My Little Hoot

A while back, we took some photos for our friend, Jennie Biles, to advertise her hand made hats and bows for her new business. Asa and Lily got to do a bit of modeling for this photoshoot and so even though these are older photos taken before our move to Michigan, I thought I'd post them up anyway. You can check at Jennie's business at www.mylittlehoot.com.

Fun in the Fall!

We arrived back in Michigan after our three week trip to Austin and was a bit dissapointed that all of the fall leaves were gone and on the ground, however the benefit to this is that the kids get to play in the newly fallen leaves! So we went out to "rake" our front yard and ended up just having fun playing in the leaves together.

The kids were quite taken with throwing the leaves up in the air and having them fall down on their heads, this is the first time either has really played in leaves before so it was all a new adventure.

After the fun we tried to get them to sit still for 5 seconds while we took a few photos of them together...we got one...

and then the crying ensued. lol.

Cookies thankfully fixed the situation and they were happy to sit and eat while we snapped a few of them together in the leaves.

So we had a great Saturday morning playing with the kids in the yard. It's amazing to have a house with a yard since we've always been in apartments. It's also amazing to have a real fall and to play in the leaves like a kid again. lol. I did also take some photos of miss Selah since today is her one month birthday ;) and so I'll be posting more in a little bit to show her off as well. Enjoy!

Selah is one month!

I can't believe it's gone so fast! Selah is one month old and now weighs in at a whopping 6.6 pounds. lol. She's still such a itty bitty thing but she's getting bigger. 6.6 was what Asa was born at and I don't even think Lily has ever seen 6.6 in her life. lol. She is huge compared to the 5.4 she was when we brought her home from the hospital.

She's a good baby, doesn't sleep a wink at night but she's a good baby from about 6am and 9pm when she's peaceful. lol. Asa and Lillian are enjoying having her around, they are so sweet with her and kiss her head and call her their "sissies". Having three kids is kind of like running a circus, it takes an hour to get ready to go anywhere and quiet is a foreign word. The outrageous things that our children do everyday are unending entertaining (and sometimes frustrating) and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

We had three weeks together after Selah was born as a family and it was amazing. I think it helped to get Asa and Lily used to Selah. We feel like a completed family now and are thrilled with our children, we never felt "done" after Asa and Lillian, always felt like there were more children for us and now we feel done and at peace with our family. We still have a heart for adoption and someday may go down that path depending on what the Lord leads us to do but we're done with our biological children and we feel extremely blessed with the three that the Lord has gifted us with.

I'll post photos later of the kids rooms which are finally done being decorated (well there are a few more details but most of it is done). Stay tuned!

Asa's first fishing trip

So as most of you know, we are in Texas photographing several weddings and portrait shoots. Extra bonus of this trip is that we get to spend time with Lee's family during our downtime. We've had a blast seeing old friends and going to all of the restaurants and places we don't get in Michigan, which is mainly good Mexican food. lol. There is just no comparison to Jardin Corona, Einsteins Bagles and Lonestar Koloches in Michigan. These are my three places I have to hit by the time we leave, so far I've only had Jardin Corona...which was amazing of course.

I have to admit that although I miss a lot of people here in Texas, I do not miss Texas itself. I've been almost hit while driving a million times already, I hate Austin traffic with every fiber of my being, and I absolutely abhore that it's 90 degrees in November...disgusting. I miss the fall color and crisp air. However it's been great visiting with friends and family here in Texas, if I could take them all back with me, life would be perfect. :)

So we've done a lot of things since we've been here, photographed weddings, went to church several times, out to eat, movies with our friends but one of the most exciting (for Asa at least) was Asa's first fishing trip with his daddy and papa (and Lane's neighbor friend). He was so excited about going, he talked about it for several days beforehand and he practiced with his little fishing pole. Well yesterday the guys went out and Asa did great! He caught a little cat fish and was absolutely thrilled!

While the guys were away, the ladies watched "Devil Wears Prada" lol. It was a fun Sunday afternoon. We fly back to Michigan in a week and I'm excited to see my fam again but I'll miss everyone here in Texas. We'll be back to Texas in the spring to do some more photoshoots and visit family again.

Well I'll post more photos of our trip to Texas later, I haven't even taken a photo with our camera, we've just been stealing them from Lee's parents and friends, I know, we'll try to get better at that. lol. Hope you enjoy the video and photos, he's getting so big it's amazing to me, and a little scary. I remember when he was Selah's size and in preemie clothes so it's hard to believe that he's catching catfish and running around in big boy undies. lol.

Welcome Selah Renee Blanchard!!!!

On October 13th 2010 we welcomed baby Selah Renee Blanchard into our family! She weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and was 18 inches long. She is a perfect angel and has the sweetest quiet cry.

We went into the hospital to be induced with Selah at 5:30pm Oct 12th and thankfully I didn't need any pitocin to start my labor, they started the "prep" of induction with a cervadil and lo and behold I ended up in labor less than an hour after they started it. This was really exciting for me since I've been confined to a bed for my past two labors due to having pitocin and needing constant monitoring. Since I ended up going into labor without the need of pitocin, I was free to walk around and labor the way I wanted. It was MUCH easier to deal with the pain not being in bed and my labor, although long, was easier than with Asa and Lillian. Thankfully I didn't need an epidural and I had the amazing support of Lee and my mom and after 25 hours of labor, Selah was born perfectly healthy and with a 9.9 apgar score. Here are a few photos we snapped in the hospital. Enjoy!