Another Semester Begins

January 1- 10

Lived

Kaden is a student, again! He started his first semester off by diving strait into anatomy, psycho social athletics, and the rest of his generals. I am so proud of him and so glad i am able to take a breather semester and cheer him on!

Leighton is still not walking but she is managing to get into ev-ery- thing! She also has her second ear infection. Poor girl.

We've been dreaming of warmer days. It has been in the negatives here and never higher than 20 as far as i can remember for the past few weeks. It is freezing, and even with the sun shining the snow doesn't leave. I feel like it is one of those bitter winters. We are stocking up on Vitamin D and i may need to get a few tans in.

Sarah and I tried to take outfit of the day photos for instagram. It was quite the experience. We may need to take some lessons before we try this again, and we wont be using our iphones.

Learned

I'm actually not going to graduate in the spring. I will start school again this summer. And I will take this time to build up my photography business.

Building a website is not easy! I finally paid someone to do it for me. I will launch sweetwishesphoto.com on Wednesday.

"No spend months" are not for us. We lasted 11 days and then gave up. Luckily we did save a little in that 11 days.

Loved

Finding this at Bulloch Drug. I can not wait for our anniversary. We have almost been married for 4 years.

Watching Leighton move into a new stage of learning. Honestly this girl spear teachable at the moment. She started crawling down the stairs, the next day she started stepping down them. She waves goodbye, and says all done in baby sign language.

I love these two. They are a little team of micheouf. They follow each other, play together, and love each other.

New Year Resolutions

This year I decided to write my New Years resolutions a little differently. Usually Kaden and I sit down and write out specific goals that fill categories, for example: health, financial, spiritual, relationship, you get the picture. This year we decided to simplify and here they are.

Thank God

Love More

Serve others

Play hard

Be healthy

Spend less

Live better

Be happy

Here's to a great year. 2012 was very good to us but we can't wait to see what 2013 has in store.

Winter Break

December 20- December 31

Lived

- To start off I forgot to mention Leightons trip to the ER in my last post. It was so sad seeing her sick but it really was so sweet too. She is such a lover when she doesn't feel well. We took her in because she had such a high fever and luckily it was just an ear infection. Poor girl is on for it, Kaden and I both have always had them.

 

- Leighton, Tiffany and I packed up and headed to the Valley while Kaden and Sarah were in the Dominican Republic. Most of my time was spent working and Leighton kept busy playing.

Leighton is quite the little helper.

- We were so excited for Kaden to get home that I took Leighton with me to pick him up. Even at 11:30 at night Leighton lit up when she saw him.

- Christmas was perfect. Having Leighton here to celebrate the holidays made them feel more special than ever. She completes our family and fills our hearts with more love than I could have ever imagined. Of course we were all spoiled this year (like always). I got an iPad and a camera bag. Kaden got a laptop and a camera and Leighton got tons of toys and lots of clothes.

Leighton loves her uncle Luke,

all of her new toys,

and catching up on sleep.

- We were so lucky to spend the night with Camille and Alex in Las Vegas. We hadn't seen them since the wedding and enjoyed catching up. We ate yummy food, stayed in amazing rooms and caught up on each others lives.

best chocolates ever! Thank you Alex and Camille!

-Cami and Alex's wedding was featured on OnceWed and pinned by Nordstrom. How cool is that!?

- Kaden had to work New Years eve and I was scheduled to do some photos in the valley so Leighton and i  packed up once again for a quick trip. My session was canceled so we ended up spending the afternoon with my sisters and mom. It was nice to get out of the house and do something. We went to the movies and saw Parental Guidance. It was a pretty funny and cute movie and Leighton sat through almost the entire thing. The best part was how cool we were before the movie. We tend to embarrass my mom.

We were trying to prove to Katie that we could kick as high as her face. Sarah looks like quite the bad A. 

{Best part is when sarah said post that and say coming to a theater near you. I almost died laughing because we were actually in a movie theater. She didnt get it.}

Learned

- I found out that I can graduate in the spring. Uh to be done with school or continue with another year? That is my debate at the moment. I am pretty sure that I will be officially graduating this May.

- In the past couple of weeks I learned that a week away from Kaden is way too long, Leighton is growing up way too fast, and I am looking forward to all of the adventures that next year holds. This past year I learned so much that i don't even know where to begin. I have learned what it is to love, to be a mother and to really be busy. I think i will write a  post just for the new year though so i wont go into much detail.

Loved

- I loved visiting sweet baby Mia the day after she was born. Holding a baby fresh from heaven really is a spiritual experience. Courtney and Eric were so sweet to invite me to the hospital to see their beautiful daughter. Taking Mia's pictures made me melt. I hope that I will have the opportunity to do more newborn pictures and that I can start doing birth sessions too.

photos by me Sweet Wishes Photography

- I loved welcoming Kaden home from the Dominican, listening to his stories about his trip, and watching him play with Leighton. I loved celebrating Christmas with our families and enjoying Leighton's first holidays. So many sweet moments were shared between Kaden, Leighton and I. It is amazing how beautiful life really is right now. Some times i sit in awe of how truly blessed i am and wonder what i ever did to deserve such a charmed life.

A Little Update

November 11- December 19

Lived

- I figured I better update before it has been 2 months since my last post. The past month has gone by so quickly that I can't even remember everything we did.

- Luke came home and we are all so happy he is here! The past two years have gone by so slow for all of us since we seriously have been waiting for his return from the very day her left. Luke is the baby of the Leavitt family and is definitely treated like it. I am not sure how happy he is that all three of his sister in-laws have made it their goal to choose his wife. We all get along so well that we can't have anyone in the family that we don't approve of. Poor Luke has had a hard time of it already. Nancy says he has to go on at least 100 different dates before her can get married. Good luck to whoever he marries. The best advice i can give is to just fit in with the family.

- I survived this semester and I am becoming more and more nervous about taking next semester off. This will be the first time that I haven't taken classes in almost 5 years. I am so excited though. I have been super busy doing pictures and plan to keep it up. I hope to do a few workshops in the next couple of months and really start my business up.

- Kaden has survived work and has played a lot. Before thanksgiving he went on a big hunting trip with his dad and brothers. He bought a jeep and has gone out scouting with friends as well. Now he is in the Dominican Republic on his medical service trip. Leighton and I can't wait for him to be home, but i am so happy that he gets to experience something so great.

- Leighton hasn't stopped growing but luckily she isn't walking yet. She will stand all over the place and has started crawling like a stink bug but so far no steps.

Learned

- I have learned a lot this past month. Honestly every day i feel like i am becoming more and more confident with myself. I think that doing pictures outside of the valley has really made me come out of my shell. I feel more confident in my work and like i am treated as a professional. I absolute love it. I love the feeling that i get from being successful. I have enjoyed getting to know all of the people i have worked with. Really i have come to realize that i need to get over the "when i get older" feeling that i seem to always have. I tend to tell myself  things like "when i get older i will start my business" or "i cant wait to be older so i will be able to do that" Uh hello i am older, i am the age i use to imagine i would be when i said those things at first. I also see my amazing and very successful best friend who is doing great things with her life. She is my age and doing all of that she wants to. I think watching her has seriously been an eye opener for me. Obviously she has put her heart and soul into making her dreams come true, and i am not saying it is easy, but i know i am also capable doing what i want to and i should stop telling myself that i am not old enough. (i hope that makes sense)

- Do not leave dirty diapers where Leighton can reach. That is all i will say.

Loved

- I loved getting to focus on all of the things that i am grateful for during the month of November. It is always really neat to me to see how much i really am thankful for. I also loved Thanksgiving. This year Leighton and I celebrated it without Kaden though. My sweet husband had to work. Leighton and I did a lot of bouncing around though, we went from the Leavitt's to my parents quite a bit. I loved being with family and having yummy food.

Just a little black Friday shopping

- So far i have loved celebrating the Christmas season. It has been beautiful weather in Cedar and Leighton has been the perfect little helper. Every time we go shopping she does great and she makes it so fun for me. The other day we were in target and she was a little restless so i started swerving the cart a little and she laughed so much. Sweet moments like that always remind me why i LOVE being a mom.