Practicing her poses

Nandini is so expressive these days, I love seeing all the faces she makes.

She is so squirmy and wriggly that sometimes it seems like she is about to start crawling soon.  Although, other than at the pediatrician's office she doesn't really roll much, but she can shimmy herself all the way off her playmat.

fascinated with the camera lens. {These two are my favorites.}

I love playing the jeeb game with her.


{I took about 65 of these random closeups and most of them looked blurry or just off, but I love the way these few turned out}

Project Life - June 2011

I don't always get a great picture everyday, but I try!

Saturday, June 11: We took our little Texans to the Science Museum to see the Texas exhibit and learn a little more about the Alamo, Davy Crockett and Austin.  I think Davy Crockett is my favorite because of that Disney song.  Sadly the exhibit did not mention that he killed him a bear when he was only three.  Also missing was Santa Ana's wooden leg.

I love this saying on one of Texas's old flags.

I saw this on pinterest and thought it was hilarious.  I showed it to Avi and he just didn't get it.

Monday, June 13: Nandini on her playmate, checking out the 'other baby' in the mirror.

Tuesday, June 14:  Avinash and Nandini chilling on the patio.  I love how Nandini is always staring at her big brother.

Friday, June 17~ Braved the heat and took the babies to the splash park at Discovery Green. 

 

Sunday, June 19~ Happy Father's Day!  Ryan got some really gorgeous cards from Tiny Prints and a couple of macaroni frames from Arts&Crafts at the library.

Monday, June 20~ Nandini loves playing on the mat even more.  I'm so amazed when she shakes the rattle, grabs the elephant and twirls the parrot.  So happy that she likes playing with toys now!  It is such a relief to have something else to entertain her.

Tuesday, June 21: First day of summer!  Took Avinash and Nandini to the park again for a playdate with some friends.

These two are so precious together!!

 

more layouts..

Well, we have been back in Houston for nearly two weeks (over two weeks? I don't know I lose track).   And, even though I miss my family and east coast friends a TON, it is good to get back into our regular routine.  More like still trying to figure out a new routine with two babies.  It also means I can do lots of scrapbooking.


So, here they are! 
 

I love all of our family of four pictures.  Feels like a real family, you know?  The only tough part is finding someone to take them who isn't totally befuddled by the dSLR.  Luckily this totally sweet Mawrtyr volunteered her services without us even having to ask.  I was almost the oldest alumna there and certainly one of the only ones there with her two kids!  I love going back so much though, who cares if I'm almost twice as old as the freshman?  I did about a million and two layouts with the pictures we took that day too.

This is my lift of a lift of a lift with some Jenni Bowlin stuff.  They even featured this layout on FB!  I know it's probably not a big deal really, but I was excited to see it!  I mean, they have like 3000 fans on there and they all saw my sweet girl.

Another SC lawn party layout.  {Kind of sounds perfect for May Day pictures, right?}  Just a layout of colorful pebbles paper and a bit of black and white to balance it out. 

Even though this photo of Avi turned out totally blurry, I still used it because he looks so happy in it!

 Also, I can't take pictures in manual because this how they all turn out.

 

I love these pictures from easter so much, I have scrapped them alot too.  Even though the journaling is about her and I together, I thought the pictures of her alone were cuter.  I used lots of crate paper and The girls paperie.  A very girly page about how Nandini likes to charm us with her googoos and coocoos.  Ahhh...so love hearing her sing to us. I can't believe how we are falling in love with her more and more everyday, I truly want to treasure this time forever. 



*SC Weekly Challenge*

This is a layout largely using my Studio Calico Lawn Party kit. {My first real Studio Calico kit ever! I had been buying there stuff piece meal, but I broke down and bought this one and am so glad that I did because I used it on so many of Nandini's newborn layouts, it was just perfect.}

*SC Weekly Challenge*
This is one of the Avinash layouts I made with it. I love the way some people can coordinate ten different things and make it look great, but usually I can't. I decided to use the rainbow as my color guide here and it totally worked. From top right to bottom left: red, yellow, green, blue and tiny touch of purple. I added in some kraft and wood as well throughout.  Even the girly rose paper doesn't seem out of place. 

 

Storytime.

Avinash has been really more interested in reading lately (when he isn't asking to watch Diego over and over again).   He even sat down with a couple of books and started reading to Nandini tonight.

Check out her face in all the pictures.  She NEVER took her eyes off him, but has such a serious, perplexed and at times worried? expression. 

scrapbook sketch of the week

This is one of those pages that just wasn't working in it's first configuration.  I redid it with an 8x10 photo instead of one smaller one and ended up much happier! 


From this ...

!

to this.

Thanks for looking

Three months old..

Nandini ~
You are three months old today, I can hardly believe it.  We have been falling more in more love with you every day since you were born.
True to your name, you are such a joy to have in our lives.
You are almost sleeping through the night, which is amazing.  Avi did not do this until he was six months old (and then only because we let him cry it out at night.)
You are so alert during they day, you love talking and saying "ah-goo" to us.  Which, according to the baby book, is something you may even be able to do, but are not likely to.  See? Genius.
Do we have more evidence of this?  You very recently started to actively enjoy your playmate (as opposed to just lying around look cute on it while I took pictures of you).  I'm so smitten with you that just watching you bat at the rattling elephant, clutch his ear, grab and spin the parrot totally amazes me.
You always follow us with your eyes, especially your big brother.  Never know what he's going to do next!  He loves laughing with you after he says goo and you say it back!  We all love it really. 
You still hate your car seat, especially when we are driving.  You are not a fan of the heat here either, which is unfortunate since it is only June!  You still don't like too much noise, but you seem to enjoy the jungle sounds and ocean sounds.
Love you baby girl!

my camera has a food setting...

Who knew?  Apparently "saturation will be rather high to make food look appetizing."  Except for that one time, I'm not really in the habit of photographing my meals, so I decided to try this setting* on the baby.  I mean, I thought that she already looked pretty appetizing already, but a little extra saturation never hurt anyone did it?  Well, she does tend to look pretty bright red in pictures if I do increase the saturation usually...but I digresss.

Yeah, I pretty much want to eat her up anyway.  I think she has to know how cute she is. 

*(In all honesty, I can't remember which photos were shot in which setting, but here they are anyway.)

my scrap buddy

First, I showed Avinash this tiny star punch and we spent a while punching out stars from junk mail.

Then, he grabbed a box of buttons and said he wanted to put them on 'pi'tures'.

So I let him pick out a photo from a stack of left over prints that I had lying around.  First he wanted a picture of the baby but then he decided to use a picture of his school.

I got out the glue stick and helped him put the glue on and let him place the buttons on the photo.  I grabbed an ugly old piece of cardstock and glued the photo down so we could put those stars on too. 

He was going a little crazy with the buttons which I didn't really want, so I distracted him with some funky letter die cuts.  He loved those.  We stuck those all over the place.  He was strangely attentive when I told him to only use a little glue.  So cute to see him placing the tiniest dot of glue on the letters before giving them to me to stick on.

He picked out a few more die cuts and I added some washi tape and a little bit of journaling.  (When you ask him if he wants to go to school he always says "No waaay!")  And, bam!  Avi's first scrapbook page.

I think it turned out surprisingly well if I do say so myself.  The photo itself isn't that great.  His eyes aren't even open.  And I'm a little bummed in hindsight that I gave him such yucky cardstock.  Oh well.  Still I love it, this one is definitely going in the scrapbook.  Hmm...I may have to do a page about doing this page..

too young to make a party?

What do you get when you combine a translucent plastic cheese or boggle container, a bunch of markers, possibly a washcloth and a book stuffed inside, with a water bottle or marker and a band aid on top?

Why birthday cake of course!

Complete with a 'flame' to blow out after singing.

{Unfortunately, Avi could not get blow out the candle, because he's 'too young', as he solemnly informed me.  "Oh no, Avi too young, can't do it!"  Seriously, I have no idea where that came from but I still love it.  Ha!}

Just add a few toys and random pieces of paper wrapped in tissue paper that you find in mommy's room and a hat maybe and you have a full party!   I don't know why I never thought of this, the boy is like a mini-MacGyver.  Who is also a party planner, apparently.