Merry Christmas!

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I'm a day late wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, but yesterday was a fun filled family only day, so my computer was never touched.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and took time, in the midst of all the commercialization, to remember the true meaning of Christmas.

I hope to try and get my 365 caught up in the next couple weeks and I'll try to post some more Christmas photos this week too.  Love to you all!

{21 month update}

My baby is 21 months! I think it's safe to say she is no longer a baby, but of course she'll always be my baby...you mamas know how it is. I just wanted to give a quick update on some of her milestones to document them, since I know I will regret it one day if I don't.

She is still a peanut. She hasn't been weighed since her 18 month checkup, but she couldn't be much over 21 lbs. (if that). She still isn't a great eater and won't eat many veggies, except for peas and corn, which she would eat at any given time. She is getting quite the vocabulary lately. She isn't quite talking in full sentences, but she is surely trying. She'll pick up my phone and start jabbering away...cutest thing ever.

She actually knows most of her alphabet. Well, I should clarify, she doesn't actually say her ABCs in order, but if we ask her what a letter is, she will tell us, or if we're reading a book or something, sometimes she'll point to a letter and tell us what it is. Lets see if I can remember all of the letters she knows...um...A, B, C, D, E, F, I, L, M, O, P, S, T, U, and Y. She can repeat all the other letters after us, but she struggles to pin point them when we ask her what they are. But for instance, with the letter G, she'll make the sound of the letter, but just hasn't said the name on her own yet. And funny enough, she struggles with the letter K as well. But she is doing really well. We have worked a little bit on colors with her and she is hit or miss with getting colors right when we ask her. Her favorite color to say is "blue"...everything is blue. haha

As for counting, she can almost count to 10. She will skip some, but it is usually 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and then it sort of trails off and she'll say 10. lol But she is sort of all over the place with numbers because it seems like it's different everyday...she will say different numbers in different orders. So we aren't quite there yet.

Big milestone! She said her first full sentence today and I missed it! :-( Teirney was in the living room with her tonight watching football and a commercial came on with a duck on it and Teirney said, KK say bye-bye to the duck (because he was taking her out of the room), and she said "bye-bye ducky, I gotta go now" in her adorable high pitched little voice. Man, I wish I could have heard that!

Another cute thing, we pray with her every night before bed and we'll ask her to pray too.  She mumble some cute little jibber jabber and then she'll say "men" for amen. :-)  Well, the other day we were in Culvers waiting in the Women's bathroom to use the stall so I could change her and she looked up at me with her cute little eyes and folded her hands and said "pray?"  It melted my heart.  I really wish everyone could have heard her with her sweet little voice say "pray?".  So we did, we prayed. :-)  Then tonight, we asked her to pray and she did and when she was done she said, "da" and did the sign for grandad and said "pray."  She wanted to pray for her Grandad (my dad who had knew surgery last wee)...it was so cute.  I love her!

Now onto some disciplinary things she is learning. As I mentioned, she isn't a big eater. Well, lately she has been having some temper tantrums in her high chair at mealtime if we put something in front of her that she doesn't want. One of her other weaknesses is to hit things in front of her or throw it on the floor if she is upset (yeah, fun times...i think my dining room floor is caked with food and milk...it's pretty disgusting). But lately, this is how we've handled the temper tantrums. If she is throwing one of her tantrums and starts hitting and flailing her arms like she is going to knock her plate or cup off the table, I just tell her firmly, "Kaydence, if you knock that on the floor, you are going to have a time out." It worked today, but I'd be lying to you if I said it is 100% effective. lol The child has a mind of her own, that's for sure, so we do have to resort to time outs from time to time. So anyway, then we just leave the food in front of her and walk away, or sit and eat and ignore her until she calms down and she almost always starts to eat whatever it is we put in front of her. So I had to entice her with sweet potato fries in order to get her to eat her mac&cheese with broccoli, but it worked. She was doing her usual temper tantrum and I told her that she needed to eat two bites before she could have a fry...it took her awhile to calm down and decide she would eat it, but she did and I gave her a sweet potato fry. And then we did it over and over until she ate half of her mac&cheese. I was so proud of her that she understood what I was saying. But now we know she understands, so she can't pull the wool over our eyes anymore. ;-)

She really is a good girl though, she has her moments, but so do we all. She loves to dance, so we will have to see if we can get her in a dance class sometime next year. She is already signed up for music class and a swimming class, so we will be busy.

Well, it's late and while I'm sure there are plenty of things I'm missing in this update, my brain is fried. I'm in the process of trying to go through all of her 365 photos that I need to post to my other blog. No, I haven't given up. I've been taking a photo everyday, but just haven't had time, with all the other photo shoots I've done lately,  to keep up with the blog.  But hopefully I'll be able to get them all posted and caught up by the end of the year. But for now, I'll leave you with a couple photos I came across.

Kaydence was 19 months in the first one...it was taken in October. And in the second one, one day last month (20 months), I was getting ready in the bathroom one morning and she was in the living room watching Baby Signing Time, but it was awfully quiet (she'll usually play while she is watching), so I went in to check on her and this is what I found. It was the cutest thing ever! She has never *ever* fallen asleep on the couch like that before. It was so sweet!

Oh and I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors I've made in this post...it's too late to proof read. ;-)

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{anticipation of new life}

What better way to start off this holiday season than with the anticipation and excitement of new life! Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet a friend of a friend for some maternity photos. It was my first time photographing an expectant mother, so I had a lot of fun. Poor mama probably thought I was crazy asking her to lie in the grass while I experimented with my photography. Not to mention, as warm as it may appear in the photos, it was freezing cold. She was such a trooper as I dragged her to a couple different locations. I just remember being that far along barely being able to move. So thank you, Shauna! :-)

She was the cutest little pregnant woman I had ever seen -- doesn't she look amazing?!?! She was 37 weeks here and she is presently the proud mommy of a little baby girl (they didn't know what they were having). I'm so happy for their new little family!

Shauna, I hope you're enjoying mommyhood and I hope you enjoy looking back at these photos of that little life you carried inside of you. :-)

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{treasure beyond measure}

This is the last family from my Madison photo shoots. And this family has a special place in my heart. I was Hannah's assistant at the firm I worked at in Madison before we moved. We clicked immediately and became fast friends (5 years ago now...can you believe that, Hannah?).

I'll never forget on my first day of work, Hannah took me out to go grab a cup of coffee at one of my husband's and my favorite coffee shops...I knew we were kindred spirits right then and there. ;-) How many attorneys take the time to do that with their assistants? Come to think of it, I was blessed because I had 3 attorneys I worked for who would take the time to do that with me frequently (I was spoiled for sure).

Wow, there are so many memories I could sit here and reminisce about...the laughter, the tears, the funny and not so funny. But one thing is for sure, this woman has the biggest heart in the entire world. She is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. She never ceases to amaze me with her kindness, and her genuine passion for life is contagious. I can never figure out how she does it all...she pours herself into everything she touches and still has more to give...she is completely selfless and absolutely amazing.

And her beautiful daughter, Makeda, is a reflection of all that her mama is and is equally as beautiful inside and out. I can't tell you how honored I feel to be able to call them my friends. And by now I'm sure I've made her blush (hehe), but she deserves all the admiration I can give and I know I don't tell her enough how much her friendship has meant to me over the years, even though we certainly don't get to spend much time together anymore. Hannah, you are like a sister to me and I love you...you are a treasure beyond measure! :-)

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{Sunny Sunday Giggles}

This is a continuation of my Madison photo shoots I did for friends.

These kids belong to one of the attorney's I worked for in Madison when we lived there.  We have kept in touch since I've left and it was great to catch up with her and her adorable kids again.  Her little boy is only a couple weeks older than Kaydence.  I'll never forget the day I told her I was pregnant and she said "me too."  Unfortunately, we were already living miles a part by that time, but I have been privileged to see them on several occasions since.  These kids were so fun and full of life and completely gorgeous, as you'll clearly see by the photos.  

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And a bonus one. lol Lets just say, the kids were pretty much done with photos by this point. ;-) They did really well though. :-)

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{Double the Fun}

Here is another beautiful family from my Madison mini-shoots. We didn't have a whole lot of time because all the kids had a soccer game they had to get to, so we just had to take what we could get. Aren't these twins so sweet? I felt bad we didn't have enough time to photograph the kids on their own, but they are adorable just the same. They were so quiet and well behaved...and couldn't be cuter.

I know this one is silly, but I still love it.

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{Bursting with Life}

Here is another beautiful family from my Madison shoots. Let me just say, this little girl loves her mama! Those smiles are all for her mama and what a lucky mama she is. :-) Both her and her big brother were bursting with life and I had so much fun trying to capture some of it.

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