Four months

Yes, it's true.  My daugther is 1/3 of the way to turning one year old.  Happy four months, honeybun! 

This stage has been so much fun.  She's practically all smiles and laughed her first real laugh the other day (Sept. 29).  It was priceless!!  And luckily, I had my voice memo app open to record it. 

Savannah's fourth month was a social one.  At the beginning of it, we took our first trip to White Deer to see Gamma and Grrdad.  She also got to meet her great grandparents (Loyd and Nell Short), aunt Brandi, cousin J, and lots of friends at the Friday night football game.  In the middle, she met our new little neighbor Brock for the first time apart from our visit to the hospital when he was born.  And at the end, she had a play date with Abigail and went to the zoo with Jack.  This little girl likes to be out 'n' about!

In other news, her hair has been falling out like crazy.  But, on the up side, there's a lot of new hair growing in that's filling up the bald places so she doesn't look quite so funky. 

She's also taken to napping on her tummy.  While she's not rolling over completely by herself yet, if she's even the slightest bit sleepy during "tummy time," she'll bypass holding up her head after I've helped her roll over and just lay her head down to rest instead.  Can't blame the girl, I sleep better on my stomach, too.

And, she LOVES bathtime!  She kicks and splashes all the time and gets really excited when I pour water on her.  I had fun last night playing with what little hair she has left.  I'm sure she'll hate me for this some day, but I just think it's so darn cute!

First trip to the zoo

Today, Savannah and I joined Courtney and Jack for a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. 

Although it was Savannah's first official trip, at three months old, she's clearly not going to remember it.  Not to mention that she and Jack slept for the majority of the time we were there (much to mine and Courtney's delight!).  Grown up conversations are a necessity every now and then.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't snap too many pictures, but when she's older and can appreciate the awesomeness that is the zoo, I'll do better.

We got home, and she was so pooped out that this ...

... didn't take long.

I'm also sad to say it didn't LAST long, for she is now hollering at me.  Hasta luego, friends.

A new venture

It's something I've been thinking about for a long time ... starting a small business.  I have always, always loved photography, but I just really don't have aspirations to do it professionally.  Mostly because I don't want to give up my weekends which I'm sure I'd have to do. 

But a couple of years ago, as I started getting better with Photoshop, I began to dabble with making photo collages.  I've honestly only done a few. 

My earliest was a gift to Cory after he'd mentioned not having any pictures of me at work.  I can't find the file anywhere - though I'm sure it's saved on a disk somewhere in this house - or else I'd post it. 

My next was for a former coworker who wanted something special done with her son's senior pictures.  I made several variations, but this is the version that she chose.

Then there's this one I just made with the awesome pictures my friends, Chris and Tiffany, took a few weeks ago.  Thank you Pirtle Photo!

I will say this about it...without good photos, only so much can be done to make a good collage.  I love this one I made of Savannah, but I know it's mostly because the pics themselves are so great.  Over the years though, I've gotten significantly more skilled with Photoshop and have confindence that I can make just about anything with it.

In addition to the collages, I've made a couple of birth announcements - ours for Savannah and one for a friend.

Obviously, to make a real go of it, I have to do some major brainstorming and planning.  And.......I need to have a strong portfolio of examples.  With that being said, I'm gonna throw an offer out there to all of my faithful readers.  If you have digital images of your family, children, pets, or whatever, that you'd like put together into an 8x10 or larger photo collage, let me know!  I'll put a collage together for you and send you the file or upload it the the photo processing center of your choice for you to print and enjoy.  Sound good?  Ok then, send me comments or Facebook messages if you're interested!

Labor Day weekend activities

The long weekend brought a loooooong car ride for Savannah and me.  We went to White Deer to visit her Gamma and Grrdad!  Boy, were they excited!  I truly hate living so far from them now that we have a kiddo, but I have no doubt that as Savannah gets bigger, Skype will get used a whole lot more. :o)

Since Cory couldn't go with us (*sad face*) we headed out Thursday morning instead of Friday.  There was no real agenda until Friday night when we headed to Buck Stadium to watch my alma mater play our evil rivals, the Panhandle Panthers. Booo Hisss

It wouldn't be right for Savannah to go to her first White Deer High School football game dressed in anything other than a cheerleading outfit, right?!  It was my own invention and turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

On Saturday morning we met my friends, Chris and Tiffany Pirtle (Pirtle Photo), in Pampa for a photo shoot since Savannah was due for her 3 month pictures.  They do awesome work and I cannot wait to see how the pics turned out.  There will likely be an entire blog dedicated to my favorite shots once I see all of them.

After that we rushed to Canyon to my grandparents' house so Savannah could meet her Great Grandma and Grandpa.

It was a busy, busy weekend.  We were running around almost non-stop, but Savannah just went with the flow of it all.  For everything being so new and out of the ordinary for her, I was very proud of her demeanor.  Despite being extremely tired at times, she was rarely fussy.  She slept great at night even though she wasn't in her own bed.  She was an all-around good sport with all the posing for pictures and being passed from one person to another.  I was a proud Momma!

What color will they be?

Savannah's eyes, that is. They are still gray ... the most stunning slate gray I must say.  Ok, so maybe I'm a little biased, but try to tell me this girl isn't beautiful.  Go ahead, I dare you! ;o) 

I love this picture of her.  I took it yesterday.  So I played around with it in Photoshop and made a few different variations. 

Believe it or not, in this one, I did not change her eyes when I turned the rest of it to black and white.  Who would know until it's compared to the color one, right?!?!  Love it!  When I changed the entire picture, her eyes lost some of their sparkle, so I undid it and converted everything but her eyes.

This one brings up the highlights and makes her eyes really stand out, huh!  I bet those eyes would look good in a black and white version too.

This one was just for fun.  I like artistic looking contrast. 

Which one is your favorite?!?! 

Three months

So, almost as if overnight, Savannah has grown!  Two days ago it struck Cory and me both like a ton of bricks.  Suddenly she has real weight to her when we pick her up.  She can lay on her tummy and hold her head up with complete ease.  She simply looks bigger and in no way like a newborn anymore.  Before now, people would just go on and on about how cute and tiny she is ... or was, I guess.  I mean, she's not a giant or anything and is definitely still as cute as can be, but she's clearly not my petite little baby girl like she was just a week ago.  Sort of breaks my heart.

But despite wishing she would stay itty bitty forever, it's really fun to watch her learn and grow.  She's on the verge of her first really great belly laugh.  Cory lays on the floor with her sitting on his stomach as he laughs.  You can tell she wants to copy him but she can't quite figure out how.  I have a feeling it won't be long though.  She's grasping onto things within her reach much more and wants to hold her bottle all by herself.  And she could except for knowing to tip it up when it starts getting low.

My heart melts when I go to get her after a nap and her face lights up when she sees me.  It really might be my favorite thing in the whole world.  For this month's picture, she was able to sit up next to her bear without a blanket behind to help steady her.  Hooray for my strong girl!  I know she won't technically be three months old until tomorrow, but we'll be on the road to go see Gamma and Grrdad, so I figured today was just as good for picture taking. After all, how much difference can a day really make? ... unless she decides to mysteriously grow again overnnight in which case today's picture will not be an accurate depiction of her three-month stature.

A dress for all ages

When I was born, my grandpa shopped and shopped for the perfect fancy dress for me.  I wore it for pictures when I was 6 weeks old.

I couldn't help but put Savannah in the same dress and take a few snapshots.  She will be 12 weeks old tomorrow.  She's a fair bit leaner at 12 weeks than I was at 6, wouldn't you say?

To carry on the tradition, my dad also shopped just before Savannah was born for the perfect fancy dress for her.  It's a 6-month size, so we'll get pictures taken in it around Christmas.  I can't wait!  Maybe one day Savannah will have a daughter who can wear her fancy dress just like she got to wear my fancy dress.

Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!?!?!