The Next Generation

We have been attempting to get some new photos of Milo but also of Louie and Noelle so that my parents can have "matching/coordinating" photos of all three grand kids.

My cousin Michele's birthday party became a great opportunity to try and get those shots, as well as all of the "great grand-kids" of Lou and Flo D'Ambrosio. Flo (Grammy) was the only one who got to meet a great grandchild, which was Will back in 2008.

Getting all of the kids to be happy and looking in relatively the same direction was pretty much impossible, but we are really pleased with the results! Enjoy some Fall cuteness!!

Louie thought Francis of Assisi needed a hug. 

This took so much effort and was the best we could do. Someone wouldn't stay put...

We gave up on Louie and took a few with the cooperative ones.

We tried again and gave Louie the prop. Worked for him, but then the other two were distracted!

Happy Mr. Milo!! Too easy :)

The photo veteran of the crowd.

I had to hold him still but we'll crop me out later.

Milo and Mariano, the 2016 crew representing well!

This is where we tried to get all of them, you can see how poorly we started...

We resorted to singing to get them all to look and be happy. Will was mortified, Milo was beginning to dislike it, Louie thought it was the greatest concert of all time, Noelle was slightly amused, and Mariano was horrified.

We tried re-adjusting the positions and hoped that everyone would be happy. Louie was wondering what on earth was wrong with Milo.

The best we could do!
Milo Tripp ~ Noelle Watkins ~ Louie Watkins ~ Will Perrino ~ Mariano Perrino
Lou and Flo would have been immensely proud and entirely smitten with all of them!

Cuter by the second!

Noelle does something unbelievably cute every day I think. Probably much more than once a day, but at least each day it seems to be something new and cute that she hasn't done before.

I think her official first sentence is "I got you!" Mostly from playing lots and lots of games of trying to catch her.

She is recently obsessed with carrying her blanket around and trying to wear it. I think this is partly my fault since I am almost always sitting or walking around with a blanket, and also the fact that she likes to pretend it is a dress.

Being coy and snuggly

Just surveying the yard with her blanket.

She likes to dress up in other things too - like the poncho! She thought it was so fun to wear it, and even started calling it a "tent" at one point.

Ponchos are cheap fun!

Everything looks pink...

Mama, how does this work?!

Poncho model in the making

She also is so very attached to all her stuffed animals. This past week it was Mr. Peanut ("Peanut") and a baby My Little Pony doll ("Pony"). And for whatever strange reason, she associates them together. So when I asked her if she wanted to go for a walk, she grabbed Pony & Peanut and asked if they could come along. We got some strange looks along the way, but she was happy to have her buddies on the walk with her.

Pony & Peanut

She is mixing up her pronouns now, which is extremely common for toddlers. There is lots of "hold you" when she wants to be picked up. And I just realized she also says "down?" when she wants to get on a chair and also when she wants to get off of it.

She so sweetly will call for me to come play with her or color with her. She make her voice really high & gentle and says, "C'mon Mama, coolioo?" or "C'mon Mama, go play?"  Lately she has even been asking me to dance on occasion which would be so fun if she didn't constantly want me to spin around. Old people get dizzy fast!

And whenever she is looking for something or knows that I am looking for something, she calls out to it. This is something I taught her along the way - though it wasn't intentional. But I LOVE it when she does it. She might know that I am looking for my keys and so she will walk around as if she is searching for them and say "KEY! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUU? Oh KEY?!?" Sometimes she is looking for something on her own, maybe her Ariel doll, and I hear her in her room...."ARIEL! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUU? ... THERE SHE IS!"

2 is turning out to be super cute and I know it is only to get cuter as she adds to her vocabulary and is able to communicate exactly what that precious mind is thinking!

2 Year & Family Photo Shoot

I haven't gotten to post the awesome pictures that Gary took for us in honor of Noelle's 2nd birthday. She was not easy to photograph at this age, but you can't tell because G is so talented!! (www.garywatkinsphotography.com)

I am so glad we took these though, as Noelle changes so quickly, and honestly we are too lazy to break out the fancy camera all the time. We end up just using our iphones for most of the year, and MAYBE 3 times a year we break out the big guns. I did it much more when Noelle was small and was changing SUPER fast, but now...meh.

So I hope you enjoy these photos as much as we do. I'll try to do my usual photo commentary in the captions for extra tid-bits of what was happening in some of the photos.

She cracks me up. She was loving her new ballerina slippers from CC - and she is just obsessed with shoes lately. First thing in the morning after I get her out of the crib...Shoes?

She was probably playing on the iPad and G managed to make a noise to get her attention.

Clearly saying something, but so very cute at it!

She loves when Josh is silly with her, and just giggles her head off

This was when Josh was playing with the blower while G was taking photos. She made it into a very cute game.

Tousled blown hair look :)

These photos in the weird vine/tree are amazing...and you can see here in the bottom left corner my head. That is because I am totally holding her up in these photos. It was uncomfortable but she thought it was hilarious and therefore we got amazing photos!

Being in a tree is very fun.

Looking so grown up here!

This one looks a little mischievous!

We got these photos so quickly b/c she was starting to get antsy - but thanks to Dada making her laugh they came out fantastically!

Ugh. Love her.

When she is in the right mood, she will give you kisses OVER and OVER again!

We got to capture her just running around. She is very into shadows lately and on occasion will give her shadow a high five!

That face.

She loves to pretend she is thinking about something....

And then pretend that she thought of it and is excited! So cute! Josh taught her that game.

We managed to get a good family shot - G was so good at getting it quickly, because Noelle did not want to sit for long!

Our other family shot, after we looked for Nemo in the pond.

Noelle refused to take another family shot, so Josh and I decided to pose without her. So glad we got this one :)

Then G got this one...I love the lighting. It's my glamour shot, lol.

After our photo shoot we went to a Vietnamese restaurant and G took a few more photos while we waited for our food. The table had an awesome reflection and Noelle was full on posing for the camera sometimes.

She's just the best. I'm telling you...I am not biased!

She looks really grown up in this one...before I know it she is going to be 18.

Picture Friday...A hot week in pictures!

I'm not sure how much longer "Picture Friday" will exist. I'm still finding my rhythm with my new life schedule and I'm not ready to commit on weekly photo sessions at the moment. However, I am always posting a few photos here and there on instagram and facebook, so be sure to check there if you find you have the shakes from Noelle withdrawals :)

That being said - here's to another picture friday. Just a few fun shots from our week!

That drool sheen means it has been another teething week. Working on another top tooth!

Ready for church on Sunday

Cute exhaustion after church on Sunday. Thanks KidsQuest!!

Clean and happy

I couldn't resist.

Noelle loves her wimbledon towel that Grandpa got her last year!

She loves it almost as much as she loves watching herself in the camera!