Merry Christmas 2013

Time for my monthly update, and just in time for Christmas.  Which reminds me I need to stop being lazy and take my babies 11 mth photos.  11 mths!!!  where in the world did the year go?  She has been such a little joy.  I can't imagine a better baby.  She is so easy to love.  She has a fantastic mellow personality, and goes with the flow really well.  Not to say she doesn't have her grumpy moments, because she does - but it's few and far between.  She mostly smiles and "talks".  She is a very happy VERY busy baby.  She growls - which is about the cutest thing ever.  She does have a really annoying cry when she is mad.  It sounds like a half yell.  But she is so dang cute we forgive her for it ;)

She has been seeing a physical therapist/chiropractor for the past two weeks.  She was crawling weird and wouldn't stand much, and when we would try to get her to practice walking we noticed her leg did weird things, it kind of just collapsed under her.  They found she has a leg that turns in at the hip, forcing her foot to turn in and it makes it hard for her because it creates one leg shorter then the other.  She would never sleep for more then an hour or so at a time either.  She always seemed uncomfortable, but I didn't think much of it, because she was still so happy.  But they have been working with her 3 days a week, and she is crawling normal now and even standing more and the best thing is that she is finally sleeping through the night!!!  I haven't slept in a year, so it's soooo nice!  She is even happier now...if that is possible.

We all had the sickies since Thanksgiving.  I got it really bad the week after thanksgiving and was sick for about 3 weeks with the worst sinus infection and fever and chills.  I haven't been that sick in so long I felt like I was going to die.  It really sucked trying to work, take care of a baby, and be sick all at the same time.

I got a new freelance job with a company out of New York - Doctors in your community - to be their freelance photographer for Utah - so I traveled the first 2 weeks of December all over Salt Lake area.  It was a lot of work, but it's nice to be having some money coming in.  I'm going to take a little break for a couple weeks though.  I've shot almost every day for 3 mths now and I'm a little exhausted.

Not to mention my Imac that I bought last year for 1700 decided to quit working this last week.  Bad timing since everyone has been waiting for their photos for Christmas.  I felt/feel awful, but I guess it's been a nice "forced" break.  I'm not looking forward to paying for the damage.

On a happy note - this year is so extremely different from last year.  Last year we couldn't find 2 pennies to scrape together for Christmas and were so blessed to have secret santa' s and wonderful neighbors donate items for aspen for Christmas, and people leave money on our doorstep so we could pay our bills.  We were so very blessed but it was a really hard year.  This year we actually have a little money since Ashton has a job and boy has it made a big difference.

I'm excited to spend this year with a little baby for Christmas.  Nothing like watching them open presents for the first time.

We are in a good place right now.  The Lord blesses us every day.  I feel so grateful for all we have.