So since we try to alternate holiday locations, this year we headed south to bask in the warm Fort Lauderdale sun! We had an all-too-brief (but very wonderful) Christmas celebration with Rich’s wonderful parents and then left the next morning for 11 hours in the Pilot with our little ones. And let me just say that we are SO proud of these two! The trip from Chattanooga to Fort Lauderdale can often be 12-13 hours depending on the number of stops we make, and of course the traffic, but we actually made a beeline there and arrived in just under 11 hours! The girls did an amazing job of tolerating the drive, and are turning out to be fabulous little travelers.

It’s actually been a little over a week since we have been back in town from our 3 weeks in Florida (yes, 3 whole weeks. Running our own business requires a ton of hard work, but it also allows for some flexibility in the off-season). The latter half of our week home has been spent sick. Well, let me rephrase: the girls have been sick and Rich and I have been waking up in the middle of the night for 3 nights straight to clean up vomit So I’m feeling sorry for the girls and going a bit stir crazy myself. And if I do another load of nasty laundry, it is highly likely that I will go completely insane.

So hopefully I’ll get through this blog post: it’s the kind of mommy day that makes me feel the need to go to the loony bin. Sierra is soooo fussy, clingy, needy, and clearly just doesn’t feel completely back to normal yet. As I type, she is loudly fighting a nap in her crib. Give in, baby, just give in. Mommy wants to blog. An overdue blog, at that.

Most of our Christmas vacation was spent in absolutely beautiful weather, in the 60′s, 70′s, even 80′s, which allowed the girls to play outside and have a blast. The pool water itself is actually really cold in the “Florida winter” even when it’s warm outside, so the girls mainly played with the sand and water table and enjoyed all of the pool toys.

Examining the sand…

And deciding to eat some. 

And deciding that it doesn’t actually taste good at all.

Alana has an absolute blast hanging out by the pool, even when she doesn’t go in the water. She has always loved it out here.

Her own little pink net for cleaning the pool – she loves it and hey, she helps the pool stay clean. Nana is brilliant  

Go Miami Heat  

Thank you so much to Rich for these photos of the girls (minus Aunt Pixie, whom we eagerly awaited the arrival of on Christmas Eve)!!!

I loooooove this series…

This was Sierra’s adorable little Christmas Eve dress – too cute

Thank you for the Christmas Eve family photo, mom! 

Christmas Day was just the sweetest thing. Since it was Sierra’s first Christmas, Alana wanted to properly introduce her to the wonderful presents. She was a little smothered, but hopefully she felt loved

Since Aunt Pixie had flown in late the night before, the girls had not seen her yet. So when we’d all waited as along as we could handle, we snuck in with the girls and let them crawl onto Amber to wake her up. It was so cute. Sierra was only 6 months old when Amber moved to South Dakota, so it had been 6 months, but her reaction was adorable and we all deduced that she totally remembered Aunt Pixie

We ate a delicious Christmas morning breakfast together and then began opening presents. 

I love my “I’m taking a picture of her taking a picture of her taking a picture of him” image  

Sierra didn’t actually make it too far before she needed her morning nap. So most of our gift opening was spent sans Sierra. But at least we had a happy baby later on! 

I put Sierra down for a nap and the opening continued! 

I made fun of my mom for getting dad – among other things – socks for Christmas. But dad reeeeaaalllly wanted some new socks. And the fact that he’s rubbing them on his face, well, that’s a really funny family joke going back a few Christmases  

Dad surprised mom with an iPad for Christmas – so cute! She was so excited! Mom and I found the MOST hilarious slippers for Amber – they looked like the abominable snowman – we were pretty happy with ourselves. Sadly, they shed like crazy! Might as well have a pet!

Gifting dad some happiness:

Ya, you really can’t go wrong with cash.

Alana sporting Aunt Pixie’s new slippers  

Yep, Rich got the coal in his stocking – I think he may have gotten it last year as well He and my mom have a special (i.e. feisty) relationship. But don’t feel bad for him, he can dish it out!

Stockings!My adorable mom, checking out her new work toy! 

Sierra woke up in time to have stocking fun – she kept putting candy canes in her mouth with the wrapper on, probably wondering why in the world we like them  

Then we let Sierra open her Christmas gifts that had been left unopened while she napped. Oh, she did not disappoint. I’ve come to expect babies to have more fun with the paper and boxes than their gifts, but Sierra, on Christmas Day, was an exception. She let Alana help her with the opening, but then she would hold up her gifts, give Nana a HUGE smile, and then proceed to play with and enjoy her new toys. Really, I was so impressed with her! It was the most rewarding baby gift opening episode I’ve ever seen  We might be the last young family on earth who did not yet have Sophie the Giraffe, but Nana got her for Sierra!

Both girls LOVE to be on Papa’s shoulders, mess up his hair, slap his head, giggle while he runs around the house…

And giggle when Nana comes to get them!

Then, once Amber was in town, we needed to take a few more photos with all 3 girls! Thank you again to Rich for these photos! They make me so happy  

Soon I will be able to blog Sierra’s first birthday party because the one and only Amber Holritz flew down to document it! We are so excited to share those photos as well!

I mean, seriously, wow.

I cannot believe it’s been nearly two months since I last blogged. That MUST be a new record! I don’t think I’ve gone two months without blogging since the inception of my blog in October of 2005.

It’s been busy, to say the least.

After my last blog post (from our trip to Dauphin Island), we returned and had only one week left with my sister and Nick before they moved to Rapid City, South Dakota. We spent as much time with them as we could, and then had a little bitty going away party for them. Here are the last couple of photos we took with them before they left. We miss them terribly! We are hoping VERY much to be able to see them around Christmas time. Any longer and I don’t think I’ll make it

After Nick and Amber moved away (boo!), we had Sierra’s six month session with the phenomenal Amber Holritz.

As usual – not to sound cavalier – she blew us away with her ability to capture moments and memories for us that will grow in value as time passes.

Here are a few of my favorites from the session, but be SURE to head over to Amber’s blog and see the whole post, including a slideshow! 

When Amber arrived, we were giving Sierra her first few bites of solid food ever! It was squash and she wasn’t a fan. But with the knowledge that I have in writing this blog post a month past-due, I can say that Sierra has been doing great, eating like a little champ, and she now enjoys squash (along with lots of other fruits and vegetables

Another funny thing about waiting so long to post this blog, is that at six months exactly, Sierra was still toppling when she tried to sit. Like in the hilarious image below. Now, she’s been sitting for over a month and is doing so brilliantly. AMAZING how much she’s changed in a month! 

I love all of these self-portraits too much for words  

After we had this session with Amber on June 27th, I left for Fort Lauderdale to help take care of my mom post-surgery and ended up staying for a whole month! Thank you to everyone who prayed for her and brought meals! We are so thankful for all of you! Her surgery went well and she is mostly recovered, though she still needs to take it easy.

To Amber, for another incredible baby session. We are always at a loss for words to describe our gratitude for the family treasures. You are a treasure.

To my sister and Nick: We love and miss you more than we can say. You’ve taken part of our hearts with you.

To my mom: I love you and it was an honor to help take care of you. You’ve always taken incredible care of me. Pleeeeaaaasssseeee take it easy so you can heal!

And to my blog readers, sorry for being MIA, and I hope you are all doing wonderfully!

Rich started off with the camera, taking shots of Alana’s bliss Oh how I love beach pictures. Give me snow pictures and beach pictures and I am a happy girl!

Then my mom took over and with a little instruction from Rich about shooting with the 70-200mm, she did a fabulous job with these images of the four of us! Thank you mom!!!

Then Rich used my mom as an assistant with some external lights and took these photos of me and Sierra. Love!

So these beach portraits conclude our Spring Break 2011! Happy Spring everyone!!!

We LOVE this place…great food, great service, and best of all, the private jets take off and land RIGHT outside the windows! Alana loved it just as much as always, and I think this place will be a tradition for years to come!

She loved every second, and her enthusiasm was pretty contagious.

Thanks again, mom, for taking another photo! You should go pro  

Could they be ANY CUTER???

Pretending to be an airplane…

Happiness…

Once we were done at the cafe, we hit up the Boca Town Center Mall for a little Baby Gap fun and then made lunch out of Jamba Juice – and we brought some to Papa at his job site.

Back at the house, I snapped these of Alana:

And then we went out back to play. This was Sierra’s first time in a bathing suit, and we squealed about how cute and chubby she looked! 

(Thanks again for this photo, mom!)

Sierra was reclining on my lap and this was my perspective of her round little face  

To supplement the fun Alana had in this little canoe last summer, we made sure to add Sierra this time…

Lounging. It seems that both Alana and Sierra have inherited my dad’s piercing blue eyes…and I’m wondering why I wasn’t so lucky! 

Kissable chubby cheeks:

And some Papa time! 

One of my favorites: 

One of our last days in Florida, we decided to head to the Promenade and have a DELICIOUS lunch at Lime Mexican Grill. Oh, we love this place! And I’m so mad for not getting a group self-portrait!

Super cool architecture! 

Rich took these photos and we couldn’t manage to escape the wind, so they’re just funny to me! 

30 year old me and 17 year old Shawn. I don’t want him to get a big head so I’m not going to talk about how stinking cute he is. 

Then on Friday night we went to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate dad’s birthday. With our 45 minute wait, we decided to be productive and take pictures

Impromptu self-portrait…

Kinda sad I didn’t think to include mom in this photo…I didn’t get a single one with both my parents and both girls! Shoot!

On Saturday we had one last backyard fling: 

My parents backyard is a beautiful Florida oasis! 

The End

In some ways, it becomes harder and harder to leave because as Alana gets older, she is increasingly aware that we are leaving Nana and Papa’s house in Fort Lauderdale and we won’t be seeing them again for a while. She was VERY sad to leave, and as we drove north on Sunday, she mentioned (many times) how much she will miss them. So we talked about the fun we’d had. The beach. The pool. The sand & water table. The book reading with Nana. The toys at Nana’s house. Hanging with Papa. How much we love Nana and Papa. And we talked about how, Lord willing, we will see them again before too long.

It occurred to me that Sierra was ten weeks old as we went to Florida for the first time, just like Alana was ten weeks old when she first crossed the state line! So in light of this being Sierra’s first time in my home state, we pulled off at the Florida Welcome Center and snapped a few photos. It’s strange looking at these photos now that we are a family of four!

Here is Alana when she was only ten weeks old (terrible quality, taken with a point and shoot at night – but a memory nonetheless!):

And here is Sierra, also at ten weeks old:

One of the first things I do when we arrive is to get our camera out, make sure there is an 8-gig memory card inside, and put it on my parents dining room table so that I can quickly and easily grab it all throughout the week. I’m always glad I make photos a priority when I look back over the memories. There are definitely moments that are missed, but the photos we do take make me happy – even though they are not comprehensive.

Rich grabbed a couple of photos on day 1.

Me and the girls: 

All four of the girls  

Here is my mom with Sierra, who is growing like crazy, and very different from Alana! From day 1, Alana has been VERY petite for her age, always below the 10th percentile for weight and height, and sometimes off the chart (on the low end) altogether. But Sierra is my little chub She’s in the 75th percentile for weight and height, and is outgrowing her 3 month clothes already I’m thinking that she will grow into Alana’s clothes around the time Alana grows out of them – even though there are 3 years between them! Ha! 

Adorableness in the car before doing some shopping at Sawgrass Mills Mall

This was Sierra’s first time in my parents backyard and she seemed to love the warm Florida weather! It was so fun for me to have all the help with the girls, and particularly exciting to have someone else to interact with Sierra so that I could grab some smiling photos She had started smiling at two months and I had yet to capture her contagious grin on camera! I just snapped away, happy that she was so happy and thrilled to be documenting her joy!

Rich took these of me and Alana, and I love them. We were just on the street outside my parents home, and you can see the stereotypical bright, sunny Florida skies giving way to the rain clouds. I love Florida and I love the weather.

And I love my ‘Lana.  

We have so much fun in Nana and Papa’s backyard that we actually don’t go to the beach that often! It’s only 15 minutes east but we only went twice during our week-long stay.

This was the first trip, and Alana was in HEAVEN. Granted, she is scared of the water, but she will love it in time. She was just overjoyed to have so much sand at her disposal

I love this first shot because she had no idea I had the camera…she was just running around, plopped down, and sat like this for a split second. I am getting quicker with my camera, since Alana is not still for ANY amount of time! I just love how sweet and innocent and adorable she looks in this photo. 

I’m so proud of my mom, who was willing to brave my big camera to get some shots of me with Sierra, since it was her first time at the beach! Thank you mom! Way to go! 

The next day I grabbed a few photos of Rich and Alana having some cute moments…

Don’t let this sweet little feminine photo fool you…

She loves to play in dirt and she thinks there is nothing better than rocks and sticks. Look at her filthy hands!

And to conclude part one of our trip, here is an image that Rich took of me…

And a Rich and Alana self-portrait in my glasses

Stay tuned for part two, coming right up!

I am so incredibly thankful for many things, including the time that my mom spent here, friends and family bringing dinner (HUGE, HUGE blessing!!!), and already being on a very predictable schedule with Sierra.

I wanted to go ahead and blog these photos from our first couple of weeks together before too much time passes…but I’m pretty tired today so I’m sure I won’t do justice to the images with my commentary.

This first set of images was Alana’s first official time to hold her sister. My mom was taking an iPhone video, my sister was handing Sierra to Alana, I was taking iPhone pictures, and Rich was taking the following images with his professional camera. It was a collaborative effort!

Here is Alana, waiting to hold Sierra for the first time!

Aunt Pixie handing the baby off…

I think we can safely say Alana is a proud big sister…

Thankfully, Alana is not phased by Sierra’s crying at all! It surprises me, but she really doesn’t seem bothered! 

Then my sis grabbed a few photos of me and Sierra. I will *try* to document these first weeks and months for Sierra the way we did for Alana, and my goal is to eventually finish Alana’s “First Year” scrapbook and to start (and finish) one for Sierra as well. 

Another sister-holding session. Alana wants to hold Sierra every day, and typically when I try to pick Sierra back up again, Alana grips tighter and says “No. Don’t take my baby!”

I adore Alana’s expression in these images. 

Amber took this photo of me photographing the girls with my iPhone…and I love it! 

Sierra and Aunt Pixie! 

These are some of Alana’s friends who have been keeping her company. This is Waddles and Safari, and basically, they go everywhere with Alana. Just thought I’d capture them too  

A couple more adorable little friends of Alana’s…

This is my Boppy breastfeeding pillow, which Alana snatched up, put around her waist, declared to be a “floatie” and said, “Let’s go swimming!”

Aunt Pixie and Uncle Nick, entertaining Alana during the first week after we came home with Sierra. They (and my mom) were an ENORMOUS help for this reason. I was so thankful that Alana’s life was enjoyable for these first few weeks. It would not have been without these awesome people…I didn’t have the energy or emotional strength to really engage her or entertain her at all. Craft time was a life saver! 

The results of craft time

Nana and Sierra. For all of her help with Sierra, I did an absolutely horrible job of taking photos of my mom with her! But I love this one!

The iPad also did it’s part to entertain. Games, games, and more games. This one, apparently, is quite serious! 

Daddy-daughter-daughter time…

And Nana-leaving-time. It was a sad, sad day.

I miss my mom a ton, but God has been SO GOOD to us and we have been surrounded by friends and family who have rocked our world with their company and with DELICIOUS dairy-free meals. We found out the day we were discharged from the hospital that Sierra likely has a milk protein allergy just like Alana did Needless to say, I’m on my ultra-restrictive diet again…no dairy; no milk proteins (casein and whey). Fun times

Here are just a couple last photos of Sierra – in her swing – which has been really helpful during the evening hour fussy time. Thanks to my sis for these two images! Love them and love you!

I’ll be back soon with more photos, hopefully…I’ve actually been feeling good enough during the day lately to get a little bit of work done. Funny how different having a newborn is the second time around…I have not taken a single daytime nap since Sierra was born and I feel like that’s mostly what I did when Alana was young! Having an active 3 year old who doesn’t nap means that I get up in the morning and just keep going till night time!

But again, I’m so thankful for all of the prayers and help! We are doing well!

I blogged family photos from our wonderful winter wonderland on Christmas Day, but failed to blog our fun times from the day AFTER Christmas, because things got pretty crazy with family fun, and then, on the 28th, I went into labor and had Sierra

Anyway, without much commentary (because I will soon need to feed the baby), here are our SUPER fun snowy photos from the day after christmas. Our neighbors let us borrow their sled and hang out in their yard with them, so now we’re thinking we need to buy our own sled so we are prepared for days like these!

Watching the neighbor kids sled…right before they came over and invited us to join

Snow angel!

Sledding with Uncle Shawn! This was Alana’s VERY FIRST time sledding, so I’m excited to have grabbed some photos, even though some of them are blurry and not great quality

And Aunt Pixie! You better believe I was not about to go sledding while 9 months pregnant! 

Even Nana was up for some fun sledding! She’s the best! 

My mom’s Florida minivan Looking oh-so-out-of-place all covered in snow!

Happy New Year, everyone!!! Happy 2011!

Well, except for the fact that my dad was not able to come up in time for Christmas Day, and Nick (Amber’s hubby) had to leave at 11 am for a work shift at the children’s E.R. where he works.

But we all woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS!!! It really could not have been more wonderful.

When we woke up around 8am it was snowing like crazy…and we were all giddy with excitement when it didn’t let up for HOURS.

We ate breakfast, opened presents (had a TOTAL blast), and decided to head outside for a family self-portrait before Nick had to leave for work.

We ended up with about 3 inches of snow throughout the day and enjoyed every second. We went out for a quick morning round of play before Nick had to leave for work, and here are Rich’s photos from that:

The view from our front porch:

The family self-portrait, minus dad

Mom and the siblings! Note my belly popping out from my jacket since I refused to buy a maternity coat/jacket It was so fun to have such a fun family photo opportunity just DAYS before Sierra makes her debut and causes me to go into hibernation

My 3 year old princess

Then we went back inside to thaw out, relax, get the turkey in the oven, and send Nick off to work. Once we cooked for a couple of hours and were just waiting on the turkey, we all decided to bundle back up and head outside again.

We. Had. So. Much. Fun.

Oh my gosh, I love my mom so much. And isn’t she the CUTEST snow bunny???

Uncle Shawn and Alana – cuteness overload. 

Aunt Pixie got our her Tele Skies and went trekking across our front yard…how adorable is she???

These photos make me insanely happy. Best Christmas EVER. 

Eating snow. A trend that continued all day for Alana. 

And this is me, laughing at Alana’s CONSTANT ingestion of snow.

Aunt Pixie and Uncle Shawn are incredible with Alana. I love them both so much.

Two of my new favorite images of all time: 

Thanks again to Rich for these photos of me and Alana. LOVE them. 

Then a spontaneous snowball fight broke out – but I stayed safely off to the side so as not to invoke labor on Christmas Day

I think my mom and brother ganged up on my sister

Ya, that’s my mom. She’s adorable. I’m so proud

More photos of me and Alana that I couldn’t choose between:

Aunt Pixie and Alana skiing  

And kinda-sorta building a snowman. But we weren’t really committed, so he never fully materialized

I grabbed the camera for a couple of minutes so that Rich appeared in some photos from the day! I need to figure out a way for him to be taking photos and appearing in them simultaneously I can’t always have Amber Holritz following us around  

Thank you so much to Amber for taking the following photos of me and my honey! You ROCK, sista! 

The Lashbrook-Smith-Nolen family snowman from Christmas Day 2010

Hanging with Nana = pure happiness! 

Snow angels: 

Absurd, I know. My belly makes another appearance. 

And so, there are our images from yesterday. We hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and enjoyed time with friends and family. Be blessed this year!

She is of the opinion that every baby needs to be celebrated, even if the new baby is the same gender of a previous child. So, even though we have much of what we need because this is another little girl, I was thrilled that she wanted to do something for me anyway!

Saturday morning, some dear friends and family members came to Susan’s home to celebrate Sierra with me! I am 33 weeks pregnant and can’t believe we will have little Sierra at the end of next month! It was an awesome and special shower, and I enjoyed every second.

Before we left the house, Rich took some photos of the girls and I love them! Thank you so much babe!

Here are a few photos that my sister grabbed and I am so thankful that she did! Thank you Amber!!!

AMAZING cakes made from scratch by Susan. To. Die. For. Not to mention all of the other incredible food that was in abundance! Randy and Susan are amazing in the kitchen. Everything they touch tastes like heaven. Thank you also to my sis, and mother-in-law, and Briana for delicious food and drinks.

And thank you to Rich for the group photo! Amber Holritz had already left but everyone else who came is included. I SO missed some friends and family who could not come due to sickness Thank you so much to Susan and the other amazing friends and family who helped to make this such a SPECIAL day for me. I am blessed beyond measure.

On Friday morning, Rich, Alana and I were spending time together, running errands, getting things done, and enjoying each other’s company. Rich suggested – after accomplishing several business related tasks – that we go celebrate the beautiful day by grabbing a nice lunch together at Abuelo’s.

I never refuse a lunch or dinner out, so I agreed, saying that mexican food sounded wonderful. Rich told me that he’d also invited my sister to join us, so I was eager for a leisurely lunch and a break from all the hard work we’d been doing all week!

We arrived and sat down and minutes later Amber arrived. As she walked past me to sit in our booth, she said, “I hope you don’t mind, but I brought a friend with me.” I turned to see who she referred to, and shrieked when I saw that it was my MOM!

I. Love. Surprises.

I screamed loud enough to draw some attention, but thankfully the stares were approving and happy ones once people realized I wasn’t in labor, but rather, had been surprised by my mom

And so began a perfect weekend. My mom had collaborated with Rich and Amber for several weeks to pull off the surprise – to be here for my baby shower on Saturday.

So Friday evening we celebrated Alana’s third birthday JUST with “Nana” since Alana’s official party isn’t until this Sunday and Nana will miss it.

So the first of my weekend blog posts is our intimate little birthday celebration for Alana. My mom and Amber had picked up a Bread Basket cake (YUM), gotten balloons, presents, etc. We let her open her presents from Nana, then went to Red Robin for Alana’s birthday dinner (where we failed to take ANY photos) and then came home for cake! Here are the photos from our afternoon and evening

Sitting on her trampoline in the living room, surrounded by “Happy 3rd Birthday” balloons

Her first gifts were a little ballerina outfit and tutu…which she wanted to put on right away

Nana filled up a whole bucket of super fun Hello Kitty items…could life get any better? Oh, and I think she makes an ADORABLE ballerina

And she’d wrapped up two new charms for Alana’s Baby Gap charm bracelet! The two on the left are the new ones from Nana…sunglasses and multi-colored hello kitty! 

Alana’s gift from Uncle Shawn was her very first REAL digital camera…hello kitty, of course! Alana says that she wants “to be a ‘tographer like mommy and daddy.” Aunt Pixie showed her how to use it Aunt Pixie rocks. 

The cake! Bread Basket is just. so. amazing. 

Daddy lighting the candles…

Alana’s reaction to our birthday song…

Blowing out the candles; although “spitting them out” would be a more accurate description of what actually happened   Nana, thank you for the WONDERFUL surprise! Your presence is the best gift of all, but we definitely enjoyed the party, the presents, the cake, and balloons VERY, very much also! We love you!!!

Baby Shower photos coming up next!