Social Butterfly

This past week has been busy in the social events category, and has flown by extra quickly because of it! Thursday we had a quick but 'eventful' visit with Jess and her 15 month old baby girl, Mischa. Carver experienced his first little kiss from Mischa! It was so adorable! He had a fantastic time playing with Mischa's toys as well, especially her dancing Dora doll! He loved how her hair moved around and he would grab and pull at it.




Mischa loves it when Jess reads to her. She would grab a book and plop right on her mommy's lap for some story time.


I've been trying to get over to visit with Jess and Mischa, since her 1st birthday in October! Hopefully this spring/summer we will get to see more of them.
Mischa is such an adorably sweet little girl who loves to dance, laugh, talk, walk and give kisses!


Next up... we spent the following day with Auntie Lauren who is expecting her bundle of joy any day now!
Carver eating a wagonwheel snack in Wagontown.

Having fun with the door on the entertainment system.

Auntie Lauren putting a movie on for the kiddos.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a few portraits of Lauren and Brian in their nursery. But I was able to snap a few 'work in progress' shots of her super crafty mother-in-law, hand painting a beautiful willow tree on the nursery wall. Paulette even made the ENTIRE crib set! Lauren picked out an understated toile fabric with a gorgeous color of light blue/green, if I were to name the color it would be 'Dreamy'. It all turned out so lovely! Lauren and Brian have worked very hard on preparing and designing the nursery, all we need is the baby...

Cappy Has A Friend For Life

The days have finally arrived where Cappy and Carver can play together! I keep a very close eye on the two of them when they're playing. Cappy likes to growl and bark when he plays, but that doesn't frighten Carver one bit. Yesterday morning the two had a blast chasing after each other around the coffee table and playing tug with Cappy's teddy bear. Kyle and I are in trouble when Carver wants to run and chase Cappy all over the house. Aye dios mio!
Cappy waits for the right moment to get Carver's attention...

This is the moment...

Or maybe this is the moment...

I don't want to hear ANY comments on Carver's attire! I think he looks adorable in all his different stripes,BabyLegs and all!

BFF Lauren Is Expecting...SOON!

Lauren has approximately 2 weeks until her 'estimated' due date of February 3rd. Nine months flys by when your having fun! She's feeling well and ready to give birth to baby. I am so excited for her I can't contain it!!! I can't wait to welcome her into the 'Mommy' club with open arms and tears of joy! Lauren and Brian will be terrific parents, baby to be is going to have lots of fun with their mommmy and daddy! They decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise to them and others, leaving the excitement even more uncontrollable!
Lauren's baby shower was wonderful event a few weeks back, that came and went really fast too! It was held at The Bordley House Grille, the atmosphere and the staff were perfect.
According to how Lauren is feeling... baby could be here any day!
I apologize for my random thoughts, like I said earlier, I am extremely excited!!!

Here's a shot of the lovely and super cool parents to be at Lauren's baby shower.

Before Halloween, Carver, Lauren and I checked out the local shops at Intercourse, PA. It's a popular tourist spot in beautiful Amish country. Carver is 6 months old and Lauren is just about 6 months pregnant! We had a great time and it was uncommonly warm that day! Lauren's wearing a tank top and Carver doesn't have socks or shoes on!

I did a little belly shoot of Lauren for her baby shower invites, here is the one she chose for the invitation.

This is a silly photo montage of sorts, that I did from the day of the baby shower. I cut and paste the group into the foreground of the Bordely House Grille. This group of women have been friends for many many years and we all helped put the shower together for Lauren. However, I can't forget to mention Laura, who is not in the photo but should have been. She recently gave birth to her beautiful baby girl, Brooke, and had to get back to her motherly duties at home.


Ok, ok..I know this post is about Lauren, but I couldn't resist including a photo of me, when I was 2 weeks overdue with Carver. I was HUGE, and I was happy! This was on Kelly Drive in Philadelphia, 2 days before Carver was born.

Lauren's home this week waiting for labor to begin any day now. I'm hoping to get over there for another blooming belly shoot in her nursery before she gives birth! Here is the slideshow of her awesome baby shower.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's! Whew!

Happy New Year! We've had a glorious past few months and are looking forward to the new year. For the Thanksgiving holiday we took the Auto Train! It was the first time for us and look forward to possibly doing it again in a few years. Carver had a great time looking out the window with Kyle and when we had dinner in the dining car, he enjoyed reaching for everything that wasn't bolted down! We had beginners luck with our car being the FIRST off the train! I wish I had video of the passengers clapping and congratulating us as we walked to our car. We were told that you could be waiting for up to an hour and a half before your car was unloaded!

At 7 months old, this was a trip full of 'firsts' for Carver. It was his first trip to Florida, first Thanksgiving, first time wearing sunscreen, first time in a pool... in a moving seatzee, in a stroller along the beach, eating watermelon, dining out and sitting in a high chair, seeing palm trees, it was even his first time getting a professional hair cut at a barber's shop!
Here are the Walter's dipping their feet in the pool...


Carver reaching for his GranAnn through the Lanai screen...

The Walter's strolling down the Naples coastline for the first time together.


Outside a barber shop minutes before Carver's first professional haircut.


Carver and El Woo sharing a few laughs before the deed.
Here's the barber prepping Carver for his first haircut. I really thought that W.C. would have been just fine with someone cutting his hair, but he wasn't! He screamed, cried and arched his back like mad. We felt so terrible but he really was in need of a trim, we just couldn't bear hearing another 'Oh She's so darling'! El Woo hopes that Carver won't remember this experience. I'm pretty sure he won't, but I've got the photos if he ever wants to be reminded.



Thanksgiving dinner was in Florida this year. I welcomed the change of warmer weather and a slowed down pace. The group was much smaller than years previous, we missed the usual crew, nonetheless we still had a great time. Dinner was delicious and we all contributed to the preparation and cooking of the lovely meal. Mama K cooked up a storm with a divine pumpkin,cinnamon soup, mashed sweet potatoes with pecans and brown sugar, baked potatoes with bacon and cheese topped with cilantro and a delicious cranberry relish! Kyle did his usual and cooked the turkey perfectly, and I made a light arugula salad with pomegranate and toasted pecans with a light vinaigrette dressing.
The table was beautiful!! I can't say we ever had pumpkin soup served to us in pumpkin bowls! They were too cute!

While visiting Mama and Papa K, we ate at 3 beach front restaurants! They were all fabulous too! I've only got photos from 2 out of 3 places though...
Here we are at La Playa Beach & Golf Resort in Naples' Baleen restaurant.

Then the next day we went to HB's On The Gulf at The Naples Beach Hotel & Gulf Club. The lunch there was amazing! I had their Tomato Bisque and their Jamaican Pineapple Boat. I hope we get the chance to eat there again next time we visit! If you check out the link to the hotel (above) we sat exactly where that couple's dining in the sunset!

Before we knew it was Carver's 1st Christmas! We had a wonderful Christmas with both our families and ate until we were way past our 'stuffed' point! Christmas eve afternoon was spent at my father's home. Carver was pasted around by all and interacted lovely with the entire family! It blows my mind to see him interacting with people now!
Our Christmas cards went out with these two photos included in them. You wouldn't know it, but Carver had a terrible cold during this photo shoot. He still had a great time though! I knitted his hat especially for these photographs. The pattern is called 'Candy Cane' from a fabulous baby knits book called Itty-Bitty Hats, by Susan B. Anderson.

Here is a typical scene in the Messina kitchen! My father made the kitchen table at least 40 years ago, and every family member (except my mom & dad) has been photographed when they were baby's sitting on it!

All the grandchildren... Mikey, Kenny, Carver and Dominick

The oldest grandson holding the youngest grandson!

Well, here we all are (minus my brother Tony, and Kyle-who took the photo)! Even the crazy dogs, Gracie and Cappy!
Santa meets Carver for the first time and they hit it off wonderfully!

The Walter's and their train set Christmas day. El Woo may finally have a grandchild who loves model trains as much as he does!

I shot more video footage than photographs this Christmas, but our Uncle John was sure to capture some fun moments of Carver on this special day.


Cappy was pooped out by all the running around and playing with the children...

Couldn't pass up the opportunity to photograph father, son and grandson.

The most beautiful Christmas tree ever!

Aunt Joan and Uncle John serving up bread and butter with a smile!

New Year's Eve was very low key. So low key, I've got no photos to show for it! However if you check out Joy's blog you can see it in photos. Joy was good about breaking out the camera! Joy and Don came over and we watched Kyle and Don play Guitar Hero on the Xbox. That was pretty hilarious! And Joy and I checked out website templates, talked about photography, played with her new Nikon D300 (which is awesome!), and really enjoyed each other's company. Kyle and I had planned to just hang out solo, but it was great to have Joy and Don spend the last few hours of 2007 with us.