VT Family

Alright, so this is my first official shoot with one of my favorite families in our ward. They were so fun and I loved  working with them.

Fix-it-Friday

I found this website I heart faces, its all to do with photography and editing. They have a fun challenge every Friday to edit a photo that they have and than link it to their website for others to see. I thought what a better way to learn all about editing. I use Photoshop Elements 8 and am starting to just get a hang of things. Anyways here is my fix-it-Friday first attempt.

Original:

Fix it #1

Fix it #2

What do you guys think????

Fall

Enjoying a hot fall day, here in Arizona.

Model in the making??

We went out and took some pictures of Cadence the other day...*note to self...go when its a little cooler outside, but I think they turned out pretty good. What do you guys think?? Do I have the cutest girl or what??

Carter,

Your are 4 months old and you are quite the little stinker. You were sleeping all through the night, but now you wake up about every 3 hours to eat...kind of like when you were a newborn. Don't worry though, mommy loves how much you still need her to make you feel better.

You love to roll all over the floor and discover new things. You also love to play with your feet which are about the cutest things ever.

You have the biggest eyes that smile at me everyday. With your eyes I can tell how much you love us. You must get that from your daddy :).

You love it when your sister comes to play with you. You get so giddy and always have a huge smile on your face. I can tell you two are going to be the best of friends.

We love you carter and are so excited to see the man you will grow up to be...but for now please stay your little cute self.

Love Mom.

Summer wedding

Wow it has been a very long time since Ive posted, so I will be playing catch up for a little while.

I guess I can start off with my summer and the things I've done. One very important and memorable thing that happened was the wedding of my only sister, Dasha. It was a hot, beautiful Vegas wedding.

Such a cute little family...congrats to you guys! Love you!

Fathers Day

We are so grateful to have this hardworking, loving, caring person in our lives. We love you!!

Anniversary

On June 17th Jason and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. He surprised me by getting a babysitter for Cadence and taking me out to dinner...even though the NBA Finals were on. Don't worry he did get to watch it because the restaurant we went to had a TV.
Happy Anniversary HUBBY...I'm excited for many more years to come.

1/4 of a century

Jason turned 25 on June 8th. We went out to dinner and I made him his favorite funfetti cake. The kids were asleep by the time he blew out the candles and we ate some cake, but it was nice to get to spend some time together alone.

He only got to blow out two candles...I forgot to get some more. Oh well, I'll remember next year.

Carter Jay

Some pictures of my sweet little boy

Big sister giving him a kiss

Carter's "Birth" day

It all started around 6 am on Saturday the 17th. I was so excited...it was only one day past my due date and I couldn't believe that I had actually gone into labor all on my own.

I woke up feeling crampy, so I decided to walk around the house to see if it was really it. I felt one pressure wave and began to time, they were around 5-7 minutes apart. I decided not to wake anyone up yet and kept walking ...watching the clock as I felt each wave.

Finally at around 7 am I woke Jason up and told him I was going to call the midwife and tell her what I was feeling. I called her and she said she would be over as soon as she got showered and dressed. I told her I would keep timing and just relax until she got to my house.

Just a couple of days before I had an appt. with her and told her that I would like to be checked, she checked me and I was already at 2-3 cm but only about 25% effaced, so I didn't know if i would go quickly or not. I was hoping that once labor started it would go by pretty quick...but I was wrong :)

I jumped into the shower because the water helped me relax, I was probably in there a good half hour. It felt so nice to have the warm water run on my belly and back. I got into my birthing outfit and started listening to my hypnobabies cd's. I relaxed on my birthing ball while doing this and it felt so nice to just close my eyes and just feel the pressure waves that would be bringing me closer to meeting my little man.

As I was relaxing on my birthing ball my midwife and her apprentice showed up. I didn't even notice that they were there. I was so in tune with my waves and relaxing through each one. After about a couple of hours of relaxing on my ball I went into the living room to join everyone else. I ate some lunch and than just relaxed on the couch watching movies. LOL.

As the day progressed I decided to get into the birthing pool to see if that would speed anything up. The hours passed by and it started falling into the evening...still no baby. I was starting to feel the tiredness from laboring all that time. I got out of the pool, because it felt like I could feel my waves more intensely out of the water. I sat on the couch and listened to more of my cd's to help me relax.

After a few hours of being out of the pool I felt like I had the urges of pushing. I labored with that feeling for a couple of hours and than my midwife started getting the pool warm again. I was hoping that the end was almost near and I would get to hold little Carter soon.

I got back into the pool...the waves were getting more and more powerful. I just let my body do its own thing. I couldn't believe how long it had already been. I think I was in the pool for about another couple of hours. I didn't really know what time it was. Probably about 1 or 2 in the morning the next day. With every wave it felt very pushy. My midwife was so supportive staying with me the whole time and just letting me do my own thing. With one wave my water broke...the next a little more pushy. I was finally full on bearing my baby down, trying to breathe him down.

My midwife had to push me a little to give it everything I had. I could feel his head start to crown she told me to put my hand down and feel his head. I was a little hesitant at first, but I did. His sweet little round head was right there. I gave another big push and out came his head, than with another little push he slipped right out. I quickly put my hands under the water and lifted my sweet little boy out of the water. I cuddled with him and he let out a cry. It was amazing. I just held him looking at him, talking to him, kissing him. We all got our chance to share our love with our newest family member.

Carter Jay was born at 4:51 am the next morning of the 18th. He weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 20 in. long. We are so happy that he's here.