I dwell in possibility

The Inside Story (little man # 2)

2011-10-28T22:06:00.006-05:00

Well, our little guy was so easy to get ultrasound photos of today! Not at all like it was when we did this with Oren. If you want to see photos from Oren's ultrasound CLICK HERE. I was a week further along when we did his.

Oren was so good during the ultrasound, he sat still and watched. I was very surprised that he did so well.

I cried the second I got to see his sweet little chubby face. (30 weeks pregnant today)

I completely adore Oren's expression in this one.

The family that was able to make it out. From left: aunt Gail, Granna (Debbie), Maxine (one of my sisters), my grandma (Gisele or GiGi), & my aunt Sharon.

Me & Max. October 22nd she celebrated her 17th birthday! Happy birthday sister!

Our second sweet baby boy!

Hand on his little face.

He has his chin tucked down into his chest.

The tech told Oren that little brother was saying hi and that this photo was for him. :)

On this one she used the arrow to show that he is a bit chubby in there with his little double chin.

After our very successful ultrasound we had a nice dinner with aunt Gail & Debbie at Cleburne cafeteria. When we got home I asked Oren if he liked getting to see his baby brother. He then went on to tell me about how little brother put his foot up and almost poked his eye out! Here is a picture of the moment Oren was telling me about. He also kept bringing his feet up to his face during the video.

I tried to figure out how to add the ultrasound video but I couldn't. I'll keep working on that & maybe add it on later.

While talking about baby names again tonight for the millionth time Oren suggested Caillou or Master Yoda. hahaha

3d ultrasound today!

2011-10-28T11:51:00.009-05:00

What better time to start blogging on my personal blog again than this fun day! Hopefully little man number 2 (yes, he is still nameless...sort of) is more cooperative than Oren was for the 3d ultrasound. We ended up going twice in one day and then having to reschedule to a different day all together before we got to see his sweet face. This little guy has already been so much more active in there than Oren ever was so hopefully today will go well. I'm so beyond excited to see his face and to see how Oren reacts to it all. He knows that a baby brother is coming but I think this could really drive it all home for him.

I know I have some SERIOUS catching up to do on this blog!!! Sorry friends/family. ;)
First we moved into a new place, then I found out I was pregnant & was so miserably sick for so long, got WAY behind on work because of that so blogging really fell off of my list of things to do. I'm finally getting caught up and feeling great, with 10 weeks left in this pregnancy I want to do as much on this blog as possible before our new guy makes his appearance. ;)

I have a picture from when I was about 5 weeks pregnant (which I look sickly thin in) then one from when I was 18 weeks...after that they are all random snapshots. I did really terrible documenting my belly this time. I was just SOOOOO sick, so so sick that I couldn't stand to do anything. I do regret it now but it is what it is. I'll take one today or tomorrow for my 30 week shot & maybe do one a week or every two weeks to try and make up for it a little.

Because I have to put at least a few pictures with this post, here are some from a trip we took to South Padre for a friend's wedding.

We did NOT plan for our clothes to match. That was the only dress shirt Oren had, the only dress I had that still fit (at the time), and the only tie Jeremy owned. haha! We realized once we were all dressed that we matched.

26 weeks. I look awful & I had forgotten my bathing suit. Smart when you are going to spend the weekend on an island, huh?

ninja Oren

2011-02-02T23:23:00.002-06:00

Nothing fancy about our day today. It was super cold out and snow was mentioned but never came. Good thing that when we told Oren it might snow he told us he didn't want it to. haha!

Cuddled up on the couch this morning watching Tom & Jerry. He was complaining that his tummy hurt.

He noticed that I took a picture of him and wanted me to take more. Sometimes he is all about pictures, other times, he hates them.

Later in the day I was taking a picture of some of my crafty things and he needed me to take pictures of him too. ;) He was reading a kids cookbook and wanted to show me.

Then he insisted that I take a picture of the cards he had been playing with.

Some unfinished friends. The little boy doll I made for Oren and gave to him Christmas morning. He is still waiting on eyebrows & eyelashes though! It will get done soon, I finally made a trip to get the color embroidery floss I needed.

Little kitty still needs me to embroider her facial features.

(all patterns by Bit Of Whimsy)

Drawing on his robot placemat.

Something he drew.

New fabric always makes me smile. I'm looking forward to making new things with it.

Pretending to be a ninja and cracking me up. He refused to stand still for me to get a good shot of him. Most of these are blurry but I have to keep them. :)

I know it has been a week or so since I posted anything on here. I got a bit overwhelmed with work and have been trying to get caught up. Some people can be a bit impatient when it comes to getting their images back. ;) Things are getting better though. From now on I'll try not to go more than a few days without posting something.

dentist and a date

2011-02-01T23:33:00.001-06:00

This morning I did not want to get up. I stayed up much too late getting work done last night. Blah. I never seem to learn. Either way, morning came much too fast for me today. I got up and got straight to work on breakfast and cleaning the apartment so that I could wake up and get going. I knew if I sat down with Oren on the couch while he watched a couple morning cartoons I would crash. I looked over at him drinking his milk at one point and he looked so sweet all cuddled up on the couch, reminded me of when he was a baby with a bottle still. I grabbed my camera wanting to get a shot of his sweet profile but he caught me.

No pictures mom.

Peeking at me.

He had oatmeal for breakfast but then insisted on needing a snack of cereal.

Granna came over during her lunch break and brought Oren a surprise happy meal & chocolate milk.

In this next photo he is telling on me. I was trying to sneak a picture of them talking but once again he caught me and made sure granna knew.

They sat on the couch and granna tickled him. He didn't want her to leave, as usual.

We left really soon after for dental check ups for both of us. Oren was amazing at his. When they called his name the lady told me she was going to try and take him without me… I said ok and as I walked out the door to the lobby also said “goodluck with that”. A little while later they came and got me. She told me he did really great! I honestly was surprised. Oren said “I brushed my teeth mom!” he does this every night so I’m not sure why it was so exhilarating for him, perhaps because I wasn’t there? The first trip to the dentist 6 months ago he cried the entire time. Today they took some more film of his teeth, cleaned them, and did a treatment on them to keep them healthy. No cavities so we are still doing well.

In the waiting room.

His appointment was at 2 and by 2:35 we were pulling out of the parking lot. My appointment wasn’t until 3:15 but we drove over anyhow. We sat in the car for about 8 minutes and took a photo or two. I was trying to kill time because I didn’t want Oren to lose it having to wait forever in the lobby. My check up was post-surgery stuff. She removed the rest of my stitches, told me everything looked really great, to call if I had any trouble, and that she would see me in 3 weeks. I ended up going in at 2:48 and we were gone and in the store by the time my actual appointment was suppose to start! Awesome.

In these next ones I had asked him to show off his clean teeth.

We made a quick trip into Target to get stuff to make cake for daddy. Jeremy called yesterday on his way home from work and requested a cake from me for his birthday. When we got in Oren and I had a little date at Starbucks. He was really such a good boy at both dental offices I wanted to treat him. He loves the little vanilla bean scones so we each had one, his with vanilla milk and mine with a little coffee. :)

A little note about the paper heart. Oren had me cut that out for him months ago. He must have stuck it in the side pocket of my bag that day. Either way, I haven't used that bag in a while and grabbed it on this day. When we sat to eat at Starbucks I went looking for my camera and discovered it. He asked for it and so it ended up in most of the photos. :)

Oren loves to sit with daddy when he gets home from work and play with his phone.

Having yummy cake. Oren refused to eat his own though, only Jeremy's was good enough.

costume dinner party

2011-01-31T23:11:00.000-06:00

Today Oren and I didn’t do much of interest and I didn’t pull my camera out once. I guess since there was so much to yesterday’s post that will have to be ok. :) We did the usual things we do every day and then at about 2:15 left to go to my bi-weekly chiropractic appointment. He is always really good while we are there. He didn’t want to leave this time because the doc brought in a huge bucket of super old toys and he loved it.

We had planned to make a quick run in Wal-Mart for a few things we missed at the store the other day… Let me start this by saying that Oren is fully potty trained and has been for quite some time now. When we arrived at the doc he asked to go to the bathroom. We were there less than 30 minutes. We left for Wal-Mart, which is about 4 minutes away, and when we were less than a minute from being there he starts to complain he has to potty. It is serious too because he is wiggling around and whining about it which he never does. I’m begging him to hold it because there is no where else to stop. I quickly park and jump out of the car to pull him out but the SECOND I start to unbuckle him he pees all over himself. Nice. It was totally an accident and he was so sad it happened. The worst part is that on this day I didn’t bring anything extra to change him into. I usually keep some extras in the trunk but when I looked the pants weren’t there. I must have used them and never put them back. Oren cried so hard because he wanted to go in the store badly. I felt sorry for him but I couldn’t put those wet clothes on him and I certainly wasn’t bringing him in there without clothes! Luckily I had a stash of pull-ups still in the trunk so he had to wear one on the way home. He kept telling me he was sorry which was killing me. So, we made a little stop at sonic to get him a cheeseburger and his “favorite” chocolate milk. Then we went home and ran into the maintenance man who asked me how our day was and we all had a laugh when I said “Great, no one is locked out today.” ;)

While we were eating dinner Oren decided we all needed to be dressed up. He was wearing a bunny ears headband, put a witch’s hat on daddy, and put a cowboy hat on me. At one point Oren was, of course, not going to eat and so sat down watch veggie tales instead, Jeremy looks up at me and says “step back and look at what we’re doing right now” because we were still wearing the silly hats while we ate without giving it any thought at all. I laughed so hard and Jeremy said something like “so this is what our lives have come to”, which made me laugh that much harder. Good times. Right this second I'm kicking myself for not getting up and taking a photo of us sitting at the table like this. What was I thinking?!?!?

We all three climbed in Oren’s bed for a bit while I read “How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You” and “How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food”. Then it was lights out and snuggling all together for a minute before sleep. Then my work “day” begins with returning client e-mails, placing orders, and editing, editing, editing. Oh and of course taking a little time for myself to post on this blog. ;)

Since I don't want to post without a photo here is one from a couple weeks ago.

Happy 27th Birthday Jeremy/daddy!

2011-01-29T23:13:00.006-06:00

This morning, since we were lacking in the grocery department, Jeremy went to get breakfast. Yes on his own birthday… he wanted to go. While daddy was out Oren wanted to make him a card. He was really excited about surprising him with it and wanted to just stand and wait with it behind his back until Jeremy got back. So, I got him to let me take pictures of it to pass some time and then he wanted to jump off the couch so I thought why not.

melt. my. heart. *sigh*

This next set cracked me up because I wasn't actually trying to get a picture of Oren. I was just messing with some settings on my camera and later saw his head behind the couch in each one. Made me smile so I kept them.

Oren was way too quick once daddy got back so I don't have a picture of how sweet he looked standing in his doorway with the card hidden behind his back. Here is a sweet hug though. ;)

Daddy's card; front, middle, & back side.

Oren is always excited about going to granna & paw-paw’s house so, this morning when he was really upset after I told him we didn’t have any more “hot dogs” (kolache’s) I said “but hey, guess what?!?! We’re about to go see granna & paw-paw!” he instantly replied with “No, I don’t like them.” Jeremy and I looked at each other like Oren had lost his mind. Hahaha

We barely made it in time to get Oren all signed up to play jr. T-ball this year. We’re all pretty excited about it. He’s going to have so much fun! When we were super close to getting to gran & paw's he said "we're in granna's woods!" It was so cute. I think it might be because Jeremy had been telling Oren that he was going "over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house."

Once we got to gran & paw’s we had cake for Jeremy’s birthday and then headed out on our date. It is ALWAYS so hard for me to leave Oren behind, no matter who I leave him with. He was so sweet though saying he loved us and “see you later”.

We made a quick stop at Hobby Lobby because I needed a few crafty things. Thank you Jeremy for making that trip with me on your day. ;) Then it was time for dinner at Asian City and it was amazing as always. So yummy. We considered going to a movie after but there wasn’t anything we were both interested in seeing. It was decided that we had movies at home that we wanted to see more. So, we took a trip to see Jeremy’s brother and some friends for a bit and then headed home We we’re both too tired to watch a full movie once at home so we settled for one episode of Stargate and honestly I was slightly struggling to stay awake for that short time.

I think last night was my third night away from Oren ever. The first time was when he was just a little over a month old and I went to photograph the birth of his sweet cousin Levi. It wasn’t too hard for me that time because I was excited about meeting Levi and occupied with that. However, after watching Levi make his way into the world I was itching to hold my baby too! ;) The second time was the WORST. I cried from the moment we left until finally at some point I just fell asleep that night, emotionally exhausted. I had to leave him because I had a wedding in Houston the next morning and Jeremy wasn’t able to watch him. It wasn’t as hard this time for sure because I wasn’t leaving them both to go to work. It was still strange for me…so much so that I couldn’t sleep until I went ahead and looked in his room even though I knew he wouldn’t be there. (I did this the bad night too) I check on him every night before I go to sleep, and I do mean every single night. Apparently I’ve developed a tick because I honestly HAD to go in there before I could finally fall asleep. Strange?? I even started to turn on the monitor after I checked his empty room. I’m crazy! Jeremy was amused with me.

I will say that I got a really good deep sleep in knowing I didn’t have to listen for him or worry about him at all last night. I didn’t want to get up this morning! We met the family (granna, paw-paw, LeAnn, & William) for lunch at Jax to celebrate Jeremy’s birthday and pick Oren up. Then we finally made that much needed grocery store trip. When pulling into the parking lot Oren saw Petco and begged to go in there. So, we told him we would take him to pick out a new fish after groceries. Poor Oren, both the fish we got him for Christmas have died. When we were going over to Petco he squealed and then laughed saying the cat that is on the Petco symbol was silly. He picked out a crown betta fish and some new plants for his dino tank. Of course, we had to walk around the store and look at all the other animals while we were there. His tank looks really nice now with the bright new fish and plants.

Some pictures I took after lunch while we waited for Jeremy to switch the carseat back to our car.

On a funny note, we took turns bringing the groceries up so that we wouldn’t have another lockout episode. ;) hahaha!

Oren had a great time yesterday, as we knew he would. At lunch they were telling me that Oren talked more about his “friend” Jordan. Who, by the way, is a girl. I have no idea why all of a sudden my son has developed an imaginary friend. I don’t know if he is just lonely for someone to play with and that is why or what. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about it…. It is pretty comical and interesting to hear him talk about “Jordan”.

Tonight we all three fell asleep in Oren’s bed after reading a bedtime story. I was so tired for some reason. I kept falling asleep while Jeremy read to him.

Oren and Jeremy were playing "ninja" but I didn't make it with the camera in time to get any cute pictures and Oren was over it. This one is terrible but whatever.

messy messy room

Jeremy giving me the "what are you doing" look he always gives me when he notices I'm taking his picture.

Oren's new fish friend. I'm still trying to get him to name the little guy. I think we'll do better with a betta. I've always done well with those. Apparently we are not good candidates for goldfish.

I think I got a little carried away with this post. There are 53 photos and 3 videos! I guess I'm trying to make up for MONTHS and months of not doing anything.

videos

2011-01-29T11:18:00.005-06:00

Here are the two short videos I shot last night while we played in our under the table fort. ;) Today is daddy's 27th birthday! We're getting ready to go sign Oren up for T-ball and then take him to play at Granna & Paw-Paw's for the day while daddy & mommy go on a much needed date. :) Happy Birthday Jeremy, we both love you so much!

An uneventful day??

2011-01-28T21:31:00.003-06:00

Oren spent most of last night in our bed. He kept having nightmares. Probably reliving what he went through yesterday! When I got up this morning every muscle in my body cried out. I guess all the running up and down the stairs trying to rescue Oren from our apartment took its toll on me. I must be totally out of shape! I was still so tired from the day before and my mouth is still throbbing off an on from the surgery. Every time I think I can manage to eat a little more or a little tougher foods I pay for it. Today was one week, how long is it really going to take to be able to eat normally again? I miss food.

Oren and I were slightly lazy this morning. I was hoping for a completely normal, uneventful day. We played and watched a movie and just cuddled. Then I decided I would get us both ready and make that much needed trip to the grocery store. I just love to go grocery shopping, not. Finally, close to 2pm we write daddy a note telling him where we’ll be when he gets home and we get ready to walk out the door. Then, the phone rings. I almost don’t answer it… It’s a great thing I did though. It was our bank calling to ask me about some purchases that were made today with my debit card. Wow. Let me tell you I was certainly not in Sunrise Florida buying lots of stuff at Ikea. I mean I wish I could afford to be on vacation in Florida blowing that kind of money at Ikea. However, if I wanted to buy stuff there I think I would just go an hour away to our local one. She tells me three separate purchases were made. Needless to say she canceled my card on the spot and lets me know it will be between 5-10 business days before we see the money unless there is some other issue. There went my trip to the grocery store. Oh and rent is due in a few short days, not to mention the other bills.

A little later, while waiting for Jeremy to get home, I decide to get online and check out exactly how much was missing from our account. There, I find that it was actually four purchases at Ikea, two parking meters paid, and a trip to Publix, all costing us just a little less than $1,000. Sickening. So, I pick up the phone and call the claims center back and have to go through it all over again with another person. She asks me if I’m honesty sure I didn’t make that one trip to publix and I explain that that day I was knocked out cold for oral surgery. Then she tells me oh well that is where your parking meter bills are coming from and I had to explain that no, there aren’t parking meters where I went and I was certainly not in Miami that morning, (that is where the meters where paid). This call is eventually more successful because she ends up e-mailing me a form to sign and return electronically and tells me it will be about 2 business days until we get our money back. I’m praying for that outcome.

Even after Jeremy got home I decided to just wait on that trip to buy groceries. After he jokingly mentioned that maybe “something” was trying to tell me I just needed to stay home. Well, maybe he was right. ;) Plus, I wasn’t up for any more surprises. He left for Houston, which is a whole different story that I’ll talk about later, and Oren and I played the rest of the day.

It was nice. We played “pow”, basically his good guy/bad guy game of shooting. Made a fort under the table where we played a bit and read some books. After that we spent time doing art stuff. He drew me a map and needed me to use my crayon to follow the trail to the park. It was cute that he had me do this; he’s been doing those tracing trails to help him with writing. He also did extremely well tracing the lowercase letter g. I wasn’t asking him to, he had been doodling in this dry-erase book he got from Mindy’s family for Christmas and was so proud to show me what he had done and then did it again. I wanted to take a photo but he was so excited he erased it quickly so that he could do other letters. Then in typical three year old fashion became side-tracked with something else.

After all that we had dinner, crock-pot lasagna. This was a hit with Oren. He ate a whole bowl of it! If you know my son, he never eats anything…and most certainly not at dinner time. Next, it was bath time. I stepped out of the bathroom for only a moment and when I walked back in he was dumping cup after cup of water onto the floor. Honestly it was more like he was using the cup to help push monsoon waves of water onto the floor. It was EVERYWHERE. The worst part is that Oren thought it was hysterical, me, not so much. So, out he came, into pajamas, and into bed to wait while I mopped up the bathroom. I sat in his bed and talked with him and tried to explain why it was not okay to flood the bathroom but he just couldn’t comprehend. Oh well.

We sat in his bed and talked and cuddled. At one point he picked his monkey up and talked for him saying all sorts of really cute things. Goodness I wish I could remember all of it. Monkey asked me for juice and I told him that he could only have water. Then Monkey asked me to read him a book and gave me a kiss and hug. So, I told Oren I would go get him some water but was quickly corrected, that water was for “montey and snate”. When I returned they each had a drink and we all settled in to read “Cat in the Hat”. He has loved this book for so long. It really draws him in. I love looking over at him while I read it. Of course, after this book we had to read “one more”, so we read “If You Take a Mouse to the Movies”. After which Oren insisted we needed to read “one more”, but he was exhausted and could hardly stay awake. Off the lights went and soon, after he had me get his ball and spaceship, he was sound asleep. It was 8pm on the dot.

I later joked with Jeremy that the apartment looked like Thing One and Thing Two had been unleashed in the apartment. I certainly didn’t want to clean up after them.

In our fort.

Oh, Oren is wearing one of Jeremy's old t-shirts. He had it on for his art time and then refused to take it off. In this next photo he was a bit tangled up in it.

I have to be honest and say that I nearly hate this photo of me but he is so cute I have no choice but to keep it.

He was being silly with the flashlight, making silly noises. I'll try to get the videos I took on here tomorrow.

The map. I should have used photoshop to show which line was me find my way to his park. It is a lighter one sort of through the center. I didn't do much.

The letter "g" he traced. Tomorrow I'll try to get a picture of him doing it.

Here are the "ball and spaceship" that he asks to go to sleep with almost every night. They came in happy meals his granna brought him a while back. I think they are some of his favorite toys ever. Go figure.

I'm back. It is 1:30 in the morning...yes I’m still up, editing and doing various other things I cannot accomplish during the day with a child. Oren woke up crying telling me there had been a monster in his room. :( Now he is sleeping peacefully with daddy. I think we need a bigger bed.

Yet another heavy post tonight but I decided today that I’m not going to give up on this blog. After looking back through the archives and seeing everything I did in years past I’m sad that I didn’t do a better job of keeping up with this and that I didn’t write more about what our days were like and the things we did. I was so utterly overwhelmed with all my client work and other things that I just gave up on keeping track of our family’s memories. It is sort of heart breaking for me to see and think about. So, I plan to do better this year and I think once a month I’m going to do some back posting. Starting with the beginning of Oren’s little life and making sure that anything I jotted down or photos I took gets added on slowly but surely. This is important, it’s our story. :)

The Incident

2011-01-27T22:12:00.010-06:00

This is a heavy post for my first post back into blog land.... prepare yourself.

This story could be told in three sentences. I’m sure of it. I, however, want to remember it all. So, feel free to skip to the photos at the bottom and perhaps I’ll do a recap for you. I personally think the long version more interesting. ;)

I did not sleep well at all last night, I just couldn’t seem to fall asleep. I went to bed what is considered early for me, midnight. It was after 2:30 or 3 in the morning when I finally did get to sleep. I kept thinking that I should just get up and do something productive if all I was going to do was lay there. I think sleeping so much this weekend from oral surgery has me all messed up. I shot up at 6:58 am worried that I had slept too late. Not the case. I check on Oren and he is soundly sleeping so I decide to get a nice warm shower and have a few minutes to myself before he wakes up for the day. During my shower I could swear I heard footsteps around the apartment. I kept looking at the monitor and thinking maybe my neighbors were up or leaving. Surely Oren would just come in if he was up. When I got out I was only slightly startled by 5 little fingers waiting under the door. As I open the door I’m greeted with his sweet, dimpled, smile and find myself not too disappointed that I didn’t get those “few” minutes to myself.

We had breakfast and played here and there while I cleaned up and prepared for the newborn session I had coming at 10. I get all my stuff set and up while we wait for my clients he actually allows me to take a few pictures of him and wants to take some together! This is unheard of so I happily oblige. Brandy calls to say they will be a bit behind, which is fine, we don’t have any grand plans for our day. Oren I continue to take pictures.

And here is where it all starts to get interesting. Brandy and Keith call to say they are here. Oren was sitting on the couch with his apples watching cartoons and I tell him I would be RIGHT back. He said “otay” and looked back at the television. This is not the first time I’ve just run down the stairs and come back in less than a minute, he knows the drill. So, I run out the door, waved them down and we come up the stairs. I turned the door knob to let us into the apartment and the door was locked. LOCKED. My heart stopped. Oren had locked me out and no, of course I didn’t have my keys….it wouldn’t have mattered.

I start to panic and do my best to keep it all together. Here I am locked out by my three year old in front of my clients who are thankfully my friends. I’m trying to talk to him and explain that he needs to unlock the door. He is getting upset because he wants me to come in and I keep telling him that I cannot because he locked the door. I tried and tried to explain to him to turn the locks again. I could hear him fiddle with them a little but nothing was happening. The top lock, the deadbolt that does not open with a key is hard to unlock. I honestly have no clue how much time is passing. It all felt like it lasted forever, but I’m sure it did not.

I tell you it was divine intervention that, earlier, as I was running down the stairs to wave Brandy up I saw the apartment maintenance man, David, backing into a space pulling his ladder out and going to one of the apartments downstairs. As I’m freaking out trying so hard to get Oren to open the door and praying asking God to help us I hear his keys jingle as he leaves the apartment below. I jet down the back stairs and tell him in one of my proudest mothering moments that my son has locked me out of my apartment. He says what I’m thinking but know won’t be the case “I hope it is the bottom lock” and goes to get the key. He really is such a nice man. David comes back and we turn the key only to have the door still locked with the top lock. He then asks me if the balcony door is unlocked and of course because I want to keep Oren safe I have to tell him NO. He asks me if I think Oren can or would open it if he got up there with the ladder. I figure we have to try either way. So, he goes to get the ladder. While he is gone I keep turning the key back and forth showing Oren how the lock is turning and asking him to do the same with the other lock. I know he is trying; the lock is just too hard for him to get turned back. So, I tell Oren through the door to go to the balcony and OPEN the door. I go around to the lawn and watch as David climbs onto our balcony and I’m praying this works. Oren’s little face runs up to the glass door and smiles. I know he is relieved to see me down there. I give him thumbs up and let him know it is perfectly okay to let David in. Good thing he has always liked him. So, David proceeds to walk Oren through the process of opening the sliding glass doors. He has to use hand motions to explain to Oren to lift the bar and push it all the way up to the wall. So, Oren climbs up onto the couch and does exactly as he is told and from there we are home free. He gets down lifts the little lever and David slides back the door as I RUN up the stairs and wait for them to come out. Oren was pretty happy to see me and I was extremely happy that it was all over with.

My session was typical of any newborn session, having to wait on sweet baby Brayden here and there to eat and get comfy. It was not typical to have Oren running around. He was completely and totally entranced by Brayden. He wanted to help by giving him his binky or covering him up. Oren felt the need to constantly be within inches of him. He was smitten. He brought all his favorite stuffed animals from his room to “share” and told Brayden their names; “frog, turtle, snate (snake, who is actually a caterpillar), montey (monkey), and monster. All named for what they literally are. I go on to tell them that no matter how much we’ve tried to explain to Oren that he can give things names, he doesn’t understand it yet. Oren then turns to me and says “mommy, this is my friend”, and he motions next to him. There is no one there. So, I ask him about his “imaginary” friend which is blowing my mind because he has never done that before he proceeds to say “yes, this is my friend, Jordan.” He made me a liar, right then and there giving his “friend” a name. It was very funny. Next he brings in a small stack of books he wants to read to Brayden; “Farmer Mickey”, “Clifford’s Puppy Days”, “Franklin Goes to School”, and a sticker book about dinosaurs. He really is being so sweet trying to show Brayden the dinosaur book. However, Brayden is sleeping happily and I want to get those photos! Any time the baby cries during the session Oren wanted to help. He got really upset the first time Brandy went to feed Brayden and Oren couldn’t go with her. He could hear the baby crying and it just broke his little heart. Oren said once that Brayden was “his” and I explained otherwise, he replied with “he’s my friend”. :) Oren will certainly be such a helpful big brother some day.

Later on Oren and I had a long talk about the locks. He ended our conversation pretending some random toy was an alligator that was going to eat me. Either way, I won’t be leaving him to run down for a second ever again.

Brandy and Keith, thank you so much! You guys are seriously the best. Brayden was the perfect little model and a new friend for Oren. ;)

I have to say that today they were my heroes for being so patient with me and Oren and everything that happened. All things considered it was a very successful session and I’m excited to get all the photos back to them.

Since I cannot talk about this beautiful baby Brayden without sharing at least one image, here you go. More coming soon on my Gisele photo blog. ;)

Before the "incident"

The three sentence recap:

Oren locked me out of our apartment while he was still inside, the lock that doesn’t have a key to open it. Long story short, our maintenance man climbed the balcony and step by step talked Oren through opening the sliding glass doors. The day was saved.

To make things even better Oren’s cup just shot milk up through the straw onto my desk. The cup has just been sitting here steadily unloading milk like a mini volcano and I didn’t even notice. Milk is all over my desk, mouse, mouse pad, external hard drive and CPU. I need to go to bed but I won't, I have much editing to do.

**addition for my own personal memories:
Facebook conversation between Brandy and myself:

Brandy: Not that you will ever forget the events of today, as I am sure you re-live it each time you talk/type about it but it will be one of those stories that will never cease to be told. It broke my heart to hear Oren through the door telling you to open the door. I can only image how scared he was that you couldn't get to him. I really must emphasize just how strong and composed you stayed and that did nothing but help Oren. He is such a smart little guy and that is because of you.

Denise: For reasons unknown to me, this made me cry. I really do love you Brandy, thanks for being such a sweet friend! I think I'm just now coming down off the "high" that was this day. I can remember the sound of his voice that first time he asked me to open the door and it was truly heart wrenching. I guess it is just now getting it me. haha

Brandy: Girl my heart was absolutely breaking and I was secretly panicking on the inside wondering what the next step would be if the patio door trick didn't work. I felt so helpless and I can't even imagine what all was running through your mind. When you went running down the stairs to find the maintenance man, Oren was on the other side calling out for you and just the sound of his voice and the concern in his voice was killing me. I even went to the door and tried to open it. :( So glad it had such a great outcome and I am truly touched how sweet Oren was with Brayden. I bet you will sleep better tonight just from coming off of the pure adrenalin that kept you going today. Love you friend, now go hug that little man and get some rest! :)

Will do Brandy, will do. Goodnight blog world!

dinosaur

2010-10-21T13:27:00.005-05:00

Granna made Oren's halloween costume for us this year. A huge thanks to granna for taking the time to make it, it is perfect! So, what else could this dinosaur loving boy be but a dinosaur?

A sleepy dino and his blanket.

Oren is having surgery...

2010-08-08T22:21:00.008-05:00

What? I have a blog? I guess I didn't get the memo...

The first thing Oren asks for every single morning is chocolate milk, it was no different this morning. However, he didn't even finish it...which is amazing. Instead he put it down to go outside and work on Uncle Jason's car with Jason and paw-paw. Oren seems to love all things paw-paw, mechanical, and outdoors. Today was going to be a great day, and it was. ;)

I went out there to find him pretty dirty.

After a while everyone came inside to eat and cool off. Eventually Oren cleaned up a bit and helped granna out with pickling some okra.

He went back outside for a while after and got very dirty and extremely hot so he came inside to cool off (once again) and paint for a while. I have millions of pictures of him painting but none for today. After taking the time for a little art he got a bath... which turned out to be premature.

Time for his second bath of the day.

Tomorrow morning Oren is having surgery to have his tongue-tie (ankyloglossia) cut. I'm extremely nervous about the anesthesia and honestly just ready for it to all be over with. Please pray for our sweet baby boy (and for my nerves). We have to leave at 5:00 tomorrow morning to be there by 6. He goes in for surgery at 7:30 and Dr. Hoffman said we should be out by 9:00am. I'll be sure to post an update as soon as I can.

oh dear...

2010-07-01T02:41:00.003-05:00

My sweet little blog, how I miss you. I see a face lift in your future...and some outpouring from my heart.

I'll leave you with a picture.

videos

2010-06-17T01:27:00.007-05:00

It's been a long time and once again, I'm sorry. The good news is that I have only 525 client images left to edit and then I'm all caught up!!! I should have them all done by the end of the week and I'm pretty excited about that. Although I do have a session today and a wedding on Saturday which will add a thousand or so photos to that total. haha. I just couldn't sit here and blog with so many people waiting on me for their photos before. Now that I'm pretty caught up getting things out to clients will take no time at all. I want to start sharing stuff on here again soon, for now I'll leave a few vidoes from the other day.

6.15.10
Oren hugging our dog Chloe…who is extremely dirty but you know, she’s a country dog so what can you do? :)

He's playing with my phone in this one. At the end instead of blowing a kiss he literally kisses the camera.

The reason I kept this video is because of the way he says "right here in the mouth" at the end. For the record there was nothing wrong with his mouth.

Hazel IS famous

2010-03-15T15:34:00.003-06:00

I won the cat contest!!!! I'm crazy excited about it. haha! I would love to write more but I'm on my way out the door. It's my grandma's 69th birthday. :)

Go here to see the post on Ree's blog Pioneer Woman.

“Annoyed” by Denise Gisele.

I was hesitant to move forward with my initial inclination to select this kitty as the winner, mostly because I didn’t want it to appear that I’d chosen it simply because it’s hilarious. Of course, the personality of the photo is a huge part of its charm, But I also just love the moment—the cat looking square into the camera, the dead-center composition, the slightly, yes, annoyed expression. Who says a cat has to be elegant and grace—and thin—to win a top prize?
Not me. That’s who.
Congratulations, Denise Gisele! You win a $250 gift card from B & H Photo & Video.

Hazel might be famous, haha

2010-03-14T22:47:00.005-06:00

I could hardly believe that one of my pictures of Hazel made group four, then another one made group five! Today the photo she chose for group 4 made the finalist group!!! I'm so so excited. ;) I can still hardly believe I made one of the groups, to make the final 15 is pretty spectacular to me. There were tons and tons of wonderful photos, you should go check out the flickr group if you like cats.

Hazel is sort of famous, again.

2010-03-13T22:42:00.000-06:00

So, my silly kitty made group 5 as well! I was so suprised to make it twice.
This is the photo for the 5th group.

What Ree had to say about this photo:
By DeniseGisele. Wonderful capture—great texture. And I love the title: “Disinclined.”
And I can relate.

Hazel is sort of famous...

2010-03-11T14:57:00.007-06:00

She made group four of the cat photo contest on Pioneer Woman's blog! :) Fun fun stuff. She is the fourth photo down and if you click on the image it takes you to my flickr page.

These are the photos I submited to the group.

This is the group 4 photo.

What Ree had to say about it:
By DeniseGisele. I’m in love with this cat. I want him. Her. Him. Her.

Just wanted to share, I'm pretty excited about it. haha :)

canvas

2010-03-10T23:27:00.004-06:00

Wanted to show off the 16x20 canvas of Oren I got in a couple days ago from canvas people. (Thanks Jeni for talking me into the 16x20. You were right, it's perfect.)

Playing around with the light coming through the windows. (March 6, 2010)

I seriously love this!

Being silly.

I have so much more I want share but as always I'm being pulled in a million other directions. All in good time. ;)
.
.One more thing, my Canon 50D came in today! Now I have to wait on the lens which seems to be taking forever to even ship.
.

dear blog, how I've missed you...

2010-02-25T22:18:00.001-06:00

Lately I have really missed blogging. Especially when going through old photos I never posted and trying to remember something to write about the day. I hate that I've let this get so far behind. I've kept a written journal off an on so it should help me fill in some of the gaps as I go back and post the old pictures. So, as I said before there is some major light at the end of my editing tunnel and that means I'm going to blog more. For now I've decided to start slow and promise myself that I'll blog and do personal family photo stuff one night a week. That isn't too much to ask of myself I think.

Here are a few different pics from the month of February.

Daddy actually got home from work when there was still daylight out and time to play. It was a nice change.

Sitting on his tricycle my mom gave him his first Christmas. He still refuses to try and push the pedals. He just uses his feet on the ground to push himself around on it.

He hates to have his picture taken, figures. And it took me saying all sorts of super dumb things to get him to look at me. For these next ones I asked him something about getting some stickers to play with. He loves stickers! I'm pretty sure I said we would go find some stickers with hoho or tolee on them. (Characters from Ni Hao, Kai-Lan)

This one makes me what to cry!!!! He looks so old to me for some reason. It's almost like I can see, somewhere in that sweet face, a glimpse of what he will look like many years from now. I know it's weird, but it's what I see. This mommy thinks he is beautiful. ;)

He looks so old for his age, remember he's only 2 years and a little over 2 months old. He is such a tall boy he looks more like he is over 3 years old! It's crazy. When he was still using a binky, which he hasn't had for a while now(since July 22, 2009), I got the worst looks from people. Same is true for the fact that he is still in diapers. I had an old lady scold me in a public restroom once that he is much too old for that and I nicely explained that he wasn't even 2 yet! She was shocked. He's always been in the 95th percentile for height. There are worse things that have been thought or said about him because people tend to think he is 3 or older.

He's been having such a hard time at night. For months and months we dealt with night terrors but until I realised what we were dealing with I had no clue how to handle it. On January 26th we started praying very specific scripture over him before bed and I started waking him up after 15 minutes of sleep as suggested by some article I read. Night terrors happen in the first part of sleep, unlike nightmares which happen in the last part. By waking him up it helps him fall into a deeper state of sleep. This has helped us so much. It was such relief because I really hated seeing him go through it night after night.

It is so hard to explain. He would scream like he was being tortured and thrash all around. He would even have his eyes open but NEVER see me there until the night terror ended and then he would look at me in the strangest way like "why are you in here mama?" and then go straight back to sleep. I cried a lot during these episodes because it is heartbreaking to watch and hear. The longest ones lasted around 20-25 minutes. Before now he had one every single night for around 2 months, since we started this he has had three and they were all my fault. Which kills me. I remember them all so clearly and why they happened. The first time I fell asleep in his room with him and never woke him up. The second one happened when I woke him up to move him into our room because someone else needed his room for the night. I guess I somehow triggered it and it was one of the worst ones to date. The last one was tonight but thankfully it only lasted a couple of minutes.

I had been praying and asking God for a way to help him, to make it stop. The same day that I found the 15 minute thing, Debbie found this verse for him.
Psalm 91v5 "you shall not be afraid of the terror by night."
Jeremy's co-worker prayed for Oren and gave Jeremy these:
Ephesians 6:12-14
2 Corinthians 10:4
2 Timothy 1:7

Even without the "terrors" Oren's sleep has still been off. He wakes up a few times a night, usually around 4 times. Just this past week we've seen a huge improvement. He has been waking up only once to ask for a drink and then going back to sleep and staying in his own bed unitl morning. This means I'm finally starting to get some sleep too! I know for a fact some of the problem was growing pains. He has them so badly. He grew almost 2 inches between January 15th and February 19th! Crazyness. Oren is currently 38 inches tall.

So, perhaps I've written enough for tonight. This was really just for me to be able to look back at my blog book and remember what our life was like. :)

Last but not least I also posted some old photos from when Oren was around 6 months old. Click here to see those if you like.

wow, I'm terrible

2010-01-14T12:33:00.004-06:00

I just completely dropped the ball on this blog didn't I???
Well, I'm starting to see a VERY faint light at the end of the editing tunnel. Perhaps once I'm done I will get this thing going full swing again. I just can't right now. My computer died on me recently and I just got the new one set up. I don't have all my photos available to me just yet but I do have some from Oren's 2nd birthday party that Mindy took so I'll post those. :)

i love you too.

2009-09-08T21:56:00.001-05:00

Something I want to remember... I doubt I'll ever forget it, even if I didn't put it here.

Today, after Oren woke up from his nap, he was squatting down on the floor in the living room when he looked up at me and said "mommy?" I said "what baby?" and he said, in his little high pitched voice, "I love you". My heart nearly exploded. So sweet to hear him say that to me without any prompting. I love you too my sweet baby boy.

Some random shots to share.

This one is from Levi's first birthday party. Jan 09.

Some shots of us by Jeni from Kaylen's party.

goldfish, a party, & me

2009-09-04T22:58:00.003-05:00

Oren decided he wanted a little something extra for breakfast today so he helped himself to the last of the goldfish crackers. The crazy thing is he poured them all out into a bowl, without spilling a single one. What really amuses me, is that I was planning to work with him on pouring things this week. You know, start with beads or something similar and move up to water. I guess he is telling me it's time.

Mommy made him do it again.
Just to see if he could and because I wanted pictures. ;)

A few photos from Kaylen's 5th birthday party. Happy Birthday!!!

I love you Jeni. ;-)

Ariana & Mindy, these are for you. Most likely the closest I will come to actually doing the self-portrait challenge. Although, I do have some more creative ideas...I just don't know when I would have the time to see them through. We'll see I suppose.

Ariana, to answer a couple of questions you had:
It is just a cheapo kit lens that I use when I do those family pics. I generally carry that one around because I don't want the pricey ones to get messed up. It works well for those family snapshots though.

He had to get a certain type of paper, he wanted something very specific. I think he ended up with a couple of vellum bristol pads. He also bought some prisma color pencils in the colors he didn't have or needed replacements of. He got oil pastels and chalk pastels, some blending tools, a kneaded eraser, and bristol pad samples to make little charts of all the different prisma colors.

I'm not sure how much of the illustration, if any, I will be allowed to share on here before the book is published. Once it is I will let everyone know. I'm really excited for him!

pretend toothbrush

2009-09-04T11:11:00.003-05:00

No pictures, I just want to remember this. I am sitting in the kitchen answering e-mails and I look over into the living room to check on Oren. He is watching Handy Manny and pretending to brush his teeth with a color. Too bad he doesn't have his actual toothbrush because he is doing a really good job. lol.

I have a few pics from this morning I will share later. About to go get my hair cut (yikes) and then off to do a bit of shopping before going to Kaylen's 5th brithday party. So, I'm sure I will have plenty more pictures to add.

Trip to Hobby Lobby

2009-08-31T20:54:00.001-05:00

Jerm needed some supplies for a children's book he is illustrating so we made a little family trip to Hobby Lobby.

When he is running out of patients for the front of the cart we sit him in the back with something to do. Usually a coloring book and some crayons, this boy loves to color. Today it was a little book he saw on the self that made sounds from Ratatouille and a plastic panda bear.

Acting cool in his new shades. He was really cracking us up. He loved wearing them, I didn't expect that at all. Best 50 cents I've spent in a long time.

Being silly in the car on our way to Target.

meeting Tristyn & Kaylen

2009-08-28T22:00:00.004-05:00

Today Jeni and I were suppose to meet up for a photo session at Mercer but it canceled on me. We decided to go anyway so that our kiddos could finally meet each other. This should have happened so much sooner! It was crazy humid out and pretty chaotic chasing Tristyn and Oren around trying to keep them out of the water. We plan to get together more often but at more kid friendly places.

Lunch for Oren before we left. Daddy made his plate. ;)

Kaylen

Tristyn (she is about a month older than Oren)

I got one out of all of the following shots with all three kids looking at me. It was rather comical watching Tristyn try to escape Oren's grasp.

cuteness

"cheese" Oren was making some pretty funny faces here and making me and Jeni crack up. I didn't get pics of it but perhaps she did, Jeni??

Some pics Jerm took.
Oren, up to no good = about to get in trouble for playing with the sprinklers...

Jeni said something about "you don't see those pictures on facebook" and she is partly right but you can see them here so that is something. ;) He fought me so hard. All I was trying to do was pick him up and move him away from the temptation but he is incredibly strong and strong willed. Ahhh...toddlers.

Oren fake crying because Kaylen was crying. Silly boy.

sweet moment with daddy

He was worn out, can't you tell?

Dinner at Quizno's before a bit of shopping a Target.

Fast asleep with his "montea" on our way home.

Rooster

2009-08-28T10:42:00.004-05:00

Oren's bed head had me cracking up this morning so I got the camera out. He looked like a rooster.

Sitting with his pals.

Doesn't look real happy about having his photo taken so early. He's thinking, geez I just finished my breakfast and she's already at it.

Saying "watch" because he has a new found love of Ice Age 2 and he wanted me to turn it on.

Jumping on the ottoman...I don't know where he learned to do that.(sarcasm)

This rocking horse was made for me when I was a little girl.

Jumping, on the floor this time.

His first coloring book from Granna. These colors are the best. Since he feels the need to put everything in his mouth these are harder for him to chew up. Thanks Tammy!

Some of Oren's art work. :)

The last page without a single mark on it. He hasn't found it yet.

"montea"

2009-08-26T21:08:00.004-05:00

Montea is how Oren says Monkey, it's really cute to hear. He has become so much closer to this monkey lately. He asks for it at bedtime and is always holding it in the morning when I come in to get him up. If he is upset or doesn't feel good he likes to hug it. I think he has replaced his attachment to his binky with this stuffed animal, which is fine with me. He stopped using a binky on July 22 and we haven't looked back. It was SOOOOO much easier than I expected it would be. I took it away from him after he woke up that morning and then hid it. He never even asked for it again. Which, if you knew him and his absolute obesssion with his binky you would know this was a miracle. I am so thankful it was such an easy task.

Always running or looking away from the camera, of course.

Mr. Montea himself (with daddy in the background) Oren was sitting right next to the monkey and looked so cute. The moment I had the camera out he was gone.

Brushing daddy's hair. ;)

The look I got after telling Oren to "brush daddy's hair". He asked me if I was taking a picture of his bald spot for all the world to see. (all 39 people who have access to this blog) That was not my intention at all though.

my love

Wanting Oren to come take a pic with us. Horrid angle though...

Not much better.

Trying to use monkey as a lure to get Oren in a photo with us.

Looking at a movie. He likes to ask "what's that?" about pretty much every picture or thing he sees. It's like he is absorbing as much information as he can and storing it.

Videos

2009-08-03T13:24:00.009-05:00

This one is old, from March, Oren was 15 months old. He is now 20 months. He was dancing to the music from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. He used to stop whatever he was doing if he heard that music and dance.

Here is one from yesterday. It doesn't have sound because I forgot to plug in the mic. It's sad because he was saying some cute things, like "I'm precious", counting to three, "awesome", singing "Please, Thank You" from YoGabbaGabba, and some other ones I can't remember and a lot of babbling. Oh he also said his name which sounded like "ownie". We'll try again soon.

Links to old posts

2009-06-27T03:08:00.003-05:00

Day 2 of Oren's life

Day 3 of Oren's life

Day 4

I don't post these to the top because I want them to be in proper date order since I'm making this blog into books. Thanks.

Father's Day

2009-06-21T22:58:00.007-05:00

Before we ate dinner tonight Oren let us know that no one had said the prayer over our meal. He looked at me with his hands up in question (the same gesture he uses for I don't know) and said "Amen??" while shaking his head from side to side. It was a good reminder that he is watching and remembering everything we say and do.

Not much to write, sorry. I'm just too tired to think right now. :) If you would like to see the rest of the pictures you can visit our family shutterfly site.
The Cowan Family
password:denise
Be sure to choose the 2009 tab to find this year's photos.

Park Day

2009-06-09T22:50:00.001-05:00

Oren and I met Mindy and the kiddos (Mia, Maggie, & Levi) at a park today to play for a bit. It is a fairly new park that we have never been to. It was nice and very shady, which is great. I know Oren had fun even though he wasn't his usual self. He is teething again, running a fever of about 102 off and on for the past couple of days. He was a little sick when we first got out of the car but I think he still played pretty well. He was so tired later on in the night that he fell asleep sitting up against my stomach in the living room with the TV blaring and everyone talking. Loads of pictures as always. ;)

Oren hates to swing, as you can tell by his expressions in some of these pictures. The only reason I got away with putting him in there was because I gave him a juice box, which he loves.

He is starting to laugh here because he pulled the straw out of the juice and it splashed all over his face.

Good grief, I love this little boy!

hot summer day

2009-06-02T21:04:00.002-05:00

Just a few snapshots while playing outside on a very hot summer day. We need a great big breeze to blow through here. :)

Picking a flower which he brought to me. Sweet boy.

Trying to get some pics of his little birth mark and such.

Potty Time

2009-06-01T20:58:00.002-05:00

We decided it was time to start getting Oren excited about potty training. :) We have a couple potty books to read together and in one of them the grandma buys the boy a potty. So, today Oren got a big present from his Granna & Big Daddy(pa-paw).

These photos are pretty terrible quality(I was being lazy), but you get the point.

vote for Oren

2009-05-20T02:50:00.002-05:00

Some random pictures to share. I'm getting SO incredibly close to being caught up. I'm very excited. Once I'm done I will be blogging on a regular basis again. I really miss it. For now, here are a few recent images and a link to go vote for Oren.

Parent's Magazine Cover Contest

Oren & Maggie

2009-04-21T14:28:00.003-05:00

Here are a few pictures of Oren and Mag from Easter. He just loves Maggie so much. He can even say Mag, it's so cute.

I adore this picture. ;)

Not a great picture of Maggie but I like the way Oren is looking at her.

He refused to look at me for this.

on a roll

2009-04-17T01:07:00.005-05:00

I'm on a blogging roll tonight. ;) Here are three more posts.

January 8, 2009 "lady killer"

February 9, 2009 "ouch"

February 12, 2009 "good afternoon"

**click each link above to view the post or scroll through the archives**

New post

2009-04-16T17:01:00.002-05:00

CLICK here to see a "new" post. :) Sorry I'm so behind, life and all that good stuff is getting in the way of blog time.

baby bunnies & and awesome sunglasses

2009-03-22T18:53:00.001-06:00

We took a little walk across the street to James & Tammy's to see the bunnies. James found them while cutting the grass the day before.

Then Oren borrowed Savanah's sunglasses for a bit. It was super bright out.

I love this picture, he looks so cute. :)

15 month check-up

2009-03-05T20:15:00.000-06:00

Today Oren had his 15 month check-up and shots. I took him out early in the morning to get in some play and fun before we had to go, just incase he didn't feel up to it when we got home. You'll notice his awesome outfit. lol

The actual check-up went the same as usual, he is super healthy and doing well developmentally. Then it was time for the dreaded shots. Shots are never a fun thing but they were especially bad today. He got stuck 4 times but only needed two shots. The first one wasn't too bad because he didn't know what was coming. Of course he cried hard but he didn't fling his body around. When she rubbed his other leg with the alcohol pad he started squirming and crying. Then when she tried to stick him he started fighting me like crazy and the needle double stuck him and the medication squirted all over me. By this time he is losing his mind, crying so hard. I felt terrible and worked really hard not to cry. She told me to hold him as tight as I could so we could redo the shot and boy did I try. He is such a strong little guy. He got the shot finally but he fought me hard. He had knots in his left leg for a week after and it was really tender, I felt so sorry for him. I don't think I will be able to hold him next time, it's Jeremy's turn.

Paco

Chloe

She is such a good dog and will let Oren do pretty much anything to her. Here he is putting rocks down her back while she chews up a bone.

My mom gave this tonka truck to Oren for his birthday. Here are the things he had collected in it that morning.

Hazel running from Oren and Chloe. She can't seem to get a moment of peace. lol.

Oren just wanted to pet her.

Now Chloe, on the other hand, wants to drive her crazy.

Some pictures of us right before we got in the car to go for his check-up.

He was being so sweet here, cuddling his little head up to mine.

weight: 30 lbs 1 oz
height: 34 1/4 inches
head: 20 inches

old pics of me

2009-02-24T02:15:00.005-06:00

I've had these on my computer forever. There are better ones that I never got around to scanning in and certainly don't have the time to do so right now. These were only on here because my aunt let me borrow them to scan so I would have copies for myself. They are terrible looking because my scanner stinks. You get the idea though. Enjoy. ;-)

me and my momma

Oren doesn't look like me at all... (just incase you can't tell, there is sarcasm there, lol)

me, uncle Randy, & grandma

me and mom

1st Birthday

me and grandpa

Thanksgiving 1985, almost 2 years old. Oh and that is my bird. My uncle Fred (who you can see in the background) gave him to me. You'll never guess what I named the bird...Freddy, lol

I know exactly how Oren feels having me take his picture all the time. My aunt Sharon took my picture all the time too. ;) These don't even cover it. I can't believe I'm putting these on here...

Check out that awesome fake smile. ;)

My grandma :)

me and mom

me and Jacob. I remember this day so vividly. When they were doing my hair and make-up I cried so hard because I was terrified of them putting eyeliner on me. I won. How stupid to put eyeliner on a kid. Oh and I remeber laughing so so hard during this picture because Jacob kept pulling my dress up. You can tell in the picture too.

me and my cousin Ashley

I'll have to put more up later and do one with Jeremy's baby pics too. It will be way later though. I'm about to go into full on crazy wedding season mode. Yay. That means that I'm going to get A LOT of work done before March 7th. This is music to some of my client's ears. I know. ;) I need a babysitter. Big time. One that could come and hang out here during the day...yeah right, like that will ever happen. Since it can't I'm going to have a lot of sleepless nights. Fun.

good afternoon

2009-02-12T21:55:00.000-06:00

Oren took a nap in our bed today while I sat at my computer and edited like crazy. He let me know he was awake with a little giggle. I turned around and he gave me the sweetest look. I love it when he wakes up in such a good mood.

In the first few pics he was waving hi to me. :)

bye-bye, I'm ready for my lunch now.

yet another old post

2009-02-12T11:42:00.003-06:00

I put some new pictures up. The reason they don't show up at the top is because I like to keep things in order of how they happen. That way when I make my blog book everything will be nice and neat. :)

The post is here, Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

new, old, post

2009-02-10T12:55:00.003-06:00

Thanks for being understanding about the previous post. I'm doing SO MUCH better. God poked me and said "hey, remember Me?" Yeah. I do. I was being selfish and dumb but I'm back now. Thanks for all the concern. Things are by no means perfect but I've given it all over to God and know that no matter what everything will work out.

I posted pics from New Year. :)

CLICK HERE, or go to January 1, 2009.

ouch

2009-02-09T17:29:00.000-06:00

I took these photos with the intent on documenting his first real injury. He has a bad habit of running right into the corner of the kitchen table, but this was the first time he actually bled from it. If we could move the table it would be gone by now I'm sure, lol. For those who don't know, the table is built in. This was the day after it happened and it was already on the mend. He was in the middle of breakfast when I took these, as you can tell by the crumbs on his face.

These next two are blurry but I don't care.

no more photos please.

Ok, just one more. ;)

I'm sorry

2009-02-02T18:18:00.001-06:00

I just don't think I can do this right now. Aside from all the other crap I'm dealing with in my life some really bad things are coming to light in my family right now and I just don't think I can blog. I might feel differently tomorrow or in a few days but right now I just can't.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!

2009-02-01T23:35:00.000-06:00

Today we celebrated Jerm's 25th birthday, his actual birthday is Jan. 29th. Some of the family came over to hang out and watch the superbowl.

If you notice, our shirts match...same print different styles. The funny thing is that I bought mine years ago. Oren got his from Uncle Jason and Mallari for his birthday. :)

Oren and Justin. :)

what he loves best

2009-01-28T22:24:00.001-06:00

First things first. Happy 25th Birthday Jeremy!!! Little man and I love you more than words can express. ;)

This sweet boy could play outside all day long. It was so cold and he didn't care, he just played and played. His little nose and cheeks got so red and his hands were like ice but everytime I would bring him in to warm up a bit he would scream and cry and bang on the door to go back out. During the day he will point out the windows and say a string of words that make no sense but I'm sure he is saying he wants to go outside. When it rains it is so sad. He will sit on his knees at the front window by the door and just look outside, longing to go. Being outside is his favorite place in the world.

We took some pictures when we first went out today. I knew the light was good in this little spot. I'd noticed it days before. It was harsh mid-day sun but the light was pefect here. I only edited a few of the pictures from today and that is because they weren't taken in the good spot. I wanted to show that it was a SUPER bright, sunny day.

The best kind of pictures, the kind you don't have to edit. sigh. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure something could be done to them but I am perfectly happy with them straight out of camera. This would be a perfect session spot, plus some other areas in our backyard.

You'll notice the text on this image. I swear that someone copied my handwritting. It looks almost exactly like I write my name. crazy.

A quick shot to show the area we were in for the previous pics. :)

Moving on to full sun. I still like these, they have a certain feel to them.

These are the ones I did minor editing to. I had to add a bit of light to his face.

bedhead

2009-01-28T21:46:00.002-06:00

When Oren woke up from his nap today he had the best hair. I had to grab my camera and get a few shots. Of course, I got way more than a few. It is an addiction, I swear. Plus, he is just so cute, I could take his picture all day. The pictures really don't do justice to how crazy his hair was. I could not get it to lay flat and I didn't want to get it wet because we were going outside and it was pretty cold. His little hat ended up fixing the wild hair though. I have pictures from playing outside but I'm saving those for tomorrow's post... I'm totally in love with the pictures & can't wait to post them.

Jeremy made me keep this mid-blink pic because he thought it was cute.

I told him to give monkey a hug and boy did he. He picked him up and squeezed as tight as he could.

Then he proceeded to chew on his nose.

Having a little chat.

The ONLY edits are the black & whites, obviously.

new post

2009-01-26T15:39:00.003-06:00

CLICK HERE to see it or scroll down to January 14, 2009. ;)

Happy Birthday Momma!

2009-01-24T21:45:00.000-06:00

Today was my mom's 43rd birthday. We spent it together at my Aunt Sharon's house. Nothing too extravagant, just cake and hanging out as a family. My sisters were not there because they had to go to school. Yes, school on a Saturday to make up for some of the days they lost from hurricane Ike. I'm pretty sure they had a good time though, go figure.

My mom and Oren. She wants to be called Mamae, that is what she called her grandmother.

Oren and his Great-Aunt Sharon. ;)

What it takes to get a smile. Peek-a-boo.

Me and my younger brother Jacob. I can't say little anymore because he is so so tall. He is taller than Jeremy so he has to be at least 6'2.

Oren Jacob and his Uncle Jacob.

no clothes

2009-01-21T20:00:00.005-06:00

So, I was thinking that I would attempt to post everyday again. I did good for a while, until Ike. Then right after that we moved and I just got all messed up with it and in all honesty just didn't want to. I hit a blogging low, lol. But, I think I'm back. Hopefully there are people still bothering to look in on it. We shall see.

I have a ton of back-blogging to do but I figured today I would post some recent pics since I just did 4 old posts. These are the most recent snapshots I have taken of Oren. I was letting him run around in just a diaper and play before we went outside. He loves both, no clothes & going outside. Don't most kids though? :)

His little foot at 13 months, 2 weeks, & 4 days...

This was my attempt at getting a shot together. All he wanted to do was grab my camera so this is what we got.

I gave up on the pic together and got one alone.

Mad at me because I wouldn't let him hold the camera. He loves to come and look at what I take pictures of. It is so funny to me that he has started that already. He also loves to see himself being videotaped.

I know this picture is sooo orange, but I couldn't stand putting those eyes in b&w. He was standing in his little school bus ball pit and the sun was shinning right on top of him. Thus the yellow/orange glow.

However, it does work in black & white as well.

A gift for my mom, her birthday is the 24th. When I took this picture I wasn't planning it for this. It was just a coincidence. The moment I saw it on my computer I knew I had to do this. My brother Jacob wrote that poem when he was VERY little. I wish I could have gotten it from the original because he spelled some of the words wrong and that made it that much cuter. A long time ago when my mom told me about the poem I wanted to do something similar with Jacob holding an orange behind his back or out to my mom or something. We never got a chance to do it and now he is 17 so what do you do? I'm hoping she will still love it since it is her son's sweet words and photo of her grandson combined.

Who knows, maybe I can convince my brother to still take the photo and we can make something for her for mother's day. It might be funny...

backtracking

2009-01-21T14:06:00.004-06:00

I'm posting some old stuff. I'm so behind on this blog... I'm not going to be doing much in the way of editing when it comes to family pics and snapshots anymore. The only edits will be obvious, black & whites or vintage. I've come to grips with the fact that if I want to post on here they just have to get put on here as is. With all the client editing I have to do there is zero time for personal work.

Click the links below to see the new, old photos. You can also go to the right and choose October 2008 under Blog Archive. Then just scroll down to the following dates.

10.09.08- glowing
10.10.08- 9 month check-up
10.11.08- silly baby
10.25.08- bath time for all

rocking chair

2009-01-14T18:30:00.002-06:00

This chair is very special to me. It was my mom's as a child. I believe it was made for her. My aunt Sharon had one as well. This one was given to me when I was a little girl and now it is Oren's. He finally mastered getting in it on his own. He loves to get up and down and up and down. Everytime he sits he does a quick little rock and then starts over. It's so cute.

And this is Oren's little monkey friend, monkey. We haven't named him. We wanted Oren to name it, however, by the time he can do so I'm fairly sure its name will just be monkey. Daddy and I gave this to him for Christmas. He is starting to get attached to it we think and has been sleeping with it every night. If I ask him where his monkey is he will go get it or point to it.

Incredible Pizza

2009-01-10T15:02:00.003-06:00

Just a few snapshots from last night at Presli's 8th birthday party. Oren had a lot of fun and was so worn out when we left. He cried when we first put him on the carousel but was ok once it started moving. He still didn't love it as you can tell by his face in the pictures. He didn't like the frog ride at all though. I ended up having to get him out of it before it was over. The only ride he had fun on was the one he rode with Levi and those are my favorite pictures.

Before we left Oren and I took pictures in the photobooth. Here is the original scan, but I made one black & white and I like it better that way. :)

This info is for me, for later. ;)
*We tried to get you to ride the little horse ride because you seem to love horses, especially in a book you have called "who says moo?". There is a page in that book with a pony on it and you get so over the top excited everytime you see it. You will even find that picture in the book and bring it to me. However, you were terrified by this plastic horse. You would hardly sit down on it, and had your little arms wrapped as tightly as you could around your granna's neck.

Some other things I need to remember...

Jan 7, 2009
Today we discovered that you know where your nose is. If we ask you "Where is your nose?", you will grab it with your whole little hand.

You know when a book or paper is upside down. If I hand it to you or you pick it up the wrong way, you turn it over so that it is the right way. You will sit all by yourself and just look through them or gab and pretend you are reading. Often you will bring one to someone basically asking for us to read to you. You really loves your books.

lady killer

2009-01-08T22:59:00.000-06:00

Nothing much to say, just sharing some pics of my baby boy playing outside.

here kitty, kitty...

needed to edit this one for fun

clapping

Showing me his nose. I was asking him where his nose was with hopes that he would look at me for a picture. ;)

welcoming the new year

2009-01-01T17:57:00.001-06:00

New Year's Eve
We didn't do much of anything. Just hung out at home with some sparklers and roman candles. Oren was scared of the roman candles so he had to go inside. I didn't take many pictures of new year's eve or new year's day, I just didn't feel like it. That's a change huh?

The point that Oren decided he was scared.

Savanah & LeAnn

plus Deborah

plus Jeremy

minus Jeremy, plus me :)

New Year 2009

LeAnn with Levi & Oren playing piano.

Those are all the pictures I took new year's day, three. Crazy.

Photos taken with Savanah's new camera. :)

Snow!?!?

2008-12-11T09:41:00.003-06:00

Just wanted to post a few pictures real quick. I have lots more that I will share later. It is hard to post much when I have tons of other work to be doing and Oren running around making a mess. :)

These pictures do not do justice to how much it was actually snowing. Not long after I took this picture, maybe a minute, you couldn't tell that the car had the date written on it.

This morning about 7:40. I wish I had gone out before I went to bed last night and taken more pictures. Everything was covered in thick snow. It was already melting by this morning. It is snowing again right now though. Crazy!

Even the driveway was completely covered late last night. I really do regret not going out and getting the shot!

I'm well aware that I don't match but hey, it was early and really cold. I also just threw on the first things I could find. You should have seen the rest of me...

Around 10 am, playing outside with Oren.

Happy Birthday

2008-12-03T04:15:00.007-06:00

Happy 1st birthday to our sweet baby Oren. We love you so much more than I can express at 5am. (Yes, I'm still up working which means editing editing editing, I don't think anyone realizes how much goes into photographing and preparing images for/from a wedding...except perhaps Mindy. ;) But I'm oh so thankful for understanding clients, you have more images coming SOON.)

So, since I'm exhausted, I'm just going to show photos of Oren from this year. I tried to choose photos that have never been on here. I will write more later with photos from his birthday party. I will say that tonight I decided to watch the video from his birth (for the first time) and cried like a baby. Then when I went through the photos to pick a couple out I cried again. Thank you so much Mindy for the gift of those images & thanks to my Aunt Sharon for the video. I will cherish them forever. Oh and Mindy, you were right, I am glad I let her video. ;)

Dec 2, 2007 waiting on Oren to make his appearance.
(photo by Mindy)

Dec 3, 2007
When Oren finally got to come and stay in our room. I was only able to hold him for a few short minutes after he was born... he had to go spend some time in the NICU. You can read his birth story here.
(photos by me and Jerm)

Later that same day when the family came to see us. This is one of my favorite pictures of us. (by Min)

December

January

February
This picture cracks me up, it looks like a thought bubble or something.

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December 08
This picture is coming soon! ;) Sorry. I'm really busy and haven't taken a personal picture this month. I know, for shame. Today is the day though.

Oh, I wanted to add his birthday invite for everyone. :)
Front

Back

*I know this blog is private but I realized that I don't know everyone that was added so just to be SAFE I blurred out our address and phone number. You never know right? Also, I found the template online and then changed it to suit my needs. I have zero time to design my own right now.

at the park

2008-11-25T14:44:00.003-06:00

Here are some pics from the park yesterday. Mindy and I met up because I had to get something from her and we figured the kiddos could play for a little while too. She posted a few pictures HERE on her blog. She is right, I was chasing Oren everywhere. That is typically how my day is anyhow. I was happy to let him get outside and play though. He really loves to be outside, especially when there are other kids around.

He is looking at me like "can't you see that I hate this mom???"

Sorry Min, but I promise that you look beautiful. ;) If you hate it I will take it off. Love you!

4th pic from 4th post

2008-11-24T12:46:00.005-06:00

Decided to do this little tag from Ariana to post your 4th picture from your 4th month of blogging. It was fun looking back at all my old posts. :)

If I choose one off of my original blog from when I posted on it for the VERY first time (October 31, 2006), this would be the fourth photo from the fourth month. (January 1, 2007)

If I do it from the first time I posted on Oren's blog (April 7, 2007), I think this is the fourth photo. (July 31, 2007)

I'm suppose to tag four people to do this but I honestly think that I don't have four who look at this with blogs. Only Mindy and Ariana and they both did it already. So, if I'm wrong, let me know if you decide to do it. ;)

Oh, I will add a few pictures of me and Jerm from this weekend soon. We went to eat at Outback on Sunday night. Jeremy's parents gave us a gift card for it. Thanks so much Debbie & Ricky, the food was amazing as usual. We try to go there every anniversary because that is where we ate the night Jeremy asked me to marry him.

4 years!

2008-11-20T04:25:00.005-06:00

Today is our 4 year anniversary! It feels longer...probably because we've actually been together for 7 years. ;) We don't have big plans or anything. Tonight we are going to see a movie (I was given tickets to Twilight as an early birthday gift. Thanks Tammy, I'm so excited!!!!) and we might go out to eat this weekend. Here are some pictures from the events leading up to our wedding and so on. Last year I did a post with actual wedding images so I thought I would do something different this time. *click here to see those*

lingerie shower 8.14.04
This was an interesting little get together. Not only am I fairly shy, there were small children present... enough said.

before going to my bridal shower 10.17.04

Making sure my dress fits 10.30.04

Jason (in the dino costume) and Jeremy stuffing wedding invites. 11.2.04
This is so funny to me. This is the costume he wore that halloween. I remember it well. ;)

Our first (married) Christmas. 12.25.04

Thanksgiving 2005

December 2006

Thanksgiving 2007 (fat and overdue, lol)

The closest thing you get to a picture of us now is the one below from our family session. I will try to take one of us together this weekend and add it to this post. We haven't taken a picture alone together in a while. :)

Happy Anniverysary Jeremy! I will love you always.
~me

I'm going to add what I wrote in his card later. I want him to see it there first.

I'm still here...

2008-11-18T01:05:00.005-06:00

Sorry guys, I know I'm terrible... My update is short too. I have tons of work still and I just want to get it DONE, so I'm not keeping any free time for myself. I just wanted to let you guys know that I haven't forgotten about you. :)

Let's see, October 26th at like 1am or later (or earlier depending on how you want to look at it!) I colored my hair for the first time!!! Actually my sister-in-law, LeAnn, did it. I love it too. It has faded quite a bit now, I liked it better when it was darker, but I'm still really happy that she finally talked me into it. Thanks LeAnn!!! I wanted it done because Mindy was taking our pictures on Nov. 2nd and I needed a change before then without cutting all my hair off again.

Oren is doing so great. He is into everything, pretty much running to get there. We finally have him sleeping in his crib through the night, glorious. He has 7 teeth now, well the two new ones are almost all the way in and his first birthday is 15 days away!!!

Our 4 year anniversary is in two days (the 20th) but we aren't really doing anything this year. We will probably just go see a movie or something. Either way it will be nice to be alone with Jeremy for more than an hour here and there. He is graduating December 19th so he's really close to the finish line and I think we are all ready for it.

Here are a couple of images from our session with Mindy.
My little family that I adore.

And just me, I needed a photo for my website which is up, without the picture & "about me" for now.

Thank you so much Min, I LOVE them and know the rest will be just as beautiful. Your images always are!!!

11 months!!!

2008-11-03T20:25:00.002-06:00

I can't believe that in one month my baby boy will be one year old! Time really does fly. I want to add a list of everything he is doing and the things he likes to this but I can't right now. I will try to get it on here tomorrow. The main thing is that he is walking and has been since about the 2nd week of October. Now he wants to walk everywhere. He hardly ever crawls and it is usually just when he is tired. These aren't the best pictures. Like I said before, he wants to walk at all times and gets into everything. He is just so busy exploring, he doesn't have time to stop and pose for mommy.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T23:31:00.001-06:00

Here are just a few pictures from Halloween night. I have a lot more I want to share but, you know, I have a thousand other things I have to do first. I didn't get to take any really great shots of Oren is his costume so we plan to take some this weekend with daylight. I hate the way flash looks in all of these but what can you do. I had to capture those memories and it is better than blurry pictures or nothing at all!

(Thanks for taking this picture of us Min!!)

Granna made most of Oren's costume. She did such an awesome job and I'm so thankful that she took the time to do it, it was perfect. I glued all the ribbons to his hat and tail, and did the pink for the inside of his ears & bottom of his paws. It took a long time for us to make but it was totally worth it in the end. Oren was so good, he never once tried to rip his hat off or anything. I think he had a fun night. Debbie also put together Jeremy's costume. It is an old jacket and pants that she stitched some patches onto and hay. It turned out pretty cool.

Thank you Rachel for having all of us over, it was nice to have somewhere to go and something to do. :)

bath time for all

2008-10-25T20:19:00.003-05:00

Oren and Levi are going to really love us because of things like this when they are older. I'm pretty sure Mindy and Rusty were out photographing something, so she doesn't know about this. There is also some pretty funny video that Debbie took but I'm not going to put that on here. You know, naked babies and all. I made sure to sensor the photos. ;)

Cuddle time...I'm pretty sure Mia is running around naked with a witch's hat on right about this time. lol. You can see her in the background of the video.

church picnic

2008-10-12T22:26:00.005-05:00

Sorry guys, I obviously didn't keep to my once a week posting. I'm working SO so hard to get caught up on client work so that I can get back to my daily posting on this thing. I miss it so much!!! Here are a lot of snapshots from the church picnic. Oren had such a fun day. :)

I think it was tickling his foot.

The next 7 down were all on the hay ride.

Drinking from big daddy's cup.

He looks so happy to have a leaf stuck in his mouth...

silly baby

2008-10-11T23:07:00.001-05:00

Oren had his whole binky in his mouth. He thinks it is so funny. He's been doing it a lot lately and I finally got some pics. They are terrible but the moment is captured. ;)

9 month check-up

2008-10-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

Oren had is 9 month visit today even though he is now 10 months. They had to reschedule us because everything got backed up from hurricane Ike. He didn't have to get shots today so it was an easy one.

Stats:
weight- 23 lbs 3 oz, 75th percentile
height- 30 1/2 in., 90th percentile
head- 19 in.

Some quick shots once we got home. His hair is all sweaty. The AC is broken in my car so we had a long hot ride, we live about an hour from the doc office. Thankfully Oren was able to sleep for most of it.

glowing

2008-10-09T18:26:00.000-05:00

The sunlight coming through the windows was making Oren's little ears glow. It was really funny to us for some reason and I tried to get pictures but it just doesn't translate that well. You get the idea though, now that I've explained. ;)

As you know, he loves VeggieTales.

sleeping babe

2008-10-07T17:26:00.005-05:00

I know it has been WAY too long since I've posted. I had this ready to post the day we evacuated for Ike but obviously I never got around to it. Things have been hectic around here since the storm. We were without power for 10 very long days. After that it was another week or so before we had a phone and internet access. I have loads of client work to do, I'm terribly behind because of that stupid storm. I was just getting caught up before it hit and now I feel like I will never be finished with it all. Plus, we are in the middle of moving so that isn't helping matters. I feel so unorganized and I really hate that. So I won't be posting here everyday for the moment, I just have too much to do. Once I get to a safe place with client work I will start to post daily once again. For now, my goal is about once a week. I hope everyone is doing well. I've missed blogging and my blog friends, hopefully you guys haven't forgotten about us. ;) Now, on to the picture post...

He was in his pack-n-play, playing & watching Finding Nemo while I was cleaning up around the apartment. I saw him lay down but I didn't think he would actually go to sleep. A few minutes later I checked on him and he was out. He looked sooo sweet I had to take a few pictures of him.

Later in the afternoon we were sitting on the couch together. I was going through some old magazines and he wanted to help me out.

Our reflection in the TV.

9.9.08

in the crib

2008-09-09T23:24:00.002-05:00

This baby loves to play in his crib, but only if we are in the room with him. He will stand up and walk around the edges back and forth to the little music box & mobile, pressing buttons and laughing. I'm going to have to take the mobile down soon which is sad because he loves to look at it when he is lying down. He is such a sweet boy. :)

The light on his face is coming from daddy's video camera.

world's cutest baby

2008-09-08T20:11:00.003-05:00

We bloggers are doing a little project with our baby boys and this onesie. You will see what I'm talking about soon. I tried to get the picture for it the same day we did the 9 month pics. He just doesn't sit still anymore so this is the best I could do. I need to look through the pictures one more time but I'm almost certain this is the best of the bunch and that really isn't saying much. I didn't get the backdrop as white as I like but I was beyond trying for perfection, I just wanted ONE with him looking at me. This is what he gave me. You can see the motion in his hands & feet, he was out of there.

This is what would happen everytime I would back him up and sit him back down. He really wasn't interested at all. And so, it begins...

Sorry you guys (Mindy, Ariana, & Jordan) I know that top picture isn't the best and that you can't even see what the darn onesie says. It took me everything to get this. I hope it will work ok. Let me know if you guys think I should try again. :)

sorry...

2008-09-07T23:05:00.005-05:00

I know I said I would put more up from the 9 month session but I've been working all day on client photos and didn't take the time to look through his pics. I knew if I did I would never get anything work related done!

Here is a shot from last night while we were at Uncle Jason & Mallari's apartment. (Thanks for having us over you guys!! We had a great time and definitely need to do it again soon.) I was taking a picture to show how well the camera does with it's noise reduction & the terrible orange cast you normally get from indoor lighting. Not too bad. ;)

Oh, we also got an awesome video camera from my mom so there should be lots of fun video clips coming. I think I'm going to leave it up to Jeremy to post those since he is the one taking most of them.

oh boy.

2008-09-06T23:56:00.001-05:00

Well I took Oren's 9 month pictures today which was certainly an interesting task. I have a lot of pictures to go through and probably only a few decent ones. The boy WILL NOT sit still long enough for a picture.

Here is one that I'm lucky I even caught. I put the camera on the ground, tilted it up and shot. His smile is too funny. I'm not even sure why he was smiling, possibly because of the VeggieTales playing in the background. Who knows. We weren't home tonight but I wanted to at least get one picture on here. I plan to get more of them up tomorrow.

new camera...

2008-09-05T22:57:00.000-05:00

Just some snapshots from today while playing with the functions on my new camera. :) Unless it is b&w there wasn't much editing done. I wanted to see what I got straight out of camera. I pretty much only did a slight brightness/contrast boost to all of them.

Doesn't he look mischievous in this one??

Eating gerber puffs. He's still trying to get that whole pincer grasp thing down. He misses his mouth quite frequently, as you can tell in the picture. In the end he still finds a way to shove one in there.

A couple self-timer shots. I felt like a big dork. Oren had just gone down for a nap when the UPS man knocked on the door with my package. After taking a few pictures of random things I got bored and did this. My hair looks terrible, it had been up in a ponytail most of the day. I wasn't planning on having my picture taken. ;)

I think this was the second picture I took with the new camera. Boring but I wanted to keep it.

pretty day

2008-09-04T23:32:00.000-05:00

We (Oren, Jeremy, LeAnn, & myself) went to the mall for a little shopping. It was such a nice day out so I had everyone get together for a quick picture or two. Plus, I'm not sure that we have a picture with aunt LeAnn, or at least we haven't in a while so it was time. We had a good time at the mall, I got a new dress that I LOVE and LeAnn bought a few cute shirts for Oren. We ate some great sandwichs from the food court at Le Petit Bistro...seriously, worth the whole trip. ;-) I also got Oren an awesome hat that he is totally taking pictures in this weekend. My new camera should come in tomorrow. (Thank you so so much momma, I love you!!!!) So, I'm planning to take his 9 month pictures Saturday. I'm extremely excited!!

perspective

2008-09-02T20:40:00.003-05:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in a few days. I posted for a month straight, then skipped three days. Oh well. We were with family and I had/have lots of client work to do. I will work hard again to post everyday now that we are home. I still have lots of work to do and tons of packing & organizing to be getting on with but I will make time to at least get something up. Here are some pictures from this afternoon before we left granna & big daddy's to come home. Oh, I was fresh out of post titles so I let Jeremy name this one. :)

Too quick for me.

He loves this fake lemon.

I was trying to get a picture of him standing there all by himself, without holding onto anything...then he sat down.

Paco trying to ignore Oren.

I couldn't decide if I liked color or b&w best but after seeing it on here I'm pretty sure I like the b&w.

Memorial Day

2008-08-29T23:43:00.009-05:00

Just one for now so that I keep my post everyday promise. ;) We had a super busy day. I will get the rest up tomorrow if I can but we do have another busy day ahead of us.

5.26.08

everyone's fav

2008-08-28T23:45:00.012-05:00

Sorry this post is a little late. I had a very terrible day.

7.10.08
Not much to say, Oren was just running around in his walker, watching a movie off and on. Oh and he really is everyone's favorite. ;) There is totally a story behind getting this onesie but I'm way too tired to write it all out in detail. Basically Jeremy is teased as being the favorite so when I saw this I knew Oren had to have it.
(click on the storyboards to view them larger)

When these next images first popped up on my computer screen I couldn't believe how much he looked like Jeremy. Plus, the face is just so funny.

***On a side note, I was trying to make it where the images post larger but it isn't working out nicely. I hate the way they are uneven. I liked the clean look before when all the images went smoothly down the center. What do you guys think? I guess I need to try and make the horiz. images larger too. It was just giving me loads of trouble. Perhaps I will try again tomorrow.

Well as you can see I fixed the problem. Mindy, go into your html code, press ctrl f and search main. Then under main wrapper change the size from 545, to 725. That is what I set mine to. My horizontal images are 700 width.

silly baby

2008-08-27T03:02:00.000-05:00

Oren was being soooo incredibly sweet laying on daddy's lap. I enjoyed the moment for a little while then decided to get the camera out. The instant I started taking pictures he was done and wanted to sit up. The second picture here is the only one I got of them snuggling. The rest of the time Oren was acting silly and yelling dadadada like he always does.

Can you see the orange tint to his little nose?? Gotta love that beta carotene. And yes, he does get a variety of colors in his food, I switch them out constantly. Who knows why he has such an orange little nose, it is better than it being green tinted though. lol

The second picture in this storyboard looks so much like Jeremy when he was little, to me at least. :) OH and if you click to see it larger you can totally see his top teeth in the first image.

He looks so sad here... :-( but I promise he wasn't, he was just staring at the cat.

This is right after when he started talking to her. I guess he was just thinking about what he needed to say.

A fake cry if I've ever heard one. He was cracking us up. He wanted so badly to get to the cat. Jeremy had pulled him back so we could try to get a picture of them together. Oren had a little fit over it.

and he's off, watch out hazel...

Lately Oren has been running in place while in his walker. It is hilarious. It's something only a video camera could capture and we don't have one right now. I just needed to make a note of it so that I don't ever forget it.
8.26.08

cutie

2008-08-26T17:21:00.012-05:00

5.27.08
He was sitting on granna's couch playing after his breakfast. He looked so darn cute sitting there in those awesome pjs that I had to snap a few pictures. ;)

shades...

2008-08-25T22:29:00.004-05:00

Me and my uncle Jason are so cool...

This is from father's day, and as you know, I have TONS more pictures to share. ;)

the best I can do...

2008-08-24T19:39:00.004-05:00

Sorry guys but I have TONS of work to be getting on with today, well for the rest of the week actually, and zero time to play with this blog. I will still post something everyday but for the next few days it may be somewhat lame. I will get back to my normal huge posts as soon as I can. ;)

8.1.08
There are a few more pictures from this but like I said no time.

I love you too...

2008-08-21T11:11:00.002-05:00

He was being so sweet this morning. We watched Finding Nemo together and now I think I'm going to go take a nap with him.

Can you see his two little bottom teeth? Right now the top two are coming in.

beautiful boy

2008-08-20T08:03:00.001-05:00

At least we think so. I was trying to get a picture of him in these cute little overalls. However, now that he can crawl, there is no such thing as him sitting still long enough for the picture. The first one I took happens to be the best of the bunch.

Of course I couldn't decide between these two, but I think I like the color better because of his eyes.

8.17.08 Visiting with family at aunt LeAnn's new apartment.

3 month update

2008-08-19T18:51:00.007-05:00

Today's post is just adding more pictures to the 3 months old post from forever ago. There were only 3 pictures there to begin with, now there are lots. I'm working so super hard to get caught up on all of this stuff. I figure every few days I will share something more recent for you guys so you don't get too bored. ;)

**Ariana, yes, Oren LOVES VeggieTales. Loves them. His favorites are Jonah, Duke & the Great Pie War, and The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's. We have a couple others but he hasn't gotten into them yet. I think he will like those when he is a little older. The ones I mentioned can keep his attention for pretty long periods of time. Which ones did they have at Sam's? I'm getting tired of the ones we have. ;) I'm certain he would watch the one that is full of silly songs if we had it. He loves the music. Oh and he started sitting in the bumbo a few days before he turned 3 months.

exhausted

2008-08-18T21:11:00.002-05:00

Earlier I was trying to put Oren down for his last little nap of the day but he didn't want to have any part of it. He crawled all over me, pulling, pinching, and crying. He was so tired though. Finally I just let him do what he wanted and when he hit this position he fell asleep instantly. He is just face down in my lap, curled up in the most uncomfortable looking way. It isn't often that he fights sleep like this. He does it most when he is teething and right now the top two teeth are coming in. Fun stuff.

Jerm took the pics in the storyboard, I took the last two while he was still in my lap. :)

I couldn't decide if I would want color or b&w for the future book so you get to see both.

on my way out...

2008-08-17T13:31:00.002-05:00

I don't have time for a huge post. We have a lot of things planned for today and I won't be home in time to get anything else up. So, I skipped forward a few days in my pictures to find something that I could post very quickly. Go HERE to see. :)

new

2008-08-16T18:28:00.004-05:00

Click Here to see todays post. I'm working on getting all the really old pics up here so I'm sorry if I don't put anything new up for a little while. :)

Thank you Mindy, Melissa, Brandy, & Jennifer for the comments. You guys are awesome! I guess I will keep trying to post everyday for you all. The good news is that if I keep posting my old things in about 70 posts I will be caught up. ;)

family pics

2008-08-14T18:04:00.000-05:00

Took a few pictures real quick when daddy got home.

Okay, I need to know if anyone is even looking at this blog other than Mindy. I've been pusing myself to blog everyday but I feel like it is for nothing. If no one is looking then I will probably stop the everyday thing and just do it when I can find the time. So, if you are checking in could you either leave a comment in this post and let me know or e-mail me or something. I just don't want to be wasting time that I could be spending on work. Thanks! ~Denise

**Mindy, of course I will post everyday for you if you want me to!!! ;) Especially if you like to come here! Sorry, I didn't mean for it to sound like having you was a bad thing. You're my biggest fan & I love you!!! I guess I was just hoping that I had more than one fan. You know, some validation for doing all this...pushing myself to get something up here daily. I'm just trying to sort it out. One thing is for sure though, I will get caught up with all my posts/pictures sooner than I thought if I keep it up. :)

2 weeks!

2008-08-13T07:14:00.002-05:00

Can you believe it??? I actually posted everyday for two weeks. It is a miracle. ;)
Click Here to see the post for today. It is from March 1st...

worn out

2008-08-10T13:49:00.000-05:00

Oren went for an unexpected little swim with his daddy the other evening. That is why he is in just a diaper. He sure did have a lot of fun splashing in the water.

later that same night....
It was time for dinner but Oren was so tired, perhaps from playing in the pool, that he could barely keep his eyes open. He kept eating though, and it was hilarious. I wish we had a video camera to capture moments like these, they just don't translate the same through photos.

8.10.08

honeymoon

2008-08-09T15:00:00.001-05:00

Well, we are gone for the weekend. (Fri-Sun) I didn't want to miss any posts so I've scheduled some for you guys. ;) The mother's day one which you saw yesterday and then the ones for today and Sunday. I believe they are all scheduled for 3pm.

Today Jeremy and I are off shooting a wedding together. So, I thought it would be fitting to share a few pictures from our honeymoon, Nov 04'. Enjoy.
*note: all picture were taken with a little HP point & shoot camera except for the ones I declare otherwise.

This one was film, if you couldn't tell from all that grain.

yeah yeah...I know, you don't come here for pictures of us. You come for Oren. Don't worry there will be plenty more pictures of him on here soon. I just didn't have time to get anything together before we left. I stumbled upon these and thought it would be fun to share. forgive me. :)

just a few

2008-08-07T21:42:00.004-05:00

I said I would blog everyday but I only have a few minutes with the internet tonight. So, since I didn't want to go back on my word I'm just making a quick post. Here are some pictures from Oren's first few days.

The day he was born, Dec. 3rd.

Dec. 4th

Dec. 5th

Snuggly, continued...

2008-08-07T17:53:00.000-05:00

100% Snuggly

2008-08-07T15:00:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I'd say he's snuggly. Wouldn't you? There are a few more of these I want to add but I just don't have time before I leave. I will get them up on Monday.

8.7.08

trouble?

2008-08-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

Oren's little onesie says "here comes trouble" but that really isn't accurate. Now, when he can walk...perhaps then, but not right now. ;)

new "old" post

2008-08-06T15:39:00.001-05:00

There is a new post HERE.
Like I said, I like keeping things in order. They are old, from May. He was 5 months and a couple of weeks old...he's 8 months now.

Vacation: day three

2008-08-05T22:17:00.006-05:00

This is the last day of pictures from the beach.

Afer eating his breakfast outside. His little outfit says "someone who loves me very much went to Jacksonville Beach, Florida" My aunt brought that back for him, it is where I was born.

When he makes that face from the last picture we always laugh.

Oren was worn out so he took a nap in granna's arms.

Me, Oren, LeAnn, & Jeremy

James, Oren, & Cole

Jeremy & his dad

the fam.

We were laughing at the way his hair was blowing in the wind.

on the move

2008-08-04T20:39:00.010-05:00

August 2, 2008
Oren is all over the place these days. I can't turn my back on him for two seconds and he's gone. This morning I went to put something in the kitchen came back and saw him like this. His walker was in the way of his goal so he went right on through it. What he wanted was just a boring cardboard box on the floor.

(click image to view larger)

*day three of vacation pictures coming soon*