Chloe's 9 month photo shoot

  Last month I decided to try my hand at indoor photography for Chloe's 9 month photo shoot being as how it was cold and rainy on the day that I wanted to take her pictures.  I quickly realized how much of a challenge it is to shoot indoors.  And especially how the right light is the #1 key element in photography.  

  I was reminded how I went to a private photography class a year ago and the professional photograhper asked me what I"m actually taking pictures of.  I stammered a bit and said, "Uhhhh, people?" knowing that my answer was likely wrong.   "Light," was her reply.

  I also learned that the flash built into the camera does not produce my desired results.  But, that will soon be remedied as Santa will be bringing a 50mm 1.4 lense for Christmas.  I was extremely good this year. :-)

 

Chloe LOVED playing with the pumpkins!

Chloe's 6 Month Photo Shoot!

Over the holiday weekend I decided to take Chloe's 6 months pictures.  This is the first "photo shoot" I have ever done and I'm pretty happy with how the pictures came out.  We took Chloe to the greenbelt behind our house that has a park and a jogging trail.  The biggest challenge was getting Chloe positioned since she is only sitting up on her own for about 4 seconds before she starts leaning.  The next biggest challenge was getting her to look at the camera and flash that gorgeous gummy smile.  Daddy was a big help with that.  I probably wouldn't have gotten the great shots that I did if he hadn't been there to make Chloe laugh.  She sure loves her Daddy!

The above and below pics have a few sentimental touches. Chloe is sitting in a wagon that Kyle built for our wedding.  It was used to roll our ring bearer down the aisle who was only 10 months old at the time.  Both of the blankets in the picture were given to her by her Great Grandmas from both sides.  Her Great Grandma Nevins crocheted the pink blanket and her Great Grandma Villarreal bought the white blanket for her.

The basket Chloe is sitting in for all the rest of the pictures is borrowed 

from her Grandma (Kyle's Mom).

Since there are several generations of Oklahoma State alumni on Kyle's side, it was only a matter of time before there was an OSU themed photo shoot.  Go Cowboys!

She kept trying to eat the pom-poms. :-)

The above pic is one of Kyle's favorites.  He calls it her serious pose.

In the above pic I added a fog effect that gave the picture a bit of a soft whimsical feel.  You can see the difference in the original pic below that doesn't have the effect

I hope you enjoyed Chloe's pictures!  

I'm already thinking of ideas for her 9 month photo shoot this fall! 

   

Summer 2014

School is starting this week and for the first time in my adult life this fact feels significant to me.  The beginning of school marks the end of summer.  The end of my first summer as a momma.  The end of Chloe and I's first summer together.  While Chloe won't be venturing off to school for another 4 years, we've made so many memories doing fun things that only or mostly happen during the summertime. We've gone swimming, gone to splash pads, gone to the lake, gone for walks to the park, the zoo, a really cool farmstead in Kansas City. In the midst of managing life as a new mom, it truly just hit me the other day, I have had an amazing first summer with my baby girl.  One that I will always look back on and cherish.  Although it has certainly been the most challenging (Shout out to all you singles mommas out there. I get a taste of it when Kyle travels.) it has also been the sweetest and most fulfilling of my entire life.

Memorial Day Weekend, Lake Eufaula

When I found out I was pregnant and due in February, I was slightly bummed that it would be difficult to ever have an outdoor birthday party.  Hello bipolar Oklahoma weather.  But what I didn't know then and what I fully appreciate now is that by the time Chloe was 3 months old in May, we were out of the newborn haze.  The colic had become a blocked out distant memory.  We were getting more sleep. Chloe started to become more aware of her surroundings.  She began to discover life.  And as a result, I began to discover life again also, but this time through the eyes of a little one.  And that is purely magical.

Jackson Park Splash Pad, Tulsa OK

Our very own front porch became a favorite spot.  A place where we would sit and watch the rain and feel its cool breezes.  Or we would listen to Pandora as we blew bubbles. We would go for walks and stop to watch squirrels play or bunnies skittishly hop away. And then there were days we took shelter in the air conditioning and read stories and sang silly songs.  

That smile.

It's been exciting to watch Chloe reach her milestones.  From sleeping in her crib, to rolling over both directions, to trying oatmeal and rice cereal.  It truly has been awesome.  She has started to take a deeper interest in toys and it is so fun to watch her play and babble.  I love handing a toy to her and she reaches her little hand with all her fingers spread out to take it.  She has also started reaching to touch my and Kyle's faces.  It's pretty much the sweetest thing ever.

When you're a baby, you can totally pull off 

pink polka dots and leopard print.

While I am a little sad that our first summer is drawing to a close, I am filled with so much anticipation for the months ahead.  There are so many memories waiting to be made as autumn and the holidays are just around the corner.  And our little one will likely become mobile before the year is done.  Then she'll really be keeping me on my toes!

Laundry Mysteries

  I am fairly certain that our beloved front loading, high efficiency washer and dryer are responsible for the disappearance of countless socks from our laundry.  Seriously, how else do you explain all these socks waiting to be reunited with their sole mates?

I know many of you out there who have ever done laundry can identify with me on that.  But, have you ever had an article of clothing appear?

As in, out of nowhere.

Absolutely no idea in the world.

How this garment appeared in our household.

Recently, Kyle was cleaning out his closet (small miracles do happen) and came upon this shirt:

I'll wait while you laugh and make a few sarcastic comments before continuing...

  Neither of us have ever laid eyes this shirt before.  We don't have a clue where it came from, who in the heck the band Coheed and Cambria is, or who of our friends feels passionately enough about said band to purchase such an ugly shirt.  Kyle was quite disgusted by this shirt and described it as being uglier than the shirts sold at truck stops that have wolves on them.  He actually said, and I quote:

"I would walk around shirtless like 

Justin Beiber

before I would wear that shirt."  

  I should mention that Kyle is not a fan of Justin Beiber, his music, or his life choices in general.  If this shirt belongs to you, please let us know and we will happily return it to you with only minimal judgement about your taste in music and clothing. :-)

Nursery Reveal!

I'm back! So it's been over 3 months since my last blog post and while I could blame it on being a new mom and life being crazy and no one would be the wiser, it's actually because I couldn't figure out how to use my camera or how to create a new blog post in the 14 seconds I had between naps and feedings and changing diapers and figuring out how to get dinner on the table.  Hmmm, so maybe it really is because I am a new mom and life is crazy.  But it's a crazy that I absolutely love and wouldn't have any other way.  Onto the nursery reveal!

I am a bit obsessed with the color gray.  I mean you can pair it with pretty much any other color.  So when I found out that I was pregnant I knew I wanted to paint the room gray.  Well that, and also Kyle basically forbade me from painting the room pink if our child was a girl because he didn't want to have to repaint the room whenever we move.  Anyway, 2 trips to Lowes and 5 samples later, we selected the color Wet Pavement by Valspar.  I love how it turned out.

The crib came from Babies 'R Us and I bought the glider and ottoman on Amazon.  I am not really into themes that are matchy matchy.  I just picked colors and things that I liked and coordinated them.

I wanted my main accent colors to be pink and aqua. 

My very lovely and talented mother-in-law painted Chloe's name for her nursery.  She did a fantastic job!

This is what you see when you peak your head in from the hallway.  I forgot what the  bedding is called but it is also from Babies 'R Us.  I should seriously consider buying some shares of stock in that store.  The lamp and the end table were pieces that we already had on hand from Kyle's old house.  We made chalk paint for the end table and used spray paint for the lamp.  We bought a new lampshade as well.

The pom-poms up in the corner are a creation I did on my own using tissue paper, floral wire, fishing line and the internet.  The canvas to the right of the pom-poms is one of my favorite gifts I received from my good friend Leah.  She had her sister paint it and then had the girls at my baby shower write sweet notes and scriptures for our baby girl.  It was so creative and thoughtful!  It reads, "If you can't sleep, don't count sheep.  Just talk to the Shepherd."  Below is a close up.

This dresser turned out to be quite the project.  I bought it off Craig's List for $50.  We made our own chalk paint and bought new handles from Lowes to give this dresser a much needed make over.  Kyle also spent a lot of time sanding the crazy designs off of the drawers.  Check out the before below. Yikes!

I already had the shelves above the dresser.  Everything sitting on them were gifts except for the owl.  I bought that at an antique store for $10 bucks and painted it pink.  My mother-in-law also painted the canvases above the dresser.  The scripture on the canvas to the left is Jeremiah 29:11.  I love that it is in my direct line of sight from the glider where I feed Chloe every day.  It reminds me that God has a plan for Chloe's life and that I'm not in this parenting thing alone.  That He chose me to be her mother and that He's there with me every step of the way to show me how to be the best mom I can be to Chloe.

This corner of the room is the book nook.  It has some very special touches to it.  The bookshelf was built by my Grandpa, Chloe's Great-Grandpa.  The two framed tatting hanging above it were crocheted by Kyle's Great-Great-Grandmother, Chloe's Great-Great-Great-Grandmother. 

One of my favorite decorations in Chloe's room is the tree in the corner.  After we painted, this was the first decoration to go up in her room.  It just looks like it was meant for that corner.  It was a gift from my sister-in-law.  It is also from Babies 'R Us.  The swing in front of it has afforded us much needed sleep!  We bought it at a consignment shop for less than half the retail price.  It hardly looked used at all.  I highly recommend going the consignment route if you are interested in saving some cash.  The rug that you can see the corner of came from Target.  It's super cute.  (Can anyone tell me the best way to clean a rug?)  Well I hope you enjoyed the tour of Chloe's room!  I will try not to wait quite as long to write my next post!  I wouldn't want to disappoint any of my 4 readers. Ha!

Chloe's Birth Story

   Let me preface this story by saying that my doctor told me for several weeks that she was sure that my baby would come sometime in the week prior my due date  You can see where this is going right?  Kyle and I went to the mall every night for a week and a half to walk in an attempt to bring on labor and nothing seemed to be happening.  On the afternoon of my due date, Mon., Feb. 10th, I saw my doctor and she scheduled an induction for late Thurs. night.  With that, I gave up all hope of spontaneous labor and began making plans around my scheduled induction.

   The morning of Wed., Feb 12th, Kyle jokingly asked me if I thought I would go into labor to which I emphatically said no.  You can see where this is going too, right?  I went to work all excited that I was being induced the next evening and that the complete and utter misery that are the final weeks of pregnancy would soon be over.  I spent the morning finishing up all things work related.  I talked to my sister in law on the phone and made lunch plans with my mother in law for the next day.  And I texted back and forth with my husband like we normally due.  At 10:45 am I felt something that might be... could it be?... Then I stood up at my desk and GUSH.  My water had unmistakably broken.  My whole pregnancy I had heard the vast majority of pregnant women, like 70-80%, do not experience their water breaking on it's own.  And the sudden large gush is something perpetuated by movies and happens even less frequently.  The scene at my office did seem like something straight out of a movie.

  I met Kyle at the hospital.  I didn't have any contractions for the first 2 hours of my 8 hour labor.  When I began to feel them, they were uncomfortable and I debated about when I should ask for the epidural, knowing it could be awhile before they might be able to get it to me and then have it take effect.  Turns out that I am so glad I asked for it when I did because by the time they brought it to me, which was only 30 minutes later, I was in severe pain and also had to be given oxygen to help me slow my breathing down for the baby. Kyle asked me if the epidural hurt and I said yes but it was nothing compared to the contractions.  I also made a point not to look at the needle.  I knew the sight of it would freak me out even more.  About 10 minutes later the glorious relief took effect and all was right again in my world.  Several hours later I began to feel a lot of pressure (the epidural only took the edge off my pain, I could still feel when I had contractions). About 6:20 pm I told the nurse and she had all the family, except Kyle, leave the room and then checked me.  She said it's time to start pushing.  By this point the pressure was incredibly intense and I became really nervous about what I was about to do.  I kept reciting Philippians 4:13 under my breath.  I knew when Chloe's head was coming out because Kyle and all the nurses got really vocal and cheered me on telling me that I was doing great and that I could do this and to just keep pushing.  With my last 2 contractions, I pushed with all my heart, soul and the strength I could muster.  Our sweet daughter was born at 6:52 pm weighing  6lbs 14 oz and 19 and 3/4 inches long.  I'll never forget the moment they placed her on my belly and I saw her for the first time.  I was struck by how beautiful she is and by how much I already loved her. In that moment, everything leading up to this became so worth it.  I would do it all again in a heartbeat.  I'm so humbled by the opportunity to be this little one's mommy.  Here are some pics from that day...