Where's Naniel?

Now that Emma is a month old, we decided it was time to get some family pictures. This is something we do every year around the same time, it's just the first time there has been 4 of us! We enlisted our good friend and amazing photographer, Carrie Fay. These are pictures that we want to pass out to our friends and family for Christmas. Little did we know - the session would be a nightmere!

Of course Emma just sat there, not much she can do other than be held, so she was an angel. However, her sister had other plans. You would think that as much as we have a camera in her face that she would be used to it. We even practiced saying "cheese" with a big smile on the way to the park and she was doing great. She knows Carrie Fay well, and loves her. I guess it's just different when it's someone else behind the lens. Because - once the camera was on and the settings were ready to go it was like a switch flipped! The terrible 23 month old syndrome (if there is such a thing - I'm convinced now that there is) came out!

I think we heard the question, "where's Naniel" about a million times. Daniel (Naniel) is Carrie Fay's son and Ava's best friend. She just couldn't seem to understand why Carrie was there and Naniel wasn't. We tried everything...bribing her to look for Daniel, candy, funny hats, singing the "happy song"...you name it we tried it. She was so focused on why Daniel wasn't there that she refused to sit down with us, refused to smile and basically refused anything we asked!

The session was filled with frustration - and laughter - of Michael and me just wanting to get a few good shots of our new family. However, somehow, someway, Carrie managed to be a miracle worker and pull off some great pictures. Ava may not be smiling from ear to ear, however she is at least in the pictures and they look great!

We're just praying that our picture experience isn't a sign of the terrible two's that are yet to come! If it is - the prayer for patience will need to rise to a whole nother level!

By the way - this picture is of Ava asking the emfamous question, "Where's Naniel?" Enjoy!

Whirlwind

These last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind to say the least. We've been adjusting to the balance of having two children, Michael has been crazy busy at work and we've been trying to get ready for the holidays.

I can't believe that Emma is already going to be a month old next Monday (in 3 days) - it just seems impossible. She's doing really well. She's awake a lot more now during the day and doing pretty good sleeping at night. She is beginning to make eye contact with whoever is holding her, and wants to be in the same room that the action is in! She's getting so big already...she's almost 8 lbs. now.

Ava is doing well also. These last few weeks her "yeah's" have turned into "yes!" That seems to be her new word at the moment. She is doing great with baby sister, she's just regressed to a new baby in the home. She's getting a little back to normal every day...hopefully she'll be back on track before we go to Texas for the holidays. We've been having fun while we've been home...going to the park, on walks, to see the Christmas lights at the zoo and painting! It's been great to be able to give her a break from the preschool - and I think she is enjoying it as well! She's now talking in two or three word sentences...and starting to become a lot more clear with her needs and wants. It's fascinating how much she can recall just by seeing something. For example, last week we were grocery shopping in Fry's...she saw PowerZero (the powerade drinks) on an endcap and pointed to them and said, "Daddy's juice!" We weren't talking about it, we weren't even getting any, but she recognized those drinks as her daddy's juice! She's really starting to pay attention a lot more now to her environment and what's going on around her...

We're very excited to return to Dallas for Christmas (actually the day after!) for a week this year. There's lots of friends and family that haven't seen Ava since March and have yet to meet Emma - so it surely will be a jam packed visit - but I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

By the way this picture (taken by the amazing Carrie Fay) very accurately summarizes what we are all missing a little right at the moment...sleep! Seems the only one actually getting it is Emma!!! Guess that's just par for the course!