1 year ... and then some

Ok, ok, I AM A SLACKER!! It's been way too long - AGAIN - since I've written. To further the slackery, I still have emails in my inbox from two months ago that I haven't even opened. I am so ashamed, but... I think, by now, you all get (hopefully) that it's just the way I am and I hope no one is hurt or offended by my way belated - oh - everything. Haha This isn't going to be a long post, I just really wanted to share photos from my sweet little angels 1 year photo shoot. If you want to see the cutest pictures EVER, visit www.ashleyreecephotography.com and click on “client” in the menu. The password is cora. She was a total ham while taking these. The rocking chair and the crate were props just to try to get her to stay put. Her newfound freedom of walking keeps that girl - and me - in constant motion. She can "go, go, go." (That's what Sarahs little "Go, Go Pets" say when you set them off and running and we say it all the time to Cora Jane.) Just a few fun things to mark Cora's first year: Her favorite ASL signs are "please," "all done," "milk," and "more." She cannot get enough of saying "daddy" and she LOVE, LOVE, LOVES to follow her big sister, Sarah, EVERYWHERE. She knows she is an accomplished pianist, just like her sister and she loves to sit at the "big girl desk" and dictate to me everything that needs to be done or color with the crayons. She, almost literally, sings for her breakfast -- she sits in her high chair and sings, sings, sings. She loves to walk around the house with either carrot or celery sticks, just munching, sucking and, usually, making a funny sort of a mess everywhere. She LOVES her "baby bath" and loves to play in the water and loves to drink the "dirt butt water." (giggle) She continues to "hum" herself to sleep and talk and sing as soon as she wakes. Her "lovey lamb" is the protector of the "suckies," which she "gently" throws at him at the end of every nap. If you say the word "walk" and you don't mean "go outside," you are in BIG trouble. She loves to walk ANYWHERE and she loves to play in the grass, but she HATES to get in her car seat or her stroller -- until we really get rolling. She loves to make the sounds of different animals, like the elephant, dog and, especially, the monkey -- she had SO much fun seeing all the animals at the zoo a couple weeks ago and making all the sounds with them. She is kind of like a puppy at scripture time - she likes to help daddy to get the scriptures (she'd do it on her own if they weren't SO heavy!!) and at prayer time she folds her hands and waits for the "Amen." Although she is quite stubborn, even "yelling" at me sometimes when she doesn't get her way, she continues to be such a blessing and such a source of silly and happy and giggly times. She wanted nothing to do with her birthday cupcake; just looked at us all like we'd lost our minds that we hadn't just given her carrots. haha (She did, however, try to grab the candle.) Unwrapping birthday and Christmas presents was fun - it kind of lasted all day, because she would finally rip into one thing, play with it for quite a while and then when she was ready to move on, she had another one to open - this was quite agonizing for Sarah, who just wanted to "help" her open them all right away! She is so hard to get a picture of these days because, like I said, she is always on the go, go - most from her actual "birth day" were so blurry, but this one worked out okay.

And this was the "four generations of CJ" at Thanksgiving:

And here's my carry-on for the airplane:

and... so shoot me, this post turned out A LOT longer than I thought it would. Oh well. Hope you enjoy!