top 11 of 2011

1. Sunning on the porch on his dad's lap the very first day we brought him home.

                 2. One month old snuggled up in his bassinet in the early morning light of our bedroom.

3. Waking up with dad on his paternity leave. 6 am mamarazzi strikes again.

4. Gorgeous sunset on the northern California coast on the balcony of our b&b for the night. So happy to be free from his carseat on our 30 day roadtrip from Washington to Texas.

5. Same sunset, this time with mama and some pretty bokeh. Thanks for taking some pictures for me, Mike! 2 1/2 months old.

6. Playing with dad on a Saturday morning in our Texas apartment. See how happy he is to move out of our minivan? 3 1/2 months old and cheeky as ever.

7. Same day, wrestling with his daddy.

8. Showing off his brand new rolling skills. 4 months and loving life.

9. Tried on his new H&M winter hat and just couldn't resist a picture. Thank you Grandma!

10. Learns a new game every week. Squealing with delight at 4 months.

11. Now he can roll and push up! Showing off his new skills at 4 1/2 months.

What an awesome year! Baby Liam was born July 28th and nothing has been the same ever since :). More prayer, less sleep, and most importantly an amazing addition to our family. Our lives are just bursting with joy as he smiles and laughs his way through each day (and night!).

I am so thankful for each memory behind this favorite images we took as I started shooting on manual this year. I know they aren't perfect, but I am enjoying getting better all the time and I am so crazy about the subjects I don't even care :). I love taking more pictures now to capture our precious family time in a beautiful way!

Also feeling lucky this morning and entered into a lens giveaway at http://cravemyphotography.com/blog/. I would LOVE to win this 85mm and learn even more this year!

Liam weeks 1 & 2

one month snapshots

Week 30

7.5 months this week! So exciting :). The baby growing like a weed! The doctor was concerned that my bump was too small, but after an ultrasound we found out the baby is really a week ahead of the 'norm'. What an answer to prayer. Still no name, but we love him dearly anyway.

His nursery is coming together and I'm so happy to look forward to his daddy's return soon. I've had so many wonderful friends and family help me at the house it's been incredible. We are so blessed to have such supportive and encouraging friends to help me with the house during this deployment.

The lilies are a part of my very first Mother's Day gift! I felt so special receiving that beautiful bouquet to help celebrate this new adventure.

So thankful!

Week 27

Do I look pregnant or what? Strangers are still a little tentative, but pretty sure they can ask, 'When are you due?' I still can't believe there is a tiny little man growing inside of me. It's really just too wild to even imagine.

I just got back from 2 weeks visiting friends and family in Colorado Springs and had a wonderful time! I am so blessed with special friends and a great family to support me. A big group of friends and mentors got together and prayed for me and the baby, and it was a huge blessing. I hope I can learn to be an encouragement to them, too!

While I was in the Springs my parents and my brother Mason all got to feel the baby going crazy. It is so fun to be able to share that with them! He is getting stronger every day, and now I can just start to see him moving my belly around when I look down sometimes.

I am still having a great time going to 'normal person' yoga a few times a week, but I get worse and worse every class as the baby gets bigger. This is a little annoying for the over-achiever in me. At least I'm trying to stay in shape! :)

Week 26

From Collages

What a fun milestone! :) The little guy's newest trick is that if I balance a book on my tummy while lying down, he can make it bounce up and down. Almost like there's some popcorn popping in there. I went shopping for clothes this weekend for the first time and found it really depressing until I stumbled upon a bunch of great empire waste sundresses like this one after nearly 6 hours of searching. Pregnant shopping is rough! Being an optimistic dresser, I wear things like this and just hope that the weather man is wrong. Spokane is still stuck in the low 50's for now, but I think spring will show up soon because we are getting some beautiful sunshine most days :). Thanks to all the friends and family motivating me to keep pulling out this camera to learn more!

6 Months

So excited to make the 6 month marker! The baby is getting bigger and stronger every day, and can even move my whole belly when he wants to. :) I have now cleared out the guest room to become the nursery, but it is completely empty save a few darling gifts from friends. Good thing I have some time to get this together!

Seattle!

This weekend we squeezed in a quick trip to Seattle in between tdys and deployments! Trust me, this was a feat. He was supposed to fly into Spokane at midnight, but at the last minute he had me borrow a friend's huge truck (thank you Marc & Katie!) and pick him up at SeaTac. Their 2011 Tundra is so huge I felt like a monster-truck-mama hauling west on I 90.  It was so wonderful to see Mike and be together!

I wanted to try out some of my new 'selfie' tricks from http://www.selfiemagic.com/ and came up with a few shots of our trip that I love! I just had my Canon PowerShot on auto timer, turned off the flash, and looked for great natural light.

We stayed in a beautiful room right downtown and just relished being tourists for the weekend.

I know I'll treasure these images for a long time. My bump is getting bigger by the minute. I am just shy of 6 months now, and next time my husband sees me I'll be at 8 months!

This last shot is at the top of the Space Needle. To keep up my inspiration and challenge myself to learn I'm following a good friend's photography blog, and I highly reccomend it! Check out the button below to see her work...

First attempt

I am so excited to say I have finally started playing around with my camera & tripod to capture my first pregnancy. I feel great today and with a little inspiration I came up with this image as my favorite. My goal is to have one image a week that I really like. I want to do a little journaling each week, too, so I can make a simple album to remember the experience and share in the future.

I chose the bedroom today because it is my favorite back drop in our home so far, and I think the sitting poses are a little less tricky.

Any ideas for picking a good full body back drop in your home?

Click it Up a Notch