Just a quick snapshot of my little dude I took with the diaper cam this past weekend. I just love those two little teeth! He’ll be 10 months old next week. Still not even attempting to crawl or scoot around. He’s content to sit there and play, or roll around (one direction). He loves bath time with his brother. He’s a great eater and ate real macaroni and cheese tonight! He’s crying now so I better go check on him. I love you sweet boy!

Hunter turned 27 months old this month. He’s talking up a storm now. Such a change from just 4 months ago. He just started telling me “I love you” too. I’ve waited soooo long to hear that!

Hayden is two weeks away from turning 10 months old. His first year of life has literally flown by. I was looking back at some of his baby pictures tonight and it feels like yesterday that I took them. Hayden has been with us in person longer than he was with me in the womb. I’ve always thought the 9 month old “birthday” was a special one because it marks the same amount of time spent outside the womb as spent inside. What an amazing little boy he is already. So loving and cuddly. He loves to give hugs and kisses. He can drink through a straw already! He adores his big brother and I think he actually misses him when Hunter is at preschool everyday. He’s a mommy’s boy. I love this phase of development. Tonight while I was bathing him, I was singing and he started bopping his body up and down - dancing to my song. That’s the first time I’ve seen him “dance”. Such a sweetie pie.

Here are a few pics I took of him yesterday in our bathroom. The sun light was hitting his face and making his eyes sparkle. I grabbed my camera to see if I could take a few pics of him in that light.

I love his smile…

From our family to yours… Merry Christmas! Remembering that Jesus is the reason for this season. I am so thankful that our God, Everlasting Father, gave his only Son, Jesus, on this day, to be born for us all, who changed the world, who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, who took MY place on the cross so that I don’t have to pay the price for my own sins when I die. Happy Birthday, Jesus. Thank you for Your eternal gift of salvation!

I’ve sat down two three times to write this blog post but was interrupted each time by a crying child. Hunter has had a 102-104 degree fever for 48 hrs straight. Took them both to the pedi today to rule out RSV. They tested negative. Hunter’s fever still continues. Both have horrible chesty coughs, congestion, watery eyes. My poor babies… here they are last night… all dressed up to go see Santa. I photoshopped out their goopy eyes and noses. (eta: We drove all the way to to see Santa (our outdoor Southpark Meadows Santa) and he WENT HOME EARLY because it was “too cold outside”. COLD?!?! FOR SANTA? WHO RESIDES IN THE NORTH POLE??? It was 45 degrees out. So, no Santa pictures with the boys this year. I guess that’s Austin for ya!)

One more… Technically not a great photo, but the only one I got with both of them looking forward before chaos ensued!

Beautiful Miss “E” (almost 3 years old) and her adorable little sister (17 months old) came all the way from Alaska (via Houston where they were visiting family) for a photo session with me! How cool is that? The session was challenging due to travel fatigue, missing nap time and super windy cold weather, but I got some cute pictures of the girls! I’ll have the rest of your proofs done this week! Thank goodness for the “Big Top Candy Shop” that was right down the street from us!

Meet Miss “E”…

And her little sister, Miss “A”…

Just a quick pic from my diaper camera of the boys two nights ago… aren’t they sweet??? We were on our way to our church for a Christmas play. I think they look so much alike here.

And a video of my boys:

In pursuit of the perfect Christmas card photo, I met the “C” family at my favorite urban spot (with the blue brick wall) for a mini session. It was super windy that day (and freeeezing outside) and well, we didn’t get many photos that were salvageable. Long hair + wind = not a good situation. So, we tried for mini session #2 a week later and we were blessed with calm winds and mild temperatures. Mission accomplished!

I just love this one! Even their dog “Asher” is smiling…

And finally, look at the pretty red tree in the background - We finally have our trees turning colors in Austin!

Did you guess? Yep, that’s Hayden! My “Baby Cakes” (a.k.a. “cakes” - we have nicknames for our nicknames!) He’s now over 20 lbs, wearing size 12-18 months, cutting two bottom teeth, eating stage 2 foods, drinking from a sippy cup, self feeding with a mesh feeder (loves bananas and peas in that thing - but what a pain to clean it out!), loves to watch Oobi, Signing Time and Sesame Street, adores his brother - can you see the love between them? It melts my heart!

I first met the Taylor’s about 5 years ago when we first moved to Austin. At the time, we all went to the same church and attended the same Sunday school class for young newlyweds. We were at that church for a couple years and then life got busy… moving house(s), having children, changing churches and we’ll… its been at least 3 years since I had seen them! I was so excited when they booked a photo session with me for their Christmas pictures! Their two children (ages 2.5 and 6 months) are *so* darling and have the most amazing blue eyes…