Nora's 6 Month Photos

Authentic Joy Photography

Nora is now 7 months old and it kind of blows my mind. Honestly in most ways I still don't feel like I have a grasp on life with two kids.  A super trivial example being this blog.  I haven't even finished Nora's Birth Story post from... well 7 months ago now.  I love blogging to keep a journal of sorts about our family and it's something I always mean to and want to sit down to do, yet there just doesn't seem to be time. Or rather when there occasionally is "free" time, I choose to A) eat lunch B) shower or C) do something productive around the house.  It almost never makes it to a D) something I'd love to do but it doesn't actually have to get done.

So at least right now I can do a short post and add the pictures from Nora's 6 month shoot.  (6 months... almost 7... my brain is technical about that type stuff.)

Nora's photos are by Authentic Joy Photography, a couple that goes to our church.  We love our pictures and will definitely be using them again! (That is if they will want to work with us after the Owen fiasco during the shoot!) If you need a SA photographer you should totally check them out. 

Nora is such a sweetheart.  We love her to pieces.  The first two months with her were pretty rough.  If I ever manage to get around to writing more to fill in all the details I will do so, but to sum up briefly she ended up having a dairy and soy intolerance. I cut out dairy at one month and then also cut out soy at two months and since then she has been completely content and joyful and oh so smiley and sweet : )

She is however still a poor sleeper.  I knew we got lucky with Owen being a great sleeper and I guess we couldn't get that lucky twice.  I still feel like I'm usually running on too little sleep and low energy and bedtime has always been difficult with her.  I'm sure there are other kiddos and situations that are much more challenging, but at least for us especially compared to what we experienced with Owen, her sleep is so much more difficult.  We'll get there... right?

Right now Nora is quite a rolly-polly! She has always had excellent head and neck strength and now rolls all over and back and forth.  We've had several times now where I've put her down on the play mat and come back to find her several feet away rolling all around.  She is not sitting or crawling or scooting at all yet, and she also is not a fan yet of trying foods.  We haven't done too much because a big part of me thinks she just isn't ready.  We've tried sweet potato, banana, and rice cereal, and she mostly just isn't at all interested and pushes it away. We've had random moments of "success" with the rice cereal with water (we've had less success with the cereal with breastmilk actually) but that means literally just 4 or 5 half spoonfuls make it into her mouth.  We'll keep trying and we'll get there.

Nora does not take a bottle (Owen didn't either so that's 2 for 2) and loves to nurse. She is kind of a quiet baby and has an adorable little grin that perfectly fits her personality.  She is typically quiet but then has sort of moods of being extremely talkative or noisy by blowing raspberries. She LOVES her big brother : ) and it melts my heart seeing them interact.  She loves to watch him and smiles and laughs a lot at him.  Owen is a great big brother and helper and loves to hold her hand, do tummy time with her, get her toys, and "help" her.  Of course he also likes to pull her socks off, sometimes take away her toys, and we're really currently working on not yelling or making dinosaur noises right in baby Nora's face. Overall though he is so, so sweet with her, and we can already tell she really adores him.  I just love my babies so much : )

Angelica did manage to snap this precious photo of Owen although I don't know how with his mood!  My only thought is she possibly photoshopped the massive tears and red face haha. 

So enjoy some of the photos from her 6 month shoot!  We did not get a good whole family photo as Owen was in the world's worst toddler mood and 100% didn't cooperate.  Oh well though as this was focused on Nora.  We love you, Sweetie!

Nora's Newborn Photos!

We loved how Nora's newborn photos turned out!  They were very different than how Owen's were done.  Owen's were in an in home studio and had a more formal feel to them.  Nora's were done in our own home with a more natural and casual feel to them.  I love both sets of pictures but they're definitely different styles.

If you're looking for a local San Antonio photographer we loved working with this couple and love how our photos turned out!  Feel free to check out FrameWorthy Photography if you're interested : )

Here are our favorites from Nora's photos!

Owen's 2nd Birthday!

Happy birthday, Owen!!!

I can hardly believe our little man is turning 2 years old!!! It just blows my mind how quickly the time has gone since we've had him.  I remember when he turned 1 that I was so sad and emotional about how big he was and no longer a baby and how different from when he was born.  The amount of growth and change that happens these first years is amazing!  Well this year turning 2 he is so far from the baby he once was and way into toddlerhood at this point.  I'm trying to not get too emotional!

Owen's birthday isn't officially until this coming Monday on May 2nd.  (I'm writing this after we had his early birthday party in April.)  However we celebrated his birthday two weeks early just in case Nora decided to show up.  I really wanted to have a special day all about Owen for his birthday without worrying about Nora coming and us having to cancel our plans.  

At first he wasn't sure what was going on when we were getting ready to sing to him.

But halfway through everyone singing "Happy Birthday" he just started grinning and loved it!  

It was super adorable as he sort of realized we were all singing to him : )

The happy little birthday man.

What other way is there to dig into your cupcake?

He kept licking at the icing and it was pretty hilarious!

Dad finally helped him discover the chocolate part below the icing.

He's not looking at the camera, but this is Owen's "Cheese!" fake smile face.

So two weeks early we invited our parents and our church small group to eat lunch at Big'z Burger Joint and let Owen and a few of his friends run around to play.  We wanted this year's party to be really casual and easy so I didn't have to worry or plan or stress much, and we wanted it to be something Owen would have fun with.  His first birthday I felt was more about us and what we wanted because he really wasn't involved in what was going on, but this year we wanted it to be something he would like, and well he loves just running around and being with other kids.

The balloons were a hit!  Each of the kids loved running around with them!

Big'z was perfect.  We just bought tablecloths for one table and some balloons, cupcakes, and a birthday shirt for Owen and called it a party.  I loved the shirt I found for him; it said "Party like it's my birthday!" - since it wasn't technically his real birthday : )  I was a tad sad because I had bought a number 2 candle for his cupcake and some pin things that you put in a bunch of cupcakes that would spell out "Happy Birthday" - but of course I left those at home.  Thankfully Cody's parents stopped at a store to pick up a lighter and a number 2 candle for us.

With Grandpa and Grandma

With Suebee and Pops

Everyone arrived and ate lunch and hung out and it was great to have our parents and friends there to help us celebrate Owen.  After eating Owen and two girls from our small group just ran around and played with the balloons and had a blast!  The only thing that could have gone better was the weather.  It was raining... but it was on and off again, and even during the rain everyone let their kids run out in it anyways so they still had fun.  And Big'z actually had turf and not grass in their open lawn area so it wasn't muddy at all, just wet.  It was really perfect.  Owen had so much fun and we loved seeing him with his friends!  

He loves the rain!

Look I can touch it!

Soaking wet but having a blast : )

For Owen's real birthday on the 2nd, we plan to have a mini-celebration of just us with him, hopefully that can happen whether we've had Nora or not, or if we're possibly in the hospital that day.  For Owen's first birthday Cody and I (mainly Cody - but I did help!) put together a video collage recapping his whole first year.  We plan to do that again for this second year but it's not done yet.  Whenever it's finished I will share it here on the blog : )  Anyway we have to wait and see how these last official days before his birthday play out... because this video could possibly include him becoming a big brother right before he turns two!  We shall see. 

Happy birthday, Owen!  My big boy : )  We love you so, so much.  These have been two amazing years with you in our lives, and we cannot wait to see you become a wonderful big brother!

We love you, Owen!

May 2, 2016

Today is Owen's official 2nd birthday!! I'm so glad we had a party for him to give him a special day and celebration, because since Nora arrived this past Friday on April 29th, today on his real birthday we weren't really able to do much.  We did make a point just the three of us (actually now just the four of us!) to get some cupcakes, light a candle, and sing to Owen.  He definitely loved the cupcakes again and I think he enjoyed a small bit of focused attention and mine and Cody's beautiful singing for him : )   Here are a few pictures from our mini-celebration for Owen's official 2nd birthday today!

I think he felt special with our singing : )

Mmmm, cupcakes are yummy!

Owen's recap thus far:
Newborn, 1 year old, 2 years old (at early party), and 2 years old (on official birthday today!)

We sure do love him and Owen is loving being a big brother! He constantly looks for Nora and asks for her and loves to be a big helper and to hold her : )  It really is precious!  Hopefully for now he accepts our 'birthday' gift for him of a little sister! His real gift arrives tomorrow which is a balance bike, and we are so excited to watch him play and learn with it!  He has been talking about his coming bike and helmet for a while now : ) We love you, Owen! Happy 2nd birthday, Mr.

The birthday boy with his little sister : )

He's already an awesome big brother!