#betsyboodle turns one month old today!

Before I even get started with Betsy, I wanted to share some adorable family photos Kyle and Tina had taken shortly before her birth. I mean, seriously, how cute are these?!

Betsy followed in her brother's footsteps, arriving two weeks early. Kyle and Tina welcomed Elizabeth Ann Herschberger in the wee hours of Monday morning, November 9th. She weighed a whopping 8 lb. 8 oz. at birth and measured 20.25" long. A shorter delivery than Simon (thankfully!) left Betsy with the most perfect little round head -- no cone head! Our first photo was this one they posted on Facebook:

That was one of many taken by a photographer who came to the hospital in the middle of the night to document the labor and delivery. As Tina expressed on Facebook: "She captured a ton of awesome photos that I will treasure forever." Here are a few more I put together in a collage:

And now I want to share this essay Tina wrote many years ago regarding babies:

Please take time to enlarge the photo and read it. My baby has always loved babies!

Our first glimpse of Betsy was via Skype, of course, while they were still in the hospital:

The next day we skyped again once they were home:

Betsy was born while Jon, Nat and Adalyn were here so it was fun to experience that together.

When Betsy was about a week old, Tina had a photographer take some newborn shots but she hasn't gotten those back yet. Tina took a few pictures herself that day and I absolutely LOVE this one!

There's just something about those chubby little arms and cheeks that make you want to kiss her all over.

Tina traded a lifestyle shoot with another photographer friend and I want to share a few of those. I adore this all-piled-on-the-bed-reading shot:

This photo cracks me up:

Here's a precious shot of Tina with Betsy:

What's not to love about this daddy-and-daughter picture?

There were so many good photos I decided to do a little collage:

Kyle, Tina and the kids were planning a trip to Michigan so good friend and photographer Jen Buehrer could take some Christmas photos. Jen set up some crazy cool Christmas sets this year and Tina was über excited to go... And then they got about a foot of snow and had to cancel their trip :( Instead Tina used the tripod and they took a bunch of photos in their living room (one of the whole family is featured on their Christmas card!). Testing, testing...1, 2, 3...

It wasn't long after that Tina made this collage which I refer to as "The Many Faces of Betsy". She did that with Simon, too, and it's just so fun to see their expression change from second to second.

Simon wasn't too sure about Betsy to begin with, and still doesn't like it when she requires more of dad and mom's attention than he feels is warranted. But he is warming up to his role as big brother and even asked to hold her recently:

I had to laugh at someone's comment: "Seriously mom? You're letting him hold me??" Betsy really does have that expression on her face, I think :)

There were so many great photos and I had some serious DMD while determining which to include. TOO MUCH CUTENESS! I will end with a little collage of the weekly photos. So glad they're doing that with Betsy, just like they did with Simon!

As you can imagine, I can't wait to meet Betsy in person! We're scheduled to go on furlough next summer so until then I'll just have to content myself with photos, videos and Skype calls.