365 photo challenge

  Long time, no see, folks!
  So, only 30 days in and we have already had a very exciting year! Okay, exciting might be an exaggeration? Its all relative, really... Paisley hits the 6 month mark on Wednesday (omg!), so you will hear all about our excitement then!
  One of my new years resolutions was to take more pictures/learn more about photography/use my camera to its full capacity. When I heard about the 365 photo challenge, I thought it was the perfect first step in making my resolution happen. The challenge is simple, really. You take 1 picture a day all year, for a grand total of.... 365 pictures! Now, you can make it something more than that, if thats your thing. I joined a group on facebook that is centered around the challenge. Each week we have a different theme and one week a month we have a "challenge." These challenges are really just ways/ideas to get us to explore our cameras and learn some actual stuff. So far, I have followed the rules and played the game. I have even learned something!!!
  The point of this post wasn't just to tell you about the challenge. I, of course, have pictures to go along with it! (sorry, I tend to get a little wordy)
  At the beginning, I had big plans for my blog and this challenge. I had visions of myself sitting down each Saturday morning (our week ends on Friday) and coming up with a witty post about the past weeks theme/challenge and posting a picture to go with it. Obviously I failed. Big time, considering I am posting about it on the 30th day of the challenge.
  To make up for a whole months worth of bad blogging, I will now entertain you with some of my fine photographing from January!

 Week 1 : New Year

New Year, New Friends
This is a picture I took on New Years Eve New Years morning (1 am-ish?). The feet in the picture belong to Derek and Autumn. I thought, new year, new "friends." I say "friends," because I don't know what they technically are... Are they boyfriend and girlfriend? Do people our age use that term? What is "our age," anyway? If "our age" is my age, then Derek definitely isn't "our age." Okay, back on track. D and Autumn. Whatever they "are," we are very happy about it.

New Quilt, Happy Cat
I got a new quilt for Christmas and Puma has really been enjoying it. 

 Week 2 : Blue

Being Swedish
Nathan and I went down to Dallas with our great friends, the Schnorrenbergs, to go to Ikea. We had a blast and got some really great furniture! They brought home an awesome couch and rug and lamp, and we got a new bed! (and a "couple" of things for the MCC - you're welcome D! we had fun shopping with your money!) Zach's New Years resolution was to be more Swedish. When we went to the Swedish capitol of the world (Ikea) I talked (guilted) him into having Swedish meatballs, because whats more Swedish than that?  

Pie Fail.
I made an awesome pie for Nate's birthday. I ate the last piece of it so I promised him a new pie. It fell. Face down. Now, we're all friends here, so I'm not going to lie to you. I ate some of it. Only the bites that didn't have floor on it. Don't judge me. It was good. You would have done the same thing. 

Blue
This was my theme picture for the week. Sweet, sweet Paisley in her blue bow.

Week 3 : ISO Challenge

Its Not Easy Being Green
This was Paisley's first time to have green beans. Obviously she wasn't a fan.

ISO Challenge
This was my challenge picture for the week. It would make more sense if I put up the same picture with a different ISO setting, but I'm not going to do that. From what I understand, ISO has to do with how sensitive the camera is to the amount of light present. The higher the ISO, the more sensitive it is to light. This was my first challenge and I think I succeeded. I understand it and I can see the difference when I change it. I even used it a couple of days later to take a picture (in low light, with a high ISO) of our fire in the fireplace. It worked. I learned something! 

Week 4 : Best Friend

Jailbird Jammies
Sweet Paisley, just lounging around in her jailbird jammies.

Helping
What do you do with a baby when you have to get laundry done? Stick her in the laundry basket!

My Best Friend
This was my theme picture for the week. Paisley has many friends (hi andy and schafer! hi august babies!), but here she is with, who I assume is, her best friend. She runs into the Girl in the Mirror quite often, usually a couple of times a day at least. She can always count on getting a good smile from her. They always give high fives and kisses. The Girl in the Mirror is always ready and willing to listen to (and laugh at, and respond to) Paisley's many stories. She can be found all around the house: the dining room, our room, the bathrooms... We love the Girl in the Mirror. Its nice to find that friend who will always be there for you.

If you've enjoyed these pictures and want to see more, feel free to pop on over to my 365 photo blog and check out the rest of January!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy New Year!!

*Before you start reading, I want you to know that you will really need to commit to this post. It's not your usual easy-to-read post. Nope, this one is full of pictures (shocking, I know.) So, sit back and enjoy the fun we had.

Okay, so I know that 2011 started a while ago. I know that I'm late with this, but give me a break people. Be grateful that you're getting something. I feel the need to tell everyone about how I spent New Years Eve. And show you pictures, of course.
If NYE is any indication of how 2011 will play out, this is gonna be one fun year. We were lucky enough to be invited to the Murray's Annual NYE Bash; we attended last year, but since I (and April and Sara) was pregnant, it was only a little fun. Okay it was a lot of fun, but not as much fun as this year (thank you D, for the great cosmos!). The only thing that was missing this year was Marty. Ohh, Marty.

Travis CUT THE TOP OFF OF OUR CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE!!! Yes, he is THAT talented.  Its the kind of thing you always see in movies and think "Who actually does that?" Well, folks, Travis does. And it was awesome. 

Our fabulous hosts, the Murrays. Are they a magazine couple or what? Man, they're cute. 

Okay, so. Here's the game we played. This might be the funnest game ever. Seriously. Okay, here's how it goes. Everyone has a stack of paper, as many pieces as there are players. We'll start in the upper left hand corner. Everyone writes something on the top sheet. Anything. I wrote "Nativity Scene," you can seriously write anything. I think D wrote "hot dog skiing down a mountain." After you write your whatever, you pass your stack to the next person. They have to draw what you wrote down. D did a great job, see the 2nd picture? After about 2 minutes of drawing, you pass the stack again and the next person sees your drawing and has to guess what you drew. Autumn did great, she guessed "Baby Jesus & his birth." You repeat these steps until you're out of paper in the stack (and when the stack is back to its original owner). The next 2 people in this game did great - good drawing, good guessing. Lets look to the top right picture. This is April's drawing, and this is where it took a turn for the worst. She drew what she thought was baby Jesus in his manger, but Travis thought she was drawing gymnastics. So, as you can see, the worse you are at drawing, the funner the game. When the game is over, it is fun for each person to present their original drawing all the way through to the final. It can get pretty hilarious. Really guys, try it. 

April made these. Are they awesome or what? I still can't get over them. Great job April!

D brought these cute little cans of champagne for us to enjoy. I know what you're thinking. "cans of champagne?"  Yes, thats right. Cans. And guess what? They weren't good. In Derek's defense, they were Francis Ford Coppola's Sofia Blanc de Blanc (meaning, champagne made from (white) chardonnay grapes), so they had a great shot at actually being good. I'd give it another chance. They even came with straws, so you know how much I want to love it. 

This is one of my favorite pictures of the night. I don't think I need to explain why.

We tried hard to get a good picture of us 5. Seriously, we took 45 pictures and this was the best one. Its good of everyone, except the Amazon freak in the middle. Also, you would think that 5 girls could get it together enough to take 1 good picture, right? 

I don't remember what April was lecturing Nate on, but she really pulled out her serious face for this conversation.

My favorite picture of the night. Love those tights Autumn!!! 

Holidays are FUN!!

Who is ready for some holiday pictures?! 

Paisley and me before Christmas Eve church. How ridiculous is that hat? And those booties? Just one more reason I am thankful for my job at babyGap. LOVE. IT. 

Speaking of Christmas Eve service... for the past 7 or 8 Christmases, we have gone into Nathan's grandparents little church in Tulsa. This year, we went to church in O-Town with them, Nathan's parents, his aunt and uncle, his brother and my mom. We were pretty bummed that we weren't going in to our usual Christmas Eve church, but we sucked it up and went to the "contemporary" service (not my cup of tea) service. It was nice, and Paisley was a complete angel and only cried for 10 seconds or so. We ended the night with pizza at Nate's grandparents house. Ah ha! One tradition that lives on!

This is Paisley's first Christmas ornament. Is it the sweetest thing you have ever seen? Yeah, I thought so.

Paisley's first family Christmas picture. It't not a great picture of her outfit, but trust me, its cute. 

Nathan's parents bought all of the grandkids Sing-a-ma-jigs for Christmas. These little creatures are odd... Alone, they sing a song, they babble, and they sing notes. Together, they harmonize those notes. They are pretty funny, and Paisley really likes hers. It always makes her laugh. The only thing that is weird to me (the only thing?) is that inside their little mouths (which look like old school thick, soft hair ties) are these weird little teeth. Huh.
Nate's mom, uncle, aunt, sister and brother in law all had a blast playing with them. They put on quite a show!

The remains of our Christmas dinner dessert. Boston Cream Pie. Not very Christmas-y, but I'll take it. It. Was. Awesome. Also, how much do you love my new camera lens? Photo credit goes to D.

My super sweet 7 year old niece Kayla got an easel and some art supplies for Christmas. I really love the back story on this gift: They were somewhere (on vacation? or just a day trip?), at a vineyard (I think?) and were walking around and saw an artist set up painting the scenery. She loved that idea and told her mom thats what she wanted for Christmas, so she could paint like that. (Did I butcher the story?) Anywho, this is the picture she painted on Christmas morning while everyone else was off playing with swords, trucks, sing-a-ma-jigs, ukuleles and mandolins. I just love this sweet girl!

A post about the funnest New Years Eve party ever is coming soon. yay!

Love at 5 months

  Sweet P is 5 months old today! I'm sure some of you are reading this after the 2nd, so let me rephrase that: Sweat P was 5 months old on January 2nd!
  Boy, oh, boy has she changed in the last 5 months! First of all, lets all rejoice in the fact that Nathan and I have kept a new little person alive and healthy for 5 months. It hasn't been too hard (the gin and tonics work like magic! just kidding. sort of). It has been a ton of fun (usually) and we have loved every minute of it (every single spitting up, 3 am screaming, cat tail pulling, mommy hair pulling, dirty diapered minute of it)! She is moving right along and doing all the things a 5 month old should do (except, I've heard of some 5 month olds who are pushing up on their knees, and some have teeth, and some are sitting up all alone... not that any of this matters to me). Here is a quick rundown of her latest accomplishments:

• As we learned in my last post, she is rolling over and sitting up alone. She has kind of taken a small break on the rolling over, maybe its because we don't put her down enough? 
• Sometimes she sleeps on her side. I don't think I would call this a milestone, but I think it is definitely blog-worthy.
• She has found my hair, and she loves to pull it. Also, she loves to put it in her mouth. Interestingly enough, she didn't do this until her Grandma Ellen brought it up over Christmas. It was kind of like she gave her an idea. Thanks Grandma Ellen! 
• She found her feet today. I've been waiting for this for a while, and today was the day! Feet are exciting.
• She has eaten sweet potatoes and carrots. She got a baby food maker for Christmas and we have been using it. She's only had "solids" (I use quotes because, who are we kidding? That mush isn't solid.) a couple of times, but I think she is starting to get on board. She was okay with sweet potatoes the first time but not so sure the 2nd time. She did great the first time - she even got the hang of opening her mouth for the spoon. She had carrots for lunch today and she really enjoyed them. They will be making a second appearance for sure. 
• Until about a week or 2 ago, she went to sleep around 6:30 and slept really great until about 3 or 4 am - she would go back to sleep after her 3/4 am awakening, but not into a deep, good sleep. Now she is staying up till about 7:30 or 8, even though she is super tired.You are probably thinking that since she is staying up later, she is sleeping in later! Guess what folks. You're wrong. 
•  I'll never understand why babies won't just go to sleep when they're tired. My mom said I was the queen of fighting sleep, so I guess its true.  You know what they say about payback... (this is a family friendly blog, I'm not going to say it!)
• Her hair is growing! I am very excited about this. When she was born, she had lots (not LOTS lots, but some - she wasn't bald) but a lot fell out. It is coming in, and I can't tell if its dark or if its blonde. Is she Anna, or is she Nate? Only time will tell.... (I know, its stupid that I can't tell what color her hair is. Sometimes, when the light hits it, its blonde. But, in normal light, its brown.)
• When I asked Nathan what I should mention in the 5 month blog, he told me that her screaming has really become an issue. Yes. The girl loves to scream. And talk. My mom said that I talked a lot as a baby, but maybe not as much as P. (again with the payback)
• We think she is in the beginning stages of teething. I don't think any will be popping up any time soon, but I think things are definitely moving around in there. She is drooling like crazy. Crazy crazy amounts of drool are pouring out of this girl's mouth. Good thing she has lots of clothes! (I knew I'd be able to justify that somehow....) She won't take her hands out of her mouth. Every single thing she grabs goes straight to the mouth. She loves to chew on things. Her cheeks are always red (I'm not sure why that signifies teething, but when asked, my mom said "oh! she must be teething!")
• Her eyebrows are filling in. This is important to me because she has my eyebrows and I'm very  upset about this. I have awful eyebrows (thanks mom.). I, however, can pluck/wax mine. Nathan has told me that I cannot touch her for at least a couple of years. How early can you start eyebrow maintenance? 

I think that is enough words for this post... how bout some pictures?

Enjoying her carrots

Hey! Dad has hair too!