Girl talk...

Abigail can say a few words, but she thinks she can talk like Hannah.  She jabbers constantly and with the cutest inflection.  Occasionally we catch a real word, but most of it is still Abigail speak!  lol.  Loved catching this little moment between them yesterday.  And I like seeing the silly little details too, like the stamp on Hannah's hand (for going to sleep without playing at nap time) and the smiley sticker on the bear's ear (for helping me with my 52 weeks photo).  That's right...it's called bribery...and sometimes it works!  :)

Let me help you...

How sweet is this?  Abigail still needs a little help and Hannah was very willing.  I think we'll have a toddler any day now.  She stood up in the middle of the floor today with only a little push off on my leg, then she stood unassisted for about a minute (looking VERY proud of herself!).  Yep...I think it's coming soon and Jenny's life will never be the same! 

Wild thing...

Here comes Abigail, lookin' like a wild thing in those zepra pants!  lol.  I love her curly tongue here...just like Hannah's!  She can't walk unassisted yet, but clearly wants to.  She can let go and stand for a moment on her own and she gets up on one foot and one knee while playing like she wants to stand up.  I don't think it will be long.  And then, watch out world!

Birthday blues...

Thought I would post a few of the photos from yesterday's collage individually, since they were too small to really see her expressions.  This is her first view of the cake.  "Wow...what's THAT?"  lol

She immediately went to touch it, got icing all over herself and got upset.  Such a surprise!  Really not a happy camper!

And this is my all-time fave.  What a face!  Don't you just want to hug her!!  And we did...right after the pic and a bath!  lol

BTW...you should have seen my living room for this little adventure.  It's too cold to shoot outside with no clothes on....so we moved our furniture all around and Jenny and I spent about 30 minutes draping the back of one of the sofas and our floor with a roll of plastic tablecloth material.  I cranked up ISO and shot as close to our skylights as possible. That's the redneck version of a photography studio!  :)    Wish I'd taken a pic of the set up...pretty funny.  TONS of blue masking tape.  But it worked!  This is also the first time I've added the rounded corners in PSE.  It was easy and I really like how it softened the overall "boxiness" of the collage.  I don't see myself using it a lot...but for this, I really liked the effect.  Oh ...and on the crying photo in the middle, I moved Abigail about 10 inches closer to the cake in post processing.  She was too far away in the original for a square crop.  So yay me for learning something new.  Pats self on back!  ha ha!  Of course, it would not have worked if it had not been a clean solid background.

Finally..Jenny assures me that Abigail went home and played quite happily that night.  She was not at all traumatized by her cake experience!  lol

Smash...

Yes, Abigail's birthday was 2 weeks ago, but we've been waiting and waiting for a sunny Grammy Day.  We finally got it today and we were SURE Abigail was going to love her smash cake.  She definitely "went for it", but discovered quickly that she's not too fond of icing that sticks to her hands.  Poor baby!  The things we make our children endure for a fun shot!  Bob told me today after the kids left that Abigail told him she didn't want to come back anymore.  lol.  At any rate, I had fun putting all this together.  It took me a LONG time tho'.   And by a "long time" I mean FOREVER!!!!  :)  And now, we are officially done celebrating Abigail's birthday! 

Look Ma....ONE tooth!

Look Ma....ONE tooth!  Wow....she may be ahead of where Hannah was in some developmental tasks, but she sure is behind on her teeth.  Imagine..one year old and only one tooth!  It's a shame, because this child LOVES LOVES LOVES to eat!  Hopefully, her other teeth aren't as hard to cut as this one was!

We've had a BUNCH of grey rainy days lately.  We needed the rain, but ugh....missing the sunshine!  On this day, Abigail was showing me how she can use her sippy cup by herself.  She would drink it, then reach to put it up on the table....and she thought that was totally hilarious!

Cruisin'....

Yep, she's cruising around the furniture now.  And she's trying to let go too, but isn't quite ready to walk yet.  Incidentally, this is all happening several months earlier than it did with Hannah.  It really makes a difference when you have a big sister to imitate!

And she does ADORE her big sister!

In search of the light...

What do you do when skies are grey and it's too cold to shoot outside?  Throw open the front door, crank up the ISO, and try to focus on those cute little faces instead of all the noise.  So so grateful for our little pink blessings!

Reality 101...

Every once in a while, I have visions of grandeur and fancy myself a "real photographer".  Ha ha!!!! Like on this day....my dream plan was to capture the perfect last monkey shot with Abigail.  Somehow I imagined that Grey skies + home with no studio lighting + Camera that doesn't perform too well with high ISO + wiggly 1 year old who kept trying to throw herself off the sofa covered in fabric = perfect birthday portrait. Ha ha! Seriously...what was I thinking?

Fantasies are fun, but reality makes me laugh. In the end, this is probably better. It's not my best technical work, but it is SOOO Abigail...our determined, excitable, FUNNY monkey. Happy Birthday, "AbbiGirl"! Can't wait to see how you'll change over the next year!

Doorway portrait...

It was pouring when we went to breakfast Christmas morning and we even had snow by the afternoon.  We had absolutely no sun tho'....so I had Jenny stand by the front storm door with Abigail and I turned my ISO down to try for a decent portrait.  Pretty sharp on Abigail I think...but I should have closed down a little for Jenny. 

First Christmas...

How sweet to watch Abigail enjoy things for the first time...

25 Days of Christmas [Day 25]

Yay!  I finished the project!  And now, maybe I can catch up with editing photos from other events that have happened in the last couple of weeks.  lol.

Today was Christmas day and we had a wonderful day!  Lots of smiles and hugs...good food, laughter, an excited 3 year old, a curious & playful almost 1 year old, 2 helpful daughters, a sweet friend, and SNOW!  So many blessings!

This was a very rare photo op for me...The girls both only sleep in their beds, in dark rooms, behind closed doors. They don't even sleep in their car seats. Abigail usually wakes up as soon as we open her door, but was so tired today she slept through me opening the shade and setting up my tripod. Sweetness!