Monthly Themed Pictures

These pictures are definitely my favorite series of the three.  There are just so many cute pictures!  While I sometimes had a hard time coming up with an idea for each month, once I had something in mind I loved doing the photo shoots.  The early months weren't great as I hadn't gotten my groove yet, but the last few months were so fun! 

As we get going with the infamous baby-in-a-pumpkin photo, can we all just say a quick prayer of thanksgiving that Katie Wynn doesn't look like a little old man anymore??  I love that I thought she was so cute back then (because she was) but I'm really glad she has grown out of the male-patterned baldness stage.  :) 

This was one of the hardest months because I was trying to get her to sit up at just 2 months old.  What was I thinking?  I gave up after 4 pictures so not too many to choose from! 

I love the twinkle lights.  We may have to recreate this one again this year.  Except I don't think she'll lie still at all.  It'll be more like blurry lights as she runs past me.  We'll see. 

Another month trying to get a baby to sit up and not succeeding.  Also, I've noted that I should shop for New Year's party hats way before the end of January. 

Kisses from both her Mom AND Dad while wearing ruby red lipstick.  This girl is really loved.

“I’m just a wee bit Irish!”

April showers... 

...bring May flowers! 

I'm so glad she enjoyed being in the pool as much as she did this summer.  Won't be long before she's a little fish and swimming all over the place!

Katie Wynn got to dig into some watermelon for the July photo.  She wasn't so sure about it at first, but she ended up taking some big bites (and getting REALLY sticky!).

I had a hard time choosing just one picture for July, so here's a free bonus picture for you.  I just love that little toothy grin!

School was back in session for August! 

Getting ready to celebrate one full year!!  

Okay, okay.  I couldn't choose just one for this month either.  She was just so tickled with herself in this picture.  If you look closely, you can almost hear her little giggles.

Quick poll: keep going with monthly pictures for year two or give it up?  If I keep going, which series do I continue on with? 

Mom Stays in the Picture

Have you ever read the Huffington Post article titled The Mom Stays in the Picture?  It was written by Allison Tate last year shortly after Katie Wynn was born and it challenges mothers everywhere to step out from behind the camera lens and get in the picture with their kids, to stop worrying about the way your body looks and capture the way you look at them, to let them see you love them and wrap them in hugs.  I love this line from Allison:

“I am not perfect to look at and I’m not perfect to love, but I am perfectly their mother.”

I guess this article was the inspiration for this series of monthly pictures.  They are far from perfect of either of us, but they are of us together and to me, that's perfection.

Sadly, this is the series I will probably stop first, assuming I continue on with any of them.  While I love these memories of us sitting on the steps together, they are by far the hardest to execute.  Namely because I have to have someone else around to snap the pictures, but also because my little wiggle worm is far more interested in all the dirt/bugs/flowers/grass/neighbors/etc that greet us when we step out onto the porch than to sit on the step with me.   So I'll treasure these twelve months' worth of pictures and if we happen to get any more, that'll just be icing on the cake.

So for all you moms out there reading this, I now challenge you to go take a picture of you with your babies.  Keep Mom in the picture! 

12 Months!

I am so glad that I took these monthly pictures of Katie Wynn.  I love looking back at them and seeing how much she has changed.  I'm really glad she stopped crying after the first couple months.  Smiles are much better to look at!

If you'll remember, I did three different types of monthly photos.  I'll be posting all of them in these next three posts.  This set is the most traditional type - just my girl in her chair every month with a chalkboard sign. 

Apparently I'm really bad at adjusting the white-balance on my camera since these all have such different coloring!  One day I'll learn.  Pics with Mom coming up next! 

A Great Weekend!

I don't even know if it's possible to find words to accurately describe how great this weekend was.  I mean, it was just perfect!  After a full day of rain on Friday (ok, that part was not really perfect, but our grass did need it) , we had the BEST weather for an outdoor birthday party on Saturday.  So many of our friends and family came over to celebrate our little girl and she was just as happy as could be at her party.  The rest of the weekend didn't disappoint either, with a Notre Dame win, fun times with Matt's parents and the big kids, and a wonderful church service were Matt spoke and one of my best friend's sweet babies were baptized.  I really don't want this weekend to come to an end!

One of the best things I did when planning Katie Wynn's first birthday party was hire a photographer.  I knew I didn't want to be hiding behind the camera lens when the big day came, and I'm so glad I didn't have to.  I really enjoyed just being at the party!  The down side to that, though, is that I don't have any pictures to show for it yet.  Seriously, not an even an iPhone picture!  So a post all about the party will have to come once I get the photographer's pictures back.

That doesn't mean I don't have lots of other pictures from the weekend!  And here they are, from super crappy, blurry phone pics to semi-decent ones from my real camera. 

The weekend started out with a dreary, all-day-rainy Friday but it didn't slow my little Lady Bug down!  She hammed it up all day long her her Lala and Poppa who had just arrived into town. 

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it on her or not, but Katie Wynn loves men!  She shies away from the women - you know, the ones who always want to hold her - but she'll flirt and peek around at men on any given day.  It didn't take her long to decide she loooooved her Poppa.  Seriously, she never cuddles like this in my arms!

I really don't think he minded being her favorite and getting all of her good lovin'.  

Obviously with Friday's all-day-rain shower, I was a nervous wreck about Saturday's outside party.  There was no way I would be moving the petting zoo into my house!! My worried prayers were answered when I woke up Saturday morning to sunshine.  We woke up early and got to moving furniture out to the grass.  The yard was wet but it thankfully dried off before the animals (and party guests!) arrived.  We tried to so hard to lay Katie Wynn down for a nap around nine so she would be well-rested.  But you know, nothing ever goes as planned.  T minus seven minutes til her birthday party and she face planted into her Poppa's chest and fell asleep! 

We let her sleep for about 25 minutes before waking her up and bringing her outside.  She had no idea what was going on!  The picture below is from the end of the party, when I finally found the party hat I made for her.  She was supposed to wear that when eating her smash cake!  Oopsie daisy. 

Like I said above, the party was a huge success.  I hope the photographer got a good picture of her grin when she rode the pony, but it's really her giggles that I want to remember!  Maybe we have a little cowgirl on our hands?  I know that would thrill some of her cousins! :) 

On the party invitation, we requested that, in lieu of gifts, guests bring a donation for Heifer International.   I'm thrilled that we'll have a sizable donation amount to send their way, and I'm also thrilled that we don't have TONS of new toys to find room for.  We waited to open what few gifts she did get until after everyone had left except for her grandparents and great grandmother.  KW did a great job of opening the first gift - two barnyard books - but then couldn't be bothered to open any other ones.  She was too busy carrying her books around!  Thank goodness for Anna and Wyatt being there to help (and being more excited about her gifts than she was).  Oh, and one gift had a blue ribbon on it that she wore as a birthday princess sash.

It wasn't until they got to the very last present that she decided ripping the paper off could be kind of fun.  Good thing it was a big box with lots of paper on it! 

As soon as all the gifts were opened, the birthday girl crashed HARD!  She didn't even fight going down for a nap.   

After her nap, it was fun to watch her face as she rediscovered her new toys all over again!  This is Lulu Ladybug who plays four different songs.  It jingled the whole time it was wrapped up in its box.  I feel for the poor UPS man who had to drive it around all day!

After a busy Sunday morning and a lazy afternoon, we took Katie Wynn outside in the early evening to try out some more of her new toys.  How cute is this garden cart that she got from her Aunt Beth, Uncle Nick, Jett and Bren?

It doubles as a wheelbarrow, but she hasn't quite figured out that it would be MUCH easier to wheel around if she would pull up on those handles! 

This chair is not new at all (five bucks at Walmart, go get one for your kiddo!) but we had it out for her too.  She decided rather than sitting in it, she'd rather carry it around.  That seems smart for someone who's still trying figure out how to walk without falling over, right? 

She took a break from her furniture rearranging to play basketball with her Daddy.  I bet her brother would be thrilled if she took up an interest in this sport!

She ended the evening back with the chair, but this time actually sitting in it.  And of course, she's giving all those grins to her Poppa! 

I'll be back soon with updates about this little girl being ONE.  How is that even possible??  Til then, kick back - literally - in your lawn chair and enjoy this awesome weather! 

First Haircut Is In The Books

Does anyone else go a reeeeeeallllly long time between haircuts and then wake up one morning and decide it's time?  And then, once you've decided it's time, it's all you can think about and you just want your hair cut rightthisverysecond?  Or is that just me?

The same thing happened to me with Katie Wynn.  No, she didn't go a really long time between cuts since this was the first one, but last weekend when I finally decided it was time for a trim, I couldn't get it done fast enough.  Y'all, she was rockin' a mullet.  Big time.  Here are some pictures from her bath that we took the night before the big cut. 

It's pretty long in the front too.  (And I couldn't resist taking at least one cute soapy picture.) 

In my head, I had worked this first haircut up to be a Very Big Deal.  In reality, it was over in about 3.3 minutes.  She didn't even get to wear a cape!  We went to visit my hairstylist, Chase, at 3:30 on Wednesday and were walking back out the door by 3:40.  At his recommendation, we decided to just trim the back.  The front definitely gets in her face but, as he said, it's gotta grow out sometime, might as well get it over with now. 

She surprised us all and did really well!  No tears, no trying to get up.  She was very serious since she had no idea what was going on. 

I wish I had a really great After photo for you, but I don't.  It really doesn't look much different, especially from the front!  In fact, if I didn't tell you she got her hair cut, you might not even know.

This after picture of the back actually looks pretty bad, but that's because he cut her little curls in half (yes, it actually curls a little back there!).  It looked much better today after it had been washed and dried.   She looks like she has a little bob.  :)

I had no intentions of keeping a lock of hair - I mean, really, what do you do with that anyway? - but Chase gave us one so here it is.  This is how much got cut off the back of her hair.  I put this in her keepsake box for now but I'll probably end up throwing it away.  What's the point of keeping hair? 

So this first is officially done.  And it came just 12 days before her first birthday!