My Little Girl

For Nora’s third Gotcha Day (celebrating the day we adopted her) we asked a friend to take a photo shoot of our sweet little girl.  We met in a gated community just before sundown and Nora could not figure out why we wanted her to sit in the weeds!  Hahahaha!  On a blustery Wednesday a week later we met in Target parking lot to exchange the goods.  When the CD went into the home computer and we admired each scene… each smile… each dimple… I realized my little girl isn’t going to be little for much longer.  Seriously, it was the first time I thought those thoughts.  Her face is thinning out.  Her big teeth have almost all shown up for the party.  And she does her own hair now.  Our time with our kids is so short!  And when they arrive at your heart’s door at seven years old, it is entirely too swift of a time until they leave home!

This picture is my favorite of all of them because she is laughing, truly laughing and it shows in her eyes.  It’s so sweet.  Then I took a long swallow and realized that she looks at her Daddy with these loving eyes and that cheery smile, but only for a little while longer.  My stomach did a flip flop and sank as I realized this smile and adoring look will be aimed at her next Knight in Shining Armor in as little as TEN YEARS!  WHAT!  Stop the bus!

Well, she did tell us that she’s not getting married until she’s 35, so we have a few more years than most.  :o)

Hug and kiss your kids!  And make them sit in the weeds!

Guess who’s graduating??!!??

Yes, my first baby girl!  Larisa!  Distinctly I remember the day I took her to Walmart and had this photo shoot done.  We lived near Edmonton, Alberta… where the weather can be less than congenial at times.  And Larisa’s blonde hair could be limp in minutes… so I brought the curling iron and hairspray INTO Walmart for final touches.  I found an outlet in the middle of the children’s clothing section and she sat in the cart while I fixed the golden curls to perfection.  She posed up a storm…. like a true beauty queen.  I didn’t even do any coaching… she had the moves even at two year old! 

When Daddy got home that night, for some reason I decided to tape record Larisa telling Daddy about the Walmart photo shoot.  We still have it.  It is PRECIOUS!  Her little scratchy voice saying, “Affer Mommy do the curlen iron in Wamart, da laby take my pichers. Den I went like dis.. and like dis… and like dis….” And she re-enacted the entire posing scene.  A cherished family memory for us.

A week later when we took Daddy into Walmart to help us choose the three photos that were included in the cheapest package…. he stared at each one of the 15… then uttered the unthinkable words for Mr. Wallet, “We will take them all.”  Unbelievable.

We may have a re-enactment of that extravagant purchase when Larisa’s senior pictures arrive!!!  Please stand by.

 

Happy New Year Twenty-Ten!

We started the New Year with Nikander family pictures with the whole crew.  My sister’s family is only down here in the desert every other Christmas, so we take advantage of every blinkin’ minute.  We’ve done red, white and black…. blue and browns… and this year black, white and hot pink.  We actually had everyone participate with the correct colors this year!  There’s a first time for everything!  We’ve come a long way, baby, because this was the first year we did not have to schedule pictures around naptime!  Whoopie!

I always try to make sure we have pictures of each kid individually with Rick and I as well as their grandparents.  Neither Rick or I have photos like that from our families.  There’s the odd one, but nothing like our kids will have.  We almost succeeded yesterday, but with 17 people wandering around, we did miss a few.  I’m not sure why I think it’s so important to have those mom/kid pictures, but I do love having them down the road at scrapbook time.  Call me a sentimental fool… and I’ll gladly agree.

This one has been my favorite since we started this pose with daddy and daughter about eight years ago.  So cute to see our little girl turn into an amazing woman of God!  We are so blessed.

One more and I’ll be done…..

It seems Rick and I are getting shorter and shorter.  This may be our last New Year picture without a kid taller than us.  Time is sure flying while we are having fun!

Make 2010 a great year!