25 Things

My friend Heidi 'tagged' me to do this. So, since Aiden is having a really good nap,
I'm going to waste my free time doing this! Haha! So, here it is.

25 Things About Me

1. I am turning 25 this year - it makes me a bit nervous!

2. When I first met Matt, I thought he was pretty wierd and a bit creepy!
I still think that sometimes! :) But he is the love of my life!

3. It took me a few days to discover how much I loved Aiden.
I always wonder if it would have been different if he would have been a girl.
And I always wonder if this is bad of me to think?

4. Every night before I go to bed, I have to go into Aiden's room
at least 2 times and rub his hair. I'm not sure why - but I can't sleep good
unless I do it. It's just so soft and fluffy!

5. I like to sit and watch people. It's entertaining!

6. I am a picker! I always need to be picking something and keeping my fingers busy

7. One of my favorite shows is "What Not To Wear". I often pretend to be
Stacey London - and I find people who I would nominate for that show.
And I always want to be nominated - so fun!

8. Before I went to dental assisting school - I took two years of "Education".
I was going to be a grade 1 teacher - well, I wanted to be one anyways.

9. I am super anal about writing/printing. If I am writing on a piece of paper
and I make a mistake - I have to re-write the entire thing.

10. My favorite way to eat a piece of bread is to pull off the crusts
and then mash the rest of the bread into a teeny, hard ball.
That sounds sick - it's delicious though!

11. I am really shy sometimes - I think some people think I'm stand-off-ish instead.
Plus, I have a jerk face - my natural look is a mean one.

12. I LOVE taking pictures - I wish I had started sooner!

13. I played the flute in junior high/high school band. I always wanted to play
the trumpet instead. I tried it once - it made my lips feel wierd!

14. I sang in a choir from the age of 5 (I think) until I finished high school.
I really miss it!

15. In high school I played basketball and rugby. I was super good too! :)

16. I went on a two-month exchange to Japan when I was in grade 12. My exchange
partner never came back to my house - she was too afraid to fly after Sept.11

17. Aiden has an extra tooth - named Fang. I LOVE it! It suits him! (Sorry Matt!)

18. I would go on a tropical vacation any day! I LOVE them!

19. I love the smell of Aiden's hair when it's a bit dirty. Normally dirty hair smell is wierd
but I like it on Aiden.

20. I LOVE plain things. Vanilla milkshakes, plain rice, plain noodles, etc.
I always try to end off my meal with something plain.

21. I am too often a sayer - and not a doer

22. I think that I can smell 'COLD'. Matt think I'm wierd, but when he comes in
from the cold outdoors, he smells cold.

23. I am sometimes jealous of Matt going to school. But I am
extremely proud of him for what he has accomplished.

24. My neck is crazy. It gets all red and splotchy when I'm nervous.
Or if I touch it. I can write my name in it - it's wierd!

25. I LOVE watching Matt and Aiden play! I also LOVE it when Aiden makes Matt
laugh super hard! It always makes me smile!


Anyways, if you have made it this far - feel free to do it too!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

So, as most of you know - Matt finishes school at the end of April.
That means that we get to leave Edmonton (yippee!!) and move to a new place.
The problem is choosing that place.
Right now Matt has two options:
One is in the city that we want to live in, but the job is just medium.
The other is a pretty much perfect job, but in a city that we don't really love.
So, what do you choose?!?!? Neither option is bad - but which is better?
It's been a bit stressful for us. It's a HUGE decision! And we want to make the right one.
HMMMMMM...................

The Big Cut!

Aiden went for his first professional haircut the other day.
It was at a really fun kids salon, called Beaners.
He got to play in the ball pit for a little while before his cut
(he was not too happy about being pulled out of there)
and then he got to sit in a really fun race-car during his hair cut.
His hair was super long - it needed a cut pretty badly!
See for yourself!

He was pretty good for almost the whole thing
until they started with the buzzers.
That freaked him out a teeny bit - and
he was ready to be done!
As you can see below!! haha
You look cute bud!

I am just realizing that I didn't write an official "Welcome 2009" post. So, here it is! Welcome 2009!! Last year was a really great year for us, and I hope that this year will be just as good, and maybe even a teeny bit better!

It's going to be a big year for our family. The biggest thing is that Matt finishes school at the end of April. Yippee!! I am so so so excited for him to be done. That means we get to leave Edmonton - which is a bit sad, but mostly not - and start a new phase of our lives. I can't wait! We still don't know where we are going to end up - but I'm pretty sure it will be somewhere in southern alberta. Right now it's looking like Medicine Hat or Brooks - but nothing is certain yet. Hopefully soon though. It will be a busy time in the next little while - finding a job, a place to live, moving, starting a job, all of that fun stuff. So, busy - but a good busy!!

Since it is a New Year - it is also time to make those fantastic New Year's Resolutions. Something I always make but never seem to get committed to. I've made a few for this year - and I hope that I can do a lot better at them!

1. get back into the habit of reading my scriptures. I've done pretty sucky lately!!

2. have Family Home Evening. This is something that Matt and I have never been good at. I'm not sure why, but we haven't. And it's something that we need to be good at - especially now that we have Aiden. He's at an age where he doesn't really sit still for any period of time - it will be fun and interesting!

3. do better at being a mother/homemaker. I really need to learn how to cook more. It's not that I don't know how - more that I don't really like to. But that shouldn't matter - I need to. Especially since I am the one at home all day. I also really need to make a way bigger effort on keeping my house clean. I always say to myself - once I have more room and my own house, I will keep it so clean. Why not start now though?! Seems a bit silly to me not to. I also need to do a better job of spending quality time with Aiden and teaching him more!

4. be more active. it's always so hard in the winter - but i need to find something to keep me moving. (maybe some zumba or turbo jam!!) I would really like to get into better shape so that I can feel better about myself. Since having Aiden - I've had a super negative attitude about the way I look and it affects a lot of aspects in my life. I need to get it figured out!

5. learn more about photography! It's such a fun hobby, but one that there is always something to learn. I don't want to just settle where I am - I want to keep improving. Hopefully I can!

Phew! That's about all of the resolutions I can handle for now. Anyways, now that I've shared them with you - please remind me about them! and make sure I am following through!

Happy New Year Everyone!

A Bunch of Stuff

OK - So I have made the decision that my personal blog is being too overrun by my pictures. I have started another blog - until I can get an actual website - for my photography business. It's here if you ever want to have a peek (please do!!)

Now that that is done - I can get this place back to being about my own family again. Which is good - especially since it is the only form of a journal I've got going on right now.
So, brief family update. Nothing too interesting happened this past week. Matt had the entire week off of school. It's been so nice having him home! I hate that he has to go back to school tomorrow. It's going to be lonely here!

We have been trying to wean Aiden off of his bottle. It hasn't been real easy. He LOVES his bottle. I know it's bad - but he's always been put to bed with a bottle. So now, he relies on that. The past few nights we've had about 2 hours of screaming once he goes to bed - then I either rock him to sleep - which is bad, because that's teaching him to rely on something else - or we give him a bottle of water. Also bad, because it's still a bottle, but better since it's just water. I hope he figures it out soon - and if anyone has any tips, feel free to send them my way!!

Other than that, not much is new. I tired to take a few pictures of Aiden today in my favorite outfit of his. He wasn't being overly cooperative, but they still turned out pretty cute!

He would only sit still when we fed him jelly bellies
His lips look super funny!

My favorite Aiden smile! What a goof!

I finally got my studio lights!! YIPPEE!! I am so so so excited!! I've been wanting to get them for so long and I finally did. Funny story (well, not super funny, more crazy) I was going to go and pick up my lights a few days before Christmas. There were a few things that wouldn't fit in my car, so I borrowed my friend Lianne's van - her week old, super nice van. To make a long story short, I slid on the ice and rear-ended someone. Lianne's van did not take the hit too well. It was so bad! (I bawled for a super long time - my eyelids were so swollen the next day - and my head hurt so bad from crying.) Luckily my brother Darrin was working close to where it happened and he was able to come and 'rescue' me. I am so grateful that he was able to come and help me out and make me feel a bit better. Needless to say, I did not get my lights that day. I didn't think I'd be able to get them - since I have to pay for a broken van. But after talking to Matt about it, we decided that me taking pictures for people would definitely help to pay for the damage. So, I got my stuff! And if anyone is looking to have pictures done........ :)
Anyways, I did a few practice shots on Matt and Aiden. I don't fully know what I'm doing - but it's been fun learning! Here's a few!