SuperFamily

I wish I could show you their sweet faces.

Their precious dimples.

Oh, the dimples.

But, they are in the foster care system

(and are with GREAT parents!)

& it's necessary to keep their little faces hidden for now.

SuperFamily!

J & A are a BUNDLE of energy, as little boys always are, and we were running all over the place the whole afternoon. And how cool is their mama? She bought them superhero capes with their initials on them for Christmas. They LOVED those things (and aren't they PERFECT for pictures!)

Becca, thank you for allowing me to take photos of your sweet & funny boys this weekend! I had a blast!

More from Ally's Maternity Session!

Sneak Peek

Today I shot Ally's maternity session/family session.

And yes, you recognize that handsome boy.

That's Elizabeth's One True Love.

It was impossible to get any pics of him.

He spent most of the time trying to crawl into

Elizabeth's stroller with her!

I'm sick of Elizabeth.

I'm just kidding, y'all. I could never get sick of that little bundle of preciousness. But I AM sorta sick of taking pictures of her. I know. You're thinking: how could that be POSSIBLE? But trust me, friend, it just is. And I've had to postpone too many fun photography sessions due to this RIDICULOUS weather lately. Booooooo. So, on this cold & blustery day (during Elizabeth's nap) I decided to play around with photography inside my warm & cozy house. Photographing people will remain my primary love, but it was fun to just play around today with other stuff.

Pure joy, he says. Pure joy.

Let me tell you something. The Craig Life is a GREAT life, no doubt. But it is by no means perfect. And without going into details, y'all, it's just a hard season for us. On one hand we can so clearly see how God has heaped blessings upon blessings on top of our heads. On the other hand, we're really walking through some hard stuff lately. Trials. And good grief, we've got to be JOYFUL about it? We're just clinging to this verse & trying to remember that the JOY comes not in the trial itself , but in our belief that it is growing our perseverance. Through it, God will make me mature & complete, not lacking anything? Um, yes, please. That's a big ole reason for joy, y'all!

Something you might not know about me:

I majored in piano in college.

Now, don't go spreading that around. If we're at a party & there's a piano, don't go asking me to sit down & just play you a song off the top of my head. College was a long time ago. I have rarely played in the last...oh dear. I just counted it up. 9 years. Oh dear. Moving on...now we have this sweet little piano that somebody we barely know just gave us for free & I am so grateful for it. I like to sit down & play it for a few minutes when nobody's home but me & my baby. She sits in her highchair & is totally in a trance. She loves it. And I love that.

What's up, Cuz?

*these pics are all SOOC, yo*

Elizabeth & her cousin Ryan (yes, he was named after her daddy)

are about a month apart in age (he's older, obviously)

Hey! What are you doing with my toy?

No, seriously, cuz, give it back!

Don't you just love her little hand on his back?

This kid cracks me up.

Her Hands

my 8 month old daughter, Elizabeth

& her 96 year old great-grandmother, Helen

This is my entry for the weekly "I Heart Faces" Contest & this week the assignment is HANDS!

Her

Elizabeth & her great-grandmother, Helen

Ol' Blue Eyes

Introducing Mr. Everett

Can you BELIEVE those eyes of his? I took pics of Mr. Everett this morning & I only have time to post this one before I jet out the door to pick up my baby from mother's day out. Thanks, Erin, for letting me take pics of your sweet boy on his big 9 month birthday! I'll post more this weekend!

Insanity

It's Thursday. How many times this week have you been on your phone while you were driving somewhere? Was it a quick call to your husband? Were you sending a short text to a friend? Did you check your email on your Blackberry? Were you updating your Facebook status on your iPhone? How many times this week did you pick up your phone to do SOMETHING while you were driving down the interstate at 60 mph? How many times were you on your phone while you drove through your neighborhood, past somebody's house?

9 year old Erica was riding her bike home from school. She was in her neighborhood, just around the corner from her house. A woman was driving her SUV through that neighborhood, and was on her cell phone when she hit and killed Erica. At the scene, the driver said, "I'm so sorry. I didn't see her."

How long will this insanity continue?

I cannot count the number of times I have been driving down the interstate at 60 mph, or through my neighborhood, and been on my phone: talking, texting, updating Facebook, checking email. Many times my baby is in the car with me, trusting me not to be stupid. Trusting me to keep her safe.

I've made my car a No Phone Zone. It's a hard habit to break, I'm not gonna lie. I still find myself reaching over for it. It makes it easier when I put it where I cannot reach it easily- for me that's the center console next to me. I have to click a button to open the console up to get to the phone, and that extra step reminds me that I don't need it.

You are not that important. Your phone call or text really can wait a few more minutes. If it can't, pull your car over. Pull into a parking lot, stop in front of someone's house. Put the car in park. How on earth would I live with myself, how would I go on, if I took someone's life- somebody that I love or someone I've never met- because I was doing something as unimportant as operating a cell phone?

Click here and go to Oprah's site for more information, and to take the No Phone Zone Pledge. When you do, come back here and leave us a comment! Let's see how many comments and pledges we can get today, just from this little blog post.

Elizabeth's Fashion Tips

I caught Elizabeth flipping through my latest issue of InStyle magazine this morning, and when I went to go get her up from her afternoon nap, she informed me that off the shoulder is IN for spring. Time to pull out P90X! (Or in our case- P90: for those who can't hack P90X).

i might regret this later, but...

http://www.formspring.me/sarahcraig

The Eight Month Old Self-Feeder

Elizabeth has been eating Gerber Puffs for well over a month now. I stick them one by one in her mouth and she gobbles them up. I buy her the sweet potato flavored kind, and I have to tell you, they are quite tasty. They get pretty sticky. Sometimes they get stuck funny places. Like her hand. Or her lip.

She turned 8 months old yesterday. The day before that, she fed herself a Puff for the first time ever. You have no idea how hard it is to feed yourself a Puff. It takes many, many tries before you achieve your goal.

I was starting to kinda worry about our little Lizzie. Girlfriend puts everything in sight in her mouth, but not her FOOD? What kind of weirdo IS this living up in our house?

But when I watched her on Sunday trying so, so hard to get that Puff in her mouth, I have to tell you, I was a proud mama. When she finally moved that chubby fist out of the way and I watched her chomp down in victory, honey, I am not ashamed to tell you that I clapped and screamed and cried like a baby.

Today, we worked on getting El to feed herself her own bottle.

Tomorrow we will be working on differential equations.

Not that I have a clue what those are.

Choo Choo, Micah is 2!

My future son-in-law celebrated his 2nd birthday today.

I am a big believer in arranged marriages.

I'm like Jemma's own personal paparazzi.

No, seriously, I CANNOT stop taking photos of her.

She is too gorgeous.

She will be the maid-of-honor at Micah & Elizabeth's wedding.

I've decided.

Avery, I promise you can be a bridesmaid

if you keep your precious little paws off Micah.

I'm serious. You are simply too adorable to resist.

my child, 3 minutes before her bath

I picked Elizabeth up from Mother's Day Out this afternoon. She had on a cute little outfit when I dropped her off this morning. I thought it would keep her plenty warm. But her teachers told me she got too cold. So they had to put a T-shirt on underneath her clothes. They lifted her shirt up and showed me the undershirt- a pink one. I knew it wasn't one of hers that I'd packed in the diaper bag. I took her home. Tonight after her dinner, I decided to give her a bath. Look at that crazy hair...it'd been in pigtails for 2 days. But my favorite part is the shirt that the church preschool sent my baby home in.

Bonus

I'm not gonna lie- I do so adore this one.

haha! :)

Elizabeth is SUPER excited about being friends with Willa.

Sweet Willa remains unconvinced.

Baby's First Pigtails

my new favorite thing ever

Introducing Miss Willa

When The Hubs was just a mere boy child, his very best friend was Woody West. Woody grew up to marry a gorgeous girl named Whitney and they have two beautiful daughters, Waverly & Willa. Today I was blessed to have a portrait session with three month old Miss Willa. Isn't she just SCRUMPTIOUS?

Share the Love

I’ve been sharing the love for free, but now it’s YOUR turn to share the love! My limited time offer expires at midnight on Valentine’s Day. I've had a great response and already have so many fun sessions booked! You have until midnight on the 14th to book a free portrait session with me. If you book after the 14th, your session fee will be $50. For this price you will get 1-2 hours with me & my camera, and a disc of edited images for you to print, upload, and share to your heart’s content. To book your session, email me at sarahelizabethcraig@gmail.com.

That smile will be the end of me...

Cutie Patootie

One Tough Cookie

That's what the doctor called her today... "one tough cookie". Baby girl has a double ear infection. She started running a fever Saturday morning. I wasn't too worried because it wasn't that high and she had ZERO symptoms. I thought if she had fever, maybe she'd be contagious, so she & I skipped church Sunday morning. Same thing all day Sunday- a fever with no other symptoms. I finally convinced myself she was teething. I mean, poor kid is about to be 8 months old with not one tooth, and EVERYBODY said "it's probably teething". We went to a Superbowl Party last night, and she was a little cranky, but mostly because she was just so tired but loves to party so didn't want to go to sleep. Last night she got to 104.6 & I nearly freaked out. I called the nurse at 10pm last night and asked if it could be teething. She goes, "Well, not one doctor alive believes that teething causes a fever, and not one mother alive believes that it doesn't. Take that for what it's worth." I thought that was hilarious!

So, we went to the doctor today. Yup, both ears are flaming red. He said, for the record, that the whole fever/teething thing is the "biggest myth out there". Whatever. In this case, of course, he's right. But I trust the long line of mothers who have come before me. That many mothers cannot be wrong. Since she's seemed pretty normal & happy, I asked, "Is she in any pain?" He said, "Well, she doesn't appear to be. She's one tough cookie."

Back at The Craig House this afternoon,

Elizabeth checked her email with Daddy,

snuggled with her bears,

& played up a storm.

In other words, business as usual.