It's been a busy week,

so I decided to do a quick post highlighting some special moments.
Piper had her first visit from the Easter Bunny. He was nice enough to bring some candy for Josh and me. As you can see by the little dot on Piper's chin her daddy was kind enough to share some with her.

I was able to meet up with one of my longest and best friends in Mapleton. My Friend Jill brought her beautiful baby boy over to my parents house so I could take some newborn photos. I'll be posting those within the next couple of weeks.
My parents, Josh, Piper and I all went to Sibley Park to see the animals. I'm not sure if Piper or Grandpa Ron and more fun.
We took a trip to Josh's parents. Piper decided it would be a good idea to clean out her Gammy's kitchen cupboards. Her cousins came to visit while she was in the process of taking everything out. They thought it was a little strange but also pretty funny.


We had a great time back in Minnesota and it was great to see our families but it's good to be home!

I swore that I didn't want anything to do with it,

but I watched it anyway.

I've been having trouble sleeping because I'm still having a lot of jaw pain from my wisdom teeth extraction. I just happened to be up when William and Kate tide the knot and of course it was the only thing on at 4 am. It was actually kind of cool to watch. Kate looked beautiful and I loved the trees in Westminster Abbey!

Now that the wedding is over I sure hope that all this silly wedding coverage ends real soon.

Recent Reads

I Heart Taco The Cat

It's pet week at I Heart Faces, and it's our chance to show off our favorite animal face.



This is one of my favorite pictures of my favorite cat, Taco. Taco was the special little kitty that became part of our family on Christmas Day 2003. He was left on my cousins deck by his mom because he was the runt of the litter and she couldn't take care of him. After some discussion we decided to bring him home with us. He's lived with my parents ever since and we all love him so much

I actually took this photo a few years ago after getting my first DSLR camera. It's funny because I was just starting to figure out my camera when I took this photo but it's still one of my favorite photos I've taken.

Butterfly House

Josh, Piper, and I had an awesome family outing today. We went to the Butterfly House in Sertoma Park. We were meaning to take Piper there for her birthday but she ended up getting sick. It was a good thing we waited though because since her birthday they added a fish room.

Piper loved the fish. We went to one tank and all the fish swam right up to her.

She kept saying "out" to the fish. She wanted us to take the fish out of the tank.



The "Flight Room" is a large room where they keep all the butterflies and it was a little bit scary at first. There are so many butterflies and they swoop every where. One rather large butterfly landed on my head at one point and started flapping around...it was not a pleasant feeling.

Josh and I had so much fun taking pictures of all the butterflies.

Piper was in pure awe most of the time we were in the "flight room". She would get super excited when a bunch of butterflies would fly by.


When we were planning our trip I wasn't sure if it was worth the money. It's about the same price as going to the zoo and all you see is butterflies and fish. It was such an unique experience to be in a room full of all sorts of butterflies. We are already planning our trip back!

Wordless Wednesday

Super Why!...?

We've recently started letting Piper watch a little TV here and there. I've tried to introduce her to Sesame Street and she likes it but it only keeps her attention for a little bit. For some reason she has taken to this odd little show called Super Why!. I recently downloaded a couple of episodes on to my I Tunes so that she could unwind after playing hard in her play room. We've run into a bit of a problem with the show though. Every time it's over she cries, and I'm not talking about a little fussing or throwing a tantrum. What I'm talking about is full on bawling. Her obsession is taking a bit of an unhealthy turn. I picked up the Peter Rabbit DVD for her at Target today for her Easter basket but I'm a little afraid to give it to her.

Well here's the intro song...enjoy:)

Easter Egg Hunt

We took Piper to the Easter Egg hunt at the convention center today. It was crowded and wild but she had a blast! Phil Baker a local childrens musician put on a concert and there were also animals there from the zoo.


The next few photos are from the actual Easter egg hunt and they are a little like Where's Waldo. The hunt it's self was pure chaos but Piper didn't seem to care. I think Piper likes chaos.



She also got to meet some animals from the zoo. She didn't care to pet the lizard.

She did love the big bunny and the skunk though. She gave them both a quick pat but was very happy to meet them.

I Heart Wind

This weeks I Heart Faces challenge is movement made by wind. I really don't have that many photos with wind I'm hoping after a year of living in Sioux Falls I will have lots of wind photos. This is seriously one of the windiest places I have ever lived.
I took this photo of my cousin Trina last fall. We did a quick little photo shoot one day. We didn't take a ton of photos but the ones we did take were real pretty. In this one the wind picked up her hair just enough to pull it away from her face. The other wind photos are really great so make sure you head on over to I hear faces to check them out!

12 Month Appointment

Earlier this week we had Piper's 12 month appointment. I'm sorry I haven't done a post about it yet but getting my wisdom teeth pulled really gave me no desire to blog. I'm still feeling a little goofy from the pain meds so bear with me...if my spelling and grammar is worse than normal blame it on the drugs.

She had a really great appointment for the most part. The Doctor was super impressed with how Piper's grossmoter skills have improved. She's right where she need to be in that department. She also is doing great socially. She knows way more words than she's expected too.

The thing the Doctor was concerned about though was Piper's weight. She only weighed 17.9 lbs which means she has fallen off the growth chart. The Doctor wasn't super concerned because Piper is so healthy and eats anything but it is something we have to keep an eye on.

The one thing we are struggling with getting Piper to drink is milk. At her age milk provides a large part of the fat and protein little ones get. Our doctor is great and discussed lots of different ways to get her to drink milk and she gets to eat lots of yogurt. As a parent you always get a little concerned when something about your child isn't "normal". I have an extremely skinny husband so it shouldn't be a surprise that my daughter is also very skinny. So while I still work on getting the last of my baby weight off I will contine to try to fatten up my husband and daughter:)

I'm little less wise

I had my all four of my wisdom teeth pulled yesterday. Yuck!! I had a lot of anxiety over having them pulled. I don't know why things like minor surgery freaks me out but it just does. Now I'm on day two of the healing process. I actually felt better yesterday than I do today. I was all nice and numb from the novacaine and now I'm trying to stay on top of the pain pills. I've never been a fan of pain pills.

Piper was not a fan of how I looked coming out of surgery yesterday. They wheeled me out of the recovery room and into the little waiting room where Josh and Piper were waiting. My mouth was stuffed with gauze, I had my fancy head dress on, and an IV still sticking in my arm. Piper took one look at me and just started bawling. Poor little thing...her mom did look pretty scary.

I'm happy It's over with and I can't wait to start eating normal food again.

Baby Brennan

I'm skipping wordless Wednesday this week and instead I'm going to share a photo shoot I did while I was back in Minnesota. This family had learned about my work through word of mouth. It's always a little scary meeting up with some one you've never met before to do something so personal as taking photos of them. I have to say baby Brennan's family was a amazing. They were super a relaxed and willing to try some of my crazy ideas. Brennan was also the smallest baby I've ever taken photos of and he was about as precious as a baby can get.

We went on a duck hunt

As you may remember from this post Piper is on a bit of a duck kick. Since every other word out of her mouth lately has been duck we decided it would be fun if she saw some real ducks.

We found some in a park here in town and she was so excited. They quacked, they swam, and the ducked their heads in the water. She probably said duck at least 50 times on our walk through the park.


Even though it was a bit chilly out we made time for a quick swing on the swings. For some reason Piper felt it necessary to stick her arms through the leg holes. I don't know about you but I think she looks a little like an Easter egg.

I Heart Shadows

Actually I really don't care for shadows and it's something I try to avoid in most of my photography. The thing is shadows can add to a photo if done correctly. This weeks challenge at I Heart Faces is Shadows. I had to go through many of my photos to find one with a person and their shadow.

I ended up finding this photo of Piper that I took a few weeks ago. Her shadow isn't perfect..but it's there. I'm going to try to challage myself this week to see if I can get at least on good shadow shot. Hopefully the sun will come out to help me with this challenge!

Guess what the sample lady was giving a way at the grocery store?

If you guessed chocolate frozen yogurt you were right!

In the words of Piper "num num"!

Wordless Wednesday....a day late