Project 52: Week 02

At first glance, this doesn't look like variety at all. I admit, it looks like a bunch of green plants (some of which are dying...oops.) But there is a variety of herbs in this little pot of soil. I can't remember how I started researching it, but somehow I discovered that in order to have a full garden with herbs and even veggies, you don't need very much space. In fact, you don't even need to be on the ground. Since we are on the 3rd floor of our apartment complex (which I hope will soon change to the first floor of a house...we're in the process of looking at the moment), learning this made me ecstatic. And because I know that my green thumb isn't very green, I decided to start out small by planting herbs, which seem to have a very strong ability to stay alive. In this arrangement, I have rosemary, peppermint and some sort of onion. We haven't eaten any yet, but it sure has added to my happiness when I glance out our balcony door during the day.

If you haven't done so yet, check out some of the other photos on our Pinterest board. Christy and Ashley were so creative yet again this week on taking the word variety and capturing some great photos. While I was sitting here stumped on what to photograph, those girls took variety to a whole 'nother level, which I absolutely love.

And without further ado, here's the word for Week 03...(Can you believe it will be February next week? I sure can't.)

• Week 03 | Jan 26-Feb2: CIRCLE

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

• Week 01 | Jan 12-Jan 18: NECESSITY
• Week 02 | Jan 19-Jan 25: VARIETY

Join us! If you want to link up your photos, I've created a pin board on Pinterest. Click here to view it. This board is a community board. All you need to do to join is email me (martapeters@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog letting me know the your Pinterest profile name. Once I have you entered you're free to submit your photos to that board.

Oldies but Goodies

These are random, somewhat older, photos that were on Sebastian's phone, but I wanted to make sure I posted them--more for my sake than anything else. Oh, and for Oma and Grandma. I know they love a little Aliyah in their days from time to time. :)

This photo was taken on my company's annual end of the season trip in August, which was in the Dominican Republic this year. Since we're in shuttle, Aliyah isn't in a car seat and that made me a little nervous, no doubt. You can be sure that she was buckled in and I had her in a strong hold the entire 10 min drive. The trip, by the way, was awesome. A little humid (we've been spoiled living in California and Arizona), but Aliyah had a blast swimming every day. She's a little fish, that one.

Next up showcases Aliyah's love for any type of sport ball and her ability to give her Dad the look so he buys it for her. We probably have at least 10-15 different types of balls in our place for no apparent reason. Just a couple of weeks ago, Sebastian came home with a football for her, and I just looked at him and thought, What is she going to do with a football, honey? She's a year and a half. But I gotta give Sebastian the benefit of the doubt, because I mean seriously, could you say no to this face? She gets us to give in more often than we'd like to admit.

Next, we have a photo from one of our Saturday morning family walks. I think this was the photo that I realized she was no longer a baby. She is a full grown toddler. And look at that mouth full of teeth. She's got some chompers. I should know, since about every other week (sometimes more) I get a report from daycare saying she bit someone. If anyone has any tips on this I am all ears. She knows not to bite her Dad and me, but I can't seem to get her to stop at daycare. From what we've observed so far, she's an emotional kid. When she's happy, she shows it, when she's discouraged she lets us know. My instinct (or mother's bias--you pick) is that at daycare she just gets frustrated (since usually the incident involves another child taking something from her) and she can't convey her emotion through words, so she bites. I'm hoping this phase is a short one.

And last, here's the most recent one. After getting professional photos taken over Christmas with my family, she learned from her cousins, Faith and Grace that when a camera comes out you say, "Cheese!".  Here she is with a mouth full of PB and her cheese grin. I think this girl could eat toast and peanut butter for every meal.

And that's Aliyah for you. Like any toddler, she keeps us on our toes, but also has us laughing and gushing over her almost all the time with the things she learns each day and her cute sense of humor. Someone once told Sebastian that as kids get older, it just keeps getting better and better. I completely agree. 

Project 52: Week 01!

I'm excited to say that Project 52 is well under way. We have a handful of creative gals participating and so far from what I've seen, I'm impressed with the photography talent, not to mention the innovative ways they took the word, "necessity".

Necessity was somewhat of a tough word to capture, because to me, there seemed to be so many things I thought I couldn't live without. But then as I thought about it more, I realized that I'm pretty spoiled to consider so many things necessities. I'm not about to give anything up just yet, but it does put things in perspective.

In the end, I decided to choose light. Light seems like a necessity because it is one of the main components for growth in living things. Our world literally would not be here without light in the form of sun and energy. Plus it seems fitting for photography, since photography is essentially capturing light.

Ready for next week's word? Alright (and if you're new to the project feel free to jump in no matter what week we're on!)...

• Week 02 | Jan 19-Jan 25: VARIETY

And here's the link to everyone's photos via Pinterest.

• Week 01 | Jan 12-Jan 18: NECESSITY

Join us! If you want to link up your photos, I've created a pin board on Pinterest. Click here to view it. This board is a community board. All you need to do to join is email me (martapeters@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog letting me know the your Pinterest profile name. Once I have you entered you're free to submit your photos to that board.

Words to Live By in 2012

Let me tell you something. I thought I was pretty clever in the beginning of January when I decided that I was going to pick out three words to live by in the coming year. Turns out this idea has been around for awhile. How I managed to not see it until I thought of it is beyond me, because now I see this idea popping up everywhere on blogs. (Though, that seems likely since now that it's in my head, I'm more aware of it.)

It took me awhile to figure out what words I really wanted to concentrate on this year, as well as to not add anymore than three. Otherwise, it would just become another long list of resolutions that would be hard to accomplish. ( I did still create a personal list of about twenty goals/resolutions...you know, just in case I nail these three words right off the bat in the coming months.)

Here's what I'm going to strive for in twenty-twelve:

Kindness: Being genuinely and thoughtfully kind to others in big or small ways everyday. Taking time out of my day for others, and not just when it's convenient for me. Stopping to open a door for someone, giving someone a hearty, full smile and hi instead of a hurried, half-nod, refraining from becoming frustrated at the hubs because he didn't put his shoes or socks away. I want to allow myself to take a step back and tell myself that for the all the times I feel like getting annoyed or impatient with people that not only am I just as imperfect, but that, this doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, and for all the gestures of kindness that I can do and I think might go unnoticed, this does really matter in the grand scheme of things.

Perseverance: To keep at things and do so with intent and confidence (key word: confidence). To start what I finish (and in a timely manner) and keep going on projects or goals when my attention wavers or my uncertainties get the best of me. I need to remind myself that if it's a goal worth achieving, getting through the boring parts and the times when I feel insecure are necessary for success.

Attentiveness: This is probably the one that will be the most difficult on the list. I know I can be a better listener when I talk to people. Sometimes I don't listen because I'm terrible at voice-to-voice small talk with people I don't know very well. (Put me on google chat or email and I'll "talk" your ear off. Put me on an elevator?...Oh no.) Verbal small talk makes me nervous and I wish it didn't, because most often when I'm talking to someone I don't know very well, I'm thinking about the next question I can ask them so that there's absolutely no silence in the conversation. It's not that I don't hear a word of what that acquaintance says to me, but it certainly hinders my ability to truly listen to what they're saying. With the people I am most comfortable with, I want to concentrate on listening with as much love as I can give to those that are closest to me. This means, in most cases, consciously setting down or stepping away from whatever else it is that I'm probably trying to multi-task and concentrating on the loved one I'm talking to. They deserve my full attention after all.

So those are my three words for 2012. Has anyone else tried this method of resolutions? I'm curious to see if it's any easier or harder to stick to three words of improvement that encompass a lot of unspoken goals. I guess I'll just have to wait twelve months and see.

Doodles | Show a Little Love

Sebastian is gone this weekend visiting family in Philadelphia. Sadly, one of his closest uncles died last week due to cancer. I didn't know him very well, but I remember Sebastian talking very fondly of him when we dated and throughout our marriage. I knew he was someone special when this particular Uncle flew all the way out from the east coast to attend our wedding in 2009.

My mom and I were talking recently about how we so often say that we want to visit someone, but sometimes time runs out and we never do. I'm learning bit by bit that we just need to make time. Otherwise, there will always be something else that needs to be done. It's not that that a person isn't special to us, it's just that so many other things can and will take our time and attention if we don't set aside time for seeing those we love (as well as doing the activities we love).

And even though deep down, we all know this, I completely understand that it's a tough wisdom to execute. So if anything, maybe we just need to pick up the phone or write a little note to those that we hold dear to us, so that they know we're thinking of them.

When I began this post, I didn't mean for it to be somber. What I really meant was to showcase some doodles I worked on tonight since I'm home by myself with a sleeping tot tucked snuggly under her covers. And these doodles, as quirky as they may be, are about love, which is what we need to tell and show those around us often.



I have some fun ideas for these doodles. Can you guess what that might be? I'll be working on this project throughout the weekend and will try to show you what I came up with later next week.





Here's to the weekend...and to telling someone special you love and appreciate the good they bring into your life.

Project 52 | Taking One Photo a Week in 2012

I've had a desire to do an ongoing creative project for some time, but kept waiting until I knew I was really going to commit. My first inclination was to try out a 30-day project, but the more I thought about it the more I worried that I'd be excited about it the first few days or weeks, have everyday life intervene and have yet another half-finished project. I needed something that I could be a fun long-term project, but not require so much time and effort in such a short period of time.

Enter, the 52 week photo project. One photo a week for the next year. (This idea is nothing new. If you do a quick Google search you'll find lots of sites for this type of project.) Each week I'll randomly pick a word or phrase though a word generator here and take a photo based on that inspiration. My goal isn't to have an outstanding photo each week, but rather to just get out and practice photography with a subject idea that is unique to what I normally take photos of (because let me be honest, I could take photos of Aliyah every day.)

So who's with me?! First of all, let me tell you that I realize this invitation certainly won't reach the masses since I only have a reader base of about 5 people right now. Two of those people include my parents (thank goodness!) and the other few, I have Christy over at a peek into 31 otter court to thank. If she didn't have me on her blog roll, well, I guess I would just have two readers.

So if anyone out there is interested, you should join me in this photographic adventure. You don't have to do any of the ideation since I'll pick out the word for inspiration every Thursday. You don't need to link back to me (though I would love to see you photos if you do participate). You don't need a fancy camera. You don't even need to commit to a full 52 weeks. In the words of Ron Burgandy, "I'm gonna put it out there; if you like, you can take it, if you don't, send it right back..."

So without further ado, this week's word is...

• Week 01 | Jan 12-Jan 18: NECESSITY

Hope you'll join me!

Update: If you want to link up your photos, I've created a pin board on Pinterest. Click here to view it. This board is a community board. All you need to do to join is email me (martapeters@gmail.com) or leave a comment on the blog letting me know the your Pinterest profile name. Once I have you entered you're free to submit your photos to that board.

Saturday Evening Hike

One thing we've discovered in the short time that we've lived in the Tempe/Phoenix area is that there is no shortage of gorgeous parks and trails. On Saturday we decided to explore Papago Park, which we found was only about 10 mins away from where we currently live. I'm always surprised at how such huge rock formations are set right in the middle of most of the cities in the Phoenix area. It's nice to be able to go on a family hike and not have to drive for miles just to get there.

Aliyah is a true outdoors fanatic. She loves to be outside exploring, which makes our hikes even more fun.  Like any curious kid, she's always discovering something new and just has to stop and check things out.  One this particular outing she had a mini-obsession with rocks and would try pick up as many as she could, only to have some fall out of her hands, which would then make her stop and try to pick up the rocks that fell. 

And while there's no doubt that on any trail we have to pick her up and carry her often, I've come to find that when she's exploring she encourages me without even trying, to slow down and really drink in the beauty of the nature that's around me, however tiny or grand it may be.

Papago Park, like many of the area's parks, has some gorgeous city views. It's fascinating to remember that you are actually looking out into a bustling, busy metropolis. At the same time, it's nice to know that there are places nearby to escape the fury of city life, albeit for just a few minutes or hours.

And every time we go on adventures like these, Sebastian and I comment on how our decision to move to Arizona turned out to be a very, very good one. Sebastian now has more time to spend with Aliyah, (before, he was commuting two hours, one-way from San Jose to San Francisco.) which was one of the biggest reasons we chose to move.

And while we would be lying if we said we didn't miss California at all, there's a comfort in knowing that little by little our apprehensions about making the life-altering move to the southwest are dissipating .




To finish the evening, nature left us one last gift as we looked upon a breathtaking view of the moon at dusk.

"Good night stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere." 

A Merry Peters Christmas

How do I even begin to describe how beautiful our first Christmas was in Arizona? It was nothing short of amazing, blessed and joyous. It was, in short, perfect. Perfect because not only did my Mom and Dad make the trip to Arizona, so did my brother and his wife and my two adorable nieces. What a lucky girl I am. I think I had a permanent glow inside of me the entire week they were here, and I think I still do.

Despite all of the adventures and activities we packed into eight days, I didn't take too many photos, and the photos I do have are mostly from our phones. Sebastian recently mentioned to me that he read an article about the importance of actually being and experiencing the moment rather than standing behind the lens, and I feel like I did that this holiday. I may not have as many photos to show for it, but I have the memories--and this blog--so later on Aliyah can read about how much fun she and her parents had during her first Christmas in Arizona. Besides, I have a serious back-up of photos just sitting on a card in my camera that I still have to edit and post to flickr from before the holidays. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't add to that mountain of photos.

So let's start this trip down memory lane, while it's still fresh in my mind, shall we? (This will no doubt be quite a long post.)

To begin the Christmas week, my mom called me moments after they were in their car driving to their hotel on Friday the 23rd. There was so much excitement in her voice when she greeted me with, "Mart, we're in Arizona!", and I felt it too. It was so nice to be able to speak to her and know she was in my area, rather than many states away. It may sound like I rarely get to see my parents, which isn't true. We usually see each other at least 3 times a year, for which I am very grateful for. I know many people aren't able to see their out-of-state family nearly that often, but I have a very deep attachment to my parents and I often ache to see them more. But I guess absence makes the heart grow fonder, and the times we do spend together are that much more meaningful. I'm learning as a grow older and have a family, that both Sebastian and I are extremely lucky to have such wonderful families. Visiting Oma and PawPaw in Georgia or Grandma and Grandpa Peters in Minnesota always leaves me with such a sweet, loving feeling.

But I digress. After we met up and they saw Aliyah, the rest of the day was pretty relaxing. Nick and Emily and the girls also arrived that day, but anyone who has kids knows that flying takes a lot of you, so they stayed at their place and met up with us at a park the next morning.

After that, it was on to the Carden family's acting debut! We were the stars. We had our own trailer. Our own agents. Oh, wait, that didn't actually happen. We weren't really stars, but we did get our 15 seconds of fame by--wait for it--being the Holy Family at the children's mass on Christmas Eve.

We were a little nervous, only because we weren't sure how Aliyah was going to behave. That girl is a wild child sometimes, so basically we were taking chances on if she would get stage fright of have the time of her life. Turns out she did pretty well depicting baby Jesus. Though I'm pretty sure baby Jesus did not have a sucker in his mouth to keep him quiet on that blessed night. But seriously, it was an honor it was to be able to be chosen to represent the Holy Family. They are the reason for Christmas, after all.

My aunt and uncle and one of their friends also made it for mass and dinner afterwards. Christmas Eve dinner is a Peters family tradition that was fun to keep even away from Minnesota. (I have very fond childhood memories of going to Christmas Eve mass, then eating at the Happy Chef and the trying to catch a glimpse of Santa in the sky on the way home--or at least my Dad would see him. I never did.)

Aliyah had a grand old time being in the midst of her cousins from the get-go. They even taught her how to play ring-around-the-rosy, which she loved.

You can see in the photo above that Aliyah is wearing a very special dress. It's the dress that I came to the United States in when I was adopted at 2.5. Hard to believe that she can fit into it already at 16 months!

The next day my Mom and Dad and I decided to volunteer at the Salvation Army's Christmas dinner. (Sebastian stayed back because Aliyah was sleeping in and he had a nine person meal to cook.) Originally we had only planned on staying for the first few hours where they have the beginning festivities before the meal, but in the end  we were pretty much there from start to finish. This is probably mostly due to the fact that we seemed to be the only people who didn't know which area we should volunteer in, so we all got pulled in different directions. I think I started out at the coloring table for the kids, my Mom handed out stuffed animals (and poinsettias even though she wasn't supposed to. That's how caring my Mom is...she took a chance and made two women very happy that day.) And somehow my Dad was asked to actually serve the meal, which my Mom and I later joined in on. It was quite the experience. We learned that they were expected to serve about 5,000 meals that day. Wow. In addition to that, there was an area where the guests could get free haircuts from professional stylists, another area where they could call anywhere to wish a family member or friend a Merry Christmas and yet another area had professional photographers and printers donated by HP so that families could get portraits done. This was a big event, not to mention eye-opening one.

While we were away, Sebastian started our new tradition of watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" with Aliyah. A true Seuss classic.

After that we made our way back to our place where we opened presents up with the entire family. Aliyah received some sweet gifts and has had a lot of fun playing with her new toys. It was even hard to get her out the door to daycare this week because she just wanted to play at home.

When gift-opening was done we were treated to an amazing Christmas dinner made by Sebastian. It was absolutely delicious. I don't know how he does it and how he makes it look so easy, and never complains, but every time he in charge of a big holiday meal, he never disappoints. This year's meal consisted of a tender rosemary pork, rosemary beef roast, seasoned potato reels and more.

To round out our Christmas day, we all hopped into the car and went to the Mesa Arizona Temple. I had read about their Christmas light display and night Christmas concerts online and decided since it was Christmas we needed to see some Christmas lights. It was incredible! I honestly have never seen so many lights in one concentrated area. Stunning. And the Temple itself is quite a landmark too.

Photo via wikipedia

The rest of the week were were busy spending time with family and one another. We ate out at a lot of really good restaurants thanks to Sebastian and his ability to find five star places on Yelp. We toured Sebastian's office one day as well after we had lunch to see what really goes on behind the scenes at Yelp. (Little known, useless fact: Jeremy Stoppleman, one of the founders of Yelp is also one of the core group of people who fund's Pinterest. I know, I keep telling Sebastian he needs to give me his office number so I can personally call and thank him for all the joy that he has brought me.)

We went to the Phoenix zoo, which was so much fun. I haven't been to too many zoos, but this one would be one of my favorites. Aliyah's favorite animal was the giraffe. And she surprised me with showing me that she learned how to identify a rhino. In passing I had pointed to the rhinoceros, and a little while later we were grabbing lunch and she saw a cutout of one and yelled, "Rhino!". Maybe she'll be a zoologist when she's older.

We visited some of my mom's siblings in Casa Grande and went to a sky-diving area where we sat and watched these large group of skydivers land into a grassy field. (Sounds odd, I know, but it was actually pretty neat.) This was also the afternoon where Aliyah fell asleep in my Mom's lap. A priceless moment, which is captured, but it on my Dad's phone.

Another night we had dinner with a bazillionaire. Well, maybe not a bazillionaire, but he definitely was a millionaire. And his house was gorgeous. I felt like I knew a celebrity.

The cousins had their first sleepover and it turned out to be a success. We baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (and Gracie says they were really good because she stirred the batter extra well!) And the next morning watched a little Dora and my heart exploded from the happiness all three girls bring into our lives.

We also had family photos taken and I am at the edge of my seat to see how they turned out. It was my Christmas gift to my Mom because she loves to have photos of her family, so since we were all together, it seemed like the thing to do. I haven't seen them yet, but I'll be sure to post a few when I do.

We did quite a few other things as well, but I think I covered the most memorable ones in this post. It's already pretty long, so I'll stop here. All in all, it was a perfect holiday. Can't wait to do it again...wherever it may be.