WOW! So much to catch up on in here! Just like everyone else, it's been busy around the Knudson household. Ryan's been working on a school project quite a bit. Riley's been playing outside. Paige has been throwing fits when she can't be outside. And mom has been working on a lot of photography sessions.
Some random updates on everyone ...
RileyMr. Riley has really been amazing me lately. While he still has his moments, he's really been so well behaved. When he's in the mood he's such a helpful little boy. And really, I have to gush about how he is with Paige. It's obvious that he loves her to death ... calling her "sweetie pea" in a high pitched voice, sharing toys with her, helping her with her coat ... complete with zipping it up, giving her hugs and kisses ... I could go on and on. Watching them interact has been one of the greatest joys of being a parent so far.
He's also got a memory that blows me away. The other day we were out on his swingset when he reminded me that Wyatt (neighbor boy) got the same pool as him ... but Wyatt's is yellow and white and his is blue and white. Huh? That was like 10 months ago! But he continues to do it ... pulling random facts out of the air. Ha ha.
He only has about 7 or 8 classes left of his first year of pre-school. I'm not quite sure where the year went. While there have been a couple mornings where we've had to encourage and remind him that he WILL have a fun day at school, he's really enjoyed it. His teachers are just the sweetest things. Mrs. S, his main teacher, has just the right amount of firmness with the kids while still making the day fun and Mrs. Stellner is a big softie. She's pulled me aside on numerous days to tell me that she thinks Riley is such a joy to have in class and that him and his big brown eyes are very sweet ... at which point I look around to make sure there isn't some other parent of a Riley standing next to me ... because she isn't really talking about Riley Arthur is she? :) Last week we went to Family Fun Night which was a fundraiser for school. It was so neat to see him talk with classmates/friends.
Coming up at the end of June, the church I work at will be holding a week long Vacation Bible School. This is the first year he's old enough to go so I think we'll be signing him up. It'll be fun to bring him to work with me and be able to see him walking around the halls for half the day. He thought it was pretty cool that he'd be able to come to work with me too.
Paige
Paige is a very stubborn 18 month old. She is very much into testing her boundries and exlporing all that is around her.
One thing that is pretty cute and I find her doing often ... smiling at herself in the mirror. It's the funniest darn thing. When I'm doing her hair in the morning she'll look at her reflection (she can barely see over the faucet) and smile one way ... giggle. Smile another way ... giggle. Smile the first way again ... pause ... giggle. I remember my sister talking about how much time my niece, Katelyn, would spend in the bathroom ... I'm thinking we have Katelyn 2.0 on our hands. :)
Speaking of doing her hair ... it's growing as you'll see in the pictures below. We can now do partial pigtails on the sides or have it half up on top of her head. And once we have piggies or a pony in, we HAVE to put pretties in. She loves to have a bow clip or curlie ribbons put in and then goes to show daddy how pretty she is. She's all girl on that subject!
We have another outdoor lover on our hands ... which we're happy about ... but it makes going inside for dinner or a nap kind of hard. She loves putting her head back and watching the clouds go by while on her swing. She's a bit of a dare devil and will climb the slide to get up to the clubhouse of the swingset since she's too small to go up the ladder.
She's also a social butterfly. Numerous times we've either been on a walk or in the front yard when someone passes by and Paige's little hand goes up and she repeatedly says, "Hi! Hi! Hi!". And if this person has a dog ... Paige runs to them. She's a HUGE lover of dogs and thinks she should be able to pet and kiss all of them. The poor beagle at the house behind us gets attacked with Paige smooches and hugs all the time.
Ryan and Kristin
We've each been busy as well. Ryan has a monster of a class project going on right now that will be over and done with this weekend. He's looking forward to the beginning of August when he'll be done with classes for now. All he'll have left before he graduates is one class next spring. It'll be different, in a nice sort of way, to have daddy/my husband back ... no worries of homework or school over the weekend ... no needing to think about whether it's a school weekend before we commit to something. And I'm positive he's going to enjoy all of those things as well.
Me ... well, I've been a shooting fool. I had a little rush of sessions in the past few weeks. Even though I had sessions backed up for proofing, it was still fun. I'm so happy that I've found something that I have such a passion for and while I may not be where I want to be talent-wise, I know I'm getting better and that really pumps me up. I only have two and a half weeks until I second shoot my first wedding ... and depending on the day I'm either really psyched to do it or a big ball of nerves. Ha ha.
Okay, on to pictures ... these are from last week. Riley got a set of golf clubs for his birthday (daddy's choice) and he's been working on his "form".
