Eloise's Birthday!

Happy birthday to my sweet Eloise! Today my little sweetie turns one so we started the day off with a low key backyard photo shoot! She literally is too cute for words, so I am keeping this short! The photos say it all!

Our Naughty Pug

 

Just a moment to appreciate the worlds naughtiest pug, Frank! 

Pickle Face

Where, oh where have I been?? I know, I keep saying how delinquent I have been, but seriously this is getting to be too much! Eloise is almost 8 months old and the time is flying by. Luckily, she is an itty bitty peanut and not growing up too fast. Her head (aka: noodle) is enormous and we often crack up at its size....because she has a very little body attached to it.

She recently has made the best faces ever. The second photo is the face she makes if she is tickled or if she is displeased with something around her. She also makes little snorts like a dragon. I even figured out how to pinch her nose so that she does it on command. This is what I discover during these chilly winter months.

I have great ideas for photo shoots of the girls....I just need to get crackin!

Where Have We Been?

breakfast time!

Phew! What a busy month it has been so far! It has left very little time for photographing our darling little ones and family blogging! It has been a busy month, but a wonderful one!

Our Anniversary
We celebrated four years on March 3rd. I cannot believe how fast time flies. I joke often and say that we spent these four years mostly pregnant and playing with babies. And it is true! What an amazing thing to think about. We are so lucky to have these two little girls that light up our lives. We went out on our anniversary and did the typical parent thing, texting the babysitter and scrolling photos of them on our iPhones instead of totally letting go and talking about non-child related things. I think that is what all parents do, no?

Girls Trip
Hooray for a girls trip to Boston! I have been busy working on SLC and wrote a full post about my wonderful trip that blog. You can click here to read all about it! You can also read about my recipes, health tips and much more!

American Lung Association Climb
We have been training hard for the stair climb at the Hartford 21 building to raise money and awareness for the American Lung Association. I first went to a climb in Stamford and Ben climbed it. The firefighters do it in full gear and I was so inspired by everyone that I decided to help form a group at my gym to make a team! That is later in the month and I cannot wait!

If you would like to make a donation in support of my climb, click here!

My First Road Race
I find it hard to believe that I have NEVER run a road race, but I haven't! I am starting small with the Shamrock Run & Walk and choosing the 2 mile run over the 5 mile run. I know I can do more than that, but I want to start very small and see how I do.

Cooties
Unfortunately, we were supposed to see the Russian National Ballet, but a lingering cold put a damper on that and I am so bummed. I love the ballet and have not been to one since at least 2003. Time to find another one to go see! Despite full health efforts, this bug just wont quit! Everyone in the house has been sick and I am ready for it to be fully gone!

Eloise is Sitting Up!

My sweet Eloise is now just over six months and it seems like she is growing so fast! She is pretty small in comparison to Charlotte at this age. It is fun to see the differences between them when they were the same age. Eloise loves to yell and chortle. She makes some very unique baby sounds and they are so funny to listen to. Charlotte was a very calm baby, but Eloise is even more so! As long as someone is holding Eloise or making silly faces, she is happy. She is quite low maintenance....which is probably a good thing since I am chasing Charlotte around most of the time.
Charlotte has really taken amazing strides as well. She can count to 12, she knows all her letters and colors and many animals...including hippos and seals! Admittedly, she is a little harder to photograph because she is always on the go!
Watching them grow together is so amazing. Charlotte now helps us out a lot and says "Ella-eeze" and it just melts our hearts! She loves to give her things, make her laugh and sit in the car next to her. 
This morning Eloise had a ball sitting up and having a little photo shoot! A perfect way to start a Sunday.....

Happy New Year!

I have been so delinquent blogging lately! I believe it is mostly due to the holidays and things being very busy! Here is a photo from today of our little Eloise. She is a bundle of joy and Charlotte is really stepping into her role as a big sister nicely. 

These days Charlotte can count to ten, knows all of her colors and all of her letters. She amazes us every day with her new words and knowledge!

Eloise is cooing quite a bit and has almost mastered rolling onto her tummy. 

2010 was a year full of amazement, happiness as well as struggles, though luckily not in our immediate "pod" as I like to say. I am so happy and blessed to have an amazing husband and children.  Every day I am thankful for them all and so very lucky.

Eloise's First Christmas

What a special Christmas, celebrating Eloise's first! She was very much into the tree and all of the endless love from all of our friends and family. Charlotte still does not quite get the concept of presents under the tree, though she has said "Santa Claus" many times! Charlotte is stepping into her role as "big sister" very nicely, and she was very helpful handing Eloise her new gifts as we opened them. She is very good at sharing and it is very sweet to watch the bond slowly grow.

We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Eloise 20 Weeks

Our sweet Baby Eloise has reached twenty weeks. I will not lie though, I had no idea she was exactly twenty weeks on the day we did this photo shoot until I looked on a calendar. It was a good case of dumb luck. When Charlotte was born, I knew exactly how many weeks she was for months. I suppose when baby #2 arrives, there is considerably less space in your brain to compute such facts.

She feels so big to me and yet so small. I go back and forth looking at Charlotte and Eloise and one day one of them seems small and the other huge and vice versa. It is amazing to watch them grow and change. I feel like time really does go by so fast and they change so quickly. Some days I wish I could just freeze moments in time!

Whales!

Before Eloise was born, I bought matching whale sweaters with the dream of that perfect sibling photo, where they hug each other and smile endlessly. Ha! Charlotte is at the point of growing out of her sweater so the time was now! She has no interest in sitting with Eloise in the same chair, let along hug her. She likes Eloise and touches her toes and says hi, but the concept of sharing seating was just too much.

So, alas I took them in different shots and created a little memory of my dream!

Regal Frank

Words need not describe this little devil of a dog. Recently we watched Marley and Me, and we highly recommend you do not watch this if you love dogs. But really do not watch it if you love naughty dogs! it had us in tears for much of the duration and it was more than either of us could handle. We appreciate Frank every day, but this movie made us realize that we love him even if he has done a fine job of destroying things and making me replace things much sooner than most people do!

He has been very jealous of Eloise's arrival and has been having "tinkle" issues more so than usual. I decided to buy him a belly band (a nicer word for doggy diaper), and I realize that I bought one online with an uncomfortable waistline. Needless to say, he took it off and, yes, peed on it.

It looked like it cinched his stomach like a bad pair of stockings, which I am sure at some point, I probably would have peed on in anger as well if it was socially acceptable.

Frank, you are one of a kind.

Trimmed and Complete!

"The" Tree!

Yesterday I woke up with the excitement of a child on Christmas Day...excited to get our tree! I decided we would go to the place we always get our tree (the local volunteer fire company) and literally say "I want your biggest tree!" Alas, they had one 10' tree with my name on it! Yes, 10'! It is so big! When we saw it at the fire department, it really did not seem that enormous, but it felt huge when we got it indoors! We had so much fun decorating it, which involved many moments of standing on tip toes at the top of the ladder.
I have some finishing touches, but that will come in the next few days!

Pearly Holiday Prep!

Every year I seem to get more obsessed the the 'perfect' holiday card. This year was interesting because I had to capture both of them in the same style, but in two different photos. Charlotte is interested in Eloise, but not enough to sit down quietly. To say the least, it was VERY entertaining capturing the look I wanted and in the end, I got one hilarious shot of each of them. Here are two that were also adorable!