365 Challenge #251

Dinner at Fremont Lake

The tiger shoes still fit :)

365 Challenge #250

Pretty sure my heart just melted a hundred times

See the difference in lighting between the above pics and the below pics? Above were taken facing the sun, giving them a hazy look, the faces are a little dark, and the sky is overexposed. I like this look sometimes. Below were taken with my back to the sun. These are more "correct" pictures. The faces are lighter, and the sky isn't overexposed, so you can see how blue it was.

365 Challenge #249

Tilling the garden to get it ready for next year

365 Challenge #248

Some of Joel's aunts and uncles put on a show at his birthday party....a rhyme about some little ducks who listen to their daddy.

Joel thought it was a great show

"The daddy duck says, 'quack, quack, QUACK, QUACK!!'"

14 weeks....26 to go!

2nd trimester here we come!!! My morning sickness is mostly gone. So happy this was a more "normal" pregnancy than Joel's, and the sickness didn't decide to stay for another 4 months. This baby is very energetic, and I can occasionally feel little flutters against the doppler when I'm listening to her heartbeat (yes, today I'm convinced she is a girl....tomorrow I might change my mind and call "her" a "him", and no, we aren't finding out).

She has fingerprints already! And she will double her size in the next 3 weeks. She can suck on her thumb, pee, frown, her liver is producing bile, and she's growing hair (lanugo) all over her body. I'd say that's pretty accomplished when you're only 14 weeks old!

365 Challenge #247

This picture gets to be all alone. Because I love it so much. The perfectly clear eyes, orange sweater against the blue slide, perfect white skin and white wispy hair, even the tiny bit of runny nose (you can tell it was cold!), I love it all! Pictures like this are rare with a squirmy one year old boy (maybe only once every 500 pics or so). Good thing I don't have to shoot with film! BTW, this is straight out of the camera. If I were to edit it, I would probably make it warmer...add some very slight red tones, brighten the eyes a bit, probably slightly lighten the entire picture.....

Oh bother...I can't help it. Here's the edited version. But truly, I liked the original too.

365 Challenge #246

Opening presents from the grandparents and great grandparents

He knew there was food inside!

He loved his new rocker

365 Challenge #245

Mmmm. Cake!

365 Challenge #244

Lighting the candle with his aunts and uncles.

Then everyone started singing "Happy Birthday"

Joel was like, "I think they are ALL looking at me..."

"Oh man...they definitely are. I don't know what I did...."

"And they're taking pictures....this is all very concerning."

He wasn't sure how to blow out the candle...he just kept saying "hot, hot"

So Uncle Will helped him.

365 Challenge #243

This was my first time ever decorating a cake. I should have taken cake decorating in 4-H. It's harder than it looks. First lesson learned: don't flour the pan....even if the directions tell you that you should.

2nd lesson learned: even if your husband says "the tractor HAS to be red" doesn't necessarily mean you should make the tractor red. You should maybe try to compromise. Like, can we just use chocolate frosting for the tractor....and say it was a reeeeally muddy tractor??? I now have red hand prints all over the house. You know, it's impossible to get red dye out of the sofa....or off of white painted trim for that matter. I am quickly learning to just laugh at the red spots. Someday I'll be able to point to a red spot on the gray sofa and say, "Look! That was from your 1st birthday! How fun!!!" Right??

365 Challenge #242

He put his hood up himself and thought it was hilarious

This is the look he always has on his face when he's looking at one of our phones. If you get a random call from one of us, it was probably Joel.

All done. Tired and ready to put jammies on.