professional photos!

professional photos! They're here! http://www.tmphotographytiff.com/Families/Burcusa-Family-2013 See more photos from this SmugMug site.

Ode to Motherhood

Have any of you noticed that Mike and I got the best kid we could have possibly asked for?!? Rose is SO much fun! I think I've finally reached the point that I not only love Rose, but I also love being a mom. (Finally, right?) I know so many people who loved motherhood from the beginning, but that wasn't me. I mean, I loved Rose from the beginning, but motherhood just seemed so HARD. I was sleep deprived, nursing hurt, I could never set her down, I didn't have time for any of my hobbies. But now that she's a little older, she is becoming verbal and FUN in so many ways! We are finally sharing experiences together and I love it! I love watching her brain make new connections every day. Even when she's throwing temper tantrums, she's still super cute and I love her to pieces. I know that some women are "baby people," but I've come to terms with the fact that that's just not me. I'm so relieved that we're never planning to have another child, because I'm enjoying Rose so much as she is. She has helped me to be present and enjoy the moment every day. Eighteen months was a turning point for me and I can honestly say that I like motherhood now. :)


Recently Rose has begun to love doing whatever we do. Somehow, despite the fact that she may have only witnessed this once or twice in her life (ha ha), she now loves to sweep. 

I posed her so I could get an updated photo with her and the cats. Particularly since they aren't so terrified of each other any more.

She still LOVES bathtime. Here she is, rocking out with her bathtub xylophone. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sneek peek!

I love, love, love this photo! There are a few more on Facebook. Can't wait to see all of them in a few weeks!


UPDATE: I can't figure out how to share someone else's FB photos here! Argh. Well, either check out my facebook page, or check back here in a few weeks :)

family photos

In other news, when Mike's aunt Louise was in town over the summer, she bid on a photography package and gave it to us as a gift!! I've always wanted professional family photos, but somehow we hadn't ever gotten around to it. We scheduled the shoot for this morning about two months ago and I'd been looking forward to it SO MUCH, so I was more than a little concerned that we'd have to cancel when Rose fell ill on Thursday night. Luckily, however, she seemed to recover well enough that I felt comfortable keeping the appointment and, even more luckily, it turned out to a beautiful, warm(-ish) November morning. It'll take at least 2 weeks to get the professional photos, so here are just a couple that we took on my cell phone's camera after the photographer left :)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween festivities started early in the week, when Rose had her school's fall festival on Tuesday evening. What a rodeo seeing the teachers and parents try to wrangle 20 toddlers into costumes! And then to watch the lead teacher trying to get the kids to sing their Halloween song! It was so much fun to see :)

I know you're all here to see pictures of Rose, but I just want to interject the AMAZING decorations that my team did at work! Super impressive!

Wow!


Anyway, back to Rose :)   Isn't she the cutest little lion you've ever seen?!?  We did a little practicing at home so she could learn what happens when you say "trick or treat." She was thrilled when she got a cookie from Grammy as her treat!

Then my mom took our annual Halloween photo!  (Click the link to see how much she's grown up in the past year!) This was the best photo we got since Little Miss was getting antsy to get outside...

The four of us did our usual routine of stopping at two neighbors' houses: Brian and Sue down the street from us, and Marcy, Andrew and Noah's house across the highway.

Rose loved going out for the evening stroll, but she wasn't too fond of  ringing doorbells. Little did we know, she was actually dressed as the "cowardly lion" this year. (Ha Ha)  If the costume still fits next year, we'll be sure to get her a courage medal to go with it! :) 

Actually, I think she was getting more and quiet because she was getting more and more queasy. (She's actually not "cowardly" at all, usually!)  Unfortunately, after bathtime she spent a couple hours throwing up. :(  I think it was just some sort of daycare virus, but I hope she doesn't associate Halloween with sickness from now on! At least she got to spend Friday home with my mom in the morning and with Mike in the afternoon - that's a good consolation prize, in my opinion!

Hope you all had a great Halloween, and that it ended better than Rose's holiday did!