Baby Avery Kate meets Baby Mason

So what do you do when you find out that your good friend is having a baby 3 weeks after your granddaughter is expected to arrive, you buy a coordinating sweater outfit.  So even though it is March and hers is still a little big and his is almost too small, you must a mini portrait session of the two babies that are opposite as can be.   But as you can see as sweet as can be!

AVERY KATE AND MASON MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME:

"Hi, Baby!"

[Don't you wonder what babies are thinking?"]

Mason's mommy is also blogging:  https://southerngirlwrites.com/

Check her out!

"Some Bunny Loves Me"

When you have bunnies at your house to do a few Bunny Portraits for your dear friend before the actual sessions and your granddaughter comes to your house wearing a cute little bunny outfit that you bought her before she was born, you must try to capture a few images of her with a bunny.

However, the only smile images that were captured were directed toward the bunnies rather than the Mimi/photographer.

As you can see this little sweet pea doesn't have to smile to make a timeless, priceless image:

 "Some Bunny Loves Me"

I do believe this little one loved her first encounter with bunny.  She would giggle at them and oh yeah,  she wanted poke him in the eye which was one of the reasons this Mimi decided she could only do a few of these without help.

MUST SHARE: SWEETEST MIMI MOMENT EVER!

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Sweetest Mimi moment this morning as I was getting Avery Kate out of the car.

Last week, Monday and Friday, and this past Monday, I have been trying to teach her to wink.  I continually wink at her with my left eye and then my right and sometimes with both eyes.  Monday I thought she was making a curled up facial expression when I showed her and asked her to wink…with that I realized I am probably doing something along that line as I teach her. LOL

This morning when we get back to the house after our nice little drive from Ferriday to Frogmore, after singing little fun songs while trying to keep her engaged on the drive in, she finally WINKS!  As I open the back door and begin to talk to her and  she reaches to me as she often does, I wink my little Mimi-Wink, I ask her to wink.  She does it!  She deliberately (2 times in a row) when being prompted after I wink at her, she squeezes both her eyes together while crinkling her little nose.  So no photo!  So you will have to picture the sweetest little 9-month old wink ever based on my description.  Hopefully over the next few weeks, I can capture one! 

 ;-)  ;-)

P.S.  She did this a few more times this morning when prompted, but never when I had a witness!  Even if don't have proof, she really did do this! 

Adding a photo from last week...anyway!   Not for sure, but I was probably showing her "wink" while I was the floor with her last Friday (a week ago from today).  It was St. Patrick's Day and it has been cool all that week and Friday morning it was still cool so I put this little cute jacket on over her cute little St. Patrick's Day Onsie until it warmed up a bit.  I so enjoy these moments on the floor with her!

UPDATE (03.27.17):  TODAY SHE FINALLY SHARED HER ADORABLE WINK WITH HER MOMMY AND POPPA.  SEVERAL TIMES TODAY I ASKED HER TO SHOW ME HER WINK.  SHE IGNORED ME!  WHEN HER MOMMY WAS PICKING HER UP AND HER HER IN ARMS AND WE WERE TALKING ABOUT HER SONGS THAT SHE CAN SING (PAT-A-CAKE AND ITSY BITSY SPIDER), THEN OUT THE BLUE.  SHE DID HER HEART-MELTING WINK!  I CALLED POPPA IN HERE AND SHE DID IT FOR HIM TOO!  NO VIDEO FOOTAGE!  MAYBE SOON! ;-0  ;-0
 

A LONG TIME COMING: A BLOG POST

Right off the bat, I remember a real frustration that I had with blogging and Mac computers.  I had this blog post completely typed out and about ready to post.  I was just proofreading it and I slid my hand across the mouse and it went back AND I LOST IT ALL.
 

So I will try again.  After 16 months since I made a post, I think it is about time.  The truth of the matter is if I had not become Facebook junkie about 7 years ago, I think I would have continued to blog my thoughts, my photos and definitely my memories.  The nice thing about Facebook is you receive more immediate feedback and validation comes within that.  I don’t know about you, but I crave affirmation.  I think most of us do.

I have made a new decision this week.  I am going to start a new blog and maybe start posting on this one again on a regular basis. This was my 3^rd blog.  My first was a business blog that I see I haven’t posted since 2012…again Facebook was more effective.  I started a business page and used it as means to advertise, connect with others and share images from recent sessions, which often led to new bookings.  My 2^nd blog was inspired by my first granddaughter where I shared photos, memories and special events in her life as viewed by Mimi, me.  My 3^rd was started after she moved to Baton Rouge to blog about our lives or in other words journal about life in my family that may not necessarily include her.

My new blog won’t be about memories or my loved ones although I am sure they will creep into it too since they are so much of my life.   This one will be about my journey into Whole30 living and whole living (sharing how God is making me whole through recovery).  Food is my drug of choice.  I will share as I begin a new round of Whole30 and a brand new journey.  This past year I have dealt with some physical pain and emotional pain, which led me into regressing and slipping back into some (many) of my old food habits.  Food for me is often my friend, my comforter…my friend that leads me to destruction not my friend that leads into Christ’s will for me.  I know whole eating can be my friend too in a healthy way.  When I began my first round in October 2015, it began to change me in a most awesome way.  I began to feel better than I had in years!   Everything in my life seemed better except for my chronic back pain, which I hope to share more on later.  I should save the rest of my Whole30 inspiration to the new blog.  The new blog will be to inspire others, hold me accountable (I even plan to share my present weight and be real) and hopefully as I learn more about this type of blogging I will be able to monetize it too.    Prayerfully this is the direction that God has been leading me too.  I have been at crossroads for a while now kind of stuck, not sure which way to go next.  Have you ever been on that road?

 

For now I will share this photo that makes me smile.  It means there is a crawling little one in our family again.  Children are a gift from the Lord.  She has brought much joy into our lives.  I keep her on Mondays and Fridays.  When she is here, you will hear many ooohs and ahs from this Mimi and her Poppa too and lots of laughter from all three of us.  I will try to do some catching up from some of my last posts.  I will designate a post or two all about Avery Kate: her birth story as viewed by Mimi, some images from her newborn sessions, and some more images along the way up to the present.  So stay tuned if you want to see hear more about the new blog or my family.

THAT'S IT FOR NOW.  AS WE SAY IN SMALL GROUP, AS WE CONCLUDE OUR PERSONAL SHARE TIME AT CELEBRATE RECOVERY, "THANKS FOR LETTING ME SHARE". 

ps:  I couldn't leave you here without one recent image of our newest little one, our little Sweet Pea:  Avery Kate...

 This is from the mini session I took of her last Friday, St.Patrick's Day.  This image is actually coming off the background a bit...but it will just have to remain that way because no way and I cropping those little fingers which I have to do to crop it out. 

Gotcha Day Story

I guess I am going to add random images and then my Gotcha Day Story.  I am taking phrase "Gotcha" like I have seen people doing that have adopted children.  The official day that they become legal into their adopted family is being referred to as Gotcha Day.  Today was year ago that we had our Gotcha Day with our Izzy.

These images are random are images because I am having trouble getting to some of them especially those in between ages when she was so adorable...

 This was Izzy's First Christmas with our family.  It was Maggie's 2nd and she was only allowed in the house for this family photo since we did one last year when was a puppy.  And I have no idea how many times Pixie has been in this shot.  We also have another "human" in this one too!  Cari's BF from Monroe.  I will save that story for later if/when it comes to fruition.  It was good Christmas!  I love that I have this keepsakes to cherish our memories for every.

 Izzy in her Santa pajamas.  Everyone thought I was a little cruel for making her wear them.  I a few months earlier I had met someone who has a teacup Yorkie and she had all the cute pajamas for her and she told me she found them on Amazon.  I purchased Izzy several (but most ended up being to small--imagine that!), but I saved these for our Christmas.  I must admit she isn't thrilled about them.

 I did this mini photo session of Izzy and Ellie right before Christmas to give a little extra gift for Cari.  Ellie is such a poser.  She tilts her head! LOL

I did a few of both dogs alone also.

 Like I said earlier, random order.  This was captured Izzy's first week in our family.  I did a mini session with natural light in my bedroom in front of our french door at our balcony.  I didn't feel like cleaning/straightening my studio to do her first portrait session for her Birth Announcement/Valentine's Day cards.  She was stinking cute and sweet!

 And this how we commemorated, Izzy's First Birthday!  I made her take portraits.  So not her thing, but she obliged.  It would have been fun or cute to have a little doggie party or little family party, but like humans born on the 26th of December, she will just probably get jilted every year too.

The next 3 images are from my Easter Portrait Event.  I think she was about 12 weeks old at them and at one of her all time cutest phases. I wanted to add more photos of this age and maybe I will and maybe I won't--this may already be image overload!

 (above) Don't you want to know what she was thinking about the bunny and vice versa?
It was funny how she wasn't much bigger than them either.  She was so sweet!

 (above)  I think this is my favorite.  I need to print and frame it.  The only one I printed and frame so far has been from the recent Christmas Sessions.

This last one is her sporting this cute little Christmas Sweater that I found at the last minute at Walmart in Natchez.  I looked for them everywhere before I did our Christmas Portraits (first of December) and couldn't find one locally and I wasn't about to pay a fortune to order one online since she wouldn't wear it very long since the season would end soon.  I ended up getting her 3 or 4 by the middle of December.  Not sure if they got them late or what!

1 YEAR AGO

ONE-YEAR AND A DAY

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ONE YEAR AND A DAY (02.09.14) we picked up our new baby...

Typical Sunday:   church (wonderful worship and message as Randy and I viewed it from the sound booth—as I did power point and he did sound along one other),  lunch at local restaurant (visiting with church family and friends throughout that time) and then home for my Sunday nap and then me alone while Randy goes to a deacon meeting.  Almost the same as a year ago today (1 plus one day), except a year ago this empty nest family adopted our little 4-legged baby, Izzy.  Planning to do a full post of her tomorrow.  But today I am making sure I still know how to blog. LOL  [I actually remembered that he had a meeting a year ago too because Randy complained that I purposely planned it on the day he had a meeting so I could bond more/first with her. I know he was teasing, but I think it was one of those half-teasing-half-serious statements.  Of course, it just so happened to work out that it was this date.]

It has been so loooong since I blogged.

Okay, I am really out of practice and blogger has had many updates/changes since I did this regularly...even then I remember struggling to get photos the order I wanted them in.  If anyone reads this and would like to give me any hints, all are welcome.  This is a test post a little sneak peak...

 The above photo is before we actually met Izzy and her siblings.  This her and her first family.  I wished I knew wished one was her, but I can't even guess.  They really all looked alike to me.  All we knew was we wanted a small Yorkie.  I really don't know much about picking out puppies, but I did meet her parents too.  So I knew she would indeed be a small adult dog.

 I wanted this most recent photo to appear last, but like I stated I have forgot how to do that.  This was taken right after Christmas.  She was showing a two-year how to sit still a chair. LOL  Well, she tired!  The beautiful, two-year old was not that interested. ;-)

 This last image will forever be one of my favorites.  Natalie went to church with us a year ago (like she so often does) and then after lunch (before going home), we went to pick up our new baby.  I love this photo so much because it is my two babies:  my little sweetheart (Natalie) and my little Sweetie PIe (Izzy).  As look at it closer, I know Izzy was probably a little terrified about why she was leaving, but she adapted to her new family pretty easily.