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!

School, September Birthdays and the rest of catching up

Samantha, Nick and I started school on the same day.  My class is Mondays this semester in Pearland, so I have a small commute.  No more walking to class :(  

Sam was excited that we had matching shirts.  I wore mine because I am the PTA environmental chair and I went in for lunch to help retrain the kids on recycling.  

First day of second grade!

I caught the big girls being extra sweet before Sam had to head to school.

1st day of school breakfast, we skipped special pancakes due to the craziness of life.

Since I was in at lunch time, I got to see Samantha :)

My first class went well.  And I saw a rainbow on the way home.

Zoey and I went on a playdate to feed ducks, but we also saw some pretty flowers.

Zoey got to meet her teacher.

Another tennis lesson.

A Chuck E Cheese party.

A science Sunday on motors.

 Zoey's first day of PreK 4.

A cute outfit she was excited about, the leggings have gold stripes.

Fiona did not exactly cooperate with her 3 month panda pictures.

Zoey and her dolls.

Zoey and Fiona.

Fiona has some great toys that I remember Sam and Zoey playing with.

Fiona has a habit of wringing her hands, the big girls say it looks like she is praying.  She likes to suck her thumb, so maybe she wants to know where it is at all times.

Zoey had her first soccer practice.

A fun time at the splash park.

The girls cooperated so well, but I stayed in the shade, so no great picture.

We celebrated Nick's birthday.

It was a GT theme.  Go Jackets!

Big smiles in her name onesie.

Watching Sam play flag football.

Her jersey is number 13, Nick's favorite number.

15 weeks!

We finally gave up on the bassinet, since she kept hitting the side.  She moved to the crib mom got from cousin Linda.  She proceeded to roll back to tummy, without being able to roll back, just like Zoey.  Zoey loved tummy sleeping though, and Fi got mad.  Plus she kept getting legs or arms stuck in the slats.  So lots of loooong bedtimes and many wake ups.

Zoey's first soccer game.  She mostly followed the pack.  She was cute clapping when her opponent got a goal.

So many cute outfits!  And cute smiles!

Sam won the first character award!  we are so proud of our sweet girl.

Between work and working at the house, we did not see much of Nick.  But here is proof he held Fiona at least once during this crazy time in our lives :)  Again, thank goodness for my parents, they were life savers.

 Dinosaur day during D week at PreK.

Animal print is in!

So many cute expressions.

And this post shall end with my birthday picture.  Nick's brother was injured in Afghanistan in early August in the attack on Camp Integrity.  Luckily he is recovering and doing well.  He is one tough cookie and a true American hero! But he needed help so Nick went to help him get his stuff off base, and unfortunately, he basically missed my birthday.  He flew back and rushed to teach his class, which goes until 10 at night and is followed by students wanting to talk with him.  We celebrated the next day by moving home, but it is still so chaotic.  We are working through the piles of stuff and it is definitely liveable, but it will be nice once we are fully settled again.  2014 and 2015 have been some crazy years for us Southern Kellings.  We are all hoping for a peaceful 2016 enjoying our "new" house and complete family.  Happy Fall to all!