Monsters & Bubbles

Happy Friday!

and.. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

1st Christmas. Pt 1.

We had SUCH a wonderful Christmas this year.. it was so special to celebrate with the newest addition to our family. I love that our families are getting bigger and that we were able to be with everyone this year.. everyone! I would have been just fine with sitting around staring at each other, just to soak in these moments. But we had a ton of fun. We were with Luke's family for the few days prior to Christmas. Nate and Britt came in from Houston (miss them!!).. and we were all together with Steph and Kevin, our fam and the Prosser parents. Here's some highlights!

my precious gift..

such a handsome bunch!

loves his uncle Nate! just had to get used to him a little :)

1st Christmas. Pt 2.

On Christmas Eve day, we made the four hour drive down to Des Moines to stay with Ryan and Lisa. Nathan and Chrissie came in from Colorado and evvveryone was there! Even Lisa and Chrissie's cute bellies. We were able to enjoy a longer stay than usual, complete with Christmas morning presents, Christmas Eve church service, playing games (oh man, laughing really hard) sledding, shopping and lots of video games. We even got a little mini Kirkpatrick family photo shoot in for my parents. I may have to post some of those shortly. Leyton did get his first bad fever. :( Even though it was so sad to watch him be in pain, we were so lucky that we were with Aunt Lisa..mrs. doctor was able to check him and monitor how he was doing. So many people have been sick! But he's all better now, back to his smiley and happy self. I'm SO thankful for my big family, my little family, my Luke and my Leyton this year. We are so blessed!

nice joke, dad. :)

He's an official Badger, proud of it.

trying to figure Chrissie out.. she's cute, she's blonde and my aunt!

lots of this happened. and Tyler had a hurt eye..

love my family.

Merry Christmas!

I'm home.

Ok so for anyone who's even a little emotional, you know change can be hard. This past weekend, we moved our little family out of our first home in Anoka and into Luke's parents house. Our life looks completely different than it did even a month ago! When I stop to take a breath from all the chaos this past week, I get sad.. then happy, then sad.. and on it goes. Overall, we are so happy! I honestly love to think about all the many ways we are blessed.. it's crazy. God has provided for us in amazing ways. If anyone needs a little encouragement and needs to be reminded that God is still around, I'll tell you all the stories :)

I can't decide how I feel about change. I've always moved around growing up and I never had a hard time just picking up with the newness in life. Then there's other times when I just don't like it. I like to keep things in order, all organized so I know where it all is. Wait, that's called a control problem, huh? But I like this adventure! We've really settled into our mini apartment here at the Prossers, and it's great! Our life is pretty dang simple. Luke's home, we're hanging out.. we get to be with Leyton all day.. it's fun. Yes, it can be hard to not feel like I have a "home," to feel like everything's changing and spinning out of control. But then I see this...

That's my home. My family is my home and wherever they are.. I'm home.

my big boy!

Leyton had his 9 month appointment this week. He weighs 22 pounds and is 30.5 in long. He's in the 97th percentile for length, 75% for weight and 90% for head! Atta boy! This has been a big week for the little man. Oh Friday, December 10th.. his first tooth made its appearance! The little jagged thing has been workin its way out for a while! He was 9 months and 4 days old.. sheesh, took him long enough. And this past weekend, he stood up for about 10 seconds! (yes, I'm that bragging mom).. but it was cute. He's a lot more stable these days, working on standing up and will probably be walking soon. woooah. This week also marks his first ear infection.. poor buddy.

We couldn't be more proud of this little dude!

snow + boxes

This past weekend we got an insane amount of snow! The news keeps saying that we broke records.. that this was the snow storm of the decade. We got about 16 inches of snow! We had a great weekend together as a family stuck inside! We had to cancel most of our plans.. a couple Christmas parties and had to stay in We went to Luke's parents house Saturday night and stayed overnight just to get out of the house.

This is our Minnesota winter wonderland. It was so pretty and Easton loved it!

Other news around the Prosser house.. Good news first: our house sold! We found out a couple weeks ago that the appraisal went through and our closing date is set for December 22nd. Which means.. crazy Christmas and crazy packing!

And the bad news..That same day we found out our house sold, we found out that Luke lost his job. It's a long and confusing story, but he was let go! While this does present some obvious difficulties, (we were one day away from new house searching!!) the timing is actually ok. He has been home to help with the packing and moving process, starting next month we won't have a mortgage payment (gotta love living at the parents!) and he's home for Christmas to travel to Iowa! He's been job searching like crazy.. I couldn't be more proud of him. He's reallllly good at what he does and I know he'll find something soon. So for now, we just wait on God's timing and trust!!

Our little Madison house is a mess these days.. one more week! It's bittersweet.. our first house, Leyton's first house, so many memories.. we've loved living here and will be sad to go but do feel like the time is right to move on!

This is one reason we need to move on.. this is our kitchen table! ugh I can't wait to have an actual dining room and kitchen table. here it is.. toys and all. Oh, what our life has become.

Here's the little man watching his favorite DVD... watching it really close :)

And just a cute picture with his Mom. Love that boy..

Leyton's 1st Christmas present!

Thank you Grandpa Gene & Grandma Phyllis! He loves Mr. Hooey :)

9 months!

You are 9 months old today, my sweet lil' Leyton boy!

This is my favorite Christmas yet.. through the craziness of life, I love being with you and your dad. Just makes it perfect. You are still so active and so fun! Today was a bit of monumental day.. I know it's just a little thing, but you kinda took your first "steps." You actually knew what you were doing and with the help of our hands, kept walking between us. I have a feeling it won't be long, you crazy boy!

You eat, eat, eat all the time! You still eat your baby food like a champ and love to snack on pretty much anything. But.. no teeth yet. You crack us up when you pretend to chew like the rest of us.. but you only have gums! Hopefully soon? And you put evvverrrything in your mouth! You are good at 2 naps a day, usually 1-2 hours long, and sleep about 11-12 hours at night. Love that!

It's so fun to watch your cute hands when you play with all your toys. You are so focused and I can already tell you're going to be so smart :) You make SO many noises with your mouth! You're definitely all boy.. mimicking your dad as he makes noises. But our favorite noise by far is your adorable laugh.. you love to giggle and squeal, gosh I love it!

You love to squeeze us and give big hugs.. and even some sloppy kisses. You bring relief to our busy life these days.. we gladly stop what we're doing just to be with you.

and a lot of winter.

I love Christmas! and I especially love the traditions it brings.. one of those for Luke and I is the tree farm. We have gone every year since we were married and chopped down a real tree for our house. I love it :) BUT this year Luke won't let me. Our house sold (hopefully?!) so we'll be moving out a few days before Christmas (hopefully?!) We still went to the tree farm this year.. ran around with Easton, went on a hay ride, drank some hot chocolate and got a pathetic little branch for a tree this year. We still had so much fun!

(sorry Mom, Luke is nuts.. probably why Leyton loves him so much!)

our cute 2010 Christmas tree.. it'll do, huh.

(Leyton's new stocking! Had to put it up even if it's for a few weeks..)

a little bit of fall..

it's already hard to remember green grass and leave on the trees! Here's to a long winter..

And some pictures from Thanksgiving day with the Kirkpatricks. We went to the Prosser side as well, one of the luxuries of living so close to our families!

cousins!

Just a quick picture of our latest adventure down to Iowa.. a one night stay to go to Landon's 2nd birthday. It was so much fun! And now when Leyton sees a picture of Landon he laughs. It's adorable!

Thankful list

I suppose it's this time of year, being Thanksgiving and all, where you stop and think about what you're thankful for. I'd like to say I don't need a holiday to realize what I'm thankful for, but I don't do this often enough. I hope it's more than once a year, but it really means a lot to think about the lots of ways that we are blessed. There are plenty of trials and difficulties in our lives, but the blessings totally outweigh the tough stuff.

Kristen's List:

My best friend and husband, Luke. These days you would think Leyton would be #1 on my list. But it's Luke. He is seriously the funniest person and I know and brings so much light and joy to my life every day. He is an incredible dad and has such a servant's heart. I am so thankful that he married me and puts up with me, I'll be forever grateful.

My #2 man in my life.. little Leyton. I don't even have to explain how thankful I am for this guy. Daily I look at him and can't believe that we are so lucky to have him in our lives. I know that goes for both Luke and I.

My family. I LOVE every single person in my family! (families.. wow, I get 2!) The ones that live close and the ones that live farther from us.. if it were up to me we'd all live a little community together so I could see their smiling faces everyday. I realize that it's pretty rare to have such loving families that love and support us, that love God with all their hearts. mmm :) I love our little ones so far (Leyton and Landon) and the ones on the way.. here come a bunch of nieces and nephews!

My friends! Wow, there's a lot of faces that comes to my mind when I think of our friends.. we're seriously blessed! It has been a really tough year for some of my closest friends. I'm thankful for them and our unity together and in the same breath, I'm thankful for these trials. God is doing some amazing things and I'm lucky to be a part of it.

My job. I don't think I will ever get to a point where I just do my job and don't think every second how lucky I am. I love being a photographer and all that involves. It really is so fun and I am so blessed to be able to keep doing what I love, while also doing my #2 job (which is really #1).. being a mom!

Those are the big things.. the daily stuff that I kinda just get used to but when you put them in a list.. sheesh, that's a lot of good stuff.

Then there's the little stuff.

My car (I love my Mazda!), the sale of our house (maybe?! still waiting to hear if it all goes through, but I'm thankful ahead of time), Easton, Starbucks, our weekly TV shows, cooking for Luke, the luxury of shopping for clothes, trips to Iowa, date nights, upcoming vacations to look forward to (Florida & Quebec!!), my camera, Luke's job, seeing Leyton after a nap (soo cute!), shopping for Leyton (that's fun), and. chocolate.

That's just a brief list, I know there's a lot more. I like this holiday!

And just because blogs are better with pictures, here's to giving thanks..

Luke's List:

Well jeez, Kristen, you stole like every word and everything good in my life. Let's see if I can do this and not have it seem like the exact same list...hmmmmm.

Well my number 1 has still got to be Kristen. They way you love, respect and care for me and our family is unlike any thing I've ever seen. The way you cook, the way you clean, the way you dress, everything you do, i adore. You are the most selfless person I've met (but then it gets to be all about you with it comes to shopping and clothes...you will stop at nothing to find that perfect fitting shirt or jeans) so its give and take i guess. I love you more and more every single day.

numero dos: Leytron 5000. You are best thing to have happened in my life...in this last year. I love getting to know who you are and finding new things out about your personality everyday.

number 3: family...aka support beams. without all of you, we would be living in a gutter in new mexico eating little debbies that we stole from gas stations. thanks for all youve done.

numero 4: friends....jeez. this is the exact same list as Krast...oh well. you all know who you are. you guys are saweet.

and that's top four. i don't do the little things. plus, that's enough goosh for one post.