Foto Finish Friday

Selecting pine cone ammo

True joy is throwing leaves at Mommy

Looking for squirrels in the trees

How do you like the outift? Let's just say K has a style all his own, and we are really working hard on not sweating the small stuff...

Foto Finish Friday- New Camera!!

We finally got our new camera *sort of* figured out last weekend. Well, figured out enough to take some pictures (a lot of pictures), and get them downloaded and uploaded. It's a little fancier than our old camera, and takes great photos, but still your average point-and-shoot type situation.

It's got a "sports" mode, and takes great action shots.

Maybe we'll finally get some decent shots of our little guy in action.

These trees were along the freeway,

as we were traveling 65(ish)mph! Not too shabby...

Sadly, a new camera cannot turn a frown upside-down.

(This was totally fake, but he did almost squeeze out a tear!)

**WE ARE FAMILY**

I love, love, love that K is really starting to be aware of his family. Not just Joe and I, but also his extended family (still working on the "two sides" of the family thing). Whenever we discuss a family event, he always has to list everyone who will be there, and if someone is missing, he gets quite concerned. He knows his cousins, and somehow knows they are family, not just friends. He is really getting a sense of what being a family means; that we're all here for each other, care about each other, and help each other.

On the night of our little "date" last week (see picture below), K could not understand why Daddy was not coming with us (he had a meeting after work). When I told him it was just him and Mommy, he asked "Why not Daddy?". When I told him why, he said "But he part of my bamily".

Talk about a heart-breaker.

And from an attachment standpoint... a huge relief!

Foto Finish Friday

The King has spoken:

And he declares:

Chicken nuggets go in carmel sauce...

Apple slices go in ketchup.

(Yes, still without an operational camera. We finally got our new one, but have been too busy this week to try to figure it out. Maybe this weekend...)

Then & Now

(How is it even possible that we have these kinds of photos??)

Then: Easter 2008, 13 months old

Now: Thanksgiving 2009, 33 months old

Less is More

Yes, I am still alive! Yes, we're fine! Sorry I've been a little MIA lately, allow me to explain...

By now, you probably know my stance on New Year's Resolutions. I'm not big on them. I'm all for making goals that benefit yourself or your family. I just think it's a little ridiculous to restrain it to one time of the year. And yes, I understand the theory of making a clean start for a new year. It just sorta brings the expectation that it will probably be broken. I tend to make New Year goals small, attainable, and something that I know will last the whole year or beyond. One year, my resolution was not to buy ANY gift wrapping for one year. I did it! I went an entire year not buying any NEW gift wraps. I used stuff I had, recycled and got creative.

But, I digress...

This year I decided there were a few areas where I could use improvement. So, my goal for this year are to use my free time more efficiently, and more with my husband. I bet you can guess what this means...Yes, less time for blogging and internet socializing. I will still do it, but not as much. I need to focus my precious few hours of free time per day on my hubby, or getting productive stuff done around the house. My other goal is to get rid of the 10 pounds of baby weight I've been carrying around for 2 years (yes, it still comes even when you haven't given birth!). About a year ago, I just resigned that I was a Mom now, and I would have to live with it. Well, I'm not gonna take it anymore! (Also a preemptive strike against some upcoming vacation plans)

So there you have it. I'm accountable to all of you.

And because I don't want to disappoint, possibly the best of our Christmas photos...

Hopefully more pictures soon...maybe even from this year! Our camera died and we're waiting for the new one to come in.

ETA: Proof that I am staying on track...this post took me two days to complete!

Foto Finish Friday- Happy New Year!!

Wow! It's 2010!

I've been a total blogging slacker, but promise to post some Christmas pics soon. Maybe even this weekend! Things have been a little nutty around here!

As we rapidly approach the 3rd birthday, we are seeing our little guy change and develop on a daily basis. This week: changing clothes. He's been awake today for almost 2 hours, and already changed his clothes 3 times! It's so fun to see what he wants to put on next. The above picture is a new outfit he got for Christmas. The second he opened it, he took off his clothes (in the middle of the living room, in front of everyone) and put it on. Shirt, pants, the whole deal. As you can tell, he was so proud of himself!

Foto Finish Friday...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

It's 6:20am on Christmas morning and I can't wait for the little guy to get up! The stockings are hung by the chimney with care,

and it looks like St. Nicholas surely has been here!

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! We are looking forward to a fun, busy next few days as we visit our families for Christmas. And let's not forget our Family Day celebration tomorrow!! 2 years... can you believe it??

Wishing you all a truly blessed holiday!!

The last thing Kai did before bed last night. He insisted on putting out chocolate milk for Santa, to see if he likes it. I think he did!

ABC's

Seemingly out of nowhere, Kai can now say his ABC's! We've been singing them for a while during hand washing, and I guess somewhere along the line it just stuck. Of course, when I pulled the camera out the cooperation level plummeted, and he wouldn't start from the beginning, but you get the idea! Hopefully you can hear him over the hammering. I guess it's not enough to just sing the song, you have to pound the board at the same time!

We have definitely entered the busy holiday season. That, coupled with having to work a little extra lately, I feel like I've had NO time to blog, much less attend to my Christmas gifts that are in desperate need of getting wrapped! Each night I say I'm going to do it, then somehow it doesn't happen. Pretty soon I'll be out of time!

Today we enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner with my family. More on that later... I'm determined to get some wrapping done tonight!

Foto Finish Friday

Kai's photography debut

Last Saturday we headed to one of our favorite local hangouts to try to get a decent family picture. Although it is a shopping area, it is decorated beautifully for the holidays, so we thought it would make a good background for pictures. The grounds were lovely, however getting our silly monkey to cooperate with a nice smile was another matter entirely. Our friend who's taken pictures for us in the past was busy, so we set out with just us and our tripod. Not too bad, considering... Here are some "out-takes" from our photo session.

Silly boy

Hmm...wonder why it's hard to get a good picture...

could it be because he never stops moving?

Aww...this one would have been perfect...

except for the large ball in the face!

This was one of the best. It very nearly made it onto the card,

but just didn't fit with any of the styles that I liked.

Foto Finish Friday

Cybershop- Help a child

I found out about this yesterday (or perhaps I've always known and forgot).

If you're going to do any shopping on Amazon... for the holidays or any time of the year, enter through this site, and shop as usual. 5-15% of the total of your purchases will go to this wonderful organization. To help me remember, I made a bookmark for my browser, and labeled it "Amazon".

Help a child by shopping... what could be easier?

(ETA: I've added this link to my sidebar for your convenience!)

Trimming the Tree

Yesterday we put our tree up. Big ceremonious event. Joe and I pondered in the living room for a good 20 minutes, trying to decide where to put it this year. We go through this every year. Kai watched us and kept saying, "What you doing?". Our final decision involved moving most of our living room furniture around to accommodate our green friend. Part of the problem is that we bought our tree 5 years ago, when we lived in a different (bigger) house, with a different (bigger) living room. Don't worry, our tree is not a bundle of dried twigs 5 years later...it's still green and beautiful.

Tonight we pulled out the boxes of Christmas stuff out and decorated our tree. I know some people have a very put together, matchy- matchy tree. I know some people have a different themed tree every year. Not us. We have a very homey tree. All (or most) of our ornaments have been gifts from friends and family. The only ones that match are because they're part of an ornament series. We have fake glass balls that are 11 years old and seem to make it through every holiday season. Best $5 we ever spent. I wouldn't have our tree any other way.

To me, our tree ornaments are like a history of our life together. One from the first Christmas we were married, one from the first Christmas after buying a house, one from the first Christmas with our little man. Part of the ornament fun is seeing everything that's been packed away for a year. I will inevitably forget about a few key ornaments, and be pleasantly surprised when I find them.

Last year, Kai didn't "help" us decorate the tree. Tonight he did.

I loved telling him about all the ornaments, who they were from or what had happened the year we got them.

He loved crawling under the tree and pretending to be a present.

(And at the risk of sounding like a total sap... he is the best present ever!)

Backlog

I did pretty good all month. I only cheated a few times and back dated posts. Until the holiday weekend hit. Now, I haven't blogged for 4 days, and I'm not going to catch up... so there. It's almost bedtime on the Sunday night of a busy, fun weekend away. I'm exhausted and have to work tomorrow (only 1/2 day though!). So, I will hit the highlights of each day.

Thursday: Heading to Portland to visit the fam. We were fortunate to be able to spend time with both our families, and everyone was on their best behavior. It was a delightful day.

Friday: Holiday Parade in downtown Portland.

Good times. Good weather...

what more can you ask for?

Kai's reaction to the first band in the parade.

He didn't like the tubas.

Visit to OMSI.

Friday night: date night for Joe and I! My parents watched the little guy while we headed to Bridgeport for eating, movie and shopping. Fun times! (Sorry... no pictures!)

Saturday: Kai meets the big guy!

We also enjoyed a nice breakfast downtown with Joe's Mom. Kai was on his best restaurant behavior, and had a great time with Grandma!

Saturday evening: a belated birthday celebration for my Mom. Dinner out with the whole cousin crew and a trip to Zoo Lights! More fun memories!

We got home this afternoon, unpacked, put up the tree and decided on a whim to go to the tree lighting ceremony at a local shopping center. It's the closest thing we have to a "city tree" with a big lighting ceremony, and we could tell. I think everyone in town was there! All in all, the perfect Thanksgiving weekend to get us all in the "Tritmat" spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in my bloggy world! I hope you all have a great holiday and safe travels. I hope you can find a quiet moment to savor your blessings and give thanks in the manner which you see fit. I know I will.

As most holidays are, I'm sure this will be an emotional one for me. After some strange stuff in my little world this week, I've come to realize how happy and sad these holidays can be. In years past, the holiday season has been hard because my heart ached for a child to share it with. Now, my emotions are on the other end of the spectrum... my heart overflowing with joy for the family we have.

Well, off to prepare for a weekend of holiday family fun. But first, my first run in over two weeks...since being sick. Gotta do damage control for later, you know!

Nearly Perfect

Joe put up our Chistmas lights today. As always, they are nearly perfect. In fact, if you ask me, I'd say they're perfect. Not if you ask our son. When we went out to look at them tonight, K stood in the front lawn, hands on hips, inspecting them. After a few minutes:

Joe: How do they look?

Kai: Pretty good, not dat yeyow one.

Joe: Which one?

Kai: Dat yeyow one...right dere.

Joe: What's wrong with it?

Kai: It turned da wong way. (While turning his whole body to demonstrate)

Gotta love the honesty!

Pick your battles

As you can tell, today was "one of those days". We actually had quite a pleasant day together, after the initial battle of the clothes. Obviously, he won. At least I got him to put long pants underneath. He is so totally Buzz crazy right now! He wears these shorts constantly; as soon as we get home or wake up, he takes off whatever he's wearing and puts these shorts on. And, heaven forbid, I should try to wash them...

I am finding myself picking my battles more and more as his ever-expanding independence, well... expands. I have to remember that as long as he's safe, warm, fed and healthy, nothing else really matters. I'm sure I got plenty of sidewards glances today as we were out running our errands (and getting a haircut!), but whatever, at least my son and I were not at war.

Doing everything...

...except writing!

Tonight I spent my whole free time making changes to my blog, but not writing! Bad girl!

Maybe tomorrow will be more enlightened.

Hey, nobody said it had to be a good post everyday!

The Motions

"This might hurt, it's not safe
But I know that I've gotta make a change
I don't care if I break,
At least I'll be feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of life

I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?"

No regrets, not this time
I'm gonna let my heart defeat my mind
Let Your love make me whole
I think I'm finally feeling something
'Cause just okay is not enough
Help me fight through the nothingness of this life

'Cause I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
"What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?""

--Matthew West

This song has been my "anthem", if you will, over the past 6 months or so. It's on my playlist and I hear it every time I work out or run. I find it so uplifting, and a great reminder of how I want to live my life. It's so easy to just go through life, one day after another, without taking time to really experience it, and try to make a difference in this world.

So, what keeps you going?

Saturday

So, not a super exciting day around here. Kai had gymnastics this morning, then hung out at home with Daddy while I got a haircut. Later this afternoon we decided to get out and brave the mall. Since Kai had been hangin' in his Mr. Incredible suit, he needed to get dressed first. I asked him to put his clothes on. A few minutes later I went to his room, and this is what I found...a fully dressed little boy, he had even gotten a clean shirt out of his closet.

He was pretty proud of himself!

Sharin' pretzels at the mall. Pretty much the only reason we go there...hehe...
Nap time has been pretty touch and go around here lately. Today it was a no-go. So of course, he falls asleep in the car on the way home, at about 5pm. He looked so peaceful.
He stays asleep coming inside, and takes a little snoozer on the couch. Not even the football game and power mixer woke him up. I love how he still snuggies with his favorite dog.
Hope yours was wonderful, too!