Looking Back at 2012

Earlier today Adam and I were talking about NYE celebrations and how we're not big on the 'holiday.'  Even more so now that we have Sebastian.  One thing I did tell Adam, as we were talking about something that happened years ago and he commented that time flies by, is that, for me, this has both been the longest and fastest year of my life.

To sum it up, as best I can, with the help of my FB timeline and my digital photos from the year:

• February - Sebastian met Elvis at the White Wedding Chapel!  First time I'd ever been to a wedding on the Vegas strip.
• March - my surgery.  I'm STILL hoping for more recovery with the nerves, but...as always, the outcome could have been much worse.  I'm keeping up the patience and trying my best to stay positive (most of the time anyways).  Justin comes home from his mission in Sendai, Japan, and I hit my target of being released from the hospital the day before he gets home.  
• May - Holly's wedding!  All the fun and craziness that surrounds a wedding (bachelorette party, rehearsal, day of hair and makeup pampering).     And now, she and Bryan have moved back to OC.
• June - The annual family reunion up in Mammoth.  The Kings won the Stanley Cup.  Sebastian starts day care and goes swimming (and loves it) for the first time.
• July - Justin & Naomi's wedding. Adam and I attended 4 weddings in the past 10 or so years.  We were invited to FIVE this year alone.  Seb starts crawling.
• August - Sebastian's first birthday!  Adam's 32nd birthday.  He actually got his own birthday celebration this year.  Seb rode on the carousel for the first time but we're undecided as to if it's fun or scary.  Oh, and I started my blog to help my numb fingers work on recovery.
• September - Adam gets busy opening the first Orange County Capriotti's.  My husband works his tail end off and I rarely get a glimpse of him until around Thanksgiving.  I get my braces off.
• October - We celebrated our 4 year anniversary.  I won a raffle to see, touch, and get my picture taken with the Stanley Cup.  Our Peter Pan themed Halloween, as well as Seb's first taste of candy - a  Hershey's bar.
• November - We took Seb to Disneyland for his tragic first visit.  It was also his first visit to the ER with croup.  My post-surgery MRI's have looked good, so I receive the news, that, moving forward, we're just doing follow up scans on the surgical site.  Sebastian starts walking!
• December - seems like we split the month between our house and Vegas.  We survived 3 separate Christmases in slightly more than a 30 hour span.  I dream of the day we own a house and can ask people to come see us at Christmas.

In terms of milestones, we've had a huge year.  If I look back and think about everything our little family has gone through...it's a LOT for a 12 month span.  In terms of my health, both physical and mental...that part has made 2012 seem to drag on for ages.  Also, looking at Adam's job situation over the course of the last year - that's been and adjustment and roller coaster ride for us as well.

As far as the big picture goes, we keep plugging along, grateful to experience life through the eyes of a 16-month old, but overall, we're hoping for a smoother, more enjoyable (and hopefully less stressful) 2013.  I'm also hoping to get back to work very soon too.  :)  Not that being home for the past year has been bad, the terms of it were just less than desirable.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

I've got one more homemade gift to finish (I hope the recipient likes it), and the best attempts at preparation still have me with a slight To Do List, but I love t his time of year.  Even if thinking about everything that is going to take place in the next 24 hours is dizzying.  I just wanted to take a moment to post an image of our Christmas card.

And now I'm, crossing 'update blog' off the list.  One less thing to do.  Time to finish that gift and wrap it while my boys are napping in preparation for Christmas Eve.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Crafting

I've always joked that Micro Center is to Adam as Sephora is to me.   In the evenings, after we've wound down and Seb is in bed, Adam likes to play video games.  Most of the time he gets sucked in and looses all track of time.  In another SAT-like comparison video games are to Adam as Pinterest is to me.  So, I've got to really stay away from it.  I do, however, look at a bunch of food/crafting blogs, so it probably takes up the same amount of time.  But...there are some amazing ideas out there!  Things that make me wish I could cook/sew/craft better than I can.  I've had my eye on this one for awhile.

So, cute homemade reindeer from a brown washcloth and bar of soap became the base for Sebastian's Christmas gift to his day care teachers.

Adam and I went back and forth on the gift card.  I wanted to split it between iTunes and Starbucks, but he thought 1 card was a better bet.  Due to time limitations, we ended up doing Target.  I think it turned out to be a pretty cute and festive gift idea.  The craft was super easy too.

Family Pictures Part II

Facebook is an interesting place.  I'm not one of those people who friends everyone I ever knew.  I won't friend anyone I work with who is in an office.  Just seems like good logic.  Just because we went to the same high school doesn't mean I'll automatically want to friend you.  However, you can also find out interesting things about people you knew 'way back when.'

That's how we ended up getting our family pictures taken in October.  A girl I went to church and high school with, Cat, is now a photographer in Utah and she posted on FB that she would be in So Cal doing a weekend of photo shoots.  She did our very first family photos last year when Sebastian was about 3 months old, and she let me know she'd be available again this year.  My whole family hadn't had pictures taken for a few years, since before Justin went on his mission, so I decided we should get new ones taken to include Seb and Naomi.  :)

In less than an hour we did family pictures, and individual family/group pictures.  We now have an updated picture with Melanie and Justin, and I think the picture of Seb with Granny and Grampy is just too cute.  My favorite one of the group has to be the second to last - just me and Seb.  It was near the end of our pictures and he was getting cranky and ready for dinner, why must the 'good light' near sunset coincide with dinner time???  But, he was a trooper, and I love the picture.  It also happens to be one of the first pictures of us without my braces :D

This past weekend we were in Vegas for Adam's parents annual holiday party.  I'll have to post some pictures from that.  We had Seb in an adorable little three piece suit.

Family Pictures

Now that the Christmas cards have gone out and the shopping is done, I feel like I can share some of our recent family pictures without spoiling any surprises.  I wanted to have pictures of Sebastian taken to mark his first birthday, but we were able to do it as a family photo shoot too.  I hope this is something we can make an annual tradition.

When I decided I wanted to do pictures, I put out a call for suggestions on Facebook and my sister in law referred me to the talented Jenn King.  I'm kinda particular when I'm looking for a photographer.  First of all, it can't cost as much as one would pay for a wedding photographer, and I want more than 1 or 2 edited images when all is said and done.  On the day of, we discovered she has a daughter just a couple months younger than Sebastian, and she was absolutely amazing with him.  I'd say Naomi gave me a pretty good recommendation; all my criteria were fulfilled, and I love the pictures she shot.

The second to last image was the one I had printed on a 16x20 canvas.  I love the leaves & tree, and how it feels more casual and not super posed.  There were so many great pictures that I had a really hard time deciding which one to do for my canvas.  I just need a little spare time this holiday season so I can get it hung up on the wall.

A month later we did another photo shoot with my whole family.  I'll have to post pictures of that soon.  Next up...taking photos with Adam's side of the family?  They're all in Vegas now so we could make a weekend of it.  I talked to his sister about it this past weekend and we're going to look into it once she has her baby in January.

Parenting Lessons Learned the Hard Way

For breakfast this morning Seb had 3 silver dollar pancakes, oatmeal, and milk.  He eats the oatmeal while I get the pancakes ready.  Each pancake gets a small drop of syrup before I cut them up into toddler friendly sized pieces.

I had a bowl of Life cereal for breakfast and Seb, always curious as to what I'm eating, wanted some.  Not thinking anything of it, I grabbed the box and poured 4 or 5 squares onto his tray.

Seb eats best when we're eating at the same time.  So I ate my cereal while, out of the corner of my eye, I see him in his highchair quietly working away at his breakfast too.  When I'm all done, I look over to check on his progress, only to discover he's turned into a human scarecrow!

Not realizing what Seb would do with the Life cereal, his curious hands shredded it.

Syrup is sticky.

He had bits of Life cereal stuck all over his hands, face, and bib.

Lesson learned.  No more Life cereal when there's syrup involved!

Annual Santa Visit

Adam was off on Tuesday so we took Sebastian for his annual visit to see Santa.  Eventually, Seb will understand the concept of Santa and it'll be a fun experience, I hope.  I draw the line at Santa though.  Have you ever taken a good look at the Easter bunny sitting at the mall each spring???  I totally understand the screaming kids on that one. Even if you find Santa scary, you want to make sure he knows what you want for Christmas and tell him you were good this year, so you may put up with it.  But the Easter bunny; what do you get there?  Chocolate and candy.  Everyone gets chocolate and candy.  Therefore, in our family, I think we'll limit our overpriced mall photo opportunities to once a year.

Sebastian got his hair cut prior to visiting Santa.  He still hates haircuts and was crying before they even started.  Even the customary lollipop didn't help.  Afterwards we wandered around the Disney store to give him a breather before Santa.  Since it was a Tuesday, there's virtually no wait, which is nice.  He doesn't see other kids freaking out, so there's no uncertainty or hesitation prior to the big 'hand-off.'

He cried.  There were no smiles.  But it was not a meltdown of Disneyland proportions.  In one photo he has his back slightly arched and his legs are stiff as boards, but it wasn't a good view of his face.  I like how the expression on his face in this one nicely sums up his reaction.  Surprised to sit on this stranger's lap, hesitant at what's going on, and a little angry at us for making him endure a haircut and Santa visit in the same hour.  I hope the Santa visit will make more sense next year.  Eventually, some year, I'll get a smile out of Sebastian, right?

Over-thinking Creativity

Sebastian's day care classroom has sensory activities each day so he got to experience finger painting for the first time at school instead of at home.  Initially I was kinda disappointed I didn't get to experience that with him.  Then, when we finally bought finger paint and a pad of paper, and I began to think about the logistics of finger paints; I was worried about painting at home.  

Where should we paint?

Would he eat it?

He doesn't have a smock.  I don't have a smock, do I need one?

Will he try to fling the paint?  Do I need goggles and a shower cap for protection?

How do I clean him up if it gets all over?  Can I hose him off in the backyard?  In November?

I was on the verge of running to Lowes to buy a huge painters tarp and cutting down some old t-shirts to make painting smocks.  In the end, I opted to strip his clothes off and put him in his high chair so he would at lest be contained.

He didn't understand the concept of putting it on the paper.  He really just wanted to coat his hands in paint and hear it squish between his fingers as he made a fist.  In the end, I think more paint ended up on the high chair tray instead of the paper.

Finger paint on paper

Crayons aren't as scary, but the very first time I gave them to him, he was too young.  Only recently have crayons started to make more sense.  Right now Sebastian's big on making lots and lots of dots on his paper.    And of course, he tries to eat the crayons at some point during the coloring process.  No crayons up the nose.  Yet.  At 15 months his attention span for coloring is about 2 minutes.

Crayon on paper

I'm still not sure the best way to have art time at home.  Maybe while sitting on the kitchen floor?  But then I'm in trouble if he crawls away with finger paint all over his hands.  While sitting in the empty bath tub?  I'm sure I'll eventually figure something out.  Until then, I'm already wondering if Sebastian and I should give watercolors a try.  Maybe Santa needs to get him a smock for Christmas too.  :)