bedhead

This isn't the "real" picture, but it was just too hilarious not to post.

I guess he needed a little wake up call from the flash. :)

long overdue Christmas post

I don't know what to say, other than the fact that our Christmas was wonderful, yet snotty. Steven caught ANOTHER cold, just after having some major congestion and, the wonderful son that he is, shared it with everyone. And by everyone, I mean even the mailman got it. First Matt, then Uncle Jon, then me, then Mimi, and I think Grampy got it too. YUCK. It was nasty. I topped mine off with some food poisioning and we had a wonderful day after Christmas.

I didn't take a lot of pictures because really, who wants to see snot running down my kid's nose? And most of them didn't come out anyway because someone's arm was usually infront of his face wiping said snot so the house wasn't hosed in it. And then he would scream because 'SERIOUSLY, get that tissue out of my face or I will eat it!'. Yeah, having a sick 1 year old is fun. Poor thing.
But here are just a few of our Christmas with The Sternad side of the family...

He's sitting eating Cherrios at the table and chairs Nana and Grampy got him.

Such a big boy

With Nana kissing Rintoo...this little tiger might be one of his favorite gifts

Christmas with the Christmas Noel family was wonderful and snotty as well. Steven got SO many cute things and we loved hanging out with Uncle Jon and Mimi.

With Mimi opening presents

Piles and piles of toys in front of the fireplace and I think playing with Uncle Jon and all the tissue from all the gifts won out:

Overall, our Christmas was very merry! Thanks to all our family for making it so wonderful!

flashback friday

New Years Day, 2009

the best of the worst

I think this Santa picture (read: FAIL) could win the award for The Best Worst Santa Picture EVAH. What do you think?

I think the arms really add the most dramatic effect.

Ellen has a part of her show called Bad Paid For Photos. Do you think Ellen would show it in her fabulous hour of much needed break from Kai-Lan, mommy entertainment*? Because I think she should.

If only you could see that his shirt says "I'm Santa's Favorite".

Because obviously.


*I most certainly DO NOT let my kid watch endless hours of Ni-Hao, Kai-Lan, a show about a little Chinese girl who has no parents, a grandfather who is sometimes nearby, who talks and sings with jungle animals and a monkey that plays the turn tables. Nope, I most certainly do not.

And I most certainly didn't laugh my ass off when I saw what the picture lady caught on camera. What kind of mother do you think I am?

life in motion

Back in June I had emailed Lyndsay Stradtner with Life In Motion Photography to set up a family/ 1 year portrait session. I had been drooling over her work for quite a while and was so anxious when Matt gave the go ahead was informed that we would be doing this session in November. I searched and shopped for just the right clothes, just the right colors, and just the right styles for months. Got Steven's hair cut the month before (which was almost too early- it grows so fast!) and got my hair cut, too. Everything had to be just right. This portrait session was all-consuming weeks before the blessed event even took place. And it was sooooo worth it. Lyndsay has photographed many of my friends and she did not disappoint. She was amazing and we loved her. And Steven loved her. See?

Although the session itself was a breeze, the week leading up to it was not. Matt was out of town, and wouldn't ya know 2 days before our shoot Steven gets his first bloody nose and fat lip...

We have definite routines we do everyday and while Matt was out of town I was trying to keep everything as normal as possible. Daddy has bath time and the ritual consists of Steven and Daddy run naked (most of the time it's just Steven that's naked) from dinner in the kitchen to the bathtub. This particular time I think he was over excited and did a perfect face plant right on the tile. Poor baby. Lots of tears, a little blood, and some fast swelling. I got ice on it right away, but it still swelled up. I panicked. I had a flash forward of having to call Lyndsay bawling, asking if we could reschedule. I know she would have if we had needed it ('cause she's awesome like that), but the next day the swelling was way down, and by picture day it was just about gone. Whew!

I'm so in love with the shots of all three of us. We look so put together, composed and at ease. If only we looked like this all the time! HA!

This is my favorite shot of Matt and Little. Love my boys!

And this is probably my most favorite picture ever. I have so few pictures of just me and Steven, mostly because I'm the one behind our camera. This shot warms my heart each and every time I look at it.

I made another smash cake for Little to dig into. He thought it was yum.



And our awesome end-of-the-night-very-cool-Austin shot.

So, a huge, heartfelt THANK YOU to Lyndsay at Life in Motion Photography!! We LOVE our pictures and we I can't wait for another baby for a reason to schedule another session with you. ;)

For an adorable slide show of all our images put together by Lyndsay, click HERE (and make sure your sound is on!).

Pflurries in Pflugerville!!

Austin got SNOW FLURRIES today! We had been reading about it all week on weather.com and they were originally forcasting quite a bit (up to half an inch!) but it ended up not being much of anything. :( I know you people up North are probably snorting you're laughing so hard, but this never happens! Oddly enough, we got a flurry shower this same week last year when Steven was just a few weeks old.

So, naturally we had to rush Steven out into the 30 degree weather for some pictures. I'm not sure if he even realized it was snowing, it was so light. He had trouble moving because of the massive amounts of clothes he was wearing, but he soon got the hang of it. If you look reeeealy close you can see our tiny flakes.

*Tips for moms who have toddlers who won't wear hats- put their mittens on first. Then they can't figure out how to pull their hat off....or at least mine couldn't. Either that or he was so distracted by the mittens he forgot about the hat.

Proof that there actually was frozen precipitation

a beachy thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving was Steven's first time to the beach. The Sternad family has made a tradition of going to the coast every Thanksgiving and this is my second time to go as part of the family. I have to admit, getting used to going to Luby's was hard, but the food is pretty good and it's always packed!

This was Steven's second Thanksgiving. If you'll remember last year...

Awww, so tiny.... Ahem. Where was I? Oh yeah....

Steven LOVED the beach. LOVED. IT. The birds, the shells, the sand, the water, all of it.

I'm so glad we brought his wagon! Riding in the wagon was the way to walk to beach.

Here all of us are (well, except for me) walking back to the condo during a beautiful sunset!

Evidently, Steven is master of chasing birds, but I didn't get to witness it. Someone (and I won't name names) decided sleeping at the beach is for the weak, so while mommy and daddy tried to get a few more hours of sleep Nana and Grampy (thank you!!) took him down to the beach where all the bird chasing happened.

The water was a little chilly, so we made our dip in the ocean super fast! He just giggled and squealed- I can't wait to take him when the water's warm! And please excuse the way his mother looks. Apparently she hasn't seen the sun (or the gym!) in quite sometime.

Splash, splash, splash

Gobble, gobble, gobble :)