52/52::December 28

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013."

I can't believe it's done! I wasn't perfect, as I missed 4 weeks throughout the year, but the fact that I took 48 pics throughout the year is pretty terrific! 48 pics will make a nice book for Mikey and me.

The hat that he is wearing came from Katie, who is Steve's cousin. I saw her hat making skills and asked if she could make one for Michael for Christmas. He is obsessed with "dashings and beards" - my brother Sterling, when Michael asked what his mustache was, said it was dashing, and the name stuck :) Mike loves his hat, though he doesn't keep it on as long as I'd like him to - baby, it's cold outside!!

I'm going to do the 52 Photo Project again in 2014 for at least Michael. Maybe some of my other kids will want to participate too... only time will tell.

I wish you a Happy New Year! and hope that 2014 is a great year for all of us!

♥

51/52::December 22

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013."

Michael has been sick this week with a stomach flu bug. He has spent most of his time underneath a blanket for the past several days, and it has only been today that he has spent most of the day out of bed. I'm glad that he is feeling a bit better ♥

♥

49/52::Winter's Light::Dec 13

"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013."

How lovely sunlight is in the wintertime! Not only is it sparse, which makes it a valued treasure, but the angle that it shines makes everything look amazingly different with its golden hues and long shadows.

On the day that I took this pic, I noticed the light coming in the window just so and had Michael sit in it so that I could capture two of my favorite things in one shot :)

♥

48/52::Michael and Santa::November 30

48/52 ~ Michael got to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. Same as last year (and the year before that, and the year before that) ~ a hula hoop :)

♥

46/52::November 18

46/52 ~ Photographically speaking, this is not the best picture, since it's not as in focus as it should be; viscerally speaking, it is perfect! :)

Michael is g-tube fed; this picture was taken last night as Dad helped him. The look Michael is giving Steve is priceless. ♥

♥

45/52::November 10

Michael has taken to putting an exercise ball on the trampoline and lying on the ball. He'll stay out there playing for hours. Today, I decided to get a picture of him:



I have no idea what the rainbow colored fairy dust stuff is. It appears in some pics and not in others. I think it makes the picture look fanciful though, so I'll use this one.

When I darkened the entire image so it was mostly black, rainbow colored blobs were present. I have no idea what kind of magic happened, but it was pretty awesome.

♥

44/52::Halloween::November 1

Red Riding Hood / Big Bad Wolf, WWII Soldier, Homeless Trick or Treater (sign says, "WILL TRICK OR TREAT 4 CANDY. ANYTHING HELPS. GOD BLESS!" :)), Minnie Mouse, Red Angry Bird, Spooky Baby. Such a great bunch of kids that I love! :)
(Matt is missing from the pic because he was at a Halloween party with friends.)


A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.

I'll count this as Michael's weekly pic for this week. He had a great time trick or treating, loving to look in everyone's house to see if they had a ceiling fan - he is obsessed with those things!! - and loved visiting with everyone. He makes me smile :) I'm so thankful for this kid!

♥

43/52::October 31

A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.

He loved this merry go round at the park we visited on Sunday & spent most of his time playing on our around it. :)

♥

42/52::October 21

Can you believe that we only have 10 more weeks left in 2013? Crazy!!

Yesterday, I took all of the boys' (who live at home) pictures; I usually take them the first day of school, but I'm running behind! ;) Here is Michael's:


A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Finally! Now I can replace all of the pics from last year with this year's :) I still have to take Emily's tonight.

Michael liked having his picture taken, and Jared was there with me to make him laugh and smile. He loves his big bro a lot!

♥

41/52::October 21

Oh man! I forgot to do this post last week, so here it is now:



I showed this picture back when I did the Pumpkinland post with this caption: "Since he wouldn't do the cut-outs, I had him back up to this Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat hat that was stapled to the side of the barn :)"

It really was funny that he wouldn't poke his head through the cut-outs this year. I kept trying to get him to do it, but he'd poke his hand through instead. Funny, funny boy :)

♥

40/52::October 6

A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.
We went up to Karen's tonight to give her a new carseat - Bentley was in the van with me when we got rear-ended last week. Everyone is fine, but the pediatrician insisted that the carseat be replaced - the insurance company will reimburse us for it. While we were there, the boys liked swinging on Aiden's swingset, and Bentley played on a blanket. It was awesome to eat apples from their apple tree and see that the walnut tree is producing lots of walnuts - sounds like the makings of a delicious pie! ;) It was a great way to spend an evening. ♥

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37/52 and 39/52::October 3

A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.
Oh man! I really got behind on the photo project!

This picture embarrasses me. A lot! LOL :) Michael had just got up and started playing with the dusty, old fan that was in the basement, so his hair is a mess and the fan looks so ratty! Let me tell you about this fan: It is just a normal window fan, but Michael has such an obsession with fans and also with taking things apart, so he took off the front and back screen guards, which meant that Steve had to remove the cord so that the fan can't be turned on so that Michael wouldn't chop his fingers off. Michael loves fans, and he also loves taking things apart, but wants them to always work, so he has a love/hate relationship with this fan. He wants it to work, but he doesn't want to put back on the screen guards to keep himself safe. He asks every day for Steve to fix the fan... I'd love to throw it in the garbage, but he is with the silly thing for most of the day!


This picture was taken at Emily's birthday party on her birthday last week. Michael loves birthday parties :)

♥

36/52::September 7

A photo of my child, once a week, every week, in 2013.

Michael wore Paul's hat and Tino's sunglasses while we were at Amber & Tino's on Labor Day. :)

♥

35/52::Michael's Surgery Day::August 29

35/52 ~ Michael has oral aversion, and it creates some tricky challenges for every day life. One of those challenges is dental work. Mike has to be put under general anesthesia, like in full fledged surgeries, when he has dental work done. On Tuesday, he had a deep cleaning, sealants put on some molars, and a baby tooth "wiggled" out to make room for a rogue tooth that is floating toward his sinuses - hopefully the hole where the baby tooth was will lure it back where it should be.

He always has a nice time meeting new people, and surgery day was no exception. He "stole" everyone's noses (the old "got your nose" trick :) ) and hugged at least half of everyone we met. He only seemed nervous for a minute when he discovered that Steve & I couldn't go back with him, but then he regained his composure when I told him to have fun with Grandma Joyce (the anesthesiologist) and Steven (his surgery nurse). He smiled and said okay. Within 10 minutes, a nurse came and told us that he was already "asleep" and surgery was starting.

Everything went well, and since we're on the 3rd day out from surgery, he can eat normally today. I'm so thankful for his dentist and all of the wonderful people who work with him in his office and at the surgery center. Hopefully he'll start letting the dentist work on him in the office so that this is his first and last surgery for dental work (and that he can keep up his record of no cavities ever!)

♥

34/52::This Moment::August 23

I'm back on track for this week! :)



Yesterday was Michael's check up at the pediatric dentist. The fact that this kid has never had a cavity and has mostly straight teeth excites me and yet blows me away! We are very fortunate, since he is oral aversed and doesn't tolerate poking around in his mouth well. He will need to have a deep cleaning though, and for him that means being put under. He also needs one baby tooth removed, since the adult tooth is in a weird position and will not come in naturally by itself. The dentist is hoping that when the spot is opened up, the tooth will turn and come in properly. Keep your fingers crossed!

♥

33/52::August 20

Oh man! It has been a rough couple of weeks, so I totally missed the 32/52 and decided to just catch up with 33/52 today. I'll get back on track at the end of this week.


This is a familiar pose for Michael. Popcorn is still one of his favorite treats :)

♥

31/52::August 3

Today was our town's celbrations. It started with a parade, so of course that means umbrellas for shade:


Then we went to the park for some lunch, a kids' train ride, the petting zoo, a bouncy house, and some entertainment. Emily danced and did awesome, as usual. Then, we all, except Matt, came home. There will be more pics of the celebration over the next few days.

Steve pushed Michael in the wheelchair, since his knee has been hurting lately with too long of walks, and yet he smiled pretty much the whole time anyway. Have I told you lately that Michael is my hero?

♥

At the Blue Park::30/52::July 29

Michael and I tried a new park today, hereafter known as The Blue Park, as opposed to The Red Park on the other side of town. ;)

One thing I learned today is that Michael does not like to be swung higher/faster - he is perfectly content with sedate swinging. I'm glad that got figured out, but I wish it wouldn't have brought on sadness. I'm glad that he got happy again as time went on.

So, since I am late with last week's pic, here is 30/52:

I hope that you have a wonderful day! :)

♥

29/52::Happy Birthday, Dear Michael!::July 21

On Friday, Amber and Josh came to visit, so we had an impromtu birthday party for Michael:


He never did blow out his candle - I don't think he has for the past few years. Amber blew it out, and eventually he ate his birthday cupcake. He was funny with phone calls during the day too; he got a few birthday phone calls where he got sung to, but he would slip away afterwards to regroup. Since today was church, I told him to hurry and get ready so that he could go to primary and have them sing to him and give him a gift.... he never would get dressed to go. Funny kid! He loves attention, but only on his own terms.

Most of his birthday pics are of him looking a bit nervous, and he rarely looked at the camera. Funny kid :) I'm glad that he let himself have fun every once in a while throughout the day.

His birthday presents, that he picked out, were a hula hoop and a kids' cowboy hat - very "Michael"-ish, I'd say. :)

♥

28/52::July 14

*A photo of my child once a week through 2013.

On our way to family reunion. We got all packed up, and Michael was the first one in the van. :)

Have a great rest of your weekend!

♥