Grandma O'Neal's

Little Monkey has discovered his favorite place at Great Grandma's house...the pots and pans cabinet! He climbed in there and took out every pot and pan. The kitchen floor was covered! It was a noisy day.

Blast from the Past

Woah! It has been quite a while since my last post! Life has been crazy...but good!..always good =) We have moved to a new town. I spent a lot of time just trying to adjust over here. It's more of a country town, so we have to travel about 15 minutes just to get decent prices on things...luckily they don't gouge us with aweful gas prices atleast.

Anyway, Monkey is doing great!! He is so big now...almost 22 months! I am so not ready for him to turn two yet! He is saying so many things now..he puts sentences together.
He says:
"I want that"
"I go"
"What ya doing?"
"I want down."
"I do it."....and much more. He surprises me everyday with the things he is learning. We have lowered his bed and lowered the railing, but for some reason he doesn't climb out. I'm not sure about that. I just want him to get the feel of a big kid bed before too long. Maybe we'll switch him to a big kid bed in nine months or so...

Mr. Red is still working hard at his job. There are days when I just want him to find a new job. Other days, I am so grateful for the time we have that I forget why I dislike the job. He likes it, and for me, I guess that's good enough. I just hope they don't have anymore lay offs...it's easier to find a job when you still have one.

We're getting into a fun routine around here...we go for stroller walks and bike rides. Mr. Red and I are trying to stay in shape, which is really difficult with his job, but we're making due. It's just a good way for us to connect and spend time as a family! I highly recommend it to anyone looking for family time! Little Monkey loves it outside! I hope he stayes that way. I don't want him to be addicted to games and keep him in the house. There's too much outside to miss.

I have a new job!!!! I am so excited and proud to be the new Lead Teacher for the 2 1/2 - 3 year old room at Central Christian Academy! I start orientation at the end of next week and I just couldn't be happier! Finally, I feel like I am where God is leading, and I am not the one trying to hold the reigns. So many times, it's easy to think, "Oh, I can take care of this, God. I'll call you when I need You." Well, we always need God and He is always leading whether we realize it or not. Listen, be still, listen to His whisper and movement. He may be subtle, but He is there, always. Rely on Him.

Also, I am trying out the whole self business route. I am a new Avon Sales representative! I wasn't too sure about it at first, but turns out I really like it! So, if you would like to talk about Avon or see what we have, my website is www.youravon.com/jabbott. You can go there and view products, E-mail me, or even order 24/7. If you're not interested, there's no hard feelings. Just thought I'd put it out there.

Anywho, on to the pictures. These are old pics, from April. Little Monkey and Baby M had an Easter Egg hunt at our old house. It was such a beautiful day! These pics aren't edited, but I just wanted to post an update for you. I'll try to catch you up over the next little while so you can see just how big this boy is getting!

My Sweetie

I love editing pictures of Luke. These are some of my favorite edited pictures. I really had fun playing with the light and the colors. What do you think?

Editing

So, I have been practicing some editing lately. Here are some shots from the past that I have tried to add a little umph to.

Gamma and Gampa

We went to my parent's house today. Luke loves Grandma and Grandpa's house!

There's this glass display area that he just loves to walk through...over and over again. It made for a few good shots.

I just love his feet! Can you blame me??
I especially love his new shoes!

Practice Makes Perfect

These are just a few of the pictures I took with Amanda in the past couple of weeks. We've really been working on some technique. The first week, we set our aperture to 5.6, then adjusted shutter speed and ISO. Last week, we played with different apertures. I'm really enjoying learning more about my new camera!I took tons of pictures of the geese. I just think they are so beautiful! I was really impressed with how close they let us get to them too!

I think Amanda looks just beautiful in this shot! We took a variety of shots of eachother at the park. It was a chilly day and my nose got pretty pink, but it was too much fun to pass up!

Okay, I just thought this old man was so cute! He had about 5 different poles and had been out there all morning. Old men are adorable; they just make me smile =)

Here is a shot with a high aperture. The backround is pretty clear.

Now a shot with a low aperture...notice the blurry backround.

Well, this is what I have been up to lately.

Something else I've been working on is fun activities for me and Luke to do. We like to color, read, and play with bubbles (he can actually say "bubble"!!). We also love Little Einsteins and the Disney channel, but I really don't want him to watch that much TV. I'm trying to figure out new activities. What do you guys do?

Luke loves to go outside. It was raining so I couldn't take him outside last week. He was pretty upset.