From Green to White

Here are the one year portraits that I took of Wyatt! He must be getting used to me always taking pictures because he was very cooperative! I luckily chose the last nice day we had to take pictures, it has been pretty cold and wet since then.

It's nice and green in these pictures but this is what I woke up to this morning!

SNOW!!! Yep, it's here.

In other news, my brother Nick left last night for his year-long study abroad program in London. He will be just outside of London at the University of Sussex. http://www.sussex.ac.uk/

He was really excited and I know he'll have a great time over there. He'll be traveling around Europe on his breaks from school so we won't see him back here until the end of next June!!! We'll miss you Nick!

Birthday Extravaganza!

On Sunday, the day 12 months in the making had finally arrived. Wyatt's first birthday!!! We had an exciting very fun filled day. We started off the morning with some homemade belgian waffles. I put whip cream on Wyatt's and he was happy just licking that off. A very balanced healthy breakfast =)

We had Wyatt's party out at my parent's house with about 20 people (most of who were our family!) We had a great spread of food and an awesome cake made by a lady here in town. Wyatt really wasn't too interested in the cake and only had about two bites...oh well! He did enjoy opening presents though and had plenty of help from his older cousins. He had so many new toys to play with that we let him stay up an hour past his bedtime because he was so engrossed with his new toys!

When you have so many new toys sometimes you have to multi task!

Overall it was a wonderful day. I still can't believe that my baby is ONE, but it's slowly sinking in. Now toddler years here we come!!!

A Day in the Park

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade...When life gives you a cold, rainy miserable day..you drive to one of Alaska's most scenic locations, where you won't be able to see anything because of the low lying fog! =)

On Saturday we drove down to Denali to spend the day in the park and Justin's Mom and Step dad came along with us. It was cold and rainy but beautiful nonetheless. You couldn't see any of the mountains but we did see quite a few animals including grizzly bears, moose, sheep, lynx, and some smaller critters. We spent 12 hours in the car, but surprisingly Wyatt did great. It was a nice day and I think we will try to do it again next year.

Also Thursday was my birthday and we celebrated with a excellent halibut dinner at my parent's house and my favorite traditional poppy seed birthday cake!

Walk Softly and Carry a Big Stick

I may be slightly misquoting here, but Mr. Roosevelt isn't around to stop me.

First impressions on a ONE year old

As I lay in my bed tonight, unable to sleep, I watched the clock change from 11:59 to 12:00am, September 20, Wyatt's birthday. I got out of bed and quietly crept into his room. As I leaned over his crib, my head resting on the railing, I rubbed my hand across his back, and through his sandy soft hair. He didn't look differernt, it wasn't as if he suddenly looked more grown up, but to me it felt as if he had just suddenly made that transition, from baby to boy. And I couldn't stop that slight ache deep in my heart from creeping upward. While I am indrecibly proud of my son who is growing and changing every day, I felt sad for all those special baby moments that we're slipping farther and farther away. I had tears in my eyes as I thought about the day he was born, and the day we brought him home from the hospital. I thought about every day and every milestone, every emotion of the past 12 months, and while I feel a little sad now that these days of infancy are behind us, the past 12 months make me beam with pride. My son is amazing. He has grown and changed so much, and changed Justin and I in the process as well. So the tears that filled my eyes as I stood in the darkness of his room were not just tears of sadness. They were tears of joy, of hope, of pride, of anticipation for the future, they were tears for every day I've had with Wyatt and every day to come. I can only hope that every day in the years and years to come are just as rewarding and memorable, and that when I look back old and gray, my eyes fill with tears all over again.

~6 hours old

Wordless Wednesday

Ok well maybe few-word Wednesday..

Isn't my family beautiful!?

Justin got me a new tripod for the camera so we're trying out some self timer shots!

Un-Laborious Day

Who wants to labor on labor day? Not us, that's for sure. Justin had the day off and I didn't have class so we soaked up the September sun. We spent most of the day outside, we went for a walk with the dogs, washed the car, and played in the yard. We capped of the day by going over to Justin's grandparent's house for dinner, and ate way too much. All-in -all a good Monday.

And what would be a perfect fall day without some fresh cranberries! I took my 2 cups of just picked cranberries and turned them into this delicious crustless cranberry pie...oh so good!



Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9 inch pie pan.
Combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Stir in the cranberries and the walnuts, and toss to coat. Stir in the butter, beaten eggs, and almond extract. If you are using frozen cranberries, the mixture will be very thick. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.

When we went on a walk Wyatt wanted to hold the dog leash so the whole walk he held on to Macie. She is such a calm dog and doesn't pull at all, so Wyatt just pulled her down the street! He had so much fun walking her he wouldn't let go of her leash when we got back in the yard and was getting frustrated when she wouldn't follow him around the front yard!

Come on dog

Then came Tuesday, back to school! My classes are requiring A LOT of reading, so now I'm spending all my time after Wyatt goes to bed reading. No more wild parties in the living room after 8:30pm! This week coming up is a busy week for us! Justin will be working, I'll be at school (which means Wyatt has to go to Papa's house) and then Thursday is my birthday, and Sunday is Wyatt's birthday!! Go slow week!!! Oh where does the time go, guess it's time for the next one =)

I Love This Guy

With Wyatt being the focus of most of our pictures these days, it's rare for me to take one of Justin and I, but here one is! Every time I look at him I am reminded of how much I love him, he is such a great father to Wyatt and husband to me. I really hit the jackpot in marrying him. How many people can really honestly say that they are married to their best friend and soul mate, and wouldn't change a single thing about them? Well I can! Yeah yeah, I'm a sap, a sap who's madly in love with her two boys. Life.Is.Perfect.

Creamer's Field

Wyatt and I went on a nice walk this morning at Creamer's Field, and as usual I had my camera in tow. Here is a cute one of him enjoying the morning.

Berry Picking!

My little boy is tucked tight into bed, worn out from a day of berry picking, he was so tired we decided skip a bath tonight, so he looks like the true boy that he is. His legs are stained with a nice blue tint from sitting on patches of blueberries, and he has little red splotches on his hands from shoving handfuls of cranberries in his mouth. He has plenty of little scrapes from walking through the bushes, and even a couple scrapes that I'm surprised he didn't make a peep about and I didn't even notice them until tonight, including a nice cut on his knee. We weren't very successful in our hunt, we maybe got a cup, but we enjoyed a beautiful fall day with some nice company, and Wyatt now has a belly full of berries!