the green room

He's here, he's here! Banyots baby~5+ hours old!

Next to my boys, this has to be the cutest newborn in the whole wide world! Little Matthew came into the world just before 8am today.

He did give us all a little bit of worry, took his time "transitioning to breathing"  (doctor term) but he is doing wonderfully well now. Weighing in at 7 lbs 3 oz, he is a peanut compared to his big brother. 

Gosh, he is so beautiful, I couldn't take my eyes off of him, the camera too! But, I wasn't the only one photographing him today.

Being a Leap Year baby comes with a certain celebrity status. Two news crews were there to interview his parents. Dave was funny... comparing both boys' birthdates to some astronomical coincidence-Being a math teacher that is better than Christmas day to him!

 

Ok it has taken me all evening to make this post, hence the jumpiness of it. So I will leave you all with a few more photos.

Feel free to post comments to them on here!

Month of Love~Give away #4

Thanks Blog Readers! You have made this a great Month of Love!

This last contest is something so near and dear to my heart. It is about our children. It is about you and your children. How many photos do you have of yourself with them? How many times have you said "don't take my picture" "I look too fat"  or "I look awful"????

I am guilty of these comments, way too often. I have been looking back at my childrens' scrapbooks (created by my mom) and realized there are hardly any photos of me with them. Lots with their father and other relatives, but really, so few photos with me.  This is the year for me to change that.

And that too is my challenge to all of you.

Send me an email telling me what your children mean to you and attach a photo of you with them. Taking a new photo would be preferable but if you don't have time an older one will do.

Your comments and photo will be posted in an online poll for blog readers to vote on which entry they feel is deserving of the Gallery Wrapped Canvas.

Submissions will be taken through Sunday, March 2nd. I am extending this contest through the weekend so you will have time to take a photo. Voting will last 3 days.

The fine print: Winners are chosen by number of votes. I have no say in who gets how many votes. I shall not be held liable or responsible for how the votes are made. If voting abuse occurs, I reserve the right to pull the submission. IP Addresses are tracked, too many repeats is cause for an entry being pulled from the contest. No professional or copyrighted images allowed. Please allow 4 weeks for delivery of the prize, once an image from past or future session is chosen. No substitutions or cash value. One entry per family.)

And me and the boys... A new photo is way overdue, but waking them up tonight for one is not going to happen :)

A Vintage Angel

 

N and his beautiful mommy came in today for his one year session. My how time flies, I remember photographing him at just about 8 days old, full of enegry as a newborn and still as a toddler! He had us working hard for these shots! I don't mind though, not when the end result is this cute!

 

                                                            

                                                                           

                                          

                                                Oh good! I still have one of his newborn photos on my laptop... N in his daddy's hands, amazingly small huh?

Cheer!

Awww, you all are great! Thanks for the cheer sent my way today. I got several sweet photos, an inspirational video clip, a funny screen cleaner  and some really nice notes. M especially thought the screen cleaner was funny! And yes, he is feeling better, though don't know if I will be able to sleep with the sound of the humidifier over the monitors.  Thanks for all of your well wishes.

And now to the random number generator... I had nine great emails! They were numbered from 1-9 as they came in today.

Drum roll.... (from random.org they must be on a different time zone?)

List Randomizer

There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. 9 T
2. 8 M 2
3. 4 J
4. 6 D
5. 5 K 2
6. 2 W
7. 7 S
8. 1 M
9. 3 K

Timestamp: 2008-02-23 03:27:48 UTC

Congratulations Tammy! She slid in with her kind email. I worked with Tammy in my former life and am excited for the opportunity to photograph her two children! Tammy, I will email you this weekend.  :)

Thanks everyone who sent me notes. It really did help pass the day.  :)

And I wanted to share with you this inspirational video I was sent. It is worth watching.  http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=ithct48cqw

Have a safe weekend.

How about a $50 Gift Certificate for a future session?

So once again, we are stuck in the house not only because of the weather, but because M has a cold. I am bored and well, bored.

So here is some Cheer for one lucky blog reader. A $50 gift certificate towards a future session. Can be used towards prints, the session fee... Or if you win, you can even give it to a friend :)

Please send me an email to cheer me up (with the subject line "Cheer")! Tonight before I go to bed I will number them and use the handy dandy number randomizer to chose the winner. (www.random.org)

The fine print.  Gift Certificate cannot be used on current sessions. Offer only good for a future session. Past February blog contest winners are not eligible (got to share the love here.) Contest runs through 10pm February 22, 2008.

Like a baby doll....

Got this cutie back in today for her two month photos... This is going to be an amazing year to watch her grow through photos every month! I can't wait.

And, I thought I would use her sweet face to show off a new spring card design!

 

...and then they were soon to be 4!

Not so great grammer but you get the idea :)

 

I can't tell you how excited I am for the "B's" to add another lil one to their family. A lil brother for "Uke" as my youngest calls him. A newborn who is going to be loved to pieces by all their family and friends. And lucky me gets another sweet newborn to photograph :)

Dear Blog readers~ All of you have totally made my year! I love that you come back here to see sneak peaks of my latest sessions and to see what I have been up to. I appreciate that and hope that you will continue to stay with me.

I really enjoyed hearing your love stories this last contest. What truly wonderful men you have in your lives. Thank you for sharing.

I hope this will encourage more of you to post comments too when you see photos you like.

Each entry was wonderful but I can only have one winner... And that one according to the judges is Entry #5 -Missy B. Comments from the judges were "...now that's romance" and "...that made me cry". Congrats Missy! I think I know the perfect soon to be newborn to put in that collage!

And for the two mini album winners, I listed your posts in numerical order and let the random number generator do the rest. (www.random.org)

Submission #4 Mandy M.

Submission #1 Mandy A.

Here is how the numbers "randomized":

List Randomizer

There were 4 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. 1
2. 4
3. 2
4. 3

Timestamp: 2008-02-18 22:52:24 UTC

I will be contacting all of you soon. Thank you!

And stayed tuned for another surprise this week....

A little bundle of love!

This truly must be the month of love, for I have half a dozen newborn photo sessions! I love it! Newborns have some of the best expressions and they let you know how they feel... like this sweet little one.

   

But don't let her yawn fool you. Her parents promised me she slept all the time but when I got there Miss C was all about making sure she didn't miss out on a thing! So after a few hours we finally wore her out enough to get some beautiful sleepy baby photos.

      

 

I would love to share more but I am worn out as well!

Let's talk romance. Give away #2!

Wow you all have some wonderfully romantic stories! Thank you for posting them!

The contest is closed now and the winners will be posted by 5m tomorrow (Monday).

Ok, ok. I "hear" your emails... The new give-a-way is here.

There are 3 prizes for this one!

Since it is Valentine's Day, I want to hear your stories of the most romantic thing your significant other has done for you. It could be your first date, engagement or just a random act of love.

This runs through 5pm, Sunday the 17th of February.

You must write your response in the comments section of this post. Be sure to include your email.

Winner #1 will be chosen by a panel of professional photographers. For Winners #2 and #3 I will use a *random number generator to generate 2 random numbers, the first two numbers will win the mini albums.

Winner #1 receives a 10x10 Art Collage with photo of their choice.

Choose from one of these three designs. (click image to see them larger.)

Winner #2 & #3 receives one of these Pottery Barn mini photo albums. Each one holds two small photos.

                          The details: I reserve the right to pull any entry considered not in good taste. Items will be delivered 1-2 weeks from the contest end date. The winner of prize #1 will be excluded from the second give-a-way.

*Each comment listed will be assigned a number in the order they are posted. These numbers are what will be used as your entry in the randowm generator. (www.random.org)