Eating Sand

Think she likes the sand?

 

Playing Catchup

Whew! What a crazy couple of weeks.... and finally I have a bit of a breather. As of 1 pm today I am officially on vacation until NEXT SUNDAY! Wooo Hooo! Let me say, this is the most well deserved, much needed vacation of all time. I am actually going to squeeze in a few photoshoots tomorrow and Friday (okay you didnt expect me to do nothing did you?!) and the Saturday in the wee hours of the morning we are off to North Carolina for a week of frolicking in the mountains. (I dont know if we are going to frolick, but we are going to be away from Gainesville for a week with the family so thats all that matters.)

As for an update on life...

Madalyn- turns 16 months next Friday. I can't believe it! She is getting so big so fast... and has turned into quite a little busy bee. One of her favorite things to d is draw and color (and luckily she confines it to paper at this point in time!) She also loves to sing (ABCs is her favorite tune) and dance, and climb on anything and everything she possibly can. She loves to kiss (and even makes the "muah!" noise) and is incredibly cuddly. Every day with her is a new adventure. She is obsessed with shoes... and always points them out, tries to wear our shoes, or digs through her box of shoes to carry around with her. She will answer "yes" and "no" by shaking her head, and comes to get us when she wants her diaper changed. If you ask her if she needs a diaper she shakes her head yes and walks to her changing table, then points to it until you change her. I think we will be buying her a potty soon just to get the idea in her head.... and will probably start potty training her after Christmas if she seems ready.

Photography- has been incredibly successful! Check out my photo blog for some recent sessions. I also launched a brand new website for my company jls photography. I am really proud of my website, because I used a template and designed it by myself. So far I have been fairly successful with this, and had had several sessions of people who I didnt know before hand, and have gotten a lot of referrals by word of mouth. I have learned a lot about the business as well as the art form, and can see my work getting better each shoot that I do. I also have made enough money to support buying the equipment that I need, and there are many people lined up for the Fall which is also exciting.

Shawn and I are still working on the house.... so much work to do, it is overwhelming sometimes! Not going to even think about that though until I we are back from vacation....

I will post more later... I have a few pictures of Madalyn from gymnastics to post!

Naaah Naaaah

Madalyn has a "baby." When we were down visiting Gigi and Papa they gave her a baby doll (it was Jenna's when she was younger. Madalyn has started calling her baby Nah Nah (not Nana). She actually has called herself that a few times when she has seen her reflection in the mirror. When we were in Orlando visiting Jeff and Casey she saw twin babies at Toys R Us and kept pointing at them and saying Nah Nah! So we hav assumed this is her word for "baby."

The Pooh Car

For Madalyn's first birthday our dear friends Helene and Jim bought her a little ride on Winnie the Pooh car. It quickly became Maddie's favorite. She pushed it around before she was a confident walker, and now she rides it around the house. Her favorite part of the Pooh car? The lift up seat. Madalyn is very much a gatherer, and walks around the house picking up random items that eventually make their way into her Pooh trunk. I am constantly recovering sippy cups, random toys, snack foods... you name it, it has come to rest in the Pooh car! Nail polish missing? In the Pooh car. Can't find the remote? Check the Pooh car. Allie and Ava are obsessed with getting snack foods out of the Pooh car.

The cutest thing she has stuck in there? She dug through my drawer of photos (oh yeah she can open those now!) and pulled this one out. If you cant tell, it is a picture of Maddie and Savannah from Halloween. (Piglet and Pooh.) She carries it around with her. I couldnt make that up!

Maternity Photo Shoot

This past weekend I had my first maternity shoot... and had a lot of fun! This mommy to be was such a joy to photograph. Check out my photo blog for more from this shoot!

Today

Well it rained, but I still decided to go take some pictures at a catholic church down the street from Jeff and Casey's house. Madalyn came with me, but was unhappy in her stroller, so I let her out to play. She had a great time jumping in puddles and running in the rain! Check out my photography site for more pictures!

Anunciation Catholic Church

 

 

 

 

Happy Fourth of July!

Fun Time with Madalyn

Now that Madalyn is walking she hates being cooped up in the shopping cart at the grocery store, which has made shopping quite a challenge. But her cart at home... thats another story all together! Daddy put her in the cart and pushed her around the house and she laughed like it was the MOST FUN EVER!

The bunny hat is some silly hat I found on sale and bought for Easter that of course she wouldnt wear. She pulled it out of her drawer and brought it to me, and let me put it on her! I was shocked when she kept it on... and the pics were so cute I had to share.

Her newest gams is climbing. Which is great that she can climb off the couch and bed on her own, but now she wants to climb up on everything.... little Miss Adventure.

And for a kid who never sits still... she watched the entire hour of the Olympic trials for swimming with me tonight on the couch.... either she thinks Michael Phelps is cute or she wants to be a swimmer!
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Fingerpainting

Madalyn and I got to play Bob Ross today and we had some fun with fingerpainting. Her BEAUTIFUL picture is drying so I will post a picture of that soon, but she had a lot of fun. (Are you kidding- this was right up her alley! Giving her something thats completely messy and encouraging her to play with it!) The best part.... the paint was 100% washable and even came out of her white onesie!

Playing with Bubbles

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

Here are some of my pictures from my photoshoot at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. I want to go back there and spend and entire day just taking pictures of this beautiful place. I LOVE the black and white one, there is something so inviting about a path that is going somewhere (insert silly metaphor here!) The spider picture was actually taken in the woods doing the photo shoot of the W family... I just happened to spot it while walking out there.

 

 

 

 

14 Month Update

Okay, so I know its a little late. Maybe a lot late since Madalyn is actually turning 15 months in about 10 days... but better late than never.


Our little cuddlebug weighs in at a whopping 19 pounds, 12 ounces. If you've been keeping track she has actually LOST weight since her first birthday! I guess thats what happens when you are a super busy baby and are always on the go go go! She has gotten longer though and is now 29 and 1/2 inches, which seems big to me but still makes her a little peanut.

Madalyn LOVES animals of any kind. Loves them. We were taking pictures of Zach and Carey for the engagement shoot and there was a stray cat at the botanical gardens. Madalyn kept chasing it yelling "hi kitty! hi kitty!" The only kitty she has ever been around is Jenna's cat Tebow, so she remembered from then! She always says "hi doggie" to other dogs, and when we go for walks she gets all excited to see the dogs in people's backyards. She didnt know quite what to make of Gigi's dogs- I think because all the dogs she knows are big and cats are small, so she didnt know what they were!

Her vocabulary is pretty big, though she hardly says any words clearly. I can understand her, and Shawn can also sometimes get what she is saying. Some words are a stretch, but you can kind of get the idea of what she is trying to say. Here are some words in her vocabulary:

MAMA (more like mmmmmmama, because we used to annnouniate the "mmm")

DADA (she calls herself Dada, when she sees herself in the mirror. I dont know why.)

DUCK- her official first word. She has one in the tub and she pointed at it and said "duck" when she was about 11 months old. She also called the penguins at SeaWorld "duck" (hey they are birds in water, it works!)

DOGGIE

ALLIE (Aowie)

AVA (AAAAAAaaaa)

THAT/THIS (As in what is that? She points and asks about everything.)

LIGHT- quite possibly her favorite word. She points out every light she sees, including the lights in the car. She is fascinated with overhead lights.

FISH- to our fish tank, and the fish in the bathtub, on the tiles, and in her room. It kind of sounds like "ish"

HI- to anything and everything

BYE BYE

HEY

UH OH- this kid has a lot of Uh Ohs! She says it whenever she drops something, and sometimes drops stuff on purpose to get to say it. Absolutely adorable.

NICE- probably because we tell her to "be nice" so much

MILK- what she calls her bottle (no ba ba here!) The other morning she pointed toa bottle and said "milk" because she wanted her morning bottle

PLEASE- she just said this one today when she wanted something that I had, I told her to say please and she said it twice (peeese)

MOMMY- she said this once, when Ava knocked her down she whimpered "mommy".

She also says OOOHHH OOOOHHH when she wants something

NOSE- she will point to a nose and say nose (nise)

EYE- kind of sounds like Ava (aaaaayyyyeeee) but she points at the eye and says it

MOUTH- (maaaaoooow) she points to the lips and says this

I am sure there are more.... I am just not able to think of them. But I will add them to the list as I think of them... But I have 20 words listed, not bad for 14 months!

Right now madalyn is laying in the dog crate with Ava and enjoying "quiet time". No, I did not put my daughter in a cage, she just loves laying in there and petting her doggie. This is what she does in place of naptime.

Madalyn just brought me a book to read her, so I guess I better wrap this up!

Kanapaha Photo Shoot

This past weekend I had the pleasure of photographing some of our very dear friends. We did an engagement shoot for Zach and Carey and also took some pictures with their 3 year old Kya. I will be photographing their wedding on September 13th as well at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens here in Gainesville. If you are even in the area, I definitely recommend a trip to the botanical gardens... they are absolutely stunning! Check out my photography blog for more pictures.