Nice Weather

We have been having such nice weather here lately. I am so excited for spring. So we have been spending a lot of time outside lately. My next door neighbors have a bouncy castle so we set it up the other day and let the kids play. They had a blast. Arlie is especially loving the nice weather. If she could she would stay outside all day. Here are some pics of Arlie playing in the bouncy castle. Her face looks a little rough because I put sunscreen on her and she rubbed her eyes and got it in her eyes. She does this every time I put sunscreen on her. Am I doing something wrong?

Cherry Blossoms

Ok so here are the pictures from the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had such a good time seeing the sights and enjoying the nice weather and the beautiful Cherry Blossoms. It was so fun to get out with friends too. I wouldn't have done it by myself that is for sure and Josh is not much of a fan of the big city life with crowds of people. So if it weren't for them I probably wouldn't have gotten to go. So thank you.

Our friends we went with:






The DC Metro- Arlie thought it was so much fun riding the train. She loved looking outside and seeing the world go by.


The Jefferson Memorial

The Washington Monument

Easter

This was the only picture I got of Arlie on Easter. Can you believe it? And we even went to a couple of Easter egg hunts and I forgot my camera. I am going to have to take some more pictures of her in her Easter dress though because she just looked so cute in it. So hopefully there will be more to come if I get around to it. Josh is finally home!!!! Yeah!!! Ok so he has been home now for a couple of weeks and I have just been preoccupied with other things including him to take the time to blog. It is so nice to have him back. It makes me see how much I really do love him and love having him around. More pictures to come. We went to the Cherry Blossom Festival down in DC yesterday and had a picnic. It was so much fun. I took tons of pictures.

More Pictures

So I was taking pictures for a friend the other day and while I was getting everything set up, Arlie saw me in the garage and wanted me to take her picture. So this was very spontanious. I was mostly using her to see if my lighting looked good but I thought this picture was so cute of her even though her hair looks like crap. I wasn't really planning on taking her picture so I didn't get her all ready or anything. In fact she was still in her pjs when I first started. So this was a very spontanious photo shoot. Just thought I would share.


Here is the one of Arlie in her pjs when we first started.

There are no Accidents

Yeah!! I am so excited! I have been working on potty training Arlie for the past two weeks now and for the first time yesterday Arlie had no accidents and she even pooped twice and every time she had to go potty she told me. I am so proud of her. Maybe we will have this potty training thing down sooner than I thought. I will hope. Josh will come home and be totally surprised. How lucky is he that he got to get out of this one. We are surviving without him but I miss him so much. I don't know if it is because I am sick and also that I can't talk to him but it has been harder than I thought it would be. I have honestly never missed him this much before. I know all you people whose husbands are gone all the time probably think I am a total woose but I am starting to wonder if I can handle being a military wife. We have been really lucky so far with his career in that this is actually the first time he has deployed in his 9 years of service and it is only for a few weeks. We will see. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I didn't feel sick and he is not around to complain my sickness to. Anyway, I can't wait till he comes home. Soon I hope.

Potty Training

Yeah!!!! Arlie went pee pee in the potty twice yesterday! I didn't even have to ask her if she needed to go. She told me she needed to go. I am so excited. She has been showing interest for a couple months now and she likes to go sit on it and push but this is the first time she has actually fully gone on it. She has a couple other times peed or pooped out a few drops. But I wasn't really counting that. I haven't been too serious about potty training her yet. Just encouraging it and once in a while asking her if she needs to go potty. But I guess it is time for me to get more serious. I don't really know what to do since I have never done this before. My mom has given me some advice but I need all the help I can get so if anyone has any good ideas that worked for them, I would love to hear it. I really have no idea what I am doing.
Josh is gone right now and won't be back for a few weeks. I already miss him like crazy. In my normal day to day life it normally seems to fly by but the past few days seem so long and boring. I miss having him around. He is such a huge help. With him gone I see how much he really does for me and Arlie. Also it doesn't help that Arlie is sick right now. She has a really nasty cold. She has not been sleeping well at night and she has been throwing up from coughing last night and the night before and the night before. Plus she pooped in the bathtub yesterday. So she has been a lot more work for me than usual. Yesterday was the first day of my morning sickness. So far it is not too bad. I just feel a little nauseous. Hopefully that is as bad as it gets. I will keep my fingers crossed. Thanks to everyone that commented on my pregnancy. It's nice to know you all care so much. Anyway more to come later.
Have a great day!

Big News!!!!

So it might be jumping the gun by doing this so early into it but I was too excited to not share the news. Yeah!! I'm pregnant. And yes it was planned. We are both very excited about the news. I took the pregnancy test this morning. So I am guessing baby should be due end of October beginning of November time. So far I don't feel pregnant at all but I am sure it will come soon. I am so not looking forward to that. Anyway, just thought I would share the good news. Love ya!

Eclipse

I got home just in time tonight to see the Eclipse. I didn't even know there was going to be one tonight till I get out of my car and see my neighbors standing outside with a telescope and some cameras. So I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. It was pretty cool to see. So if you missed it, here are some pics of the moon that I took tonight.

My New Lights are here!!!

I finally got my new photography studio lights and a nice new lens for my camera. I have been super busy lately with taking pictures for people so I haven't had a chance to update my blog. I am so excited about how things are going with my business though. I am updating and getting better equipment and backdrops and I am really excited about how my pictures are going to look now. It is going to be so much better. By the way, if you haven't checked out my photography blog it is under my blogger friends links as TR Photography. Soon I will be updating it with more recent photos. We have been staying busy here. Arlie's new word lately is C-you. It is so cute to hear her say it. She says it quite often. She is so social. She has also been doing pretty good with her counting. We have been working on that one for a little while now. It is coming along. Right now her favorite toy is her stuffed bunny she got for Easter last year. She carrys it everywhere with her. It has taken the babys place in her baby stroller and she sets it up to the table to eat with her and trys to feed it fish. It is so cute to see her play. So here is a picture taken with my new lights today. Hope you like it.
Also here is an older picture that I never got around to posting. It was the first time I attempted to pull Arlies hair up. I have done it a few times since but it is hard to get her to set still for me. Plus it is barely long enough so I am kindof waiting till it get a little longer.

Our Christmas Vacation

Well we are back and had a great visit with family and friends in Idaho. It was so nice to see everyone and to have a break from daily life. Some of the highlights of our trip was going snowboarding. Josh went 3 times. I only went once. We also spent Christmas Eve in Island park snowmobiling. It was a lot of fun. We had several fun family parties and lots of good food. I think I may have gained a few pounds over the holidays. But the food was worth it. I wish I would have taken some more pictures the trip just flew by way too fast. The flight with Arlie was miserable and I am glad we will not be having her sit on our lap again. But we survived! Thanks to everyone who made our Christmas so nice. We love all of the presents we got and it really was so nice to be with family. Love ya!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Playing Catch-up

We had our ward Christmas party this past weekend and instead of having a Santa Claus they decided to have the three kings instead and they passed out treasure treats to the kids. They called us last minute to see if Josh could do it. We had nothing for him to wear so we wrapped a blacket over him and tied a belt around his waste. It was pretty getto. But Arlie sure enjoyed the candy.




We put our tree up the day after Thanksgiving. I bought it that day at 5:00 am at JCPenney. I was a little excited for the day after thanksgiving shopping. I got a pretty good deal on it. It wasn't the one that they were promoting. That one was sold out by 4:30am. Crazy! But it is nice and so easy to put up. I was having fun taking pictures of the tree and the ornaments and the gifts so I thought that I would share. We are going to celebrate our Christmas together as a family tomorrow. We are leaving on wednesday to go to Idaho. Yeah!!! We are so excited.

So I have had all these pictures that I wanted to post on the blog now for a while and haven't done anything with them. So today I finally had some time to go through them and add the ones I wanted to. It snowed here for the first time a couple of weeks ago. We got a few inches and they closed the schools down and everything just for a couple of inches. It was crazy. They really aren't used to snow like we are I guess. So it was exciting because Arlie was too young to understand what snow was last year and so this year I took her outside to see what she thought. You could tell by the look on her face that she was wondering what happened. And then I let her touch it. At first she didn't want to because it was cold but then she had fun smashing it in her fingers. All kids like to eat snow so I couldn't not let her try that out. She that it was pretty good and was stuffing her face full.

18 Months Old!

Arlie just turned 18 months old yesterday. I can't believe how fast time goes by. It seems like just a few months ago that she was my sweet little baby so sweet and soft. Now she has all of a sudden turned into quite the little toddler. And I am constantly chasing after her. It is a challenge some days but for the most part I love being a mom.
Josh got a new truck yesterday. Well new to us I should say. It is a 2004 Ford Ranger. The car that we just bought about a month ago broke down like two weeks after we got it. It was a 1990 Honda Accord so we should have expected it to I guess. So after trying to fix it, he gave up on putting money into it and decided it would be better to get something that he didn't have to worry about breaking down. It is a really nice truck in excellent condition. Perfect for running to work and back.
That is about all from here. I am still staying busy with all my jobs I am doing and ejoying it. We are looking forward to coming home in a week and a half though. I can't believe it is almost that time already. crazy!

Happy Holidays

Sorry it seems as though I have dropped off the face of cyber space. I have been crazy busy lately. I have taken on two babysitting jobs and I have my side photography business that has really taken off lately so I have stayed super busy. All is well here though. Thanks to everyone who posted comments on my Tag blog. It sure makes me feel good to know that I'm not the only one who feels that way. And also to know that people actually read this stuff. We are adjusting pretty well here now at Fort Meade. I am finally finding my place here and it is getting easier. We are going home for Christmas this year and are looking forward to spending time with family and friends back home. It will be nice to see everyone. Although it does seem like I was just there. I can't say that Arlie has changed too much from the last time we were home. She looks the same. The only difference is that she is talking a lot more. It is so much fun to see what word she will discover next. Her most recent words are cracker, butterfly, Nemo, fish, duck, poo poo, and stinky. She tells us now when she has pooped. She says poo poo and pats her bum. And then she says stinky. She loves Finding Nemo. I think it is probably the only show that has ever kept her attention. Whenever we watch it, she gets all excited.
We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We had a couple families over at our house for dinner and we ended up with more than enough food. We had two turkeys and a ham so there were plenty of leftovers. It was a great day. Anyway, that is pretty much all that has been going on here. Hope you all are doing great and would love to hear from you. Happy Holidays!

I've been tagged!

So thanks to my friends Amy and Sarah Galan, I have been tagged. So I figured I might as well keep it going plus I have decided I don't write much about myself on my blog so this gives me an opportunity to share with all of you something about me that maybe you didn't know.

Jobs I've had:
Runner for a Law firm
Nanny in Hawaii
Secretary for a Sleep Institute
Afterschool program advisor at a Montesory
Surgical Technologist
CDC childcare provider
Sales Clerk at a Craft store
Japanese Kindergarten english teacher

Places I've lived:
Idaho
Utah
Hawaii
Texas
Japan
Maryland

Shows I enjoy:
Dancing with the stars
The Office
Greys Anatomy
Desperate Housewives
America's Next Top Model
These are all the shows I DVR.

Four Things About Me:

1. If you don't know this already I am totally into photography. I love to take pictures and am constantly scanning my surroundings everywhere I go looking for beautiful places or things to take pictures of. It is constantly in the back of my mind. I love to put picture collages together as well as digital scrapbooks. I love taking peoples pictures and enhancing them on the computer and seeing the end result. Totally love it! It is my passion.

2. I love to shop!! But what girl doesn't? I love to shop for things for my house and I also have a slight obsession for clothes for me and Arlie. I love cute little country craft stores and I would say my favorite store for shopping for things for the house is Tai Pan's all the way. I wish I had the money to decorate my whole house from Pottery Barn. The majority of clothes that I buy come from Old Navy. Mostly because that is all I can afford. If I had the money I would shop somewhere like Ann Taylor, J. Crew, Banana Republic. Then again, I never dress up anymore so whats the point.

3. My favorite book right now is the Twilight series. Totally love it. I read all three books in about a two week period while I was home visiting family back in September. I can't wait for the next one to come out. After reading it, I had a total crush on Edward. I am not much of a reader normally but after reading this I realized I could totally have a passion for reading. I just need a really good book so if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

4. If you don't know this already, I am kind of shy. When I get in a big group of people I would rather sit back and listen and observe. I am not one to talk just for the sake of talking. I do much better one on one or maybe two. I have struggled with it my whole life. I probably care too much about what other people might think of me. Most people would probably be surprised to hear that I was a cheerleader all through high school. That is yet another thing that I don't share with too many people just because I worry what people might think.

Some other little facts about me are:
I am a risk taker- I used to cliff jump off 70 foot cliffs when I was younger.
I love to snowboard, golf, surf, wakeboard, and do pretty much anything active.
I enjoy a good run. I like to camp, hike and enjoy nature.

This was kindof interesting for me to write this. It was good for me to kindof look inside myself and remember who I am. Lately I have been feeling like I have been losing my identity. Now that I am a mom I feel like that has pretty much taken over my whole life and I have lost myself in the process. Kindof depressing. It has been a struggle for me. But I do love being a mom to such a beautiful little girl. She has brought so much joy and happiness into my life at the same time. And I feel so blessed to have such a great husband. I am one lucky girl!

I am tagging Liz, and Rachel.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween. Arlie loved dressing up and getting candy. After going trick or treating we came back to the house and she dug into the candy. She ate so much sugar that she was all hopped up. She was so hyper we couldn't get her to go to bed till after nine. Oh well it only happens once a year.

Sittin in the Sink