming...and dusty

Happy Birthday Shepherd!

Today is the day, two years ago, that we had an impatient little boy join our family. I will never forget the grace and provision God showed us that day. With all of the unexpected medical emergencies, we welcomed a healthy baby boy, three weeks early, on my mom’s birthday!  Two years later, Shepherds personality has grown immensely and he already has a strong interest in skateboarding, music, and dancing. The moment you turn the stereo on, he comes running out of the room and starts dancing. Then usually yells “louder, louder mommy!” 

A few other phrases he says often are:

“dat cool mommy? Dat cool? ( usually after he jumps off something or does a trick)

“Skateboarding!” (pretends that all his toys are skateboarding)

“I sorry Ruby” (this is said quite often in one day!)

“cer-ro-rol mommy? Bowl? Spoon? With milk mommy?” ( every morning J)

 Happy birthday baby boy! We love you!

 

 

Looking forward to what this year will bring!

pause button

It is amazing to see how fast Ruby and Shepherd have grown in these past 6 months. Shepherd has experienced his first haircut, which he still talks about and is constantly rubbing his head saying "hair cut, cut." I think he misses his long hair (so do I!) Ruby has become quite the artist these days. I always find her at the table drawing just about everything, although her favorite thing to draw are princesses, obviously! The other day we experimented with making plant prints. I let her go in the backyard on her own to gather different plants and flowers. She put them between two pieces of paper and hammered away. She also tried to do it with rocks, and for some reason they didn't transfer so well on the paper :-) She did however make some holes from hammering them so much!

I wish there was a pause button for certain days in their childhood...seeing them grow up sure is bittersweet.

 

 

the beach

 

      

Anytime the sun is out in Seattle the streets get crowded, parks are swarming with kids, and we can't help but join the mess because we don't get many days like it in the winter. A week or two ago we ventured to Carkeek park. Ruby was very hesitant to cross the bridge to the beach, but she made it in one piece (I had to carry her). They threw countless rocks in the water, dug plenty of holes, and even made sand angels. As you can see by the pictures it wasn't exactly warm at the beach, but who notices the temperature when you're having fun, right? brrrrrr!

 

first snow

We are all getting very excited for Christmas around here! Yesterday we ended up taking all of our ornaments down and cut the tree up for fire wood. We didn't actually NEED fire wood, but the tree was beyond dead. Throughout the day I would hear ornaments falling off the branches because they were drooping to the floor. Luckily for us, my mother in-law bought us a little 3ft fake tree last year when life was too crazy to get a real one. So we pulled that out, set it up on a platform, and redecorated our tree! I think next year we should probably wait until December to cut a tree down.
(we went out thanksgiving weekend this year)

This morning, I got to dig through all of our boxes to find the kids snow gear. Once it was light out, We all bundled up and tromped though our backyard to play in the snow before it all melts. As always, Wyatt loved it, and Ruby focused on trying to make the perfect snow angel. All Shep wanted to do was stomp in the mud puddles that scatter our driveway. It was pretty cute.
I wonder if we will have a white Christmas this year?

one less trip to the store

Taste tester for our yummy granola

 

 

When you don't feel like packing the kids in the car to go grocery shopping you get a bit creative with what you've got in the cupboards. In this case, we had everything we needed for homemade granola. I put the bowl on the floor and let the kids mix their hearts out as I added the ingredients. We used oats, almonds, coconut, honey, oil, raisins, and added some dried banana after baking. Unfortunately I burnt the first batch, but the second one turned out great!

Later that day I attempted to let Shepherd paint. He lasted about 10 seconds, then wouldn't stop putting his paint covered hand in his mouth.

Growing up...

The other day, the kids and I were playing in the living room while waiting for daddy to come home. The photographer in me could not pass up the great light coming in from the window and just had to grab my camera. As I was looking over the photos I took I couldn't help but pull up Shepherd's baby pictures and see how much he's grown. I can't believe he is going to be one in twenty one days! It has been such a blessing to see this little man grow and I have to admit, I kind of miss the newborn days. On the other hand, I sure do love this new concept called sleeping through the night!

Oh and there has been lots of bread baking going on in this house. Still trying to find a good recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread. Anyone have any suggestions?