Beautiful Baby Lilie!

I am so excited that the last nine months have really flown by! I am a very impatient person and so I was very eager to have my little girl and was super excited when she decided to come early. Not too early, but just early enough to be totally healthy and perfect :)

Luckily our experience with my labor was a little less stressful then with Reese. At my doctor's appointment we were dilated to a 4 and I had been so sick all night that my doctor had us head over to the hospital to be monitored. After a few hours of nothing really happening except them getting some fluids and anti-nausea medicine in me, they sent us home. Josh was terrified to leave me to go to work cause no one was going to be home that night so it was just me and Reese and it just felt like something was going to be happening. Right before he headed into work, I started bleeding and my doctor told us to go back into the hospital. So we packed everything up and headed back in.

They hooked me up to the monitors and checked me again. A 4.5 now, but that was it and they cannot admit you and help along the labor till you are dilated to a 5. I was not having any contractions and the charge nurse wanted to send us home again. My nurse and doctor did not want to send me home so they sent us on a walk. Not just any walk... she wanted me to swing my hips around and get moving so that we could encourage her to nestle down in the hips just enough to dilate me to a 5. Then the doctor could break my water and we could have a baby!

So we walked for almost an hour...

At the end of the walk, my contractions were about 3 minutes apart. When they came in to check on me when we got back I was dilated to a 5 and they called the doctor to come in to break my water! But little Lilie was eager to come and by the time the doctor got there, I was dilated to an 8 and having some really intense contractions.

The labor and delivery only took us about 2 1/2 hours. From the time we got back from our walk around 6:45 to the time she was in my arms at 9:17 my body was totally ready to have a baby. I am so glad we listened to the very subtle hints my body was giving us so that we could be safely checked in to the hospital and prepared to have a baby instead of the crazy, stressful rushing that we did with Reese.

And we are so happy to have Lilie in our family. She is too perfect! Except she does have my temper :( She is totally chill and happy, unless she is hungry or you lay her on her back, then she gets all red and screams at you until you give her what she wants. But still, we love her too much.

Here is her birth announcement and a sneak peak of the photo shoot that daddy did on Day 6. He will be posting more pics soon, I promise!

Kati

It's a GIRL!

Can you believe we are already half way done with this pregnancy? I am having a hard time believing it myself. We had our ultrasound and everything looks great... and we found out we are having a GIRL.

I was in shock for most of the day. I was totally prepared and eager for another little boy, but I never seem to get what I want :) The ultrasound tech was pretty certain we have a little girl cause we got many, many good views proving 'she' was not a 'he'.

After a couple days of complete shock and worry, I have finally decided I am happy and excited for this new adventure (and I am sure this will be the adventure that tests my patience cause Reese is pretty much the perfect child and super easy). But can you believe I still haven't bought anything for baby girl? No pink, no ruffles, no girly things... yet.

Here are the pics from the ultrasound. It is pretty awesome seeing how fabulous this little girl will be. If you can't figure out what you are looking at, there are labels on the bottom right of each screen shot.




Only 20 or so weeks to go till we have completed our family! I couldn't be more excited.

The kid is almost 2....

Kati and I collaborated on this shoot. Usually she is the brain child behind the ideas and I just click the camera. She first told me about the outfit and I have been eying the backdrop for a little while. Unfortunately the "talent" was not in the mood to cooperate. We of course got some good stuff but was a bit of a struggle. We will still keep him :)






This would be his "cute face" sometimes it looks like the little yellow school bus face.




He is actually smiling in this one.




This little guy is soo dang cute. Its pretty much unfair for the ladies..



This was my favorite shot, in regards to the lighting.




He did find some interesting stuff in the bumpers. And a "circle"




This truck apparently has been sitting in the same spot for 20 years. Trudi tried convincing Shaun/Shaun's dad to buy it. If you are interested he will probably let it go for a good deal.


On Saturday we did a mini shoot with Reese, Wesley, and Alexia at the school. Sun was harsh, so I have some editing to do. I will post some of those later this week.

Reese got a hair cut.

We were hoping to go outside to shoot the photos today, but alas dear mother nature was not cooperating. I haven't taken any for a while though so we did it in his room. He is getting so big, its amazing how fast its all happening.

Some current stats for the little guy.

-He still loves Mickey mouse, now is talking along with it more. Calls out "Toodles" and will say the other characters names.

-More and more he is getting Independent. Now for the first time he is refusing foods. Not a consistent food, just food in general.

-He can get into the top drawers so we need to get the next stage of baby proofing.

-The moon is a favorite topic. If he can't see it, he says over and over, the moon is sleeping.

-He will call out things like, bike, dog, moon as he sees them from the car.

-And my favorite thing he is doing is he is reading/talking to himself. I still don't understand most of what he says but boy is it cute.






Get ready for the next action hero. I love the determination in his step and the look in his eyes. AWESOME!


Mommy coloring with him. I like this one too.




He is showing how big he is here. What a doll.

Some Fun Reese Videos

So I have been having a lot more fun with my video camera now that Reese is active and actually does stuff. I was going through videos and thought I should share some.

These first videos are from our trip to Cali this last October. We were able to go to Disneyland and California Adventures, spend some time on the beach, and also had a fun day at Sea World.

Here is Reese's first meeting with Buzz Lightyear (who he now loves, but was just starting to care about Toy Story when we went on our trip). Needless to say... he didn't like him too much.


That is the only video we got at Disneyland of Reese, but I think it is priceless. I know... I am a mean mommy.

We went to Sea World and Reese LOVED it. He is a big fan of aquariums and fish.


He also loved the starfish... or he just loved to play in the water of the starfish exhibit. You decide.


Okay, this last one at Sea World is of Reese watching the Polar Bear. He is showing off his wolf sound very well. This is definitely my favorite. It really shows how funny this kid really is.


Next is the beach! That is by far my favorite place to be so I was very worried that Reese would hate it and therefore limit me from taking tons of trips to the ocean. Luckily, he loved it! He loved it so much his daddy was nervous and had to keep a hold of him so he didn't run too far in.


And of course he also loved the sand... a lot.


It is so much fun looking back on these videos. It was only 4 months ago, but he had grown so much. He now looks like a little man and not a baby. I swear he has grown 4 inches taller in the last week alone.

This last video was taken just a couple days ago (see how much bigger he is). We got him the play mat and some trains for Christmas and he loves to run the little trains across the track. He hasn't quite figured out how magnets work and gets pretty frustrated when the trains won't stick together like they are suppose to. I keep telling him he needs to turn it around to make it work, someday he will get it. This video also shows how good Reese is to just sit and play by himself. He can do it for about an hour, then he wants to get your involvement or to just pester you till you put the computer/book/project down. Oh well, at least I get some time.


I know that is a lot of videos, but they are so fun for me to watch and laugh at. Hopefully I will get better at posting more frequently... but I don't promise anything :)

Reese update

I say it all the time, "I can't believe how fast time is going." When we first found out we were going to be parents time was marked in weeks and trimesters. From that point it has just flown. In just three months my little guy will be two and that is just crazy to me.


So here are somethings he is into right now.

Still loves Mickey Mouse Club house. I love/hate it....

He knows his head, shoulders knees and toes. Eyes ears mouth and nose. Usually though he skips shoulders.

He is doing better with two word conjunctions. He talks all the time, and I still only understand about 1%.

Last week we moved up from 12 month to 18 month pants.

He finds it fun to jump from an upturned laundry basket on to his chair.

He is on a boot kick. His mom and Grandma Sheri got him some galoshes in Arizona. His Grandma Wendy got him Lightning McQueen snow boots, which he requests wearing now.

Every day with the little guy is an adventure and I love every minute of it.

And Pop Corn he can say, no mistaking it, clear as day. He likes that too :)

Christmas Day

This was my first Christmas morning at home in at least 9 years. We usually spend Christmas day at the Winona's. With Reese though, we decided to stay home this year. It was a good choice for me. Getting to see him enjoy his new toys and just keeping it low key was a very pleasant change.




This one is of Reese helping Kati open her gift. He was kind of getting it at this point.



He does like Toy Story at the moment and above he has Buzz, below we opened Woody. And of course Woody has to wear his hat.




Here he sees his "bike" right away and is very excited. We could have stopped the whole thing right here and he would have been happy I think.


Unfortunately he is not quite big enough to ride it himself. We are hoping by the time its warm outside he will be.

This one was shot with my Christmas present, a 50mm 1.8 lens (Thanks babe) I will have fun using this gift all year.


Being a new year I am going to make a better effort in updating the blog. I have been taking some photos but one of my two resolutions is to take more pictures this year.

I plan on making 2011 a good year and it being quite the learning experience. Best wishes to all of you.

Reese's First Santa Visit

I was so excited to take Reese to see Santa this year. I have to admit that I was a little worried because of the bad reaction he had to the characters at Disneyland a couple months ago (I think he traumatized Buzz Lightyear with his scream of terror). But regardless, I wanted him to meet Santa.

Sunday night was Josh's work Christmas party, and Santa made an appearance. There was no screaming, no crying, no running scared to momma! I was so proud of him. I am guessing watching Mickey Mouse clubhouse Saves Santa almost daily for the last month has helped.



Santa gave Reese a candy cane, which he thought was totally awesome. Until he tripped and it broke. Then he was devastated until I was able to get a piece of it into his mouth. Once he learned it was candy, he was even happier about the whole thing. My baby has a serious sweet tooth!

I hope you are all having a very Happy Holidays!

Guess, who's back..

I know it has been some time since I have posted any pictures of Reese. And the truth is I haven't taken any. Between me being in California for training, the few other gigs I took and just not having a good concept we have gone almost 9 months with out a photo shoot with my favorite model. *please note, adorableness is to follow. Gasping, awing, and maybe passing out possible. Continue at your own risk.......







If this doesn't scream I shouldn't be doing what I am doing I don't know what does.



This is one of my absolute favorites of the bunch.




I have to thank Kati for another brilliant concept. Of course Reese did great as well. I hope this is the first of a more consistent bunch of shoots. Also Kati will be creating a fabulous Christmas card soon, so keep you eyes out for that.

Slacker

Well it has been a while since I have posted anything at all. I haven't done any formal shoots of Reese since he turned 1. I need to change that up...

I was inspired by a cousins post(s) that she does about her little one. And thought it would be a good idea to take a little slice out of time and describe Reese as he is now.

So at 18 months,

Reese has moved on from cars to watch Toy Story. He also likes Mickey Mouse club house.

Each morning he wakes up around 7:00-7:30 and walks into our room to crawl in bed with us. He needs someone to get his chocolate milk.
He is not a morning person.

He has a lot of words he can say. "Milk" "Mamma" "Daddy" a bunch of animals and sounds for them. My favorite is Wolf, he throws his head back and howl. Its way cute.

He has started to climb on all kinds of stuff. He can climb onto the bar stool and then onto the island. Yikes is right.

He still enjoys coloring and stays mostly on paper items. (go washable crayons)

He wants to help us do what ever task we are doing, dinner, laundry, brushing teeth, flossing.

He gives great hugs now, we call them big squeezes, it just melts me when he does it.

When he is watching one of his shows you have to pause it to get him to pay attention to anything else. (kinda like his dad)

He can throw a ball pretty descent and started using his right hand a bit more lately.

I love him so much and excited to see him grow into an independent person. I also can't believe how big he is.

The Shields

I finally got little Lindsey in front of my camera for an official shoot. And since Jenni and Nate were there we got the whole family. As usual it was a pleasure to hang out with these guys. I was pretty happy with the results.




I think this one is my favorite overall family shot.




Did I mention her eyes? They are amazing.



Lyndsee is quite the diva, but it made for some good laughs.




Ahh how cute huh?

So I thought this was great session. And anytime we need to do it again, just call me.

We went "urban" for his 1 year shoot

We went a little country last month with his photos. This week we went to the city. He enjoyed it a ton. He was laughing moving around and of course even fell and bonked the noggin'. Each day he does stuff to amaze me, and I am so grateful to have him in my life. Now that he is walking and getting more independent, my patience is going to be tested, as well as my heart filling up with joy.


The chair Kati made for him. That woman's talent is truly endless! So I had the idea to take it to an alley way to do a shoot. I liked how it turned out.









Of the chair set up this was my favorite. The look is one we do see often and it shows how he really doesn't sit still for long.



I need to come up with something else creative for next month. All ideas are welcome :)

Happy 1st Birthday Reese

We had a wonderful party for the little guy, and of course Kati went all out to make his stuff special. Her talent seems endless to me. And not only were they pretty, they were delicious!



We, and by we I mean Kati, went for a Safari animal theme. All the designs and animals she created herself.




Here is Reese digging in. He ate the penguine. He loves blueberries and Kati made a blueberry layer in the giant cake.





And I had to throw in a couple of photos of the two best mothers in my life.

Sunday at the park

This last Sunday, Jessica and Andy invited to the park. It was a very nice day so we agreed. We were pleasantly surprised that they also invited Benjam and Chelsea as well as Ben and Thao. he So all the kids got to play together. It was a little windy but all in all a very nice day. Thank you Jess and Andy for initiating such a fun time. I think we can all agree it will be happening again.





Here Reese demonstrates the proper way of not getting your knees in the bark while crawling.



There was a play ground with two slides monkey bars and a climbing wall. Reese found me through the hole. He thought it was pretty funny. (so did we)








He is getting better with his balance every day. He has even taken steps on a couple of different occasions. He still likes holding your hands though.





Alyssa was quite mobile as well. The grass kind of threw her off at first. And at one point Reese ended up with the hat. He was reluctant to give it back, but he did.



Someone left behind chalk, so the kids did some drawing. And eating of said chalk.




Here is my babe soaking p the sun.




Would you believe it. Benjam snagged the camera and got a shot of me and the boy. I am glad he did.




It was only two hours, but we got in Frisbee, and a contest Benjam won. I should have guessed a physics major would figure out the best way to make a complete revolution on a kid toy. I really had fun and am looking forward to next time.