we're here

No worries, we're still here and moving along. I don't think I've gone almost a week without posting in awhile. My first week of work was wonderful. I was welcomed with flowers and lots of laughs. Lisa had her baby! I can't wait to meet little Bryce (not sure how they are spelling it yet!) So my first day was download day because she was getting induced the next morning. I'm jumping right in and have been meeting all kinds of people so I understand the big picture of the hospital.

In other news...WE HAVE A WALKER!!! We are no longer just walking from the couch to the coffee table but now are following us around the entire house walking. It is so strange to see Zane just stand right up and walk where he wants to go. He is very proud of himself and giggles a lot while he walks. I took around 100 photos today in 15 minutes trying to capture the walk. He is a fast one so we'll see if I got anything decent!

I need to get Easter photos posted, so maybe tomorrow. Zane was a joy Easter morning and a bit of a terror in the afternoon. He decided an afternoon nap was not his thing that day so we were left with complete melt downs once we got to my parent's house. I tried to calm him down and rock him for a bit after battling the nap. He seemed like he'd fall asleep but never did. However, Pat grabbed the camera and got some of my new favorite photos with Zane. Zane is such a cuddler and I love when he sits still long enough for me to just hold him close like when he was a little one. It was the calm before the Zane storm hit later that afternoon!

I'm trying to sleep at least!

He saw Daddy! So of course he has to smile for camera! And how to you like that drool?!!

This face is more like his attitude that afternoon! :)

the last of our advent calendar

We will be doing this again next year for sure. It was a great way for us to stop and do something together, even if we didn't do all of them on the exact day. Not as many pictures this time around so I just picked my two favorites of Pat reading the Night Before Christmas to Zane on Christmas Eve. I love playing with the saturation to give it more of a vintage feel. I felt like it was a vintage moment.

Bundle up and window shop with some hot chocolate in hand.
We did this at Pat's parents town with his mom. We went to an antique store and picked up the stroller to go up and down all the stairs.

Make a big breakfast while listening to Christmas music.
Pat made chocolate chip pancakes. Yum!

Spend night curled up in a blanket on the couch as a family.
We honestly haven't done this yet...plan to this weekend!

Eat peppermint ice cream sundaes.
Need I say more? Pat said they were terrible, that we should never have them again, and then asked how much ice cream was left.

Buy a Christmas movie DVD and watch it.
We finally purchased Elf and watched it with Pat's family. Although I ended up heading to bed before it was over.

Drive around and look at Christmas lights.
We drove around a very nice neighborhood near our home to see what all they put up. We were expecting more but it still was nice to drive through and see the houses all lit up.

Make a ginger bread house.
My mom has requested to do this with us! So we'll be doing it soon. Who says you have to do it before Christmas. I think it's a winter thing!

Read the Night Before Christmas.
Zane actually didn't want to turn the pages of the book every two seconds and just listened!

Say a morning prayer on Christmas day.
We actually forgot about this in the bustle of the morning. Next year this happens first.

family photo

I made sure that my mom took a family photo of us Christmas morning but I didn't make sure I got the files before she left out-of-town! So this will have to do for now. At least I have a picture of me in it instead of behind the camera, even if Zane's not completely looking at the camera.

Tomorrow is my day to tackle all kinds of things...wish me luck!

Check out other family shots at the new home for Theme Thursdays - The Land of K.A.

we're digging out from under toys

We're still here...just trying to find the computer in the midst of all the new toys. I think we somewhat have an order to it now and we sent some off to Grandma's for Zane to play with there too.

Zane's visit with Santa went well on Friday after standing in line outside for 45 minutes. We were insane to wait that long to take Zane. First of all, these places charge so much! Good thing they let my mom bring in her camera too so she got some of the cutest shots. We were at least happy that this Santa had a real beard! Zane didn't cry but just looked very confused the whole time. He kept looking at the end of Santa's hat and we were just waiting for him to pull it off.

Our Christmas was wonderful even though our cinnamon rolls didn't turn out on Christmas morning! You'd think two practice runs would have ensured success but the rolls just never rose for some reason. It became a joke all day with my family.

We're both off till Jan. 2 so our family is planning on a relaxing and getting a ton done too. Pat's painting (or playing the Wii) and I'll be learning Lightroom and getting things set up for two new blogs!

Christmas photos coming soon.

our next advent calendar activities

Here's our next set of Advent activities. The photos aren't the best but you get the idea!

1. Design Christmas card and email it
Have any of you gotten them yet? Nope! We're still in the process. What do you think about After-Christmas cards?

2. Make paper ornaments
We want to make a ton more of these for next year!

3. Go to the art museum as a family
We drew this one the day we were hit with snow and ice. We've postponed it to after Christmas when we're both off.

4. Read Zane the Christmas story from the Bible
We read out of his children's Bible. He wanted to turn the pages himself the whole time.

5. Give someone an anonymous gift
Can't say a lot about this...it wouldn't be anonymous then!

6. Hunt for our family's The Night Before Christmas book
We finally found one that we liked the illustrations.

7. Get carry out and eat it while watching a movie
We stopped by Chilli's to get food that we normally don't eat...fried! Both of us felt horrible after we ate it but oh well! We enjoyed watching a movie while nibbling on some popcorn.

advent week one

At first when we created this family activity Advent I thought it would be overwhelming. Honestly there are days, wait I mean WEEKS, that we don't have an hour to ourselves. But this is forcing us to do so and I love that about it. I think this is what this season is supposed to be all about. It's so easy to get caught up in the absolute insanity of it all. Don't worry, if you know me I've had my moments, especially this past week, but with even just a quick 15 minutes to sit with hot chocolate has made a difference in our pace and how we view it.

We were so bummed about not making it to Pat's parents on Friday night (Pat had to work a bit late). The evening turned into a positive though with our candle lit dinner that I thought we'd just postpone till later in the week when we opened the box. But we ate and drank with Christmas music in the background and fell asleep on the couch to the music all bundled up in a warm blanket. It was exactly how I pictured Christmas to be when I married Pat.

What have we pick out of the boxes this week?

1. Donate to a charity
2. Makes smores pie
3. Make rich hot chocolate with marshmallows
4. Find a charity to shop for and go shopping
5. Take Zane to Barnes & Nobles, get a hot drink and read him books in the kid's section
6. Have a romantic candlelit dinner by the Christmas Tree (of course after Zane is asleep)
7. Make chocolate dipped candy canes
8. Test our cinnamon roll recipe for Christmas morning
9. Watch the Nativity story (the only one we haven't done because we couldn't find anyone who had the movie! We're going to get it on Netflix!)

So what does that mean for Best Shot Monday? Well it means I couldn't pick! So here's our Advent week...at least the things we could take photos of.





Check out other Best Shots at Picture This.

yep I know how to spell

We completed our Advent calendar and the only thing left to do was stamp on Christmas to the wood. I know how I am when stamping and sometimes get going and don't pay attention so I laid out all the stamps to spell Christmas. I wanted to double check how it would look so I practiced with the C and H on the back and placed them to the side. I started stamping the word backwards to make sure I could fit it all. I finished and looked at my creation and could not believe what I saw! Pat tried to sand it out but instead it resulted with an arrow with Christmas on it. We'll redo the Avent calendar next year but this will do for now! Only I could pull this one off!

We decided not to place gifts in the calendar but to have pieces of paper saying something we'll do as a family that day. I'm hoping to take pictures of each thing and post a weekly showing of what we do!

Check out other Best Shots this week at Picture This. Hope no one else was as big of a fool as me! At least I can laugh about it I guess!