Merry Christmas to all!

If you're wondering why I am all of the sudden blogging three times a day, I will tell you.
1. I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.
2. I leave for Utah on Saturday and needed to get all my blogging caught up ASAP.
3. Since I will be in Utah for such a loooong time, and I never blog while I'm there, I thought I'd give my avid readers plenty to read and look at while I am absent.

I'll be back in January.

Have a Merry Christmas!

I tried to have a photo shoot with the girls the other day to get a good picture of the two of them together.
It kinda backfired. Brinks didn't want to hold still.
She wouldn't let go of her play doh.
She kept giggling at Darcy instead of holding her.
She wanted to tickle Darcy in all the pictures - which resulted in her smothering her.
And it involved a whole lot of bed jumping.

Hmmm. I don't know.

Here's what I got.

Here's all the crappy, er, I mean silly ones. Not that they are bad. Just not good.
So yeah. Crappy I guess.
I love those girls. Even when they don't do what I want them to do when I want them to do it.

Darcy kept wanting to roll over. :)

Darcy and rice cereal

We gave Darcy rice cereal the other day!
It was no experience like Brinkley's first time...
(I wanted to put a link to that video, but my computer is not cooperating. Sorry.)


Darcy actually took to it rather well.
I love watching babies eat. It's so messy and cute.

Oh, and if you're wondering about her scowl, it's perfectly normal. She wears that face 98% of the time.

We need a little Christmas, right this very minute!

For our December Relief Society Meeting we had a little activity we called
"A Nebby Christmas"
Nebby in Pittsburgh means nosy. So, we went around to 3 sisters homes to see their Christmas decorations.
Of course, I am crazy and volunteered my house.

As I was decorating back on Thanksgiving, I realized how little Christmas decor I actually have and so, as a result had to create, create, create!
I've been crafting for 3 weeks straight now.

I set up all my nativities of course (I now have 12)
And the tree. But it needed to be more festive if I was going to have company!

Maybe no one really cares to see my house all decorated, but I know my mom will like to see the pictures. So, here you are!

The Front Room:

See that tiny nativity in front of the tree? Brinkley LOVES the little Mary figurine. She always sticks the sheep in by Jesus and carries Mary around with her. All day!

The Entryway:

I found this cute Santa printable here.
I got the wreath idea from my friend Bethany.

Family Room:

I made these stockings this year. I am in love with them.
They turned out better than I pictured them in my brain!
I will put our names on them when I get back from Christmas vacation.
I don't have time to do it right now. :)
Brinkley's is the red polka dot one (she picked the one she wanted)
Josh's is the green stripes.
Darcy's is the yellow with snowflakes.
Mine has the flowers on white.

Heartwood Acres

I can't believe it is already time for our annual trip to Hartwood Acres!
It's one of our favorite Christmas traditions we've made here in Pittsburgh.
I think this was my favorite year. I don't know why. They used the same lights as last year. Perhaps it was the cute voice in the backseat saying:
"Christmas lights!"
"Red. Lellow. Green. Blue."
"Choo choo train!"
"Look!"

It's so fun to do these types of things with children. Everything is so amazing to them.
When we got done and were driving away, Brinkley said,
"More lights."
It was cute and heartbreaking at the same time. We totally would have driven through a second time for her if it was free.
Good thing we have next year. And that is why I love traditions.

4 months

I'm behind! My baby turned 4 months like two weeks ago!
She's healthy.

Here's the stats:
Weight: 14 lbs 6 oz
Length: 24 1/2 in
Head: 38 1/2

If I remember right she was in the 68th percentile for weight. 6th percentile for her head. So she has a small head. So what? It's genetic. I have a small head too!

Either way, it is one cute little head.

She's rolling here... in case you didn't know what on earth she was doing.

She is a normal 4 month old. She is rolling from front to back. She sucks on her hands constantly. She found her toes - which I LOVE. It is so cute to watch her play with them.
She found her yelling voice.
When she cries, you can hear it throughout the entire house as if she were right next to you.
(the girl has got a set of lungs)
She smiles at you, and it just makes your whole day.
She has started giggling too.
She loves her family. She watches me like a hawk. She gives her biggest smiles to her sister. And just like the rest of us, it makes her soooo happy when daddy gets home.

Photo Shoots with the neighbors

I have all these seriously great neighbors who let me practice my photography skills on their families.
I'm still learning, so I really appreciate them letting me experiment on them!
It's good for me because I learn something new with every photo shoot! Perhaps by the time I leave Pittsburgh, I will be so good I could actually start charging people :) Ha ha.
We'll see.

This is my friend Amanda's new baby girl, Audrey. She was seriously adorable. The stocking was Amanda's idea, and boy am I glad she thought of it. Those ones turned out so cute! We also got some of Andrew. He is one good looking kid. When I put the pictures on the computer I showed Brinkley and then asked if she wanted to marry Andrew. She said "yes. marry andrew."
Woo hoo!

My friend Laurel is so sweet. I think even if every picture I took of her sucked, she'd still think they were great. Luckily for me and her, we had some goodies... despite the FREEZING weather. Sorry Paisley! You were a trooper!
This was my very first family shoot! I definitely learned a lot this day. I'm hoping they'll let me take them out in the spring for more pictures. I have some good ideas.

I think Laurel had these on her Christmas cards the very next day!
What a beautiful family!

My other friend Jessica had twins; Sophie and Ivy. I underestimated how difficult it would be to photograph twins. I'm hoping one day she'll let me redeem myself. I was able to get some good individual shots, but as for getting the girls in a picture together... um. Yeah, we'll do another photo shoot soon. At any rate, I just have to say that Jessica is handling twins beautifully. She is an incredible mom, and makes some seriously cute babies.