Family Photo Session!!!

My mom bought me the most amazing birthday present ever this past year and I waited until now to cash it in! A professional family photo session! I'm so happy to have this year with our brand new family of 4 documented. It's been tumultuous with so many big changes (new house, new job, new baby, new preschool, etc etc) and I was letting photos with Laith and I and the kids slip by because wow, it's nearly impossible to hold a camera and keep the kids happy while keeping Laith and I looking natural. Enter Cramer Photo and a beautiful record of where we are in 2011 is now a happy collection of keepsakes.

Lucas was shy at first.

Can you see how squirmy the kids are here! Totally how it is in real life!

Sophie Sessions: Nine Months

Notable from this month:

*Sophie has learned how to crawl! Now we're in trouble- guess we'll have to baby-proof before our August 5th move to our new home!

* Sophie's first teeth emerged. We love her new smile.

* She's babbling! Sophie's been using vowel sounds (mostly ahhhh) up until a few days ago. Now we're hearing occasional ba, wa, ma, and da sounds and it's adorable.

Movin'

She crawls! It's so cute to watch our tiny little baby delight in exploring our house. Yay Sophie!

Fourth of July Fireworks

The best view in the house.... is in front of our house! All the neighbors with kids gathered on the sidewalk in front of our house with lawn chairs and sparklers to view the big production being blasted from McIntire Park (right down the road from us)! And the best part was that we could bring the baby monitor outside with us and Sophie slept through the whole thing!

A day with the Vincents

One of the best parts about living in Charlottesville is our proximity to the family- Laith's mom in WV and the Vincents and DeHavens in Fairfax. We were able to drive up for the day and return home at night, letting the kids fall asleep in their carseats before transferring them to their beds for the night (much better for sensitive-sleeper Sophie). It was great to be able to spend time with everyone without feeling like we had to catch up on the past 6-12 months like we had to when we lived in TX and visited VA. We enjoyed amazing food (thank you Andrea!!) and Lucas had a blast romping with all his cousins.

Both kids LOVED these beanbag chairs! Laith and I did too. :)

Amity very recently learned how to ride a 2-wheeler! Here she shows me what she can do:

June Misc

Lucas' new book from Meemom. Her voice is recorded reading the story. After the last page is read, Lucas tries to talk back to Meemom through the speaker! So sweet!

Lucas is taking swim lessons and so far is doing 100 x better than last summer's lessons. Still quite fearful, but huge improvement in his willingness to try the activities the instructor lays out.

Fridge monkey
Everything about Sophie makes me want to eat her up! Even her little baby back and elbow dimples are cute!