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.)