Merry Christmas!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did! I love seeing the joy and excitement on my childrens faces!! What a magical time to treasure!

We decided to try doing stockings on St. Nicholas day since that is where the tradition comes from. It was fun, but was way to early in the month. Too much goes on all month in excitement of "Santa" or "St. Nicholas" coming to visit, that is was just too difficult to explain to the boys why we got a visit early. Especially since "Santa" gifts are just the stockings. 

 Their stockings included books, plastic figurines, socks and some candy. Sylers had some new to him toys and some babylegs(leg warmers for babies).

Christmas Day was nice and relaxing. So nice to just let the boys get up and enjoy their presents for the day. :) 

They received toy tape measures, more books, a tea set, play food for their kitchen and a shopping cart. 

Looking good all dressed up: 

 Merry Christmas!!!

Drezden turns 2!!

We had some family and friends over for Drezdens 2nd birthday. I made him a farm cake because he has been so into farm animals lately. He loved it! Thanks to everyone who made it out! 

Christmas Mini Shoots

From time to time I still get to do a little photography that is not for myself or of my own family. This year I decided to offer Christmas mini shoots. These are 15-30 min sessions that are all done on the same background in my garage so that I can offer a lower price then usual and get more clients to come in. It was semi successful, my days did not fill up but I did enjoy a few families that came. I hope to offer it again next year but earlier, mid November would have been better.

The boys helped me get the lights all ready :)

 

If you would like to see some of the pictures, feel free to check them out on my facebook page. 

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.499939913373312.117279.122009414499699&type=3

As I link this I realize I never finished uploading them all. Will have to get to that. 

Let me know if I can ever help you with your photography needs :)

Wood Stove

Ever since we bought this house we knew we were going to want to put in a wood stove. We bounced back and forth between different locations that we thought it would work, talked about waiting until we converted the garage into more living space. But finally concluded that we wanted one for this winter. It has already been so cold and electric heating is not the most efficient. Thanks to Ben and Liz for helping us get this done and get it done right away! You guys sure take a project and go with it!

It ended up being a 2 weekend process, the first weekend we put in the hearth. A nice porcelin tile. Of course there was a lot more too it then just laying tile. 

Marking the floor for placement: 

Scott ( was also a BIG help) and Paul removing carpet: 

 

Measuring to be sure they are accurate.

 

Hard at work:

 

The little boys painting to stay busy and not be too much in the way:

 

Then some outside play:

 

Zander getting in on the action:

 

 

The little boys and grandma took all the seeds out of my pumpkins so I could bake them. Oh that was great! 

 

Starting Tile:

 Me mixing the adhesive for tile

 All ready for grout:

The second weekend was the installation of the stove itself. Didn't get very many pictures of this process. But it pretty much consisted of cutting a hole in the ceiling and the roof, installing some pipe and attaching it to the stove. We ended up having a cute little bend in our pipe due to placement of the trusses in the attic.

Hole in Ceiling:

 Completed and awaiting inspection:

The boys enjoying the first fire:

It has been soooooo nice enjoy the endless heat from the woodstove. So cozy and I love the smell of a wood burning fire. 

Thank you again to Ben, Liz and Scott for all the extra help with this project!

Zanders 3 year old pictures!

Zander turned 3 in September and I just got around to doing his 3 year old photos. Time goes by just way too fast. He is really into trains, so what a better location then on some near by Railroad tracks. It was cold and windy, so we only spent about 5 min for our session. He was such a trooper in the cold!!

I had these visions of him laying on the train tracks driving his big train, but it was wet and cold and laying was not what he wanted to do, so this was the best I could do for him playing with his train.

He looks so old to me, growing so fast!