Chanele's Photography

Baby Dedication

2010-04-13T11:35:00.002-05:00

We waited until Audriella fit into my Dedication dress before we scheduled her dedication day. I had my dress dry cleaned and made sure it fit, she looked so precious, bonnet and all. I so want to bring bonnets back in still, they are just so cute. This is why I need to learn to sew, I could do so many things but I just have not been able to squeeze a sewing class into my schedule yet and I tried myself but I am a no good sewer.

Her Dedication was at The Dwelling Place, the church we attend and Mimi, Grandpa Scott, Uncle Bratiest, Papasaurus, Grandma, and Aunt Stacie all came. Rosie and Miguel and the kids were on their way when their car left them stranded and they did not make it in time. Walter went to get them after the Dedication was over so they were able to see her and take photos with us.

We all went out to lunch afterwards to celebrate then our car broke down on the way home. It was a good day for the Princess but not a good day for our cars.

Beach Baby

2010-04-13T11:08:00.002-05:00

We took the Princess to the beach for the very first time. She didn't even have a bathing suit yet (now she has 2) but that wasn't necessary since the water was cold and the sun never even came out. We ended up having to wrap her up in a towel because it was so cold at the beach in Florida on a weekend in April.....what the heck?! Anyways, she had lots of fun and looked so cute as always :)

Alexandria, Arian, and Analynn

Rosie and Princess Audriella

Go Tennessee!

2010-04-13T10:06:00.003-05:00

Aunt Stacy so graciously bought Audriella these super cute Tennessee Volunteer onesies when we visited in January. Neither her or I are fans of football in any way but we are all for dressing up and having a photo shoot, that's our favorite! So sorry to all you Gator fans but we would certainly be up for a Gator shoot if anyone would like to supply the wardrobe.

Easter 2010

2010-04-04T20:51:00.003-05:00

Audriella had a great first Easter. Friday was a Seder at church, we had never been to one so it was interesting. We spent Saturday at the church for Family Fun Day and she even got to participate in her first Eater egg hunt. After Family Fun Day we took her to meet the Easter Bunny. Easter Sunday we dressed her up like a cutie and went to Uncle/Pastor Ed's church and then lunch at Aunt Jackie's. What a great weekend! Here are some of my favorite photos:

My favorite

Cutie pie

Ready for the Easter egg hunt

She found an egg

She just would not look at me.

Pretty girl

Easter dress

We dressed alike :)

Princess and Daddy

Happy Easter!

2010-04-01T21:54:00.001-05:00

Love,
Princess Audriella

Custest Cowgirl

2010-03-25T13:57:00.002-05:00

Disney

2010-03-25T13:40:00.003-05:00

Walter's family was celebrating his cosuins' birthday at Disney World so they took us for Walter's birthday as well.

I am not sure if Audriella knew she was in the happiest place on earth but she sure acted like it. She really had so much fun. She just loved watching the shows and seeing the characters and hanging out with her family. This is where she learned to squeal, she was just so excited the whole time that she squealed everywhere we went. It was really great!

Photos from Disney:

Watching a show

Big girl!

Kiss from Bellle

Playing with Mickey

Family Photo with Mickey

He was taking photos with children that were standing in line and he walked away from those kids to come play with the Princess. It was just so cute. The Disney staff memeber had to make him come back over and take photos with the kids who were standing in line

With Tia Rosie

So not interested in a family photo

With all her cousins

Playing with Daddy

Watching American Idol, our favorite part!

Happy Valentine's Day

2010-03-25T13:39:00.002-05:00

Ok, so it's been well over a month since Valentine's Day has come and gone but I thought I'd share the photo I intended on posting on Valentine's Day

Superbowl in Tennessee

2010-03-25T09:36:00.002-05:00

My Dad decided to take a quick last minute trip to Tennessee to watch the Superbowl with the family since the Colts were playing and they are all big fans. We tagged along. This was the Princess' first big road trip so I was leary about how she would do. We didn't end up leaving until about 10:00 that night by the time my Dad got home from work, we loaded the van, and put up the luggage rack. That actually ended up being a a good thing because Audriella slept the entire time and only woke once or twice to eat. She may have been comfortable but the rest of us had to share the van with two big dogs and only one seat that the baby and one other person could fit on. Plus the dogs snored the entire time and Doodle has some sort of nasal drip that poured out of his nose every 15 minutes. Honestly though, it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

We were only there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday so we crammed everything we could in that extended weekend. We shopped, played games, had family dinners, went to church, out to eat, had a party, and watched the Colts get their butt's kicked. Everyone was crazy about the baby and Gabe even thought she was his baby sister since his mother is expecting one in the summer.

I wish we could have stayed longer, but we hope to go back this summer sometime.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Aunt Stacy

Aunt Connie

Cousin Gabe

Nana and Papa

Grandma Donna

Family Photo

Cousin Amy and Aunt Stacy

Super cute outfit Aunt Connie got her

Recap

2010-03-23T09:46:00.006-05:00

Wow, it's been a really long time since I have updated this Blog. I though I would be really good at this but by the time I have put photos on Facebook, e-mailed them, printed them, and scrapbooked them, I just do not know where to fit in a Blog post. I cannot believe my last post was from her 3 week photo shoot. As you can imagine, there have been hundreds of photos taken since then.

I will try and get you caught up on everything going on in our lives right now. Audriella just turned 4 months old and she is the cutest 4 month old ever! She laughs and plays all day long and has recently discovered her ability to scream to the top of her lungs. She squeals and squeals when she's happy and I think it is adorable.

Her recent milestone was turning over from her back to her tummy. There was one particular day a couple of weeks ago when she was determined to turn over, she tried and tried to turn over every time I put her down but her little arm would always get in the way. Eventually, she did it all by herself but then she got mad because she was on her tummy. She turned over a couple more times that day and then that was it, she hasn't really tried again since that day. I guess she just needed to know she could do it and now she is content.

Everything else is going great. She now sleeps in her own bed instead of with me every night, well sorta. She starts out in her own bed every night but then usually ends up in my bed at some point in the night, but at least that's better than only sleeping with me.

When I work, she has been staying with Daddy, Mimi, Aunt Jackie, Grandma Donna, Jacqui, Rosie, and Ginese. Everyone has been so willing to help out and watch her and that has made things a lot easier than having to put her in daycare, I just do not want to have to do that. She likes being out and she likes people who spoil her so it has been great for everyone.

I have decided that I should make little onesies that "Hello, my Name is Audriella. I am 4 months old. I sleep through the night and yes, I know I'm cute." It isn't so bad now but when she was a couple of months old everyone asked the same questions. They started with "Awww, she's so cute." Then it was "how old is she" usually followed with a response like "she's so tiny" or "she looks so much older" I have no idea how people can have such opposite opinions about the same baby but I think they just feel they have to say something and they probably say the same thing to every baby they see. The other questions I ALWAYS get is "Does she sleep through the night?" First of all, who cares? If I see a random cute baby at the store, I honestly do not care if they sleep through the night or not, why is this such a common question? And what does "sleeping through the night" even mean. Some people say if they sleep 6-8 hours, that is sleeping through the night. Some babies sleep 10-12 hours a night, there's no way they go that long without eating. My baby eats probably twice a night but her eyes are closed and she is basically still asleep the entire time, does this count as sleeping through the night?

For me, being a Mom is wonderful. I love everything about it, she is the best little girl ever and we have so much fun. The first month was a little rough but everything has gotten so much better now. She sleeps at night, nursing no longer hurts, I know what each of her different cries mean, and I usually know what she wants before she does.

Thanks so much for listening to my random babbling about mommyhood, I will try to keep this updated more often if anyone cares about what I have to say. Here are some photos to get updated on the last 4 months:

Christmas at Grandma and Papasaurous' House

Christmas at Mimi and Grandpa Scott's house

Christmas in Miami

Christmas at Aunt Jackie and Uncle David's House

One Month Photos

Two Month Photos

Three Month Photos

All the silly facial expressions in between:

Our Little Angel

2010-01-11T16:00:00.002-05:00

These photos were taken when Audriella was just about 3 weeks old by a friend of my mom's in Kissimmee who is a professional photographer. She did the photos for free and we were so grateful, they came out perfect! I had such a hard time getting photos of her and April, the photographer had this whole setup in her house and was able to get fantastic photos, I was so pleased. I know some of you have already seen these and maybe even got one as a Christmas gift but they are just too cute not to share again:

Only one with her eyes open

The teddy bear Grandma got for her

Christmas Photos 2009

2009-12-06T20:28:00.001-05:00

We had professional Christmas photos taken but I wanted to do one myself just in case so we set up a tripod in the park and here are a few photos:

New Photos

2009-12-05T13:07:00.002-05:00

She already has a little attitude :)

Blue eyes!

My favorite!

Little Hand

Little Foot

I think she is trying to eat her quilt

Her first Thanksgiving

In her swing

Weight

2009-12-05T12:47:00.003-05:00

If you know anything about me, you know that my weight has always been the biggest issue in my life since I was a teenager. In high school, I honestly thought I was fat but now I would give anything in the world to be that thin again, but I'm not. I feel so huge now and it's been almost 3 weeks with seemingly no progress on the shrinkage of this monstrous belly.

The good news is that I am now 4 pounds lighter than I was when I got pregnant but I do not look it. Unfortunately, I gain all my weight in my stomach and then throw in a big uterus and lots of extra flab and I am a cow! I have been reading baby message boards and so many women still have 10-15 pounds left to lose from their pre-pregnancy weight at this stage but also have completely lost their belly by 2 weeks! I know everyone is different but I thought that only gaining 13 pounds during the pregnancy and the fact that I am breastfeeding would help my stomach go away so much faster. Not happening!

At my last appointment, the Doctor said that my incision looked great and was healing very fast so I asked if I was ok to exercise, her response was "NO." Not until 6 weeks can I really do anything at all. Not that I was so big on exercising before, but something has to be done, especially since I already have a headstart with the little weight loss I experienced during the pregnancy. I am ok to walk as much as I want though and that's usually the only thing I am interested in anyways so I am going to work on that for the next few weeks, it's good for me and the baby loves being in her stroller. After the six weeks I know I will need to throw in lots of sit-ups with the walking if I ever want to fit into my jeans again. It would be really nice if I could fit into jeans a couple sizes smaller since I was obviously overweight before I got pregnant.

Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll post how excited I am to not be wearing maternity jeans any longer.

2 Weeks of Motherhood

2009-11-29T19:16:00.002-05:00

So it's been 2 weeks (almost) since I had my little girl and every day has been different. One day she seems to sleep all day and the next she wants to eat all day. There is no schedule, she eats when she wants, sleeps when she wants, and never hesitates to let us know when she's unhappy for any reason. It seems simple, when she cries, feed her, change her, or console her but it's not always that simple. I feed her lots, thinking I have at least an hour to throw a load of laundry in or do the dishes but 10 minutes into it and she's screaming for more food like she hasn't eaten in days. Then I will feed her a little and she'll sleep for three hours when we're visiting family and they want to see her eyes. This confuses me.

The hardest part is definitely nursing. I took a class, read a book, and felt prepared but no one warns you about the excruciating pain. (WARNING: DO not continue to read this paragraph if you are offended by loose talk of female body parts) Every time she latches on I feel like some ferocious sharp-toothed animal has bitten into my nipple. I literally had to check once because I thought she ripped it off! The pain stops shortly after she latches but the anxiety of her first latch kills me. I have been told it gets better and I sure hope so, I mean if it stays this painful, who on earth would do this for a year or more. I now understand why so many moms bottle feed, not that I am going to resort to that, it's just more understandable now.

Ok, so I will talk about the good things now. I had no idea how crazy I would be about this tiny little human that will now consume my life. I remember saying once that I could not imagine loving a baby as much as I loved my dogs and therefore would refrain from having children. I was very very wrong, compared to my perfect little baby girl, my dogs are smelly, dumb, and highly annoying. If they get near her, I freak out because I know the first time they accidentally scratch her or make her cry, I am going to have a heart attack. She is the most perfect little thing in the world and I could just sit and hold her for hours. Of course, by doing this, I have gotten her in the bad bad habit of being held constantly, especially when she sleeps at night.

Night time is always a challenge. At first, she slept all day and stayed awake some during the night so I would hold her to get her to go to sleep. Then I was told to stop that now or I am going to be doing that every night for a long time so I tried feeding her lots and putting her in her bassinet wrapped tightly, it worked, she slept all night and only woke up twice to eat! The next night was pure disaster, she screamed every half hour the entire night and when I would try to feed her, she would fall right asleep because I was holding her. The following night we compromised, she slept in the bed next to me surrounded by pillows and Daddy slept in the spare room. So this isn't ideal either but it's the only thing that seems to work and we both get to sleep. I will keep trying with the bassinet thing because I sure don't want a 14 year old sleeping in between us every night like some people I've heard of, that just won't work.

It has really been the craziest most emotional couple of weeks I have ever experienced and I know that having this precious little angel to hold has helped ease the sadness of this traumatic last week. I am sure next week will be completely different and I look forward to the challenges and victories that we'll face. I know she'll grow up fast so I plan to enjoy every sore nipple and sleepless night I can while they're here :)

Audriella is Here!

2009-11-21T10:40:00.009-05:00

Our little baby girl was born Monday, November 16th at 7:20pm. She weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 19 3/4in. Here's the story of her birth:

We were scheduled for the start of an induction Sunday at 8:30pm. After seeing my grandmother one last time, we headed over to St. Joseph's Women's Hospital. We were checked in and it seemed more like we were checking into a hotel than coming there to have a baby, everything was very quiet and relaxed, that seemed strange. We were then escorted to our huge room where the nurse explained everything that was going to happen.

I was put on these scanner things to measure the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. I also had an IV put in which hurt so badly, I had no idea that would hurt so much! We filled out all this paperwork and answered a bunch of questions, went to the bathroom one last time and then had the cervidil placed in me (that was no fun). My job for the rest of the evening was to try and sleep and they would start pitocin in the morning.

Sleeping was very difficult. I was nervous, anxious, scared and besides all that, the baby kept hopping off the monitor so about every hour the nurse came in to get her back on. They offered me sleeping pills or pain medication but I declined, got about an hour or two of sleep and then called it quits by 5am. We watched TV while waiting for 6am to roll around where things would start happening. I did start feeling light contractions but they were not that big of a deal.

At around 6:30am, the nurse came in to take the cervidil out and check me. She told me that it was very normal for it to not have worked right away and she was right, I was still only 1cm dilated. She said pitocin is what will really get things going. I was then able to get up and take a shower for half an hour. That was nice to get out of that bed.

After my little break, I was put right back on the monitors and started pitocin through an IV. We continued to watch TV and make phone calls and around 9am the Doctor came in to see me. The doctor decided it was best to break my water, her reason being that it would really speed things along paired with the pitocin. She did it and explained that in a little bit I would feel water continually leak out of me. Not two minutes after she left, I felt a huge gush of warm water leak out, that was the craziest thing ever. It continued to leak for a while. After all this, I started feeling contractions pretty regularly, they hurt but were very tolerable. The nurses kept asking if I wanted an epidural but I declined for the time being.

Katie got there a little after all this and there wasn't too much going on so we just hung out, played Uno, watched TV, etc. The contractions started getting worse and I was dilated some, but not a lot. I was then debating on whether or not to get an epidural. Katie assured me my contractions would get much much worse and they were already starting to hurt. I think I waited until about 12:00 and decided to go ahead and do it. I tried to be tough but I'm not so I figured I was going to get it anyways, might as well do it now when the contractions were painful.

The epidural was so much more dramatic than I had imagined, I really hated that process. The anesthesiologist came in with his helper and started asking questions. He then noticed that my paperwork wasn't filled out and yelled at the nurse and left the room. I thought the previous nurse just told me to sign it but I was really supposed to fill out a questionnaire about allergies and medical info, oops. I filled it out in between contractions that were becoming quite painful and then he was called back in. They asked me lots of questions and then noticed I had a sports bra on and again, yelled at the nurse. Unfortunately, this was not my regular nurse, she was filling in while my other nurse was at lunch so she got yelled at for things that were not her fault, I felt bad. So now it was time for the epidural, I was asked to turn over on my side, roll into a ball, and arch my back like a mad cat. Ok, on a normal day this is no problem, bit throw in a HUGE belly, wires hooked to you everywhere, and contractions coming every couple of minutes and this becomes an impossible task. I did what they asked to the best of my ability and then they contorted my body how they wanted and then pressed on my spine over and over again. So in between contractions, that's the pain I felt. He then numbed me and stuck the needle in my back, I felt the pressure and it hurt and then a contraction came and I didn't feel the needle pain at all. Minutes later I felt it kicking in big time. My legs started feeling numb and my entire body felt relaxed. Each contraction was less and less painful until I no longer felt them. All that mad cat back arching and needle poking was worth it, no more contractions. I kind of felt like I was cheating with getting the epidural but I figured millions of other women do it so I guess it's justified.

Now I felt great, my contractions continued to get stronger and closer together, according to the monitor, but I just played Uno in my happy little epidural world. The next problem was that I was not dilating the way I should. I had only gone to 4 cm and seemed to be stuck there for quite some time. The hours dragged on but my mom and Sarah got there to hang out with us too. When they go there, they gave us the good news that Grandma was alert. After being completely unresponsive for two days, she now had her eyes open and even smiled. What awesome news! This made me feel much better! What had happened was that they put an oxygen mask on her to give her oxygen but there were no holes for the CO2 to escape from so she was not releasing this and her C02 levels were high. As soon as they fixed the mask, things got better. Her blood pressure went from almost non-existent to a normal blood pressure and her kidneys started working again. The doctors were amazed. I was so happy to hear that and now had much more hope that she would be able to see her great-granddaughter.

Nothing much happened in the afternoon and I was getting very sleepy so I tried to sleep a little while everyone else watched a movie. This is when things started going downhill. I noticed Katie and Sarah's faces as they watched the monitor and asked what was wrong with no response. The baby's heartbeat was dropping, we called the nurse and she explained that it's ok, this was normal. However, a bit later, another doctor came in to check me. Since I was still only 4cm dilated, she insisted that I sit straight up, spread my legs wide, and wiggle my hips. So I did this for about an hour. The night Docotor came in to check me and noticed that I still was not progressing and started talking about a c-section.

I knew I was more at risk for a c-section because of my diabetes and the induction but I did not even want to talk about it unless the baby was in danger. I desperately did not want to have a c-section! This doctor suggested that I lay on my side so I did and switched sides, again and again and again. Sarah, my mom, Katie, and Walter prayed for me because they could see how upset I was. The doctor gave me a little more time to see if I would progress but was really pushing for a c-section. After about half an hour the doctor came back saying things weren't looking good and she'd check me one more time. There was little hope that things would be different but miraculously, I had gone to 7cm and the baby moved from a -2 to a 0 in a matter of 30 minutes. This shocked her and she said we would try and get fluid to the baby to help her come out. She watched the monitors for a few minutes and quickly changed her mind. The baby's heart rate was dropping continually and she said a c-section was necessary, at this point, it was an emergency. I looked at Katie and Sarah for confirmation and their faces and nods assured me that it was necessary, I was scared.

Doctors and nurses started pouring in, unhooking me from monitors, asking me questions, having me sign paperwork, etc. I was scared and by the looks of everyone's faces, they were too. At this point, the epidural had worn off considerably and I could really feel the contractions as they wheeled me down to the operating room. They had to get Walter suited up while the prepped me for surgery. Prepping consisted of all of these people removing my gown, touching me everywhere, moving me from one bed to another. If you know how modest I am, you can imagine how awful this was for me, I just laid there and cried.

Walter came in just before they were pulling her out. I was glad when he got there. Now my arms were strapped down, a sheet was by my face covering my body, I was completely numb from my chest down, and they were cutting me open. Within minutes, I could feel the baby being pulled out of me, that was a very strange sensation. Immediately she started crying and so did Walter and I. I was so happy to hear that cry. They then had to take her and weigh her, clean her, suck all the yucky out of her nose, etc. Seemed like hours before they brought her to us, I just stared in her direction and watched the nurses faces to make sure everything was ok. They would periodically look our direction and tell us she was doing great. By this time, I started shaking uncontrollably, I was told this would happen but it was really crazy, I just couldn't stop. They finally gave the baby to me but because of the way I was laying and because of my shaking, I could barely hold her. I did long enough for the anesthesiologist to snap a couple of photos and then asked Walter to take her, I was scared I was going to drop her as the shaking continued to worsen.

At this point, they had to take her to the nursery and Walter followed. I continued to be stapled back together and then wheeled to the recovery room where I was told I would be for an hour. Things were much more calm in this area but my shaking was so bad, they could not get my blood pressure. The nurse offered me demerol and I gladly accepted it. This was put in my IV and within 2 minutes my shaking stopped. I was also feeling very nauseated and thought I was going to vomit so they gave me something for that too. I suddenly felt very calm and relaxed and even fell asleep. Walter came back a little later and said he was with the baby and now my mom, Sarah, and Katie with her. They told him what room I would be in and said it would be about 20 minutes.

20 minutes later, I was wheeled over to our room and we stopped by the nursery where they held her up for us to see. By now my dad and Donna had made it there and they brought me to the room while everyone else waited. I had to move over to my new bed and they hooked me back up to the IVs and put these crazy leg things on that basically massaged my legs so that I did not lose circulation. I hated them, they itched so badly! In fact, my whole body itched for days, that was terrible.

The family was now allowed in the room and the baby came in too. Lots of people were there and luckily we somehow got the biggest room. I barely got to hold her because I knew everyone else was dying to hold her. Everyone was saying how beautiful she was, we were all in love! They all visited for a while and then they all left by about midnight.

Now it was time for me to feed her. I was very concerned about this part because I have heard so many horror stories about breast feeding and how hard it was. It wasn't so bad but definitely difficult to get her to latch on. She ate a little and then was asleep. I continued to try throughout the night and did get one good feeding and a few little ones so it seemed to be going well. It was difficult to sleep though, I woke up every half hour or so if she moved or breathed too loud or anything at all and then if I didn't hear her for a while, I woke up to check and make sure she was still breathing. They also came in about 4:00am to see if I could sit up. I told them I was fine and could walk so they let me get out of bed and walk to the bathroom and back. The nurse kept thinking I was going to fall over but I was totally fine. The next morning they took the catheter out and I was allowed to walk freely.

While we were in the hospital, we continued to get good news about my Grandma. She had been moved from ICU to a less intense ICU and was regularly opening her eyes and even trying to talk. It sounded like she was on the road to a possible recovery. Her kidneys continued to improve and she seemed to be doing well. Pam even showed her photos of Audriella from her Ipod. I told my mom to take the 5x7 they had given us at the hospital so she could see a bigger photo of the baby. My mom brought it to her and they think she saw it, she looked at it seemed to know what it was. That's all she got to see of our baby girl. Unfortunately, the next morning while a nurse was in taking blood from the baby, Walter got a phone call and I could tell by his reaction that something terrible had happened. After the nurses left, I begged him to tell me but he wouldn't because the pediatrician was on his way in. It didn't matter, I already knew and when I asked him if I was right, he said nothing and I lost it. That was the hardest news I had to hear, I really thought she might be able to recover and see her great-granddaughter. It was such an emotional day, I felt so sad for my grandmother and then felt bad that I wasn't happy about our perfectly healthy baby girl and then felt bad that I was happy about the baby and not sad about my Grandmother. It was hard, something I never expected to experience. Grandma is in heaven now and I am sure she is able to see our little baby from there. I miss her so much but I am glad she is happy and healthy in Heaven with Jesus.

After a couple of days in the hospital, a bit of a struggle with breastfeeding, and about a million temperature and blood pressure readings, we were able to go home! Going home was kind of like starting over since we had things set in the hospital. We are figuring things out and learning as we go. Breastfeeding is getting much easier, we are trying to get some sleep here and there and our little princess is just great, we are so crazy about her! I definitely didn't expect to be out so much the first week but with everything that happened, we have been going to family dinners every night and Sunday and Monday we have the funeral. I think the baby has actually made this very bad situation a little better, it's nice to rejoice in something good when something bad happens. It's like celebrating the wonderful life of my grandmother at the same time as we're celebrating the new life her first great-granddaughter.

If you read all of this you deserve a reward but the best I can do is add some photos:

Right after she was born

Weighing and measuring her

Proud Mimi

Great-Grandpa

Superpop? (we're still not sure what he wants to be called) and Grandma Didi

Uncle Joshy

Aunt Stacie

Aunt Katie

Cousin Sarah

Proud Daddy

I finally got to hold her

Little Princess

Little cutie!

Beautiful photo the hospital photographer took

Daddy putting her in her new carseat

Her new carseat and little "going home" outfit Daddy bought

Leaving the hospital, it was a rough day and I look pretty rough.

She looks so serious!

This one cracks me up!

We tried to take photos but she was not cooperating

Sleeping with Daddy

Induction Scheduled

2009-11-13T17:38:00.001-05:00

Had my last Doctor's appointment today, woohoo! I just had to come in for a "cervical exam," I put this in quotations because it sounds technical and all but is really just a Dr shoving her hand up you to feel your insides, extremely uncomfortable! My cervix was closed which means that we will be going to the hospital a little early to start me on cervidil to ripen my cervix, fun! Oh, and I did get the swine flu vaccine that I had previously refused.

So the plan is to go to St. Joseph's Women's Hospital at 8:30 on Sunday night. Walter will come and stay the night with me. They will start me on cervidil and if all goes well, I will start pitocin at 6:00am Monday morning. The pitocin will help induce labor once I am dilated. I hear that this causes the contractions to come quite quickly but it can still take a while to actually give birth.

The women I spoke with at St. Joseph's said not to expect a baby until probably late Monday. The Dr. I spoke with yesterday said not to expect her until Tuesday! I know that everyone is different and they are basing this on what normally happens but I am thinking they are right. My mom was in labor with me for 30 hours and I have a feeling my little monkey will be the same way, she'll come when she feels like it. We are definitely hoping to see our little girl Monday evening but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Only a couple of days left and I am getting pretty nervous! I am glad to have completed the room and I think we are certainly prepared but it is going to be very weird having this child that I have had inside of me for 9 months pop out and live with us. I think I am going to have an anxiety attack just thinking about it. I am trying not to be crazy but scheduling the birth of your child is so weird, I think it makes me more nervous than if I was just to sit around and wait to go into labor. Two days will go by quickly and then next week I will be posting photos of our little girl, I can't wait!

Baby's Room is Complete! (Well almost)

2009-11-13T17:37:00.003-05:00

I thought we would never get this done, but with lots of help, it is finally complete! Here are some photos of the baby's Wizard of Oz nursery:

Sleeping Beauty Pink Paint

Walter putting together the awesome crib Dad and Donna got us!

The furniture that Dad, Donna, Nana, Papa, Stacy and Jeff, and Connie and Dave got us

A mobile we bought at a consignment store to redo

Same mobile, we just altered it to fit the theme

I glittered the shelves to look like ruby red slippers

Completed shelf on the wall

Ruby red slipper curtains my mom made to match the shelves

We bought this and Walter just had to paint the frame to match

Canvas I made with scrapbook paper

BEAUTIFUL quilt that Mema made, this is my favorite part of the room!

I just love the letters that Rick put up, they are perfect!

(Almost) completed room. We just have to hang one more glitter shelf and take the Wizard of Oz Barbies out of the packages and put them on stands

Notice the floors, Walter did that too and they look perfect! We just have to find a rug we like this weekend.
I have more books to put on the shelf and also need to put the Tinman and Scarecrow on stands.

Hello Kitty Baby Shower

2009-11-09T22:11:00.002-05:00

I had a second shower this past weekend at Lauren's house that Christi and Lauren threw for me. They did such a great job!!!! There were so many details they planned out, AMAZING food (yes, I cheated on my diet the Dr said it was ok), great games and fun company. I had such a great time and am so thankful for such great friends!

They made these invitations, so cute!

Christi actually made these Hello Kitty favors, they were adorable!

Christi made this way cool diaper cake, prettiest one I've ever seen!

The food was so great! Christi made almost everything including the flower shaped chips, cut out fruit and it was all delicious!

Vivian made this FANTASTIC cupcake cake, it was very good (yes, I had one)

Me in front of the banner they made. My face seems to be getting fat, yuck!

They had tons of cool games planned, this was from the "Guess the Baby Food" game

I got tons of great gifts, they were all so generous!

All the awesome girls who came :)

Me with Christi and Lauren who hosted the shower, they are the best! I am looking a little rugged here.

Less Than 2 Weeks!

2009-11-04T12:06:00.002-05:00

These weeks are going by entirely too fast and I am starting to freak out. I am so excited to get to see this little baby that I have been growing in my belly and bonding with the past 9 months but I also feel like I am not ready. I guess with some things, you are never really ready and I will just have to figure it out as I go along. I do wish I had her room ready and I am trying to get it that way but currently, there is only painted walls and furniture. I still need quite a few things but have to wait to see if we can afford to get it all. It would be very nice to have her room completely done before she gets here like a normal parent, but I am just not sure if that is going to happen. Somehow, though, I do not think she will notice.

I went to the Doctor yesterday and she said I am ready to have the baby whenever she is ready to come out! She said that if I do not go into labor beforehand, the induction date for Monday, November 16th is definite. I was also able to find out what Doctor is on call that day and it is actually the main Doctor of the practice so that was nice to see. I meet with her next Thursday and I am assuming that is when we will go over the details of the induction. The only thing I did not like about this Doctor when I googled her was that her specialty is c-sections, great! Hopefully everything will just go as planned and I won't have to worry about that. Of course, nothing is actually "definite" if the baby has other plans so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

My blood sugar has surprisingly gotten much easier to control which is not normal. They say it gets harder to control the further along you get because your body releases more hormones and that is what resists the insulin. I have been off my nightly medication for 2 weeks now and have not had one high reading in the morning. Before, I could not eat anything about 4 hours before I went to bed, I had to go to bed starving and wake up starving in order to get a reading close to where it was supposed to be. Now I can even have a snack consisting of a small bowl of corn flakes and milk and be fine the next morning! Of course, being able eat more doesn't help out with the weight issue but I am still well within my calorie and carb limits for the day. I have been gaining and losing half a pound here and there each week so I am up 12 pounds total. My goal was to not exceed a total of 15 pounds and it looks like I just may be able to do that. The nurse told me yesterday that most people gain a ton at the very end and then the girl in the lab who was pregnant with her second child confirmed that she gained a ton at the end. Well, I am at the end and have less than 2 weeks to go so how much can I actually gain in 2 weeks?!? Especially since I don't just eat whatever I want and lay around the couch all day, that's why those women gain a ton, they are just trying to scare me. Plus I read that at the end, you hit a point of nesting where you get lots of energy, want to clean everything, and actually lose a little bit of weight. Ya, this has not happened to me yet and it really needs to, my house really needs a thorough cleaning!

Well, I won't have too many posts left before I start posting photos of our little girl and talking about all the joys of having a newborn :) I am especially excited about the photo part, poor little girl is going to be forced to be a model her whole life. She'll love it!

Baby Shower

2009-10-26T21:28:00.006-05:00

Our shower turned out amazing, I could not believe how great it was! It was really nice to see family from out of town come share that with us. My mom hosted the shower and so many people pitched in to help, it was great! Here are the photos:

Us on the red carpet that my dad got us, I was super excited about that since it was a Hollywood theme.

The room all set up.

I loved these on the ceiling

"A Star is Born"

Table decor

Best cake ever made by Bekah!

Super cute bassinet watermelon that Bonnie made :)

The food was so good!

Super awesome star sandwiches that Jackie made, I loved them!

Candy bar/dessert table

Diaper pins for the "Who has the poopy diaper" game

Guess the Celebrity Baby game, Sarah won :)

Prizes that my mom made, they are movie nights in a can with a Blockbuster gift card, popcorn, and candy

Decorated onesies for the baby

Fun water bottles

Bratiest manned the popcorn booth

Us with mom by the cake

The cake Bekah made was rainbow and sooooo cool and that's the invitation too.

Family photo minus Josh and Stacie who had to leave early for work

Walter's family

Mom's family minus a few who already left

Sonogram

2009-10-22T13:50:00.002-05:00

We had another sonogram today. That is definitely a perk of having gestational diabetes, extra chances to see our little girl. We went to St. Joseph's again for the sonogram which is much better than having one on the silly little sonogram machine they have at the Dr.'s office.

We had the same sono tech we had when we came for our 18 week sonogram and she was great. We confirmed again that she is still a girl (thank God!) and after about half an hour of measuring and looking and checking fluids, the Dr. says everything looks perfect! We even got to see her little hair! That was nice because with Walter and I's very thin hair, I was afraid she may be bald but you could clearly see her hair, we thought that was awesome. The tech even tried to get a 4D photo of her face but she insisted on grabbing her toes the entire time and sticking her arm in front of her face making it impossible. We saw her lungs and she was practicing breathing, we could see her heart beating, and even her brain. It was amazing. The photos weren't that great because she is so much bigger it is harder to see but we had fun watching her wriggle around in my belly.

As far as the more technical things, I have been worried that she would be too large because of the diabetes. That is why they plan to induce me at 39 weeks because diabetes babies tend to be fatter and born with low blood sugar which is not good. There is no reason for this with me because I have strictly been controlling my diabetes and my blood sugar numbers are great, but it still could happen. At the last growth scan at around 26 weeks, she measured about a week and a half ahead and in the 50-60th percentile for her weight. That is very normal. This time, however, she is measuring about a week behind (still normal) and only in the 25th percentile which means she is definitely on the smaller side. I was relieved to hear this, it means that I am not making her fat because of my health problems and that definitely makes me feel much better. She is approximately 5.5 lbs but keep in mind that this can be off about 2 pounds which is a big difference in a little baby, but both Walter and I were under 7 lbs as babies so she really shouldn't be that big.

I think (keep in mind I am not a Dr but this is what makes sense to me) that she had a really big growth spurt when I hit the third trimester and that's why she was a little larger and I was HUGE! I have not gained any weight this trimester and even lost some and I am really about the same size as I was at 6 months. At six months I got so many comments about how huge I was and if I was having twins or about to give birth any minute. That sucked! Now I get "you look good" comments which is much better. I just think she got big fast and now is taking her time growing, at least that's how I am explaining it.

I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow and I plan to talk to them about not inducing me because she is on the smaller side and I will definitely continue to work at keeping the diabetes under control. I think that they will induce me either way but it's worth trying. I don't mind having her at 39 weeks, that would actually be ideal, I just don't want to force my baby and body to do something it is not naturally ready to do. We'll see what the Dr. says but I doubt they will want to budge. The good news is, that I seriously doubt I will be earlier than 39 weeks, again, I have no idea but with her measuring small and all, I am thinking she will stay in there the full 40 weeks if they let her. That's just my opinion but, if I am right, then I won't miss my other baby shower that Christi and Lauren are throwing me and she'll wait for her Aunt Katie to get here from Germany. I think it will all end up perfect like it's supposed to.

When I was diagnosed with diabetes I felt like such a failure that my health problems were going to cause problems with my baby but things have really been great. It has forced me to eat healthier, exercise more and I feel great, no sickness, no problems, and I still have plenty of energy. Plus my blood pressure has actually been going down which was another thing I was worried about. The diabetes has not been bad at all, but you better bet I want a large sweet tea from McDonald's after I give birth. Oh, and the dietitian said that one day won't hurt anything if I want to have cake at my shower. After the sonogram today, I am going to take her up on that since my cake is being made special just for me all the way from Atlanta by my wonderful cousin, Bekah :)

Thanks for listening to all my baby stories and I can't wait to see you all at the shower this weekend :)

Photos

2009-10-12T01:28:00.003-05:00

We had a maternity photo session scheduled weeks ago with a friend of my mom's who lives in Orlando. I bought a couple of new outfits, had a pedicure at her request, my eyebrows waxed, etc. When I e-mailed her Sunday morning to confirm our scheduled time Sunday afternoon, she e-mailed me back about half an hour before I was supposed to leave and cancelled on me. Great! So with Walter's new job and all, it is just impossible for us to try and reschedule. Since we were ready to take photos, Walter suggested we go to my favorite park and photo spot in Lakeland and try taking them ourselves. This is not easy to do and I had tons of lighting and shadow issues and we only got a few but at least it's something.

If you have not seen me in a while, or at all since I have been pregnant, please do faint in shock at the site of how huge I am. I mean I didn't even realize how big I was until I saw these. I have the biggest, round belly I have ever seen and I have 5 weeks to keep growing! You would think I have gained 50 pounds but I swear I haven't. I was so hesitant about taking these photos because of how awful I look but this has been a fun experience for me and I know I will want photos to remember it later on. We may take more or even try and have someone take them soon before I get all swollen but for now, here are a few maternity photos taken by a tripod and Walter.

Induction

2009-10-12T01:21:00.002-05:00

Since I am high risk with Diabetes, I now have to go to the Doctor's office twice a week where I am put on a machine for 10-15 minutes that monitor's the baby's heartbeat and movement. I need to remember to bring a book or magazine next visit because it gets a little boring. The Dr. says everything looks good and she is very proud of my blood sugar numbers, she says I am doing a great job. That's nice to hear because I do feel bad about having to take medication at night.

At my last appointment, I was informed that if I did not go into labor naturally, I would be induced at 39 weeks. This puts my new date at November 15th, I am not sure if they will induce me on exactly that day or maybe the following day which is a Monday but that is what I was told. I do not like the idea of being induced and would rather do things naturally but I also don't want her to get too big or have complications because of my diabetes.

I have a growth scan at St. Joseph's hospital on October 22nd and we will see how big she is then. Maybe if she is on the small side, they will let me try for 40 weeks but I doubt it. On a good note, this gives us a chance to see our baby girl again which was tons of fun the last time.

I have to go to the Doctor again this week on Tuesday and Friday and I will update if there is anything else to update you on. For now, I am still at a 12 pound total weight gain and still hoping for a maximum of 15 pounds total :)

So I am 32 Weeks and I Guess it's Time for an Update

2009-09-30T20:31:00.004-05:00

I have not been updating this Blog like I would like to. I guess after keeping a pregnancy journal and scrapbook, Blogging just gets put on the back burner. Either way, in case you were wondering, I am currently 32 1/2 weeks along which puts me in the 8th month and only a month and a half to go. Here's what's been going on so far:

The pregnancy has been going great! The only real complaint I have is how huge my belly is! I have looked like I am about to pop for the past few months and get comments constantly about how huge I am, thanks for those comments, I hadn't noticed! The thing is, I have only gained 12 pounds total since the beginning. I have no idea what's going on because I look like I have gained at least 25 but it is really only 12. It was 16 which I was not very happy about but since I have started my diet, I lost four pounds and counting (hopefully). Since I was overweight to begin with, my goal was just to gain a total of 15 pounds, maybe I will make that goal, I guess we'll see :)

Medically, I have run into some problems that aren't so great. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes a few months ago and am now on a strict diet, have to check my blood sugar four times a day, and have weekly doctor appointments. Because of my family history, I knew this was coming but it was still a little upsetting when I was officially diagnosed. This is the most common problem in pregnancy so I know there are tons of other women who have gone through this and I also know there was really nothing I could have done to prevent it but I still feel bad about it. I have been doing a decent job controlling it with diet but my blood sugar numbers have been high in the mornings which I cannot control so a very low dosage of Glyburide was prescribed for me to take at bedtime. So basically, this is a typical day for me:

Breakfast - Whole wheat toast, egg, and milk

Snack - Apple with peanut butter

Lunch - Sandwich with raw vegetables or a salad

Snack - Fruit and cheese

Dinner - big salad with some sort of meat and bread

Snack - Sugar free pudding

Ya, fun, huh! Although it's not all that bad. I can have something "bad" every once in a while if I just take a 20 minute walk afterwards. You wouldn't believe how big of a difference a little exercise does, so this is something I do about 30 minutes every night. Of course, still no sugar but a slice of pizza every once in while is nice.

The diabetes isn't so bad and I hope to not be put on insulin but having diabetes also means I am at a greater risk for other problems. The most common is having a large baby (19lb baby in Indonesia). While 19 pounds is extreme, uncontrolled diabetes can cause my baby's pancreas to overwork which essentially causes her to be overfed and fat. I'm trying hard not to let this happen. Another problem is that I am more at risk for preeclampsia which is high blood pressure that puts the baby under stress. This is something I do not want to have! With that, I may have to put on bedrest or have an emergency c-section. A lot of times you start seeing signs of this in the 3rd trimester, such as major swelling, headaches, blurred vision, and the most serious is blood pressure that starts creeping up. I have not had too much swelling other than when I stand on my feet all day or choose to walk a mile in heels, which is more than common for someone who is pregnant. I never have headaches and my blood pressure actually seems to be lower, possibly due to all the walking and healthy eating. Let's hope these are good signs, but I guess we'll find out for sure in time. Either way, my doctor says I will be induced between 39-40 weeks if I don't go into labor before. I definitely do not want to be induced so maybe she'll start to make an appearance at about 39 weeks, that would be great!

Ok, enough about the boring medical stuff, let me update you on something more exciting. So the name we are highly considering is Audriella. I like the name and it's what we've been calling her but I just don't want people to nickname her Audrey. I am pretty sure that name is sticking. We have finally started on the nursery this past weekend. Walter cleared out all the boxes and started laying the floors. Without furniture, I have not been in a super big hurry to do anything but we should have the floor done this weekend and then to the painting. I plan to paint the nursery pink (surprise). The theme will be Wizard of Oz. I am having a quilt made with various squares of movie scenes with lots of Glinda the Good Witch to tie in the pink. Then, of course, they'll be red sparkly stuff like the ruby red slippers. Obviously, there was no actual baby gear in Wizard of Oz so I am going to have to be creative. I'll post photos as soon as I start.

On another good note, we have a maternity photo session scheduled next weekend. I am not super excited about this but my mom's friend who is a photographer offered to do the shoot for free just because she loves maternity photos so much. I am just praying my face doesn't blow up before then, please please please don't blow up! Then we will be having our baby shower on October 24th, again, so hoping my face doesn't blow up by then!!!

The baby is now about 16 inches long and about 4 pounds or so. She moves around constantly but I am told this may start hurting soon. I don't know how she is going to grow any more, there doesn't seem to be any more room whatsoever and if my belly pops any more I'm not going to fit into a booth in a restaurant! We are very much ready to meet her and although this month and a half will probably go by fast, I'm not sure if it will go by fast enough. But at the same time, I have a lot left to do so maybe it won't be so bad if it drags on just a little bit.

I promise to post photos soon of the nursery, our maternity session, etc. Maybe I will try and write more too so I don't have to have these super long posts every few months.

20 Week HUGE Belly

2009-07-03T15:02:00.010-05:00

Ok I finally took photos of myself (and Walter too), this is to show off the halfway point, 20 weeks woohoo! They aren't so great but the best I could do for now with a faulty tripod and blazing heat plus it's better than a photo I take in the bathroom mirror with flash glare :)

This is my favorite

Of course we had to do one like this

Walter being silly

We're having a GIRL!

2009-06-25T17:00:00.005-05:00

We had our big Ultrasound today at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital and it was officially the coolest thing I have ever done! I have been so nervous the past couple of days waiting for this and last night it was difficult for me to sleep. I kept having odd dreams about the Ultrasound and woke up every couple of hours but that is normal, I get anxious about everything.

Well, I was asked to drink plenty of water before they did the Ultrasound so I drank an entire bottle of water while waiting and then it took quite a while for them to call me back. Mission accomplished, my bladder was FULL! The sonographer was so nice and the first thing she asked was if we wanted to know the gender to which we replied "YES!" Of course she made no promises but said she'd try to let us know the gender.

I was so nervous when she started the sonogram, I mainly wanted to see the baby moving and "it's" heartbeat. We were in luck, not only was she moving around like a little monkey but she was also sticking her little butt out clearly showing her "girly parts." Walter noticed right away that she was a girl and the tech confirmed, how exciting!!!!

The ultrasound continued for about half an hour showing us every single inch of our baby girl, she has all her fingers, all her toes, all her organs and looks to be a perfectly healthy baby girl. It was the most amazing thing to see her move and flip and scratch her eyes. I can't feel her move yet so it was very nice to see her moving around like crazy in there. I am sure I will feel her lots soon but for now, I'm happy to know she's having a little party in there.

By the time she was almost done with the sonogram, it had become painful. My bladder was sooo full! I was ready to be done and spread the good news about our baby girl. We were told to wait a few minutes so the doctor could check the baby's anatomy and make sure everything was ok. A few minutes later we were cleared to go and told everything looked good.

Hope you enjoy some photos of our adorable little baby girl:

Here she is actually laying still for a minute

This is her posing for us. She put her little hand right under her chin to pose for the photo, so cute and definitely getting ready to be my little model

Awww......cute little foot

Here is proof that she's a girl!!!

Fun Photo Shoot

2009-06-19T21:04:00.005-05:00

I had a fun time shooting these for boys. These are definitely what I consider personality shots, forget getting them to sit still, they just wanted to have fun. Here are a few of my favorites:

2nd Trimester Happy Dance!

2009-05-26T14:21:00.002-05:00

I am officially in my 2nd Trimester and have actually been here for a week now. I have been looking forward to this for a little while now and I had my Doctor Appointment today to confirm that the heartbeat is strong and healthy and everything looks great! I am always so very nervous going into those appointments and it feels like hours when I am waiting for the nurse to find the heartbeat on the doppler. Then she finds and all is good! Plus to top it all off, I have my "Big Ultrasound" in less than a month and I can finally stop guessing and actually know if I am having a boy or a girl, assuming the baby cooperates of course. I do have to confess that I have already purchased an outfit, I just couldn't resist the most adorable hot pink polka dotted dress for $6 at K-Mart. The smallest size they had was a 12 Month so I guess it doesn't really count since she will basically not even be a baby by the time she wears it and there is still a 50% it's a boy but I really couldn't resist :)

I really don't have many symptoms any more unless you count the fact that I barfed up my fruit loops in the sink while brushing my teeth yesterday, but other than that, I haven't been feeling too bad. I do have this crazy back problem on my lower right side of back that bothers me lots if I walk a lot or do a Yoga video but it's not horrible. The 2nd Trimester is supposed to be the easiest and so far, so good.

I do feel like I am as a big as a house now. I thought I was fat before but now I am gaining wait everywhere! I thought it would just be in my belly, but no no, I see it on my hips and sides and nothing fits anymore. I am lucky to work from home because I live in sweatpants and have one pair of maternity pants that I wear any time I go out. They're the only jeans that fit me, I definitely need another trip to Old Navy to find some more like this. The good news is that through this entire 14 weeks, I have only gained 1 pound. Last Dr appointment I had gained 2 pounds and this time (a month later), I have lost a pound. I swore that I had gained 10 pounds but I am glad I haven't, I certainly don't need to yet.

I have another Dr appointment next week to do some type of blood test to check for things like spina bifida in the baby, I really don't care about something like this because it won't make a difference if there is something wrong except cause me to worry the entire time but he says it's only a blood test for me and he does it for all the patients so I guess I will just go. Maybe I'll get to hear the heartbeat again, that's my favorite part :) Then my next appointment will be at St. Josephs Women's Hospital on June 25th where they will do the big ultrasound and be able to check all the baby's cavities, brain, and private parts ;) Can't wait for that one! Then I'll have a new sonogram picture, those are my favorite too.

By the way, the baby is now the size of a lemon and looks like a human with all it's fingers and toes and even hair covering it's entire body. The baby can actually suck it's thumb and wriggle it's toes but I don't feel any movement yet. Probably in about a month I will be able to feel it, can't wait to see what that's like! For now, I am happy to know that the heartbeat is strong and it keeps growing.

Yay yay yay!

2009-05-09T18:26:00.010-05:00

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's. I figure today is as good a day as any to share our exciting news:

So in case I have been especially lame, tired, moody, or complaining of constant gas pains, here is my excuse:

Yes, that is the actual stick I peed on to prove that I am in fact pregnant. To give you a few details, I am 12 weeks which is almost in my 2nd trimester (yay), and my due date is November 22nd (the day before my birthday). I had very little morning sickness (vomited only a couple of times), and have overall been feeling good but tired. I feel like I am gaining my energy back now because I do not have to take afternoon naps any longer (although they are nice sometimes) and my gas pains went away a few weeks ago. I have had two Doctor's appointments so far and everything is great! I had a sonogram at the first appointment but the second was this past Friday and all that was necessary was to listen to the baby's heartbeat which was strong and healthy! The Dr says everything looks great! I am also scheduled for some type of "high tech" sonogram at St. Joseph's Women's Hospital on June 25th where they will be able to check the baby's brain, etc and tell me if it's a boy or girl. We are very excited about that! I would love love love a little girl but as long as it's healthy I will be happy.

About the baby; the baby is currently the size of a plum and her/his little hands and feet are no longer webbed and they can open and close their fingers and curl their toes. My uterus is also bigger than a grapefruit right now and my jeans can definitely tell, I only have about one pair that actually fits, yikes!

Here's the Sonogram I had at 9 1/2 weeks, the baby looks like a hamster to me but they assured me it was human. Now that I am 12 weeks, the head and body are more proportionate, the hands and feet can move about, and it looks more like a human but this is the only picture I have until 18 weeks so it will have to be my hamster baby for now.

Well, I will try and keep this Blog updated pretty regularly but it will mostly be baby stuff since it is obviously consuming my life right now, hope you don't mind and thanks for sharing in our exciting news!

Super Bowl is Coming to Tampa....

2009-01-28T10:52:00.005-05:00

So to kick off all the events this week, there was a big Media Party for all the media that are in town for the Super Bowl. There were so many people there and it was a really cool event.

New Hair Cut

2009-01-28T10:48:00.003-05:00

It was definitely time to cut all that off. I totally copied Katie's hair but it's not exactly the same.

Family Photos

2009-01-28T10:30:00.006-05:00

My mother is redecorating her hallway in her house and needed updated photos in coordinating frames (yay!) so for Christmas she requested that we do a family poto shoot. We didn't get it done before Chrismas unfortuately. It would be nice if people would actually cooperate but it's kind of hard to tell when you have to be in the photo and rely on a timer and tripod to take it. Oh well!

BizBash

2009-01-12T08:41:00.007-05:00

I haven't updated my blog in a while so I thought I'd start with some of the latest event photos from BizBash. It gets kind of slow at this time of year but here are a few I have done lately:

NACE Holiday Gala:

ACC Night of Legends:

Eric Darius was there performing, I used to go to church with him. I had heard was doing really well and becoming quite famous but I never actually heard him play apart from at church many years ago. He was great!

Buddha Lounge at Green Iguana:

I also had to do a headshot which I had never done before for this lady who was being featured in the magazine she loved it and so did the editor, yay!

Sunshine from Darkness Gala:

Playing with Zacha

2008-11-19T19:27:00.003-05:00

I love babysitting my Bubba, here are some photos from what I have been doing on Saturday nights lately.

We were having Yoga lessons, Zach loved it!

Our mean faces

Silly faces

Zach took a million photos of me on the couch, he was obsessed with taking photos once he learned how to use the camera

More yoga!

Pupdogs!

2008-11-09T23:02:00.003-05:00

These crazy puppies love playing outside and there are currently just 3 girls left :(

They found this in the tiki bar and loved it.

I found this lurking on my memory card and thought it was cute. That's a momma's Mate!

Amanda's Senior Photos

2008-11-04T10:30:00.008-05:00

Amanda and I headed to the park to take Senior pictures since she was not very fond of the cheesy ones they did for school. I had lots of favorites since she's such a great model so I am sharing them all with you:

2008-10-21T12:20:00.002-05:00

Click on the link to vote for 'Mater and Puppy in the Best Friends Category, thanks!

Puppie Puppies Puppies

2008-10-21T12:02:00.003-05:00

I know you are probably sick of seeing these puppies by now but I just can't help it, they are so cute!

Events

2008-10-21T11:13:00.003-05:00

Here are some of my favorites from the last couple events:

Hearts of Fire Gala, loved this one:

Tampa Bay & Co Annual Luncheon:

Vote for Bella!

2008-10-20T23:26:00.001-05:00

Vote'>http://www.dogster.com/show08/vote_pet.php?i=363179">Vote for Bella Mia in the World's Coolest

dog pictures & breed info

I Love those Babies!

2008-10-17T22:49:00.004-05:00

I love these little babies, they are so cute!!!!

'Mater is crazy and Rocco has a white face.

This is my post-pregnancy Bella

This is my favorite, so sweet!

Feeding Time

2008-10-16T22:42:00.002-05:00

The puppies started eating regular food this week, while they still occasionally eat from their mother, it was time to start weaning them. We blend together a mixture of puppy food, puppy milk, and warm water in the blender and come up with this disgusting mush, but they love it and I just don't want to take any chances of them choking on the little puppy food pieces. They will probably get this for another week and then maybe solid and wet food mixed together. They are so crazy, when I come out with the food they all go crazy and get so excited that they step in and even get pushed into it, it's so cute. Here a re few photos but I promise to take more soon.

One of the pups sleeping, which is still their favorite thing to do.

'Mater wants to know why the puppies get all the attention, he hates not being the baby.

This is feeding time and I have to get them a bigger bowl because this is obviously not working out :)

The little one got pushed out of the way and landed right in the bowl, she didn't seem to mind as long as she was eating.

My little babies are getting so big!

Cruise!

2008-10-13T15:38:00.006-05:00

I got an e-mail a few weeks ago advertising that a Norwegian 3-day cruise to the Bahamas was $99 leaving from Miami! We had been talking about going on another short cruise for our anniversary this year and inviting Rosie and Miguel but we just couldn't pass up this deal so we celebrated early. We had so much fun, and although I would never recommend Norwegian Cruise Line, we still had a blast! I took like 250 photos so I'll spare you that and I just added a few.

We rented scooters to ride around Nassau, so much fun! We saw so much of the island and found the prettiest beaches!

This was taken while we were driving :)

A crazy cave full of bats that we found of the road. All those little black things behind Walter's head are bats!

Walter and Miguel had fun jumping off these rocks. That water was soooooo gorgeous!

Rosie made friends with the natives

We are trying to be like our husbands

Dancing, lol

More dancing

On our way to the island

We were snorkeling, swimming, and laying out on a giant raft in the ocean so I didn't take many photos but this was the island and it was so much fun!

Our ship

All 4 of us but I thought it was done taking the photo and started to walk away, I'm a dork!

This is just to show you how red I got after the day on the island. Eeek! I used sunscreen like crazy and eventually had to put a t-shirt on, dang pale skin!

Our Little Angel Gave up the Fight

2008-09-20T21:00:00.005-05:00

We brought her back to life when she was first born, had an IV put in her at the vet, and continued to bottle feed her but she just wasn't strong enough to live. After 5 days of life, our little Miracle finally stopped fighting. She was doing so great and eating great and then Friday night she seemed to be weak. We could tell something was wrong and decided to take her to the vet first thing in the morning but she just couldn't hold on any longer. It was very sad and we buried her in the front yard. I think maybe our child in heaven needed a playmate and she is there with them now playing and happy. I loved her very much and it was so hard to let her go, even Walter cried. We will miss her so mcuh!

Miracle
September 15th, 2008 - September 19th, 2008
We Love You!

Baby Nathaniel

2008-09-19T08:49:00.003-05:00

This is Katie and Josh's newborn, isn't he precious! He's only three days old in those photos. Currently, he is like 4 weeks old and I have yet to take more photos. I am a terrible aunt :(

Puppy Photos!

2008-09-18T22:18:00.005-05:00

I can't believe how much these puppies are growing and learning, it's so cute to watch! They should be opening their eyes by this weekend and soon enough they'll be able to walk! They are finally allowing me to sleep through the night with only one to two interruptions and Walter and I no longer have to sleep in shifts. They don't cry nearly as much now and I think I may actually get to sleep the entire night tonight, we'll see.

Our little miracle baby is doing great! We had to take her to the vet on Tuesday morning because she was so weak, even too weak to drink from a bottle. Apparently she had not been eating during the night so she was extremely dehydrated. They were able to put her on an IV and fed her and after several hours, we were able to pick her up. She is much stronger now and is able to eat from her mother but we feed her at least two times a day from a bottle just to make sure she is getting enough nutrients. That little girl holds a special place in our hearts :)

The rest of the puppies went to the vet yesterday and they are all fat, healthy puppies. One was born with some type of blister on it's paw and the vet said it was infected and making the paw swell so I have to feed that one antibiotics every day. Other than that, they are healthy and happy and so so cute! Here are the photos to prove it:

I love this look, poor girl is so tired!

Awwww

This one always sleeps with his tongue sticking out, I love it!

Daddy's little angel :)

She is such a doll

'Mate is always so curious about these little things that cry all the time.

He's my baby

I just can't get over how cute they are when they sleep, lol!

Bella's Puppies

2008-09-15T00:33:00.005-05:00

Correction: Bella had 11 puppies! Around 3:30am, almost 12 hours after she started giving birth, she had a 10th puppy. Thank God I decided to stay up all night. The puppy was tiny and obviously the runt so I definitely assumed this was it. However, about 15 minutes later I came to check on her and a tiny 11th puppy had just popped out but I could immediately tell that something was wrong. Bella had broken the sac but was not paying much attention to this puppy. I picked it up in a towel and realized that it was completely lifeless. I started rubbing her and trying to get her to cough up the fluids in her throat and nose but I had no luck. I continued for several minutes and even proceeded to hand the puppy to Bella but Bella just kept licking her with no response. Knowing me, you have probably figured out that at this point I starting balling my eyes out. I thought for the sure the puppy was dead and I was crying very loudly, so loudly that Walter woke up and came running out of the room. I explained what happened and gave him the puppy. He started rubbing the puppy as well and swore he got some movement out of her, I thought it was just his imagination. Eventually I saw the movement as well and she started expelling the mucus that was blocking her airways and breathing. At this point I called an emergency vet and they told me there wasn't much they could do for a newborn but advised me to use a snot sucker to extract the mucus. We didn't have one so Walter flew over to Walgreen's and got one. That worked and the puppy started breathing normally and moving her entire body. After a few minutes of snot sucking, puppy CPR, and rubbing her, she was moving like she should and seemed to a be a weak but alive puppy. I knew she wouldn't have much of a chance to eat from Bella with her 10 brothers and sisters so I ran to Wal-Mart and purchased puppy milk. We had a tiny puppy bottle so we fed her the milk and she seemed to get that final burst of energy that turned her into a normal squirming puppy. She was so squirmy that it became difficult to feed her a bottle so I gave her to Bella and she was able to drink from Bella. After checking on her every few minutes I was unable to tell her apart from her tiny sister. She is now happy, healthy, and eating from her mother just like her other brothers and sisters. She is the biggest miracle I have ever seen, I cannot even believe she is alive!!! Had I not woken Walter up, she probably wouldn't be alive, I would have given up but he refused and I am so happy he revived that little puppy. I think that once they get older, we will be able to tell which one she is because she will probably be slightly smaller and slightly weaker than the rest, she shows no signs of brain damage or any complications so I sure hope she will be a normal, healthy puppy. We have an appointment to take all the puppies to the vet on Wednesday so hopefully he will tell us that she is perfectly normal.

Sorry to write so much, I know I don't normally write on my blog but I wanted to share my story because it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen, I just can't get over the fact that we brought that puppy back to life.

Bella had a total of 9 puppies on Sunday, September 15th starting at around 4:30pm and she finished with the runt at midnight. There were 3 boys and 6 girls, crazy for my little Bella. It was nice that I was actually home to watch the whole thing and the kids got to see it too, not to mention Rosie and Miguel and their kids, poor Bell had an entire audience. Here are the photos but beware, they are a little graphic:

While she's in labor

Arian's expression when he saw the first puppy, love it!

Puppy number one

Bell loves her aunt Rosie, she takes such good care of her!

Ok so here's how the puppy thing works

-She grunts a little and then a puppy pops out within seconds

Here you can see the puppy coming out:

Bella licks the sac to remove it and then eats the umbilical cord

and here's the darling puppy:

She is such a good mom!

Awww, giving birth is exhausting!

All 9 puppies:

Crazy Kids

2008-09-11T20:34:00.004-05:00

Since Rosie and Miguel moved into our neighborhood, this is what a typical weekend with the kids has been like. We basically just spend the days killing time and wasting the kids energy at the pool, mall, etc. They were especially hyper on this particular day.

They think they are models

I think he was breakdancing in this one

Her favorite dance move

We went on the carousel in the mall and sat in the spinny seat. At first it was fun and we were going fast then Amanda took over spinning and she wouldn't stop! It was so fast I thought I was going to puke. The kids thought it was hilarious and talked about it the rest of the day.

Grease Sing-A-Long

2008-09-11T20:27:00.002-05:00

Stacie and I went to the Grease Sing-A-Long at the Tampa Theatre with my Meetup Group. It was so much fun because the movie played on the screen along with the words of all the songs so the entire audience sang along to every song. They also encouraged audience members to dress up as a Grease character and they had a costume parade on stage. It was fun!

Cristin and Michele from the Meetup group

They were part of the parade while I took photos

Stacie and I after the movie, I look a little rough.

I love old movie theatres, especially the Tampa Theatre

Events

2008-09-08T01:21:00.006-05:00

I have not added photos in forever so what better time than on a Sunday night at 2:30am after I have spent the evening editing photos. These are just a few from the last few events I went to. I had several photos printed in the latest issue of BizBash and the editor even added my name to the front credits as a photographer and I am the only one listed there. She is trying very hard to get one of my photos on the cover of the magazine so I am super excited. My photos will also be featured in Florida Trends Magazine but I am not sure when that comes out but I am sure I will post it when/if it happens.

This is at the Art of Helping Children Art Gala benefiting the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay. It was pretty and nice and Rosie even went with me so we had lots of fun.

This was from the ISES convention in St. Pete, it was a 1920's flapper theme, hence the feathers.

Rays Game

2008-07-23T22:00:00.002-05:00

We went to the Rays game with the kids and had a blast! Baseball is a little boring but being in the big dome and eating junk food and watching all the people on the big screen was loads of fun! Plus, the Rays won!

Thank God it was $1 hotdog night because Amanda ate 4 and Nick ate 3, holy cow!

He always does this

Family photo minus part of Walter's face.........oops

Nick took about three or four photos of himself like this.

After all the hotdogs, they wanted cotton candy!

Yay, we won!

The Love of My Life

2008-07-22T11:32:00.002-05:00

I miss my Zacha so much but I got to babysit him all day last week. We had fun playing together and he talks sooo much and even says my name, finally! I took some pictures of my bubba because he's getting so big, I miss him!

He looks like Darrell in this one

Our silly faces

4th of July

2008-07-22T11:15:00.005-05:00

This year the 4th of July started with a parade. I didn't expect much but there were actually tons of people there and it was quite a large parade. We had fun throwing beads and pens at people. At the end of the parade they announced the new Lutz Guv'na which was not my mom. Oh well at least it's over and they raised a total of $22,000, AWESOME!

Our float

The non-future Guv'na!

Talking with the crowds of people

Bratiest and Kyler

Josh

Momma and I

Todd was just happy to get candy!

That evening was spent at our friends Tracey and James' house where we played games and watched fireworks. It was a perfect day even if we didn't go to the beach.

Walter and Johney looking at fireworks

I don't really like this but it's the only one of us

All the girls

Father's Day

2008-07-01T23:48:00.003-05:00

Father's Day was celebrated a little late this year because Dad was fishing in Pensacola on Father's Day. But, eventually we all got together and spent the evening at Dad and Donna's house for dinner, present opening, and a few goofy photos.

Look, Josh is actually capable of really smiling.

Cute!

Opening gifts

Brat

Stacie and Flea posing

Shoo shoo was the official card holder.

Flea is beautiful!

The goofiest family photo ever. Apparently Josh forgot to brush his hair and we are all smiling funny.

Josh loves Flea!

Congratulations Nurse Katie

2008-06-12T17:16:00.003-05:00

Katie graduated from nursing school so we threw her a party! She already has a job lined up to work in the NICU (is that right?) at All Childrens Hospital (I think) that starts this summer. Congratulations and good luck, Katie!

Nicholas Graduates Pre-K

2008-06-12T17:14:00.001-05:00

Nicholas graduated Pre-K and will be starting Kindergarten this coming fall. He looked adorable in his cap and gown, way to go Nicholas!!!

Brides Magazine

2008-06-12T17:09:00.002-05:00

Brides Magazine hosted a networking event in St. Pete at a trendy art studio. This event was a little different than the ones I am used to but the flowers were gorgeous and the art studio was very cool. Brides Magazine asked for the photos to possibly put in their magazine. I am not sure if they will use them but I was honored just to be asked since they had several of their own photographers there with fancy, expensive equipment. I'll let you know if they make it :)

Where the Wild Things Are

2008-06-12T17:04:00.001-05:00

I LOVED this event! It was so colorful and vibrant plus they had those light up palm trees from Miami. I love those palm trees and if I could, I'd have several in my front yard.

'Mater at the Park

2008-06-10T18:23:00.004-05:00

Vanessa and I took 'Mater to Hyde Park to take photos of him. Not a very good model, but here's what I got:

'Mate made a new friend, Vanessa and he loves to give her kisses!

'Mate on the park bench.

He's so cute!-

It was so hot that 'Mater took a swim in the fountain.

Vanessa took this one of me and my baby, it's my favorite :)

Magnolia Ball

2008-05-10T14:13:00.003-05:00

Ooooh, I LOVED this event! All the bright colors made me happy! Oh, and the stage that is lit up blue and pretty is set up for the band Chicago. I did not get to stay and watch but it was still pretty cool to photograph their instruments, not that I am a fan or anything but who doesn't love famous people!

Last Few Events

2008-04-21T19:22:00.008-05:00

I have not added event photos in a while, it's not that I haven't been doing them, it's actually that I have been so busy I haven't had time. I have had so many events in the past couple of months and a bunch more lined up. It's been a lot of fun and I love doing it. Here are some of the most recent events and a few photos, all have been published online and some in the magazine. It's very exciting!

This is the McDonald's Casper Company's 50th birthday celebration. It was told to me that Jay Leno was speaking and I know they had an awesome tower cake and fireworks afterwards. Unfortunately, we were only able to stay a few minutes due to other events taking place that night. I think this would have been a fun one to attend but oh well! Here are some not very exciting shots, sorry, I am just not a big fan of golds at events.

Baseball for Kids Event at A La Carte Pavilion. This was a "hurry up" event so I got what I could but I really don't know much about it.

This event took place in Sarasota, it was certainly very unique. Everyone was dressed up crazy and the location was really neat. Again, a few of my favorites:

This was a really fun event, it was the opening of the new Jungala section at Busch Gardens. We got to be the first to see the new tiger exhibit and all the new rides, it was really neat. Here are a few of the photos:

This is from the Mozart to Motown Gala at A La Carte Pavilion. Not necessarily my favorite event, but I got a couple good shots:

Engagement Photos

2008-04-21T19:17:00.003-05:00

I did an engagement session for a friend of mine, Ali at Hollis Gardens in Lakeland. We had a lot of fun and the couple really loved the photos so I am super happy. Here are a few of my favorites:

Josh's New Motorcycle

2008-04-01T23:10:00.008-05:00

I have a couple of friends that I try and meet up with once a week to have lunch and then practice shooting. On this particular day, we could not figure out where to go so I called Josh to see if he wanted us to take photos of him and his new bike. He was bugging me about doing this with his other bike and we never got around to it. So his afternoon was spent riding his bike around Ybor while three girls with cameras were taking photos. He makes the goofiest faces when he doesn't know what to do and I kept laughing because he looks just like Dad! Here are some of the ones I liked:

This one I stole from my friend who was taking photos, obviously I did not take it.

This is when Avian told him to look tough.

He looks like Dad here.

Easter Picnic

2008-03-23T21:43:00.005-05:00

Easter was spent at church first and then off to the park for a picnic with the family. The park was very crowded, I guess everyone had the same idea as us.

Ella

2008-03-18T22:15:00.006-05:00

I have been babysitting Ella almost once a week and I just adore her. I happened to have my camera today and snapped some photos while we were playing, she's so cute I had to share!

80's Murder Mystery Party

2008-03-18T21:55:00.007-05:00

We attended an 80's Murder Mystery Party on Walter's birthday and we had a blast! Everyone has a character they have to be and find clues to figure out who the murderer is. It was sooooo much fun dressing up and I got to be a snooty soap star, everyone thought I was the murderer, crazy!!!

Sooo.........do we look 80's?

Lauren and I

Miss Aquanet and Dynasty, a famed Soap Star

Walter and his BFF, James Bond

Leggings!

Miami Vice Cop

Nobody leave the room, Ace has been murdered.

Hollow Gram and Tangerine Gloss

Johney, Matria, James, and Tracey

The murderer is.....

Interrogation

Group photo

Being nerdy, as usual.

Rockstars!

Photo Shoot at UT

2008-03-13T09:08:00.006-05:00

I met with Vanessa and Avian at UT to take some practice photos. Vanessa and I shot and Avian was our model. We had a lot of fun and got several great photos.

This is the funniest picture ever. Notice how Avian has no arms!

Vanessa, Avian, and me

Lakewood Ranch Venetion Inspired Gala

2008-03-03T00:24:00.006-05:00

I like this one a lot, it was very pretty. There was a lot going on in this Venetian event including a gondala seafood bar and checkered tablecloths. Here are some of the photos:

This is a real person!

Avian and I outside of the country club after the event. Walter had to sneak his big head in the photo, nerd!

Sarasota Opera House

2008-03-03T00:20:00.002-05:00

This was a pretty event celebrating the grand re-opening of the Sarasota Opera House. It was pretty but there wasn't much to photograph other than the centerpieces, here are my favorites:

Lettuce Lake Park

2008-03-01T10:57:00.008-05:00

A friend and I went to Lettuce Lake Park to practice shooting. I decided I need to get back in the habit of using my camera on manual setting and tried it out all day. I messed up a lot but it's ok, I have a digital camera! So here were the results, probably a bit boring but I wanted to post them anyways.

January/February Family Birthdays

2008-02-26T22:31:00.007-05:00

We had family birthdays at Jackie and David's house for January and February. Of course, I ended up taking mostly photos of the children but there were adults there, I promise.

So cute!

Love her face!

Dessert time!

Fondue was amazing!

Happy Birthday Uncle David and Ross!

Happy Birthday Claire and Grandma!

I love Ella's face in this one

Amanda!

Wine & Food Tasting Event

2008-02-26T22:02:00.002-05:00

I loved this event! It was so colorful and at an amazing house on the water in St. Pete. I really loved these photos because of all the color even though it was a relatively small event and probably won't make it in the magazine. This was seriously someone's house, how crazy is that?!?

Daddy's Girl

2008-02-26T21:41:00.004-05:00

On several occasions I have caught Daddy snuggling with Bella. Although he claims he hates the way she smells, hates the way she licks, and hates for her to be on the furniture, clearly he does not mean that. She is certainly a little princess and no one can resist her charm, not even her father.

Botanica Event

2008-02-10T15:31:00.000-05:00

This was so pretty! I loved all the flowers and pretty decor, such a fun event to photograph!

Sojourn

2008-02-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

This last event was a French inspired ball benefiting WEDU in St. Pete. It was relatively small in comparison to the others but equally as charming. The centerpieces were kind of unique and the color combination was quite fun to photograph. The evening consisted of dinner, awards, a ballet presentation, and a few other sources of entertainment that I did not photograph. The event was running behind schedule and very packed so we opted to leave without photographing the band.

The French greeters at the entrance.

This centerpiece was exceptionally unique!

The back of it had feathers.

The other centerpieces

Favors were masks for each guest, this was my favorite!

Eiffel Tower display made of rose petals and other various flowers, so pretty!

Ballet dancers

New Years 2008

2008-02-01T23:29:00.000-05:00

For New Years this year, we went over to Port St. Lucie to visit some of Walter's family. We had a blast shooting off fireworks, swimming in the pool, and of course, eating his grandmother's amazing cuban culinary creations. It was fantastic, just wish it wasn't such a long drive.

Getting ready for fireworks

I love Amanda's enthusiasm in this one!

So cute!

Nick's ever so popular display of breakdancing skills!

Analynn

Mario

Arian

Jasmine

Such a little drama queen!

Helping set up the tables.

Alexandria and Amanda

This is my FAVORITE, I am serioulsy going to frame it and hang it up.

Go Amanda!

She has the most intense facial expressions.

Arian was done playing kickball

I wish I wouldn't have cut his head off, so cute!

The most AMAZING Purse ever!

2008-01-29T15:24:00.001-05:00

So we went to Target today to finally purchase a rug for our tile house and I spotted the most fantastic thing I have ever seen! I immediately took it home and photographed it because the colors were beyond fabulous. It is now my favorite thing ever!!!!!!!!

Super Fun Event

2008-01-23T17:48:00.000-05:00

This last event I did was so pretty, I thought I'd share. It hasn't been published yet but I just loved it, especially all the colorful lighting.

Love the lighting!

The show was so cute about this little girl trying to find her way.

Isn't this the most fantastic dessert you have ever seen?!?

The theme for next year is Candy Land and this was a preview, I can't wait!

Mini Disney Weekend Vacation

2008-01-22T15:05:00.000-05:00

For our anniversary, we were not able to get away but we went to Disney a few weeks later for a little weekend vacation. My mom had given us tickets and a hotel stay for our first anniversary so I am glad we were finally able to use them. I know this was a long time ago but I just forgot to post the photos until now.

At Arabian Nights

I liked the horse's butt, it was pretty!

Can you tell I am excited?!?!

We're so excited to be at Disney!!!!!!

Walter was the star of the Monsters Inc show!

My Dad will be so proud!

I loved the Minnie House!

Christmas morning

2008-01-06T19:14:00.000-05:00

Christmas morning was spent at my mother's house at 8:30!!! We started with breakfast and then opened gifts and took a nap. We also spent Christmas night at Aunt Jackie's and Christmas Eve evening I spent with my dad and family but I didn't bring a camera to either of those.

Yay for presents!

I loved the way I wrapped this present so I wanted to photograph it.

Mom's gift from us.

Lol, I told Papa that would make him have a lots of chins.

Bratiest got a cell phone.

Josh was so sleepy after opening presents.

Christmas with the Kids

2008-01-06T18:18:00.000-05:00

We always celebrate Christmas with the kids on Christmas Eve. We start by letting Santa know that he has to drop the presents off one day early and we leave him cookies and go to sleep. This year, Stacie came over the night before to give the kids their gifts, we played some games, ordered pizza, and watched a movie. The next morning Santa had come with tons of gifts and we finished the morning with a big brunch, it was great!

Opening Stacie's gifts.

Our stockings were full!

The tree after santa filled it with gifts

Reading the Christmas story before we open gifts.

Daddy got presents too?!!?

Awww

I think she was excited!

We finished the morning with a breakfast and sang happy birthday to Jesus with a candle in a waffle (don't worry, I made more than just waffles).

Christmas 2007 - first party!

2008-01-06T17:59:00.001-05:00

Our first celebration was at Edwin and Kristy's house where my mom's family got together to exchange gifts and all. It was lots of fun! I love Christmas!

Walter and Nick

Kristy and Ella

Todd

Papa

Amanda

Ella

Ross

Bratiest

Not so cute but I thought I'd add one of me for a change. Amanda took this.

Amanda's favorite gift

Engagement Session

2008-01-01T18:41:00.000-05:00

I did an enagagement session over the Christmas break on the beach and at Ybor. Here are a few of my favorites!

Impromptu Photo Session

2008-01-01T18:27:00.001-05:00

So pretty

What a little punk!

He did this when I told him just to act natural, lol!

He looks like he's 8 or 9 here

Now he looks 4, but at least I got a smile.

Ya, definitely looks much older than 9!

The latest Gap models

Totally Nicholas' idea

Don't know why he did this but it's cute!

I thought this was cute, they didn't know I was taking a picture.

Church Christmas Cantata

2007-12-12T15:55:00.000-05:00

The church had a Christmas Cantata with a catered dinner over the weekend. It was fun but I didn't get very good photos of the choir.

Cute!

"I'll be home for Christmas"

Pastor Ed, the narrarator

Mom's new red hair, cute, huh.

Bratiest and his "girlfriend"

Scott loved the chocolate dessert!

Lighting was not good and I didn't get good ones of the choir, oops :(

I love this one of Grandma!

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-12-12T15:39:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving this year was spent at my mother's house with the family. It was definitely different since I go to Tennessee almost every year but still fun!

Mom cooking

Miku was being bad!

Amanda thought the poopin' penguin was hilarious!

Waiting for food.

Todd's so cute

Mom burnt the butt muffins!!!!

Yay for Thanksgiving dinner!

Typical family shot

Cute, Walter

Scott and Todd on the bongo drums

Ross

Amanda and David's typical pose.

Christmas at our house!

2007-12-12T15:07:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd share a couple cute photos of our attempt at a Florida Christmas, we're ready for Santa!!!!!

Our stockings are ready to be filled!

Bella Mia

Rocco

This was a failed attempt at a Christmas card photo, I think it is soooo cute though!

So we turned the AC up really high so we could light the fireplace while we put up Christmas decorations and drank hot cocoa, festive!

Latest Articles

2007-12-12T14:18:00.000-05:00

Just in case you care, here are the last two events I photographed for BizBash Magazine. The first was a ballet in Sarasota that was gorgeous and the second was a Jewish Ball with a pirate theme:

http://www.bizbash.com/florida/content/editorial/e9455.php

http://www.bizbash.com/florida/content/editorial/e9443.php

Here are all the photos from my webshots page:

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561657183VSqNRm?vhost=good-times

http://good-times.webshots.com/album/561652745BhBSPi?vhost=good-times