My New Toy

Boy oh boy have I been having fun the past few days. I got a new camera - a Nikon D3200 - and I'm so excited to learn more about photography. I've wanted to pick it up as a hobby for several years now. So far I'm just trying to get to know the camera, and mostly shooting on the auto settings. I'm a bit intimidated by manual. But I've been having a lot of fun with it regardless. Here are a few of my shots - I'm by no means a professional, but I really love a few of these pictures!

Since we're going to be here awhile -

-- In our little house, that is, I really want to make it nicer to live in. We have very little storage so it always feels cluttered (ugh) and things are just starting to look shabby. I'm super pleased with this little home improvement project that Josh completed, with the help of our sensei, yesterday. OK so it's not entirely complete yet. We have to put the trim back on, as well as get a wooden piece to divide the carpet and wood flooring, but it'll be done within a week.

I have been wanting to do this since I bought the house...

This little face lift makes me SO happy...and has me wishing I could do the same in the kitchen. One project down, about a hundred more to go!

And of course you know I can't post without bragging about my little man. We took a trip to the aquarium that he absolutely loved:

He's so brave, he even pet a shark! He's also gotten to be quite the helper around the house:

You mean a broom can entertain my toddler for 20 minutes AND get my floor clean(ish) at the same time? Sounds great to me!

Merry Christmas!

Alright, so it isn't exactly Christmas yet, but there are just a few more days before the big man in the red suit (if you know what I mean) comes to visit, so I thought I would get my Christmas wish off now, in case I didn't come back to this blog before then. Looking at my post history, I probably won't. So Merry Christmas from the Villanedas! Fact: I don't have a Christmas card this year, or I would post one instead of just typing out "Merry Christmas." Does this make me lame? Maybe, but our budget is tight this year and I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on cards. Next year. Next year. Maybe...

I am not a Scrooge, I promise. In fact, I am really excited for Christmas this year because I get to share it with an adorable little man who is just experiencing everything for the first time. While this may not be his first Christmas, it is the first time he is old enough to appreciate at least some of what is going on, and looking at it all through a child's eyes is simply awesome. What does he think of the holidays so far?

Well, he loves Santa - or at least, he loves pictures of Santa. He sees them and giggles. Did he love sitting on Santa's lap. Not so much. Or not at all, really. Both tries pretty much resulted in meltdowns. Poor kid. Poor Santa. Can you imagine what goes through his mind? What is wrong with these parents, forcing their screaming children to sit on my lap? Yup, I can hear it now.

Emmett does love the Christmas tree. So much so, in fact, that the entire bottom half is naked. I should take a picture to post, since you probably don't believe me. Yup. It's naked. No ornaments. No tinsel. Just lights, and they only reason they're still there is because they are permanently attached to the tree. Though he does like to pull things off of the tree, he is very cute because he gets so excited whenever I turn the lights on, and he sits and points to it, and recently has begun saying "tee tee!" [Tree tree!] He doesn't use his words often, so I love it when he does!

He also loved (and I mean LOVED) the city Christmas lights. We pulled into the parking lot and he started yelling and pointing and he had a huge smile on his face. It was adorable. We let him walk around with his monkey backpack (yes the tail is a leash, no judging please!), and he had a blast. He ran full speed with a smile on his face, giggling all the way (as opposed to jingling all the way, since I did not attach any bells to him - okay lame joke, I know). We must have walked through the light tunnel a hundred times or so. OK I'm exaggerating, but it felt like that, since he loved it and just wanted to walk back and forth and back and forth. See for yourself:

We had so much fun, we may take him again this weekend - unless of course it continues to be in the 20s, in which case we will probably just stay inside with a steamy cup of hot chocolate.

I keep thinking I should update this blog, and then I realize that I have nothing of interest to write. Life in our world is just cruising along as usual. We have been extra busy this month, with the holidays approaching, Josh's new school, and the fact that our sensei had surgery so we have been teaching all of the classes since mid-October. With all the time Emmett spends running around on the floor at the dojo, I sometimes think that he will simply grow up knowing karate naturally. He loves being out there though, and I have enjoyed being back at the dojo more often.

This is turning into a picture blog more than anything, it seems, since stories that are exciting to me are probably pretty boring to everyone else...unless I have a cute picture to share along with it. You know, sometimes I envy those bloggers that have such cute blogs and such cute ideas to go along with them. Oh well. I do my best to keep this one fairly updated, even if I have nothing interesting to write. So without further babbling, here are my pictures this time around.

We had an absolutely ridiculous snow storm a few weeks ago. Seriously, we got more snow in two days than we did all winter last year. Though I'm normally not a fan, it has proven to be much more fun with a child, especially one experiencing it for the first (okay maybe second) time. What did we do? We went sledding of course!

And who better to pull your sled than your very own sled dog!

We think that Toby actually did have a lot of fun too. For Thanksgiving, we made some hand print turkeys (which I have been too lazy to glue together, unfortunately). Of course, acquiring the hand prints required making a bit of a mess...and apparently some face painting (by which I mean painting WITH our faces...)

Emmett enjoyed helping us to put up the Christmas tree, which I regret to say looks just a tiny bit sad this year with ornaments only on the top half. Emmett thought it was an exciting game to take things off of the tree. But he certainly enjoyed helping us put the lights on!

Of course the poor dogs have had a bit of an adjustment period as Emmett moved from baby to toddler. And truth be told, the dogs are Emmett's favorite people in the house. He plays fetch with Shena, or chases her around the living room and kitchen. Toby's fur is irresistible, so of course Emmett loves to pat and pet Toby...and tackle him. While this tends to lead to the need for extra supervision on my part, it can also lead to some super cute pictures, like this one of my boys:

Love these three to death! Of course I love Shena too, troublemaker that she is, but she is even more impossible to get a good picture of than the toddler is. You can see her legs in the painting picture above. She really does exist!

We are very excited to have this four day weekend to spend together as a family. Thanksgiving was full of food and fun, and today was a good chance to relax - though I admit to braving the crowds for a little bit of late afternoon (no midnight for me thanks) Black Friday shopping. We only bought one item, it feels great to get the Christmas shopping started.

Happy Halloween!

From a handsome (at least I think so) vampire and his little vampire bat...

We're very excited to take Emmett "Trick or Treating" tonight (to his grandparents' houses). We've really enjoyed this month leading up to one of our favorite holidays (Halloween, of course). I keep thinking I should write in this blog more often, but then I think that our life, while fun for us, is probably pretty boring to other people. But, as usual, I'm always happy to share a quick picture update!

This month we...

Went to the hay maze

Went to a Grizzlies game

Decorated Pumpkins

Played with our fuzzy friends

And enjoyed our first snow of the year! (And for Emmett his first time playing in the snow)

What a Month!

September seems to have been busy busy busy (and will probably continue to be so). Here's a brief run-down of what we've been up to.

1.) Enjoying Autumn walks.

2.) Feeding Ducks

3.) Lots of Laundry

4.) Goofing Off in General

5.) First Haircuts...

6.) First Lollipops...

7.) And First Hockey Games

8.) A Trip to the zoo to see the new bears, seals, and otters.

9.) Welcoming this little cutie to the family:

Ian & Victoria welcomed Rowan on September 10th. She's a cutie, and such a calm quiet little girl! I'm so excited for Emmett to have a new cousin around.

And, though I have no pictures of this one, Josh is transferring schools AND programs. We're not yet sure how this will set his graduation date back. We're hoping that most of his credits will transfer, since the new program is still business-heavy in classes. He's going to get a degree as a health-fitness specialist. We're both excited and nervous about the change and the possibilities and opportunities it can bring us. We're also excited, as the temperatures get cooler and cooler, to see what Fall has in store for us!