I’ve had this project in my head for far too long to admit that it took me about 3 months to finally finish and order it. And sadly, it’s not even an original idea. I didn’t create the project out of thin air, I was just customizing it for my own child and recreating it a bit to suit my own design style. Original idea here.

But I finally finished it in a few spare minutes last week. The only reason I was able to force myself into finalizing the project was because I had purchased a Groupon for Shutterly (my first Groupon buy) and it was going to expire in May. So I needed to pound this project out before my Groupon expired.

Ephram, surprisingly, humored me enough to read it once through on the day it arrived, which definitely pleased my mama heart. I didn’t expect him to show much interest in the book since he typically becomes sick of reading by about the second page of a story. But I am still glad I pushed myself to finish it, so that one day when he’s older, he’ll be able to see how loved (and adorable) he was as a baby.

Full book below:

Click here to view this photo book larger

We spent Easter with Beau’s side of the family this year, which meant Ephram would get some quality time with some of his favorite little friends (cousins). I swear, his eyes lighten up the moment he sees them. And, in fact, even as I prepared these photos for the blog, he chirped and babbled while sitting on my lap, watching me sort through them. Which sparked a fun game of “Is that Adeline? Yep, that’s Adeline. Is that your cousin, Zach? Yep, that’s Zach. Can you say Grant? Shania? Hunter?” etc.

And Easter just isn’t Easter without an egg hunt in the woods behind Mema and Papa’s house. Luckily, we were able to put Ephram’s “Where’s the ball?” game to use in the egg hunt, since eggs closely resemble perfectly sized balls for a little boy’s hands.

The big kids raced to find the eggs…

while the younger ones held the hands of adults to walk through the leaves…

And by the end of the hunt, everyone had a few eggs in their basket. So proud, they were.

1. I’m still adjusting to having Beau work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Adjusting, but loving it. When you both work random days of the week at random times of the day, you lose that M-F work week/S & S weekend rhythm. Of course there are pro’s to that, but also con’s. I live for organization and routine, so even though my schedule is still a mess, I’ve started to feel the rhythm again. So I snagged a weekly planner system at Target (cannot find the link) a couple weeks ago. It’s perfect. I primarily use it to write down my work schedule that week and what times we plan on using daycare for Ephram. In addition, I now have most evenings off of work with Beau, so I’m attempting to create a weekly meal plan and plot it out on there. It’s the little things that make me happy.

2. Ephram has officially reached the milestone of walking more than crawling. I’m not sure I’ve ever been so happy to watch the progress and mastering of a skill than I have with Ephram. While watching E bend down to grab a sippy cup mid-walk, and then stand back up and walk into the kitchen, Beau and I shared a little smile. So incredible how fast he’s growing up and becoming his own person.  Then yesterday, he tripped on the driveway, bit his lip, scraped his finger, and we had our first official bloody booboo.

3. This makes me laugh out loud: What if you lived at Ikea?

4. Is it odd to be excited about a stranger’s wedding, especially when I’m not really the wedding type of girl? (PS, it’s my 3 yr wedding anniversary, and we are not doing anything special – just the way we are)  But Ms Laura Belle’s wedding plans are just too darling and yesterday she shared her wedding moodboards.  She also shares how to choose your wedding photographer, and nailed it on the head, so go check it out.

5. When I found out I was pregnant with Ephram, and began searching the internet feverishly for information (man, I love the internet for that reason), I stumbled upon weekly development emails I could sign up for through sites like BabyCenter, The Bump, and iVillage to keep up on what my little nugget was doing in my belly. And it continued once he was born. Tips for handling a newborn included for a bonus! And even at age 13 months, I’m still receiving these emails and I love them. They always seem to come at the right moments. Like last week, when Ephram was being especially trying, I received this:

Spirited and mild-mannered toddlers alike will experiment with … how shall we say it? … undesirable behavior. If your toddler indulges in fits of screaming, hitting, and biting, you can take some solace in knowing that his development is right on track. Discipline can be a challenge with kids this age, so try to build a little personal time into your schedule each week as a way to refuel your patience tank.

Luckily, I’ve been fully enjoying ‘a little personal time while driving to and from work while listening to a new mixed cd I made (featuring mostly Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood, in case you were interested).

6. By the way, if you are pregnant, I highly recommend skipping the pregnancy books and opting for these free email options.  There is an abundant amount of information loaded into the emails and even more in the links they provide. (There are probably even more out there, but three was enough for me.)

7. If you are reading this post, you use the internet.  If you use the internet, you inevitably have passwords.  If you have passwords, you’ll want to read these password tips, ASAP!  You can thank me later.

8. Maybe it’s because I’m a nerdy-meteorologist, or maybe because I’m a lover of the outdoors, but I find phenology fascinating.  Phenology, being, the study of seasonal timing of life cycle occurrences.  Well, in case you are as nerdy as me, you can check out Minnesota’s spring phenology here.

9. Custom coloring book pages will be made in my house this week, via an awesome tutorial on Photojojo.

10. I love this boy.

Though it doesn’t appear we are in for anymore snow this month, and spring may truly be on it’s way back, I feel a need to blog/record/document the fact that we’ve gotten hit by snow twice in the last week.

Some aren’t happy about it, and I’ll admit I’d much rather be taking walks with Ephram and Beau on sunny evenings while wearing flip flops and smelling the delightful smell of lilacs, I wasn’t too sad about a few inches of snow. For me, it brings the magical feeling of the first snowfall of the season, but it’s better than that. Instead of fear of a cold and awful Winter ahead, we are instead gearing up for Summer. You can’t get too upset about a combo that includes magical moments and excitement ahead. Nope, you can’t.

This was the first of the April snowfalls, Beau created a time lapse of the snow melting on our front lawn. Can you believe this was made solely with his iPhone?

I received an email from my mom last night requesting new pictures of her grandson. So I’m here to oblige.

It seems that working 32 hours over the weekend (again) + 3 overnight shifts + having more of my free time line up with Beau being home + an busy/walking/trouble-making Ephram = a lot less blogging.

It’s really not a bad thing really. It means more dinners as a family and spending afternoons playing on the driveway and evenings watching tv with my husband. All of which haven’t happened much in the past year (or really ever since we entered the working world and left college) due to our odd meteorologist work schedules. Now that Beau has a normal job, it’s all returned, and it’s so great!

I promise that I have a few posts in mind I’d like to share in the next week, but for now, I’ll leave you with a few recent photos I’ve captured during this period of less blogging and more living.