Saturday, December 31, 2011
Same Old Song Again
We thought a lot about how we wanted to continue this photo project. We considered going to more of a weekly summary format like our friends Ryan and Rachel. Sometimes we are really challenged to come up with a photo of the day. And sometimes we feel we would like to add more, for example some of the birthday party projects we did or things like that, than a photo-of-the-day format really allows. However, we find that some of our really fun pictures come unexpectedly from days where we have to work to find something, and we don't want to miss out on those great pictures. So we have decided to stick with the same format, but we may have some longer posts if we feel we want to record certain special events. We have taken a picture for the last 730 days in a row, and it is amazing how much our life has changed and the unexpected turns God had in store for us. We are excited to continue this project for 2012 and we hope you will join us over at http://thousandwords2012.blogspot.com/ This will be the last post on this blog, so we'll see you over in the new one!
Our Top 5 Posts: The Year in Review
From Meghan:
I set out to make my list of top five posts and I just couldn't. This has probably been the biggest year of my life. So much happened that I can hardly believe it. But I narrowed it down to seven and that's the best I could do. In chronological order:
1) Happy New Year's! (1/1/11): I like this post because it was my first new year's as a mom and it was a fun night. And I think Joshua looks darn cute in a party hat. But also because sometimes it's hard to remember how fast he's grown. I am not a baby person. I don't particularly enjoy the newborn phase. So sometimes it feels like Clara will be a newborn forever and it's hard. But looking at how Joshua went from a baby to a real kid in just one year makes me realize how fast it really does go and makes me feel more patient about dealing with the new baby part of life because I realize how awesome it gets just around the corner.
2) Very Grand Indeed (6/3/11): We had a lot of really fun travels this summer and I pretty much loved it all. My favorite destination was definitely Hawaii, but we had a great time on our road trip to the Grand Canyon and, probably moreso than the other places we went, it was a great place to take a kid. Thinking back to the fun time we had makes me feel excited about going other places as a family. I also love this picture because it shows the canyon probably as much as a snapshot can (which in no way does it justice) and Joshua is just sitting there going, "Hey guys, I'm here too".
3) Finally Final (6/13/11): Adoption can be a stressful process. Not only is it hard to get paperwork ready, find an agency, and wait forever for a child, but then when you get your child, you know it's not really final yet. So it's hard to completely relax. Finalizing Joshua's adoption forever was a great feeling and an emotional day.
4) The Suite Life (7/29/11): Our trip to Vegas at Red Rock with Jason's company was a fun one. I am not a huge fan of Vegas so I appreciated being off-strip and, for Vegas, it was a pretty kid-friendly hotel. This is a great picture of Jason and I, and we were in the most amazing hotel suite I have ever seen and probably will ever see, with great food and drink, and it was a fun time to enjoy as adults without Joshua there since we were able to use the hotel child care. With kids, our date nights are very precious. I really enjoyed all of the ones we had this year, but this one was especially fun.
5) Closing (9/9/11): I never really wanted to leave our old house. I mean, I was okay with it or we wouldn't have done it, but I was quite content there. So closing on our new house was a very bittersweet day for me as I was happy to be moving to a house that better met our needs, but very sad to leave the home we had been in since we got married. And I really like Joshua sitting in his own seat in this picture.
6) Joshua Sandwich (9/22/11): I love being a stay-at-home mom. It can be tiring, but a lot of times it's really fun. It's hard to explain why because nothing I do is really terribly exciting, but this picture is the best one for encapsulating why: For all the little moments that aren't anything special, but are so much fun and to be treasured because they are all so brief before that type of fun is outgrown.
7) Party of Four (11/26/11): We had no idea how long our second adoption would take, but for whatever reason I really thought it would take 8 times as long as our first one, which would be 48 days. I felt really convinced of that. 48 days was Thanksgiving day so I was pretty bummed on the night before Thanksgiving when no one had called because all my strong feelings in adoption with Joshua had been really accurate. I was a little discouraged about it. So when the agency called on Thanksgiving night I really could not believe it and meeting Clara was a really wonderful and special way to spend Thanksgiving.
From Jason:
Meghan told me she couldn't narrow it down beyond seven, so I decided to do the same amount. It worked out really well, because I had a hard enough time getting down to seven, so I'm not sure how I could have pared it down to five. So here are my top seven favorite posts, in chronological order:
1) Some Tired Guys (2/22/11): Although many of our photos are for events we knew would happen ahead of time, sometimes the best photos are things that unexpectedly happen, which was the case with this one. I was trying to feed Joshua his bottle, but we were both exhausted, so we didn’t make it to the end. I’m so glad Meghan noticed us and thought to take the picture, because it’s one of my all-time favorites.
2) First Father’s Day (6/19/11): I knew I would like being a father, but I really didn’t know how much I’d like it. I just have so much love for Joshua and feel such a strong bond with him. I love spending time with him, and I can tell that he loves spending time with me, which is very gratifying. Of course Father’s Day wasn’t the first time I had noticed that feeling, but I did spend quite a bit of time reflecting on it, and it just made me so happy.
3) Rehearsing (8/26/11): Having children requires reducing the amount of time you spend with outside interests and with other people. I have a few friends in the local area whom I really enjoy spending time with, but we just don’t get to hang out very often. But when I do, I really cherish those times. This picture was from one of those occasions where Jason, Nick, Tony (not pictured), and I got to spend a lot of time together at Jason’s wedding. I love how happy we all look in this picture, as it really represents the joy I get from spending time with some of my best friends in the world.
4) Happy Cowloween (10/31/11): Some of my favorite posts are because they represent a particular event that was significant, but this one is one of my favorites simply because of the picture. How is that not one of the cutest pictures ever? I love it, as it captures his extreme adorableness and shows his happy, shining little personality all in a single picture.
5) Leaf Wranglers (11/20/11): I love this picture not only because Joshua is so ridiculously and unbelievably cute, but also because I’m really excited about doing father/son things with him. Not only will these be traditional things like going to baseball games, but also smaller mundane things like working together to get the leaves raked. This particular time was special, because he wanted to be outside with me working on whatever we were doing. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but he knew he wanted to be with me doing it.
6) Party of Four (11/26/11): This picture is really special to me because it was the very first picture of our new family. I asked the nurse to take it, and it’s sort of a chaotic picture, but that’s appropriate given that our life is suddenly a little more chaotic overall. But we’re so happy, and we love our little family of a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter (and our dogs and a cat). We feel so blessed by God that all of this has come together so smoothly. So many things have fallen into place so perfectly, that we know God has had a hand in making it all happen.
7) An Evening with Talking Vegetables (12/10/11): This picture was from the first real family activity that we’ve done as a family of four. I’m really excited about all the things we’ll do together as a family over the upcoming years. Some will be big things like Disneyland, but some of the best will just be small family events at home with just us, such as family movie nights like this one.
I set out to make my list of top five posts and I just couldn't. This has probably been the biggest year of my life. So much happened that I can hardly believe it. But I narrowed it down to seven and that's the best I could do. In chronological order:
1) Happy New Year's! (1/1/11): I like this post because it was my first new year's as a mom and it was a fun night. And I think Joshua looks darn cute in a party hat. But also because sometimes it's hard to remember how fast he's grown. I am not a baby person. I don't particularly enjoy the newborn phase. So sometimes it feels like Clara will be a newborn forever and it's hard. But looking at how Joshua went from a baby to a real kid in just one year makes me realize how fast it really does go and makes me feel more patient about dealing with the new baby part of life because I realize how awesome it gets just around the corner.
2) Very Grand Indeed (6/3/11): We had a lot of really fun travels this summer and I pretty much loved it all. My favorite destination was definitely Hawaii, but we had a great time on our road trip to the Grand Canyon and, probably moreso than the other places we went, it was a great place to take a kid. Thinking back to the fun time we had makes me feel excited about going other places as a family. I also love this picture because it shows the canyon probably as much as a snapshot can (which in no way does it justice) and Joshua is just sitting there going, "Hey guys, I'm here too".
3) Finally Final (6/13/11): Adoption can be a stressful process. Not only is it hard to get paperwork ready, find an agency, and wait forever for a child, but then when you get your child, you know it's not really final yet. So it's hard to completely relax. Finalizing Joshua's adoption forever was a great feeling and an emotional day.
4) The Suite Life (7/29/11): Our trip to Vegas at Red Rock with Jason's company was a fun one. I am not a huge fan of Vegas so I appreciated being off-strip and, for Vegas, it was a pretty kid-friendly hotel. This is a great picture of Jason and I, and we were in the most amazing hotel suite I have ever seen and probably will ever see, with great food and drink, and it was a fun time to enjoy as adults without Joshua there since we were able to use the hotel child care. With kids, our date nights are very precious. I really enjoyed all of the ones we had this year, but this one was especially fun.
5) Closing (9/9/11): I never really wanted to leave our old house. I mean, I was okay with it or we wouldn't have done it, but I was quite content there. So closing on our new house was a very bittersweet day for me as I was happy to be moving to a house that better met our needs, but very sad to leave the home we had been in since we got married. And I really like Joshua sitting in his own seat in this picture.
6) Joshua Sandwich (9/22/11): I love being a stay-at-home mom. It can be tiring, but a lot of times it's really fun. It's hard to explain why because nothing I do is really terribly exciting, but this picture is the best one for encapsulating why: For all the little moments that aren't anything special, but are so much fun and to be treasured because they are all so brief before that type of fun is outgrown.
7) Party of Four (11/26/11): We had no idea how long our second adoption would take, but for whatever reason I really thought it would take 8 times as long as our first one, which would be 48 days. I felt really convinced of that. 48 days was Thanksgiving day so I was pretty bummed on the night before Thanksgiving when no one had called because all my strong feelings in adoption with Joshua had been really accurate. I was a little discouraged about it. So when the agency called on Thanksgiving night I really could not believe it and meeting Clara was a really wonderful and special way to spend Thanksgiving.
From Jason:
Meghan told me she couldn't narrow it down beyond seven, so I decided to do the same amount. It worked out really well, because I had a hard enough time getting down to seven, so I'm not sure how I could have pared it down to five. So here are my top seven favorite posts, in chronological order:
1) Some Tired Guys (2/22/11): Although many of our photos are for events we knew would happen ahead of time, sometimes the best photos are things that unexpectedly happen, which was the case with this one. I was trying to feed Joshua his bottle, but we were both exhausted, so we didn’t make it to the end. I’m so glad Meghan noticed us and thought to take the picture, because it’s one of my all-time favorites.
2) First Father’s Day (6/19/11): I knew I would like being a father, but I really didn’t know how much I’d like it. I just have so much love for Joshua and feel such a strong bond with him. I love spending time with him, and I can tell that he loves spending time with me, which is very gratifying. Of course Father’s Day wasn’t the first time I had noticed that feeling, but I did spend quite a bit of time reflecting on it, and it just made me so happy.
3) Rehearsing (8/26/11): Having children requires reducing the amount of time you spend with outside interests and with other people. I have a few friends in the local area whom I really enjoy spending time with, but we just don’t get to hang out very often. But when I do, I really cherish those times. This picture was from one of those occasions where Jason, Nick, Tony (not pictured), and I got to spend a lot of time together at Jason’s wedding. I love how happy we all look in this picture, as it really represents the joy I get from spending time with some of my best friends in the world.
4) Happy Cowloween (10/31/11): Some of my favorite posts are because they represent a particular event that was significant, but this one is one of my favorites simply because of the picture. How is that not one of the cutest pictures ever? I love it, as it captures his extreme adorableness and shows his happy, shining little personality all in a single picture.
5) Leaf Wranglers (11/20/11): I love this picture not only because Joshua is so ridiculously and unbelievably cute, but also because I’m really excited about doing father/son things with him. Not only will these be traditional things like going to baseball games, but also smaller mundane things like working together to get the leaves raked. This particular time was special, because he wanted to be outside with me working on whatever we were doing. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but he knew he wanted to be with me doing it.
6) Party of Four (11/26/11): This picture is really special to me because it was the very first picture of our new family. I asked the nurse to take it, and it’s sort of a chaotic picture, but that’s appropriate given that our life is suddenly a little more chaotic overall. But we’re so happy, and we love our little family of a mom, a dad, a son, and a daughter (and our dogs and a cat). We feel so blessed by God that all of this has come together so smoothly. So many things have fallen into place so perfectly, that we know God has had a hand in making it all happen.
7) An Evening with Talking Vegetables (12/10/11): This picture was from the first real family activity that we’ve done as a family of four. I’m really excited about all the things we’ll do together as a family over the upcoming years. Some will be big things like Disneyland, but some of the best will just be small family events at home with just us, such as family movie nights like this one.
Jason's Awards and Stats for 2011 In Pictures
Much like I did last year, here are some awards that I made up and some stats about the 365 daily posts for 2011 in Pictures.
Best Write-Up:
Top 5 Best Titles (in chronological order):
- What’chu Talkin’ ‘Bout? (1/18/11)
- Snowpocalypse Now (2/1/11)
- Our Wills Be Done (8/15/11)
- Boxing Day (9/8/11)
- Cake Stand, That’s C-A-K-E (10/13/11)
Top 5 Best Photography (in chronological order):
- Rolling (1/4/11): Meghan did a great job here of capturing four different phases of the rolling-over process.
- Birmingham or Bust (2/18/11): This is about as photographically artistic as I get.
- A Good Day (8/25/11): Who took this picture of Meghan reading? Amazingly, she did, thanks to an extension stick that she’s holding in combination with the timer function on the camera.li>
- When Pigs Fly (11/1/11): I timed it perfectly and managed to capture the poor little piggy in mid-flight as he is about to begin his painful journey bouncing down the stairs.
- Looking at Lights (12/23/11): I really wanted the picture of the day to be of us looking at lights, but I realized that would be quite a challenge to show us and show some lights. Eventually I was able to get this shot.
Top 5 Coolest Visuals (in chronological order):
- Take this chore and shovel it (1/10/11): The flash captured the snow falling at night.
- The type of file format, not the motel (6/11/11): The photo wasn’t supposed to turn out like that, but I really liked the weird effect, so I kept it.
- Tunneling (6/22/11): The bright circles of color make for an almost psychedelic effect.
- On Mauna Kea (7/26/11): The sunset in the background is beautiful, and the effect of the sun splashing over our near-silhouettes is very cool.
- Happy Thanksgiving (11/24/11): This tree in front of our house has amazing color on it.
Best Where’s Waldo Game:
Climbing Trees (8/7/11)
Weirdest Facial Expression (in chronological order):
- Me: Bowing to Wall Street’s Demands (3/30/11)
- Dylan: Racking Up the Miles (10/19/11)
- Meghan: Blackout (12/16/11)
Most Meta:
The Cat’s in the Cradle (1/2/11) (a blog post about creating a blog post!)
Most Subtle Photo Editing:
Just a Number (10/6/11) (I had to blur out our last name and address on Joshua’s name tag)
Worst Technology:
Cell Phone Cameras. Several times we didn’t have a real camera available and had to use a cell phone. Even though it’s 2011, cell phone cameras are still seriously substandard. A few examples (in chronological order):
Most Links:
Christmas Rock (12/18/11)
Most People (not including concert crowds):
The Whole Family (6/5/11)
Least Amount of the Subject Shown:
The Cat in the Closet (9/26/11)
Most Words:
$2 Fleece (11/10/11)
Fewest Words:
Lunch with Donna (3/1/11)
Musical References:
Did a post title not make sense to you? It might have been one of the many musical references we tend to use in our post titles. Here is a list of the post titles that were references to either a song title or a lyric, with some verbatim and some modified to fit the subject matter of the post. The link takes you to the song that is being referenced. You’ll see there’s a wide variety of genres and generations among them.
| 1/2/11 | The Cat’s in the Cradle |
| 1/8/11 | Ain’t No Party Like a 1-Year-Old’s Party |
| 1/13/11 | Should We Stay or Should We Go |
| 1/15/11 | Over Hill, Over Dale |
| 1/25/11 | I’m Gonna Work the Straw |
| 2/9/11 | Oh Canada, I Did Not Mean to Almost Enter Thee |
| 3/9/11 | In Da Club |
| 5/11/11 | Like the Rain? |
| 6/4/11 | On Top of the World Looking Down on Creation |
| 6/20/11 | A Whole New World |
| 6/21/11 | Up on the Housetop |
| 10/26/11 | These Boots Are Made For Walking (Indoors) |
| 12/30/11 | It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like… |
| 12/5/11 | Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree |
| 12/17/11 | We Wish You a Nicholl Christmas |
Some Nerdy Stats:
| Posts by Jason: | 198 |
| Posts by Meghan: | 167 |
| Joshua | 205 |
| Jason | 167 |
| Meghan | 92 |
| Natalie | 30 |
| Terrence | 26 |
| Clara | 20 |
| Julie | 11 |
| Peg | 11 |
| Christine | 10 |
| Ron | 10 |
| Andrew | 8 |
| Barb | 8 |
| Jason K. | 8 |
| Joanna | 8 |
| Nick | 7 |
| Jim | 7 |
| Alex | 6 |
| Tony | 6 |
| Mark | 5 |
| David | 4 |
| Lexi | 4 |
| Macyn | 4 |
| Abby | 3 |
| Callie | 3 |
| Grandpa Hall | 3 |
| Hadley | 3 |
| Jeff | 3 |
| Matt | 3 |
| Nathan | 3 |
| Brent | 2 |
| Carla | 2 |
| Deb | 2 |
| Donna | 2 |
| Grandma Hall | 2 |
| Hunter | 2 |
| Jason H. | 2 |
| Jeremy | 2 |
| Michelle | 2 |
As you may have noticed, this year we tagged each post with the state (or in one case, country) where the picture was taken if it was somewhere other than Kansas, solely so I could do this exact list, because I’m curious about dumb things like this. Here’s the breakdown:
| Kansas | 305 |
| Illinois | 14 |
| Hawaii | 9 |
| Nevada | 8 |
| Missouri | 6 |
| California | 5 |
| Michigan | 3 |
| Alabama | 2 |
| Arkansas | 2 |
| Indiana | 2 |
| Ohio | 2 |
| Wisconsin | 2 |
| Arizona | 1 |
| Georgia | 1 |
| Iowa | 1 |
| Kentucky | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
On the Eve of 2012
Editor's Note (1/4/11): Haha, that's makes me sound way more official and important than I am. But "Author's Note" or "Note From The Guy Who Writes Stuff On This Blog" didn't seem to work either. Anyway, stay tuned for our end-of-year posts which will be up in the next couple days.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Play Time
We try to give Clara tummy time everyday. She isn't a huge fan so we also give her playtime on her back. She is really interested in toys and has started to do occasional grabbing. This is her grabbing her winkel, which is really my favorite toy for tiny babies since they can grab it so early.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Vehicular Decision
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Clara's First Bath
Clara's umbilical cord fell off awhile ago, but it was only today that we decided she really needed a real bath. She wasn't a fan. I think part of the problem was I followed the advice about making the water as warm as what feels comfortable on your wrist/elbow. Which to an adult or even a toddler, is cold/luke warm water. Clara seems more a fan of the warmer water. I used something that felt more comfortable to me to rinse her hair and, though the word happy would definitely be a stretch, she seemed less miserable. Joshua watched and didn't seem sure why Clara wasn't recognizing the awesome that is water playtime.
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