Christmas

Every holiday, Eric and I make it a priority to visit with both sides of our families. We alternate every year as to who gets to celebrate on the actual day. So this year, we went down to visit my mom and dad a little before Christmas, and came back up for Eric's family Christmas Day. All in all, Nora wore the same red Christmas dress about five times in a row, including the two separate nights it took to take these few pictures of her in front of our tree. When it was all said and done, this dress needed a wash like none other! At least we can say we got a good amount of use out of it.

To take these pictures, I set Nora in front of the tree and used my lens with the lowest f-stop, 1.8G. I set the ISO to 1600 and the shutter speed to 1/40. After a little bit of editing in Lightroom (thanks for the Christmas present, hubby!), these are a few of my favorites:

(the editing is not nearly perfect. still learning the ropes.)

My Girl is ONE!

My baby girl is one, and I don't know where the time has gone! At her birthday party, I hung several lines of pictures from this past year. She's had a pretty amazing first year of life, if I do say so myself. 

A look back on Nora's first year: 

- Born Dec. 3, 2011

- Went to Florida for an extended family vacation

- Traveled to Pawley's Island to play on the beaches and take my first bike ride

- Chased my family's dog, Sandy, all around the kitchen and yard

- Went to see my first Musical in the Warner Theatre in DC

- Attended several weddings with Mom & Dad

- Went to Christmas Town in Busch Gardens with family 

- Went to the Zoo twice (and completely slept through my first visit) 

- Fell in love with my cousin, Olivia. 

- Sat for mom through several photo shoots

- Played in Fall leaves

- Swam in Grammy's neighborhood pool

- Enjoyed countless times on the playground swing

- Went to Charlottesville for apple-picking

- Explored several museums, Children's, Living, etc. 

- Went putt putt golfing

- Attended two of my aunt's graduations from college

- Went to see the DC Christmas Tree

- Visited Mom's old work in DC

- Met the Pioneer Woman for her book-signing (and she fell in love with my red hair!) 

With such a good year, no wonder Nora never stops smiling!! 

December 3, 2012

She knows she's a big girl!

We can't forget Lambey, who contributed to half of the smiles she gave for the camera.