Eight Month Photos

Thomas is ten and a half months old as I type this, but I just now have his 8 month professional pics ready to share!  I think I've mentioned it before that we purchased a "First Year" package with the ever so talented Lisa Mac when he was born.  The package includes four photo sessions throughout his first year so we can capture him in all his different baby stages.  We hesitated buying the package because it was a little bit pricey, but oh my goodness, Lisa is so dang talented!  It is amazing to me what all she can do!  She is a jack of all trades - an awesome photographer, lead singer in a band, amazing painter, and who knows what else.  I could go on and on about her but instead I'll just say this: if you need pictures made, look her up!

The pictures in this post are from our third session with her.  Click here to check out our newborn session and here to see Thomas's four month photos.  I should note that I majorly resize these photos to upload onto the blog so the quality gets majorly compromised.  I promise they are super clear and crisp in real life.  Don't want anyone to think Lisa Mac isn't a crazy good photographer.  :)

I had high hopes that Katie Wynn would be out of her shy stage for this photo session (I let her come to each one in hopes of getting pictures of them together) but no such luck.  I even talked it  up with her for the week leading up to it, and even though she was excited that morning, she clammed up and didn't cooperate when the camera came out.  That girl!  I had brought some cute toys with us because I thought it would be so cute getting pictures on an all white background of them just playing together.  Katie Wynn wouldn't sit and play but Thomas still looks cute with the toys!  I really wanted one of her pushing him in her stroller, but she just wouldn't do it.

Lisa always sends me the unedited pictures straight from her camera and then I get to choose which ones actually get edited.  Having seen the original shots, I can attest that his eyes were this bright blue all on their own!  It was crazy clicking through the shots and seeing them almost glowing and knowing they hadn't been touched up or anything.  I hope they always stay this bright!

The blocks were another toy that I brought that I just knew they would play with together.  Katie Wynn loves to build towers and knock them down, just not when there's a flashing camera around, I guess.

Lisa set up this shot and took all these photos while I consoled a tearful Katie Wynn.  I couldn't believe that he sat in this top heavy basket and never once toppled over!  He has this crazy eyebrow that shoots up when he really grins big and you can kinda see it in this one.  I love it.  The colors of this one also show off the strawberry color in his blond hair.

JOLLY POP!  Here's a fun fact: the pallet wall behind Thomas has three outlets on it that all made it into the picture.  Lisa waved her magic photoshop wand and made them disappear!

This picture cracks me up.  Lisa wanted so bad to get a sweet picture of him laying on his belly and holding his head up looking at the camera.  All Thomas wanted to do was crawl towards the camera!  He wouldn't even lay still long enough for her to pick up the camera.  But the very best part of the picture is that I also have the version that has not been edited...between the legs.  :)  It is too funny and will absolutely be making an appearance in a wedding slide show when the time comes.  :)

Katie Wynn never really did warm up to the camera, but I absolutely adore this shot that Lisa got of her.  My mom had brought all kinds of prizes for her (that obviously didn't work) but one was this Elmo book.  (The page she's on is actually Cookie Monster.)  I just love it because it so perfectly captures her right now.  She loves to flip through books and look at the pictures and Sesame Street is full of her favorite little monsters!

And then there's this one that just totally melts me.

I have those two above in color as well and keep going back and forth on which way I like them better.  It's going to be hard to decide which ones to print and hang!

The last set up of the day was in front of this brick wall.  I chose these pictures of each of them and didn't even realize until now that they're in similar poses.  Similar, but different.  I think Thomas's captures his sweet little boyness and hers shows her shyness and how hard she was trying to keep from smiling.  

I can't believe we only have one photo session left!  It should be an adventure as I think we'll attempt to get a couple of full family shots.  (Well, maybe not FULL family if the big kids aren't available.)  And we're going to head outside the studio for some outdoor pictures.  I'm eager to see what Lisa will pull off.  In the mean time, I've got to figure out where I'm going to display all these pictures.  I'm going to go broke buying picture frames!

Bike Ride!

With warmer weather here, we've recently dusted off our bikes and pulled them out for bike rides!  Last year I was pregnant with Thomas in the spring so I couldn't ride, and we didn't ride much in the summer either since I was all postpartum-y and Thomas couldn't sit up.  But now I can ride and he can sit up so we're all back in the game!  These pictures are from our first bike outing this spring with Thomas getting to ride in the bike wagon with his big sister.

As you can see in the pic above, we gave Thomas a sippy cup since Katie Wynn had one.  He's still a little confused as to how it works.  :)  After he dumped water on their feet, we ended up just pouring his out and letting him hold and chew on it empty.

Strapped in, sun visor down, attached to the bike and ready to go!  Dad gets to pull the extra weight.  :)

But that doesn't mean I don't have any extra cargo with me...

Lolli loves riding in my basket and does a great job of sitting still.  

For the most part, we hear nothing but squeals of glee coming from the bike trailer.

Although occasionally we have to shout things like "Give him his cup back!" or "Quit grabbing his head!"  

I hope we get in lots of bike rides this summer...fingers crossed the kids don't tire of them anytime soon!

Wagon and Chairs

I'm thirty-two now.  The last time I blogged I was only 31.  That means...I've had a birthday!  And, if I'm being perfectly honest, it was not a particularly good birthday at all.  We're coming off a weekend full of sick kids and a super sick husband and doctor/ER visits and lots of medicines and me playing nurse, but as of today, I think we've turned a corner and everyone is feeling better!  I may have to demand a do-over for my birthday next weekend.  :)

For my birthday, God gave me a glorious 70 degree sun-shiney day!  I was stuck indoors for most of it but I did get the kids out for about an hour in the evening so that it wasn't a complete waste.  We ventured over to my parents' house so that their Daddy could keep resting, and Mom and I dusted off the wagon to take them for a ride.  

"Are you ready?"  "I'm ready!"  "Let's go!"

This was Thomas's first wagon ride to sit in by himself!  (He rode a couple times last year in his car seat.)  And actually, he didn't sit for the ride at all; he stood the entire time!  It didn't matter how many times I put him down on his bottom, he popped right back up.  He's supposed to wait until he's older to give me heart attacks!  I'm gonna have to invest in helmets just for wagon rides now.

"Everybody HOLD ON!"  Katie Wynn was obsessed with his pants on the ride (??) until she eventually pulled them all the way off him.

Then she worked on trying to get her pink shoes on his feet.  He wouldn't keep his feet still enough for her.  :)

I think the first ride of the year was a big hit!  Can't wait until we can do it more often.  See how much rain water is still standing in Mom's yard?  And we're supposed to get a lot more of it this week.  Ugh, go away winter and rain!  This brief tease of a day has us ready for spring.

When we got home, Katie Wynn pulled out her pink chair to sit in so I pulled out Thomas's too.  Just like the wagon, this was his first time to be able to sit up in it.  I think he liked it...and all of a sudden Katie Wynn looked enormous to me.  (Two-year-olds don't care about what feet their shoes go on...)

I really don't think of Thomas as looking much like Katie Wynn anymore, but their expressions in this picture are so similar that I can still see the resemblance!  

"I hope she shares that ball with me."

These are the last two I was able to snap before Katie Wynn spotted our neighbor dogs coming for a walk.  We had to rush to get them treats to feed them as they passed by our house.  :)

I hope this is the beginning of the end of winter.  Seeing the kids outside together yesterday just gave me a taste of all the fun we're going to have this summer...especially when Thomas starts walking on his own!

Snow Day!

Thursday we had a for real SNOW day!  Not a fake snow day where it's really just frozen ice everywhere, but a real, fluffy white, powdery snow day!  It was exciting to see for once.  The weathermen predicted a significant amount of snow and, though I was doubtful, they were right!

View of our front porch and front steps.  If you look closely, you can see the snowman from my front door buried down there.

Our back porch - I loved the way the snow settled on our herringbone bricks!

Snowflakes stuck to our window!

Snow built up on our windowsill. 

After thirty minutes of rounding up coats and gloves and boots and hats, we managed to all get outside.  Please don't mistake my excitement over the snow day to mean anyone was excited about playing in the snow.  Thomas obviously was too little to care and Katie Wynn was too terrified to be put down in it.  I was just excited for us all to spend the day together!

The kids were so bundled up I'm not sure that they could actually move.

We stood at the edge of the garage and used our new selfie stick to take pictures with all of us in it.  What would we have done without the selfie stick??  (Please note the bow on T's gloves...he had to borrow some from Sister.)

Lolli was not so sure about all the snow.  She hesitated before following us out into it.

We walked out into the yard but like I said earlier, Katie Wynn had no desire to touch the snow.

More selfie stick photos!

And that was it for this family and the snow!  We rushed inside to get warm.

I had watched this video a while ago and since we were stuck at home with nowhere to go, I decided to give those curls a try!  Here are before, during, and after photos of my 'do.  And I am horrible at selfies.  Overall I suppose it worked...I definitely had curls!  Some pieces did better than others though...maybe it would look better after more practice.

Katie Wynn turned her gloves into socks.

I took these pictures while she was talking to Lala and Poppa on facetime.  I love her little profile!

I made a batch of sugar cookie dough while Katie Wynn napped, so when she woke up it was ready to be rolled out and cut with cookie cutters.  She loved it and was a great little helper!

It is so hard for little people to understand that cookies have to be cooked and then cool before we can decorate them!

When it was finally time, I spread the icing ("glue") and then she did the colored sugar ("glitter").  It was all worth the crunchy, sugary mess I had to clean up!

We made a full batch of colorful hearts, stars, airplanes, and of course, snowmen!

After dinner (and dessert!) we all sat by the fire before bath time.  We tried out the selfie stick one more time!

Little Miss "I Do It!" begged to use the selfie stick herself and it didn't take her long to figure it out.  She's way too young for this, right?

Now that we've had our one real snow day, it's A-ok for spring to come.  I think we're all sick of this cold weather!

Thomas: Eight Months Old

Am I the only one in disbelief that Thomas is already eight months old?  When did that happen?!  It's amazing how fast time seems to be flying and how quickly he's growing into a busy little boy.  A VERY busy little boy.  This past month was his biggest one by far in terms of milestones.  He was already sitting up but he's no longer wobbly and now he's crawling across the floor at lightening speed.  He pulls up on anything he can get his hands on - tables, chairs, my legs, his daddy's legs, he even uses Lolli to give him a little boost up!  This past week, he has also started walking behind objects as he pushes them across the floor.  I have a feeling he will be walking even earlier than his big sister did!

Wanna see his comparison photos from the last four months?  (His first four months' worth of photos can be found here.)  I haven't edited any of these yet but will touch them up a little bit before putting them on display at his first birthday.  The first set are the traditional monthly pictures in the same chair with a chalkboard sign indicating how many months old he is.  I have to take these fast before he wipes off all the chalk writing!

Next set are of Thomas and Katie Wynn both in one of our living room chairs.  Are these easy to get?  Absolutely not.  That girl does not like to sit still for pictures!  If you click on the photo for month seven (the one where they both have on striped polo outfits) and make it bigger, you can see a big fat tear rolling down Thomas's cheek.  I can't remember why he was crying but I'm sure it was from something his big sister did.  The last photo - eight months - was fun.  Their daddy had them both giggling for my camera.  I love how Thomas is so laid back. :)

The third and final set of monthly photos are themed for each month.  For month five - November - we played football!  I love those sweet blue eyes shining in the light.  

I always have the hardest time narrowing these down from the handful of photos I quickly take.  That's why you're getting some bonus pics with these.  :)

Nothing says December like Christmas lights, right?  Katie Wynn loved helping me wrap these around Thomas and he loved playing with them.  

Speaking of Katie Wynn, here's one of her wrapped up in Christmas lights too!  She was only three months old when I took hers (Thomas is 6.5 months above) so she looks a lot younger than him. 

I really struggled with an idea for January.  I had every intention of getting a New Year's hat for him to wear, but it just didn't happen.  I nearly let the month pass us up before snapping a photo.  Since we don't actually get snow around here very often, I just bundled him up so we could pretend.  (It might've been a little cold to sit topless in the snow anyway...)  I think my favorite picture is the one where he's biting his lower lip.  

February is the month of love and love means kisses.  With ruby red lipstick!  I put my lips all over my sweet pea for these photos.  And if you look closely in the first picture you can see another one of his milestones from this past month - two new teeth!

Katie Wynn got kisses too during her first year.  It's funny to me how she definitely looks like a girl and he looks like a boy.

Here are some quick stats on Thomas at eight months old.

• He weighs 18.12 pounds and wears 6-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers.
• His eyes are still blue and his hair still looks strawberry blond-ish.  
• Our boy loves to eat!  He eats solid baby food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still drinks around 24 ounces of formula each day.  The only food we've found that he just really dislikes is green peas (can you blame him??).  We've given him puffs to try to eat but they mostly get thrown down to Lolli.  He loves playing with them though.
• While he is still not the awesome sleeper that Katie Wynn was/is, he's getting much better.  On good nights, he sleeps from around 7:30pm to 5:30am with 2-3 naps during the day.  We have experienced every sleep regression I read about but didn't have with Katie Wynn.  
• He does not have an inside voice.  When he jabbers, he wants everyone to hear him!
• Little Brother ADORES his Big Sister.  He loves to watch her no matter what she's doing.  She makes him laugh so much.  I hope they are always best buddies!