hello again.

A few of my friends and fellow bloggers have made it their New Year's resolution to update their blog more. And while that wasn't one of my goals, I've been a little inspired to keep up just a little better.
SO, on that note, let me fill you in on our current lives. Ben is in the middle of his second semester of law school. He is doing well and likes it for the most part (yay!). He occasionally tries to explain things he's learning about but it's so beyond my scope of understanding and interest that I literally don't retain a word of what he says. So I can't tell you what he's studying or what he's learning. You'll just have to ask him.
I spend a lot of time at home with Alex but I also work part time at The Gap. Although The Gap isn't a long-term job, it definitely serves its purpose- it gets me out of the house, meeting new people and making a little extra money.
We're also having a lot of fun exploring our new city. We try to find something new to do about every week. So far we've found some great little parts of the city and some not-so-great parts. We've discovered some really yummy restaurants (mmmmm Chinese food...) and some great stores. Ben even went ANTIQUING with me last weekend!! Not only that, but he actually asked me if we could go! It was such a momentous occasion I even brought my camera.



This mall, as well as another one in the area is HUGE. It goes on forever.



Ben did end up buying something for himself! We also got his mom a mother's day present.

Christmas Morning

We are obviously enjoying our new mini video camera. Are you sick of hearing my voice yet?

I love

his laugh.
And now you can too.

uh oh

He fell right into his basket from his chair and decided to just lay there for a while. I had just gotten a new (free) digital video camera in the mail and I didn't realize I was videotaping sideways. It was pretty cute.

a time of firsts.

After weeks of walking while holding on with one hand and crawling on his hands and feet (not knees) Alex FINALLY took his first steps. We thought the day would never come. Up until now he has been too afraid to move when we let go. So he would stand frozen and slowly lower himself to the floor. We knew he could do it if he would just give it a try and he finally did. Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures. After the first few steps he decided that nose diving was the new cool thing to do.

With the season of family pictures coming up we decided it was time for Alex to have his first real haircut. Yes, that's right, we cut off the mullet.

Doesn't he look terrified in this picture? He just sat there with this horrified expression on his face the whole time. The only time he moved was when the hairstylist touched his ears and then he would have a little freak out.



Here are a few pictures from the trim he got from his Auntie Mychael-Ann over the summer and a few more just for fun.

the completed quiet book.

Although I actually finished Alex's book in time for his birthday (two months ago), I thought it was about time I put some pictures up. There are a lot of great quiet books circulating the blog world. This is a bit of a conglomeration of a few of my favorites and some of my own ideas.
If you haven't already, check out http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/ . I used some of her ideas but not her templates. I wanted to tweak a few things here and there to make it just right.

The outer cover is 12" x 12" and the pages are 11" x 11.5".





I love this page because it's made out of the same fabric that I used for Alex's actual window treatments.






The bear came from an old pacifier clip!











This is Ben's favorite page, of course.





This may be my favorite page. I used an old scrap of silk from a previous project for the water and it gives a great water effect. Most of the fish came from a template from The Purl Bee (http://purlbee.squarespace.com/felt-aquarium-magnets/). However the shark and boat (along with the pizza, window, and bear pages) are from my own templates.



I was a little worried that after all was said and done, Alex wouldn't be too interested. BUT he actually really loves it- especially the fish page. I'm so happy to have it done!!

My New Life

Have you heard of Stephanie Nielsen? She is an LDS blogger that was in a plane crash a few years ago and survived. Her story is pretty remarkable and the clip is so worth watching.