Sunday, April 15, 2012

captured in time

It was bed time at our house, I was sitting nursing Dani on my lap, across from me Axel was sitting on his bed with Kory.

They were reading comic books togther, COMIC BOOKS! I have a child old enough to appreciate comic books!? Right above their heads was a collage of his newborn baby photos. Where did the time go?! It is as if I blinked and he went from being that teeny tiny helpless baby to this big indepedent boy!

 My mind raced back to the day we had those pictures done.


 It was a gift from my dear friend Jessica. He was only a few days old when they were done.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. 

We had just returned home from our appointment to get his bilirubin levels checked, I felt frazzled and unkempt, my boobs were swollen from nursing around the clock, I hadn't showered in days, and my house was a mess.

I tried to pull it together before my friend got there, but needless to say the past week had been quite the rollercoaster for us, and despite my efforts our house was gross.

When she got there, we exchanged hugs and she quietly walked our home for the perfect place to take pictures. I was kinda embarrassed, because we hadn't had a chance to even get stuff put away with him. But she found a place to take pictures of him, regardless of the chaos that surrounded her.

She placed a mat on the ground in our front room, (then it was our office/entryway) we had a craft table in the corner, a dog crate against the wall, needless to say it was probably the LAST room I would have picked to put my baby in.  She covered the baby mat with one of his blankets and went to work.

I remember watching amazed as she started to photograph my baby. This was the first time I had seen her do her work since she graduated from The Arts Academy in LA.


She was amazing to say the least. One minute she was standing above my baby on her tippy toes, to laying on the floor beside him. She was done in no time, she even let me stop and feed him :)

Then the phone rang. It was our Dr.

He told me we needed to get to the hospital right away and have Axel put under lights, his bilirubin levels were life threatening high, and we needed to get to the Pediatric Unit... NOW.

I hung up the phone and started to ball. Our visit with Jessica ended, and I was bummed we had to cut it short.  Kory and I, rushed our new little baby to the Pediatric Unit of the hospital, scared and uncertain as to what was ahead of us.
 

There our doctor informed us that there was an error in the lab read, and that instead of his levels dropping like they had told us, they had in fact risen, and to dangerous levels. Had we gone a day longer, we would have been facing possible brain damage.

These words were hard for me to hear. We were so close to losing him, what if we hadn't gone that last time to get the blood draw "just to be safe"! What if I had rushed home to shower and clean my house to make myself "presentable" for my visitor instead?

To this day I am so glad we kept getting his little feet pricked even though it was tiring and hard. It could have been so much worse.

That evening Kory went home to get some of the things we needed for that night.  In our mailbox was a small package addressed to our family.



He brought it to me in the hospital. It was a disk wrapped with care in the most adorable stationary, with a thoughtful note, that is too personal to share, but is tucked away in his baby book, and still brings tears to my eyes. 

We put the CD in our laptop and gushed over the hundreds of pictures she took of our beautiful baby boy. I was shocked how beautiful she was able to make them despite the surroundings she worked with. Each one so delicately touched up and edited. She captured every adorable side of him that we were soo smitten by. I wasn't able to hold my baby longer than to nurse him at that point, so I was sooo grateful for this precious thoughtful gift that allowed me to see my baby again, without all the scary monitors or big neon bed.

It was the perfect gift.


Before we had kids, Kory and I would joke about how we couldn't wait to have kids, so we could snap some pictures of our kids and give them to our parents every year for gifts because it is sooo hard to find gifts for them. And each year when I ask my Mother or Mother in law what they would like, it is always the same "Just some pictures or a card is all I want".

Now that we are parents, we totally see how something like this means soo much to them. Kids grow up quickly, and then you blink and that stage is long gone and forgotten, all you have left is memories and photographs. Hand written cards and photographs to help you remember that wonderful and fleeting time.

Since then we have had her photograph many events in our lives, and all of them equally as important as this one, and each time I am completely smitten by the beauty and delicacy that surrounds her photography, and how she is able to capture the images I try, but fail to. She photographs my kids the way I see my kids, and I LOVE it.

I can't belive how much Axel looks like Dani here. 



 I still love the way she made my "Ghetto Circus Party" look super awesome! 







These were the most recent ones she did in her new studio "The Charcoal Loft". They are now all over my house, and it was SO hard to narrow it down to which ones I loved the most, cause I loved them all! 


 What better gift to give this Mother's Day to your wife, your mother, or your daughter than a chance to be photographed by the most talented, gifted and caring photographer I know!

She is doing this great deal this weekend, and you do not want to miss out!
Have you made your appointment yet?!! Go NOW!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

miss me?

Umm is it just me or did March just kind of come and go in record time!?

 March has been one crazy, fun, and exciting month for our little family!  We have been quite busy! And I am sorry to say that my blog has been the only thing I have let kinda drop as I have been adjusting to all these changes, see I told you all I don't do well with change...

So I hope you wont mind my quick little update, by quick I mean long, and by little I mean loads of pictures!

My first paid Party gig

So once upon a time I tried my hand at cake pops for Axel's first birthday. They were a huge hit, I couldn't believe something so simple could be such a delicacy and have so many people swooning! After that I started getting requests from close friends to make them for small baby showers, blessing and birthdays.

But word spread and I randomly got a lady who had tasted my cake pops at a family members shower and wanted to hire me for her daughters birthday! I was so flattered! It was some what nerve racking to make them under that pressure, but they loved them, so it all worked out!

Then not less than a week later my sister asked if she could hire me to throw her sons party, and she didn't really care what I did, so long as there was a leprechaun treasure hunt and they got a goodie bag and a cake pop at the end. SWEET!

I had so much fun planning, shopping and preparing every detail for his St. Patrick's Day/ Birthday Party! 

Here is a brief preview.... you can look at the rest of the pictures here.

The cake pops

I dyed the inside of the cake with food coloring BEFORE cooking it to make it green 

We played a gold coin toss into the jars for a prize, such a simple game, we already had the jars, and coins!
 I really liked how this window turned out! The sun highlighted it just perfectly!
 It was nearly impossible to find St. Patrick's day stuff even though I went shopping two weeks before, it was all Easter stuff. However, I did find these cute party hats at the Dollar store, and Kory convinced me to make the chin strap beards for all the guests. I still have way way too much orange material if anyone needs some. But Joann's came to the rescue and the week before the party I was able to find a TON of St Patrick's Day party favors for 40 percent off! It was a steal!

We took pictures of all the kids in their hats, and beards when they arrived. Here are some pictures of my two favorite little leprechauns!




We tied balloons together to make these giant clovers all over.
 We played "Pin the Chin-Strap on the Leprechaun", and this is the Axel sized leprechaun I designed and printed and then had to color it, because it was way to costly to print in color. The difference was .75 cents a square foot vs 7.50 a square foot! But Axel and I had fun coloring it, and all the kids were super impressed :) 
 We played "Hot Shamrock" I made a shamrock out of rice and fabric and the kids tossed/threw it around the circle. I am always surprised how much kids love simple games with simple rules.


 We then of course let the the birthday boy open his gifts
Who doesn't love a good game of heavy heavy hang over! --the birthday boy looks un-amused!

And we sang happy birthday! And loaded the kids up with cake pops before the last game.

 Lastly, we had  the main event, requested by the birthday boy. A treasure hunt for the Leprechauns Pot of Gold. We put clues all over the house on over sized coins. Aislynn was such a good sport to direct and lead ALL the kids around the house to find and read the clues. And I must say there is NOTHING more chaotic then 26+ kids trying to find clues on a treasure hunt inside. But they had a blast!



This was the last clue and the "Gold at the end of the Rainbow!" I wish I would have gotten white balloons, the package of the balloons said it was light blue, but they were closer to navy. oh well. Rain cloud colored balloons are more realistic anyway...right?

 Each guest got their own little "Pot of Gold" along with a couple other goodies in a little cellophane bag. I loved how these turned out! I painted 26 little baby food jars with chalkboard paint, and filled them full of Rolo's and Hershey's Gold nuggets. I was so glad I had saved all those jars from Axel, I had just enough! And it was nice to free up the space in my cabinet!
 
all the kids scarfing down there pots of gold! 
And because I think this picture is fantastic!
More to come!