Happy Halfy Birthday!

The girls and I went to Bayou Wildlife Park recently.  You ride in an open tram and see and feed wildlife.  The girls really enjoyed it and I got some neat pictures.

In front of the peacock.

On the tram.

This ram has 3 horns?!?!

Up close with the peacock.

A short pony ride.

Petting a deer.

Close to the giraffe.

Zoey feeding a camel.

A close zebra.

We hosted my parents for a lovely Thanksgiving meal.

Fiona's first Thanksgiving.

The tree went up and lights went in the yard.

We went to a charity Santa picture event.  Fiona would just not smile, but she did not cry.

We also did 2 attempts at some Christmas card photos.  I thought getting photos of 2 girls smiling and looking was hard.  Although, Zoey was in a mood on the first day and Fiona was tired the second.  And it was soooo windy.

This may be one of my all time favorites.  It did not end up on the card :)  

And my last baby turned 6 months.  How did that happen?

Here is her 6 month panda shot.





She is a very busy baby.  She gets bored easily.  Rolls over often.  Loves to jumparoo.




She had her check up and is 14 lbs 15.1 ounces (Sam was 14 lbs 15 oz, Zoey was 16) and 27 inches (Sam was 27, Zoey was 28).  Everything is great developmentally.  And she is on the verge of cutting teeth.  It has been hard to tell since she has been so prone to drool and chew on things for months.

Here is a comparison at 6 months.


Samantha and I just got back from her first reconciliation.  She was so nervous, but did so well.  She and Zoey are such sweet sisters, wanting to hold Fiona and help keep her happy.  Nick and I are so very blessed with these three amazing girls.

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoys the rest of the Advent season.

Child of God and 5 month pictures

Getting this over a week before she turns 6 months!  Life stays busy.

We had Fiona baptized on November 1st.  Meeting the church requirements was tough with our schedule, her godparents schedule, and the big storms that hit Houston.  But we did and they worked us in for November, which was better with the godparents travel plans and limiting exposure during flu season.  And it also happened to be when Nick's brother Terence was already visiting (although I did not manage to get any good pictures of him).  Most everything got cancelled due to the flooding rains, so he did not get to see any football or soccer from our kids.  We had a nice time though eating, watching college football, enjoying Halloween and the baptism.  Thanks for a great visit Terence!

I made a cake.  Thrown together last minute, so not very professional looking :)

Getting blessed with crosses on her forehead.

The oil on her chest.

The actual baptism.

Blessing with oil on her forehead.

Her godparents Martin (Nick's roommate from senior year) and Sarah.

Our family of 5.  We are so wonderfully blessed!

5 month panda shot.

This is what she does with her lip all the time right now.  That and she loves making raspberries/fizthbiths.

When you try to get a good picture of your kid moving and she makes this face...

 I hosted a Thanksgiving countdown chain playdate.

And we went to a playdate today and Zoey got paint on her forehead.

I am taking an online photography class from a grad school friend.  She is an amazing photographer and inspired me to get my macro lens back out.  And also try a few other exercises.  For the macro, I found flowers in the parking lot at Zoey's school.  They were there at drop off and still at pick up, plus they had calla lillies, so I figured I was meant to have them.  My friend uses water a lot, so I tried that. I got some really cool shots, there are 2 favorites.

For one exercise, I was trying to get emotions and work with the light I had.  I wanted to do a set up outside, but it was too cold. So I got Zoey by the window.

You can really see her eye color and variance here.

Such cute expressions.

Love the lip biting.

And we were also supposed to capture detail.  Her hair is so amazing, she gets so many compliments on the color and curls.  I wanted to get a good shot of that detail.

Another exercise was to get eye contact without smiles.  I also wanted to capture the detail of how Fi sucks her thumb with the pointer finger on her nose.  I need to do some editing to these, but no time today.  Such a sweet baby girl!  Hard to believe she is almost 6 months!

Happy Thanksgiving!

4 months through Halloween

I am still playing catch-up.  Life stays crazy.  Nick went out of town twice, we have been trying to put the house back together, the fun never ends at the Kelling household.

But here is Fiona's 4 month panda picture.  I got some funny expressions.

Fiona has also been enjoying the exersaucer.  I think she is now tall enough, that we need to get out the jumparoo.  She is a strong baby, it will be great to see her jump.

Zoey continues to improve in soccer and is now getting her foot on the ball more.  Unfortunately, it has rained so hard the last 2 weekends, that soccer and flag football were cancelled.  Sam's season ended with 2 cancellations.  Zoey has a few more weeks.

Third child gets dragged everywhere. :)

Zoey liked Sam's games for the snacks.

Fiona has so many outfits, which is a good thing because between spitting up and drooling, she goes through a lot everyday.  She has really discovered her feet and thinks socks are just toys I put on her feet.

Zoey's class had a field trip to the pumpkin patch.  She loved the hay area.

A sweet picture.

A silly picture.

A friend and I did baby pumpkin pictures.  Fiona does this with her lip all the time now, as well as making silly sounds and blowing raspberries on my face.  

Some great expressions again.

For Halloween, Sam wanted to be Laura Ingalls since she has read those books a lot lately.  Zoey waffled and finally landed on Thor.  I bought Fiona a flower costume since her nick name was Petunia.  We were lucky to have Uncle Terence visit.  But I did not get any good pictures with him.

Halloween was rainy, so Fiona and I stayed home.  Nick and Terence took the big girls to a few houses.  Nick also made Zoey this awesome hammer, but she left it on the couch.

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!