Christmas Pictures

Christmas Eve

This village was given to us by my Aunt who received it after my
Grandmother passed away many years ago.  My Grandmother hand painted
every house and it is beautiful.  We will enjoy it for many years to come.

This year we went with a real tree and COLORED lights!  I have always
been a white lights fan but for Annabelle's first Christmas I figured
why not spice it up and add some color.

All our stockings hung up and waiting for St. Nick!

"Is it time for presents yet?"

Putting out cookies and milk for the big guy and carrots for Reindeer.

Christmas Morning

OMG our living room exploded with presents.

She is taking it all in.

"Sure I will help you open your gift!"

She loves her little house gift from Santa.  This gift rocks!

Opening a gift from Mommy and Daddy.

Cheeeeeeeesseee

Loving her new activity center from Grandma and Grandpa Collins.

Posing with Daddy.  That is one of her many faces.

Awww giving Mommy a Christmas morning kiss.

Posing with Mommy.  She looks like "huh?"

Annabelle loved all her presents from loved ones near and far and we hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

To Maria:  Thank you so much for your comments they mean the world to me :-)



I can not believe how fast Christmas has come.  Thankfully I finished up my shopping today!  Now just to finish wrapping and mailing out gifts.  :-)  Hopefully they will get there on time.

This year we got a real tree!!!  It was so much easier than setting up the fake one and it was a lot funner too.  Annabelle has been good with it so far and she has not trying to pull it over or anything.

Looking for the right tree

She is not so impressed with our pick

Daddy's little girl

Me and my little Santa's Helper

For now I am done with photo shoots for the year and it is a much needed break.  I feel like I have been running at full speed for a few weeks and I don't think I can keep up that pass for long.  I am very happy the business is doing well and I am happy I was able to help everyone get some wonderful family, birthday, Christmas pictures.

This is Annabelle's Christmas picture in my studio setup.  I made the Christmas pendant and I wrapped the presents in fabric and used a glue gun to make sure there would be no little fingers ripping them open.

Well this up coming week Annabelle is going to get to meet Santa!  Let's hope she doesn't get scared.

Merry Christmas everyone!

9 Months

Annabelle turned 9 Months on Dec. 3.  She is growing so fast.  Slow down little angel!  He can now wave Hi and Bye and she goes "HI, HI, HI, Heyyyyyy"  LOL I am not sure if she really knows what she is saying but she tries.  Today she was playing with her little people toys and I watched her crawl across the room to get the little farmer then crawl back to the barn to play with him at the barn.  This little girl has got to be above normal when it comes to intelligence.

She had her 9 months appointment and she is about 50% for height and weight and her head is 80%.  The Dr. said that she is right on track for what she was at birth.  We also had NO shots at the 9 month.  Pheewwww that made me happy.

Here are some pictures:

The photography business has been really good and I have my last session for this month on Tuesday.  It was a very busy week trying to get all the Christmas photos taken and done but I did it.  My last session is a ONE year old session which are always fun.  

I hope everyone is doing well and having fun getting ready for the holidays.  We are going to be in a sea of plastic after Christmas.  LOL

Merry Christmas to all!!

It has been so long!

I feel like I have not written a post in so very long!  In fact November has now come and went and I didn't post a thing until now.  So some updates... Annabelle now has two lower teeth, she can wave hi and bye, she tilts her head to the side when we say "So Cute," and she can play pick-a-boo.  She is still doing her army crawl like crazy and we are now moving to eat purees 3 times a day.

For Thanksgiving we went to Maine to be with my family and this was Annabelle's first flight.  She did well and even slept through one of the flights.

She did very well with all the new family she met and though her first couple days there she was cranky she soon got over it.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Holidays.  Our Elf on the Shelf showed up a little late but he is now here.

He left her a nice note.  We still need to name him.  Annabelle wanted Da Da Da but Jerry said he is DaDa so we are back to the drawing board.  LOL

Happy Holidays Everyone and I wish everyone luck with all their Holiday shopping!

Busy Mamma

Oh my god I am so behind in both my blogging and reading blogs.  As I mentioned I started my own photography business and last week was the push to get the website done and out there for everyone, because as of this past weekend I am pretty busy taking pictures and processing photos.

We did get the website done and I must say I am very proud of it.

http://www.rachelwarrenphotography.com

Today is Halloween and I wish I could say I spent the night handing out candy but instead I spent the day at the Dr. and now the night resting.  My good old upper respiratory infection as come to see me again.  She never really tells me what it is all we know is the Z-pack makes it all better.

I have two photo shoots this week and I need to be feeling better for them.  One is Friday at my friends home and the second is on Saturday at the park.

Jerry bought me a new cart for pulling around all my props while on location and it is pretty cool but pretty heavy.  Man I am so out of shape I was sweeting walking back up hill through the park pulling that thing.  Note to self pack lighter.  LOL

Annabelle is growing like a weed and she is so darn cute.  When I sing "Dancing Dancing Dancing Machiiiiinnneee, She's a Dancing Queen" to her she starts rocking back and forth dancing and smiling. She now has two of her bottom teeth in and she is getting around very well in her army crawl.  She started that at 7 months I think that puts her ahead of the curve there.

She is mostly still eating formula but she get puree 2-3 times a day depending on what is going on.  I have even tried giving her little pieces of broken up puffs and she is getting better at picking them up and getting them to her mouth.

I hate being sick because I can't hug her and kiss her good night.  I miss my mini me.

Last week we had our family pictures taken for the first time.  The photographer did a great job but Jerry and I are not pleased with how we look but there is nothing she can do about that.  We need to get serious about losing this baby weight.  It's just so hard to do anything when you have a baby because everything revolves around nap time and feeding that we find it easier just to stay home.

I will leave you know so I can write a post on my photography blog and then try to get some sleep as I have not slept in two nights because of this illness. I hope you are all doing well!

Stopping by for an update

Wow do I win the slacker award or what?  These days my days are consumed with baby and when she is sleeping I am either cleaning, editing pictures or working on my website.  Crazy crazy busy....

So Annabelle went for her second flu shot this past week and she is now 18 pounds Can you believe that, my little 6 lb. peanut is now 18 pounds.  They grow so fast.

Maria this ones for you - I'm up very late blogging :-)  Earlier I was exhausted after a very trying visit to the hair salon with a 7 month old (not so happy) baby, and I passed out after putting her to bed.  I slept on the couch for about 2 hours until Jerry got home from teaching his night class.  Then even though I was tired I kind of woke up and here we are, 1:30am and I am awake.

This up coming Tuesday we are having our family pictures taken!  This will be the first good family picture we will have of us, since she was born and I am very excited.   Hence the need to get my hair done even though I had no one to watch Annabelle.  Ughh I swear I will never do that again if at all possible in the future.  She was not a happy camper, it was her cranky time of the night and we got home well passed her bedtime.  But my hair looks good :-)

Annabelle is also getter her first little teeth on the bottom.  She has done pretty well with it but when she gets cranky we give her advil and orajel.

Last weekend I had the chance to take pictures for a couple good friends of ours.  I really think I am getting better every time and I learn something new about taking pictures each time I go out.  Here is a few from the session.

On another note.  We tried to take Annabelle to a pumpkin patch last weekend.  I think she hates pumpkins. See photo...

She does not like sitting on the ground and she hates pumpkins.

Later that day at the park after taking Jonathan and Nora's pictures I tried to get some of Annabelle and her pumpkin....

"ahhhhh what are you?  Get away from me!"

"Take that pumpkin I am bigger than you!!"

"Ok I guess you are not going to hurt me so we can be friends for a minute until I start crying again."

This up coming weekend will be my last weekend without taking pictures before the Holiday rush starts and I am booked every weekend until we leave for Thanksgiving.  Wish me luck!

7 Months - No Words Just Pictures

Yes she is on the move

Testing out the new back drop for cake smashing pictures. 

Coming to get my camera