Family Photography

We were so lucky to swap photo sessions with our new friend, Sarah, from Bright Waters Photography. It turns out that we are both pregnant, due within a few weeks of each other, and we both have a toddler boy. So we decided to swap maternity/family sessions near the end of our pregnancy. Click HERE, to see the maternity session I did with Sarah and her family. For our session, we decided to walk around the Pasadena farmers market. It was a lot of fun. Thanks for taking our photos, Sarah!

I am so blessed...

...to have such an awesome toddler that slept in this morning. He is such a sweet boy!

And to have a nice mom that helps fold my laundry, a sweet husband that organizes my freezer, and great friends that watch Eli so we can have a date night. And as an unexpected and totally awesome surprise, while Kim watched Eli last night, she also did my dishes. That may not sound like much until you realize how many dishes accumulate when you are trying to stock pile freezer meals for after the baby comes (I've got about 20 meals right now - sweet!). And how horrifying and smelly this HUGE pile of dishes were after sitting a week in hot weather. Kim, you are a saint! (See? They take up so much room, she had to dry some in our oven.)


Thanks to everyone who was concerned about how we were doing after my last post. I don't complain much, but when I get overwhelmed it all comes out. And since Brian has had horrendously busy days at work with his year end closing, I didn't want to bother him with a stressed out wife (like he didn't notice). So thanks to such nice friends and family. We are doing well and so so excited for this baby to come. Oh and since everyone keeps asking about a name. We are still not sure, but we've narrowed it down to Noah Alan and Levi Glade (I think). ;)

Piled High

My huge mountain of laundry looks about how I feel right now. A whole bunch of stuff that's mounting up with no time to deal with any of it. They are all clean. I just don't have time to fold and put them away. So they are getting wrinkled. I feel like my whole life is wrinkled right now.

I have lots of photo shoots coming up and several to edit, which is great. But I am starting to really feel the fatigue during this 7th month of pregnancy. Not to mention the feeling that my pelvis is grinding every time I move (a lovely new pregnancy symptom), which makes photo shoots a lot more difficult.

Which leads me to the freaked out feeling of being only 8 weeks away from having a baby. I don't know how I am going to manage anything with a toddler and a newborn, especially photo shoots. But I haven't even had a chance to think about that because I have been so focused on the delivery. With Eli I had every intervention short of a C-section, which eventually culminated in his shoulders getting stuck during delivery (called shoulder dystocia). Well apparently that's a huge deal, with some possible major complications including the baby having brain damage or dying if it happens again. So I have been reading and learning everything I can about natural childbirth, including taking some expensive, time-consuming Bradley childbirth classes in hopes of avoiding the interventions and hopefully another shoulder dystocia. I have been feeling good about it until my last doctor's visit, in which they said this baby is measuring big. I was just devastated. If this baby is measuring too big then I will have to have a C-section, since the risk goes up. I really wanted to try for a natural birth and now it seems thats not going to happen.

Amidst all this, Brian and I have been thinking about buying a home. We started looking at homes a few months ago, but all we can afford (using the word afford very liberally) are short sales and bank owned properties, which are such a long shot to get. Especially with the market right now. Just last week we saw a home the first day it was on the market, and it already had almost 10 offers on it! And it was a major fixer-upper! We just can't seem to compete, especially with our FHA loan, which is not as desireable as a regular loan or all cash offer like many investors are doing. We actually got an offer back on one of the properties, but it is a short sale so even though the owners accepted our offer - we still need to go through the long process of getting the lenders' approvals, which might not even happen. So we are still looking. And it's stressing me out at the thought of getting one of the houses because it is so much money and we would be VERY house poor for a while. What if something major happened or it is a money pit? And even if we get something - how are we going to get it ready and move in with this new baby coming?

And these are just the big things on my mind. I'm not ready for the baby to come - the nursery, the clothes or even a name! I am not keeping up on the house work - the dishes, the laundry, or even cooking dinner! Everytime something new comes up, all I can think is it's one more thing to deal with (making a gift for a shower, cooking a meal for a friend, or even our regular playdates). And then I feel guilty for not spending enough time and energy with Eli because I'm too busy and stressed with everything else. So today I let him play in the mountain of laundry, while I took pictures and tickled him. He loved it!

So here's to Eli, who reminds me to take a deep breath and enjoy this time because it's only going to get more busy once the baby comes. :p

Updates

There are several updates and new photo sessions on my photography blog (check it out HERE). This is one of my favorite photos from my recent shoots.

Pasadena Engagement Photography

Just wanted to share a recent engagement session I just posted on my photography blog. You can see the rest HERE.

Belly

Today I'm showing off my belly toddler style. Eli thought it would be fun to decorate my belly with stickers.

Eli came over while I was trying to get a picture in the mirror and wanted to take the stickers off. I bent down so he could reach and got a few shots before I realized how disgustingly dirty the bottom of the mirror is from his sticky, grimy fingers!! Guess I should have cleaned it.

I am almost 6 months along right now and my pregnancy has been going very well. So far I have avoided most of the swelling and numbness I had the first time around. I have been having a little bit of pelvic pain from the ligaments stretching, but nothing too bad. Eli is very sweet to the belly - always wanting to give it hugs and kisses. We have been trying to prepare him for the arrival of his little brother and get him excited about it, but he doesn't really know what's going on.

And because I love this session so much, I had to post a couple of my favorites shots. Check out the rest of Shawn and Alisha's maternity shoot HERE or go to my photography blog.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone! We had a lovely holiday visiting friends and family. And Eli really got into looking for Easter eggs this year. I'm sure he'll enjoy searching for eggs again and again over the next couple of weeks. Here are a few pictures from Eli's egg hunt.

We filled his eggs with crackers and little matchbox cars, with was perfect. Eli got really excited to open them.

We're still working on names for the next baby. The main contenders right now are Levi, Noah, Jonah, Emmett and Malakai (Kai). If you haven't left a comment and voted in the poll, please help out -->

A rose by any other name

Names... ugh! Like I said in the last post, the only problem with having a boy is coming up with a name. I don't know why, but Elijah (Eli) just seemed to fit last time. Pretty much my whole pregnancy, we knew his name would be Elijah. I keep waiting for an epiphany this pregnancy and it's just not happening. So...

We would like to hear your input on our very long and ever changing "short" list of boy names - even suggestions would be appreciated. I'm just getting so tired of looking at list after list of names and getting no inspiration. Sure, there's a lot of names we like, but can I see my next son with the name - I don't know. Feel free to vote in the poll on the right --> but please, please leave your comments below so we know why you do or don't like certain names - their connotations, etc. Here's the list (for now):

Levi
Noah
Kai
Jonah
Emmett
Isaiah
Enoch
Malakai (Kai)
Xion
Jasper



And just to keep this post interesting, here is a sneak preview of Lincoln for our good friends, the Cunninghams. Lincoln, now that's a good name...

BIG Announcement

I have been dying to know the gender of our next baby for weeks and weeks. So this morning we finally went in for our 20 week ultrasound and found out we are having...

... a BOY! The tech said he was 99% sure it was a boy. So Eli will have a little brother soon to torture. I am actually really happy to have another boy. For the last week or so, I have been imagining two brothers playing and having fun. I think it will be so nice for them to grow up together.

The only downside is now I have no idea what we will name him (I already had a girl name ready, but no boy name). And I will have to pack away the two little pink blankets I made for a future daughter. We want more kids, so I have plenty of chances for the little girl I want eventually.

Toddler Decorating

I love our sweet Eli - he just cracks me up sometimes. Life with a toddler is definitely busy, but it's also fun. For several weeks, I have noticed Eli placing some of his prized possessions carefully around our house, like he wants to leave little bits of himself everywhere. In particular, I keep noticing him hanging his little train cars off the hook in our armoire. He doesn't seem fazed that I take them off when we clean up, they are always put back up the next day. :)

In addition to the hook, he also likes to "park" some of his cars on the little shelf in the armoire.

As I was taking pictures of these little decorations, I decided to look around and see what other strange places he leaves his toys. This one is under the armoire.

And a little Fisher Price person in our door jam.

And finally, a mini board book in the mail slot. Maybe he thinks he's leaving me special treats or surprises all over the house. :)

I can't get over how cute Eli is getting. I love seeing his personality emerge. For the most part, Eli is pretty easy going and happy (except when he is teething with all four molars, like right now!!). Eli has so much energy - he loves to run and play especially at the park. He is a huge dare devil and doesn’t want my help as he goes down the slides and climbs the ladders. He loves to get dirty and play in the sand, sometimes putting it down his clothes and diaper!

Since Eli is only 18 months old right now, he doesn’t really understand that he will be a big brother soon. However he is very interested in babies, and likes to sign “baby” and wave whenever he’s sees one. Eli is starting to speak and sign a lot. He loves to say his “C” words: “car”, “crash”, “cracker”, and “cat” among other things. But most of all it is so fun to see him really taking off with sign language. He signs about 40 words, mostly things that interest him: “bird”, “airplane”, “dog”, “boat”, “ball”, “water” and “siren” or to communicate his needs: “help”, “please”, “thank you”, “sorry”, “more”, “hot”, and “cold”. We also have fun asking where his different body parts are for Eli to point to: “eyes”, “ears”, “nose”, “mouth”, and “belly button”.

Eli is also starting to show affection. He will spontaneously get up from playing to give me a hug and kiss or to cuddle next to me for a few seconds. He also likes to imitate what we are doing, like pulling the covers on our laps, reading a book, or typing on the computer (no matter how much I discourage that). I love that he wants to be so helpful now, following simple directions to bring me his shoes or close the door. Eli is such a joy, I can't wait to have another one and add to our family. I hope Eli will love his new sibling. BTW: We will (hopefully) be finding out the gender in two weeks, so if you haven't voted in the poll to the right, go ahead. I'm excited to find out. :)

On an unrelated note, if you haven't had a chance to check out my photography website for a while, there are a lot of new photos and updated info. In addition, there are several new posts on my photography blog.