A Year In Pictures

I thought I would sum up this last year in a favorite photo from each month. An easy task right? Not if blogger gives you photo arranging problems! And not if you look at a picture and think, "really? This was in October? Where did the time go?" I spent most of my time looking over pictures just being baffled at how fast the year went by and a new one is well under way.

January , This was a fun afternoon...once Korban was willing to part with a golf ball for a few minutes and realized "hey I get the ball back every time!" He would drop the ball into the hole and do this funny little dance that he came up with all on his own. He was so little then!

February , I love this picture. It was cold and windy out. We were tired of being cooped up so we bundled up and went outside to just run around. It was a perfect time of day for photo taking, and so I did;)

March , I love it when the trees blossom. Me and my fancy self likes to use the color enhancer on my camera and sometimes they turn out pretty cool. I think I take a picture of this tree every Easter.

April, Utah. Korban and I visited my parents in the end of April. Who knew it would still be ridiculously cold and snowy? I loved how the snow stuck to the tulips. My Dad and his green thumb, it reminds me of all the flowers he would plant at our old place in Ramona....sigh:(

May, St. Louis Missouri. Our hotel was literally right across the street from this magnificent arch. It is pretty much the biggest green lawn our boy has ever played on. Don't worry son, I see a green front yard in the very near future!

June, My niece Naomi and my nephew Noah. We had a little photo shoot up at the Mt. Woodson Castle. They were great and we had such a fun time taking pics for their Daddy. It's hard to believe I used to take this not so little anymore girl to preschool three times a week and powder a certain someones hiney...sorry Noah but it's true;)

July, Pregnancy shoot! The castle again, it is one of my favorite spots for pretty pictures. I love this one so much because of my sweet Korbans face on my round big belly. This is how he would hug his brother.

August , My baby boy in all his newness ( Thank you Aunty cuh for being camera ready!) Isn't he soooo sweet?! And just because I could not NOT post this one it is from August too and it is priceless.

September, My niece Makenna dancing her little heart out at the car show. I just love this picture...like she is trying to give Jesus a big hug;)

October, In all his slumber my wee Benjamin. I took a million photos of him doing the same thing laying the same way. It seemed like no matter how many pics I took, none of them truly captured the perfect sweetness and peacefulness of his tiny face.

November, I was so sad that I did not focus the camera for this picture! We were at Camp Pendelton welcoming home the marines and this is Our friend Tristan hugging his girlfriend Kelsey after being apart for waaaaayyy toooo long. It's hard to focus a camera when your eyes are all watery from tears...I mean the sun, o.k.!

December, New years eve. We celebrated my Mom's birthday early since she would be going home to Utah on her birthday so why not celebrate it on New years? Way too much food but oh so much fun. I'm not sure who is harder to get a picture of....the kids or my Dad who has had enough picture taking....sorry Dad but as long as I have a camera I will always be wanting to take your picture;) Just think it's for your grandkids, grandkids, grandkids and so on.

Well this didn't even scratch the surface of all my favorite pictures for the year but it will have to do. I hope you all are having a blessed new year thus far!

Love,

Kristina

Steinberg Beginnings

Click here to view this photo book larger

October

Ok...so I warned you I have not had much time to post as stated in my last blog. So here's the dish on October and our family.

We were invited to a Barmiztvah in Connecticut for Josh's cousins son's (did you get all that?) Hence the pictures above AKA Barmiztvah! We thought it would be a good time to connect with the family and have a little vacation as well as introduce them to our newest addition, Benjamin. It was more in-expensive for us to fly into Ohio where more of Josh's family lives, and visit with them first where we would then rent a car and drive to Connecticut. Now a little side note that maybe you did not know about me is that I love Books about the Amish by Wanda Brunstetter and Beverley Lewis as well as a few others. They are these sweet and innocent love stories with bits of actual information as to how the Amish really live. So with this in mind I noticed that "Hey! Pennsylvania is on the way to Connecticut! How convenient!" So I asked my hubby if we could plan a little "just the four of us" time in PA and check out the Lancaster area with all its Amish-ness. He agreed that it would be fun so he left that part of the travel planning up to me. I was so excited and set right to surfing the Internet for a family friendly B & B. Apparently there are not too many but there was a few. I wanted it to be something that Korban would enjoy and that would really embrace the whole country farm feel I was looking for. So I found this cool place http://www.rockyacre.com/. It is owned by the sweetest little Mennonite couple and they are going on 45 years of the B & B business. After 6 or so hours of driving with frequent stops to nurse, change, and well ya know...you drink a lot of water you just have to go...we finally arrived at our little B & B very late at night. Eileen, our greeter and Hostess was still up preparing for the farm size breakfast we would eat the next day. Since we were the only family staying in the main house, she upgraded us at no extra charge to a bigger room with a fireplace and bunk bed for Korban. After some yummy pizza and a good nights sleep we woke up to the smell of Breakfast cookiing and the mooing of the cows in the barn after their milking.

This is a picture from their website taken more in the spring..dummy me did not get a picture of the whole house.

This is is also from their site. Yes this is the dining table but it was not full when we were there, There was one other family of five and there would be 3 other families arriving the day we were leaving. This is why I like a bed and breakfast....the menu... Sausage (real Sausage fresh and local), fresh eggs, pancakes, homemade hash browns, Apple strudel, fresh fruit, coffee, hot chocolate, orange juice. There was PLENTY to go around! The second morning we were there, we ate in the kitchen since it was just the four of us. This is another reason I like a B & B, the people. It was so awesome to sit sown with Eileen and her daughters and learn more about them and share our common faith God. We really felt at home and welcome. It was like waking up at my grandma's house and having breakfast together with the family.

Since the pictures are a little out of order from how I wanted them, I will just explain them as they are. The top two are from our day out in Lancaster. We went to the Strastburg Railroad station and went for a train ride, and as you can tell Korban was VERY excited. The day was cold and windy and rainy so anything to get us out of it was good which is why we also found an Amish buggy ride! It was SO neat. Our driver though a little strange or as Josh liked to describe him "A very simple man but nice" took us on a country ride past several of the Amish farms. I could not imagine hanging out as much laundry as they do! But it was so cute to see all of the little dresses and pants hanging so organized and neatly on the lines. The steady clip clop of the horses hooves and peaceful ride made a stark contrast to the cars passing by in a hurry slowing down just enough not to spook our horse. Why do we live in such a fast paced world?

It was pretty cute that they had the farm all decked out for fall. Benjamin did not quite care for the pumpkin though, maybe it had to do with the fact that it was pretty darn cold outside and the pumpkin was a little wet from the morning mist. Next you see Korban feeding a baby calf. Now take in mind that we got up about 4:30 our time to do this, can we say tired? I couldn't believe the little trooper! He got up, got dressed and walked out to tend to our "farming duties." I really don't know how they do this every day, but then again feeding Benjamin at any hour of the night he feels hungry gives me somewhat of an idea.
There was so much fun stuff to do! He loved collecting the chicken eggs and would not let us help with the basket, "I do it myself, I big boy". He played in the play house, rode on the back of a tractor, rode in a "green choo choo" ( look for the little tiny head with the blue hoody). The green choo choo was his favorite and probably one of my favorite stories. I put him in the third seat back thinking "Oh Galin (Our host) is probably going to stay in the large driveway and close where we can see them...wrong. He takes the kids all the way around the dairy barn then across the road to the other side of their huge property where we couldn't even see them! It didn't cross my mind to be nervous until Josh said "Is there any seat belts in that thing? Did we just send our boy off on a ride all by himself?" So now we both were a ball of nerves until finally we see them come up and over the hill and hear his loud squeaky little voice. Relief. We could hear him hooping and hollering and squealing with delite all the way across the field. And of course a pony ride, what farm does not have a pony?

Oh there was so much more but I think this blog is quite long enough. More to post later but don't get your hopes up that it will be any time too soon!

Time

Do you ever find yourself in that place where you have time to do something but there are a million things on your to do list to choose from and you just get overwhelmed? Or there are the things you would like to do that are more leisurely and the things that you need to do which are necessity if you want to keep your home livable. Even right now I feel guilty for posting this small and probably pointless blog but I know some of you will agree with me on the issue. (sticky notes...I need to get sticky notes although they don't seem to be helping the girl in the above pic)

So where am I going with this? Well I have not blogged very much lately about the two cutest little things that pertain to my life or our everyday happenings and it is all because of the "things I need to do" as mentioned above. But the list is dwindling so there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I have much to share and even more pictures to post of our latest adventure and life in general so please don't give up on me yet!

P.S. and just because I thought it was funny...

My Boys

Benjamin is changing before my eyes every day. You could ask me where the last month went and I would tell you that it went very very far away. I'm already kicking myself for not writing down every cute little thing Benjamin does and the funny things Korban says. Pictures are my best way to hang onto any and every memory. I may even take five or six photos of the same thing just to make sure I have not missed a thing! This picture below is one of about five. Korban wanted to "nuggle" (his word for snuggle) Benjamin on his bed and they were just so cute I had to get out the camera and get as many shots as I could before Benjamin had had enough. If you had a caption for this face that he is making please share because I'm sure it will make the photo that much more adorable and funny.His character is coming out more and more with each passing day...

I feel like I waited too long to take family portraits with Korban when he was born so I jumped on it as quick as I felt up to it this time and I loved them all! Especially this one, he has a very sly grin on his face that makes me want to chuckle.

And here is Korban doing what he loves...playing with his cars from "Cars" . He was not too into the picture taking that morning but if you want to take pictures of him with his cars then he is more than glad to pose! And this one...it just oozes with sweetness. I might be partial but isn't he adorable!We have been enjoying every minute with our little ones and seeing the blessings in even the tiniest of moments between the crying and changing of diapers. I just know we are going to look back 10 years from now and ask again...where has the time gone?

Baby Benjamin

Starting to feel somewhat normal, and big thanks to my mom for holding the little one, I am able to steel away for a blogging moment.

On August 5Th 2010 in the early evening, I began to feel what I hoped were real contractions. I had had some earlier in the week that would come and go but lead to nothing. So this time I was trying not to get my hopes up just in case. When Josh came home from Bible study...my body said "stay home!"...I was still feeling little back pains. Not wanting to panic or get ahead of myself, I went to bed to see if they would change or decide to linger. They lingered. By 5:30 am ,same time I went into labor with Korban, I knew this was it! We made a few phone calls and packed up the car ready to face the day ahead of us.

It wasn't too bad driving down the dirt road this time, I was dreading it before hand, and Josh got us to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible as the contractions were already about 6 minutes apart. It seemed a little surreal this time. I was of sound mind since things seemed to be progressing at predictable moments and we were not rushed into any medical rooms or surgery right away. It was neat to see all the things they normally do to check in a laboring mommy and anxious Dad. Benjamin's heart beat was good and he seemed to be tolerating the labor pains better than me. I had my cheer leading squad of my mom and Jess ready with ice chips in hand. Ice never tasted sop good! I really had no idea what this was going to be like and what the pain would be like as things progressed. My amazing husband was a huge support and knew just how to hold me through the contractions...you really do need something to hold onto, Jesus, your hubby, or a hospital bed railing, anything to get you through it. I do not remember much of what happened between my contractions from 7 to 10 centimeters but I do remember that it hurt! Oh my the pain. I still cannot come up with the perfect word to describe it, it is kind of a toss up between having hot coals poured on to your back and lying down on a bed of nails, you pick.

Finally after attempting a couple of pushes it was decided that baby Ben was not doing well with his little heart and once again we were rushed into an emergency c-section. Once again my husband could not go with me and I have to say after all was said and done and when I found out he was not in the room, it broke my heart. But my faithful husband was not going to let it get in the way of video taping as much as possible through a tiny little window on the OR door.

At 4:20 pm on August 6Th Benjamin Shepherd Steinberg was born weighing in at 8 lbs 2 oz. He was healthy and strong and very very hungry! He looks so much like his brother in so many ways but definitely has his own identity as well. Its like a flash back but this time with a video to see and hear for the first time our precious little baby. Holding him for the first time and feeling that love of another little person that needs you so much is just the best feeling in the world.

When I finally got to watch the video I felt so redeemed from the first time...I love you Josh:)

He is almost 2 weeks old now and we have just been trying to get through all the new and interesting things that come along with a newborn and a two year old. Which by the way Korban is an amazing big brother, I'm so thankful he is not jealous! Benjamin has checked out great with his health and his circumcision went well...that's always important! He now weighs 9 lbs and it is not even two weeks yet! I'm going to have a big eater on my hands.

There is so much more that went on during our stay but that is for another blog, the important thing is we are all home and healthy now just enjoying the 4 of us:)

The Belly

As Promised here are a few of my favorite belly shots and family photos that we recently had taken. Despite the fact that Korban was not in the biggest photo taking mood that day, Adria managed to capture some good ones of our soon to be big brother. Enjoy!

Now if only this little one would be born some time soon, now, within the week?