New Haircut

With the girls refusing to put their hair up anymore, Maribeth was able to go much shorter than we had in the past... and I think it's adorable!

Short is maybe an understatement?

It's a miracle! Peyton gave me a half smile!

The light in the shot, which is framing Grace's face perfectly,  was of course on purpose. 

 

And here's a cute one of Rowan for good measure!

Who might possibly need a haircut in the near future!

Rowan at 10 months

Since we don't have another check up until 12 months I thought I'd use the 10 month mark to post an update.


Row-ster is a great baby and is most often super happy.  She loves to be around her sisters and the smile she now gets on her face when Mommy or Daddy walk in the room is priceless!  She has adopted a few fun new "activities" in her baby arsenal which include but are not limited to:

- Shrieking when she wants your attention.  Like Blair Witch shrieking.  I must say, it's effective which is probably why she's still doing it.  The words 'vicious cycle' come to mind right now.

- Eating.  While this should come as no surprise, Rowan has started eating basically anything that is put in front of her at daycare.  This includes sloppy joes, fish sticks (yuck! Mommy forgot to look at the schedule this day!), Mexican chili and chicken salad as of today.  When she gets home, we don't seem to be as successful but she does a great job eating her mandarin oranges, spaghetti, taco soup and Gerber wagon wheels among other things.


- Walking.  She took her first couple steps before falling into my arms (on purpose) today and if she's not doing that she is reaching for your hands to walk her around EVERYWHERE.  While my back isn't appreciating this super cute new skill she loves, it is cute when she searches for your hands when she's ready to go!


- She loves peekaboo and waving 'hi' and 'bye' and will even give kisses on demand about 80% of the time!

There's lots more but let's be honest, you want to see pictures... here are some of my favorite shots of her from Christmas break with my new camera!

The center shot is not so bad if I do say so myself!  Thank you Canon!

Cuteness all around!  I will say that middle picture looks nothing like her...even though it's, you know, her.

Karate Kids

The girls had their first karate belt promotion after starting the lessons through our daycare this past December. In one word, it was: awesome. Awesome to see what they had learned and awesome because little kids in over sized karate uniforms are super cute. To the pictures!

Daddy got made them take this picture before they left.

Awesome!


Here they are at the dojo.

I totally made up the "dojo" part - it's fun to say though!


Rowan was SO over this whole karate scene.

She had just been to the doctor and been diagnosed with a... wait for it... ear infection. 
No shocker there! By the time she is 2 she'll be the spokesbaby for the Center for Ear Infections in Babies and Toddlers Who Attend Daycare (CEFBTWAD for short).


Being focused is a big part of karate.

Peyton didn't get the "focused" memo apparently.

This is part of the stretching at the beginning.  

Who knew stretching could be so cute?



This is Grace doing a kicking exercise.

At least I think this is Grace...
(Give me a break - they ARE wearing the same thing!)


Look at that form!

I like this action shot.  I think that is Peyton in the foreground and Grace in the background.

I think....


Well look who woke up?
Here is a shot of part of the fan base that came out to support our little kickers.

Grandma, GiGi, Nana and Popa also came out to cheer on the girls!


Here is Grace during her belt ceremony with Ms. Adrienne.

A white belt with a yellow stripe complete with a 3 inch trophy and paper certificate!

That's how we roll in Mississippi.


Now it's Peyton's turn.

 
She decided to be chatty Cathy during this solemn ritual.  Great.


Armed and dangerous!

Now on to gymnastics!!!

A Christmas Tradition

We have a Christmas tradition in our house. It started last year when we were listening to a song called, "A Mad Russian's Christmas" by Trans Siberian Orchestra and now every time we play the song, this is what we get. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

* PLEASE: No judgment on the state of my house in the video. It's normally spotless, I'm not sure what happened that weekend. Thanks, Momgmt*

o

Rowan's 9 month check up

Hard to believe we have a 9 month old on our hands but that we do.

Rowan is still a growin', but not as fast as before. To the stats:

Height: 28 1/2 inches --> 75-90 percentile

Weight: 20lbs 11oz --> 75-90 percentile

Rowan seems to be growing into her frame and lengthening out a bit. Several weeks ago she started crawling but lucky for us wouldn't stray too far. She has since honed her "pulling up" skills she gained several months ago and is effectively "testing" her boundaries. Here is some video proof:

How about that! We think she'll be walking on her own soon.

She loves to eat her Mum-Mum's!

I wish we had these things when the girls were little!

Her first "real" family meal is below.

Pork roast, mashed potatoes, and carrots. She did a great job and may or may not have eaten better than her older sisters on that night.

She's also a fan of yogurt, cheese, mashed potatoes, avocados (still), spaghetti, puffs... and the list goes on. She let's us know when she's had enough by turning her head and yelling. It's pretty effective.

She LOVES her sisters. Especially when they do silly stuff like fall down in front her and run in and out of the room. The girls get a kick out of making her laugh. They are also always happy to come get me yelling, "Mommy! Rowan needs you!" when she cries and I'm not in the room.

Here are some photos of "Row-ster Bow-ster" as we like to call her:

Rowan is on the good list this year and only wants her two front teeth from Santa. They have actually already broken through the gums. With her other 2 teeth through on the top and at least 2 or more on the bottom this girl will be eating apples before New Years!

Happy Holidays from Rowan!

Masterpiece Theater: Thanksgiving Edition

Theme: Thanksgiving

Medium: Coloring page

Vehicle: Markers

Behold!
The pilgrim woman who can look into your soul.

For some reason, Stephen and I had to do a double take with this picture... that is one creepy pilgrim!
Extra points for staying in the lines though.

Final Grade: B- for creepy yet neat lines

Photoshoot - November 2010

So it's been awhile... I realize this and apologize. Believe me when I say the blogger guilt for not posting for close to a month has been a heavy weight to carry. Now that that's out of the way... on to the kids!

We took the kiddos about a week before Thanksgiving to Portrait Innovations again. We did this when Rowan was about 3 months old and we were pretty happy with the results. So off we went to with our holiday clothes and high hopes for a publishable family photo of five (say that 3 times fast!).

While the family photo of five is unpublishable on account of the Family Standards Act of 2010, Fuller Edition (i.e. mom and dad think they look terrible) we did get plenty of keepers of the little ones! And some pretty funny ones we plan to memorialize and bring out when the girls start dating... enjoy!

***WARNING: picture overload***

We started out with our Christmas dresses...

Another sweet one of Grace.

Here is Peyton, mid-sass.

The photographer was really nice and in trying to get Peyton to smile was asking her to repeat all kinds of crazy stuff.  Before this shot he said, "I like boys!".  Once Peyton realized what she said he snapped this shot. Too cute!

Poor Rowan didn't take a nap before our 9:30am pictures and finally fell asleep in the car on the way... as soon as we walked in it was our turn.  After a 5 minute nap, this picture pretty much sums up what she felt like for the first part of the pictures.

With minimal sleep she's still as cute as ever!

Here is special section I like to call - 

Herding Cats Part I:

 

 This is the fun that can be had when you try to photograph three children of differing ages with a strange man waving a stuffed animal in their face.

On to the "look into the light" shots...

Grace

Peyton

 

And next onto some matchy-matchy outfits the girls are sure to hate me for in about 10 years. 

But they look SO cute now!

You're welcome! Love, Mom

Peyton and her sass smiling for the camera.

Grace doing who knows what for the camera.

One of our favorites of Grace!

The big girls working it for the camera.

Pink plaid is the best, no purple plaid is better.

Lucky girls to have one another and I think they know it too.

 

A favorite shot of Rowan! 

Herding Cats Part II:

 

Rowan: "Get me out of here."

Peyton: "Get me out of here."

Grace: "Get me out of here."

Here is the best shot we got of all three girls:

And here's the Photoshop'd masterpiece Mom did in Paint.

 

Ahhh that's better!