Year in Review

It was a great year for the Piepers with plenty of adventures (and pictures of said adventures)! Here's a collection of our big moments and favorite pictures from 2013.

After a very stressful recruiting season for Joseph, we were overjoyed (and felt very blessed) when he landed an accounting internship with a Big Four accounting firm. We packed up all our most essential belongings into two cars and drove to our new (temporary) home in Sacramento, California. 

While Joseph was away working his dream job I was busy trying to come up with things to keep me busy. Then my 365 photography project was born! I knew I wanted to improve my photography and so I challenged myself to take a picture everyday for a year. This month J and I also started training to run a 5K. In the beginning it was much more walking than running, but we eventually got the hang of it!

This month J turned one year old!

We celebrated my birthday with a tour of the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield and a day trip to the beautiful Sonoma. For my birthday, I was surprised with enrollment to the New York Institute of Photography professional photography course. (!!)

This month was also the beginning of The Pieper Life blog, with my first post about an awesome deal I got at Target. Month 13 covers all of J's accomplishments as a new one year old.

April meant the end of Joseph's internship (with a much celebrated job offer!) and a move back to our cozy house in Utah. We were excited to be back and it even snowed one day so we could say we played in the snow that winter. 

We loved being with family again for Easter and just in general. It felt so good to be home. J's Month 14 was an exciting one to be sure!

J was especially adorable this month. Eating eyeshadow, emptying cupboards, riding giraffes. Yes, Month 15 was full of laughs and giggles.

Joseph and I celebrated our three year wedding anniversary, with a picnic dinner and a few games of bowling. (Bowling? Yes, after four years of dating and marriage we had never gone bowling together and I thought it was time I showed of my skills.)

I also began shooting and sharing family and newborn sessions to put my NYIP course work to the test. This was an amazing amount of work but I LOVED challenging myself and seeing what was becoming of my style as a photographer.

While celebrating our freedoms on the fourth of July, I was also celebrating the halfway point of my 365.

August was a big hot mess month for our family as we left Utah and headed to our new home in Las Vegas, Nevada. And I say big month because moving is always difficult and stressful. And a hot month because we decided to move into our apartment on the hottest day I had ever experienced.

Although it was a big move, we felt truly blessed when we found the perfect apartment in a great neighborhood within walking distance to several parks and the library. Joseph started graduate school the next week at UNLV and we all fell in love with the complex pool and air-conditioning.

J turned 18 months which meant that he could go to nursery at church instead of pretending to be a lap-child through adult Sunday school. Oh blessed day!

Suddenly J was no longer my baby this month but instead a little boy. We spent our off time exploring the lights of Vegas and cooking up new recipes.

We fell even more in love with Las Vegas this month when we were expecting a chill... that never came. Being from Idaho, we were thrilled with these new "winters".

J was half a cowboy for Halloween. (I saw half because he is missing a hat.) We trick or treated one house, he received two pieces of candy and he thought it was the best thing ever.

Joseph and I started the month of November on a red-eye flight to Florida for an early Christmas present to each other.

For the rest of the month, at least one member of the family was sick in bed with something. After visiting the doctor's office we discovered that bronchitis and a double ear infection were to blame.

In December we were all finally cured from our ailments and ready for the Christmas season. My 365 photography project was finally finished this month and we all enjoyed the blessed break from school, work, and too many things to do.

The day after Christmas we flew home to Idaho to spend two weeks with family and friends. J LOVED the attention (as always) and became very fond of opening presents. 

2014 has already proven to be a fast-paced year, but we are excited for all the new and exciting changes that will be coming to our family this year. 

Mommy Mistakes

Have you ever done something that you are sure has scarred your child for life?

As I was making breakfast this morning, I heard J start to wake up and move around. Because I love hearing the first thing that comes to his mind in the morning, I pressed my ear to the door for a listen. 

"Mommy, mommy!" he said. (A proud smile comes to my face.) 

"Mommy SPIT OUT!" (I'm so busted!)

You know when your child recalls the traumatic experience very first thing in the morning, you are in trouble. And you know what? I DID spit out. I'm not proud of it but I would do it again.

Here's the story:

Last week on our final day of family freedom (meaning Joseph's CPA study materials hadn't arrived yet), we decided we wanted to spend the warm weather outdoors in nature. Joseph found an easy hike in the Lake Mead area and he assured me it would only be two hours round-trip.

We packed up the car and started driving towards the lake. After singing I Like Trucks on repeat,(click on the link and play a sample of the song to adequately appreciate our torture) we finally arrived at the trail head where I laughed as Joseph pointed out the mountain we could supposedly summit in an hour.

We decided instead to hike a smaller, nearby hill mountain. J was in love with the hiking poles even though he didn't really know how to use them.

We sat down with a snack to enjoy the view. Joseph found a bag of trail mix in his pack from the last time we went hiking and he passed it around. The boys didn't seem to mind the staleness, but after one bite into a piece of pineapple I turned to the side and spit it on the ground.

When I looked up, I saw J watching me with wide eyes. He ran over to where I was sitting and stared at the ground with his mouth open. On his way over to me I put my shoe over the spit out pineapple but he knew it was there. He looked up at me with his mouth still open. "Mommy SPIT OUT!" With a look of shock and almost unbelief. 

J knew that he wasn't supposed to spit out his food and it was absolutely unfathomable that Mommy (HIS MOMMY) was capable of such a thing. I apologized to him of course, saying that it won't happen again and it isn't okay to spit out our food.

A week and a half later and he still hasn't forgotten or forgiven me.

365: December Favorites

Although I forgot about blogging in December, I did not forget about the final month of my 365 project. (Thank goodness, that would have looked silly!)

I felt like December was one of my easier months to photograph because it was the final stretch of my project and I was so excited to finish strong. I also loved the bits of Christmas I was able to capture (like the above FOUR different pictures with Christmas trees) along with our many outdoor adventures.

We found a new favorite park with a paved trail and lots of ducks and geese to feed. We also ventured out to Lake Las Vegas where we unexpectedly found an abandoned (and almost ghost-town like) resort filled with closed down shops and immaculate and picturesque architecture. I kept repeating to Joseph, "THIS is the perfect place for family pictures!" I'm already working out the details of our next trip.

With my 365 project finished, I have plans to print my pictures in a series of photo books. I was originally just picking out my favorites but then it felt so important to me for each photo (good or bad) to be included. Each was a part of my journey. Each was a special moment/day from the last year.

A look back at my 365 favorites:

The beginning

May 

Halfway  

July 

August

September

October 

November

December (above!)