to the great up north

Am finally getting around to sharing pics from our mini vacation to the great up north a few weekends ago. One of Jeff's lifelong friends tied the knot in a beautiful outdoor wedding on the shores of Lake Superior. If you know Minnesota, you know that weather-wise, Late October can be a dicey/blizzarding time of year at this latitude. In Two Harbors, the leaves had already fallen and there was a chance of snow in the forecast all weekend. Lucky lucky, the day turned out to be a crisp 40 degrees and sunshiny--am just thankful I didn't have to sport a sleeveless gown like the bride + bridesmaids! This was our first wedding this year without the pressure of playing photographer so we really kicked back and enjoyed it!!
We kicked the day off by bundling up and taking a trip to see Split Rock Lighthouse. We were a little bummed that the lighthouse itself is closed for tours in the off season--so instead we took a little hike down to the beach to get some great panoramic views. Man, what a scenic place!

And no trip to Northern Minnesota is complete without a trip to Betty's.
Seriously, her pie is legendary.
We stopped there for brunch, for a chance to warm up, and for this slice of mouthwatering raspberry rhubarb pie: Even G got a taste of its gooey goodness!

falling back

The end of Daylight Savings is perhaps one of my favorite days on the calendar. It ranks right up there with Christmas and birthdays--because for one day a year there truly are enough hours in the day. An extra hour for sleeping in, crossing off one more thing on your to-do list, or to get to where you are going. How did you spend your extra hour today?

I am sinking my spare hour into my poor, neglected blog. I'm plopped down, cozy on the couch, watching G monkey around on the floor, inching his way closer to crawling. :) October was absolutely nuts around here and I am long overdue for sharing a few good posts!

I started my new Peds ICU job 3 weeks ago. So far, so good--it feels great to get back to the nurse world, but at the same time, it's been pretty heartbreaking to be away from G. I will just be working part-time, but even that seems like too much! Right now there's just so much to get used to: commuting, pumping, juggling two schedules, and still keeping up with the rest of the world. We are so blessed that Jeff can have a flexible schedule between a restaurant job and the photo biz. We are doing our best to work opposite schedules to keep G out of daycare and home with one of us. Am hoping we don't burn out and that we can squeeze in quality time for our threesome from week to week.

And speaking of the photo biz, we are in awe of how well things are picking up, having done little to no marketing. We've had about as many photo shots as we can handle already! God is so good! In the last month, Jeff did 2 engagement sessions, 2 kiddos, 1 senior, + 1 wedding. I have been able to tag along and help out w/ all of the shoots. It has been so unbelievably fun! We're just getting caught up w/ all of the editing and orders and we'll be updating Flickr and FB this week, so stay tuned for some peeks. :)

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! I think we wore the chicken out with all of the festivities. Just can't resist sharing:

{6 months}

Mr G:
:At 6 months, you are more fun than ever. Such a little dude with such a personality! Every day is an adventure...And you aren't even on the move yet!
:On your 6 mo. b-day, almost to the minute, you amazingly began sitting up like a champ. Good thing, because you were never a fan of seeing the world belly up or belly down. You always want to be up, looking around, and taking it all in.:You've become a chunky little monkey, somewhere in the neighborhood of 18 lbs!
:You are rocking the solid food world. So far you've tasted apples, avocados, bananas, broccoli, carrots, green beans, grilled cheese sandwich, mashed potatoes, peas, peaches, pears, pumpkin and even prunes (ick)! So far, your very favorite indulgence was some of my tomato basil soup at a restaurant. The worst food experience: a lick of pickle. That's an acquired taste my son!
:Still not consistently sleeping through the night, but hey, you win some, you loose some.
:You growl. Yes, that's right, growl...During mealtime prayers, at strangers, almost on cue, and nearly all day long. Not sure what it's all about, but hey, you're a little boy, and it's definitely more entertaining than embarrassing!
:You're a big fan of fall. Despite our best efforts to snap a breathtaking photo of you playing in the leaves or in a big patch of pumpkins, you've always been too busy eating the leaves and patting the pumpkins to look up at the camera. So curious!!
:Your hobbies include: tasting everything in sight, playing extreme peekaboo (because regular peekaboo gets boring), pat-a-cake, and taking quick cat naps. :)

scrap at it.

Ahh, finally my little crafting space is unpacked, my table is cleared off, and am ready for some serious projects. This week I'm pulling out my scrapbook supplies and starting on Mr. Graham's book. It's about time...This kid has way too many pictures! After giving it some thought, I've decided to archive his 100s of pictures in a Kolo album and save the best of the best for true scrapbook pages. That way I can focus on journaling and creating around the major milestones and sentimental stuff--and not be burdened with guilt over our multitude of our family pictures. I feel like the digital age is a bit of a catch 22. Having so many pics and memories is absolutely wonderful, but maybe just a tad overwhelming? All this makes me very curious...what works for you? How do you organize your photos?

the chicken's first halloween {diy style}

We're getting a little giddy about Halloween around here. Just finished stuffing G into his chicken suit for a trial run. (And yes, he eats the feathers!) It was easy to decide on a costume theme...After all, he's been our spring chicken/early morning rooster since day 1! I just couldn't find any cute chicken costume in stores. So, I set out to make his very own and discovered that there's something very magical about a homemade Halloween costume.

This is actually pretty simple to put together: For the body I sewed together 2 long-sleeved onesies (2 sizes too big) and stuffed stuffing in between to make him extra plump. Then I took two 6' white feather boas and tacked them all around. To make the legs + feet, I sewed yellow rubber cleaning gloves to a pair of yellow pants. And the hat--Just an old white t-shirt of Jeff's plus a few chunks of felt and black buttons. :)

a few good things

on a cloudy + chilly Saturday in October:: the perfect, round, yet ugly duckling pumpkin

: one snuggly little sleepy head and a pair of fuzzy footy pajamas

: eavesdropping on jeff + graham's conversations over the baby monitor when g first wakes up and jeff goes to pick him up. those two--so adorable.

: fresh baked brownies {the kind with frosting}

: a new pair of wool socks
: our tree house view. the thing we love most about our new little place is the pretty pond and tall trees right outside of our windows.

: watching the leaves begin to change and imagining the snowflakes that will soon fall!

: cozying up to watch Away we Go from netflix. cutest movie i've seen in awhile.

: a fridge full of groceries

: and playing with the contents of the prettiest package from kt @ a little bird told me.so. it just arrived at my doorstep from half way around the world! {kt is a sweet blog friend from australia who is recently engaged and in the midst of planning her dream wedding!! i was lucky enough to win her clever giveaway--something old, something new, something crafty, and something blue...Woo-Hoo!!}

miss this place:

Just discovered Jesse Leake's stunning San Francisco engagement photo shoot via Snippet & Ink. These pics are making my heart bleed to be back there right now--Just for the afternoon! Don't get me wrong, we are so blessed to be home in the Midwest, enjoying the seasons change, but there's just something about the sea-breezy air and fog horns in SF...

this is the way we eat our vegetables

This week we hit a major milestone: Solids!

No spoon-feeding endless bowls of rice cereal here--instead, we're trying out the idea of Baby Led Weaning. It's all about involving babies with family meals right from the get-go. Basically, you skip purees, go directly to finger foods, and let babes learn to feed themselves on their own accord.

We simply stick G in his Bumbo chair on the counter with us while we eat, offer him simple, healthy foods that he can easily grasp, and let him explore! Right now he just gnaws or sucks on things, and is only taking in tiny bits at a time. But we can tell that he is really enjoying it! Although it's a little nontraditional and makes for a giant mess, the method makes so much sense to me and so far we're having a lot of fun!

Here's my quick+humble summary of how/why it works:

• Babies meet all of their nutritional needs through breastmilk or formula alone in the first year of life, so you need not worry whether they are getting enough.
  
  
• Evidence shows that by 6 months, babies have a much more mature digestive tract and are better able to handle the introduction of a variety of foods...Not just bland mush.
  
  
• Breastfed babies especially (like G) are already used to controlling their intake and have already been exposed to a variety of flavors via mama's milk. I don't need to micromanage his portions or exposures or worry about overfeeding him.
  
  
• BLW naturally progresses with the child's development. At this stage, infants are very oral and learn about the world through their mouths. Right now, G is super curious and has the hand-eye coordination to stick almost everything en la boca. Why not his own food? Plus, he's already learning to equate colors, textures, and shapes with different tastes. Very cool.
  
  
• We don't substitute solids for those very important-hearty milk feeds. Instead, we schedule our meals in between his feedings when he is happy and alert. Eventually, he will realize that this solid food business is satisfying his belly and he will naturally begin to drop his milk feeds during the day. And somewhere in between, he'll begin mimicking everything we do--that's when the utensils and manners come into play. :)
  
  
• I should also mention the safety aspect: We only give G foods while he is sitting upright and under our careful supervision. Of course we are mindful about choking hazards.
  
  
  
• Eating real, nutritional food from the beginning will help him learn to love a variety of foods and will (hopefully!) help prevent picky eating and mealtime battles as he grows.

We want to give G the opportunity to try everything, eat at his own pace, and learn to love nutritious, well-balanced foods that we offer him. This whole approach is so laid back and easy, I love it! No slaving to make and freeze my own purees and no wasting money on those spendy little jars. Am curious about your thoughts or opinions!?

to market, to market

There's so much to love about making our new home in Apple Valley. We're convenient to great parks, a huge library, TWO Targets, have easy access to the freeway and all the excitement the Twin Cities have to offer. But for me, one of the sweetest perks is nearness to a great farmers' market. It's so fabulous to bring fresh, locally grown food into your home. Food just doesn't get much better. Just wanted to share a few pics of our excursion last weekend (because I could never get tired of photographing produce), plus this very adorable little chalkboard that my mom gave us as a housewarming gift. I love its rustic charm. Makes me melt with nostalgia for back-to-school. :) It is perfect for writing inspiring quotes, lofty goals, and plain+simple grocery lists. Which brings us back to the farmers' market:At $6 a pop, it was tough to pick just one giant garden-fresh bouquet to bring home. I chose this one:.

5 months, (well + 2 weeks)

Mr. G,

Can't even believe that we let 5 months scoot on by. Our little family has been a busy bunch lately, but you have been a champion at adjusting to all of our big changes.

Now that we're settled in our new place, I think you're glad to be back to your big crib. The past two nights in a row, you've slept from 9:30pm-7:00am after a loong stretch of those 2am snacks. God must be smiling down on us. :) You're also beginning to restore mama's faith in naps...

We love love love watching all of your curious little habits. You grab at everything in site. You've got this amazing power to differentiate between toys and no-nos. At mealtimes, you study every bite we take. Just a few more weeks, buddy. Although, admittedly I've been known to sneak you some tasty licks of fruits & frostings.

You've officially mastered rolling. Left, right, tummy, back. Been there, done that. But you don't spend much time practicing...you'd much rather be upright and involved than confined to the floor. Guess I don't blame you.

And what's with all of the drooling and raspberry bubble blowing!? No teeth yet--maybe in time for Christmas.

We are loving every minute of you. Seriously, there's nothing better than a cuddle with my soft+chunky Mr. Graham.