New Baby!

I realized that I have never blogged about our new baby! She is now 3 months old and we are all just loving every minute of her as she grows way to fast!

This little girl stayed nice and cozy warm for a day extra :) I started having contractions around 9:30 am the day after my due date, by noon I started thinking that things were starting to happen, by 2:30 we were picking the kids up from school and dropping them off at my sisters house. We got to the hospital about 3:30, I was dilated to 6cm, and I was staying!

By about 4:45 I decided I needed the epidural and got that about 5ish, the Dr came in to check on my about 5:40ish and that is when everything got exciting! She checked me and I was dilated to 9cm, but she just felt a bulging sac of waters, due to me having hydroamnios(?)(lots of extra fluids). But as she was checking, my water broke and she felt FEET! She went from head down when we got there to a complete breech! But at that point it was to late and i was to far along to try turning her. the Dr was worried about feet or worse the cord coming first with all my gushing waters! So an immediate csection was ordered!

And Baby girl was born via c section at 6:05pm. weighing in at 9lbs 6oz! We loved every chunky little bit of her at first sight!

This is Ellie at about 3 weeks old in this picture. With recovering from a c section, I didn't even attempt any kind of session with her until after 2 weeks old, I was too sore to even think of the workout of a session ;) But all is good now and she is growing so fast, I wish I could freeze time and keep babies at about 2 weeks old for a while!

52:8 | Looking up

Went outside the other day to take this weeks photo, it was a beautiful sunny 55 degree day, warm enough for some to wear shorts. :)
They sit in this tree all summer long, or any day they play outside.
So this was my view when I looked up ;)

Head on over to Anitas blog to continue the circle!

Enjoy your weekend!

52:7 | Cabin Fever

This week is cabin fever.

And it was a snowy day.

I love snowy days, and I think the snow is so pretty and I don't mind it, as long as they clear the roads up pretty fast. And I don't know around here it seems that some times they are on top of it, other times they don't start for a couple days! By that time it is nice and packed down, and slippery :)

BUT, with this house, we don't really have an entry way, our front door opens into the living room, which is all carpet, and only has a tiny 2x3ft tiled section at the door. The kids love to go out and play (for short intervals anyways) in the snow, which means when they come back in they each have a PILE of boots, jackets, hats, mittens, wet socks.... that times 4 or 5 kids means a nice sized pile by the door.

So, my cabin fever is starting to set in, and I can't wait for warm spring days, where the kids can play outside barefoot :) and all we will have by the door is a pair of flip flops or sandals per kid. 

 the snow today came perfect timing, so here is the cause of my cabin fever :)

Be sure to jump over to Anitas Blog!

Have a fantastic weekend :)

52:6 | Work of Art

We have had 2 miserable kids this week, both had ear infections!! Baby was up alot on Sunday night, and sure enough he had in both ears, and then Wednesday our 4 yr old was sleeping/crying/completely miserable Wednesday. She kept saying it was in her mouth, so I kept thinking it was her teeth, but flossing, or eating didn't hurt, she finally pinpointed it to her ear and sure enough! Our kids NEVER have ear infections, in fact a couple of them have never had one, and the others that have, have had one, maybe 2 in their life. So 2 kids within 2 days was kind of shocking over here! :)

So, what I was getting at, was that I almost missed this week!

But my kindergartner came home just proud as can be over her little gingerbread man she had made! And she so willingly posed, and came up with the poses herself, to get her picture of her and her little gingerbread man down in the studio.

Be sure to head on over to Anitas blog to see what she has this week!

So, with that I hope everyone has a great weekend!

All of you out here in Rapid, ENJOY this beautiful weather we are having!

Project 52 week 4 | Self Portrait

I had big plans of doing something creative, as creative as I can get by taking my own picture. But, sitting at dinner last night, I realized that all my sunshine options were gone and I had to get a picture to post for this week!!

So, here I am reading on the Ipad with my 2yr old, in an almost dark room, and taken by my 8yr old. :)

 Make sure to continue on the circle, start here by heading to Jessica's blog!

Project 52 week 3 | something old

 This week was something old. So took the little kids today for a drive around the city in search of "something old"! It was a fun little trip that we ended with an ice cream cone from Micky ds.

These are not my usual subject, or my usual editing style! But I just thought that these 2 old trucks needed some fun and different style to them!

Enjoy :) An old Chevy van/bus? and a Jeep.

And don't forget to continue on the circle, so head on over to Jessica's blog, Room For nine(+), to see what she has come up with.

Project 52, week 2 | Up Close

This should be fun, I have joined a circle of other friends to do a Project 52. Yep, once a week we will all take an image(s) of the theme we have chosen and post them to the blogs each Friday. I joined after last week, so this week is 2 weeks combined.

This week the theme is "Up close". I suppose I could have pulled out the macro and got creative, but when I went outside to see what kind of living plant life or neat texture I could find and saw these two, I got this instead! Up close to a brotherly/sisterly moment :)

Last weeks theme was "Winter", and what screams more than winter than red cheeked kids sledding in fresh snow? :)

We will all be linking to each other, so make sure to check out the others too for their take! to continue the circle, head on over to Jessica's blog, Room for Nine, to see what she has come up with.

Rapid City Photographer | Locks of Love

Em has been growing her hair out for quite a while now.

Even to just give her a trim, I have to promise that I am only cutting less than an inch off before she would let me do it!

Then one day last week, she came home asked to take a shower and informed me that when she gets out she wanted her hair cut!! What?? Trimmed?, no short. :) You can only imagine my surprise!

But, since she wanted it cut mid neck length I talked to her about Locks of Love and making wigs for kids that don't have hair, and she happily agreed to cut her hair for a girl with no hair.

So we decided to go to the "salon" as she calls it, and she happily jumped up into the chair for her cut.

The requirement for Locks of Love is 10 inches, and I am pretty sure the gal cut more than 11 off!

She just loves her short Layered hair.

Still here!!

Wow! Time flies, haven't been on here in FOREVER! Baby is already 3 months old tomorrow:) I finally have an extra room, so I decided to pull out the dusty studio lights that I have never really had anywhere to put! They are set up downstairs in the basement, and the kids know to stay out of my "studio"! I have always preferred the natural lighting outdoors. But, love what I have been getting with the studio lights in my dark/windowless room downstairs!

So, since I haven't posted in a who knows how long, I decided to share a few with you on here. (if any of you are still with me here!) Would love to someday, accumulate enough props/backdrops etc to maybe start doing some studio sessions. but for now it will be just for me and my own kids practicing with the one black drop I do have and few baskets/blankets that I have had for my newborn sessions!

Anyways, just to share a few pictures of a few of my kids in the studio:)

I have enjoyed my extra long maternity leave to spend time with my growing family and my not so newborn baby! They are only newborns for so short of a time, that I have just been loving him. I have taken many long breaks from being online, just to spend time with my family and gather my goals and dreams for the future! In doing so, I have decided to start limiting my shoots to 4 sessions a month so that my clients and my family both get the attention they deserve :) I am now booking portrait sessions for May (YAY!) out here in Rapid City, so if you would like to schedule your session for spring, do so soon! I am still debating on a Spring Mini Session day in the park and will let you know if I decide to do that.

Baby Luke!

Our precious little love is finally here! He made his appearance 5 days early!

After he tricked us the first time, the day he decided he wanted to be born, I didn't know if I should believe it!

I had went to the Dr appt. on Friday the 13th, she did sweep/strip my membranes since I was already dilated to a 4! I had been having contractions many times a day for the few weeks before that. After the appointment, I started having regular contractions and when they started coming about every 10 minutes, we thought we better call up someone from Gillette!

Well our friends Jake and Erica were planning on a day trip for Saturday anyways, so it worked out perfect for them to come as a family and stay the weekend! Well by the time they got here, contractions started dying down, but then picked up again through the night, but completely stopped around 4ish. Should have went in when they were about 6-7 minutes apart for over an hour! Then Saturday, me and Erica went shopping and by the end of the trip contractions started up again, and the same story that night. Well long story short, the family left Sunday night, and Erica stayed until tuesday just in case! Me and her got in lots of shopping/walking, which was fun, even though I wasn't the most comfortable!

Tuesday came and we tried to decide if she should stay another night but at that point, I had hardly had a contraction all day Tuesday, so we said forget it! This baby is being stubborn, so just go home!

Well I woke up Wednesday morning about 5ish because of contractions again. Later that morning we went for a drive up in the hills to do some exploring and contractions started picking up. By one-ish, I had the feeling that I MAY be going in that night, contractions were coming every 12-15 minutes and getting stronger. Well by 3 they all the sudden went from 12-15 minutes apart to coming every 3-5 minutes and I new that I had to get to the hospital, they were so strong! So had to quickly call the girls in Gillette, to leave asap! And then called our newly met neighbor to have her watch the kids until the girls got here!

We got to the Hospital about 4pm, and of course had to get checked in, go into a triage room, hooked up to moniters and checked to make sure I was really in labor. At which point I was already changing my mind about not getting an epidural, to how soon can I get one! So by the time we got in our room, got poked about 6 times by 4 different nurses to get my IV going, got a bag of fluid in and got my epidural, it was already 7ish, and then baby Luke was born right before 8PM!

And our perfect gift from God!  Just LOVE them already so much from the second they are born and the Dr. lays them on my chest to get the first look at them! I love this moment of brand new baby! He was looking all around and the first thing he did was grab onto my finger and he had quite the grip for the longest time!

Our big boy! He is our biggest so far, 9lbs 14oz!!

Babies first bath.

Our first cold country baby! And of course the night he was born it was -4 outside and when we left it was a whoppin 6 degrees!! Probably all my other babies left the hospital in the 60s-70s range, maybe even warmer for the April babies! All bundled up and ready to go :)

All the kids just love him to pieces and one of them is constantly holding, touching, kissing, talking to, and holding some more!

He is awake more now and he loves just looking around at all the activity!

It gets tiring holding baby, and keeping him from fussing. Our little mother hen in all her glory holding him, and they both fell asleep!

I will post more pictures another day, but for now, finally getting these snapshots(taken with both my camera and hubbies point and shoot) up! Recovery was a breeze, and our sleep schedules are finally getting figured out. And with hubbies 3 day work week schedule, it has been nice having him home lots to spoil me by cooking/picking up, and bringing the kids to/from school. How long do you think I can convince him to keep up the spoiling? ;)

Cold and snowy! | Rapid City

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas weekend with loved ones! We did! Now we have company for a few days, so the fun continues!

We didn't have a white christmas as we were hoping from the snow storm just a few days before. but that ended up only giving us a tiny bit of snow(the picture of the kids on the card was all we got!). And then it promptly warmed up to the high 40s! So most of it melted within a day or so. But I am not complaining about the high 40s weather, the kids can play outside. :)

So since we had a "brown" christmas, I thought I would share some "white" pictures!

 These first ones are from the beginning of December on the way back from Gillette. We got stuck in Sturgis, because the freeway was shut down (only for a few hours good thing!). The wind was blowing all the fresh snow around and that top image was pretty much our visibility for miles! Quite nerve wracking:)

 A few shots from out my window.

 These last ones were from a cold frosty morning. We woke up to bring the kids to school and everything was beautiful and white! Had to go drive around and take pictures!

Checking out of here now, time to enjoy our company!

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to pop on here real quick and wish all of you a joyous and happy Christmas season!!

(last minute shot out in the front yard a couple days ago! First year we didn't do the good old self timer to get us all in the picture)

 

I will be back after the holidays sometime :) We will be spending our Christmas day here at home, and next week looking forward to COMPANY for a couple nights! Then with about 4 weeks left until baby, I may not be on here to frequently...

But, we will be missing all of our family back home and in WA & MN! Wishing we could be part of all the festivities.

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Precious Little Lewis

I got back yesterday from a very quick trip out to Seattle.

We were driving out to Gillette Saturday morning, when we got the news that one of my newest little nephews passed away during the night. We continued on and spent the afternoon at Church for Sunday school program, and services. Although my heart was heavy, they were constantly in my thoughts, we spent the night and headed back home Sunday.

I was able to fly out early Tuesday Morning to be with my Brother, his wife and their kids. I am so glad that I was able to spend a short time with them and offering my love and comfort during those hard days.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them, that God gives them strength in the coming days to accept his will.We have great comfort in knowing that he is now in the arms of Jesus, and he is a precious Angel watching down on his family.

"Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his gentle breast;
there by his love o're-shaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.
Hark! tis the voice of angels, borne in a song to me
over the fields of glory, over the jasper sea.
Safe in the arms of Jesus, Safe on his gentle breast,
there by his love o're-shaded, sweetly my soul shall rest.

Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe from corroding care, 
safe from the world's temptations, sin cannot harm me there, 
free from the blight of sorrow, free from my doubts and fears;

only a few more trials, only a few more tears. 
Safe in the arms of Jesus, safe on his gentle breast,
there by his love o'er-shaded, sweetly my soul shall rest" SHZ 594

Remembering little Lewis, his mom&dad, and his brothers&sisters, in our daily thoughts and prayers.