oh, hi.

I'm not really sure where to start since I haven't been around since october. whoops! so, as kingston would say, "what's up buddy? my name's kingston." (I go by jaime)

life is crazy, and I've just been busy trying to live it. a lot of things have changed since october but a lot of things have also stayed the same. I still take over 100 pictures a day. my 2 year old son, kingston, still amazes me with his 10+ word sentences. I still like to drink wine and bud light (PLATINUM!). however, I do not still have an android - I HAVE AN IPHONE NOW. that's a pretty big deal. (instagram: jaimepederson, follow me folks!)

some things you may have missed? for halloween kingston was a monster and I was kesha one night, a cat the next. in november I celebrated my 23rd birthday with my best friends, a surprise party, and too many shots. santa brought kingston a play kitchen, train set, shopping cart, play washer/dryer, and 28493 cars for christmas. my best friend holly and I rang in the new year on a party bus touring through rochester. kingston and duane had their first solo trip to california to visit duane's family. it was a miserable 5 days for this mama at home alone, I really missed my kid. on january 19th, kingston turned TWO. we had a "planes, trains & trucks" party for him that weekend. I made all of his decorations and our family and closest friends crowded into our apartment for an afternoon of fun. after living in the same apartment for over 3 years, our landlord agreed to let us paint kingston's room (a light grey called "two turtle doves") so finally all of his white furniture doesn't match his post-white walls. we bought a few new pieces from ikea, and I ordered some darling prints off of etsy to go above his crib. room tour coming soon!

also? my obsession with instagram is a little out of hand so it only makes sense that I should post all the photos I've been taking lately. amIright?

strutting his stuff at target, tire swinging at the park, doily banner making, birthday cake oreos - 'nough said, bff birthday drinks at buffalo wild wings, frames to be hung above kingston's crib, shopping, h&m men's hoodie in XS - yes, please, and kingston busy at work/taking a potty training break.

kingston and daddy have matching vacuums, playing at mr pizza while taking mama out for a lunch break, kingston's 2 year stats, holly and I got tattoos for our kiddos a few weeks ago, BUD. LIGHT. PLATINUM., new tattoo and party dress for holly's 23rd birthday, the birthday girl, and best friends.

caribou lou, holly's stinky dog robert, "flaming" lemon drop shots, kingston's new kicks, favorite pajama shirt ever, and kingston & daddy time.

peanut butter & jelly sammich at his grandparent's house, silly decorations from kingston's 2nd birthday party, chex mix jalapeno cheddar = kingston's latest food obsession, messy hands, mom?!, being silly, relaxing with daddy, and playing at pet smart!

thanks for catching up with us! I'll try to stick around longer this time.

walk it out

the weather has been in the 80's all week (fall, where did you go?) so kingston and I are taking full advantage of being outdoors. I'm a little exhausted from work, this stupid cold I caught from d, and running around after kingston all night, so you probably know what that means...

is it the weekend yet?

fall is my absolute favorite time of year, but it also makes me feel like I have to crunch in every awesome little thing that I want to do before the temperture drops to 0 degrees and the snow starts falling. this weekend d and I are going to take kingston to the apple orchard for some apple picking, picture taking and pumpkin buying. afterwards I'm going out with holly! it's been almost 2 months since we've gone out and had an awesomely drunken time together, plus I have tons of girl talk and gossip to spill that I obviously can't share on here or with any of my other friends. ya know? every girl deserves to have a friendship like I do with holly. she's just the best.

I haven't been around too much lately, and I'm pretty sure I haven't picked up my DSLR in about 2 weeks. I'm constantly taking pictures of k with my phone, it's just so much easier since we're on the go all the time. we've been going on as many walks as possible and hitting up the park for as many hours as we can. also? applefest parades and concerts, halloween shopping and decorating, playing at "gamma & papa's" house, wine nights (chocolate milk for k), and working on k's toddler room. among other things!

isn't he just the cutest stinkin' thing ever? ahhh. he makes my heart melt. "bye bye guys! see you shoon!"

so far this week...



to sum things up: playing with his toys and tackling his 8 foot snake, how I keep kingston happy while I shop my heart out at tj maxx, 4-wheelers (trucks!), new owl pillows (obsessed), riding rides at the mall, quack quack, "texting" on my old cell phone, and kingston's feet.

this weekend is buffalo bill days in lanesboro, which is the town I went to school in and where a lot of my oldest friends are from. we all look forward to buffalo bill days every year, it's a crazy fun time and my friends and I have been counting down for weeks! it's a weekend full of events: bar hopping, beer & brat tents, dj & karaoke, street dances, sand volleyball/baseball/bean bag tournaments, tubing down the river, AND a parade! I've got my cameras charging and am about to hop off the computer and pack my bags. see you guys on monday, have a happy weekend!

because I'm too lazy to update about our cali trip...

soooo, we're back from california! we got back tuesday night actually, I've just been busy cleaning our messy apartment, unpacking & doing laundry, working, editing vacation photos, and trying to get back into the swing of things. we had an awesome time with duane's family in moreno valley and had an absolute blast at seaworld and at the giants vs the padres game in san diego! until I find the time and energy to finish editing all the photos I took, I'll leave you with a few cell phone pictures from the last week...

playing in his new cars blow up tent - that we had to leave at grandma & grandpa allen's.

drinking beer at the titlted kilt while duane, his dad & brothers meet up with the pinetar fantasy baseball dudes.

napping in the car on the way to seaworld, playing with his uncle's old toys, back home dancing to his fave movie.

dazed while grubbing on crackers and mac & cheese.

be back sooooon with (way too many) vacation pics!

lately

wowza, this week kind of flew by. I actually have a few things I want to blog about but until I get the energy to sit down and type it all out, here are a few cell phone pictures from this week!

- we've been going for a lot of walks lately. we even have a "route" that we go and each time we go a few blocks further down. kingston never sits still that long and I'm amazed that he doesn't fuss to get out and walk. too much stuff to look at I guess, which is fine by me because it's actually really relaxing. - a bowl full of mac & cheese that kingston later tossed on the floor. (I guess he's over his love for mac & cheese) - passed the f out. - loves mama & daddy's big bed. - eating lunch and looking like such a BIG BOY.

on tuesday night we went to chuck e cheese! this was kingston's 2nd time at chuck e cheese but the first time he was only 6 months old (we went with my 9 year old nephew) so he actually ENJOYED it this time! as soon as we got there he took off and started screaming "OOOO!" at everything. this was duane's first time at chuck e cheese, so he had a lot of fun spending all of our tokens on all the games. the only downside of going to places like this is that it always smells like feet, kid sweat and pizza, ugh. I'm excited to take kingston when he's older and can play some of the games all by himself!

yesterday me, duane, my boss sonya, sonya's husband ron, and my friend/co-worker lisa started the 17 day diet! this is mine and sonya's second time doing this diet. we started it back in january and made it the full 4 cycles. I'm really excited to post ALL about this diet and how awesome it is (okay, it's not awesome but it WORKS) but I'll have to save that for another day. and, no, it's not just for 17 days people. it's 4 cycles of 17 days and it basically re-teaches you how to eat healthy! I'm the only one working out (30 day shred whoop, whoop), so I'm really hoping to reach my NEW goal weight this time around.

friday favorites

a few cell phone pictures: passed out in the car after a fun weekend at grandma's, a painting I did a few months ago that I gave to my sister for her birthday (she had told me she wanted a copy of it, aw), kingston is not a fan of strollers/carts - "up! up! up!", and a happy toddler doing his own thing in target.

now onto a few of my friday favorites...

love love love this song.

I don't really consider myself a lady gaga fan but some of her songs are pretty awesome, and her new album is pretty rad! a few of my faves are you and I, the queen, electric chapel, and hair. they're all so catchy and fun.

I took a "30 days of simply SLR" class, taught by faith of simplicity, for the month of may. WORTH EVERY PENNY. I didn't know the first thing about taking pictures in manual mode on my new canon t1i and now I totally get it thanks to faith. I have a lot of learning to do yet but I'm so glad I know the basics! I can't wait to take more of her classes. she's awesome. if you're interested in checking out some photos I took for her class, go here.

bahahaha. this video.

spongebob squarepants, anyone? duane showed me this yesterday on TV and, yep, we found it pretty hilarious.

safari themed forest wedding. lots of pretty photos! and the one with all the ladies wearing different pairs of rainboots? love it.

I recently picked up 2 new reads that I'm pretty excited about. I'm pretty much in love with chelsea handler so it's obvious I'm going to love her new book as well. and water for elephants? I wanted to see the movie SO BAD when I first saw the previews but I wanted to read the book first so I'll just check it out when it comes out on DVD. books are always better than the movies but if it has reese witherspoon in it, I'm going to love it no matter what. have any of you guys read these books? what did you think of them??

welp, that's it for today. short and sweet! next friday I'm going to do a post with my favorite makeup & hair products. I'm always buying new makeup and crap for my hair, and now that it's summer I've gone a little crazy the past few weeks with new nail polish, bronzer, and blonde hair products. so that will be pretty fun (for me)!

a whale of a day

our day in cell phone pics...

this morning kingston was walking, tripped over who knows what, and half choked on his whale cracker/half choked on his snot (poor bubba has a cold). he was pretty sad after that happened so he grabbed his blanket aka "baby" or "bee" and his pacifier and snuggled up in my lap for a good 5 minutes while we watched spongebob. this is a very rare occurrence for him to sit & chill for more than 10 seconds. I loved it, of course. after he got up from his nap, we put the 4 loads of laundry away, and he ate some steamed carrots and spongebob chicken noodle soup. duane's brakes are out on his car so for the past week he's been using mine for work. well, today I really wanted to get out of the house. which basically means he was left with no car for work tonight, so he got someone to work for him & he got to join kingston and I for a walk around the mall. we visited the easter bunny (we plan on taking kingston to get his picture taken tomorrow afternoon when I'm off of work because I want him to be looking snazzy in his easter outfit) and after looking the bunny up and down, kingston approved and sat in his lap for a bit. good to know, now we won't be worried about how his picture goes tomorrow. then we strolled around, said hi to duane's buddies who were working, and let kingston play in the kiddo park for a good half hour. we went to noodles & co. for dinner and instead of getting my usual med salad, I got the pesto cavatappi and felt like a whale afterwards. other than feeling enormous right now, today was a good day.