I have had some time the past few weeks to do some really fun things with my business. One of the things I’m really excited about is my new ‘sneek peeks’ for clients on my blog. I’m using a program that allows me to create slideshows of the images, set to my own music, and customized for each client. They can then see this online and choose to buy it if they are interested!
See this link for my sample of Logan.
We’ve been up north since Friday morning. I love, love, love it up here. You’ve read my blogs about it before – but honestly, it gets better each and every time. Right now it is a wonderful time of year with the lake newly opened, boats out and about, people mowing their lawns, children laughing…there is nothing like growing up on the lake. The second I walk down to the water, and close my eyes, everything comes right back. I pictures ourselves as kids – running and chasing each other, tubing behind the boat, learning to ski at a really early age, BBQing and eating sandwiches and chips on the deck. Neighbor friends coming over for night games, basketball on the full court my dad put up, campfires and fireworks…I love it.
We haven’t done a ton sine we’ve been up here but the boys have gone fishing and golfing. The girls stayed back with the kids (except Jen who also went golfing). Logan loves the water and love dipping his feet in. He has crawled around on the grass, my sister, mom and I mowed the grass (strangly, I LOVE to mow! Love it…) and Anna has been constantly entertaining us with her silly humor and toddler one-liners. My hubby has been in the boundary waters until last night. It was great to see him drive up the driveway. We missed him! Now we are the only ones still here at my parent’s house -we’re staying until tomorrow night. I’m anxious to have a day with my boys tomorrow.
Happy Memorial Day!
Here are a few more pages I had sitting in my files that I wanted to share. My goal is to create his 0-3 month book and 3-6 month book before the summer comes – hmm, we’ll see how that goes with other things I’m balancing. Wish me luck!
First wedding of the season tomorrow – YEA!
Filed under Creativity
It has been a few days since I have posted anything. We have been busy – but in SUCH a great way! We both, meaning Brian and I, finally feel like we have had some really great family time the past few weeks. We were both home, it was nice outside, we planned fun outings. It has been a great spring so far!
Logan is officially 10 months old and I don’t know where the time has gone! He turned 10 months on Mother’s Day and we celebrated with breakfast in bed together, church with our wonderful friends, and then Brian packed a picnic for us in the park. It was such a great afternoon! We played with Logan for a while, and once he fell asleep we threw the football around (and yes, I LOVE throwing the football around – always have, long before I met Brian), walked down by the beautiful lake, sat on rocks and talked for an hour, then took a walk up to the playground. It was wonderful…and a great first Mom’s Day for me! Logan continues to inspire us to be better people and disciplined parents. It is amazing how quickly he is picking up on things and how much he makes us laugh. His new favorite thing is the downward dog pose (for those familiar with yoga). He doesn’t know he’s doing it but he definitely is. What he is really wanting to do is stand on his own but there isn’t usually something around for him to grab so he puts his rear end up in the air before his hands are. It is hilarious. He also enjoys laughing out loud – we think it is a result of tubes and the fact that he can now hear himself. He will look in the mirror and just laugh and laugh at himself. And then if you laugh, he laughs even harder. That is the sweetest sound to me ever.
He is standing up on everything! We are just waiting for him to take his first step! He stands for long periods of time but hasn’t quite mastered the idea of taking a step. It is pretty fun to watch him dart from furniture to furniture just so he can pull himself up again. He has tooth #7 and I think he is cutting more. He eats just about anything we are – minus the allergy foods. His favorites are spaghetti, corn, yogurt and rice. He also loves his sippy cup. Again, I can’t believe how much bigger he is, how much more joy he brings to our live everyday, even when you don’t think its possible, and how we love watching him do new things.
We are trying to stay grounded in all that we are learning as parents. I am reading some great books on disciplining right now and realizing that starting sooner rather than later in getting your children to respect you is crucial. We are chipping away at some of those ideas everyday. First and foremost, we are asking the Lord for guidance as parents. We know we can’t do ANY of this without Him, and that none of it matters without Him. I am more and more thankful for the man I married and the way we have decided to pursue the Lord in all we are doing as a family. Obviously we have slip-ups, that is natural, but we are doing what we know is best whenever possible and trusting Him to direct our steps.
I am gearing up for wedding season – and pumped about it! I have so many fun ideas, different things I’m going to try, and fun brides I’m going to hang out w/ through out this season. Look for more pics soon!
Here are a few from the past week with Logan.
I know my eyebrows were out of control – for the first time in my life, I got them waxed! I was nervous and scared but they turned out great. I’m going for a more ‘natural’ look and it definitely took us (my husband too) some getting used to 🙂
Filed under My family, photography
I love, love, love what I do! Next weekend I officially kick off my 2009 wedding season (even though I had one in Feb) and I absolutely can’t wait! It is an amazing season of beautiful weather, gorgeous brides, true love, friendship, families, pure joy, anticipation, expectation, excited grooms, and moments that outbeat any others in your lifetime! I love capturing those for you and I’m honored that you ask me to take part in your day!
I am so excited!
Filed under photography, Weddings
My brother, Ryan, and his wife, Mollie, welcomed a baby boy into the world this morning! Yea! He is so cute!
Brodie James Burke
7 lbs 14 oz
20″ long
We are hopefully going to get to Milwaukee and visit soon! What a special Mother’s Day for Mollie this weekend!
Here are some pics my bro sent along…
Filed under My family
I mentioned the fact that it was Brian’s birthday this past weekend. It was such a fun birthday weekend! I’ll tell you what Logan and I did with Brian in pictures.
We had some of our best friends over, Matt & Meg, for dinner Friday night.
Saturday morning Bri had football practice, so Logan and I got ready for our Sunday surprise (more to come on that later) and headed to lunch with my cousin, Nicole, and Renae & Anna. We hadn’t seen Nicole in such a long time so it was a fun lunch! Later that day we headed to the Senske household to see Grandpa & Grandma Senske and eat birthday cake there with Brian. Emmie even helped Brian blow out the candles (sort of). After that, we left Logan there and Brian and I went to ‘State of Play’ (great movie!).
Sunday morning it was breakfast in bed (for Logan and his Daddy), church, and then I PROPOSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For those of you that don’t know, Brian lost his wedding ring this past January (what can I say? He’s a fidgeter, and yes, there is a category of men & women who fidget constantly…he is in this category of ‘fidgeters’ and he was fidgeting and dropped it in the car. It has been missing ever since) So I wanted to get him a new ring. Here’s how I did it:
I left Brian with these notecards and sent him on a scavenger hunt (I do these quite frequently as my mom did then growing up and I loved the tradition! I will always do these for birthday cakes, fun little presents, whatever! for my kids) Logan and I left him alone in the house – he had no idea where we were headed! I told him to call my cell phone if he didn’t understand some of the clues. He called me 3 times 🙂 But eventually got them all. The last clue was one that led him to the garage where he was supposed to unscramble the letters. He said I made it too hard but this is what he spelled out:
(YOUR SALLY WURM?!!?)
This is what it really said:
(WILL YOU MARRY US?!)
And then he got his last clue which read ‘Thursday=____________________” and the answer was ‘garbage day’ (he called me for this one)
He came out to the gated area where our garbage/recycling bins are to find this:
….and this is what Logan was doing while we were waiting out there (good thing for coolers!)……….
In the end, he said ‘yes’ and we were happy:
We ended the birthday weekend with Auntie Nen & Uncle Doah (jen & noah) coming over and I took Brian out to eat – just the 2 of us. It was such a wonderful weekend and so much fun to plan! I love, love, love birthdays!
Thank you so much for the prayers for Logan during surgery this morning!
Our morning started out around 5:45 AM when we got up to get ready to bring Logan to Childrens West Hospital. We couldn’t feed him anything so we were worried about how that might bother him. He was totally fine, distracted, I think, by the fact that we were in the car by the time he usually gets up for the day. We arrived by 6:40 AM, they checked us in, and Logan proceeded to crawl around the waiting room while two others kids ran around. We got ushered back to our own little room where we changed him into hospital PJs (basically a little kimono) and put some cute yellow slippers on him with an ID bracelet (with the little pads on the feet – ‘just like mommy!’ I told him) and a sweet nurse came to talk us through a few things, listen to Logan’s lungs and heart, and go through his physical report with us. Then we went out to a beautiful kids playroom where Logan was distracted by this giant gorilla hanging from chains on the ceiling.
Soon after that the anthestiologist came in went through what he was planning on doing, if we had any questions, etc. He also told us that since Logan was so young, and didn’t have stranger anxiety quite yet, that they were just going to bring him back to the operating room and put him under there, instead of letting us be in an induction room with him and holding him while they put him under. As soon as he said that I realized I was okay with it. I would have loved to have been there holding him…but I also think it was okay that I was just in the waiting room visually what it might be like rather than actually experiencing it with him (even though I cried a little bit in the waiting room too). Regardless, we knew they had done this a million times before and we trusted them to know what was best for Logan.
So after playing with the gorilla and charming the nurses, the anthestiologist came out to get Logan. The nurse gave us a card that we could use to track where he was in his surgery procedure. There was an ID number on the bottom of the card and a screen in the Family Waiting Room that you could watch the entire time. I loved this feature. We were ushered back to the waiting room and I immediately took out the card. Only a few seconds went by and the line with Logan’s ID number turned to a pink and green box that read ‘Entering the OR’ this was at 7:32 AM. By 7:35, a green light was up that read ‘Surgery Beginning’ which meant he was already put under. By 7:44 a heart monitor box with an arrow popped up that said ‘Entering PACU (recovery)’ meaning he was done with his surgery and surgery had ended.
Whew. An entire 12 minutes.
Paul, the volunteer at the Family Waiting Room, brought us back to a consult room where we met Dr. Murphy and he told us that Logan’s surgery went very well. That he removed a lot of fluid from behind his ear drum and that the fluid was pretty mucousy, which meant it had been sitting back there for a while. He thought it was absolutely the right thing to do and that Logan should be able to hear better and improve from here. Yea! He did warn us about sensitivity to noise over the next few days and that the world might seem a little different to Logan. So we are taking it easy today at home with as little noise as possible (which has been really nice).
Soon after that Logan was up and ready for us. When I saw him I was overjoyed. He looked completely out of it and a little gray in the face, but absolutely beautiful to me. I know Brian felt the same way. Even though you think you are ready for something like that, it does shake you a little. Especially when you look at how tiny they are and the amount of pain tolerance they have. He responded well to us, a little cranky, but after some apple juice and graham crackers he was better. The burping pops his ears, which hurts. He may get a low grade fever tonight, but we can give him Tylenol for pain and fever. He may also have some drainage over the next few days but that is normal. There is also a chance he could still get ear infections, but they won’t build and hurt behind his ear drum – they will simply drain out.
We were home by 8:50 AM.
Thanks again for all of your prayers and support – our phone has been ringing off the hook and we love you for it. Here are a few before and after pics for you 🙂
Before:
After:
The other thing he really wanted to do at home was to stand up on his own. He has been doing this for a while but he was doing it constantly and flinging his arms around. It was so cute! We think that might be balance-related after his tubes were put in.
In about 10 minutes we are leaving to get Logan’s tubes put in his ears. Our night was good and pretty restful. Logan didn’t make a sound all night and woke up with huge smiles for us this morning. We can’t feed him, which is the hardest part, but he still smiles despite his tummy rumbling. Thank you for all of your prayers around 7:30 AM today as that is when he will be put under. We are comforted in knowing the Lord protects His children and have been praying for the doctors and nurses that will be taking care of Logan this morning. But we are peaceful in knowing everything will be great and Logan will soon be able to hear much more clearly and hopefully be infection-free (or at least no longer building up fluid in his ears). We are definitely thankful for that.
An update soon to come.
Oh, and it was B’s birthday yesterday so I definitely have some pics to post. Have a beautiful and joyful day today!
My Dad sent me a forward this morning from some of his co-workers. You have to know my Dad to know that it is rare for me to actually open one of his forwards (sorry Dad, its true). He tends to get a little ‘forward-happy’ which is totally fine, it just means I usually don’t have time while I’m at work to open them. This one, however, definitely caught my eye. The part I wanted to mention in my blog was a poem from an 11-year-old fron Denver that was published in the Scholastic News a couple of weeks ago. I think the message is fantastic.
“A Sip of Life” by Lena Novins-Montague
Ever run out of your house
and rushed off to work?
Ever overslept
 and been late to school?
Is your whole day a blur?
 Rushing,
Worrying
 fretting,
and collapsing at the end of the day
Do me a favor
Close your eyes,
 think,
and take a sip of life.
 Tastes good, doesn’t it?
Filed under Creativity, My family
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