Fall Pictures/ Anna's 9 Month Pictures

Last month I had Fall pictures taken of Claire & Anna. It also worked out that it was time for Anna's 9 month pictures as well (love when it works out like that!!!). Lori Moore took the pictures and once again, I think she did an amazing job! Fall pictures are my favorite with the natural beauty of the leaves and landscape as a backdrop. It was a perfect Fall day!!!

Definitely not a huge fan of pictures of myself, but for fun, I got one with the girls!!

I LOVE this picture of my girls! It is beyond hard to get both of them looking at the camera at the same time!! Thanks Lori!

Claire has been given the title the Queen of Expressive! The MANY faces of Claire!!

My brown eyed girl!

So sweet!

...and my blue eyed girl!!

Miss Attitude! Look at the hand-on-the-hip pose she is giving!!

One of my All Time Favorite pictures ever in the world! Just classic Anna!

Anna's 10 Month Quilt Pictures

With all the pictures from our Fall adventures and Halloween, I am a little late posting Anna's 10 month quilt pictures. She turned 10 months on October 21st. Oh no... we are in double digit numbers. Where does the time go??

Anna is so much fun! She is strong willed, but ohhhh so sweet! She has learned several sign language signs in the last couple weeks, she gives big open mouthed kisses when you ask for a "kiss", she has mastered the sippy cup recently and has taken a step or two. No walking yet, but she is well on her way! I am amazed at how quickly she picks up new things. Ben & I are truly thankful for a vibrant, healthy, loving baby girl. We have been blessed beyond measure!

Not our smiley Anna... she must've been anticipating that we were going to be leaving her in the nursery at church soon! She has some definite separation anxiety that we never experienced with Claire. :-(

A little smile...





Our pumpkin!


The next five pictures are just some cute pictures of Anna playing in the leaves. She loves to crawl through all the leaves. It's so fun to watch her explore things for the first time!

Eating a leaf. Can't wait for the "everything in the mouth" phase is over!

Our poor Soph... she endures a lot! Anna is going through a Sophie obsession right now. She can't get enough of her furry sister!!

When we ask Anna "how big is Anna?"... this is her response! So glad I captured it in a photograph. She is quite enthusiastic when she plays this game!!

Momma's baby!!

Halloween Outfit!

I had matching Halloween overalls made for the girls this year and they turned out so cute (wish I could sew like this... or at all for that matter!). I just had to post pictures of Claire & Anna in their festive outfits!

This is Claire's "say cheese" smile that we get now! Isn't it funny?!?

A view of the back of the overalls. The back was as cute as the front!

Sophie is loving this beautiful weather, too! She is most definitely a fair weather dog!

I love this picture. They are both looking at a leaf!

Boo!

Fun Fall Day!

Over the weekend we took advantage of the the Indian Summer we experienced. It was so hard to believe that we were in the first week of November with temperatures reaching close to 70 degrees. Ben & I took the girls out to eat, on a walk and to the park. After we went to the park we decided to go out, for possibly, our last trip to get ice cream. It's kind of a bittersweet time knowing that for the next 5-6 months the weather is going to be too cold to spend a lot of time outdoors. One thing we can say is that we had a wonderful summer and fall and we definitely got to participate in lots of outdoor activities!

Anna is starting to like going down the slide (or up!!). Sophie tried to go up the slide, too!

It's so cute to watch Anna in the swing. She giggles the whole time... so sweet!

The next several pictures are of Claire enjoying her time at the park!

Anna just being our sweet Anna!

The people (& dog!) I love most in the world!

Watching the ducks!

Claire has really developed quite a taste for some good ole ice cream this summer! She will even ask for it out of the blue! So funny!

Trick-or-Treat

We had a great Trick-or-Treat! It was such a nice evening and the girls looked so cute in their costumes. As I mentioned in my previous post, Claire was a monkey and Anna a banana! My parents came over and walked around our neighborhood with us (sorry... I forgot to get pictures of them) and then we went to Grammy & Papa's house.

Claire got the hang of going up to the door, knocking, and saying "trick-or-treat"! The only problem we experienced was Claire wanted to eat each piece of candy she got. She'd hand it to us and say "open"! We gave her a couple pieces and that seemed to appease her! Next year we will have even more fun with an almost two year old and a three year old!!

Anna the banana!


Our little monkey & banana!

Daddy with his girls!


Mommy helping Claire get candy!

One of our neighbors passing out candy!

Claire eating one of her treats! We got all treats by the way.... no tricks!

Getting her treat from Grammy!

Another blow up!!! Claire loved it!


I stole this from Deanna's blog because it's a good picture of Anna's banana costume!

NICU Costume Party

My friend, Deanna, hosted the third annual NICU costume party! We had a great turn out this year and the kids really enjoyed playing together. Thanks Deanna for putting this together! We had so much fun!! My little monkey!!

Two little monkeys! Claire & Carter were both monkeys! Cutest monkeys I've ever seen!

Anna is not in her banana costume... she HATED it! Yes... we had a monkey and a banana. Last year Claire was a Care Bear (we call her Claire Bear), so since we call Anna, "Anna Banana"... she had to be a banana! What goes better with bananas than a monkey!!!

The mommy's had fun, too!

Claire really loves babies. She thought baby Benjamin was sooooo cute!



I had a very hard time getting pictures of all the kids. We had over a dozen... many of which are babies. So, needless to say, the picture taking was quite a feat!

L to R: Landon: Larry the cucumber, Claire the monkey, Anna the banana, Carter the monkey, Grant the Brownie Elf, Anna L. the bumble bee.



Sorry this is so blurry... it's the only pic of this side of the couch that I got! I still didn't get everyone. After Anna L. is Brody, Benjamin the pumpkin and Noah was Bob from Veggie Tales.



You can see Olivia in this picture. She was Bob the tomato. Landon got to pick out their costumes this year and he insisted on Veggie Tales. Deanna said next year... SHE gets to pick!



Not a surprise that Claire is around the babies! (Olivia & Grant)

It was a pretty day so the kids got to play outside and get some fresh air! Claire and Anna L. on the glider!

Sara & Brody and Lindsey & Carter (also holding Olivia!).

Noah & Landon playing on the swings!

Anna really liked crawling around the play set! Unfortunately, she ended up with a little bloody lip. The first accident she's had with blood shed. SAD :-(

Loving the slide!!