7 months

Today was Norah's 7 month birthday! We celebrated by going out with a whole bunch of family! Well, not really. We did go out with family tonight, but it was for my Grandma's Birthday. We went to a nice Italian restaurant and we had a great time. The wait staff was excellent, and so was the food. Everyone had a great time. Hopefully my Dad will have some pictures to blog soon from that. But as for our big 7 month old, here are a few pictures from today as well.

2 Months!

I've been trying to take some 2 month pictures of Norah for the last 6 days, and for one reason or another it never happened after I got home from work. Either she was fussy, or we were too busy. So to start off the holiday weekend we had a mini photo shoot this morning after her bottle. You'll see how she gets a little sleepy afterwards too, so cute.

These are some shots I took to show how much she loves her bouncy chair, from the animals on it to the lights and music that it plays, it keeps us occupied for a while. the first shot is from a few weeks before hand to show what she's looking at in the next two. While I love the shots of her laughing, the expression on her face in the second shot is great too. It's like you can watch her learn something! P.S. I included both color and Black and White shots here because I like the Black and White but everyone else likes the color shots.

And last but certainly not least, here's Norah's first "Someone who loves went to (insert your favorite city here) and all I got was this T-shirt" T-shirt. It's from her Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen from their trip to Scottsdale, AZ. A trip that taught us all the valuable lesson of why you should never accidentally drop your cell phone in a taxi cab. Thank you Jim.

Norah's Baptism

Yesterday was a very big day for Norah as she was baptized, and she couldn't have made it through the day any better. We had LOTS of family and friends on hand to help us celebrate and welcome her into the christian family. I didn't take any pictures with my camera, but that's only because my Dad was there with his camera. So if there was a shot I wanted to take, I just grabbed his camera and shot away. But as a result, you'll need to go to his blog to see the slideshow that he already has up. Thanks Dad! And a big thank you to Norah's new God Parents, Jim and Lindsey. We know you'll always be there for her.

Eyes Open!

I've gotten numerous requests, since my last post of Norah, for some pictures of her with her eyes OPEN! I never actually realized that most of the pictures I've taken of her are from when she's sleeping, but as you can imagine this is the easiest time to take her picture...

But today Norah was hanging out with Dad and, after she got a new dialper on, was wide awake and in a great mood, so I raced to the office, grabbed my camera, and took a few quick shots. Enjoy!

A little bit more Norah

This past week has been quite an experience, let me tell you. Poor little Norah has been really fussy most of this past week (also known as gassy in the baby world), and Lauri and I couldn't figure it out. For the most part she'd been a picture perfect baby up until then. Then Lauri decided to try a different type of bottle to feed her with, and VOILA! We have our perfect little angel back!

If Lauri and I had to pick one word to describe parenting for this past week, I think it would have to be "humbling", hands down...

I got home a little earlier today so, with the weather being as nice as it was, we headed to the new local outdoor mall and went for a family walk. Well Lauri and I walked, Norah slept. We even managed to go out for our first family dinner at a restaurant!!! Lauri and I have never been that excited to go to Max and Erma's! And wouldn't you know it, Norah slept through that too, even with a screaming toddler right next to us for half our meal.

And how fitting, this transformation came just in time for her to model a recent gift she received from one of my former college roomates. Norah would like to thank you for the personalized onesie Aunt Kacy! In fact it's so pretty she couldn't wait to try it on, even if it is a size or two too big for now. We're very thankful for all of the clothes that Norah has gotten, but I wanted to post a picture of what Kacy made for Norah.

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More pictures of Norah!

This weekend has been a photo-extravaganza for Norah, Lauri, and I. But mostly Norah. Yesterday we went to the studio of Robert Bruce in Royal Oak, MI. Robert was the photographer for both my wedding, and my Sister;s wedding. I'm not sure when we'll be getting copies of what he shot, but Lauri and I are both VERY excited about this. Robert is both a very accomplished photographer, and more importantly a really great person. It was a pretty eventful photo shoot too, now we know what to expect if Norah is left without a diaper for extended periods of time. We now know what Anne Geddes must go through to get her famous shots, and let me tell you , it's not glamorous.

While Lauri was out this morning to a couple of stores, Norah and I had a mini photo shoot. Mostly it was me brushing up on some stuff, playing with my camera. But here are a few shots from that. Please note that these shots couldn't hold a candle to what Robert did yesterday.

If you'd like to see a few examples of what we did yesterday, head over to my Dad's Blog as he was shooting over Robert's shoulder during the session. On top of everything else, Robert is a fantastic teacher too.

Thanks again Robert!

Norah Slideshow

Wanted to get another slideshow with some COLOR pictures up... I got a few requests after the initial black and white slideshow that people want to see some color pictures of Norah, so here you go. We certainly have enough pictures to keep posting...

P.S.: OOPS!
Well it was bound to happen, I think I finally lost some information on my CF card. I may have actually re-formated the card thinking that everything was on the computer when it wasn't. Isn't it something what sleep deprivation will do... I can't seem to find the pictures I shot while my (Norah's Great) Grandma, (Norah's Great) Aunts, and (Norah's Great) Uncles where over to meet her for the first time. I'll keep looking though.

Click HERE

It's a....

Meet Norah Grace Shields. She's perfect, Mom and Dad are tired but extremely happy!

Click here for a slideshow