Santa is Coming to Town

I love, love, love Christmas! Having little ones only makes me love it more because I want to make special memories and traditions that they will remember forever. One thing I do not do is brave the mall and wait in line to see and pay for the Santa they have there. Our church has a breakfast with Santa and, so far, I have been able to get a great shot of the kids with him. We also have a fun city activity where the fire department hosts a Santa and drives around neighborhoods visiting kids. If you drop labeled gifts off at the fire department ahead of time, Santa will bring your child a gift too. 

The following pictures are with the church Santa and the fire truck Santa. Merry Christmas!!

Xmas Shoot

Since Stella will be 6 months on December 19th, I decided to do a photo shoot for the Christmas card. Last year I just made the card, but I wanted to get a nice one of all of us.  Even though Noah wined through the whole thing and Stella can't sit up by herself, and I was threatening and bribing my son to behave and smile, we still got some great, frame-worthy pics. Enjoy the sample ones below. @appletreephoyograpy by Sarah Sidor

Fave Time of the Year

I heart the Christmas season. I have dozens of happy, fond memories from my childhood and now that I have children it's so much fun to relive and create new memories for my kids. The day after Thanksgiving we set up our tree and put up decorations. It's so wild that this time last year we were announcing we were pregnant with Stella and now here we are!! 

BTW: bungee cords are great child restraints ( hehe)

Christos Anesti!

Christos Anesti (Christ has Risen) is a phrase Greek Orthodox believers say to one another after the Resurrection. Orthodox Easter was this past weekend. It is such a beautiful holiday. Although I did give Noah an "Easter Bucket" and some plastic eggs with marshmellows, the "Easter Bunny" did not come to our house. We put more emphasis on the religious account of Easter. Jesus was crucified, died on the cross, was buried, and rose again to free us from sin and death.

I have included some photos from my iphone of Good Friday service and also of Noah.

The beautiful tomb of our Lord decorated by members of church.

We follow the tomb around the outside of the church to symbolize the procession that followed Jesus' body to his tomb. It's pretty cool to see if you never have before. Everyone holds candles and sings hymns.



X-mas is Almost Here!!

I am so excited that Christmas is almost here. This will be our first Christmas as a family, since last year I was pregnant with our little man. I found the smallest, cutest little first stocking and it makes me smile every time I look at our fireplace. I can't wait!!!

9 Months/Christmas

Noah will be 9 months on the 23rd so we did his pictures for Christmas. I wish I was doing something fun and exciting to post, but being as everything I do revolves around my son, the most exciting thing we have done lately is get his pictures taken. Here are some of the preview shots from Sarah Sidor at Apple Tree Photography. 

Hey Santa!

Noah had his first Santa experience this morning at church.  Although I wish Santa would have put him on his lap and not held him up, the picture we ended up getting is pretty great. We couldn't get Noah to look at the camera, he just stared right into Santa's face. It was pretty awesome. One year down with no screaming child in Santa's arms- yay!

The Light Of My Life

Noah was checking out the Christmas lights for the first time and I snatched up the camera, (because I have an obsession with taking pictures of my son- I don't want to regret missing any moments) The most simple moments become so fascinating when a baby is doing them. I am extremely excited for the upcoming holiday. Christmas is my favorite time of year, I think because the festivities seem to last so long. This Christmas, being Noah's first, is extra special and I can't wait to begin all the traditions of the holiday. The first tradition is putting up the tree and decorations a day or so after Thanksgiving. Noah was able to help us check to see if the lights worked. Check it out below....

Happy Halloween!!

I have always loved holidays, I guess I am just a big kid. Having a child makes you appreciate them even more because I want to create memories and traditions for my little man. We carved our first pumpkin as a family yesterday. I took so many pictures I just couldn't decide which ones to post so I posted quite a few more than normal (sorry- but they are so cute) My husband says, "Just delete the ones that didn't turn out good or that look the same." Is he crazy? I can't delete any of them, it feels wrong to delete pics of my baby.

Anyways, we will be visiting his cousin tomorrow and "trick-or-treating" in their costumes so I will have more adorable pics to post soon. In the mean time, enjoy our little pumpkin...