Can I just get 1 picture?!

Drew's first day of school was a couple of weeks ago, but Cam's was this week-so.....technically I'm not really late in getting this post up ;)

Drew's first day of school was just one week after Eli was born...and the school he goes to decided to do their back to school night on the first day of school. I left Eli at home with TJ, while my sister and I, Cam and Drew headed off for school and back to school morning.

I only had a few seconds to snap a picture of Drew before the flag ceremony, because we were running late, of course, and this is the face I get:

Really?

After some prodding, begging, kicking, screaming and yelling ;) I finally got a picture I was happy with:

What a handsome boy!!

Here he is waiting in line with the other kids in his class. He made me stand next to him, insisted on holding my hand and that I stay with him until the very last second. When that last second came, I gave him a hug and was about to go in for a kiss and he swooped and ran. Well, now I know what to do to get him to move quickly...

Fast forward a couple of weeks, Drew's well into his school routine and Cam's ready to start his second year of pre-school! He gets to go three days a week now (yay for mom!!!!) and is SOOO excited. His first day of school, was actually an orientation. He was less than thrilled that his first day would be so short. I snapped a picture of him and Drew right before Drew took off for school.

Then I took him over for his own, first day of school photo shoot. Even though it was completely overcast outside, it was too bright for this little boy to open his eyes. I told him to close them until I counted to three then to hurry and open them, and I got quite the forced smile. However, the tight-lipped-emphasized-chumple (chin dimple) is pretty standard Cam smile these days. The smile in the photo above is as about as good as it gets ;)

I tried to get some more natural looking shots, but just got a bunch of squinchy eye shots!

The next day-his ACTUAL first day of school- I took this picture, in hopes of getting one with his eyes open, with a natural-ish looking smile. I think I got a pretty good one....don't ya think?

I did all the "right" things to get a good shot of my two school boys. I took pictures in the shade to avoid bright spots, I took pictures out in the open on an overcast day for great skintones. These pictures were going to be works of art!! At the end of the day, I got pictures that tell a story about my kids and I'll remember them for that, not for how perfect the smiles were, or how well I set up the shot. Squinchy eyes and all, I'm happy with what I got!

Not to be outdone by his two older brothers, this little guy let's me take all kinds of pictures ;) He's definitely a keeper!

Baby Eli!

It's been over a year since I've updated this blog. With a new baby in our family, I figured a new post was in order ;)

Our little Eli was born on Monday, August 15th. But I have to go back some to start this story...

TJ and I wanted to expand our family, but it didn't happen quite as easily as it had with the other two. It took close to a year and finally, with some help from some medication we found out we were preggo! We were so excited! I was thrilled, especially because I was starting to doubt whether or not we'd be able to have more children.

My due date with Eli was August 17th. Out of fear of having another Drew (9 lbs!), the doctor agreed to induce me a week early- the 10th. A week before I was supposed to have Eli, the hospital where I was to deliver called to tell us that the price for delivery had quadrupled. Having no insurance, we had to know exactly all costs and the hospital changed everything! So we had to change our hospital, which in turn changed our induction date-to the 15th, just two days before my actual due date.

The night before I went into the hospital, there was a crazy thunderstorm. It definitely mirrored my feelings, I was nervous. My previous two births were not easy, they were pretty tough!

We showed up at the hospital at 7 am, after calling before 6 to see if there was room for us. After signing a bunch of paper work and answering a bunch of questions, they finally started the pitocin around 8:30 am. The nurse told me that the doctor most likely would be in to break my water during his lunch break. By surprise, he showed up at 8:45, at that point I was dilated to a 3! I knew I was going to get an epidural, and at 10 am I decided I was ready. At 10:30, the epidural was in and I was able to get comfortable and get some rest-at this point I was dilated to a 4. At 11:30, TJ left to go get lunch for him and my mom. The nurse kept increasing my dose of pitocin, but my contractions were getting farther apart. Also, the baby seemed to be in a bit of distress, so she then lowered the pitocin. I figured I wasn't progressing at all because of all of this, but around 12:45, the nurse checked me again and I was almost an 8. They started bringing in all the gear to deliver a baby and the doctor showed up at about 1:20 to see how I was, and I was at a 10. I couldn't believe it happened so fast-thank GOODNESS for epidurals!! After about 10 minutes of pushing Eli was born at 1:40 pm. I was able to relax and sleep during the labor process, and because of that I was more aware of what was happening than with the other two birth experiences. When I saw him for the first time, I couldn't believe it. I was so happy and it was such an emotional moment. I was so happy to finally see and meet him. Right after he was born, they did all the standard newborn stuff. They weighed him, measured his length, etc. and then gave him to TJ. I didn't get to hold my little baby for about 20 minutes!! Whatever happened to mom first! It was worth the wait though, he was beautiful! Later that day, after his bath, they brought him back to me and his hair looked red. All day long, I couldn't stop staring at him. Drew and Cam came to visit with TJ's mom around 2:30. They loved him instantly-but couldn't understand why he didn't want to play with the toys they'd brought him. My brother and mom came up later that night to visit. I was grateful for their love and support. We are so happy to have Eli in our family, he's such a good baby. He's so sweet, he sleeps really well and is absolutely adorable!