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

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 :)

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

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!!

The Reason I Blog

Yesterday I had a great cleaning day, the kind of day where you feel accomplished and slightly light-headed from all the fumes you've breathed in. So between Brian coming and home and starting dinner, I decided to lie down for a little while. I didn't feel like starting a book but also didn't want to fill my already cluttered mind with television, so I picked up our coffee table book which happens to be my grandma and grandpa's life story. It starts out with my grandma's account of her life, something so special to us because she died quite a few years ago of cancer. Grandma Tess was an amazing woman, the kind of person that fills the spotlight of a room with her wit and humor, and can get away with the occasional swear word or two because you just have to laugh. I loved hearing her voice in my head as I read her words from a long time ago, and even laughed out loud a time or two. This passage in particular had me on the verge of tears while making me smile:

"The next spanking I ever got came when I ran behind Faye's boyfriend's car. It was a truck and I was hanging on for dear life, my legs just a flying."

The picture of my grandma running behind a car "legs just a flying" makes me laugh so hard because I really can picture it perfectly. In my family we often say "That's such a Broderick thing" in reference to anything funny, daring, or witty.

The reason I'm blogging about this is because it made me realize exactly why I feel the need to blog about everything. I print out my blogs in an easy "blog book" that I have on my coffee table with all the pictures and texts I've put on here. I like to think that one day my grandkids will open up one of my books and discover how much I loved to read (a fun fact that I learned my grandmother also loved to do.) Or how I started taking pictures when I was 21. Or see how much I loved my family, not just my husband and child but how close my siblings and I are, too. These things are part of our family history and maybe someone will laugh one day when they read my story.

Feeling Creative

One thing that I have never considered myself as is creative or artistic. Some people just have that mindset, and thats one thing thats always attracted me to Brian. He's an amazing artist and just has that vision that only truly artistic people have. So my solution to feeling more artistic? Buying a nice DSLR, gaining a basic knowledge of photoshop, and letting my uncreative self go wild. Trust me, those things can make anyone feel artistic ; ) One day I would like to start doing engagement/wedding photos, but thats a long ways away. For now, I'm just having fun taking pictures of Brian and Jackson and pretending like I know what I'm doing. Here are my endeavors in the photography world.

I think this one is my favorite, you really can't go wrong taking pictures of two handsome guys : )

I just have to point out what a big boy Jackson is becoming!

I think I have a thing for lightpoles.

What a sexy man I married ; )