Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Overdue House Tour

For months, I have been wanting to do a post on our new house, but I would think about it when the house was a disaster or I wouldn't think about it when the house was clean.  The other week, I finally remembered to take pictures to share!

 Foyer:
 Living Room:

Dining Room:
 Kitchen:
 Laundry Room:

Garage (one of the best features of this house - I love finally having a garage):
 Guest bath:

 Justin's room:

Kate's room:



 Mason's room:


Master bedroom:

 Master bath:


 Our fantastic backyard:

Everyday I am so thankful for this home.  It was a big transition moving from a 900 square foot townhouse to a 2000 square foot house, but it well worth the wait!  I still have a lot of decorating to do and a few more things to find a "place" for, but overall we are settled and loving our new location!

Attempted 3 Month Pictures

Mason has been challenging in certain areas such as sleeping and riding in the car, but I didn't expect him to be so challenging for pictures.  I tried three times to get nice 3 month pictures and I have now officially given up.  If he asks me when he is older why there aren't more pictures of him, my answer will not be because he is the second child.  It will be because all he did was cry. I've tried in the morning, in the afternoon, on different days, at home, at Mrs. Betsy's and at JC Penny's and he cried at all of them.  Every single one.

My first attempt was at JC Penny's.  I walked in with Mason screaming and it never stopped!  The girl that took the pictures was so sweet and very patient, but she only managed to get one decent shot before I told her that was good enough considering his mood (plus I was exhausted).  I had another beautiful outfit to put him in but needless to say that wasn't an option.

 There were several attempts to put him down, but each time he started to cry so I had to pick him up and comfort him.  Towards the end of our session since we hadn't had any success, I suggested I could sit with the sheet draped over me and hold him.  Luckily, that worked for a brief minute to capture a few shots.

 Until he decided that wasn't what he wanted...


 But here's the sweet picture she was able to capture and I ordered:



Attempt #2 was at the house the next day.  It started out promising...




 My favorite picture of the day:
 And then it took a turn for the worse...

 I tried to give him a change of scenery, but that didn't work either.
So we went inside and I changed him into play clothes. He seemed to calm down (go figure), so I made another short attempt.

 Bubble smile


 Wee!!  
It's hard to come up with places to take Mason's picture at this age outside since he can't sit up. 

And part B of this session went downhill just as quickly as part A did 
(I stopped taking the crying pictures - I figured I had enough of them already).

The next weekend, Mrs. Betsy offered for us to come over and give it another try.  I was really hesitant (more so because I didn't want to waste Betsy's time), but I was afraid I would regret it later if I didn't try, so we did.  I feel so bad that Mason was so terrible - honestly that is not an exaggeration.  He could quite possibly be the worse client she's ever photographed. 


 Holding him was the only time he wasn't fussing.
But even that doesn't work all the time!

Little man - Mommy still loves you with all her heart and she tried very hard to capture your personality at 3 months.  I hope 6 month pictures go better than these did!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Uncle Jordan and Aunt Kate are having a...

BOY!!!  I'm am so excited that Kate and Mason's little cousin is a boy!  I think it's so special that the two cousins closest in age will be boys!  I was honored to be invited to attend the big reveal tonight at the Prenatal Experience.  I had never heard of this place and it was exciting to go and see what it was all about.  It took the tech a little while to get a clear picture of the baby and Aunt Katie had to do some different positions to get the baby to move, but it was a success!

Before the appointment, we took pictures with the pink or blue balloons/banner to capture what gender we thought baby C was.
Team Boy!  
Although my dad revealed after the fact he thought it was a girl, but wanted to stick with the guys. 
 Team Girl!  Sorry girls...maybe next time.
Proud parents before
and After
 Team BOY won!
 The Olk Family
 The Cowart family

 Proud Grandpas


Congrats Uncle Jordan and Aunt Katie and thank you so much for letting me be a part of it. We are so excited to meet the little guy!

Happy Father's Day!

I want to wish this special guy a Happy Father's Day!  One day Kate and Mason will realize how lucky they are to call him dad.  He coac...