John Deere Girl

We went to Ryan and Kala Merrel's wedding tonight, it was at Spaulding's parent's house. His parents own Reynolds John Deere in Fishers and so we of course had to have a little photo shoot. I got some good shots of her on the tractor and then some that look pretty professional I must say! :) We also finally had a family pic taken!!!

Honk the horn

I love that mischievous smirk

I really like the angle of this shot

Dan was trying to get her to smile so he is kinda making a silly face here, but we'll take what we can get when she will look at the camera! :)

Photography

Since Tessa was born I've been taking a lot more pictures than before. When you have such a perfect subject it is an easy thing to do. I've always had an artistic eye but have never really tried anything with photography. So over time I've learned about lighting and angles and such through trial and error. Dan bought me a new camera which I love when she was born and so this is now somewhat of a new hobby. I decided to try some new things the other day and here are the results. I did some more artistic photos, not just her adorable face, but I did throw in a few of those too! Enjoy!!

10 Months

Tessa is now 10 months old! We are actually feel like we can begin the count towards 1 year old, it just doesn't seem possible!! I will try to tell you the highlights of Tessa at 10 months but I'm sure I'll forget something...

-crawling fast and likes you to chase her or she will chase you

-pulls up on anything and everything and will go from one object to another without holding on, still too timid to take any steps but working on holding onto 1 finger of mommy or daddy and walking around

-loves to climb the stairs and is really fast, so we now have a gate

-still really fiesty and wants things her way right away :)

-eating 3 meals and 1 snack

-will drink water good from a cup but still working on milk

-still nursing morning and night, but no more during the day, kinda sad, we're working on gradually weaning her by around a year

-love love loves Zayne, and he is so tolerant of her battings and tail pullings

-is showing interest in her baby doll

-but also loves to chase a ball around and bounce it

-has sooooo much love, constantly giving kisses and giving love "hugs"

-want to talk so bad, but still mostly jiberish

-says dada, mama, ba (ball?), ah ooo (thank u?), and gee (doggie)

-holds her arm out most of the day saying uh and point at things she wants you to get her

-sleeps through the night in her bed (usually 8pm to 6am)

She is changing so much and growing into a little toddler. We love her beyond words and think every thing she does (new and old) is just great and adorable.

Here are her 10 month pictures and also as you see her first Notre Dame game!

"touchdown"

giving Mommy some "love"

Watching Daddy and Helping Mommy...

This weekend when the weather was so nice out we had the patio door open and just the screen closed. Daddy was outside mowing the grass and this was keeping the attention of Tessa. But, because our very inquisitive daughter is able to pull up on ANYTHING including walls and screen doors I put her in her high chair and pulled it over to the window. She was pulling the screen over and this would have lead to a tumble down 2 cement steps, not a great idea.

I was able to keep her in one place though for about 20 minutes and she even ate a pretty big snack, so it turned out to be a great entertainment to watch Daddy. I captured some great faces as she studied him!

There he is!!!

Today as I was snapping green beans to put in the crockpot, Tessa wanted to help. So, I put her next to me on the counter and this is what happened....

My daughter who is EXTREMELY opinionated about her meals wanted to eat raw green beans...sometimes you just never know. :) We'll see if she eats any tonight once they are cooked, doubt it!

She also flung them all around, it was entertaining for both of us!

August 2009

I can hardly believed that August is almost over already...so I'm posting pictures of some of the main things that we did this month! It was eventful which is probably why it flew by!

Dan and I took an overnight trip ALONE to French Lick. It was a really fun time and nice to do adult things like go to dinner at 7:30 and go to the casino. Tessa stayed with Grandma and Grandad and had a fun time too. She slept in their crib and did awesome! We were really excited to see her though... one night was enough for now!

The hotel has amazing architecture, it is hard to believe it was built in 1901.

The Lobby!

We spent the day at the pool lounging around

Going to dinner at the Steakhouse

The next weekend was our annual NICU reunion where all of our "graduates" can come back and visit with the nurses and doctors. It is always amazing to see how much everyone has grown and how well they do. This was my first year to take Tessa and it was fun to let her meet everyone I work with and also for my patient's families to see that I now have my own baby! It was a really hot day so I didn't take many pics...but of course a few of Tessa.

She ate her first popsicle, it was so hot out!! Not too sure at first.

Then she thought it was pretty tasty!

After the reunion we had dinner at Dan and Georgina's for big Dan's birthday. We grilled out and just visited and hung out. It was good to see everyone and Tessa had fun playing with everyone. She loves her cousin David!

Grammy bought her some bananas and Aunt Natalie was feeding them to her.

Another thing we did this month was go to the State Fair, but I was so bummed...I forgot my camera. We did the traditional visiting the animals and eating fair food. Again it was a really hot day but Tessa was a trooper; we felt bad it was the first time she was sweating!! I think next year she will like it even more, she was a little overwhelmed with all the activity! It was a really fun week to have Daddy on vacation we spent lots of time as a family.