Virginia At 10 Months

Our little girl is crazy ridiculous and so stinking sweet.

Some things she is doing at 10 months

1. New things... not much..... she still is doing everything she did at 9 months, but now she's able to do them with ease.

2. She taught her self how to click her tongue and when ever Dad or I click our tongues she follows along. It's become a super cute game.

3. She loves playing games.. her own made up games too. Those really make her laugh. The other day when I was putting her down for afternoon nap, she pulled her blanket up over her face and quickly pulled it down and giggled at her self.  So I decided to play along and every time she pulled the blanket back over her face and down really fast, I had a new funny face and noise for her. She was laughing hysterically. To inform me that she was done with her little game and ready to sleep, she put her thumb in her mouth and rolled to her side.

4. She stood up all by herself WITHOUT any support! She's only done it once and it was just about three or four days ago. She pulled herself up by her fence we have around the TV, to protect it from her crazy climbing abilities... she is a crazy climber... I digress, saw her little " I Love You" fuzzy book decided that she wanted it, squatted to pick it up then stood right back up with out any support on anything. I was so stunned with what she had just done, I gasped really loud, which startled her so much she fell down instantly. I called Dan immediately and told him what happened.

5. She is learning how to wave goodbye. It so cute. She does it with both hand most of the time.

6. She's going to be a little dancer. Those words make my mom happy I just know it. Anytime she hears music she smiles, then continues to brings both arms up and starts shaking them and sometimes shakes and wiggles her whole body.  And when she walks with assistance she is always on her tippy toes.

7. I've been teaching her how to give kisses she sometimes does it she some times does not. It depends on her mood.

8. She starting to understand what we say.

9. She's been doing this one for months... when she picks something up, it immediately goes into her mouth.. what's new is she's learned when Dad or I either stick our fingers in her mouth to grab it she clamps her jaw shut so that we can't grab it but what she doesn't realize is that she puts it into her cheeks and she looks like a little chipmunk and we are able to get it even faster then before. It's so stinking cute.

10. Everyone knows the saying... Out of sit, out of mind... babies are pros at that. If they get something they are not suppose to have and you take it and just hid it, they forget instantly about it. Well our baby has learned that we hid the thing. She now goes after it. She never fusses when we take it away she just climbs over us and finds it again. We used to hid things under the couch so that she can't get to it. She has learned that we hid things there. Many times I see her speeding to the couch and diving her little arm under it to see what she can pull out. It super funny. :)

11. Still no teeth

12. When either Dan or I get home, she squeals in delight and comes speeding over for us to pick her up so she can give us a hug/squeeze and a chew on your chin what I call kisses..... sometimes.... if she is gentle with it, then it's a kiss.

13. She is now preferring to be held either by Dan or I. She gets whiny and pushed off people to get to either one of us. It happens about 6 out of 10 times. Before it never mattered who held her just as long as she knew mom or dad trusted them.

14. I don't remember if I put this in the 9 month on or not, but she loves to hit things. LOVES it... I cant emphasize enough how deep this love is. She love the metal chairs at the church. Those and Dad and Mom's faces are her favorite things to hit. She just gets so excited and her squeals while she does it are the best. We are trying to teach her to be soft with the hitting.


Okay, wow I didn't realize how much she has learned in one short month. I thought i was going to maybe get like 5 things but 14, WOW.

Baby girl you are so smart.

Now here is a ton of images I shot of her. I shot them in her crib it's the only thing that we have that can keep her contained long enough for me to get some decent shots.

  

She is a gabber. 

I just love this face she is giving me. 

Her posing, chewing on the crib, hitting the crib cause that is what she loves doing while telling mom something, then deciding to chew the crib again.

She loves this stuffed animal wolf thing that Grandma and Grandpa Griffin gave her. She got a ton of them for christmas but that is the only one that she plays with out of the collection. 

Well that was an over load of baby, Sorry.

Peace

Out With The Old In With The New

I decided i needed a new blog header look. So i sat down and made a new one today at work. I know I know, I bet you are thinking... she just changed that not to long ago, why is she doing a new one already?... Well dear friends i will tell you. I was never in LOVE love with my other design.

Here is what the old one was if you do not remember..

And here is the new one....

I have a ton of design ideas floating around up there. Most get put on to paper while others don't. My photography teacher always taught us to have a photo/design journal with us at all times. The purpose; to be able to jot down any large or small idea that comes into our heads or if we found an image that we found inspiring we should put it in there. Some ideas of mine are years away from completing (mostly my fine art photography stuff), while other ideas started out as something super small and tiny then over the next few weeks or even months i would think about it and it would turn into something fantastic.

I digress,

I really love the design. It has a modern mid century feeling to it, for me at least. I love mid century design. I have always been drawn to it, even as a little kid. Any who.. that is all. Hopefully Lizzy and I can announce/launch something very soon. We have been working on it since I moved to El Paso... over two years ago. Yes, we are lame and slow but it takes time which Lizzy and I both have very little of. Cross your fingers that it is up super soon. 

Peace

Love Was In The Air

Dan and I kept this years valentines very low key. We decided not to get gifts for each other and instead use the money on a fantastic dinner out. We choose to celebrate on Saturday to make it easier on us and baby. We went to one of our favorite places here in El Paso, Koze Teppan Grill. It is awesome and so very very good. Their ginger sauce is to die for. Dan loves the stuff. The place is super chic and modern. I love the design of it. Next time we go... which there will be, I will have to snap a few images. We've never sat at one of the tables for dinner, we have always sat at the grill so i don't know what the service is like at a table. At the grill, the cooks are super funny and love to chat up a storm. This was the first time we went for a Holiday dinner and it was packed and our cooked rushed the entertainment... which is fine.. it was incredibly busy that night. I don't think we would have been able to get a spot on the grill if we didn't make reservations.

Yesterday again... low key. I went to work in the morning, Dan went to school early, I picked up baby at Grandma Morgans, did a few errands, then cooked a simple Thai dinner and make some chocolate covered strawberries. That was it. I did get him a card and a pack of Kisses which if he eats one he owes me a real one. Yes i know...cheesy, corny, and lame. But I love it. :)

This is what Dan tells me, he wanted to get me a thing of flowers at the store on his way home from school, but when he went in, he said there was just a ton of Tools getting flowers, so he decided to get me my favorite pack of cookies.. :) I love my husband. A little disclaimer if you please... The only reason Dan stopped off at the store in the first place, was because I needed something for the meal and forgot to pick it up when I was there earlier. It's the thought that counts about the flowers. :)

So all in all our 2011 Valentines was a hit for us. :)

Peace

Fix-It-Friday No. 6

I'm back at it again. Doing, I heart faces, Fix it Friday.

I've wanted to do one for a few weeks but none of the images made me want to edit it, until today. This little red head is adorable!! I love her.

Here is the original

and here is my edit.

Super easy.

I duplicated the Original Layer twice.

Changed both Layer Bending Modes to Screen. Did not Change the opacity on either one.

On each Layer, I burnt around her and the background to make it black.

I then copied the eyes in to a new layer.

Switched the Layer Blending Mode to Color Dodge.

Then dodged and burned areas to make them pop more.

And of course cropped the images to a 5x7.

All done in less then 5 minutes!

Peace

My Baby Can Be Crazy Sometimes

I captured these images with my phone over the weekend.

She is crazy!!! But I love it!

Saturday morning she was playing on the floor and decided that she wanted to play in her toy basket not with the toys anymore. So she, ever so gently, threw all her toys out then climbed in the basket and played with everything that was around her. She was in there for about 20 minutes until I left the room and she followed me. I love that my baby follows me. She doesn't need to be held, she just likes being in the same room as Mom. :)

We had a water crisis here in El Paso over the weekend, caused by the frigid cold temps we got mid week.  Because of the water restrictions, we went and purchased a case of water for us to drink. We could wash in it but if we wanted to drink anything we had to boil it for 30 minutes.... gross... boiled water is nasty... I digress, we had it sitting out last night and little miss Virginia decided to play on it. She was standing all the way on it, but when mom pulled out the phone to grab a picture she wanted down.. boo.. oh well she is our little climber. 

Peace

El Paso Is Weak!! Weak I Tell You!!

We got hit with the massive snow storm that has swept the nation. Yesterday I got a call at 6:30 in the morning telling me not to come in to work, the office was going to be closed. Closed! I'm not complaining... free day (imagine "free day" being sung in excitement) but... Utah would never close for the weather that we got here. Nor would rest of the nation. Yes is was super super cold for El Paso. 8 degrees when I finally checked the weather in the morning, but.. no snow. We had a small small small layer, did i mention it was small, layer of snow on the ground. I don't think that it was even on the roads. We didn't get much on the west side. I heard that the northeast got about 3 inches....So i just have to laugh that El Paso completely shut down for something like this. Dan and I weathered the weather.. ha... and headed to the Mall. It was cold in the Mall and less then half the stores were closed. Odd right? People from cold places would seriously be rolling on the ground at how silly the city of El Paso and the people reacted. All the schools were closed, including Utep, and the city was closed. They are all closed today too. I can't believe it. I think that I had one, ONE, snow day. It was in elementary school and we got like 4 feet of snow in one night. I do remember another time in elementary where Mr. Porter, our janitor, couldn't get the doors opened and they were about to send us all back. Almost every student was waiting in the front of the school while Mr. Porter plow torched the doors open. They had frozen shut. But then he got them open... dang it.. and school was not closed... boo. But it's all good, at the end of March we always had a day off for our snow day that we never used. :) Last year we got something like this, but not nearly as cold. Our office didn't close, nor did the schools but Susan, my supervisor, was worried about me and my pregnant belly and all the idiot's that drive worse then they normally do in odd weather conditions and told me not to come in. She didn't want to risk an accident. Susan is super awesome! That is all

Peace

My New Computer Charger Arrived!!! Now I Can Post Images!!!

For Christmas I received a sewing machine!!! Hooray. I have not sewn a project for years. I've done small things here and there. I miss sewing and I love it. So for my first adventure in getting back into sewing was.... a new camera strap.Go me! I have been wanting to make this ever since Amanda over at her blog made a tutorial for it. I spent about an hour at Hobby Lobby deciding what fabric I would want to use for my new sewing machines first voyage.

I apologize for the nasty color that they are. I shot these at about 9 at night with florescent and tungsten lighting. Yuck! I was just to excited to not shoot some images of it. I love it and am very pleased with  my sewing ablities, which i assumed that I lost. But I did not. :) I really should have shot some more images the next day but I am Lazy.

I use to sew all the time in High School for people. Katherine my older sister loved to brag... i guess it was bragging, about how her little sisters rock at sewing and so many of her friends asked us to make things. We made several Jedi robes and the drumline asked us to make there stick holders, which they used for years even after Elizabeth and I graduated. I know we made other things for friends and ourselves but i can't seem to remember what they were... anyways i just wanted all of you to know that I did used to know how to sew very well. :)

My baby loves to make messes. :) 

Yes there is a Transfer Luggage Tag in with her play things. She loves it. 

These next few images are just well..her. She always looks like this. I'm sorry there are so many but I know Grandma is going to love looking at them so technically they are for her.  These are also her 9 month images.

I shot these last two yesterday. The first one she had just woken up and her hair was all over the place.  She's a little confused looking. This was maybe a minute after she woke up. I sat her down after I got her out of her crib and shot this. She's very much like Mom when it comes to waking up. I'm still super groggy and out of it for about 15 to 20 minutes. 

This one she realized mom had the camera in her hands and wanted it.

 My baby is AWESOME!!!

Peace