2016 Daily Photo Project

A new year brings about the spark to want to try another year project. I've attempted these daily photo projects many times before. Often, I do actually take a photo a day for a year, but what has happened in the past is I fall behind on actually sharing them. Maybe this year will be different. I have a friend who's starting her second year of doing this project to keep me motivated with all the beautiful photos she shares, and another friend who's also joining in on the project. Maybe I need the group motivation! I'm going to attempt to post every Monday, but if Monday's don't end up being the best, I'll try to adjust to another day.

Here are the first 4 days of January.

01.01.16

This girl will find anything to play with. Today it was a bottle opening card being dropped through the cracks of the table and falling to the ground.  

01.02.16

K-State bowl game with friends. This little cheerleader mostly enjoyed playing with Krista and Paul's pets. Despite our team's loss, being with friends and eating yummy food made it worth an afternoon.

01.03.16

What a surprise to wake up this morning to see big white flakes falling from the sky. To say our little girl loves the snow is an understatement!  

01.04.16 

Say "Cheese" which is often followed by "Do you want to see your photo?" She may be in for a shock someday when she learns that cameras didn't use to show the photo immediately! 

Happy Holidays!!

It's our first holiday season in Portland. We are excited to spend it at home with family. There will be lots of playing, great food, and snuggles with Sofia. We've even got some presents to open (well, mostly Sofia has presents for us to open!!)

Winter Solstice

We celebrated the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter upstairs with family. Jac made chili and a yummy skillet cookie (i.e. large chocolate chip cookie... YUM). We also enjoyed Wisconsin Cranberry wine (I only had a few sips, but it was DELICIOUS - maybe a new fave... I'm going to have to find some more once I can actually sit and enjoy a full glass of wine) and summer sausage that had been sent by a work colleague of Seth and Ethan's after Sofia was born. 

Sofia chilling out with Uncle Ethan. 

Zia is so full of energy and smiles!!! She is talking up a storm now (even though we have no idea what she is saying ;) Can't wait for her words to clear up! 

(Jac I need to get a picture of you and Sofia - when she's not crying ;). I wasn't quick enough.)

Uncle Ethan is trying to convince Aunt Jac to give the baby to him since "she" made her cry!

This is the SWEETEST! When it was time to go, Zia gave Sofia good night kisses! She loves loves LOVES that baby!! She signs baby by cradling her arms and rocking them back and forth. Jac says she does it all the time when we aren't there. I can't wait to watch the two of them grow into the best of friends. What lucky little girls they are! 

I have a few other photos that were taken with my phone and some that I stole from Jac of our little family of 3 that I want to post. I'll do it from my phone soon. :) 

Thanksgiving

Thank goodness for my stepmom, because without her, we'd have had take out for Thanksgiving! She spent the day slaving away in the kitchen making TONS OF AMAZING FOOD!!! I didn't even help at all... Think I was spending the day trying to catch up on sleep with the baby... (If I remember right.) Here are a few photos of the day that I was able to snap. 

Seth teaching Kevin some tunes on the piano. 

Alan preparing for a Dungeons and Dragons game. 

Mom cooking!

Most of our dinner layout!

Seth learning how to cut the turkey.

Dungeons and Dragons game

Sofia Meets Family

It's a few weeks late (finally got the blog set up so I could load photos from my computer... I had no more space on google but was somehow able to still post photos from my phone). Over Thanksgiving, my family on my dad's side came to stay and celebrate the holiday with us. Here are photos of Sofia hanging out with her aunts, uncle, and grandma and grandpa.

P and Z in the Backyard

Walking back from my fall photo walk, I saw Jac, P and Z were in the backyard. So I headed back to hang out and snap some more photos (I love taking pictures of people and haven't really too much lately, so this was fun (even if I couldn't get down to be up close like I am used to!)) 

P hauling pumpkins to their front porch. 

 Zia peeking out from behind her gate.

We knew exactly where that shovel with tiny little pebbles was headed... 

Yum! 

 When P and I went around front to check out the pumpkins, Zia was fairly dirt free. When we came back a couple minutes later, she was a different story ;) 

Climbing trees just like her brother! 

 Those perfect grapes... Just torturing us on the other side of the fence.

P spent most of the time swinging from this tree. 

I love love love living sooooo close to them! Last night, we went up to enjoy a delicious apple cobbler (with whipped cream, of course). After dessert, we headed to the top floor to see P's fort and enjoyed playing - including some fun games of Simon Says... Where I discovered I make a pretty good Simon! ;) Jac was telling P that maybe next time he sees us, we'll have a little baby. It's crazy to think how things will change and that we'll have a sweet little one ourselves. We've always soooo enjoyed our nieces and nephews, but to think we are giving our siblings a new addition to their list of nieces or nephews! Of course it will be a while before ours can really play with the cousins, but that will be fun to watch as the little one grows!!