1/52

Last year I attempted to take a photo a day... or was it the year before last... darn resolutions, get me every time! I haven't made resolutions for the year 2013. I'm undecided if I will. I do know I want to continue to do/be better...and read more. and cuss less. But nothing has been written down and planned out for the year. What I should do is pick out 12 books and set them next to my bed... anyway, rambling.  This year I am jumping on this 52 in 2013 dealio. Inspiration found at this lovely blog... love this blog, seriously! So here goes...

"a portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2013"

all SOOC. very difficult to choose just one of each of them. they're my entire life.

practice burn

I remember sitting around the table in Dave's grandparents dining room playing smear. Ask me how to play now and I'd have NO idea. Peyton was just a year or so and I was pregnant with Lia when Dave's grandpa passed away, but we sure loved spending time with him. Twelve years later, the house has been vacant and used for practice burns for our fire department. Dave's dad is a member of the fire department and I was lucky enough to get a photo of him in action with Tayt checking things out. There must be a 12yo boy somewhere in my soul because I love watching these burns. But only when they are controlled burns... such as this one.

Tayt with his Grandpa Smith

disclaimer: these photos are all SOOC (straight out of camera) shots. my intention was to edit them, but since I'm sssooo behind on my blog posting... this is as good as it gets ;)

tree hunting, cake eating, decorating, oh my!

The new year is here and what am I doing...rewinding to some of the things I've been wanting to post. Oh well. This is mostly to recap the last part of our year. We've been beyond busy around here. Yet at the same time it feels like we're not getting anything done. Strange feeling really. And hard to explain...

Somehow we were able to get our Christmas tree fairly early this year last year. Granted, it stood on the deck through a huge snow storm. Then was on the floor of the entry way for awhile. And thennnnn it made it to the house. But... we hunted it down earlier this time :)

Rowdy

the crew

Austyn's new smile...

killer smile

what else are big brothers for?

Drew turned 2 December 10. She was such a ham for her birthday. Turns out she loves the attention. ;) She needed a new wardrobe for her birthday because her hand-me-downs from the other girls were way outdated. Every time she opened a gift... "clothes! clothes!" thinking back... it would have been adorable to get that on video. Oh well, here she is attempting to blow out candles. Ham!

And then there was decorating of the Christmas tree. Every year I have this image in my head of our large family sitting down quietly with hot cocoas and everyone decorating the tree which turns into this immaculate masterpiece...what really happens? a massive amount of chaos. Period. And now that it's over, I wouldn't change a thing. The kids love decorating the tree and I could care less what it looks like. I gave up caring a long time ago about the ornaments sacrificed in the process. There were a few more casualties this year and most likely next year will be the last year we have any glass bulbs. We're down to about 3 or 4 left. :)

all I wanted was a photo with the Santa hat... she wanted none of it!

Hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

promise!

I'm here. I promise. Blogger is giving me...a headache. I'll be honest. I'm having quite the time uploading any photos. I can't even get the darn thing to give me the option to upload any photos. I'm severely disliking my computer AND blogger at the moment. I promise there are a few blog posts waiting patiently for this blogger issue to be resolved. Until then... I wait. Keep checking back!!!