Saturday, March 26, 2011

Impel Clothing

This is an awesome modest clothing store that gives away tons of free prizes and getaways! Right now they have a vacation getaway that they are giving out, so not only are their clothes super cute but I'm also hoping to win a little vacation time just Brian and I! Click on the link to check it out (plus it'll help me win if you do!)

http://impelclothing.com/blog/ge/bkwelty11



Monday, March 21, 2011

And The Best Husband Award Goes To.....

I just need to give a quick little shoutout to the best husband in the world, Brian Welty! When I came home from my trip to Arizona I knew I had a surprise waiting for me, and I only assumed that it would be a huge tv that Brian got a killer deal on from a friend. So as I walked in the door, there it was, the huge 50-something inch tv and a little reorganizing of our family room to fit it. Of course, a huge tv wasn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world to me (we don't have cable so we don't watch a lot of tv, just movies) I was mostly just happy to be home. (I was excited about the tv, I think it was mostly for Brian though...) Then I noticed the piano, which used to be in the bedroom, was in the living room and I immediately realized that something else was hiding in the bedroom. So as I walked through our bedroom door there it was, a new sewing table for me! A while back I inherited my mom's old sewing machine and lots of fabrics, threads, scissors, pins, etc. but I haven't really been able to use it because of our lack of table space. It was so exciting to be able to use the sewing machine finally, and Brian put a lot of love and hard work into making it all pretty for me. He stained it a nice dark cherry wood color and even put a new knob on it. The knob might not seem like a big deal but if you saw the old huge, bright green one you would understand. He organized all the fabrics and threads to make it all pretty for me when I got home. Those are the little moments in life that show exactly how much my husband loves me and cares for me, and how sweet and giving he is : )





To top it off, a couple weeks later Brian tells me as he's coming home from work that he has another surprise for me, and when he walks in he has a new jogger for me!! I'm SO excited because we are way too cheap to pay for a gym membership (you want me to pay $50 a month to run or bike in place??) but its also hard to just go on a run whenever I want with Jackson. So I've literally been dreaming about the day I could get a jogger and be able to go running whenever I want and then Brian just comes home one day with one!!! He is the most thoughtful, kind, giving, selfless person I've ever met


....And did I mention what an amazing dad he is?


So the Best Husband In the World Award goes to.....

Brian Welty :)

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Tallen

Last week Brian and I said goodbye to eachother for the first time in approximately 1,141 days as I hopped on a plane to Phoenix, AZ. Brian and I had always been so proud that we had seen eachother every single day since the night we met over 3 years ago. That's why it was so hard to say goodbye, but I was SO excited to go visit my sister in Gilbert, AZ and her newborn baby Tallen! When I had Jackson, Michelle drove to CA alone with her 3 boys to help me out and it was such a huge sacrifice for her that there was really no question as to whether or not I was going to do the same. Plus, since my mom died we've had to band up as sisters and be there as a "womanly support". Michelle came home to 7 boys (her 4 kids, husband, my dad, and Jackson), so needless to say it was pretty she needed some girl time. We talked mainly about babies, births, and more babies. When she came to CA she took hundreds of pictures of Jackson for me that are so priceless, so I was really excited to do the same! We each had our cameras out and probably took about 1,000 pictures between the two of us. Here are some of my favorites that I've edited so far, who knows, there may be more to come!




If you show me a picture first in color, then in black and white, 99% of the time I will probably say I like the colored one better. I feel that when you turn something black and white it just loses a lot of its appeal and you're stuck with an ordinary and bland picture most of the time. I really feel like its an art and if done in the wrong way it only cheapens a picture. That's why I've created a "preset" on Lightroom that I absolutely LOVE that gives the feel of a black and white without taking away from the original photo. Of course I love variety and had to share the colored version because I love it when pictures have vibrant, fun colors!





There's this feature on my camera that you can move the display screen so you can shoot from above while still look at the picture, I love it! Yes, this may have killed the boys necks but I also like the outcome ; )


Hands : )






Isn't this blanket amazing?? My aunt Colette gave it to Michelle, its adorable! My mom used to sew the name of the new baby on any quilts she made so its nice to still have some of that


Gotta love all the tiny toes : )


This one is Brian's favorite and I really do like how it turned out

Monday, March 7, 2011

Jackson: 8 Months

So I've been a little behind on my blogging about Jackson because he seems like he's just been learning something new each week! First he started doing the army crawl and got really fast at it! I would just throw toys across the room and let him go exploring while I did dishes or cooked meals. One time I even looked down at him and he was holding his toy in his teeth like an army man biting down on his knife!


It was cute because he started following me everywhere I went. Whenever i would leave the room for even a second I would soon see him peaking around the corner waiting for me. I'm so glad I caught this funny face of his!


Soon he started getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth, and Brian and I knew it was only a matter of time until he started actually crawling.


Eventually I stopped putting out toys for him because he would much rather go and crawl on top of our small wicker laundry baskets and any sort of boxes or other small things he could climb on.


Then one night as Brian and I were talking in our room we looked over and Jackson had stood up on his own on our laundry basket!! We were shocked! Ever since our trip to Arizona to visit my sister where Jackson had a ton of stuff to climb on thats about all he does! Its like he skipped the sitting up phase because he would much rather be crawling around and climbing on furniture. There pretty much isn't anything he can't get on these days, its the getting down part he struggles with.


Jackson does the CUTEST pose! Sometimes when he's crawling around he'll just stop and do this little pose. These pictures are hilarious because he looks like a little model! I think my favorite part is his chunky thighs ; )



He just makes the cutest faces! He'll do this face where he scrunches his nose all the time, I love it! And even more recently he started shaking his head back and forth while raising his eyebrows, its my favorite!!