It all comes back around!

I figured I better come and update this thing before I start getting e-mails from people wondering if I'm okay. So today, I'll share a story with you.

When I was growing up, there was a certain spot in our old house that my mom used to lay down on the floor with a pillow and this blue crotched blanket (that I think she still has) in an attempt to read one of her books (a trashy Danielle Steel book I'm sure). I'm not sure why she didn't lay down on the couch ... maybe because my dad usually had his newspaper spread out up there? Hummm, I'm not really sure.

Anyway, I usually took this chance to plop down on her back and "style" her hair. I'd go and get a spray bottle with water, a towel, a mirror and just about every brush or comb we had in the house. I'd sit on the small of her back, while she read her book, and start spraying down her entire head with water. Sometimes I got a bit overzealous with the water ... and that's where the towel came in handy ... wiping off her face and trying to keep her book from getting soaked. I'd style it all to one side of her head and proudly ask her to look at herself in the mirror. Then I'd style it all to the other side and again ask her to take a look. I'd finally get to a style that I really liked and tell her that I thought she should wear it to work the next day. She'd just look in the mirror and give me a half smile as to say, "Sure honey ... I'll just let you believe that and hope you don't realize it's different in the morning." I don't remember if I ever questioned her as to why she never wore any of my styles to work ... because really ... who wouldn't want to go to work with their hair brushed from the back to the front?

I can remember this all very vividly. I can remember the exact spot that she'd always lay. I can remember the combs we used and what colors they were. I can even remember where we stored the water bottle.

Well, as my title for this blog post says ... it all comes back around! Monday night I talked to a good friend on the phone for about a half hour. Paige and I were still doing the "girls thing" as the boys were at Grandma and Grandpa Knudson's house for hunting. I was sitting on the floor between the couch and coffee table and at some point Paige got up on the couch behind me with a comb and started brushing my hair. Pretty soon she went to get her little detaingle spray bottle that we use on her hair. Then she went to get a second comb. All the while, I was thinking of my mom and I. Before long, she had my hair half wet, had pulled on my hair hard enough that I would have wimpered if I hadn't been talking on the phone and had about 10 hair "pretties" on my head. She was so proud of herself. She did it the entire time I was on the phone ... laughing to herself when she'd get the comb all twisted in my hair and then laughing even harder when she got a clip to stay in. I couldn't help but laugh at how, without me even provoking it, she did the exact same thing I'd done to my mom 25 years or so ago.

Maybe we have a hidden stylist gene in our family line that just been fully exposed yet? I wouldn't mind free haircuts for life. :)

BOO!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!

The kids are psyched for today. Normally I have a hard time getting Riley up but this morning I reminded him that it was Halloween and he jumped right up. And Miss Paige squealed (literally) when she realized we were taking her flower costume to daycare. Ha ha.

Pictures courtesy of Shelley. It was too dark to get a good picture when I left the house this morning. I'll have costume pictures up in a few days.

I've been MIA.

I know, I know. I haven't posted in forever. October has just been a super busy month and I have been doing just enough to keep my head above water. How about some updates? :)

Riley ~ Riley has his last night of "Learn to Skate" class tonight. Paige and I didn't go with last time but Ryan says that he's catching on more and more. I went the second week and "mom mode" kicked in when I saw him struggling to get to the end of the ice he was supposed to be at. I had to turn away a couple times because you could tell he was trying his hardest but just wasn't able to keep up with the other kids. He's pretty much the youngest kid out there so it's to be expected ... but, yeah, it's hard to watch your 4 year old struggle like that. He starts actual hockey practice the second week in November. His other big news is that he's headed up north to grandma and grandpa's house with daddy for deer hunting. He's been asking and asking and asking and PLEEDING with dad to go with ... and dad finally caved. I'm not sure how much he'll actually spend out but I think he's just excited to be included. (And Paige and mommy plan to shop while the boys are gone!!!)

Paige ~ Paige is talking more and more. I'm not sure anyone outside of Ryan, Shelley (daycare), Riley and myself can understand much of what she says but we keep encouraging her to "use her words". She talks a LOT about the whole potty training thing but most of the time she tells us AFTER she's gone. The one exception? The other night after bath I was trying to get her dressed ... I'd had a long weekend working and was tired. She wouldn't let me put her diaper on and went over to the bathroom. I was the mean mom and wasn't in the mood to deal with the 2 seconds of sitting on the toilet only to do nothing besides putting a half roll of toilet paper in the bowl afterwards so I told her that no, she needed her diaper on. So what does she do? She peed in the hallway. Yep, mom of the year award for me. :) The positive (that I kept telling myself as I was cleaning it all up) was that she told us before she went. Hopefully we're making progress there (as long as mom cooperates).

Ryan ~ Ryan is headed out to Texas tomorrow for work. Whoever planned this conference obviously doesn't have kids as they planned it over Halloween. :( He managed to get tickets for a Wild vs Stars game while he's down there which I think he's pretty pumped about. Besides that he's been busy working on my "honey-do" list. He's put a new faucet in one of the bathrooms, put up a new towel rack and toilet paper holder, fixed some chipping issues we had in the tub downstairs, varnished and put up new closet doors in the office and a few other smaller things from leftover summer projects. Plus he's been "super dad" quite a bit lately by taking the kids out when I have sessions.

Me ~ I've been trying to keep the household together but feel like I'm failing at it right now. October and November are just swamped with photo sessions for everyone wanting Christmas cards. It's good ... I like it ... I just wish I didn't have that other pesky 40 hour a week job too. :) I seriously would not be able to keep up if it wasn't for Ryan stepping in so much lately! Other than that everything is good. I feel like I've officially made the transition to winter because I've taken out my little knitting bag. :) The SNOW that we got on Sunday helped with that a little too though.

Halloween is this Friday ... it's hard to believe! Riley is going dressed as a hockey player (dad wants to add a black eye to the costume) and Paige is going dressed as a flower. How total opposite can you get huh? :) We'll head out to trick or treat with some neighbors. I'm not sure how long Paige will last but hopefully it'll be long enough to make it around the block. I figured that would give Riley a decent number of houses to hit up for candy. I'll throw some blankets in the wagon with a doll or two and a sippy cup of juice and that should tide her over for a while.

Well, that's all that's new on this end. I have pictures to post but those are on a different computer. I'll try to get those up soon. Have a great Halloween everyone!

It's that time of year ...!

Look at our little tough man. :) He starts learn to skate classes tomorrow and then starts playing sometime this fall.

AHHHHHH!!!!! I'm not sure I'm ready for this!

Just a couple ....

Last night I took Paige across the street to the empty lots to see if I could get some pictures for her 2 year pictures, as well as her birthday invites. I don't want to share them all right now because I'd like to get her invite out first ... but here are a few sneak peaks! :)

Reason #1158

Do you want to know reason #1158 why a parent should NOT ignore their child's calls? Because sometimes the little girl has an inquisitive older brother who opens the HUGE bottle of, newly purchased THAT NIGHT, bubble bath to smell it ... and sometimes said inquisitive older brother doesn't always put the top back on.

Yes, last night Ryan and I were talking and somewhat ignoring Miss Paige and her "Mommy! Mommy!!!!" calls ... and when I did turn around, she was sitting on the floor covered in a slimy substance ... to which I went to investigate. Well, as soon as my foot hit the hardwood floor and went slipping and sliding around, I knew what had happened. Yep, I looked in the bathroom and she'd poured out half the bottle (I'm guessing that the bottle was a little under a half gallon) onto the floor, finger painted with it and then fell on her butt and spread it out into the hallway. By the time I had time to put thoughts to words, Riley had stepped in it ... leaving Ryan as the only one who couldn't claim he felt as if he had olive oil between his toes. Thankfully it was bath night anyway.

Free to a good home!!!

We have some computer "stuff" we no longer need and thought we'd offer it up here.

If you're interested please e-mail me or leave me a comment. The only payment we request is that you come and pick it up. :)

First of all, we have a computer and monitor (old style, NOT flat panel) that we had planned on using for Riley ... but with two desktops and a laptop already in use in our house (and with Ryan no longer in school) we decided to just make Ryan's computer the "family" computer. Quite honestly, I don't even know much about the computer. Ryan said it's a 512 but I don't know the size of the hard-drive. I do know it's an IBM . I believe this was one that Ryan used to use ... and he typically did word processing/banking/internet stuff on it.

As I said, we had planned on using it as a kid computer ... something to let him play games on and learn how to type/use a mouse without opening up a risk to our personal computers.

Also, I just upgraded my printer so we have two printers to give away to good homes.

HP 2210 All-in-One ~ This one just needs new ink cartridges. It's the printer that was just attached to my computer 3 hours ago.

Features
All-in-One device that Prints, Scans, Copies and Faxes
Photo quality printing with up to 4800 x 1200-optimized dpi
Six-ink color printing with optional photo inkjet cartridge
Print borderless 4 x 6-inch photos with HP Premium Plus Photo paper
Print directly from CompactFlash (Type I or II including IBM Microdrive), SmartMedia, Secure Digital / MMC and Memory Stick
Use the card slots to transfer images to the computer's hard drive
1200x2400 optical-dpi, A4 size, 48-bit color flatbed image scanner
Optional black ink cartridge for faster, crisper black text for regular printing tasks.
High-quality photographic reproduction using HP's exclusive color layering technology from Photoret IV technology
Printspeed: 17ppm in black and up to 12ppm in color
Up to 33.6 kbps fax transmission speed
Up to 99 copies, reduce or enlarge 25% to 400%


HP 930c ~ This was what we used two printers ago. We kept it thinking we'd hook it up to a computer for Riley. Also needs new print cartridges.

Features

Print technology: HP thermal ink-jet
Speed: 9 ppm in black, 7.5 ppm in color
Resolution: 2,400 x 1,200 dpi for color, 600 dpi for black
Input capacity: 100 pages
Output capacity: 50 pages
Media types: Plain, ink-jet, photo and banner papers, envelopes, transparencies, labels, cards, iron-on transfers
Maximum paper size: 8.5 by 14 inches
Memory: 4 MB
Print cartridges: 2 (black, trichamber color)
Dimensions: 17 by 8 by 16 inches
Weight: 12.6 pounds without print cartridges

Nothing says Fall like a trip to the apple orchard!

I fully admit I may be a bit bias. I remember being let loose in my Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Kevin's apple orchard with my cousin, Cory, ... both with our own baskets to collect however many apples we wanted. I remember my Uncle Kevin somehow maintaining his sanity as he pulled a bunch of my pre-teen squeeling and gossiping girl friends around in a tractor wagon as we picked apples and pumpkins. So yes, I fully admit that I may be bias ... but I'm not sure how anyone could disagree that the first bite into a freshly picked apple is what Fall is all about.

We headed out to our favorite orchard today. Northwoods Orchard is a somewhat small orchard with a few animals to pet, a corn maze, wagon ride, pumpkins ... oh yeah, and apples. :)

We've gone to this same orchard every year since Riley was born. I'll never forget how we found out about it. I had called my dad to ask him if he knew of one around our town as the ones we had gone to the years before were closed. He proceeded to tell me how he'd driven by a new one and wasn't really sure what it all had. When I asked him for directions he started giving me street numbers but then suddenly his tone changed. "Once you get into Douglas, take a left and go past Cheryl and Kevin's old house. Go up and over the hill to the west of them. And once you go over the hill you'll see three beautiful combines ... take a right there." Leave it to my dad to give me directions based on what was in the field on the day he happened to drive past.

Anyway, as I said, today we headed out for the first time this season. We walked around to see all the animals and then took a walk to pick some apples. Riley is an old pro at this as he fully remembers these trips last year. Paige on the other hand was a bit confused ... until she saw one section of trees that had a lot of apples on the ground. Then she suddenly realized WHAT those red things where ... and started collecting. At one point she had about 4 apples in those tiny arms ... rotating bites through them. It was a sight to be seen!

And because it's tradition ... the first pan of Apple Crisp was baked tonight. That'll be pretty standard dessert for the next month or so around the Knudson household.

Here's a few quick pictures ...

Random Picture Drop Off ...

I have just a couple pictures to drop off (I have way too many session/wedding photos to be working on so this is all you'll get for a while).

Last weekend while we were painting, Riley disappeared upstairs for a while. That in itself isn't too out of the ordinary so I didn't think twice ... UNTIL he came down with a wet shirt and his hair like this ....












Mom: "What in the heck did you do?"
Riley: "I used my experiment and styled it, Mom!"

Now when your child tells you they used an experiment as a styling agent for their hair, you begin to wonder what the next step is. Will their hair fall out? Will it be bleach blonde in about 20 minutes? Will it be glued to the top of his head?

So he took me upstairs to show me exactly what he did.

"See mom, first you use this experiment from the school I went to at your work." (Ahhhh, okay, the experiment makes sense now ... we had to use the spray bottle as a prop for an experiement at Vacation Bible School. Phew ... thankfully it's only water!)

























"And then you take your brush and comb it way back."



























And just one of Miss Paige today. This is typical Paige at about 4:45 in the afternoon. Hair flying all over (though, really, it's quite contained here) and giving you the evil stare-down while she wonders where her dinner is.

It was Labor WEEKEND around our house!

I'm sore this morning. After a weekend where many of you were enjoying the last days of summer, I'm wondering where our weekend went! I'm truly thinking we missed a day off.

It was a weekend full of labor around our house. Ryan fixed a plumbing/sheet rock issue downstairs and we prepped both bathrooms to be painted. I spent part of Saturday and the better part of Sunday painting and putting things back together. We just need to buy some new hardware fo the upstairs bathroom, buy some new accessories (Riley wasn't too fond of the rubber ducky stuff) and shower curtain for downstairs and work on a special photo session for some artwork. That's a project I've wanted to do for a long time now so it's good to be done.

We also finally moved all of Riley's clothes to his new room. He moved back downstairs about two months ago but I wasn't sure the move would stick so I'd been putting off moving all of his stuff.

The two biggest developments over the weekend though?

Paige ... Friday night Paige decided she wanted to sleep in the twin bed in her room (the one Riley used to sleep on). I thought it would just be a one night thing ... she's taken naps over there before here and there. Well, she fell asleep there on Friday night, took a nap there on Saturday and fell asleep there again on Saturday night. So Sunday afternoon I reluctantly asked her if she wanted her crib to go bye-bye. She said yes and pointed to her big girl bed and said, "nigh, nigh". I just about bawled! Seriously, she's not old enough for this is she?

She's all proud of herself and loves her bed. Yesterday morning she was laying in there just hanging out. And so far she will still call to us in the morning when she wakes up. I don't think she can get the handle of her door open yet so she just lays there until we come in.

Riley's big news .... the kid is basically swimming. EEK!!! We headed over to Dodge Center yesterday afternoon for one last day at the pool. It's such a great pool ... they have a water slide and zero depth entry end.

Riley's favorite thing to do in the pool is stand on the side and jump in to the waiting arms of mom or dad. As the summer went on he was wanting us to go further and further out into the pool to see if he could make it to us. Well, yesterday daddy was letting him struggle a little bit after he'd jump in (we were in deeper water) to see what he'd do ... and while he couldn't get his head fully above water, he could tread water enough to keep his eyes above ... and when he did go under he didn't really freak out at all.

So after Paige started shaking because she was cold, dad went with her to wrap up in a towel and I gave Riley 5 minutes to swim before we were going to go. We headed to the part he could at least touch the bottom at and I'm watching him as he's going under the water and kicking like he's trying to swim. The next time he came up for air, I showed him how to move his arms underwater to get him moving forward ... and the little fart did it. I'm not going to throw him in the deep end anytime soon .... but he managed to "swim" forward abot 8 feet underwater without touching the bottom. Seriously the kid is a fish!

So that's the update from our house. Riley starts his second year of pre-school on the 17th. We got a letter from his teacher and she sounds like she's fresh out of college ... hopefully these 4 and 5 year old's don't scare her off too much! :)

I'm an auntie ... again!

I hope Ryan's sister doesn't mind me doing this ... but I just have to post pictures of the newest member of the family. Meet Violet ... born Saturday, August 23 to proud parents, Tammy and Clint and big brother, Weston.

We traveled to meet her tonight and she's just an angel. She likes to sleep and eat ... and really, what girl wouldn't mind sleeping all the time and eating without worrying about your figure? I envy her.

So here she is ... Miss Violet Marie. (And I feel bad but I didn't get a good shot of Weston ... I didn't have an external flash on me because mine broke at a wedding last weekend ... and that little boy was non-stop action tonight so what I tried to get of him is blurry. The one below isn't the best technical photo but I think his expression is priceless. )

We're home ... and I'm seriously worried about the competition in my own house.

WARNING ... This will be a post of a bunch of small things put together. Now that I've gotten that out of the way ...

Cute Riley-ism for the day (before I forget) ... I started a candle in the house today. Apple something or other. I called Riley up from playing downstairs for dinner and as he's climbing on to the bar stool he says, "Mom?! Do you have a candle going?" So I say yes and show him where it is. His reply? "Thanks mom for making the house smell so fresh today! I think you're pretty nice for being so nice to me. It smells delightful!" Delightful? I have no idea where he got that one.

North Carolina
As many of you knew ... we were in North Carolina for a wedding of Ryan's cousin this past weekend. We couldn't have been blessed with a more perfect trip. Our flights were basically uneventful (thank heavens for Benadryl ... Paige slept half the way out there and the entire way back), the weather wasn't too hot and muggy, and we were able to spend time with family at a beautiful wedding!

I haven't had time to go through all my pictures yet as I've been working on sessions I had before we left, but I just HAVE to show one picture. My four year old son took the following picture ... and I'm scared ... I have some serious competition in the house now. I think this is my favorite picture of Paige and I to date.















He also got a steller one of the bride and groom who he practically stalked on the dance floor until he got the shot he was looking for. That's my boy! Ha ha.

This trip contained three firsts ... the first "first" was the it was Paige's first flight. The second "first" was when Ryan's uncle Jim took Riley fishing in the pond behind their house on Sunday. I think Riley enjoyed cutting the worms and baiting the hooks the most though. Monday was the day of the third "first" ... I went fishing for the first time ever at the same little pond. I didn't do too bad ... caught three little fish. Though, I would have let Riley bait my hooks for me if they weren't so darn sharp. :) I'm trying to think if Ryan had a "first" while we were down there (you know ... to make it a family thing) ... but the only one I can think of is that it may have been his first time driving a minivan. Ha ha.

Thankfully Ryan's cousin, Sara, has a 3 year old boy who attached himself to Riley and a 6 month old little girl that Paige ohh'ed and ahhh'ed over the whole time ... so neither of them were bored at all while we were there.

All in all it was a successful weekend ... and Lisa and Michael (the happy couple) are sailing around the seas right now on a cruise. Like I said, I'll post pictures after I get through some of my other duties.

Whoo hoo daddy!
The other news in the house ... I have to admit I'm rather ashamed that I didn't post anything earlier about. Two weeks ago, Daddy (aka ~ Ryan) basically finished his MBA program. Why the "basically"? He has ONE flipping class left next spring to complete. We're basically considering him done though ... so we celebrated with dinner and a movie while the kids stayed home with a babysitter.

It's been three long years of HARD work on his part. While we've all had to make sacrifices to accomodate his school schedule, HE was the one who had to sit in the office just about every night studying. We're not really sure what changes may/will come our way .. but for now we're just happy to have daddy back!

It's funny though ... tonight as I was getting Riley ready for bed I just kept thinking about how it's going to be such a busy weekend. I have a wedding in LaCrosse to second shoot again and Ryan has scho--- wait a minute ... there's NO school!!!! :) Guess it hasn't sunk in yet! :)

Okay ... I think I've rambled long enough ... and this photo book that needs to get done isn't going to finish itself. Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!!!

Our Princess ...

Well, she was called Princess Paige for the first year of her life
... she's just now dressing the part.

Where do we live again?

Good Neighbor Days

This was a few weeks ago but Ryan reminded me that I hadn't shared anything from Good Neighbor Days. It's a weekend celebration for our little town ... a parade and fireworks on Friday night followed by a carnival, car show, etc. It's a great time!

Friday night we had a small get together at our house. We walked up to the parade with my sister and her family, Ryan's sister and her family and our next door neighbors. For the size of our little town, I was quite impressed with it's size. Unfortunally for Riley and the other kids, our neighborhood is towards the end of the parade route, so they *only* got half of a gallon ziplock bag of candy each.

After the parade, we went back to our house where we started a fire, burnt some popcorn, discovered the yummy-ness of mixing some of the root beer keg with Bailey's Irish Cream (try it if you've never had it!), played giant Wii (it was projected against the outside of our house ... lifesize) and finally watched the fireworks overhead.

Saturday was an early morning as the jump house that a bunch of the neighborhood had gone together to rent was delivered at about 7:15. By 7:30 kids were already jumping. :) The best part though? We'd upgraded the size and now the adults could get in too. :)

We had a great day with our neighbors. We had the jump house, a couple swimming pools, a blow-up waterslide, lots of root beer for the kids and plenty of adult beverages for the others. The weather tried to cut into the yummy potluck dinner we had planned but we managed to finish just before it started to rain.

Another bonus to the day ... Steve, Charina, Grace and Jack ... old neighbors and GREAT friends of ours came to visit. Charina and I are making plans for Riley and Grace to marry someday ... so it was good that they could see each other again. (And the funniest part of the weekend? Grace told Riley that she loved him. Riley's reaction was one I've never seen from him before ... he was speechless and actually turned red. Ha ha)

I think every single kid went to bed pretty early that night. I know Riley was exhausted beyond belief. It was fun to watch all the kids run around because 6 years ago only about 2 or 3 of these kids were even born. Most of us moved into the neighborhood as newlyweds ... and that Saturday we had about 15 kids running around. We're a fertile group to say the least. :)

Picture time.

First of all, I have to show these two pictures. This is Grace and Paige last September when we went to stay with Steve and Charina one weekend.













And this one was the Sunday of Good Neighbor Days at a park. WOW ... how much little people change in 10 months!!





























And now ... the kid-fest Saturday ...

It's a big day!

I know I have a photography blog ... but this is just too close to my heart to not share here as well. As of last night, my official photography website went live. **eek** It's extremely stressful for me as it's totally putting myself out there in a way that almost makes me uncomfortable. But at the same time I feel like I'm at the stage of making this step forward.

Feel free to go take a look. Please let me know your thoughts ... it's not as polished as I'd like it ... but I think I could go on forever making changes to get it just *so*.

www.kristinknudson.com

Thanks for the support of so many of you!

This would have made Grandpa Jim proud!!

I was driving home yesterday and saw that they were selling sweet corn on the corner so I stopped and picked some up. I'm not sure if that's just a midwestern thing or not ... big farmers will pick corn and hire teens to sit all over town and sell corn, watermellon and tomatoes out of the back of trucks.

We hadn't given Paige her own ear of corn yet this year and I wasn't sure how she'd do ... but we gave it a go. We cut an ear in half, stuck the pokers in and set it down in front of her .... at which point she just looked back at us like, "What would you like me to do with this?" So Ryan went over and showed how how to eat off it ... at which we got a look that would have said, "Dad, you're crazy!" Then she tried to poke her fork at it ... seeing if she could get some off that way ... but nope, that didn't work. It wasn't until we had Riley show her how to do it that she finally took a good bite into it. And once she got that first bite into it, she was off. I looked back about 5 minutes later and she had CLEARED the ear and was wanting more.

Yep, Grandpa Jim was probably smiling down on her at that moment.

(And as a side note, we have pictures of Riley doing the exact same thing at almost the same age.)

Buckles

Buckles on her baby stroller. Buckles on her high chair. Buckles on shopping carts. Buckles on someones backpack hanging up at daycare. Buckles on her stroller. Buckles on her chair that sits on my bike. Buckles. Buckles. BUCKLES!!!

Paige is obsessed with buckles on just about anything. She loves to snap them together and then goes "uuuuh" when she wants you to UN-buckle it. Then ... go back to step one and repeat the whole process over and over and over. (And there is no ignoring the "uuuuuh" when she wants them unbuckled. If you ignore her she'll just do it longer and louder.)

Warroad from Paige's Eyes

I had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa's. I didn't like the ride up there that took 9 hours but once I could get out and stretch my legs I was better. While we were up there I got to read the paper with Grandpa, go on a tractor ride (which I CRIED to go on and then decided once the tractor started up, really wasn't as fun as I thought it'd be), go swiming and get covered from head to toe in sand, eat lots of 'nacks, and chase Riley and Grandpa down the driveway to get the mail. We also spent time at Great Grandma's house and she had a funny moose that rocked in a rocking chair and sang, "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." It was kind of strange but I liked it after a while.