Love is...

this guy.

watching him grow.  watching him discover. 

he changed my life.  he taught me so much -

 how to laugh, how to play, how to live, 

but most of all, 

how to love.

Thank you so much my special boy, my Leon.

P.S. This is part of my 12 for 2012 project.  The theme was "love is..." and the technique was creative angles.

Total Stud Muffin

Leon just got some new church clothes.  He got his first tie.  He was totally stoked about it.  He loves Kyle's ties.  He's so handsome - a total stud muffin, in my opinion.

A little too often...

We've found Leon like this a lot lately. 

It's been happing a little more often than it ought too. Leon is transitioning to taking no naps.  I usually still make him take one, but then it means he goes to bed around 9 or 10.  If he doesn't take a nap then he goes to bed around 7:30 or 8.  It depends on the day what works best of us.  Luckily, it hasn't been too bad.

These Boys of Mine

I love 'em.  They light up my day.  I mean, who on this earth, couldn't get enough of seeing these sweet faces?

Leon LOVES Grady do much!  A little too much at times.  We constantly are telling him to be gentle and soft.  He just loves to hug, kiss, and hold hands with Grady but he doesn't know his own stregnth.  Fortunely, he isn't much of a fan of holding Grady.  The above picture is probably the 3rd time Leon has ever held Grady.

Leon got a Lightning McQueen coat, hat, and gloves from Grandma and Grandpa Allen for his brithday.  He thinks it pretty cool.  I taught Leon how to put his coat on by himself by having him put it on the floor, putting his hands in the sleeves, and then swinging it over his head.  It's pretty impressive.  Everytime he does it, he gets a big smile on his face and says "TA-DAAA!"

Grady likes watching Leon.  However, he looks at him like he's crazy most of the time.  I don't blame him.  I often wonder what that little baby is thinking in that big head of his.

Grady has a smile that lights up the WHOLE room.   He loves to laugh and smile when I'm talking to him.  He also loves to be loved on by mommy.  His eyes are so sweet.  They're so glassy and beautiful.  They're still brown but recently I've been seeing a little bit of green, like his mommy's.  Most of his thick, dark hair has fallen out now.  He still has a bit in the very back.  It fall out in patches so he looked a little funny for a little while, but it's growing back in - and it's still pretty dark.  He looks so much like Leon at times. 

You can see more of Grady's sweet smile by clicking here.

Grady's Blessing

Grady's baby blessing was this past Sunday.  He was pretty happy about it.

For those of you who may not know what a baby blessing is - it is when a baby is given blessings and his/her name during a special prayer performed typically by the father and other priesthood holders. It's a special day for the family.  Some of the things Kyle felt inspired by the spirit to bless Grady with were these:

• Continued health, contentment, and to grow strong
• A knowledge that your Heavenly and Earthly parents love you
• The knowledge to know that you are a Child of God
• A desire to seek wisdom
• To be a support to your mother and brother
• To seek guidance from your mentors
• To seek knowledge and learning (epecially of the gospel)
• A knowledge that service in the Lord's church leads to happiness
• To serve a full time mission
• And to be sealed to a worthy companion in the temple for time and all eternity

It was a beautiful blessing.  I feel very grateful for these things.  I felt so much love for Kyle, my family, and for my Heavenly Father and my Savior.   It was special day and I'm thankful that Kyle's family was so willing to come and be apart of it.

P.S.  And a special thanks to my SIL, Candy, for taking down a few notes

of the blessing so I'd be able to look back and remember it.

Solitude is...

a quiet moment cuddling with my little one. 

It's 9:45.  The dishes are done.  The toys are picked up.  I've showered for the day.  Leon is finally in bed.  All I have left to do is love on my Grady and remember how fast he's growing.  Quiet moments like this are few and far between these days with how busy and crazy life has been.

A few of my photography friends and I decided to take on a photo challenge for the year.  We've called it 12 for 2012.  Each month we pick a theme and a technique to explore to go with it.  We also promised each other that we'd challenge ourselves to do more self portraits.  This month's theme was "Solitude is..." and the techinque was "embrace the grain".

Life Recently

Oh man.  I wish I had more time to blog.  I always have cute things to post about and the best of intentions of doing it, but it never happens.  Life around here has been a little crazy.  I never realized how much busier I'd be by adding another munchkin into the mix.  I really should be doing something else - one of the million things on my list, but I thought I'd do just a quick post about life recently for us instead.

Kyle passed his last actuarial exam!  Hooray!  We're so happy.  We found out about a week ago.  However, Kyle had to start studying for the next one.  But there's only one more!  One more and he'll be done.  Life will be glorious again and I'll have a husband again. 

Leon is so funny.  Today, he wanted to color.  He colored one little thing and then asked me to finish it.  He just sat there and watched me and then said "Good job, mommy."

It is also Day 3 of Leon's potty training.  Yesterday, it took every ounce of will power to not put him back in a diaper.  It still hasn't clicked with him yet, but I can tell we're getting close.  I've bribed him, squealed like you wouldn't believe when he does go, and done just about everything I can think of to help the process.  The problem is that he won't tell me he needs to go before he goes.  He'll start going and then say "uh-oh.  potty."  So, we just have to get him to understand that he has to listen to his body and go pee and poopy in the potty chair.  

I'm ready to start doing some portraits again.  However, I'm not sure where to begin here.  I don't have time to do a lot of editing.  The weather is disgusting so I'm limited in that area.   I still haven't found a lot of great locations here and I don't have the time or means to go exploring right now (you know, because I have a toddler and a 2 month old)  This part of life makes me REALLY miss Lafayette. 

Grady is sleeping great and I'm so thankful for it!  He gets up 1-2 times to eat but always goes right back to sleep.  He's got the sweetest smile.  He loves to watch me.  He loves to gaze into my eyes and it's so sweet and sincere when he does it.  Here's some pics of him sleeping with Kyle:

We've been trying to think of ways to revamp our evenings.  We've been in kind of a rough rut of doing nothing and feeling blahish.  Kyle and I are usually so dead by the evening that we eat dinner and just watch TV or cartoons (so we don't have to mess with Leon).  It's terrible.  We're going to start exercising... hopefully.  We've been trying to bust out the games.   We also thought we'd start doing some ABC and counting things with Leon.  Do any of you have fun things you do as a family in the evenings - on just a typical week night? 

We'll Grady just woke up, but there's a few of the billion things floating around in this head of mine to tell you all about.  Hopefully, I'll get better about blogging.