2008 Christmas Photo Shoot

Today was an interesting day. I was scheduled to see my neurosurgeon and at the last minute they cancelled my appointment due to an emergency surgery. So Mike and I decided to make use of a good week day off for me and get some Christmas pics of the girls and do some cards. We tried out Portrait Innovations and now I see why everyone I know who uses them does. The photographers were great and they had good ideas and great props!

Can you tell we bribed Lindsay with a really big COOKIE today???

These are just the sweetest...

My fave pic of Brooke! Check out that dimple!

Gotta love the Carter's matching PJ's

Obviously we didn't buy this one but it was just funny to see Brooke's expression here!

Lindsay's 2nd Birthday Photo Shoot

Click HERE to compare last year's birthday picture. Also click on picture above to enlarge a bit if you'd like.

Here is the collage I chose for my free 8X10 for her birthday shoot. I bought several of the one of her with the blocks and the one to the right up close. Thought the stroller pic was cute for the collage. The scan is off center but you get the idea.

We also did another session that is a little surprise for daddy but you'll have to wait (like him) til Father's Day to see it.

Mike is doing well. He's basically on bed/couch rest and he spent today sleeping and resting while I was at work. He's doing really well considering he can't do much. I know he's going crazy being stuck like this but he also is definitely too scared to over do it. This was scary for all of us (and still is). We can't afford any setbacks this close to baby's due date so he is being a very good patient.

In more Lindsay news....apparently she has pee'd and poo'ed on the potty up at Aunt Patti's today. Aunt Patti was very smart and got Lindsay a potty chair that plays music when she pees. Well, that was all it took. All she wants to do is make the potty chair sing. I tell you my child is going to be completely potty trained between Aunt Patti and Grandmama before we ever get her back home on a regular schedule.
I have to admit I'm a little bummed that I missed the VERY FIRST PEE PEE in the potty. BUT, I do know that the whole potty training thing is a source of angst for most mom's. So, who cares how she gets there and who teaches her right? I am so happy that she's having a blast with all of the extended family that has been helping to take care of her. There is just no way I could manage to take care of Lindsay, Mike and myself full time right now (and still work).

I'm very busy at work this week. I started training my maternity replacement today! She's doing great too. I'm very happy about this because if I had anything else put on me right now that was "difficult" I think I would just snap. I'm definitely feeling like she and I are going to hit it off and I think she will learn quickly and do a good job. I'm much happier about that issue than I was a week ago.

I think that's about it for now. I promise to try and catch up with everyone else. I know I still owe a little more update about the Mike stuff. I'm still trying to get some things done around here as I know I'm slowing down with each week that passes.

Thank you to everyone for all your prayers, well wishes, food deliveries, our neighbor for mowing our jungle of a yard! We are SO BLESSED!

More soon!

School Proofs Are Back

Sorry for the funky shape, I scanned them sort of funny. This pic is my fave of the two. Doesn't she look like such a little "school girl" in these photos??
My sweet girl...this one isn't bad either for a school pic. I'm LOVING that she wore her headband for the pictures and didn't pull it out! Her teacher was such a sweetie to make sure her hair looked cute for us. The photographer was still working on the babies when Mike dropped off and he couldn't hang out. We had no idea how she did so I'm pretty pleased with these photos.

We're taking Easter pics this weekend so more to come...

Here they are!!! Sears Christmas Photo Shoot

Above is the pose we chose for the package
One of my fave's it was so hard to choose between this and the one above!
Our Christmas card picture! (The actual card will be revealed once I mail them)
Mike's fave of Lindsay by herself. He calls it "Waiting for Santa"
Sweetness!
Love this one too. Now you can scroll down and see the rejects but I wanted to post them with my commentary...
It's shiny, round and red...it must be an apple!
Kiss the pony....

Just missed the smile but still a cutie...

This would have been mommy's "vision" pic if she had looked at the camera or maybe smiled...check out her cute red shoes!

...and what would a photo shoot be without a melt down???
I call this "I wanted a REAL pony!!!"

Lindsay says "I'm done ya'll...get over yourselves."

Sears Towne Center- Fall Photo Shoot

Here they all are...random order here. This photo and the teaser shot on the previous post are my two fave's. She has such a mischeivous little smile here. She refused to wear her witches hat. So, I improvised and put it on the pumpkin instead. I think it totally worked! She also was not letting go of her cracker for love nor money. We worked with it. The costume was the second part of the photo shoot so we didn't want to push it.

This picture was obviously a boo boo but the photographer thought it was cute because it looks like Lindsay was casting a spell. We labled it "double, double, toil and trouble" and entered it in their Halloween photo contest. Way to make a bad photo work huh? I got a free shot of it in 5x7 too since it was entered in the contest.

Just to show you it wasn't a PERFECT photo shoot. We had a slight melt down but the photographer and I still liked this shot. Mike doesn't get why I like the cry pictures sometimes. It's still cute. It's still her personality. We'll see what she thinks someday. I bought a 10x10 photo collage of most of these pics and I threw this photo in the collage for posterity.
I love this shot however if you compare it to the teaser shot (which is also the last photo in this post) I thought her smile in the other one was cuter. They are both great photos though and just ever so slightly posed differently. The girls at Sears were fabulous with her and I'm definitely planning on doing our Christmas pictures there this year.
I wanted one photo of her standing alone. Not the best expression but still a sweet shot.

I didn't buy this photo but she has the cutest toes and double chin here.
We didn't buy this one either as it was too close to the very first one above and I don't like her smile in this shot. We were still warming up here and holding the cracker. The kicker was when I put her cat purse on her arm. That's when we got the good smile pic.
Love this shot too. They cropped this one up as a close up and we purchased it that way.

I'm not sure why this photo came out smaller than the others...oops. However I didn't buy this one either. Great smile but not as good as the other shots and even though she has on her pumpkin shoes I don't like the way her legs and everything look here. As you can see, even the worst pics are still great!
The girls at the studio loved this pic but to me, pardon the expression, this is her "poopy face". I didn't like this smile so much. Mike agreed so I was glad I made the right decision. It was hard to choose from so many cute shots and he wasn't with me this time.
This shot is in the collage. It was a nice natural picture of her playing with the props.
You bet we bought bunches of this one! It seems we always get some kind of picture of her in a box or basket or popping out of a present. LOL! Hey, whatever works! This is a great photo!
LOVE MY LINDSAY! We're back to the teaser photo.

I'm telling you guys I couldn't be more pleased. I spent way too much money. Especially considering we're going next month to do Christmas pics and our first family portrait since Lindsay was five months old! But at least my kids will have plenty of pictures to treasure when they're older. I have so few baby pictures of myself and all of Mike's are on slides. I hope Lindsay will appreciate having all of these one day.

School Pictures

Here are Lindsay's proofs for her school photos. Of course the one with any semblance of a smile is the full body shot and not one of the up close shots. However, considering this was her second week of a new school the fact that she didn't cry and we got pics at all is amazing to me. I'm thinking of buying a small package of the full body shot just for posterity sake.

I'm giving props to McCurry Photo since I'm posting my proofs for the world to see. Mike said the photographer was pretty good with her. But she's quick! It's hard to get a smile out of her when she's in a situation with a stranger photographer. Oh, and technically this is a picture of a pic. Sorry for the quality but rather than scan these I just took a pic with my digital camera.

Anyway, I just wanted to share.

1 Year Photo Shoot (uncropped original pics off cd)

Money Shot...we bought several of these to give out

Love this shot but wish we had gotten the money shot smile here too...bought a few of these
We bought several of these as well.

Obviously we cropped my hand out on the portraits
This photo we zoomed in and printed close ups of her face.