Christmas: Round 1 and 2

We had a great Christmas. This time of year will always be just a little crazy with Tristen's birthday in the midst of all the festivities but we really had a great time with our family celebrating Christmas....after the birthday celebration was done!! I didn't take many pictures this year but here are a few:

 

 

Aubrey's first Christmas!!

 

Tristen has been eyeing his big present for weeks now! Note for the future: wrap any present of his in a big box and he'll be happy :)

 

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spending time with Cousin Iylah! SO fun!

And, that's the extent of my pictures....totally failed this year on the picture taking :) My camera battery being dead didn't help either :)

 

Round three will be next week! Willmar, here we come!

My Christmas Gift

Well, this isn't REALLY my Christmas gift, BUT.....

We booked our vacation for this summer!!! Yay! And yes, we're going to Disneyworld! Without the children, I should add!!

This trip is a LONG time in coming. In our first year of marriage, we decided we wanted to go to Disneyworld on our five year anniversary/before kids came.

Well, going back to school completely rearranged our lives and made it impossible for us to go. SO, we decided to make our "five-year-anniversary-before-kids" trip into our "seven-year-anniversary-after-two-kids-celebration-of-Aaron's-graduation" trip :) Our resort is booked, and we're SOOOO excited to go.

More to come about our Christmas later :) I'm trying to find a place for all the new toys!!

Tristen's 2nd Birthday

Tristen turned 2 today!!

He LOVES farm animals so the theme for his 2nd birthday was so easy to plan!

We had a laidback and very fun party with family! Here are some pics of the day!

 

Barnyard theme!

 

He loved his farm animal cupcakes!!

 

He actually ate cake this year! Wahoo!!!

 

And, Tristen LOVED opening presents!! 

 

Iylah found a new chair and was determined to sit in the CAT box....HA! Love my nieces!!

 

Aubrey with Uncle Luke!!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Tristen Joseph!! We love you!!!

If at First You Don't Succeed,

Try, try again.....6 years later!

"Huh? What are you talking about", you ask??

I'm talking about a haircut. My husband's haircut to be exact.

6 years ago, my husband asked me to cut his hair. We had been married 5 months and we decided to try to save some cash every month on haircuts. I had never cut hair in my life so I tried and failed MISERABLY! Aaron ended up buzzing his hair because it was SO bad! Thankfully he didn't care and we had a good laugh about it.

The buzz cut 6 years ago! Hahaha! Oops!

Needless to say, I didn't try again and he has been getting his hair cut by others since then.

Until last week.

"Erika, will you TRY to cut my hair again?" asked my husband. I've been cutting Tristen's hair for a year now and have slightly gotten the hang of it even though it's far from perfect!!

Thinking of my disaster haircut, I was VERY reluctant.

After 2 hours of sweat, blood (well, almost!) and close to tears, I cut my husband's hair. I must admit there was a sense of accomplishment and pride when it was all said and done. *whew* Unfortunately (for me!), my husband liked it so much that I think I have a part-time job every 4-6 weeks. Hmmm....maybe I shouldn't have tried again! :)

The much-improved-though-not-perfect haircut last week

 

So, the moral of the story is, "If at first you don't succeed, keep trying and PERSEVERING through!" You just might save your family some cash in the process!

Many pictures....Beware! :)

I found a solution to my picture problem! Taking some advice, I opened a photobucket account and it really is SUPER easy to use. So, I'm back in business and I have quite a few pics to catch up on.  So, here we are: A recap of the last......2 months of our lives??

It's been a very interesting last few months of life. It's been busy. It's been overwhelming. It's been difficult at times. Going back to school while married and with two children is NOT easy but we're on the homestretch now....and again, I would not trade this life for anything because I've never had this much peace about God's leading. God has been teaching me perseverance and endurance.....two things I was never good at. And for that, I'm thankful.

OKAY, onto the pictures I promised. Here's a recap in pictures of what we've been up to:

Thanksgiving weekend with my family:

Aubrey had lots of cuddle time with Auntie Monica and Uncle Luke. She's very much a cuddler but just this week is starting to like her space when she sleeps...much like Tristen. While it's great because they can put themselves to sleep, it's slightly sad for this momma to let go of the cuddle days :(

The three grandkids were SUPER cute as we tried to take a family picture. This one was cute....

 

BUT, this one is much more typical of what they actually look like! :) Already they are HILARIOUS together....I love that my kids have cousins the same age :)

 

Tristen LOVES all things Farm!! He is obsessed with farm animals and loves tractors. Since my parents live on a farm, it is a perfect way for him to experience farm things!!

 

Thanksgiving:

We spent Thanksgiving in Willmar at Aaron's parent's house. Our first holiday in their new location!! Our children were the only kids there so they had plenty of time to entertain each other! They're becoming fast friends!!

 

But, don't worry, they're already showing signs of having brother/sister squabbles! :) When Tristen gets upset, Aubrey just giggles at him which makes him even more frustrated :) But, their love outweighs little squabbles :)

 

Sweet Aubrey turned 5 months old and was sitting up on her own a few days before!! She just can't miss any action and is constantly trying to be a big kid! Next up, trying to encourage army crawling...she's trying so hard!!

 

Tristen decided she needed a book to read during the Thanksgiving meal!

 

Aaron's 30th Birthday:

My husband hit a milestone over the Thanksgiving weekend. He turned the big 3-0! Strangely, I'm slightly jealous. I think the 30's will actually be a pretty fun decade and as my husband put it, "This will be a decade dedicated to our family". 30 really is the new 20...or maybe we just like to tell ourselves that :)

 

 

Christmastime:

It took me a good, long time to get into the Christmas spirit this year. Aaron actually set up and decorated our Christmas tree this year because I just didn't have it in me. Thankfully this past week I've been motivated to decorate a few more areas of the house....just in time for Tristen to take interest in all the "pretty" lights. I kept calling Christmas lights "Pretty" so now all Christmas lights are "pretties" instead of "Christmas lights". We probably say the words "Christmas lights" at least a dozen times every day to fix our mistake...but to no avail. Christmas lights are "Pretty!?" to Tristen :)

 

This kid turns 2 in 6 days. We are having a small, intimate family gathering with a farm animal theme. Nothing fancy, just a nice celebration of his birthday. We can't wait :)

 

And, here are the most recent of recent pictures of my children: Taken TODAY after church.....yep, incredibly recent!! We attended our church's Christmas program tonight and I thought of the many Christmas programs to come for these two. But, tonight we were just spectators in Christmas clothes :)

Aubrey Beth....she just gets cuter and funnier every day. She has SUCH a fun personality....I can't remember her not being in our family! What a joy giver :)

 

*Whew* Picture overload :) Let's hope the next time I blog it's not quite so long, right?

Oh, Storage

Oh, storage spaces. I can never have enough of them. I'm part pack-rat/part sentimental-girl-who-wants-to-remember-everything and I really hate deleting e-mails, old blog posts, and getting rid of old notes because they hold sentimental value. While I have liked to live simpler recently and have started downsizing/deleted things, it's still hard for me.

Which is why it was incredibly hard for me to see this message the last time I tried to blog:

"You have exceeded your picture storage space."

Directing me to a different site, they instructed me that I could buy extra storage space. At first, I thought that it was the end of my blogging because I love posting pictures of things and not JUST writing and just couldn't imagine not posting any more pictures. Then I thought of deleting old posts but that thought was SO sad to me. I don't want to buy extra storage because I'm not an avid blogger like I used to be and I don't see the need to pay to maintain this thing.

I know there are ways to continue blogging (opening up another account to publish from, posting from another site, etc.) but at this exact  moment in life (3 family birthdays in the next 2 weeks including my son's 2nd birthday!), Christmas, and just not having the mental capacity to figure this thing out, I am just throwing it out there that I don't know when you'll hear from me. Could be next week, could be much later. Who knows!!

Thanks for reading about our life though and I look forward to blogging sometime again....just not sure when!!

Wedding

A bride and groom on their wedding day.

There's not much that gets more beautiful than that :)

 

We just LOVED celebrating our friend's wedding this past weekend. Aaron had the honor of standing up as a groomsmen for his friend, Tyler, and everything about the wedding was absolutely beautiful! There was love and there was beauty.

 

A few candid shots from the day:

The beautiful bride and groom :)

So fun to see old friends!

Grandma W. liked seeing her grandkids :)

Another valiant attempt at a family picture :) Haha....we're going to have lots of hilarious, not-looking-at-camera family pictures I think :)

Beauty #1

"What IS that!?!?" is a typical question every time someone new meets Aubrey. Confused, I wonder what they're talking about until I look at her forehead and remember.

"Oh! It's a strawberry hemangioma. Slightly common in babies and will go away in time."

A few weeks after Aubrey was born, a raised red spot formed on her forehead. I was curious about it but not worried and found out what exactly it was at her 2 month appointment. The doctor informed me it will be with her for a while....and my response was "So I should probably stop photoshopping it out?" :)

It's part of who she is. It's part of her infancy.

Lately I haven't been able to see much beauty around the world. It sometimes feels like everywhere I turn, another discouraging thing is happening. Last week I had a few revelations and one of them was to start FINDING beauty in the world again. Finding beauty in the places that most people deem unbeautiful.

I also wanted an excuse to get out my camera more. I figured that if I started looking for things to photograph, I would start seeing beauty around me. Beauty, Love, Hope, Miracles....these are the things I want to look for.

As I started thinking of the first beautiful thing that I wanted to capture, I instantly thought of Aubrey's hemangioma. I truly see it as her beauty mark. A unique thing that is beautiful to me. It may not be what the world would deem beautiful, but to me.......

It's Beauty

Reusable Materials #1

I felt the need to write something happy about our life lately too :) So, politics aside, I've been trying to find creative ways to occupy Tristen using materials around the house. Examples? Egg cartons and baby jars for sorting objects in as well as old cookie sheets for magnet fun. You get the idea :)

We are headed to a rehearsal and wedding tomorrow and Friday and I needed to replenish my bag of tricks to keep Tristen occupied during each. Today we finally finished off a container of Parmesan so I quickly washed it out and found another material I could reuse as a toy. (I've been eyeing our Parmesan container for weeks so I could make this activity!)

In case you can't tell, it's just pipe cleaners cut in half and a Parmesan container. (Make sure to fold over the ends of the pipe cleaners so they aren't sharp!) It has already provided entertainment so I'm sure it will keep Tristen occupied for part of the wedding at least!! Great fine motor skills being developed as well as he pushes the pipe cleaners through the holes :) I like the challenge of trying to keep Tristen quiet during church and special events like weddings. I'll let you know how it goes :)

Have a HAPPY Wednesday all....I'm trying :) At least I know the next few days will be fun even though this week has been a downer so far.

P.S. Pinterest inspired idea :)

Their Future

I'm hoppin' mad. Since I temporarily deleted my facebook account due to the Social Media Civil War happening between Democrats and Republicans, I can't vent my frustration there. I probably wouldn't want to either since I would be contributing to the Civil War but even still. (which, is a whole other post.....I literally DESPISE facebook. I just can't go back with the hatred that is on there!)

I've never been this pessimistic in my life. I'm bitter over the results. I'm ANGRY. Sure, I knew in my heart that Obama would probably have another 4 years to completely screw up the country, but I still held out hope.

And now all my hope is gone.

Although I'm a strong Republican, the issues that I am extremely passionate about this year are not even the regular issues that lead me to vote Republican. This year the main issue for me was the economy and the 16 trillion dollar debt that I (actually, no, I don't have any thing to do with 16 trillion dollar debt. I'm actually responsible with my money.) wil be passing to my children.

My children.

 

They are the reason why I've become so engrossed in this election. What kind of world are they going to grow up in?

This election, I'm not sitting around, saying, "Okay, that's just the way it has to be". There has been a righteous fire that has been ignited in our household after last night. I am researching, planning ways to get involved and fight this political war as best I can. We are in a political Civil War and I believe it's only going to get worse.

On a lighter note, I thought of ONE funny thing in the midst of my anger last night.

At least Mitt Romney will have fewer gray hairs than President Obama in 4 years :)

 

If only the President didn't turn gray after 4 years in office, I just might run for President. But, I don't want gray hair :)

Costume Party

Saturday was our annual costume party with friends! It was a blast as usual!! We went as the Publishers Clearing House people.....Aaron was the guy who shows up with the giant check and I was the recipient of the check :) It was too fun :)

The check took a little while to make but it was fun to have a project to do last week :)

 

As always, there were GREAT costumes from everyone!

Minions from "Despicable Me"

Deb and Napoleon Dynamite!!

Bacon and Eggs :)

Mary Poppins and Bert :)

 

Oh what fun!

 

So, it's Election Day. I'm SOOOO happy this day is finally here. My goodness, I can't stand the TV ads, the debates on facebook, the DRAMA involved in this whole 2 year process. Since I don't want to think about it much more, I'll just leave you with a reminder to VOTE. Maybe someday I'll get into politics but not today. :)

The Cow and Cabbage Patch Doll

Meet: Tristen the Cow! 

Haha...oh goodness :)

Meet: Aubrey the Cabbage Patch Doll!!

This outfit was a borrowed item from her cousin, Evie. Last night I spotted it and spotted a big thing of yarn in my yarn basket and was inspired to quickly put together a Cabbage Patch costume....I absolutely LOVED it!

This picture totally cracks me up!! Haha!!

 

We had a super great evening with my brother, sister-in-law, niece Iylah, my parents, grandma, and 2 aunts and uncles! It was so fun to spend time with family :) We did go to the Nursing Home this afternoon and then spent the rest of the evening at a restaurant with family :)

 

It's NOVEMBER tomorrow!! Wow....unbelievable! Our November is extremely busy but I'm excited for the change of pace. Lots and lots of family time, Thanksgiving holiday, Aaron's 30th birthday, a good friend's wedding....it's going to be a good month :) Although, I'm SO not ready for winter....I'm already feeling just a tad bit cooped in with a toddler that needs room to RUN! This week is trying to brainstorm winter activities that will get us through the next few months!

Have a great first day of November!