When to take the plunge?

We scored on a new toddler bed tonight. Couldn't pass it up...but the question now is...

When do we transition Wyatt from crib to bed?

I think it will end up being far more painful for me than for Wyatt...and I should totally just go for it. But, I'm putting the question out there. What's the best method? What worked for you??

A week ago, Wyatt started walking...on his own!

I know, wait, didn't he start walking months ago? I could have sworn I read a post somewhere...
Well, go figure the kid would make a liar out of me! He's totally known how to walk for the past couple of months, and yet refused to do so. Why? Because this little man is one stubborn little...grrrr. No idea where he gets that from...NOT ME! (anyone that knows me totally rolled their eyes at that moment. I resent that!)

One thing I've noticed about Wyatt, he HATES to fail. Steve and I would cheer and get super excited when he'd walk somewhere and he'd act like that was the reaction he wanted, for all of 5 minutes. Then he'd be all...STOP looking at me! It then became a game. If Steve or I noticed that Wyatt was "practicing" walking, we would notify the other person with some weird noise...nothing too weird as to distract him or let on that we saw what he was doing. We'd just watch him out of our peripheral vision and were only allowed to cheer quietly in our heads.

Along with walking came his new found love of throwing a tantrum. YAY! Have you ever seen that YouTube video where the kid is throwing a tantrum on the floor, so the parents walk in the other room...kid stops crying, finds them in the other room and throws himself on the floor picking up right where he left off without missing a beat? Well, then you know what I'm talking about!

Our child hates the word NO...and it's not like we've even had to use it all that often! I mean, Santa Clause could allow him to flush the toilet endlessly while eating a never ending supply of gold fish. But if Santa says "no", Wyatt's world suddenly falls to pieces!

Wyatt is also at that stage in life where the frustration that results from the inability to communicate through words is slowly driving Steve and I nuts! He wobbles around the house pointing at who knows what and moans. But not just moaning...moaning with a QUESTION MARK at the end! When we don't know what he's pointing at, we start guessing which only makes him moan louder. Except this time some unknown force has tossed his body ten feet across the room causing him to flail his arms and feet about in protest!

It's amazing how a child can be both frustrating and adorable all within the same moment. Wyatt loves to push his toy trucks around the house...one in each hand. But he tends to ditch them at the first sign of anything he deems more interesting. This means there a LOT of trucks scattered about the house...most of which are in my kitchen.

Frustrating = trying to cook dinner and stepping on a toy car!

Adorable = Wyatt stepping on a toy car...but it sticking to his clammy foot, thus causing him to step on it not once, not twice...but THREE TIMES!! All the while crying at this painful discovery! Then, he plucks the toy from the bottom of his foot and tosses it across the room! (OK, I know he got this one from me...I've broken many of his toys after stepping on them and kicking them into the other room in frustration...OOPS!)

I wouldn't trade him for anything in this world. He is the perfect addition to our family!

Family Photos

Last Saturday, the Ashby's came to visit. We took them out to the Gilcrease Orchard in Las Vegas to do a photo shoot with their family and ours. It went really well!! This girls are just darling and have loads of personality!

We are still working on some marketing strategies for our new little photography business. We loved how great Wyatt's pictures turned out (see prior post) that we got to thinking. What if we took some Halloween pictures and approached the orchard about letting us do a mini photo shoot there for their patrons the day before Halloween? Give them a cut of the profits...win for them (they could draw in a bigger crowd and make some extra money) and a win for us (we could take advantage of their huge email fan base and get some free advertising....not to mention some return clients! (hopefully)...and some extra money for us, of course). So we took some pictures of the girls in their Halloween costumes and sent an offer on over to the orchard. I'm really hoping they say yes!!

Later that same day, we got together with Jim and Anne and took some Bell family photos. They too turned out great! It was a great weekend and so much fun to just visit with family :)

New Found Love

Wyatt has found a new happiness in climbing in and/or on things. I'm really bad about keeping my camera handy, so I've only been able to catch a glimpse of what he has really got into. But, the times that I do remember to pull out the camera, he totally hams it up and puts on his Mr. Cheese face.

I LOVE IT!

Laundry baskets beware...this kid will spend minutes at a time climbing in and out...all the while gabbing to anyone that will listen.

Car seat...

Dishwasher...just as quickly as I load the dishes in, he's unloading them and laying them on the kitchen floor for me. Such a helper!

Baskets...

And my personal favorite: He loves to dip...doesn't matter what it is, if he can dip it, we are sure to get at least 20 minutes of peace a quiet. Well, on this particular occasion, I put some sour cream on his tray to see if he liked it. First thing he did was dip his fingers in it and then proceeded to paint his hair...all the while laughing at himself! (I love his expression)

The Zoo!

I took Wyatt to Tucson last weekend all by myself. He totally surprised me with how well behaved he was! He was only fussy the first 30 minutes of the trip and the last 30 minutes. I swear kids have an internal alarm that lets them know it's time to turn on the fuss when there is such a short amount of time left in the drive!

We went on a little adventure to the zoo in Tucson. It was Wyatt's first time and there was so much, we only got through half of it!

Good thing we're going back in November!

It's Official!

After squeezing every last second out of nap times, should have taken a shower times, housework is screaming, "these dishes/floors/clothes aren't gonna clean themselves woman!" times and oh so many more....I FINALLY decided to stop ripping my hair out and consider the new website a success...or at least a successful work in progress :)

Rapture Photography is official!
You can now visit us at www.rapturephotographystudio.com.

So please...help us pass on the word! We are just itching to get started!

The Pumpkin Patch

We took Wyatt on Saturday to pick his first pumpkins at a pumpkin patch here in Las Vegas.

He is the PERFECT little subject for photographs :) He had the time of his life!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!!

So I finally came up with the winning name and logo! (drum roll please)...

Rapture - ecstatic joy or delight; joyful ecstasy; an utterance or expression of ecstatic delight.

I think it's PERFECT!

Ideas??...Give 'em to me!

I wanted to find some way to make some money this upcoming holiday season, in efforts to continue our current financial goal. So, Steve and I are going to start a teeny tiny little photography...company??...business??...not sure what to call our little venture :)

I've been editing pictures with random programs online the past couple of years and finally agreed to let Steve teach me a thing or two in photoshop. I tell ya, I have no idea why I'm so darned stubborn when it comes to allowing my husband to "teach" me! Maybe it's just because photoshop seemed like such a non-user friendly program compared to the programs I've been using which are virtually idiot proof. Or maybe it's because he's just too knowledgeable about it that I feel overwhelmed when he tries to cram my head full of terms and computer commands and concepts I haven't had to deal with before? Either way, he's been wanting to teach me for some time and until just recently, I'd been putting it off.

I started doing some online tutorials hoping that I would at least have a basic understanding of it before he started his lessons. So far...I think it's gonna be HOT! SOOOOOO many more things you can do in photoshop....so much so that I'd like to slap the past version of myself for being such a stick in the mud and refusing to take my blinders off!

Anyways, I'm certain that there are several families that would LOVE some updated family pictures to use for Christmas...so I thought what better time than now to get things going? I know that Steve won't want to be part of this forever, but lets face it, he's just too darn talented to NOT use! So he's agreed to do the photography part if I'll do the "post work". So I guess I get to create a title for myself...like creative designer?...or photo editor?...something along those lines.

But here's were I am seriously hitting a brick wall....every...and I mean EVERY....name that I've looked up has already been taken! I thought I was being all original by coming up with the name Wink Photography....but apparently 5 other peeps beat me to it. I thought of Rouge Photography, Winkology, Modern Light Photography....taken, taken, TAKEN, so I'm sending out an S.O.S.!

I NEED HELP! I would like a name that is easy to remember, yet soft (if that makes sense). Nobody has used Bell Photography...from what I can find....but someone has used bellphotography.blogspot.com....so that's an out too.

Any ideas? Hey...maybe if you don't live to far away, I can even offer you a free session! Or give you mad props! :)

Thanks everyone for any help you can offer!!

Little Helper

Today, while I was making the bed, Wyatt decided that he wanted to help Daddy reorganize one of his drawers.

Apparently, he thought everything looked better shoved between the mattress and the bed frame.

I think he's right!

The Birthday Boy

Dear Wyatt,

13 months and 18 days ago...you turned ONE! I know, I'm a bit behind on posting, but it's completely your fault...yep...you consume so much of my day with all your adorableness that there's hardly any time for writing it all down. Excuse? Sure. Am I sorry? NOPE. Your dad and I tell each other every night how rich we could be if we could only find a way to bottle up your cuteness and sell it!

Every morning, when I get you out of bed, you throw your blankie over the crib railing and rattle the bars of your crib in anticipation. You make this sound (much like someone who fills their cheeks up with air and use their pointer fingers to suddenly pop the air like a balloon) and it's the way that you greet EVERYONE! Stranger in the store?...insert sound...Nana in the kitchen?...insert sound...child staring at you in church?...insert sound....seeing your own reflection in the mirror and thinking it's another adorable child just like you?...insert sound!! Totally adorable.

You have already started to form words. You say "ma-ma-ma", "da", "na-na-na", "dat-too" (thank you), "peak-ooo" (peak-a-boo) and of the numbers 1-5 I've been trying to teach you, you only will say "two".

You still have the proverbial "blow out" from time to time (what would a blog post be without some reference to poop?) and the sad/funny part is that you seem to save them for road trips, church, or your personal favorite, Kristen (I'm sure she appreciates that) It's like your own way of telling her how much you appreciate that she took some time out of her busy single life to watch you...as the poop oozes out of the side of your pants and plops on the floor. Don't worry...she keeps coming back. She's quite the trooper...suppose that means she loves you too :)

You are such an active child! You have been crawling all over the place and pulling yourself up to a stand for quite some time now. You even cruise around the furniture and get into anything that is not being closely monitored. You are up and over any obstacle in your way. Our biggest fear was that you would fall down the stairs...so we asked for a safety gate to keep you away from the stairs but before we could even get it installed, you had already taught yourself how to go up AND DOWN the stairs. Genius?? I THINK SO!

Other than some brief, almost unbearably whiny periods when you were cutting teeth (only 4 so far), you are dang near the happiest baby on earth! It's so contagious too! Your dad and I have to bite our lip just to keep from squeezing you too hard when we hug you...all the while you smile and laugh at us like two crazy clowns. Your bluer than blue eyes (and the unique flec of brown in your right eye), along with your adorable laugh that literally sucks everyone you come in contact with in till they are acting like monkeys trying to make you laugh again are just the beginning of a long list of reasons that I love having you in my life! I never knew it, but everyday as I watch you, I realize that you are everything that I ever wanted in life.

To celebrate your first year, we threw a little party. Here are a few photos of your special day.

Happy Birthday Monkey Butt! We love you!!

Love,
"Da" and "Ma-ma-ma"

Happy boy waiting for the party to start.

Burger cake for the birthday boy!
It was SO HOT outside that the icing began to melt!
You looked so stunned and totally focused on the flame.

The mini burgers for your guests.

You cried over when everyone began singing "Happy Birthday" to you :(

My dainty eater...so scared to take a bite!
I had to give you a taste of frosting before you would believe that it was OK to eat!!

Some "sweet" hair gel!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY WY WY MAN!!