First off, let me start by saying….where does the time go!  I absolutely LOVE being home with our kids, but the days seem to go even faster then when I worked!  We have been in Williston for two months now and are feeling at home here and are settled into our cozy little rental house!

This was taken on Christmas Eve day, right before we headed to church.  Who would have thought it would be nice enough to take an outdoor photo on Christmas Eve!

Each year the kids do the Nativity at my in-laws house

Elias loves his baby sister and Julia loves her big brother!

This one just cracked me up!

Toes or toys?

Elias spends lots of time building with Legos!

Who would have thought my mom, Julia, and I would be walking lots in January!  Aren’t these two pretty?:)

Buddies:)  He is SO good to her!

We love play dates with the cousins!

and lazy days coloring!  Elias spends A LOT of time in costume!

Walking and riding scooter in January!  I LOVE it!

Julia loves her jumperoo, I should try to post a video….she can really get going!

Although I cannot wait to play girly stuff with Julia, I have to admit, I love playing legos and Star Wars with Elias.   He is so fun.

He is now building by himself and is able to follow directions with just a little help.  Julia  is rolling all through the house, so we have had to move the Legos and all the other small toys up, so when she naps he loves to play on the floor!

He created this by himself and it is always a good idea to have a large sign marking a “Secret Lair”-haha!  This Kleenex box has provided days of entertainment:)

Look who turned 6 months last week!

Ok, this is getting long….I am almost done, but really, isn’t she cute!  Julia and I are meeting up my my friend Megan this weekend and Megan is going to take some six month pictures.  I LOVE seeing my kiddos through Megan’s lens!  Cannot wait!

Julia is close to sitting and is just starting solids.  Elias has been busy helping me prepare her baby food.

These are just the kind of things I want to remember years from now!

On a business note, I am thinking of offering a workshop geared towards moms (or Dads) who would like to learn to use their cameras better and take better photos of their children.  Anyone interested?  If you are, leave a comment or send me an email, I would love to hear from you!

I went to high school with these cute kiddo’s mom, so when their grandma contacted me to do a photo shoot, I was so excited.  Up until the day of their session, the weather had been nice enough to go outside, but last weekend was too cold, so we stayed in!  Joycee was full of spunk and poses for me and Jett was sure a good sport too!  Look at these smiles!

When Elias gets up in the morning, he usually walks out and says, “How is the little lady today?”.   It makes me smile every single time.  Julia got these baby leg warmers as a baby gift, so I thought we better do a quick session in them:)  Here are a few shots that are sure to make you smile!

I had the chance to meet up with the Suess Family the day before Christmas for a quick shoot while the whole family was home.  With families quite spread out these days, it is so fun to see a whole family together, especially during  the holidays!  We lucked out with some great weather this day, can you believe how nice it has been?  Here are a few pictures before I head out the door again!

My goal has been to get a blog post of our kids up before Christmas:)  I am cutting it close, so here it goes.  I can  hardly believe another month has gone by.  My New Years resolution is to blog more snapshots of my kids…I have hundreds just sitting on my computer!  Maybe I could do one post a month….

Julia was baptized the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We had her baptized at the nursing home my Grandpa is a resident in, it was wonderful and such a blessing he could be there.  Her gown was made from my wedding dress and it turned out just beautiful!

Growing up, we always had chocolate advent calendars, but when I saw this one, I couldn’t resist:)  As soon as Elias wakes up each morning  he brings this into my room and we build the creation for the day.

Love this picture of my babies together and Julia went through a phase a  few weeks ago where he tongue was always sticking out, so it is perfect!

Elias is such a happy kid and I LOVE spending my days with him and Julia.  We miss him when he is at school, I don’t know what we will do next year when he is gone all day.

She is full of smiles all day long!  The way she looks at Elias just melts my heart!

The tooth fairy visited our house a couple weeks ago!

Like I said, she is HAPPY and we are all so in love with her!  Oh, and we think she is kinda cute too:)

She loves to sit up and be a part of the action!

She started eating cereal a couple weeks ago and she goes wild when she sees the bowl coming.  Elias loves to feed her.

We didn’t bake much this Christmas, because my mom gave us a ton of wonderful goodies, but we did make a few special treats to deliver to Elias’ friends.

I am still getting use to seeing that missing tooth….he is growing up to fast.

We also made gingerbread houses with “the cousins” and it was a blast!

Look who I got to snuggle this week!  I loved meeting up with Evan and his sweet mom and siblings this week.  Here are a few of my favorite images from our session!

Last week, I had the opportunity to photograph another baby Julia!  Her mom had their home all decorated for Christmas, so it was a perfect time for her nine month photos along with some Christmas card shots.  Julia was such a little doll and I really enjoyed our session!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my aunts and their families traveled up to Williston. While they were here, I had the opportunity to photograph them. We had a gorgeous day for photos and I always love shooting out at my Grandparents yard.

First up, the Dorwart Family:

Next up, the Suny Family:

Often when I was in Jr High and High School, I would go to Colorado and visit during the summers….I cannot believe how grown up everyone is….that means I am older too:)!

Look at this little doll!  I was so happy that our move here was timed perfectly to photograph this little sweetheart!  She is the fifth in her family and is so adored by all of her siblings, in fact, I don’t think there is ever a time when she is not held….just how it should be:)

I just loved her little profile.

Our family is making the move back to Williston, ND.  Alex and I are both from Williston and a great job opportunity came up for Alex,  so this Wednesday we will head out to begin our new adventure!  We are so excited to raise our kiddos with family.  I have such great memories with my Grandparents growing up and am excited for my kids to have those memories too.

Leaving Thief River Falls will be difficult!  Alex and I have been here for seven years.  We purchased our first home here, brought our babies home here, and have made SO MANY wonderful friendships.  Our time here has truly been a blessing and we will always have fond memories of our life here.

Now onto the pictures…..

The last six weeks has been a whirlwind, full of decision making and all of the wonderful events of everyday life!  I looked at the date of this photo and it is from October, 4th!  I have so many photos, I just picked a few.

Elias absolutely adores Julia and I am sure she feels the same, you should see how she looks at him!

Julia was almost three months in these photos….she will be four months in nine days!  I can’t believe it!

Her three month photo:  I can just hear her squealing when I look at this.  My Aunt Mary made her the quilt, it is so special to have handmade things from family!

We lucked out with a pretty nice day for Trick-or-Treating.

Elias had so much fun going around the neighborhood with the Hughes boys!  Of all the things we will miss most about Thief River, this sweet family tops the list!  We just love these boys!

Is he not the perfect little Yoda?

Elias turned FIVE on November 3rd!  He had a pirate themed party and I had so much fun crafting for it.  I also had big plans for photographing all the details, but the party was a busy one!

Like I said, it was a BUSY party!  Swords and a pinata….we are lucky no one was hurt!!

Elias hasn’t napped for a long time, but he rests everyday and during this time, he usually fills his bed with books and reads.  His new favorite is this Star Wars Character Encyclopedia from his birthday:)

I took pictures of Julia’s nursery a week or so ago, here is one for now….we will see if I get to posting more later:)

Elias also loves LEGOs and has gotten quite good at them.