Kansas City Pt. I

You like that fake smile he's already got going on? I think it's super cute! This is what he does when you ask him to smile.

But there's a more genuine face. So handsome.

This weekend, Sutton and I went to Kansas City to celebrate my BFF Rachael's baby. She's due in June right around Sutton's 2nd birthday (what?!), and I planned a baby shower along with Rachael's two sisters and her hubby Matt's three sisters. It was AH-mazing. I took lots of photos that I'll be sure to share.

I also took some maternity photos for Rachael and Matt. You can see a sneak peek on my photo blog by clicking here.

We also took some indoor bare belly shots, and since the light was so gorgeous in Rachael's house, I had to pose Sutton for a few photos of his own. (Hint hint: Rachael...take all your photos of baby girl by this window.)

I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I am for this amazing friendship I have with Rachael. We were talking this weekend about how different our conversations are now from when we first became friends. Back in college we talked about our boyfriends and tests...now we talk about babies and finances. Ha! Love it! Love the road our friendship has taken. And now...she's about to have her sweet baby girl. I can't believe it!

So now that you've seen photos of my sweet baby boy, I hope to get the rest of the photos from my time in KC up in a timely manner!

Farewell, Sadie Girl

Yesterday, Adam and I made the tough decision to find Sadie another home.

We'd been discussing this on and off since we got her 10 months ago, so while it wasn't a decision that was "out of the blue," it was hard nonetheless. And I feel like a horrible person for giving up my puppydog. But we found her an amazing home with some people who don't live far away and said we could visit whenever we wanted because Adam told them how hard this was for us.

I'm sure you're wondering why we gave her up. Sadie had a lot of great qualities, and she was a really good dog. But.

We don't think she was as happy as she could've been. She is the type of dog that has a lot of energy and needed space to run and play. She needed more attention than we've been able to give her with our busy lives...needed to be taken on walks and cuddled with constantly.

In the past few weeks, she'd taken to digging through our trash and getting up on the counters and grabbing food while we were gone. It wasn't ALL her fault...she had too much excess energy that we couldn't help her expend. We started having to lock her and Diesel in our bedroom when we left. Then she started destroying my shoes and her bed. So then we started having to put her outside any time we left.

But that meant we had to put Diesel outside too, and Diesel is NOT an outside dog. I felt bad for him. He'd given up a lot after we got her. She was constantly challenging him for the dominant role, and since she was bigger, that would often turn to aggression and she would pin him to the ground. It's a miracle he never got really hurt.

We found ourselves being angry with her more often than we were happy or appreciative of her. We found that Sutton was picking up on that, and he would get frustrated and angry with her for being too close to him, or knocking him over, or trying to steal his food. That's not something we wanted Sutton to be learning.

I miss her already. It's so easy to think of all the bad things when she's under foot and going crazy. But now that she's gone, all I can remember are the good things, and I'm definitely feeling a huge loss right now.

Sadie was the best cuddler EVER. She was always by my side (which I often found annoying, but it was also pretty endearing), and always wanted to lay on my lap. Not an easy task for an 80 lb dog. Every morning when Adam would get out of bed, she'd immediately jump up there and snuggle under the covers right next to me. I'm going to miss that warm body.

Any time I was home alone, she was always my protector, always made me feel safe. I knew she'd scare off anyone or anything so I never had to worry...her bark was pretty loud and scary. But when it came down to it, she was a softie and became best friends with anyone who came over.

She had this way of nosing her way into the tiniest spaces that she shouldn't have fit in. I'd be stretched out on our loveseat, and she'd find a way to curl up in between my legs. Not always the most comfortable, but sweet regardless. She was the most loyal and loving dog I've ever had.

She had an exuberance for life that I couldn't understand. Her joy when we returned home from being gone for awhile was ridiculous. She also had this way of swinging her butt around while she was sitting next to us on the couch that was hilarious. She'd hoard all the tennis balls in the yard and not let anyone near them.

After I got the call from Adam yesterday afternoon saying he'd found her a home, I cried. Then I took her in the backyard for one more photo shoot as my way of saying goodbye. As you've seen, I got some photos of her with Diesel, with Sutton, and all alone.

We said goodbye last night, and Adam took her to her new home. She has a huge backyard to run around in, and the people were SO excited to be getting her. They said she'd be an inside dog (which is good because that's what she's used to) and that she'd get lots of attention. They'd been wanting a dog just like her for a long time but hadn't been able to afford one since purebred Dobermans can be expensive. Adam said she was totally at home running around their backyard, and went into their house without hesitation as he got in his car to leave. He explained all her quirks to them, so hopefully she'd be able to continue her life she'd become accustomed to seamlessly in her new home.

When we first got Sadie, she was timid and very calm. We're not 100% sure what happened to her in her life before she came to live with us, but we like to think we brought her out of her shell so she could let the real Sadie shine through. It seems like she'll be able to do that at her new home too.

Sutton gave her a hug and said "Bye bye Sadie."

Me and my girl, the best I could get with a squirmy puppy. We'll miss you Sadie girl, but we know you'll be so much happier in your new home!

Sutton {22 Months}

Happy 22 months baby boy! I feel like your growing (as far as age goes) has slowed a bit, but maybe it's because I've been telling people that you're almost 2, which makes 22 months sound not that old.

Sutton, at 22 months:

*We've been down to one solid nap for awhile now. It's nice to have that routine. You used to have a rough napping schedule, but now it's pretty much the same every day. You go down around noon for sure, and then you usually get up around 3pm.

*Your vocabulary is skyrocketing. Your favorite phrase right now is "Go away!" You say it to Sadie all the time, but also when I'm changing your diaper and you don't want me to be holding you down, you'll say it. A new word - "heavy" (you like to try picking things up and then tell us when they're too heavy), is probably my favorite. You also learned "owie" when you get hurt, and "big" when things are big. You always have to tell us when you see something big. Mostly cars. Every time we drive somewhere, you're on repeat in the back seat: "BIG car! Big car!" You like big rocks and big sticks too.

 This photo shows your newest party trick. We ask you to smile and you give us the cheesiest grin.

*You're always talking now, and some of the babbling is starting to make more sense. You get stuck on words or phrases and say them OVER and OVER. Like when we take KyAnn home on Tuesdays (KyAnn comes to watch you Tuesday mornings so I can get some work done), you say "Ky home? Ky bye bye" the entire ride home.

*You like to say "Bye bye Y" as we leave the YMCA in the mornings, but you really enjoy going there and they say you're finally coming out of your shell and talking there. Erin is your favorite lady there, and you say her name sometimes on the way to the Y.

*You weigh 29 pounds, which is a little bigger than average for your age. You still wear size 4 diapers and size 5 at night. You're wearing 18 month - 2T size clothes. We need to go shopping for you because a lot of your clothes are too small!

*You love being outside and playing with sticks and in water. You point out all the "puppy poo" when you're walking around our yard.

*You're feeding yourself for the most part now. You use your left hand when you eat with a spoon, but you use your right when you color or draw. Weird.

*Your memory is crazy. You had some mosquito bites on your head this week, and you kept telling me "bite" at random times and pointing to your head. And it's not as if you know what that means or saw them in the mirror or something.

*You peed in the potty for the first time yesterday. It was super exciting. I think I'm going to try setting you on the potty each morning before your morning BM to get you used to that. We'll see if anything comes of that. I realize it's still kinda early for intense potty training, so we'll just go with the flow.

*Every morning when you wake up you say "Mommy. Mommy!" I still love that. Except when you wake up at 6am. I don't love that. We're in the process of trying to get you to sleep in a little longer (and it's going alright) because if you wake up that early, you end up needing two naps instead of one.

*You're in the phase of life where if Mommy kisses your ouchie and says "All better," then you're good to go. Love it.

*You like sleeping...you go down so easily for naps. One day this week, we were watching Diego on my bed to get you to wind down for your nap. We'd watched about 10 minutes and then suddenly you said "Bye bye Diego" and you were ready to get in your crib for your nap. So cute.

*You experienced your first tornado warning. I was shooting a wedding, so I didn't get to be with you during it, which was really hard. But Daddy got you up from bed and you huddled together with the puppies underneath the stairs in our basement, watching the radar. Luckily the tornado didn't go through our area.

*You love saying "Cheese!" for the camera.

*You're definitely starting to be more possessive now, and you don't like sharing. At the park the other day, you got upset when another kid got in a swing you'd previously been using. Ah well, we'll work on the sharing.

*You're such a funny little kid. You make up weird sounds and faces all the time...we're always laughing. You have this thing you run around the house yelling - "Dabby-abby!" and we have no idea what it means or where it came from, and you think it's so funny.

*You still like to cuddle. I love cuddling with you. You always have to have your two blankies, and you'll lay on our chest with your head on the blankies. You're so wiggly though, you never lay still.

*For naps, you still use your pacifier and the two blankies. If we go somewhere early in the morning, those three things have to go with us as well. We haven't started phasing out the pacifier yet...not sure when we'll do that.

*You've developed this habit of hitting yourself in the face (hard!) if the sun is in your eyes. It's really frustrating! So we always have to make sure we have your sunglasses or else we're doomed.

*You still love to dance and jump. I love the spontaneous dancing. We have dance parties a lot. And I love that I can still put you in your jumper when I want to take a shower. Works out nicely.

You're such a joy in our lives, and even though we're getting closer and closer to the terrible twos, I love your little personality and I can't imagine life without you!

Sutton's Language

Sutton has a pretty extensive vocabulary. Unfortunately a lot of the time, Adam and I are the only ones who have any idea what he's saying. Many of his words are intelligible, but many are not. For example:

"nanny" = banana
"mimi" = blankie
"wawa" = pacifier
"nini" = naked
"AH" = hot

This morning, he was running around in his diaper and fixing his airplane. This airplane constantly needs to be fixed.

I gave him his 4th haircut this week, and it's still questionable. I just cut the sides and back short and left the top long. I like it, but Adam doesn't. Any tips on cutting the top of his his hair? I want to keep it long, but my longest clipper attachment is too short.

Do you see how tall he is? I pretty much have a teenager. What happened. :)

Well

Adam's dad has been digging a well for us behind my studio. Adam wants to keep our backyard looking great by using well water to water it. He also insisted that the well-digging was blog worthy, so I was forced to document it. :)

They had to put this huge pipe down there to get deep enough to dig out all the dirt and sand.

For some reason, Adam felt the need to stick out his tongue whenever I was taking photos of him.

Sutton was very curious about what was going on. I think he wanted to help.

There you go, Adam. It's on the blog. :) (Love you.)

Tornadoes at a Wedding

I posted this on my photography blog, but figured I'd share it here as well:

We live in Kansas…so I guess it was inevitable.

Even so, I never dreamed the events of last night would really happen. But they did, and it was crazy, but pretty amazing at the same time.

Last night, I was photographing Katie and Chris’s gorgeous wedding in Salina (full wedding blog post will come soon). All day, we’d been battling wind and rain, and we’d heard that tornadoes might make an appearance in the evening. Katie and Chris were AWESOME and totally embraced the attitude of “We can’t do anything about it, so why freak out?” They were so calm and easy-going about it all.

Shortly after arriving at their reception, the DJ announced that there was a tornado headed our way and that we all needed to take shelter in the basement locker rooms and golf club cart storage rooms. All 200+ guests and vendors headed to the basement of the country club, where we proceeded to spend the next 40 minutes waiting it out. I took a photo of the bride and I while we were hunkered down, talking about how great this story will be for their kids.

Wasn’t Katie a beautiful bride?!

Everything passed very anti-climatically, and we were all so thankful. Dinner and dancing resumed, and everyone had an amazing time. Just as my time there came to an end, I received several texts and voicemails from my family telling me to get out of Salina now or to spend the night there. I chose to speed home.

After I’d been on the highway about an hour, surrounded by crazy fast winds and un-ending lightning, I found I was sandwiched in between storms, and there was a second one headed towards Salina, and one on the way to Wichita. I made sure my husband Adam and baby Sutton were safe in our basement and stopped midway between the storms in Newton, where I ended up having to stay the night to avoid driving straight into a tornado warning.

I heard reports that 80-90 tornadoes were confirmed in Kansas yesterday, with the biggest one touching down in Wichita. There was some damage, but thank God no one was killed. Salina inhabitants were lucky as well, and I got a couple texts from Katie saying her night was fantastic and everyone was there good.

Craziness…but definitely a night no one will ever forget!

Happy Birthday Diesel

Happy birthday to my Diesel dog, who turns 7 years old today! Even more thankful for him in light of what just happened with Rory. He's been getting lots of extra snuggles. Today's been rainy and stormy, and he was so scared of the thunder and kept trying to crawl up my leg. Sweet little puppydog.

Today is my work day, so Sutton's hanging out with Ginger and I brought the puppy dogs into the studio to hangout while I work. They cuddled up together for Diesel's birthday.

Rory

My parents' beloved Corgi Rory had to be put down today.

If you read my last post, then you kinda know what was going on. At his vet visit today, they did an x-ray and found that his lungs were full of cancer...which is why he was having trouble breathing. Poor little puppydog. He was such a good boy...he gave my parents 11 years of unconditional love. My heart breaks for them as they had to say goodbye to their little guy today. I'm so glad we got to spend Easter with him and I'll always have the memory of him laying on top of my feet under the table as I ate Easter lunch. We'll always miss him!

Easter {2012}

We started Easter a little early and went to church last night. Our pastor had a great Easter message...the thing that always gets me now about Jesus' death (after having a son of my own) is how much God loves us: that He would let His Son DIE a horrific death for us. I sat in my seat, tearing up thinking about losing Sutton and how I could never imagine that pain, but how God did it willingly for me. Such an ultimate sacrifice.

Sutton got a quick snack in his Easter best (we're a casual bunch) before church and then we snapped a family Easter photo. I can't tell you how much I love my little family. :)

Then we went to IHOP for a little Easter dinner (did I mention, we're casual?) with just the three of us. Side note...on the way home, Sutton took off his shoes in the backseat and OMG, he already has the worst stinky feet! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen til he was a teenager. Ah, well. I digress.

Then we just spent the rest of the evening before Sutton's bedtime hanging out in our backyard, playing with the dogs. This is really the first spring/summer that Sutton's been old enough to appreciate our amazing lawn that his daddy planted while he was just a little baby. We love spending time out here!

Throwing the ball at for Sadie.

This child has music flowing in his blood. Any time's a good time for dancing. Such as, while holding a soccer ball.

We asked him to put his hands in his pockets (which Adam taught him awhile back) but his pockets were positioned a little different than on his jeans, so he needed some help.

And now you will see the progression of how we got to the super cute Easter photo from the previous post. Lots of excitement from us parents and asking him to say "Cheese!" The many faces of Sutton...

Crazy.

Sweet.

GQ.

 

Awesome.

Today, Easter morning didn't start off as planned. This is Rory. He's my parents beloved puppydog. They got him when I was a sophomore in high school, which makes him over 11 years old. He's a good dog. But he's old, and he's been having back problems. Well, he hadn't eaten in several days and was breathing really heavy. So my mom decided to bring him to Wichita to the ER vet this morning and I went to be there with them.

 

After about an hour there, they told us that he had a bulging disc in his back and was in a lot of pain, which would cause his symptoms. They did blood work and it all came back great, especially in light of his old age. So they put him on pain medicine and an antibiotic. He still wasn't doing so good today, so they'll probably take him back to their vet tomorrow for a more in-depth exam. Rough morning for my parents.

After the vet visit, we headed to Newton to their house for Easter lunch. We started things off with Sutton's first Easter egg hunt.

I really wonder what he thought when he found all these surprises just laying around the yard. :) He would find them, pick them up, and put them in his bag like a pro.

"Oh wow...what is that I see? Could it be??!"

"It is! It is! An Easter egg filled with cheese balls! Hooray!"

So then all we heard for the rest of the hunt was "Chee ba? Chee ba?" They're his fave.

Oh wait, back to the cheese balls.

Adam's parents also came over and had lunch with us, so Sutton was extra spoiled by having all four of his grandparents doting on him.