And finally, my faves...

 I love these two shots the most.  The genuine affection of sisters just speaks to me.  In the above shot, I asked H what made her most excited about Christmas Day.  Her reply:  "I can't wait for everyone to open my gifts."  This is the first year she has purchased gifts with her own money.  It was precious to see how excited she was on Christmas Day to share them with everyone.  Jenny thinks that giving her is love language...and I think she's probably right. 

Love those big eyes and A's leaning into her big sister.  That's it for Christmas shots.  I'm so behind on posting other things, but will try to catch up soon.  We hope you all had a joyful, peace-filled Christmas celebrating God's incredible gift to us.  Merry Christmas!

Snoopers Anonymous...

You can blame this one on Auntie Kara.  These girls honestly have never snooped under the tree, but Kara told them to....so they did.  Just for fun.  No presents were revealed in this shot.  Lol.

Staged and Spontaneous...

OK.  It's staged and admittedly contrived, but I still think it's cute!  Probably because I'm wearing my Grammy Goggles!

Same PJs as last year, so the pictures don't look very different...but I've already ordered next year's PJs and they're going to be fun.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

I love doing these pictures every year.  It's become a special tradition.  I'm usually frustrated while shooting, because of the low light.  My ISO is so high, the clarity is poor, but I still think the shots are pure magic.  There's nothing like that beautiful light on my favorite faces.  I love them so!

Favorite things...

This "favorite things" shot is one of my favorites to do each year.  I hope when she grows up they will make her smile.  This is the first year we've added the "when I grow up" category and I loved her answers.  Happy Birthday H!  We'll celebrate with cake on Saturday!

Yum!

She actually loved the session...said it was the yummiest one ever since she got to taste the props!  lol.  Her mom doesn't let her have much sugar, so that was a special treat. 

Yay!

Happy Birthday to the sweetest seven year old I know!  Look how tall she's getting!   We thought these candy props were just right for our sweet girl.  We got the idea from one of the booths at Kara's Halloween carnival.  They are painted paper plates and paper towel rolls wrapped in tissue paper and cellophane.  Fun!  So much joy entered our lives the day H was born!

Halloween Dress Up 4

H told her mom that her doll really wanted to dress up for Halloween too.  I had previously made her a leotard and a different tutu, so she thought that would be her costume.  As it happened, the tube top we bought for A's costume was too small and we had to order a larger size.  So I was able to cut down the original tube top and make another minion costume with the leftover tulle.  H was BEYOND thrilled!  The girls were happily calling themselves Minnion 1, Minnion 2, and Minnion 3.  LOL

Halloween Dress Up 3

Sometimes minions are sweet...

And sometimes they hang their tongues our like crazy people!!!  Clearly the one on the left is a more mischievous minion. Either that or she's practicing for her career as a rock singer!

Halloween Dress Up 2

Again, for those of you who haven't seen the movie...Lucy Wilde and Gru fall in love, hence the kissing.  And the little minions are really shocked to see the public display of affection.  Love their faces!

Halloween Dress Up 1

Jenny and I saw a cute costume idea for Minions back in early September, and she decided the whole family would dress up.  She bought a cheap wig and sunglasses off Amazon and I made the minion costumes.  So much fun.  And SO MUCH TULLE!  I've included the movie poster above in case you haven't seen these characters they were trying to emulate.

 

 SO SO cute!  The woman who wrote the directions for making the girls' costumes said, "What do you make when your child wants to wear a fluffy skirt but doesn't want to be a princess?" 

And finally...

A little hilarity from the silly sisters!

Sweetness...

No words necessary.

Prim and proper...

This one cracks me up!  It's not exactly characteristic of our feisty, strong willed A.

Favorite stairs...

I always have to stop for portraits on these stairs because I love them.  These two shots are so similar, but I couldn't decide which one I liked bed.  I love the body angles in the first shot, but that wistful face in the second one really gets me!  So serious...

You get what you can get...

We were there in the middle of the afternoon when the sun was high, so the light wasn't great.  Still, I thought these pictures by the lake were sweet. 

Play time...

There's a little time to play hide and seek and to watch the koi. 

Monarch...

There were quite a few beautiful monarch butterflies...but I was only able to capture one.  They are so beautiful!

Crepe Myrtle Alley...

Crepe Myrtle Alley is one of my favorite places for pics, but it's extremely rare to get a clear shot with no other people in the background.  This was not our lucky day...so we had to just stay on the dirt off to one side.  A is excited about all things FROG...so she had fun visiting the giant frog fountains.

Rare...

Kara came with us too, but I never did take any pictures of her.  She caught one of me with the girls though.  It's rare, but every once in a while I need to get on the other side of the lens. 

Pumpkin Patch ...

Even though H is in school, Jenny decided to get her out early one Friday afternoon so we could do our annual Pumpkin Patch visit.  We had a good time.  We were fortunate to go on the one of only two reasonably cool days we've had in October. 

Dress up Princess...

Well, school started and only Miss A comes on Grammy Days now.  I loved this day when she came up dressed as a princess.  Yep, it's Princess A and her royal subject, Rutabaga Jane! 

Look out world...

Doesn't she look like she has all the confidence in the world?  I love this shot!

Balancing act...

I always have to try this shot.  You wouldn't believe how many times she dropped the apple.  Ha ha! 

Sweetness...

All ready with some of her favorite books.

Recreation...

We tried to recreate this shot from last year.  I like it, but not nearly as much as last year's...probably because the colors aren't as bright.  Oh well....still a sweet memory. 

For the joy of it...

She is thrilled to return to school!  She told me at the beginning of summer that she never never wanted to miss a day of school (except for Fridays).  When I asked her why she wouldn't mind missing a Friday, she said..."Grammy Day!"  I miss her on Grammy Days too, but at least I will see her once a week on piano lesson days now! And I'm HAPPY that she loves school so much!

Another first...

As usual, we "cheated" and went to the school one day early for these pics.  It's too hectic on the actual first day of school!  This is so the way to go!

Canonball!!!!

 

 

So her new trick this year was to learn to do a canonball.   She went to a couple of swim parties and watched the other kids, which helped her get up the courage.  And by summer's end (after watching Thomas and Jonathan) she was running off the board.  Some peer pressure is actually good, right?

Next up...first day of school pictures...

A for Effort...

This girl is trying SO hard to swim independently.  She does really well for a few strides, but as soon as she needs to take a breath she stops moving and sinks like a rock.  Lol.  NEXT year will be her year to take off!  We are going to make sure she gets enough swim lessons to really swim on her own.

Finally....

Finally having a great time in the pool!  She made great strides this summer!  Too bad our swimming days are coming to an end.  We've had more rain than normal this summer and every time it rains, the pool gets kind of cold.  Our girls don't love swimming in cold water.  lol.