Photo Shoot

My cousin Deb & her husband Cody stopped by yesterday afternoon on their way to Tahquamenon Falls. Deb does wonderful pictures, which would turn out even better if I had children who cooperated. The kid in the big sister shirt basically refused to cooperate and the kid in the little sister shirt will not smile for a camera unless you can get her laughing way before the camera comes out. There were a couple cute photos and I'm sure with Deb's photoshop skills there will be a few more. I love the one with Olivia standing up - it just depicts her little personality so well. The "Little Sister" does not like to be sitting down. She is a stand or nothing girl!

"Daddy Day"

We try to make Saturday a day for Abby to enjoy lots of fun things with her dad, since he is at work during the week. Today Abby took her dad to the hardware store, to the park at the Soo Locks, and for a lunch date at the McDonald's playland. She had a whole lot of fun, especially at playland. She doesn't go into the structure yet, but she enjoys watching the other kids and walking around on the rubberized flooring.

We only got a couple good photos today - she was walking around so much that the camera couldn't focus fast enough (I was using my manual focus lens to try and get a softer effect. We saw our first freighter of the season today too, but we didn't stay long enough to watch it go all the way through the lock. Abby got too excited and was almost running, so she tripped and scraped up her little lip. We're going to have to try to get some more cute photos tomorrow.

If the Sun Shines...

If the sun starts shining there will be an Abby photo shoot at the locks today :-) Hopefully we will be posting pictures for you this evening.

Abby's First Sled Ride

We took Abby on her first ride on the beautiful sled from Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruth. I had no idea how deep the snow in our back yard was, which did not help create a fun experience. Sleds do not work well in mid-thigh deep snow. Sleds also do no pull well when the adult keeps falling into the snow because it is too deep. I finally ended up carrying Abby and the sled to a good spot for pictures and just setting them down. Abby was enjoying her sled until she decided to put her un-mittened hand into the snow. Now this is totally my fault, since I made the deliberate choice not to put mittens on Abby. Her jacket is long enough in the sleeves to completely cover her hands, and knowing that I wanted just a couple pictures I figured putting mittens on Abby would certainly result in tears, which would make for bad pictures. We got tears anyway when Abby decided to lean over and stick her hands in the snow. Burr! So here is the progression of pictures from yesterday's sledding. First picture - happy and smiling because we just came out and Maize is funny in the snow. Second picture - Abby sticking her hands into the snow. Third picture - after we came inside while she was still crying because she didn't like the cold snow. She cried for a good 5 minutes, even after I had rubbed her hands and gave her a bottle. From now on I am just going to deal with crying because I put mittens on her instead!

So there was our first attempt at some outdoor pictures with the beautiful sled. We are going to have to try again later with a little less snow. Maybe in the driveway or something...

Some That Didn't Make The Cut

We are taking multiple versions of Abby's first Christmas picture so that each of her handmade afghans appears in a picture. Here are a few of the different versions that weren't quite adorable enough to beat the finalists (which will not be revealed until you open your Christmas card). Thanks to Great Grandma Jennie for the white afghan (in the first two shots), to Sharon VanKoevering for the perfectly pink afghan (in the second two shots), and Arlene Shock for the pink and white afghan (in the last shot)!

Tonight we are planning to put up our Christmas tree and take a family photo to finish our Christmas cards. We just have to keep our fingers crossed that the snow will not get to heavy after Steve gets out of work. We love snow, but we really want our Christmas tree!