Hello, Remember Me?

It's no surprise that it's been a ridiculously long time since I last blogged. To be honest, I don't really read many blogs these days and it slips my mind that I should or could blog about what is going on in our little home and life. And just like the majority of families in the world, we are really busy with incredibly active children. To say that Julian and Alice keep me on my toes is an understatement and makes me laugh a little. I love how active they are but it doesn't slow down much around here so we live on the go a lot. Here are just a few snippets from our past year for a brief update. 

We had family photos taken by a new, dear friend Kim in the fall. We hadn't had proper family photos taken since Julian was 18mos old. It was much needed and so fun. Now that Christmas is over, my focus is on finding walls and spots in my house to hang and frame these lovely shots. These were taken along the Cherry Creek Trail and are less than 5min from our home and are in walking distance. In the summer, it's one of my favorite things about where we live.  

One of our favorite family traditions is to visit an apple orchard in the fall. We've gone to the same one now a few years in a row and we enjoy seeing the orchard, eating warm, fresh, apple cider donuts, and seeing the animals on the farm. The kids got to pet the horses, sit in a very old truck, and watched the chickens in the chicken coop for a long time. It's seriously one of my favorite things we do all year long.  The crops were too fragile to actually do any apple picking, but we left feeling filled with joy. It's seriously a magical place and while my love for it is so deep, it makes me glad I'm a city girl. ;) 

Alice is my wild girl. She has a free spirit and not a fear in the world. She is hands down the biggest climber of any baby I've ever known in my life. She is agile and strong and brave. And a teeny peanut. Still under 20lbs and holding steady in the 10th percentile for weight. It's time to start thinking about her 2nd birthday coming down the line in April. Which is so, so hard for me to wrap my mind around. She's finally starting to talk more, this week walking around the house saying "mama mama dada dada ju ju (Julian)...." over and over. Each week I hear her trying more words which is a relief since she hasn't been very interested in talking much.  

Julian's four and a half year old vocabulary more than makes up for Alice's missing vocabulary. His preschool teachers revel at his words, his pediatrician is always blown away at his speech. He's struggled in preschool just a little only because his vocabulary is leaps and bounds above the other kids' and it is frustrating for him. He's more than ready for kindergarten. We'll be signing him up in the next couple of months and he will start kindergarten this fall. I'll really miss having him home all day but I'm excited to see him really thrive at school. 

Christmas was so fun with the kids. Julian was thrilled to get some new train accessories to add to his train table and Alice was more than thrilled to get her own baby doll. We got to enjoy Christmas Eve with my family and then Christmas Day at home just the four of us. 

My photography business was booming in 2015. There was one Saturday in November that I had 7 photo shoots in one day. Definitely a record! This time of year is very quiet in the photography industry and I am enjoying the break. Balancing being a stay at home mom with being a business owner has been a challenge but it's been so incredible too. 

Dustin's job is in a current state of feast. The famine will come along shortly, but things are really hectic and intense in aerospace right now. He's working long days and long weeks and he's working to fight of burn-out all the time. It makes me wish we had a vacation planned for the year, but nothing is on the books yet. In 2015, Dustin turned 30 and I surprised him with a trip to Seattle for a long weekend. We left the kids and went just the two of us. He had no idea until 12 hours before our flight that we were going. It was so amazing and to one of my favorite places. Winter has me dreaming of a vacation big time. Our Colorado winter has been especially snowy this year. 

2015 was good to us. In December, we celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. With it being 4 days after Christmas, it comes and goes pretty quickly and quietly most years. But we took the kids to the aquarium for the day and kept it pretty low key. Hard to believe it's been 8 years! We are loving our new home and have been enjoying lots of updates and diy projects to it recently. Each one makes it feel more and more like home. We love our neighborhood and neighbors and being close to Dustin's job. We have lots of friends nearby and have enjoyed getting to know some new friends too. The year finished out with two deaths in my family which made November and December tough. Praying for good health for our family and friends this year. <3