Georgia is now 7 months old!

 Well, I'm more than a few weeks late on this post - but I have a good excuse, really. I wanted to take Georgia's 7 month pictures outside at this new park but its been nothing but rainy and cold for like the last month. We got a hint of sunshine yesterday, so we quickly got the girls dressed and marched them out to the park. I also managed to get in a few pictures of Sara and then the girls together for our Christmas cards (I'm behind on that too - but I did place my order last night so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can get them out before Christmas!).

Anyway, back to Georgia - she got weighed and measured at her last appointment:

Height - 28.5" - 96th percentile
Weight - 19 lbs 14 oz (I think she's 20 lbs now) - 88th percentile
Head Circumference - 17.5" - 82nd percentile

Georgia is now babbling all the time, interacting with Sara and just happier every day. She's now mastered clapping her hands and is very proud of herself every time she does it. She also loves playing peek-a-boo, patty-cake the the tickler game. She's currently trying really really hard to crawl but isn't have the best of luck at it. Thankfully she is determine and we have no doubt that she'll master this soon :)

Finally, I was able to get a few good pictures for our Christmas cards but I'm keeping those under wraps until Christmas. Here are a few that I was holding on for backups. Enjoy!

Merry and Bright :)

The girls got to open up one early Christmas present last night. Sara was thrilled and was even able to pick out which present was her's. That's right - she can read her name, ladies and gentlemen :) Anyway, they got matching PJs :-) And, of course, Mommy had to take pictures. Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa's special message to Sara

This is too cute not to share :)

Oh Christmas Tree

On Sunday, Chad and Sara picked out our beautiful Christmas tree (while Georgia and I hung out in the Urgent Care Clinic - boo!). Sara did a great job, and, while disappointed there were no pink trees, is very proud of her selection.

That night, we pulled down all the Christmas decorations and spread the Christmas cheer around our house. Georgia even got in on some of the action.

Sara thoroughly enjoyed hanging the ornaments :) She especially loved getting to put the star on the very top. She's really getting into this whole Christmas thing and is very excited about Baby Jesus's birthday (I think she's pretty excited about the potential for some more "happy cake").

Santa makes me mad!

So, I had a Christmas session with my cousin's kids last Friday. I wanted to break out of the old, overdone, family portraits in a pretty park. My original plan was to have them meet me at the beach and then a certain someone (ho, ho, ho) would drop by for a surprise visit. In my head, the kids would be overjoyed and I could capture their excitement and surprise with my camera. I love capturing raw emotions like this.

Anyway, fast forward to the actual shoot. We meet at the beach and it turns out that IKE washed it all out and the park was just now getting around to fixing it - which meant they had the entire run of the beach closed down. That's what I get for not doing a pre-run of the location!We decide to move the shoot to my Nana Ruth's backyard and we had to move quickly because we were losing daylight (I usually schedule shoots an hour or so before sunset because that's the best light out there).

We get there and I make a call to the special someone to go ahead and re-route his sled. About 15 minutes into the session, in walks Santa. But, instead of the excitement and cheer I was expecting, we got sheer fright! Not a single child was excited to see him. I think the surprise really threw them all for a loop and they got scared insted.... The pictures were pretty adorable anyhow - maybe not frame worthy but something I know I will treasure :)

Oh, and afterwards, I asked Sara why she didn't want to sit on Santa's lap. Her response was "Santa makes me mad!" - maybe he didn't bring her what she wanted last year? Hope he can fix things this year :) 

Our busy, busy weekend

Whew. Last weekend we were very very busy with Thanksgiving, Georgia's baptism and then the kick off of Christmas. This weekend promises to be no less busy - it's that time of year again :)

Anyway, let me give you a run-down of our Thanksgiving. We kept it small and celebrated with just Chad, the girls and me. We woke up and made some Thanksgiving crafts (head-dresses and Indian corn).

Sara and I then made the dessert while Daddy smoked the turkey. Yummy!

 After we got our "chores" out of the way, we settled in to watch the rest of the parade and saw Santa wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas! It was soon time for Thanksgiving Dinner and Sara was very excited.

 Georgia, on the other hand, wasn't so sure what the fuss was all about, but she sure loved her sweet potatoes coated in cinnamon!

After nap time, we went to the park to play a bit and then ended the day with some good ole' fashion football. Hook 'em horns!

On Saturday, we celebrated Georgia's baptism.

 Pretty much all of Chad's family and a good amount of my family gathered at the church to see Georgia get initiated into the Church. Here are her godparents, Michele and Mark.

Finally, we ended our long weekend with a trip to the Dickinson Festival of Lights. Chad and I have made it a tradition to tour some sort of Festival of Lights during the Christmas season and we love to share this with the girls. We haven't missed a year yet in the short 8 years we've been together.

This weekend, we'll be picking out a Christmas tree and decorating it. I'm sure I'll have lots more pictures to share from that :)