at the beach

I have a lot to catch up on (of course)...

Christmas, Chappy's Sesame Street birthday party, etc. --

But for now, we are at the beach.

Reed's parents rented a huge casa for all of us on North Captiva Island, FL.

Sadly, it's been rather cold during our stay in South Florida and my legs are still white as snow. They say it's usually in the 70's and 80's this time of year, here... but not this week.

Oh well :)

Since the house has WiFi (thank the LORD), I thought I'd share a few pictures of what we've been up to since Monday:

Ummmm, how hilarious is Chapp's face in this???

Post Script

I'll have you know I didn't do a.dang.thing to Chappell's eyes in any of these pics. I usually retouch eyes (everyone does)-- but I didn't w/ these.

Swear.

Her eyes are CRAZY blue as it is-- but when I mess around w/ color tones (the 70's looking pics) they just pop.

Just sayin'.

My baby is 2!

I can't believe I didn't post on Chappy's 2nd birthday!

I've become quite the slacker, apparently.

So, making up for lost time: Chaps turned two on Thursday, December 9th.

Here I am, going all cliche on you - but, I can't believe it!

Two years ago I found myself about 50 pounds overweight, deprived of sleep and the mom to a 7.9 pound baby. Wild.

So much has changed... we've moved 3 times:

Birmingham ---> beach house ---> Santa Rosa Beach ---> Montgomery

and now our "baby" is a full blown toddler/kiddo.

At two, Chappellina is absolutely amazing.

Her personality is better than I ever could've envisioned.

She's funny, sweet, did I mention funny??, smart - beautiful inside and out.

But seriously, spend five minutes with her-- she's one of the funniest kids I've had the pleasure to be around. She has this way of speaking... she uses her hands and is super animated. IF she doesn't know the word in English, she'll slip one of her own words in there to fill the gap. It's pretty funny. She's Chapplingual.

While on the topic of language, she is doing very well. Her teacher often tells me that she's surprised by how verbal she is (and that she is hilarious, and keeps her entertained).

I don't know how many words she can say... well into the hundreds, there is no way to know. She can sing about 20 songs. She knows all animals, sounds, body parts, and every day objects. They say at this point in development they learn between 10 - 20 words every day. I believe it. Especially this time of year-- Christmastime brings its own vocabulary... and she's loved learning all about Santa, Baby "Cheezes" and all of the fun "lights" and decorations.

One of Chappell's favorite games is for us to draw a shape/picture/whatever on her magnadoodle and she then guesses what it is. I must say-- she is almost ALWAYS right! I'm not the best at sketching and she can usually tell what I'm drawing. It's a fun little game that we play.

Chappell loves to:

*tickle her mommy and daddy (and you better laugh)

*sing "Big Me" by the Foo Fighters, B-I-N-G-O, 5 Little Monkeys Jumpin' on the bed, Johnny Appleseed, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Row Your Boat and many other random songs...

*play with her little toddler friends

*watch the Little Mermaid, Lion King & Nick Jr. - sorry if you're anti-TV (we're not - we believe in moderation)

*play with dogs and cats

*read books

*go to the park w/ friends

btw-- I'm going to have to finish this 2 year old update later... before my 2 year old destroys our house!

Riley's birthday party

Chaps sure had a blast at her little buddy's 2nd birthday party!

This picture is just so funny to me, I had to share.

The party theme was "vintage circus."

gift certificates...

please let me know if you are interested.

i'm working on my website as we speak... not much longer!

a saturday in december

I'm not sure if anyone's still out there, but I just wanted to check in and say hello.

We are, in fact still here, but it's been hard to find the time to blog lately.

Although I'm hangin' on by a thread, I refuse to let the blog die after all of the time I've poured into this thing over the years.

Currently, the Chapster's upstairs taking a nap and Reedo is at the office finishing up a few things while the babe is asleep.

I had 5 sessions this morning. Whoosh!

Speaking of which, Christmas card shoots are what's keeping me so busy - but I'm not complaining... it's a wonderful thing to be busy! After our short time at the beach... where I learned what it's like to have NOTHING to do... I'll take busy any day.

I'm loving this new venture of mine.

There is still a lot to learn (there always is), but I've learned a ton so far and I'm so happy with what I'm doing.

It's December 4th.

I cannot believe - CANNOT believe- that Chaps will be two in five days.

I sound like an oldie, but where has the time gone? It's absolutely insane!

Chaps is growing like a weed and changing so fast it's becoming hard to keep track of it all.

She can say and do so many things. The kiddo understands everything we say and nothing goes over her head these days.

We're gearing up for Christmas over here and I can tell that Chappell is really enjoying this time of year-- even if she doesn't quite understand what the fuss is all about she's certainly enjoying all of the festivities that go along w/ the season.

The "liiiiights" and "chrimus tweee" are her personal favorites.

I'm going to get back to work while Chappy's asleep but I'll be back very soon w/ Chappy's 2 year update.

Ahhhh, the suspense!! It's killing you, I know.

Here are a few babies I've done recently:

(We had to cover his parts while posing/adjusting, right??)

This little man's daddy is a big hunter. He's already sportin' camo. I didn't know they made it so small!

and... Chappy...

Of course she's not looking at the camera. I'm her mom.