Thank you and Goodnight

I was just turning off the local news, and for some reason held on to that phrase as I was about to close my computer and head to bed. "Thank you, and goodnight" I said to my computer. Seriously. Hmmm. I believe I am tired.

For the last two days, I have not taken a nap. This would be quite a feat for a two year old, but shouldn't seem like such a big deal to me. Except that it is. Have you noticed that I haven't posted since September? No, I didn't get tired of blogging. Just tired. Twelve weeks later, I am beginning to wake up. Do you see where this is going? This weekend will conclude my first trimester of my fifth pregnancy. We are happily (even more happily now that the morning sickness - really all day sickness - has tapered) expecting our FIFTH little person baby! Our kids are thrilled, even little Sarah seems to get it.

Brad and I were excited to meet our first little niece almost three weeks ago now. Little Mckenna was born to Brad's sister and her husband and she is a beautiful baby! I got to take her photos, of course. Though, I don't know how her mom and dad could have said "no," I didn't really give them much choice : )



Sarah thanks Jesus every night for "baby kenna," as she can't quite say "Mckenna" yet. She's quite in love with the cousin she's met only once. She will make a great big sister, of that we couldn't be more sure.



That's Tommy (age 3) and Sarah (2) with little Mckenna. Ironically, Jacob was behind the camera. Literally. He grabbed his uncle's point and shoot and started clicking. I bet they got some interesting photos.

I really do need to go to bed now, but wanted to get back into the habit of posting. So, here was a start. Next, I'll get to tell you about my visit with my Grandma Shannon and her dear friend, Beth. Stay tuned.

It's almost Eli's birthday

I was about to head to bed and happened to glance over at the side of my computer screen where I have my email sorted into folders. I have a whole folder of emails from when we were anticipating Eli's birth. It was so amazing to sit and read some of them. I loved reading the words Brad wrote to others as he spoke about our son. He handled a good amount of the communication with our friends and family, and then with people who were friends of friends of friends... Wow. We were so blessed to not only have the privilege of carrying and meeting our beautiful first born son, but to have so many families come along side of us with prayers, with love and with their own stories. To all of you who walked along side of us during Eli's brief visit to this earth, thank you. This Saturday, September 6, 2008 will be his 6th birthday. Please know that as you carried us, we've been so humbled to be able to extend that to so many others. And the gift goes on...

Portland CityFest

I am having a ball at the Portland CityFest with Luis Palau! I saw some cool extreme sports, BMX and FMX! That is clearly not my photography strength... Here are a couple, bmx and skateboarding!





It's so much fun to be here on site with the Palau organization. This is such an amazing team. Last night, I got to see Chris Tomlin and some really neat guests of the festival! I even saw the family from TLC's Little People Big World. According to the estimates from the park police, there were 75,000 people here yesterday. Wow.

Tonight Hawk Nelson, Mercy Me and Toby Mac will take the mainstage. Jacob and Tommy would love to see Toby Mac!

Here's a photo of Brad photographing Chris Tomlin... just doing what he does.

I get to go shoot with Brad!

I've posted before about Brad's work with the Luis Palau Association. This time, I get to join him and I am so excited! Portland Fest is this week... I'll post more : )

My kids, again!

We went to Como Zoo today. I grew up going to Como - It was wonderful! It's so much more kid friendly than the MN Zoo (of which we are members... so no Zoo bashing here), partly because it's smaller, so it's easier for little legs. I didn't have to carry anyone out of the park! We had a ball. Here is Jacob, in charge of his siblings, headed toward the entrance. He managed to get them turned around to indulge his mom's desire to snap a photo. Sarah really is there underneath that baseball cap. She wanted to wear one, since her brothers were, but all I had for her was my MN Gopher Hockey cap. She couldn't really see well at all ; )



We had fun looking at the HUGE Gorillas in the primates building. When we walked out of the building, Jacob and Tommy began singing a favorite Veggie Tales Silly Song, the lyric is this "If it doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey - even if it has a monkey kind of shape - if it doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey, if it doesn't have a tail it's not a monkey it's an ape!"

So, the natural follow up question from Mom: "was the Gorilla a monkey or an ape?" They considered it for a moment - and with a good amount of confidence announced that it was an ape. Good job, boys. Thanks Veggie Tales : )



I was just musing about technology with my dad. He told me that when my Grandmother was born, commercial radio was not even on the air yet. And here are my kids, fewer than 90 years later, playing on a computer together. Jacob told me today, "my game isn't loading. Maybe if we turn it off and turn it back on again, it will work." Of course, it did. We'd expect that of a kid in this generation. My first computer was a IBM 486. It had just about enough power to type a letter. I thought I was pretty cool! It didn't have spell check, and I typed a whole paper about education and spelled it "edjucation." The irony.



We go to the pool a bit in the summer (yes, it really is warm enough for that in MN) and while the kids LOVE the water, I think sometimes they love the snack bar more!

A man of many dimples : )

I had trouble choosing which of these to pick... this was such a fun session! I photographed this little guy for the first time about 3 months ago, when it was cold and we were stuck inside. I don't think I've ever seen dimples like this little guy has. Amazing!

Baby JD

This little guy was out cold for most of his session. He shut his eyes just as I walked in his front door. He was about 3 weeks old here and just adorable! I had the privilege of photographing his whole family about 2 months ago when I came to do his mom's maternity session. It always such a treat to see the little person who was growing inside : ) Oh, and thanks to his parents' sense of adventure - we took a few in the long grass of their backyard. Truly a backdrop I never considered for a newborn!

Look what I found in my inbox today

I opened my email this evening, after teaching all night and missing my kids' bedtime. In it was 9 email notifications that I'd received an e-card. I'd received 9 e-cards from my son, Jacob. Jacob is 4 and has access to a laptop set up for the kids. Apparently, he asked Brad this morning for my email address, written on a piece of paper. He did this all by himself, and I am a proud mom.

Connor's Slideshow

I met Connor and his family when I did his newborn photos. One month later they invited me into their home to do a Lifestyle Kids session and capture how much he'd grown, as well as some wonderful photos of his beautiful big sister. He's so blessed to have her! I had so much fun with them. Enjoy!




Oh, and by the way, I am home in Minnesota now!

Getting ready to head home

Well, since arriving in Arizona 7 weeks ago, I've been largely silent on my blog... working 13 hour days will do that. But, things are up and running here - thanks to my amazing team of photographers - and we're looking at heading home next week. I've learned lots of amazing things here, not the least of which is that 85 degrees in the dark with no humidity is actually pretty cool. And by "cool" I mean "chilly," as opposed "neat," although that adjective also applies. This comment is largely for the Midwesterners reading this blog, who have long made fun of people from the south/southwest. The other thing I learned is that it takes a lemon a really long time to ripen on a tree. We have a lemon tree in our back patio area at the house in which we are staying. The kids and I have been watching the same lemon ripen since we got here. It's just about ready!

Yesterday I killed my first (and hopefully last) scorpion. I really have no issues with bugs, I am usually the appointed bug-handler in our house. But, I must admit, that was a bit much for me. Tommy got into a tussle with some fire ants about a week ago. At first, they had the upper hand (and have left the bites to prove it), but then Tommy introduced them to the fountain he was playing in - and they lost. All of that said, I've not seen one mosquito! ; )

Our team here consists of four amazing women, I am so blessed to have them in our world. Heather, Laura, Jacqueline and Michelle make up the photographic talent of First Day Photo Arizona, and are a wonderful team to build on! Laura had us come to a favorite photo spot the other day to do some family photos a la Arizona. Here are just a few. THANK YOU LAURA! Jacob was in his typical "I hate pictures" form (at least he wasn't asking her to erase them... sometimes that's the direction he goes), so we had to get creative! Enjoy - and think of us next week with our little ones - ROADTRIP!

The boys

Here's a rare photo of our boys. They have to have equal time, you see. The last post was a photo of their sister : )

A new photo of Sarah and Mom

I think this is my favorite photo of me and Sarah Joy since she was about 3 weeks old! She's 19 months old now, and, to quote her big brother Jacob, she's "extremely happy!" and so are we : )

I can't believe that we don't have babies in our house anymore. She's clearly a little girl now, and so very much a GIRL! She loves shoes, dresses, dolls (only her favorites will do). But, she also loves to do anything her brothers will include her in. Right now, she's rather fond of throwing herself on the floor and having a tantrum if you tell her "no" to something she wants to do. It doesn't happen often, but it really does happen. Yikes.

Maddie's Eyelashes

Check these out!

It's cold in Arizona

Two weeks ago I had a root canal - OUCH! Hat's off to my endodontist, though. I feel much better. The next day we got in the car and drove 1600 miles with our kids. We've been in Arizona for the last couple weeks starting a new contract with a health system. Last week, the temperature reached 113 degrees, admittedly hot (especially for a girl raised in Minnesota). Yesterday, I think the high was 58. Brad was in Wisconsin shooting a wedding and I think the weather was nicer there than here. Yes, I know that this isn't a weather blog : ) Although it does seem to me that people from colder climes have a bit of an obsession with the topic. What I find really funny is that my kids thought that 60 degree weather was chilly and they didn't want to go outside. Just 2 weeks ago (at home in MN), that would have felt wonderful to them. I will say that I'll take 100 in AZ over 100 in MN any day of the year. It's supposed to be hot again over the weekend.

Erin (the Erin in the wedding photos in a former post) asked me whether there were cactus or palm trees here. The answer: both. And citrus trees (there's a lemon tree in our back yard!), and other really beautiful deciduous trees I've never seen before. I've also never seen cactus in bloom, or pink cactus, for that matter. Obviously, this is really only interesting to those who have not been to Arizona - like me.

I've been getting a wonderful response from the hospital staff in our new sites. They are really excited by what we offer and are such a pleasure to work with. We're really pleased to be here in AZ, but we miss our friends at home : )

Our new logo!

Introducing the new "face" (or would that be flower) of First Day Photo. We've needed a redesign for sometime, and a great collaboration from some talented designers brought us this! Thank you so much Em and Erin... I love it, and so do our clients!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Today was Maddie's first birthday! We took her photos in the hospital, and I took her 6 month photos, too. Today, I got to meet Maddie and her Mom and Dad and Grandma to take her 1 year photos. Here are a few cute ones:

Two Cuddly Cuties

Take a look at these two cuddly cuties! These sisters were almost exactly the same weight at birth (within a fraction of an ounce) and were so much fun to photograph. Thanks, mom and dad of these girls, for letting me share your daughters with our First Day Photo world : )

Austin's Slideshow

Finally! Here is is. I know it's only been three weeks, but that's a long time for me : )

Here's your slideshow, Austin. There are many more than these to see, but here is a taste!

This session was so much fun for me to edit, because I giggled at every image. What a cute little man.

Family Fun in Florida

We've been in Florida for the last week, visiting family and having fun. When real life hits again tomorrow, I am sure I'll be silent for awhile as I catch up. I've got a few sessions to fininsh editing... so here are a few vacation photos. If I don't post these tonight, it'll be a few weeks. This excellent photography is all my husband's work : ) Awesome job, honey. It was hard to choose what to share!

Early in the week Sarah Joy got her first haircut by none other than her Auntie Morgan. With the extra weight out of the back of her hair, her curls got even curlier! My sister is a cosmetologist, among her many talents, and she gave the boys their first cuts (at about 7 months of age for each boy), as well. Sarah did a beautiful job... I think she felt pampered.

Sarah was a little tenative as she looked at the Ocean for the first time. She had to have her dollies and her pacifier with her to go check it out. It wasn't long before she was playing in the surf!


All three kiddos had a great time playing on, in and around the lifeguard's chair. These three photos really capture their individuality. Jacob must have jumped off the ladder 30 times.













The boys had a great day... this picnic table was a great place to grab some shade. Of course, Daddy couldn't miss this photo op!

This photo just about says it all. Jacob was in heaven in the sand!