RELOCATED

idk why the quality looks so bad! original files at the end of the post photo credit for all photos: Brandon Petersen (my brother) What a year 2017 has been! We have loved further settling in to our little family of three. As Russ put it the other night, we fit perfectly together as a family  J Ada is the joy of our lives. We think every little thing she does is the absolute cutest. Our big baby grew into a small toddler (around 35%) who, at 14 months, can still fit into a few of her 0-3 month onesies (though they’re tight)! We celebrated her first birthday in September with a “ donut grow up ” themed party. She didn’t follow that admonition though – she insists on continuing to grow! She now has four teeth and many skills. Lately she’s climbing  down  stairs and taking quite a few steps. She’ll probably be a full-time walker by the end of the month. She loves giving high-fives, blowing kisses, and clapping, and she recently started giving hugs around the n...

Russ and I have had a few too many Christmases where we didn't solidify how we wanted the season to go beforehand, so then the season came and went without enough intention. To remedy that, it's been on  my list  to figure out what we're going to do for Christmas traditions in our house. At one point, I went through all my "25 things to do this Christmas!" lists on Pinterest and I compiled them all in one place, making a three- or four-page single-spaced document. When I looked that list over this year, it was overwhelming, so I kind of decided I wanted to have only a few concrete traditions, and then a short list of other options to do throughout the season. Here's what I came up with, which actually looks like a long list once it's all typed out . . . Decorate for Christmas the day/weekend after Thanksgiving Have matching family Christmas PJ's wrapped up and given on December 1 Participate in Light the World. Have a nativity puzzle that ...

We decided that this year we'd start celebrating Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as our own little family at our own home, and maybe sometimes we'll invite friends or family to join us, but we're starting our own traditions. A lot of people wait until they have more kids to start doing their own thing, but idk, I just wanted to start now, with our one kid :) We only had one church meeting on Christmas Eve, so that meant we had pretty much a whole Sunday together. We honestly didn't do much throughout the day. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Russ took steps throughout the day to make rustic Italian bread for dinner, and we mostly just enjoyed being together. In the evening, I started pulling everything together for a special dinner. We (maybe just I haha) decided that our  traditional  Christmas Eve dinner would be a "Bethlehem Dinner." The idea is to eat foods that they may have eaten at that time, eat by candlelight (the lights were on fo...

Little Miss Ada, You're so grown up and cute! You're playful and fun, you make cute noises and cute faces, and you're just brimming with personality. You are a charmer, and you put on the best shows for people -- that's why other people often think you're just always happy! (Which you're not haha . . . you can definitely be super whiny and demanding!) You are so much fun, and it never ceases to amaze me just how much I love you. Sometimes I watch you (on the video monitor) while you sleep and I'm just overcome with love for you. You're my baby girl and for that, I'm so glad! Stats 21 pounds even (48%) 30.25 inches (40%) Size 3 diapers (leaking at night though, so I'm going to buy size 4 for nights the next time I go to the store) Mostly 9-12 month clothes Words In addition to "hi," "mama," and "dada," which you were saying at 12 months, you now say: woah night night yay nana (banana) baby Mil...

As much as I love being a stay-at-home mom, I was getting a bit stir crazy staying home all the time (especially since I did a lot more of that back in the day when Ada was not napping well. I was trying to be super consistent, which meant I never left the house 😩 ). I needed to find ways to get out of the house. I also still had a big stack of pictures to scrapbook -- not only is record-keeping important to me, but I also really enjoy the creative aspect of scrapbooking. Additionally, as evidenced by my 2016 and 2017 lists, I wanted to find a way to spend consistent time with my mom. So I decided to kill three birds with one stone. I asked my mom if we could set up a weekly date for scrapbooking: no calls, no distractions -- just a few hours of time to be together scrapbooking and talking. We've been doing it almost all year, and I've loving it! I love having at least one day a week where I know I'll be leaving the house, I love getting my pictures organized and ...