Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mom today! We had such a good time home last weekend for Memorial Day even though it FLEW by (as always.) We got to spend time with both sides of our family, and it was great to see everyone and catch up.

A little late, but Preston turned 9 months old on May 19th. Pics are below- and of course Reese had to have hers taken too.

Reese has had interesting time trying to figure out how to handle Preston now that he can crawl and come and take her toys/touch her. It usually results in a scream- or some physical force (hit, kick, push) that she does to get him away from her. I really hope she lets up soon, because the constant battle of her yelling at her brother or me trying to keep him away from her so she doesn't hurt him is getting real old. Literally everytime I put him down he crawls to her (he just wants to play) but she wants none of it. Let the fun times begin...

House Update: Well, there is none. We are both very discouraged and have looked at atleast 15 more houses since last Thursday. If you want a yard, you are going to pay big bucks for it, hands down. Indiana real estate is nothing like Wisconsin. If you want 1/2-1 acre of land, be prepared to pull out your wallet and hope you have a money tree in your backyard. Frustrating to say the least. We HAVE to be out of our town house June 29th- no ifs, ands, or buts- and its not looking like we will have a house to move into. We are submitting offers this week on houses, in hopes that one is accepted. But, we will have to figure out Plan B if its not. If it were just Kyle and I, I wouldn't be AS stressed about it, but I HATE having to move the kids around, especially if we are going to have to rent AGAIN before finding a house. Lots of stress, anxiety, loss of sleep, and frustration looming in our house right now. Hoping we can have some positive newsenter  our lives soon :) I keep saying- what doesn't break us will only make us stronger, right?!

Flying Photo School

Back around Christmas time, I stumbled upon a Groupon for a Flying Photo School. This jumped right out at me as I have a Nikon D300 digital SLR camera and have been yearning to learn how to put it to better use. The Christmas before Reese was born I got it as a gift from my parents and Kyle, as I had asked so when Reese was born, I could take some amazing pictures of her. While it does take great pictures, I never learned how to correctly use it to maximize each photo, thus leaving it stuck in "Auto" mode for the past 2 1/2 years!
The online "class" is throughout the month of May, and I have homework (a photo taken using what we have learned that week) to submit every Sunday evening. The following Monday, we then get our next weeks course material. I have to say, I LOVE this class. I have always liked taking pictures. But now that I am learning how to take good pictures, I see my camera in a whole new way. Thus far I have learned about the parts of the camera, white balance (the color of the photo), ISO, and shutter speed. Next week we tackle aperture.  I can already tell a difference in my pictures- they are so much more crisp and clear. Here are a few I have taken since learning how to use the functions and getting out of Auto mode...

She was in full swinging action here- if I would have taken it on Auto- she would have been all blurry...but with the help of understanding shutter speed- I captured her in the moment! 

I posted this picture of Sunday last week, and  it was my first submission to my class. I got an A for the picture- saying the professor commenting "great focus and amazingly sharp"

Another picture demonstrating the use of white balance- while indoors achieving a great color in the picture and sharp focus on the plant itself

Enough about the kids

Time to step away from the kids and dedicate a blog to things going on in my life- as well as Kyle's- since there have been some updates.
Well, sadly, our NEW house is no longer OUR house. Unfortunately- making a LONG story short- the house failed inspection in a couple of areas- but the main reason being that the town of Fishers was going to be purchasing a large chunk of our land behind our house to put a round-a-bout in. For those who know and have driven on round-a-bouts, they are HUGE. In our case, at the time our accepted offer, the owners did not know this was going to occur. The city sent them the letter afterwards. The areas that failed the inspection were going to be fixed and paid for by the current owners, but we just had a really hard time thinking about giving up some of the yard (which is why we loved the house.) Luckily, we could get out of the deal and we are back to house hunting. You can imagine our level of frustration!
In other notes, I have tackled the Couch to 5K training program with some inspiration from my sister. I had already gotten into the routine of working out 3-4 times a week, but needed a bit more of a push to keep me motivated. Following along on this program helps me to stay focused and "forces" me to go to the gym even on days I don't want to :) I have also quit drinking soda (going on 3 weeks now!) I never drank a ton of it, but I would have a soda a day usually. I have switched over to carbonated water/spritzer to still give me the "bubbly" taste that I crave.
Kyle is keeping busy at work. He is in Washington D.C. today and tomorrow for a few meetings, and his work load seems to be piling up. I can't wait until we can find and move into a house so he can focus all his energy on work and not on this house stuff too- makes for some stressful days, that's for sure. I think we will all sleep  little better once we can get into a house and quit worrying about it.

Well, even though I wasn't going to talk about the kids- I do have to say Preston is a crawler now! He army crawls across the floor to get whatever it may be that catches his attention (usually whatever Reese is playing with!) The days of immobility are no more- time to baby proof!

Brag Blog

Since it is Mother's Day and all, I only thought a "brag blog" was appropriate ;) Just some pics of my cuties to hopefully brighten your day!

Sunday- our kitty that lets the kids do ANYTHING to him- we love him :)

 Showing off her tumbling moves

 CRAZY HAIR!

 I don't think I will EVER get a good picture of them together

Happy Mother's Day

Being a mom is the hardest, most stressful job I have ever had to do, but it is SO worth it! I am so lucky to get to stay at home with Reese and Preston and get to watch them grow and learn everyday. Believe me, there are days I wished I had a job outside of the home, but those days are so few compared to those that I get to do fun activities with the kids and see the world through their eyes.
I just finished a book by Dr. Kevin Leman titled "What a Difference a Mom Makes- The Indelible Imprint a Mom Leaves on Her Son's Life." I recommend this book to any woman who has a son- it gives great insight on how to connect with your son and set him up for a lifetime full of success, love, and strength.  One quote that popped out at me as I finished reading it this morning was "Being a fulltime mom is a job in itself.  A real job. Even is you never get a paycheck or never take a vacation. But the rewards are long lasting." Agreed. Happy Mother's Day!

A week in pics

We have been busy this past week. From the visiting the Children's Museum, the Zoo, many visits to the park, and a Mother's Day Tea Party at the library. Here is our week re-cap in pictures:

Reese and her friend Zoey pretending to be Superheros at the Indy Childrens Museum

Cheese!

Sisterly /Brotherly love :)

The "playland" we go to on rainy days!

Swing, swing

 

Feeding the birds at the Indy Zoo

Mothers Day Tea Party at the library- some good lemonade!

 

Decorating our cookies

 

Update

After struggling to try and get pictures to post off the IPad, I have resorted to using Kyle's work laptop to update the blog. So, see below in my last post. I updated the pictures of the house so you should all be able to see them now! Obviously, anytime I want to add pictures I am going to have to use Kyle's computer.
Today we went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum with a friend we met at the library, she has a daughter that is 3 and a son that is 4 months. We met a few weeks ago and today was our first play date with them. Reese had a blast. It is such a neat place, blows the Madison museum out of the water,  but of course, it's a much bigger city. A great time was had by all! Pictures to come later!
Side note, Preston is back to sleeping through the night! Since Sunday night, he has been sleeping 8:30-6/6:30 without a bottle. Still waking a few times, fussing around and I generally have to pat him back to sleep once, but I got 6 straight hours of sleep the night before last, and it was AWESOME!! :)