We are Family!

Happy Thursday!! 

Get through today and there's one more day in the work week - you can do it! I'm so sick of being in school; my heart just isn't in it. I honestly don't know how I'm going to finish this semester out when all I want to do is focus on Elsie and photography. But I digress.

Really the point of this post is to show off our family pictures, because I am so happy with the way they turned out! Stephanie did a fabulous job!

All photos are copyright Cleo Creative Photography and Design. 

Get to know other bloggers - Q&A Link Up

Hey there, hi there, ho there! 

In case you missed it, here are the questions for today's "get to know you" link up! You can answer some, none, or all of the questions in vlog or written format - just link them on up and meet some other bloggers, too!

Where do you like to shop?

How do you plan your meals?

Have you ever had a garden?

Do you love getting the mail?

Any fitness app recommendations?

What is the worst book you ever read?

What food would you never ever eat?

How many children do you want?

Name one item on your 'bucket list' or 'life to-do list' that you are eager to accomplish!?

So, without further ado... here is me looking like an idiot (again, only this time with bad hair) and answering your questions!

Link up your Q&A!!

I like talkin' bout you, you, you, you, usually... but occasionally, I wanna talk about...

ME!!!! 

Eh. Who am I kidding? We all know that the only reason people have blogs is so that they can talk about themselves all day erry day. Anyway, I'm gonna keep on keepin' on with this talking about myself thing and answer the questions you guys presented. In vlog form. Because I'm lazy. And because... well, why not?

At the end of the post, there is a list of questions for you guys to answer! You can answer them however you dang well please (vlog or written format). I'll make a link up for... Tuesday (tomorrow) and you guys can link up your awesome answers and meet other bloggers! YAY!! At that time, I will have part 2 of my q&a session up, as well.
Big shout out to Brittany, Mariah, and Kaity for this first set of questions! Thanks for making me think, ladies.

Now here are some questions for YOU! Feel free to answer whichever ones you want, or ALL of them! I'm so excited to get to know my readers better. If you don't want to dedicate a whole post, feel free to answer some of them in the comments.

If you could move anywhere in the world where would you go? (cost and language not a problem)

Where do you like to shop?

How do you plan your meals?

Have you ever had a garden?

Do you love getting the mail?

Any fitness app recommendations?

What is the worst book you ever read?

What food would you never ever eat?

How many children do you want?

Name one item on your 'bucket list' or 'life to-do list' that you are eager to accomplish!?

Confessions

Happy Sunday, all!! 

I'm just going to get right down to business.

1. I was supposed to run 5 miles yesterday, but I didn't give myself enough time. Oops. I really didn't want to run on the treadmill (again), so I decided to run outside. The only problem? I only gave myself about 45 minutes. Lately I've been running at a pace between 10:30-11:00/mile, so there was no way I was going to make 5 miles in that time frame. I ended up doing 4, which gives me a total of about 11.5 miles for the week, plus half a mile of swimming.

2. I am really beginning to hate winter. Okay, so this isn't as much a confession as it is a complaint. But seriously?!? EFF OFF, WINTER!!! 

3. Mike and I have been re-watching Psych. At least 2 episodes per day. I forgot how much I love this show!!!

4. We spent way too much money yesterday. Being an adult is expensive, yo.

5. I have had a piece of cheesecake every day for the past five days. And I don't even care. OM NOM NOM!!!!

What do you have to confess? 

Whatever whatever... I do what I want.

Happy Thursday!!! 

I'm going to be honest, guys. This is probably the 20th time in the past two days that I've opened this blogger window and had a stare-down. Like, I've been having some serious writer's block! I want to write - I just have no. idea. what to write about. I've started (and deleted) about ten different posts.

I want to write something funny, but nothing funny happens to me. Seriously. I haven't fallen on the ice in front of some super suave fancy person, I haven't dropped my underwear on a crowded bus, and I haven't made a fool out of myself lately. So there's that.

I also have no desire to write out a super serious post because, well, I just don't feel like being deep right now.

That all being said, I feel like it's been a looongggg time since I've done one of those coffee date or Q&A posts. So... here's the dealio - I want you guys to come up with a question to ask me, and I'll answer all the questions I get. It can be about ANYTHING!

Babies, being a Mormon, what I believe, what my favorite food is, where I'd like to travel, how to get your body back post-baby, my favorite place out of all the places I have been, travel tips, how to be the most awkward person ever, how I manage to take such amazing selfies (see example below), etc. etc.

AND THEN... In a few days, I'll take some of my favorite questions that could apply to any and all of you and ask them right back so that you can blog about them. And then next week, we'll have a link up where we can all share our answers and get to know other bloggers and make new friends.

Random.

I feel this overwhelming urge to write, but the problem is... nothing comes to mind. So... I guess this post is just going to be a jumble of the thoughts that are currently rolling around in my head.

- This past week, two people from my graduating class have died. One was murdered (he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - sad story, really) and one was killed in an ATV accident. I wasn't particularly close with either of them, but it still hit close to home. These guys were 25 - far too young, in my opinion. One had just gotten married last August. It's such a sad story, and what's even worse is that these are not the only people from my class who have died.

- I'm really, really thirsty.

- I don't want to go back to school in the fall and I don't think I'm going to. Don't get me wrong, I love teaching more than anything. HOWEVER, the program I'm currently in is a dual major master's program, with master's degrees in German and Education. I am not a fan of taking a bunch of German lit classes and writing 60 pages for said classes (auf deutsch, natürlich). I'd much rather stay home with Elsie and focus on photography, which has become a real passion. I'd still like to get my teaching certificate, but I've decided that (right now) the master's programs just aren't for me. I thought I belonged in the world of academia, but it turns out... I don't. Not at this point in my life, anyway.

- On that note, it is so much more refreshing to do things because I want to, not because someone else is telling me to. Life is way too short to be living to please other people.

- I feel like this post needs a picture, but I don't have one and I'm too lazy to look for one.

What's WRONG with Me?!?!

Yo.

So I think I have this condition... and I think it's called getting soft. Or growing up. Or something. Whatever it is, I'm torn between a love for it and a hatred of it.

Here's the dealio. So the other day, I was sitting on the bus and people watching (and, yeah, okay... I was people listening, too). This thought popped into my head:

"OOOH!!! I could do a blog post called, 'The Five Types of People You Meet on the Bus!!' That would be an awesome post!" 

I started thinking of all these different categories into which I could lump these perfect strangers. Then... I realized something - these people were perfect strangers. How in the world could I categorize people I had made no effort to know? I would be basing those categories on judgments and assumptions. Those judgments and assumptions could be spot on, but they would more than likely be totally and completely wrong. You see, lately I've been thinking (which usually leads to nothing but trouble), and I've realized something that may not come as a shock to you, but it certainly did to me:

Every single person we see or meet has a story. Has a life. Has problems. Has struggles. 

Is it really fair of me, then, to lump these people into categories for the sake of a funny blog post? No. It's not. 

So maybe I've gone soft. Maybe I'm growing up. I love it because I think I'm a much nicer person than I was five years ago. I hate it because it means no funny bus blog posts. ;)

It's Enough.

Happy Tuesday!

I have to admit - part of the reason I was out of the blogging world for so long was because I didn't feel like my life was enough. I didn't have enough exciting things to write about, I didn't have enough money to go out and buy trendy clothes (for myself or Elsie), I didn't have enough time to make myself look presentable enough to appear in photos on the blog.

We live in a small, simple house in a less-than-stellar neighborhood. Our house is full of hand-me-down and garage sale furniture. My wardrobe is made up entirely of clothing found on clearance racks. We have one car and I ride the bus most days. My life isn't exciting - I go to school, work, then come home and take care of Elsie. I work out and I do my photography. Somehow, even though I'm satisfied with where I am in life, it just didn't seem like enough to blog about.

I know how blessed I am. I know that I am incredibly lucky to have a home, clothing, food, and a family that loves me. I think sometimes I just get a little overwhelmed by Blogworld's emphasis on things. Possessions. Money. What the latest and greatest trends and products are. What sorts of happiness your money can buy.

What we need to remember is that, even if we don't have much money, even if we can't afford to splurge on things like makeup, clothing, or nail polish, our lives are enough. We are enough. 

So... I won't have any exciting trips, cute new clothes, fabulous new jewelry, or awesome new gadgets to blog about any time soon. What I will have, though, is moments with my daughter and husband, little everyday occurrences, and an overload of cute baby pictures (didn't think you'd get out of that one, did you?!).

Thanks for following my journey over the past couple of years. Thanks for helping me remember that I am enough. 

Let's try this confession thing again

Happy Sunday! 

Blah blah blah (insert something snarky, yet charming here)... blah blah blah... I don't feel like scraping the bottom of my brain for something interesting to say in this post intro... blah. blah. BLAH.

1. My boobs post-baby suck. There, I said it. They are smaller than they were before and they're like deflated balloons. Thanks, Elsie. But... really, I love you so much that I am okay with the fact that I gave up my boobs for you.

2. I'm obsessed with the Better Homes and Gardens candles from Wal-Mart. I seriously think they're better than Yankee Candles. And that's saying a lot, because I hate Wal-Mart with a fiery burning passion (meaning that I also have to hate everything that comes from Wal-Mart).

3. Since discovering running tights, I don't know if I'll ever run in shorts again. Eh, who am I kidding?! The second it gets above 40 degrees I'll be singing the song, "Who wears short shorts? ALYX wears short shorts!" and bouncing down the street in my neon yellow running shorts.

4. I hate running, but I signed up for a half marathon. I think I was drugged and forced against my will to sign up. Or someone spiked my kool-aid. Or I am just really good at succumbing to peer pressure.

5. I've gots da baby fever. You can thank newborn photography for that. I mean, really - just LOOK AT THIS BABY!!!

Please, oh Please....

Share your favorite blogs with me. I am finally trying to get back into this blogging thing, and I'd really like to network a little bit, find more blogs, you know - that whole thing.

As payment for your fave blogs, you can look on my sidebar and see a few of the blogs that I enjoy. I will also direct you

here.

here.

and

here.

WIWW AKA It's been forever since I've done a post like this

Happy Hump Day! 

As many of you may or may not know, when people like me (who were hardly fashionable before they had kids) have children, it's all downhill from there as far as clothing is concerned. I live in sweatpants covered in spit up and peas (Elsie has a thing for sneezing right after a spoonful of peas) and I rarely wear my hair down. While this is a perfectly acceptable wardrobe in "Mom-land," I feel like it's totally not in Blogland. But Blogland's expectations for mommies and women in general is a post for another day.

ANYWAY. Point is, I got dressed a while back. In something somewhat cute. It was a miracle, and I give you the proof.

There you have it. That is what I wore. Fancy schmancy. 

8 Months!

Hiii everybody! 

I'm sure you're probably all sick of the monthly updates, but I have to be honest and say... they're for me, not you all. I really don't want to forget anything!

So there will be the obligatory cute monthly photos sprinkled throughout the post, as usual.

Dear Elsie, 

You are, of course, as cute as ever. I just love your smiles and your laughter - they make every day a little easier.

You love to babble on and on and tell anyone and everyone what's on your mind. You're also a fan of the high-pitched scream... I'm not, though, so if you could kindly realize that it's no fun for mama's ears, I'd appreciate it. You still say "da-da," and it still melts our hearts every time.

You can almost clap and wave. It's so funny and cute when you try to do either one because you're not quite coordinated enough, but we enjoy watching you learn new things. You're still not quite into crawling, which I am TOTALLY okay with. Instead, you just roll from one side of the room to the other to get what you want. We're almost to the point where it would be wise to baby-proof.

You're too long for your baby car seat, so we have switched you to a convertible rear-facing seat. It definitely seems to be more comfortable for you, but it's kind of inconvenient when you fall asleep in the car.

You still wear size 2 diapers and are fitting 6-9 month clothing. The only brand you wear anymore is Carters, because everything else is for babies with a little more meat on their bones. I think you're perfect the way you are, baby chub or no baby chub. :)

We love you so very much, little monkey! You make our days a little brighter and fill our hearts with love. You are such a blessing and we are so glad we get to spend every day taking care of you!

Love, 

Mom

Sometimes I Confess

Happy Sunday!!

I have to say... I wasn't going to do my Sunday confessions today - instead, I was going to do a "sometimes" post, but then I figured out that I could combine the two. Seriously, someone hold me back - my genius-ness is going to get crazy over here.

1. Sometimes I pick wedgies in public. This usually happens at the gym. No shame.

2. Sometimes I avoid people if I think there may be confrontation. I will literally run away from people if I think they're going to confront me about something.

3. Sometimes I can be very confrontational. Usually when my hormones are going crazy (read: PMS) and I've had enough of something (or someone) I flip. And I'm not a very nice person when I flip.

4. Sometimes I dip my french fries in my chocolate milkshake. But only when I remember. It's the perfect blend of sweet and salty. In-N-Out fries and milkshakes are the best for this.

source

5. Sometimes I wonder where I'll be in ten years. I wonder how many kids we'll have, where we'll be living, what our financial situation will be like... you know, stuff like that. Then I wonder how important all that stuff is. This train of thought usually happens when it's late and I can't sleep.

Anyone else feel the need to confess?