2012 in Pictures

Happy New Year. Here's to a great year we had and an even better one ahead! xo -Liz

                         

The Moments You Stop and Think

Sometimes, during a rare moment, I'll look over at Everett and think, "what happened? How did I get so lucky to have this kid in my life? When did he grow up to be a kid, and no longer my little baby? How did I get so lucky to have a kid like this?" He reminds me so often about what's important in life and how to have real fun. I forget often... and he reminds me... often. Most of the time I feel less like a Mom and more like a kid again. It's amazing how many experiences I had as a kid that I can have all over again with this kid. He's like a blank canvas and every experience and memory we make together, we're making his life's childhood memories. It's pretty amazing.
But I can't help think, how did that all happen so fast. When did I become not a kid anymore and then suddenly have one of my own? It seems like not long ago at all that we were just young, irresponsible kids ourselves and now, I look over and find myself in a home of my own, almost just as wrestles as I was when I was a kid, but having the two people with me that mean the most in my life, and it feels complete. There's just no words to describe the love I feel and want to constantly show the two loves of my life and I feel quite lucky that we get to fill our whole house with the love we have for each other. I'm quite blessed.

Currently(and Sandy Hook Incident)

Ugly sweater day=almost every day

loving... Christmas everywhere. This season's so cheery don't you think? Even though it does come with some stressful parts.

Reading… Just finished That One Time With Julia that I got from my cousin as an early Christmas gift and now. I'm on to finally reading The Help. I hate reading books after I've already seen the movie, but it was such a good story, maybe it will still be worth it.

Obsessing Over… Getting every thing done in time for Christmas! I know I'll make it, but with a ton of birthdays in the mix it's feeling a little too overwhelming. When are people going to stop having babies in December?!! hah

Thinking about… A lot. Life in general is the best way I can describe it, even though it's way too vague. I love how much I'm still learning about life and constantly trying to better it.

Watching... I've been slowly working my way through The Office seasons all over again. It's one of the best shows(it comes close to Parks and Rec). I'm currently on season 7 when Michael proposes to Holly!

Anticipating… Christmas! Of course.

Wishing... That things like the Sandy Hook incident would never happen. I know a lot of you, including myself, might be wondering, "If there really is a god out there, why would he let such a horrific thing happen?" But we have to remind ourselves that God is the one who gave us free will. He didn't create us like robots, to roam the planet. He gave us the free will to follow him or not. To learn from our mistakes and suffer. I'm not trying to justify what happened what soever, but we need to quit suddenly blaming the one who gave us the freedom. That's like telling a parent that it was their fault bad things started happening when they give you more free will, because you made the wrong decisions with it...

Listening to...

Eating... A green smoothie... preparing for all the amazing Birthday's and Christmas foods I'm about to partake in this week!

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My sister an BIL had time for a quick little 3 minute photo shoot and I'm pretty happy about the way they turned out:

Merry Christmas

Here's a peek at our Christmas card this year, I did a little more than just some photos this year, unlike normal. I really appreciate Christmas cards, but I'm even more happy when I receive a little more of a family update with it. I'm really lucky to be blessed with the time and patience to conquer what I did this year. I also tried to keep it as simple as possible, so it wouldn't be so overwhelming. Mostly, I just had a lot of fun designing and playing around with it, so here's our final result. Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!

xo -Liz

Life Lately According to iPhone photos

Is anyone else as behind as me on Christmas stuff? I feel like I might go crazy sometimes, but I always try to remember to take a breath and not worry too much about it, because even though it may feel like it most of the time, this season isn't all about the material things.

one of my favorite dishes, sitting on santa's lap, first time making pants, Everett's first time making (some delicious) soup, getting a hold of his potty rewards, heard so much about these.. totally worth it, visiting with Rachel's chickens, inside my closet(Wes Anderson fan).

DIY Christmas Gift Guide

The first of a little gift guide series I'm starting for Christmas. I decided what better way to start than to start with my favorite: Do It Yourself Gifts! Here are a few of my favorite ideas (links are at the bottom).

1. Homemade Extracts. 2. DIY wrapping and homemede stamp. 3. Print Towels. 4. Chevron Candles. 5. Infused Olive Oils. 6. Narwhal/Unicorn necklace. 7. painted mug. 8. Pacifier Clip Tutorial. 9. Sweater Mittens. 10. Marble Maze.

Bringing Back the Toddler Videos

I forget about how many videos I take of Everett and then forget to share them. I really need to start remembering to post them a little more often. I'll start with this goofy one i took back a few months ago. And don't worry, that's not blood on his face or anything, I'm pretty sure it's cherry juice.

Fox Family

I really enjoyed shooting this cute little families pictures. Aren't they the cutest? It was so nice being around some beautiful, clean snow up in the mountains too, since it's all melting and dirty now down in town. It even started flaking a bit during these pictures, It was really exciting for me! 

 

Christmas Bunting DIY

I saw a Thanksgiving bunting for sale that was sooo pretty but so much money. I decided I liked it enough to take on the task of trying to create one myself. I'm so glad I did, and I'm sure we'll be using this again next year for a simple holiday decoration!
The first thing I did was buy some sparkly gold paper. The kind I bought had a sticky side so it made it 10x easier.
Next I Made a layout of the letters I needed on a 8.5 X 11 printout. I used this font.

Cut out your letters, paste them onto your paper and cut around the letters.

Tape the letters onto a long string, evenly spaced(up and down too).

 Tack it up and walah! a simple, pretty Do It Yourself Holiday decoration!

Homemade Yogurt!

I saw the idea of making your own yogurt in a magazine. (I'm thinking it was Martha Stewart, but I can't tell you I'm 100% sure, because this page was torn out.) They say it always tastes better to make your own from scratch, and it was right on this time! I've never tasted such a naturally sweet plain yogurt before! I also realized how easy and cheep it is to actually do this! So if you'd like to experiment with this project like I did, here's what you do:

Gather all ingredients: All you need is a quart of milk and three tablespoons of plain yogurt as your starter. Also, make sure you have a quart jar to store your yogurt in.

Start off by heating the milk over med/high heat, heat it up to 180 degrese for 6-7 minutes. You can use a food thermometer, but I made a pretty good guess and it turned out great. Remove from burner and cool to 115 degrees.

Take one cup of the milk and wisk with the three tablespoons of yogurt. Pour everything into your jar.

Wrap the jar with two kitchen towels around the sides and over the top, without the lid. Let set in a warm place for 4-5 hours. The towels help it stay a constant temperature. The longer you let it set, the more sweet/tart it will be. put it in the fridge until cool and then screw on lid.

Mine turned out sweeter than I was expecting, so just by adding a sweet fruit, it's a perfect breakfast and my little dude gobbled his whole bowl up!

You can continue to make it with the same yogurt, just make sure you save the three table spoons.

Tradition and Bloopers

I don't really have a clue how this yearly tradition started, but every year, around the time we set up our Christmas tree, we've taken Everett's picture in front of it with turtle PJ's on. It's so funny to see all the changes he's gone through in just a year. I hope we continue this tradition every year, but I have a feeling, maybe next year, he'll be a little heavy to hold up like that anymore.

After we took some pictures this year, Everett decided he wanted to sleep in front of the tree...

 And then he wanted Papa to lay down too...

 And then we stupidly tried another shoot with the flash to no avail...