Party On

My project is officially done! Eli turned two just a few days ago and enjoyed partying with his friends and family. He ran around, played games, and ate a ton of cake. I can't believe he actually slept after consuming so much sugar. I really enjoyed this project, it helped me be more present with Eli and really pay attention to how he was growing and changing. I will still be blogging monthly and probably won't be able to stop myself from adding a few Eli related details here and there. This year I decided to create my own happiness project . Gretchen Rubin did her own project (and wrote a book about it) which has been on my mind for years. The goal is to identify 12 things you believe may benefit you in some way and choose one a month to focus on. If it helps you- you keep it, if it wasn't so helpful, ditch it. My original January goal was to do yoga daily and I'm failing miserably, but I am meeting another goal of ditching coffee (boo!). So let's pretend that...

November felt like a crazy month. I have been so blessed with more photo shoots this year and just recently (like Thursday) bought the beginnings of an indoor studio setup. Eli has had a good month, but the entire family has been sick off and on throughout, so he’s been a little cooped up. I definitely need to sign him up for weekly classes or something to get all that energy out. It’s almost Christmas guys! We just need to hang on for a couple more weeks. Well, we have one month to go before this project is done! I can’t believe Eli is almost two. Eli: 23 months I say new words like… I love you momma, “a-on” (meaning off), tiger, fox, tent, machine, coffee, shoes on, pick up, Santa, Chuggington, tv, Elmo (hangs head in shame- I don’t know if we’re actually watching more television, or if he’s just more cognizant of it. We honestly haven’t watched any Sesame Street since early October) My favorite food is I can’t say! He’s recently decided he “no like” everyt...

It was a good month! Eli was a shark for Halloween, we went to Boo at the Zoo, and we had a great vacation in Kauai, Hawaii. I think I pretty much covered the highlights already, so we’ll just skim on past and get onto Eli’s update. Eli: 22 Months I say new words like… diaper, ewwwww, mango, everybody, penguin, chicken, grandma, naughty, Optimus, good boy, button, buckle, pickle, pizza, sorry My favorite food is pickles My favorite toy is my penguin or my raccoon. I pet my penguin’s head while I go to sleep. I also like to feed penguin with my sippy cup and put him in diapers Some other things I do include… saying my first string of three words (“Where are you?”), buckling seatbelts, calling people ‘babies’ and most animals ‘meow’ (cat), making grandma and Papa hold hands, and going on my first 5 hour plane to Hawaii where I threw a train at a sleeping woman’s head. While in Hawaii, I realized I hate the ocean. I was very scared and would only go into it if Papa or daddy was hold...

So I’m a week and a day late- at least it’s finally October!! My favorite month of all. I love the crisp leaves, pumpkin spice latte’s, fall family pictures, and dressing Eli up for Halloween and this year- I will especially love being in Hawaii!! We are in the final countdown. We’ll have 9 days of sand and sun and quality time with Eli’s grandma and PawPa- not to mention we’ll see my sister and her adorably fun family for a couple days as well. I’ve uncharacteristically left the details undone until we are there- but I know we’re going to a luau and going on a helicopter ride. Speaking of fall family pictures- I went and set up the tripod like I do every year to take some photos. Y’all, the focus was wayyyy off in 90% of them. We have nice pictures of the leaves behind us while our faces look like blurry messes. This is why you hire someone- or gain some patience and try try again. In other news- I switched focus with my business and am solely focusing on photography. Check it out...

I know from the title people are just stoked to dig in. Eli is 20 months old today! Because he loves being naked and has shown a lot of signs of readiness (taking his diaper off, telling us when he goes, throwing his diaper away, wanting to sit on the potty, throwing toilet paper in the toilet, going at the same time every day, waking up from naps dry), we started the potty training process. We actually started the process months ago. In June I bought him a potty and have let him sit on it whenever he liked. I also read him the Potty Time book and watched Daniel Tiger’s potty episode. He started out doing so great. Day one was a mess, as one might expect, but after that he was really going strong. We had 2 full days at home of just nakedness and timed potty breaks (15 minutes day one, 20 minutes day two). I sang him a potty song while he sat on the potty and used the signs for potty and poop. When he was successful we cheered and danced and had an M&M. *Side note- don’t give you...

Well, that didn’t go as expected. Eli and I had a little extra time and a little more company than expected on our trip home. We had planned on spending 6 days in Thermopolis enjoying our family, but instead we ended up at 10 days and only 2 of those were with full functionality on my part, as I ended up having an appendectomy. Luckily Josh came out and got to help and enjoy time with everyone and I got some time to rest. Then, instead of flying back from Casper we ended up driving 6 hours to Denver before hopping on a flight home. It was a big to-do, but it was worth it. Eli so enjoyed his cousins and running wild I’m sure. I’m still pretty sore- but every day is better than the last.   Eli: Month 19 months I say new words like… Eli, cereal, cheese, please, Shiree, Mimi, Op (for Optimus), hot My favorite food is raspberries. My favorite toy is my builder truck that goes with my blocks. I love to push it around the house and I sometimes put it on top of furniture. Some...