Frosty Who?

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! And so the sprint to the New Year begins. 

We've noticed something about Trevin lately. He is fully aware that he is a farm kid. We didn't have to tell him, or reinforce our lifestyle. He fully embraced it and thrives in it. For example, one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions is to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade while making food for the day. This was the first year that Trevin was really able to join in on the tradition and I was excited to see his reaction. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. The first float that Trevin saw was  Sesame Street. I tried to make a big deal of it, "Look how tall it is! Oh my, it's Big Bird!" And then this is what Trevin said, "Look a trailer!" Sure enough, the float was being pulled on a trailer. I mean this thing was 2 stories high, ridiculously colorful, and totally geared towards kiddos. And he was overcome with joy to see the trailer on TV. 

Then the other day Ashton was showing Trevin a magazine and he didn't want to look at it so she said, "But it's Christian Bale on the front!" Trevin says, "Feed bale to cows." It's been fun to hear his unique thoughts come to life. His mind is always farming. 

One of our Christmas traditions is the Parade of Lights in Sutton. It's a great way to get excited about the season, and to motivate me to get prepared. 

Hayrack rides, cookies, apple cider, lights, hot chocolate, stocking caps, warm hearts. 

This cookie was almost as big as his face. He had no problem with it. 

Another one of our favorite Christmas traditions is the Behold the Lamb of God concert put on by Andrew Peterson. This was the 5th year James and I had gone and it honestly gets better every year. So good. 

It was Ashton's first time! She was thrilled and couldn't stop smiling. 

We go Christmas caroling every year, and it turns out we don't know the words to Frosty the Snowman. I was especially embarrassed because I played Frosty in the school play years ago. There's probably a reason I've blocked out that song from my memory...

And Christmas shopping with my boy! Can you tell we're in the Christmas spirit? Lots to do! 

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I don't usually write much for advice; a lot of times I don't feel worthy to give anyone else advice because I don't have much figured out. But there's been something I've figured out this year and it's been life changing.  2014 has been the best year for me and setting a morning routine. I've finally found a positive start that really points me in the right direction and gives purpose to a small part of our day. It all started on February 11, my birthday. I meet with a "Moms" group at church once a month for fellowship and growth, and on that particular day a sweet gal, by the name of Charyse Harvey, spoke to us and referred to the book called, Together: Growing Appetites for God (http://www.amazon.com/Together-Growing-Appetites-True-Woman/dp/0802404480). It's the story about a mom of 3, 4 and under, (if I remember correctly, I haven't actually read the book). She had this growing question in her mind. "How can you pass a love for God's Word along to your children if you struggle with it yourself?" That question hit me like a ton of bricks. In reality, I think that was the same question that I had been wrestling with for months, but hadn't put my concern into words. For years, I've had this on-again-off-again relationship with my Bible and I was afraid that my lack of routine would influence Trevin, or worse yet, I wouldn't be a living display of the impact God's Word should have on your life.  

The author decided she was going to read through the Bible, one chapter a day, with her kids. That was her plan. It was a simple plan, but not necessarily an easy plan. I was totally convicted and decided that I needed a simple plan, just like her. So we began on February 12, reading straight through the Bible, starting with Genesis 1 and hopefully ending with "Amen" in Revelations before he graduates... I decided that breakfast would be the best time to fit this into our daily routine. Here's how we do it. When Trevin wakes up, I make him breakfast and sit at the table with him, bible opened. As he eats, I read. This generally works well because he's less likely to interrupt and more likely to sit still. The first couple days were challenging. He was a crazy 20-month-old boy, when this began, who barely ate because he was so busy. As you'd expect we had many delays for fits and strange outbursts of giggling/crying/whining/singing/screaming/babbling.. But we pushed through. And after that first week, he expected it in our routine. 

The first several weeks and even months went really well and we stayed consistent and diligent. But before you think this is too perfect, I'll assure you that there are days where he literally screams "NO BIBLE!" or cuts me off mid-sentence to say, "All done reading." But all I had to tell myself in my mind is that he needs to see this as a priority. This is first. Not toys, not movies, not work. And you know what? It's paying off. It's making an impact. Because if I'm feeling lazy and would rather skip our reading for the day, he reminds me that it's "time to read Bible." He holds ME accountable now. Some days I finish the chapter and I close the book and he looks at me and says, "Read more!" It's on those days that I realize the hours we've spent over the past year have absolutely made a difference. This summer I failed a lot of days to make reading a priority, but was so determined to jump back in without regretting the days we missed. Believe it or not, we started the book of 1 Samuel today and I'm thrilled with what we've accomplished.
Some of you might be thinking that this is "great and all" but it's all going over his head. It's too much for him to understand. Maybe you're right, but I trust that God will use it in his precious little 2-year-old heart. Even if he doesn't understand a single bit of what I've read these past few months, I'll be glad that he's learned the Bible is so important to us. And as he gets older, more will be revealed to him and he'll ask questions and be able to experience God's heart with every chapter.
After we finish reading each day, Trevin goes to play with the toys he's missed all night long, and I pour a cup of coffee (Yeah, I started coffee this month... what about it?) and make up some breakfast of my own. While he plays I sit down and read through a short devotional with my breakfast. After the first couple months, I felt like I still needed my own quiet time. My own study. When I got my new phone, I learned about an app called "She Reads Truth". It's been a great tool for my personal devotion time and I'd highly suggest it. This is how we do mornings. I learned that once I stopped making excuses for myself, I was able to start my morning out with purpose. I hope this is an encouragement to someone, because this was an area that I desperately needed encouragement and I've seen first-hand how God has used it each day. Psalm 143:8 "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life."

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We play a lot these days... 

And he's taken to this ugly baby doll that he found at my mom's house. On this particular day he read to the baby for a 1/2 hour. He is hinting. James is hinting. You are hinting. And I'm plugging my ears and singing, "la la la la!" One kid is so many.


And this little lady has been around a lot recently to help fill the baby fever. 

Mitch and Nicole made the move to Aurora, so we had several bonding days during the move while they were in between houses. 

And we made runzas for the freezer. I think we ended up with 54 runzas and 4 bags of filling. Not too shabby for a couple of gals who don't cook. 

This sweet family was my last family session. I've been in a bible study with McKenzie for the past 8 weeks and it's been nice getting to know her and her littles. They snagged the last awesome day of fall, and we had a great shoot to show for it. 

My grandpa turns 81 today. Happy Birthday to the one and only, Martin Nuss! 

Let's celebrate with a doughnut. BRING ON THE SPRINKLES. 

This christmas parties begin tomorrow and don't end until the first week in January. So I'll see you 10 pounds from now.

Merry Christmas baby. 

Keeping it real, growing on the farm...

IKEA Twine

Ok, ya'll I'm going to get real with you. (Not that I've ever really withheld anything from this blog, not much is off limits for me, apparently.) But after the last two weeks I've had, it's put me in a place where I'm ready to make an announcement. I needed patience. And ONE time I asked God for it, and He actually took me seriously. He's been giving me a plethora of opportunities to practice. Let's rewind. You probably know that my Mac laptop and I are inseparable. It goes everywhere with me. James bought it in 2009 and it has been a trooper. Never did we have any severe issues with it. It's never been in the shop. And I've rarely had a complaint about it. Fast forward almost 6 years and I'm using it for every aspect of my life. Photography (ridiculously), CRC (big time), parenting/wife-ing (pinterest, no shame), and of course blogging (hey-o!) It's my resource and tool for everything, my connection to this incredible world, it helps me to play out my God-given purpose in this life.

It all started with a bad computer charger cord, I'm told Apple is notorious for "sucking" at making these. Well ours lasted several years before it quit. No biggie. Just bought a new one. A week later my precious computer freezes, tried restarting and no gain. Crashed. My most important business asset, gone. I freaked. I cried. I crashed. I run everything off of an external hard drive (because I didn't want my photography gig to run my computer into the ground), so most everything was backed up. A week later it comes back from the shop, fixed. Woohoo! Just some crazy corrupted back files. Didn't lose a thing. But the computer was running horribly slow and freezing continually after the "fix." And then this morning. Oh this morning. A morning of mournings. (See what I did there?) Since Monday my external hard drive had been acting weird. Stalling and not allowing me to open files. I figured it was just moody, we all get that way sometimes. But this morning I finally got the files to open and immediately started saving them to the laptop so I could work on them. As I'm transferring files, I blow a breaker with the new computer charger cord (what?) Then I realize the cord no longer works. The brand new one, shot. Then the external hard drives stalls, I eject it and the computer freezes. Restart, crash. This was one hour of my morning, (next Trevin would have 2 accidents and color with marker all over his leg, but that was the good part.) So here I am with no charger, no cord, no hard drive, and about 3 weeks of work to do. And I pray that this is my last patience test for the season. (Gotta admit I've come a LONG way. I still have a smile on my face today.)

So this brings me to my announcement. And as much as it hurts to say it, I've been praying about it, discussing it, and considering it for a while and I'm officially convinced that God has made Himself clear about what's next for me. After only a year and a half of photography, I'm stepping away from that opportunity. I know God had a purpose for it in my life at that time, but He's opening up new doors and quite obviously, closing others.  My photography has outgrown me and I couldn't keep it up and continue to do everything else I've been called to do. I've tried to keep track of the pictures I've taken... 3 senior sessions, 1 maternity, 2 newborn, 2 engagements, 2 weddings, church projects (directory, website and VBS), many special events (surprise parties, prom, CRC camps and events, anniversary parties), one totally awesome proposal, several Christmas card photos, and 15 family sessions! And an endless amount of my child. I have several sessions lined up for the next several months, (including another senior, 2 family, and a maternity) and I'm currently working on editing a shoot or two. So my picture taking days are not completely over, but I won't be taking any new sessions.  I've loved it, and it's hard to believe that I'm actually tearing up as I'm typing. It was something I was really proud of myself for accomplishing. I was self-taught. I started out not knowing a single thing about photography and now I can speak the language without bluff; aperture, ISO, shutter speed, exposure compensation, and focal points make total sense to me now. Thankfully it's a skill I can continue using in my own family and as a hobby instead of a career.  It has been so fun, and I'm really grateful for all the people that trusted me to take their pictures. (Honestly, family alone could have kept me employed for a decade.) Y'all have referred me, encouraged me, challenged me, and supported me through every stage.  I am so blessed by each of you.

Enough of the sappy stuff, let's move on!


Some days we play in the rain.

I know you guys have been dying to hear about IKEA. I mean what's not to love about 4 awesome friends, driving many hours, to buy cheap Swedish furniture?

We found these classy Nebraska gals at a gas station. Bonus.

I left home about 4:30 AM so we could make it to Merriam, Kansas in time for store opening. We only got lost once, but made good time.

I wanted to get a new bed for Trevin. We'll be moving him out of a crib before long and I found an awesome bed at IKEA that would work perfectly for a small room. The only problem was that we didn't bring a big enough vehicle. The bed was too long for the car. So I asked the cashier if they had straps I could buy to tie it on top, she told me that they're free out by the loading area. So I went out there and found a metal box with big white letters on it that said, "TWINE." That was what we were supposed to use and drive 250 miles with. So we attempted.

But after a lot of failure and knots all over the place, a nice IKEA worker stopped to help us. He gently told us we were doing it wrong and seemed confused when he saw our system. We soon found out he was on break, nice guy to help out anyway. Then we found out he worked in the kitchen at the IKEA restaurant and not actually in the store. Really nice guy. Then we found out it was his last day of work. Seriously, he should not have even cared about our hopelessness. I tried to slip him a $20 bill, but he refused. What key of excellence is that, class? Integrity. Thank you IKEA kitchen man.

How many NE girls does it take to tie down a bed? One Kansas man.

Even though the IKEA guy did a nice job helping us, we still decided to hit up Home Depot to buy some ratchet straps. You know what is crazy? They don't come put together! You have to lace them or string them, or whatever. Well we're not complete idiots, we know how to work a ratchet strap. We just didn't know how to put one together. So we FaceTimed Mitch Nuss. We were all laughing so hard that we got no where. And in fact I made a mess of mine. I threaded it through backwards and then around again and then started tightening away. It was a large knot by the time I was done.

Once again we were needing some assistance. Another kind gentleman stopped to help us. He got one strapped down and then he took a look at mine and said, "Um, yeah, you're gonna want to throw that away." I worked on that strap for 1/2 hour and got it completely untangled. Don't be impressed. When I got home, James promptly taught me how to start the ratchet strap so I won't have that issue again. But I told him that I wouldn't have that issue again, because now they were ready to use. We are honest gals. And there's not an ounce of feminism amongst us. We need men in our lives. That's the truest truth I've heard since the Gospel.

After IKEA we hit up a large mall and we shopped until we dropped. Proof right there. Too much fun for one day.

Ashli is that sweet gal that I want to do absolutely everything with. She makes life more enjoyable and I feel like I could stalk her, thankfully she's family now, so it comes naturally and not awkwardly.

Taylor is the only person I know that rocks harder than me. I can always count on her to show me up on the dance floor and make me laugh at ridiculous things. She is the most honest person I know and has so many qualities I admire.

Nicole is always there for great, deep conversation, making me better, learning life together and sharing babies. I'm cooler just by hanging out with her.

Fun fact: We got called "stupid white girls." And not even by the guys that helped us in Kansas, (because they would have had reason.) Nope this was in Lincoln, NE, Target. Thankfully only feelings were hurt in this exchange and not our bodies, because these girls looked like they were ready to pounce. So that happened.

In all we had a great trip. We came home with a lot of goodies. I'm so grateful for these friends. Life would be so boring without them.

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It wouldn't be a good blog post without a potty training update.

We speak a lot of potty language in our house now. Trevin doesn't yet understand  what is acceptable to say, and what is just rather awkward. He's been known to say, "It's coming out!" "Ooo lotsa pee in there!" And of course, "Mom, catch the drips!"  Never dull.

There were three things we needed to master after our potty training boot camp.

1. Use the actual toilet instead of that disgusting potty chair.

2. He still would poop in his undies.
3. He insists that all the clothes on the bottom half come off when he goes.

We successfully have transferred to the toilet with a child seat! Victory. In public, he will go on just the toilet if he has to, but prefers his Lightning McQueen seat.

Yeah he still poops in his underwear...

And he'll only leave his underwear and pants on his ankles for James, but insists that everything comes off when I take him. Partial victory? (This means, boots, undies, and pants all come off in public.)  

Halloween happened, too! Trevin went as a lumberjack. And it took some bribery to get his beard drawn in.

My friend, Paige, showed her husband, Tom, a picture of Trevin's costume. Tom's reaction was,
"What is he? His dad?" Basically.

Speaking of James... He finally found "the one." I'm so proud of his hard work and glad he can enjoy his new toy.  

It was Antiquities time again! Trevin was a champ and I fell in love with him all over again.

Here's the Hogan clan! I was so glad I got to photograph this family at a gorgeous location. Talk about a perfect Fall session.

That's all folks!

Shifting gears, growing on the farm...

Meet our new friend, the Potty Chair

Hey, we joined the potty trained train! Well mostly. It all started when I finally convinced Trevin to simply sit on the potty. And he went. Just like that. So we put on our big boy undies and off we went. Some days he's a rockstar. And some days I clean up a lot of pee. And poop. And it's no fun. It's those days that I watch my hair turn gray. The potty chair has now become an accessory for us. It goes to church, goes to the store, goes to Grandma's. It also has become a new decoration for us. It can be found in the bathroom, laundry room, garage, bedroom, living room, and kitchen. Basically wherever we are. 

And also Trevin has been constipated, so we did the prune juice thing. It worked. A little too good. Poor guy. Thankfully we were outside when it happened. Hosed off the sidewalk. Hosed off the child, (and then bathed him.) Threw away the totally awesome Cars undies. (Because there was no way I was going there...) 

Besides hitting the bathroom every other hour, we've been farming.  Harvest is rolling along, with about a week off due to some wet popcorn. Have I ever told you how cool it is to grow popcorn? So cool. We eat a lot of popcorn. And my guy knows how to fix it to perfection.





Also, if you're looking for some rocking awesome organic kettle corn. Check this >>>  http://www.kettlepop.com/

(Shameless plug) If you buy some KettlePop you very well might be eating corn from the sweat and tears of James Huenefeld. His sweat and tears are what irrigates the land; it gives the popcorn a little more flavor and certifies it as organic.  

Moo.

Everyone loves a good "fail blog." So here's one for your enjoyment. Baked mozzarella bites. I've made them once before with string cheese and they turned out great. I tried to make them again but used fresh mozzarella cheese instead of string cheese, and the result was fail blog worthy. 

We called them mozzarella chips and they might be the next big thing. Or they might not. Either way, though... 

I hit a milestone this month. It was a pretty big deal. I went to my very first Grandparents Day. (Technically it was Grandparents and Special Friends Day, but I prefer just Grandparents Day.) Ashton and I were lucky enough to accompany our nephews, along with my mom and grandpa. We had cafeteria food again, and sat at undersized desks. I used a SmartBoard and played at recess. Elementary school is the coolest place. 

Proud grandma. 

This is a spinning arm torture device. Kids consider it "fun." This is what we did all of recess time. My arms were burning. I really looked pathetic when the other grandma at recess (approximately age 60,) was swinging from it with impressive form. 

Confession time. I go through obsession phases with everything. Food, music, shows, styles, clothes, hobbies, etc... My latest obsessions are...

#1. 19 Kids and Counting (Love me some Duggar's, and was mortified when it was taken off of Netflix. I found out today that Jill is having a boy, can't wait for Jessa's wedding, and love to watch Jim Bob attempt to speak Spanish.)  

#2. My Eagles Pandora station (A little Eagles, a little Steve Miller, a little CCR. Also a tidbit, this is the best music to have on while cleaning. Killer beats for vacuuming.)  

#3. S'mores bars  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/121808364897296714/ (My mom used to make these when I was a kid and she broke out the recipe this weekend. I ate 4 pieces. 4. Within 2 hours. I think that qualifies it for making my latest obsession list.) 

October has brought another month of pictures. Clayton and Sandy Kliewer were my latest experiment. And this colored, matte family shot may be my favorite picture I've ever taken. They're even my family, so it doesn't get better. 

This was taken in between poses and would have normally been a throw out picture, but something about this shot kept me coming back to it several times. I love the innocent expressions of each personality.  

On Sunday, I crashed a surprise birthday party for a grandma that wasn't mine. It was my uncle's mom, and we were able to squeeze in some LARGE family pictures. Large in quantity and head size. But they say, big head, big brain. I'd say that's the case with this bunch. Meet the extended Schelkopf family.

Grandkids

Kids

Happy 80th birthday, Bev! 

Coming soon: Another photo shoot, a girls trip to IKEA with my besties, Halloween, and bunco.

A day as a grandparent, growing on the farm...