Like Mother, Like Daughter Perhaps?

I think I finally figured out who N. takes after.  Which is only fair, of course, since K. is a virtual mini-me of her father.

    

 

Second Christmas

Since N. is so young, it didn’t seem like a good idea to travel all the way to my parents’ house for Christmas, so Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to come here for a day of celebration.  After opening presents and eating a fancy lunch (cough—sandwiches—cough), we sat down for photos.  On a quest to get any decent photos of K. with her loved ones, here are the latest attempts:

The best of the bunch: And this one is an outtake, but I love how happy everyone is and how much they’re interacting.  It’s actually one of my favorite pictures. N. hanging out with Grandma, whom she smiled at several times during the visit!  Now if we could only get Grandma to smile…(I love you, Mom!)

Friends of the N.

We had some good friends over today, and I was able to add to my collection of “pictures of people holding baby N.”  K. was upstairs ignoring us (and playing with her friend) while we were cooing over the baby.  After the photos, though, K. got to spend some time playing with her girlfriends, too.  Looking at last year, I think it’s a Christmas break tradition to all hang out, and a fun one at that.

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One of the many games the girls played was dress up (though more of K’s friends dressing her up).  They put her in a fancy dress and had her walk out with their little brother, saying that they were going to prom.  Too cute!  I wish I had gotten the picture snapped while they were still holding hands, but this will have to do.

Doctor, Doctor

One of K’s current obsessions is of playing doctor.  I don’t know if she just likes the pink case that her medical equipment is in, or likes the game, but she cannot get enough.  Tired of being the perpetual patient, I passed the duties onto the littlest one.  N. was in a good mood and very cooperative—and she even smiled at one point (which is still a rarity around here)!

Dr. K., listening to N’s heart:“You’re going to put the thermometer where?!” “Oh, my armpit.  Okay.” Check out N’s grin in this one! The patient patient.

Purple Velvet

After church, I took some pictures of N. in her new dress, which was a gift from her first cousin twice removed (N’s grandpa’s first cousin) who has excellent taste! You might remember the cute outfit K. was wearing in her “hop hop hop” video a few posts ago? That was a gift from the same cousin.

Oh, how much fun it is to dress a sweet baby girl!

And here N. is pictured with the edge of a blanket that was a gift (handmade!) from her Auntie D. (N’s great aunt). I’ll get a better picture of it at some point so you can fully appreciate it.

We’re so lucky/blessed to have such great family in our lives!

Very Merry

It's Christmas! We traveled up to B's parents' house on Christmas eve and stayed for a few days (N's first overnight trip). We spent time with family and, of course, opened presents. K. was so polite in opening her gifts--she would actually look at each thing she opened before setting it gently aside and opening the next gift. She also said "thank you, Grandpa" when he'd hand her a gift. I tried to take some cute photos of the girls by the tree (as capturing a cute photo of the girls is one of my current life missions, along with getting rid of N's diaper rash). This was as close as we came. For the record, K is actually saying "cheese" as she gives her practiced grin.

And N. is about to fall off K's lap. Don't worry--we caught her.

Here K. is showing N. the tree. "Well, you don't say. That is interesting, big sister."
We tried varying ways of trying to pose the girls in front of the tree, and finally just lifted them each and held them in front. K. thought this was great fun!

And this is currently one of my favorite pictures of K. She's so sweet!

Christmas Eve Cousins

K. and N. are fortunate to have cousins who are close-ish in age and whom they get to spend time with. Cousin M. is 3 years older than K, and W. is between my girls. We got the girls matching outfits, which they wore on Christmas eve. We tried to capture a good photo of the girls. We took the first photos on the steps at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve. N. was asleep, but I love these pictures of the older girls:

And even though he didn't have a matching pink outfit, W. wanted to be a part of the picture too. He's less than a year younger than K, and I think they'll all have a great time playing as they grow up.

Here are the three girls in their darling matching outfits. Did you, gentle reader, know that I love things that match? I do. It is my inclination to dress my girls in matching clothes on a daily basis, though I don't. It pleases me to see the girl cousins matching. M. got a kick out of the girls being "triplets" and was really excited. I'm not sure K. noticed that they had the same outfit on. I'm not sure N. is aware that she wears clothes. She's certainly unhappy in this picture, but you can at least admire the triple matching.

Color-Coordinated Christmas

We wore our "Christmas finery" to church this morning, so we attempted a family photo (if nothing else, to show that we really do all exist). It wasn't destined to be a great photo--the littlest one is only now learning to hold her head up and has only smiled a handful of times so far, the other little one shies away from cameras and won't smile politely on command, and the mom is only a few weeks post-partum, with all the extra baby weight to show for it. And Dad, apparently, blinks whenever a photo is taken. So this first photo shows us all looking somewhat toward the camera: This photo made the cut because K. is smiling and looks cute. Please disregard the rest of the people in the photograph.
And we had a friend take one of us at church. Dad blinking, Mom crazy, and the girls with the identical "I don't know them" expressions that they'll use again as teenagers.

And we attempted a few mother-daughter shots by the tree.I think this is the closest we got to a decent photo:

And then N. fussed, and that was the end of the shoot.

As Fast As You Can

We were invited to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread houses. K. had a really fun time, and was so careful in placing the candy on her house. I didn't tell her that frosting and candy was edible, and she didn't ever ask to eat it, so we managed to have a non-sugar-overload morning. My friend captured this cute K. photo, and she has more photos of the event on her blog. And here K. is, focused on correct placement of candy:
We had such a good time, N. cooperated and napped while we were decorating, and I'm so appreciative to my friend C. for having us over. I'm not sure I would have let K. play with candy and frosting at my own house, but C. is a more brave mother than I.

Sisterly Love

An almost-cute photo of the two girls, coordinating. Too bad the flash was turned off.

A sisterly smooch. How did I get the big girl to pose with the little one? Bribery. She's chomping on a bit of twizzler as a reward for staying in the chair.

Batteries Not Included

K. has spurts of being pretty active. Here she is, dancing with a new moose that she got for Christmas (thanks, Auntie D):

And don't tell my mom, but K. has jumped on the couch upstairs. She figured out how to hop from cushion to cushion, and had a blast.

And with bunny:

Six Super Weeks

N. is six weeks old already! It seems like she was just born, yet I can't imagine our family without her.

Here N. is playing with her friend S. Hard to believe he's 11 months old already--here he is when K. was checking his newborn self out, and now he's checking out newborn N. N, contemplating: