Professional Photo's.

We had a professional photographer come to playgroup, in time for Father's Day. She was offering 2 photo's at a reasonable price, $5 of which would go to the playgroup as a fundraiser. It was obligation-free, and we got to see the photo's before ordering - something you can't do with school photo's, apparently! Anyway, this is the photo (framed) that Neal, Gramps, and Grandad got for Father's Day, '09:

The deal was for just 2 photo's, but the photographer had printed off 4 - she said she couldn't help herself! So I got 2 extra's for free - yay!! Not only that, but she'd taken more than 150 shots of our girls, when she'd only taken around 10-30 of the other kids! There was only one other family that had around 130 photo's taken, but there's 4 kids in that family!! The photographer kept saying how she couldn't help herself - the girls are too cute! She asked if they were booked with a modelling agency, and when I said no, she recommended one to me. I thought she was just being polite, flattering my kids like that, but I soon realised that she wasn't saying the same things to the other parents! She even asked if she could use some of their photo's on her website!

I had a fun time trying to choose just a few photo's from so many (you tend to get emotionally attached to photo's of your kids!), but I managed to cut it down to around 30, which I bought on disc. These are some of my favourites:

Little Mummy.

Kira breastfeeding Erika's giraffe...

...and expressing (probably for the giraffe she'd left back at home!!).

Kira's Artwork

On the right of the picture, in orange, Kira's drawn a face, with long hair - includes ears, eye lashes, and lips!


This is a picture of our family! Erika, Daddy, Kira, and Mummy.

Thomas the Train, and other personalities.

Kira loves her stories, so much so that she tends to adopt a new persona. She likes to be called "Tinkerbell", "Peter Pan", "Peter Rabbit", and now "Thomas (the) Train". It used to be just around the house, and in addition to being called 'Kira'. But now she prefers to be called 'Thomas', and will correct you if you call her by her birth name! It's quite a sight when I'm at the shopping centre and Kira runs off - if she doesn't respond to 'Kira', I have to shout out one of her other personalities (I don't always know which one!) - I get some funny looks when I yell out "Thomas!!" to a child who is clearly a girl, complete with a pink dress and pigtails!!

This photo reminds me of one my parents have of me when I wasn't much older...In it, I'm wearing a dark blue velour winter dress, and I'm leaning on my Gran's mint green couch - I think I was wearing pigtails, too. Seeing Kira in a velour winter dress, with pigtails, and leaning on our couch, made me think of the similarities.

(Yes, Kira is leaning forward, not a half-shrunken midget!!)

Here Comes The Bride...

Kira has an Ariel (Disney Princess) bride doll and groom, and after reading about all the Disney Princess's that get married and live happily ever after (Snow White, Cinderella, etc), and seeing Mummy and Daddy's wedding photo's, Kira wanted to be a bride too. So we dressed her up in Erika's white wraps....

Here comes the bride...with her Ariel doll in lieu of a bouquet...


The blushing bride...


We used her hair clips to hold her veil and dress in place.

Dinner Time!

Erika loves her dinner time. We started her on solids (rice cereal with breastmilk) at 5 months, 1 week, and she just couldn't get enough. We started introducing other foods - pumpkin was a favourite, and broccoli, but carrot went straight through her, giving her tummy aches and a red bottom. Fruit (apple and pear) makes her gag! We had to go back to basics, though (rice cereal, breastmilk, formula), as Erika started getting an irritated bowel. At almost 7 months, it seems to have settled - hopefully we can start on other foods again soon.

"Hang on Mum, Dad's trying to take a picture!"


"Ahh...I've got you now, Spoon!"


"Arghhhhh!!"

More Bathtime Photo's

Erika LOVES bathtime!


One of her favourite pastimes is to see how much of her foot she can shove into her mouth. She can get most of it in there quite easily!


If it's not her foot, it's her hand!


Kira helping bathe her li'l sister.


Our Princesses...

Showing off her bandaides after her vaccines.

Playtime

Some random playtime photo's of the girls:

Kira riding the "Bob The Builder" truck at Marion. This is only the second time she's let me put money in a ride to make it go, AND stayed on to enjoy the ride! Usually she just wants to sit in the vehicle (any sort); if I make it go, she screams and wants to get off ASAP!


Erika sitting, enjoying a "cup of tea" from her big sister! (She's sitting on her own, the pillows are just there for if/when she falls backwards, as she does from time to time.)


Erika loves the activity centre.


Kira's hiding in her toy box in her wardrobe!

Kira playing with Mummy's feather boa (my friends and I all wore one at the Pink concert in August - Pink rocks!!).

Kira and Erika playing in Gramps' chair - they (yes, Erika too!) were rocking it back and forth, something they both thought was hilarious fun!

Playing together under Erika's floor gym...

...and just playing together on the floor!

Erika loves her Jolly Jumper - look at her go! Kira likes to jump beside her, or "help" her jump by pulling on the blue bar.