I *heart* Fog

I have been wanting to experiment with photographing the boys in the fog for a while.  I'm not sure I nailed it, I think its probably a combination of getting the right setting and also processing for the fog.  I still love how the images turned out!

 

 

 

 

 

The Boys go to the Library!

I have been so bad about updating my blog!  I'll try to go back and update it with the fall/winter of 2012.  But for now, here's our trip to the library today!

 

 



Fun in the Snow

Happy New Year!!  We are enjoying our time off and our special time together and what better way than to play outside!  My boys love being outside and a little snow isn't going to stop them.  Cullen's latest thing is always wearing some type of eye wear, I guess its his new style.  Today it was his tool workshop goggles, and I guess he's pretending they are ski goggles, sooo cute!

He's all bundled up but not really happy about his boots getting snow on them, silly boy!

 

 

Caleb is always the one that gives me a run for my money when I get the camera out, but I got him!

 

 

 



Ikea Hackers

A fun blog to peruse is www.IkeaHackers.net, and an even better reason for heading over there is because Cullen's room is featured!  I still plan to finish off the shelves and finish the bench but who knows when I'll get around to that.  Go check it out!

http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/09/malm-billy-wall-unit.html#comment-form

Going to the Park

I need to get better at blogging every day things.  Over Labor Day weekend we did a lot of family things together, one little one was visiting one of our favorite parks.  Unfortunately as we went for our family bike ride we realized that there was a HUGE mosquito invasion on the bike trail so we had to cut that short.

Enjoy the pics!



even daddy got in on the fun!



Cullen's Big Boy Room Part 1

We started changing Cullen's room around a little bit.  I'm not quite ready yet to move him out of the crib, and since he's not climbing out, why change that.  BUT we did start working on the new built in look.  After a lot of searching on pinterest for some inspiration, and finding pieces on Ikea.com that looked like it would work, we went out shopping.

But first, the before shot:

Ended up buying 2 - Ikea Malm dressers, 2 - Ikea Billy Bookcases, and 3 - Ikea Expedite Cubes.

Then began the 'ikea hack' we drilled into the bottom of the bookcases and the top of the dresser to connect them with large bolts, then we also drilled both pieces into a stud in the wall to make sure they were super secure.  We still want to do some finishing using some moldings around both units.  The Expedit cubes are just sitting on the ground right now, but we're going to make them into a window bench.  We just have to account for the floor vent so we don't cover that up.

Even though its not done yet, I really like how it turned out.  We can't actually use the drawers on the right yet because of the crib, but even without that we still have a ton of space!

2 Years Old

It seems so crazy for me to write this blog post, my baby is 2!  Cullen is such a great little boy, just think 2 years ago he was this tiny.

Born at 1:57pm after over 17 hours of labor this little bundle was placed in my arms.  He has brought so much joy to our family.  Cullen always knows when mama or dada (or caleb) need a hug or kiss,   he's such a cuddle bug and gives the tightest, bigest hugs a 2 year old could give.  He's a constant everyday friend for Caleb and has really made our lives complete.  I don't know if we'll be going through the baby stage again but even as a baby he was great.  Sure I didn't sleep for over 15 months, but those nights laying awake with him I'll never regret or be sad about.

Last year when he turned 1 I thought, wow this kid is the cutest most adorable baby ever, how did I get so lucky.

With his bright blue eyes, his little baby curls and his perfect porcelian skin.  Now he's 2, he's growing and learning new things every day.  I'm so proud of my little boy.  He has so many words, he loves to dance.  He loves dressing up and picking out his shoes every morning.  He loves jumping and playing with his brother, and he loves to cuddle up and watch a *short* movie or read books with the family.  He tries to play hungry hungry hippos and its quite funny but sometimes he wins.  He'll pretty much want to play with whatever his big brother plays with, and loves to build pillow forts with his daddy.  He is full of expressions, pouts, sad faces, then he'll look up and smile cause he was just pretending.  He'll run toward us to give us a big hug, then run back to do whatever he was doing.  He loves art, coloring with crayons and markers, paint, stickers.   He loves food too.  His favorite meat is probably pork, but he loves steak, chicken (as long as its not fried), salmon, ham.  He's not so much into hotdogs, pizza, or mac&cheese, but he does love french fries.  He likes candy (but what kid doesn't) but also likes wheat crackers and goldfish, and of course cookies and cake and icecream.

I'm proud to say that he's been potty trained for a couple weeks.  I would have never guessed that my little boy would be in undies at 23 months but he was.  He's such a smart boy, he helps out around the house with garbage night, and laundry, and cleaning up his toys.  He loves his aunts, uncles and grandparents, and cousin's too.  He loves swimming, and swinging, and being outside as much as possible.  And he's pretty good at getting his pictures taken.

Here are his 'official' 2 year pictures.  He loved his suspenders and tie so much he didn't want to take them off at bedtime!





When asked how old he was gonna be, he responded like this.  Afterall holding up 2 fingers on one hand is a little difficult!



Well if you made it this far, thank you for reading.  I'm so proud of my little guy and I love him so much. 

happy birthday Cullen!

Almost 2!

I can't believe I writing this blog post, my baby is turning 2 in a couple weeks, its crazy.  Because I wanted to scout out a location, it dawned on me that I should probably 'start' Cullen's 2 year pictures.  Short mini-sessions are key when working with this age, and I want a LOT of pictures, cause I'm just like that.  I actually got quite a few 'keepers' and I'll share most of them with you now :)



this one is pretty much perfect



and a couple of Caleb



Our Summer Vacation | Canadian Lakes Michigan

We had so much fun on our 2012 summer vacation.  This was the first time we rented a cottage just to ourselves for a week.  We decided to check out www.vrbo.com to rent a cottage somewhere in Michigan.  I found a very small cluster of lakes and we found a cottage on a small, no-wake lake.  The location was great, we had a gigantic private beach just ourside our backdoor.  The kids loved playing in the sand first thing in the morning.  Then as it heated up we moved into the lake where Caleb actually learned to swim.  In the evenings the boys loved throwing bread out to the crazy fish that would swim up and practically take it from your fingers. 

I won't lie, it was super hot, we got a crazy heat wave that week, and no a/c in the cottage made it quite difficult.  We ended up leaving a few days early cause Cullen liked the lake water too much and swallowed a lot and got some tummy issues, that in combo with the no a/c made our minds up for us.

Anyway hope you enjoy some of these pictures.  We did lots of stuff on our trip, including putt putt golf, and visiting my Aunt and Uncle at their cottage about 1.5 hours south of us.  Caleb took his first ride on a jet ski and loved it (although I didn't get any pictures).

A new room...

Caleb has had a captains bed since he moved out of his crib.  While he likes it, he's been wanting to sleep on a 'lower' bed.  So short of going out and buying a new bed, here's our solution.  I wish I had before pictures cause just a little furniture placement can really change the look of a room.

The boys even have a little 'fort' under the tall bed.  they had a blast there this evening!