on our way home...

for finn's first christmas. i don't think it's hit me yet. i have a child. i have a family & we are about to experience our first christmas together. cRazY!

when did i turn into a freaken grown-up?

kay, now that i've realized that i'm going to complain about it, please forgive me.

i seem to have been thrusted into this world of responsibility, it's at times overwhelming.
it at times even makes me resentful. bryan is wonderful... truly he is. that babe is with him from almost the second he walks in the door until i nurse him to sleep. he helps with dishes, the laundry, the trash... all of it. if i've been lazy & haven't washed out the cloth diapers he even does that for me too. but, there are so many things he doesn't even think about & that nags at me. why is it that mothers carry the burden of most of the chores? this post has been rolling around in my brain for about a week now. i've longed to get out by myself, for shopping or a movie... just something & when i can't because i have the luxury of being a stay at home mom, basically & my babe is attached to me almost 24/7 which I LOVE... don't get me wrong, but damn it to hell i wanna be just me every once in awhile, ya know? i want a break which doesn't include shooting a portrait session or a shift at rei.

this post was even more dramatic in my mind until i read a post on a blog that i frequent. i adore her. nici holt cline. she is such a strong, beautiful woman & she has spent nearly the first two weeks of her brand new daughter's life in the hospital while she battles & kicks the ass of the strep pneumonia that has settled in her little lungs.

reading her updates just about stopped me in my tracks.

hell yeah i'll change that poopy, nasty diaper. you need me to tickle your little neck again, no problem. you wanna fuss when i need to finish burning some cd's for clients- okay i'll take a break. you need me to swap out your 3-6 month clothes because they're strangling you, i can do that right now. i'll do anything you need me to sweet little boy and i'm happy to do it.

this christmas season- i need to not stress about making sure the grandparents get plenty of finn time or that we remembered presents for everyone, or filling up the calender with everyone we want to see... i need to not stress. what i need to do is relish in the fact that we are fortunate enough to go home & spend this special, special time with our family. that we are fortunate enough to buy presents for our loved ones. to have food, excessive amounts of food on our plates. the luxury to buy rolls of wrapping paper (we don't but...) for $5 dollars to wrap our $30 present to be thrown away. not everyone is that fortunate. not everyone is that lucky. i need to remember that & those less fortunate.

i wish you all a wonderful holiday & a happy new year. forget the stress & remember how lucky you are!

6 months old today.

how is it possible? really? i've been a momma for 6 whole months.

i've been reliving the happenings of 6 months ago all day long.

pretty crazy... how much our lives have changed. we are soooo very lucky & know it.

bryan came home from work today with a card for both of us. how sweet is he? the card said "thanks for making me a happy camper!"

there might not be a better way to sum up how we both feel since this sweet little child entered our lives.

at 6 months:
-he's rolling like a mad man, all over the place.
-he's able to sit up for quite awhile before plummeting to the ground.
-he's a chatty cathy. that sometimes turns into an incredibly high pitched squeal. bryan reminds
him to use his inside voice. ha.

-weighs 19lbs 1 oz
-is 27 inches tall
-when he's hungry he can now throw himself at my chest. it's pretty entertaining.
-enjoys being in his highchair (bday present that we got him today!)
-has the stinkiest & loudest toots. poor guy... he didn't have much of a chance with us as parents.
-sortof crawls/schoochs, but backwards.
-is very determined to get the toy in front of him & shove it in his mouth.
-loves his christmas present from aunt snefani- bug jug from melissa & doug. (awesome company by the way!)

-also loves his ugly doll from marsha o'dea.
-& the teething rings from heather & kristen
-still loves baths (just got him a big boy bathtub today too!)
-can get up on his knees as if he is going to crawl but instead humps the air. it's hilarious.
-as soon as you take the diaper off him - his hands are down there within seconds, playing with
his manhood in all it's glory, while he giggles.
-he has the best laugh. hands down. it's awesome.
-is very ticklish... stomach, feet, thighs & neck.
-if he starts to get cranky (which is rare, but not so rare the last week since he's been teething!)
it's very easy to help him forget why he's cranky.
-he does this ridiculous thing a lot. what is it called -a crunch? legs & head up. he can hold it for over 15 seconds. whoops my ass everytime. i think he's training for circus de solel. they were on ellen the other day & i let him watch it & he was fascinated.


-he can sit beside me with a pile of his toys & entertain himself for a half an hour sometimes.


-loves the piano & mandolin. bryan will play our mandolin for him (the one song he knows, but still that's better than me i forgot the damn cords already) & i play a few cd's with piano only & he'll smile the whole time.
-also loves dancing. i have a rule that when lullaby from dixie chicks comes on- we dance. i put it in the rotation quite a bit :) sneaky sneaky.
-can give you the most heart melting hug possible.
-is an amazing kisser. if he doesn't get those lips he wants your chin!

i knew i'd love being a mother & bryan knew he'd love being a father. but finn, we had no idea it would be this much fun.

happy birthday little boy. we love you.

i work one day a week at our friend amber's aunt's art gallery. he loves looking at all the paintings & lights. i think he's already dreaming of creating his masterpieces!

when i need a break from holding him all day long i put him in his car seat & he'll jabber away at his favorite duck for at least 10 minutes.


well the other day at the gallery finn was looking particularly cool.


mohawk & dude onsie... yep. that's my babe.

finn & emma lunch date.

i've mentioned our friends melissa & stoli & their beaaaaaaauuuutiful daughter on the blog before. stoli is my stay-at-home-dad friend. we do yoga together. well, he emailed & asked if i wanted to go to the zoo on the last free day of the summer.

we did. of course. finn LOVES the zoo. or... he will.

it was a lil hot so we didn't stay too long, but long enough for stoli & i to enjoy a snow cone!

here's a few pics from our date.

yeah, he'll love it next time. he slept for a good part of it.
too stinken cute.
do you see those eye lashes. really, is it necessary for a baby to have those. sheesh, i'm jealous.
flamingo butts in the background.


yeah! for play dates. yoga is almost over & stoli will soon be going back to work. i'll be sad. but it's been fun while it lasted.

atlanta & random.

this has been an incredibly busy time for me.
i'm not complaining, not by a long stretch, but it's been a lil difficult because of all the traveling. poor bryan missed his babe soo much. luckily i had my last wedding of the year this past saturday. now it's time to do post-processing & holiday portrait sessions... YEAH!!!!

so, finn & i got back from new york on a monday only to leave thursday for atlanta. it was a relaxing trip & a beautiful wedding. i didn't take many personal pictures... because we mainly chilled out at the house, but here's "pop" holding finn. his doctor had deemed it okay for him to hold finn now & he barely put him down :) they were very sweet together.
& erin loved on him too, now that she was less distracted :)
on my drive home from the wedding i chit chatted with sarah. bryan beeped in, but i ignored him cause we were having a good discussion. i get to barb & don's & he calls again. but, i'm getting ready to feed finn his 11pm feeding so he says i can call him back. maybe an hour later he calls again. i think good lord he must miss me -he never tries this hard to get ahold of me. so i answer. we need to talk he says. our house had been broken into the night before. the wonderful man that he is... he kept it to himself alllllll day so i wouldn't have to have it on my mind while i was shooting the wedding.

saturday night around 8pm he'd loaded up his bike & drove to a party a frisbee friend was throwing (the bike was in case he wanted to come home but wasn't able to drive). he'd planned on staying the night because it was an adult beverage party & he had no woman or baby to come home to. so he was going to live it up rightfully so. when he came home the next morning around 8am this is what he found.

they'd broken our bedroom window... gone through my drawers & taken all the jewelry, cash & other miscellaneous items. the room actually looked worse than this but he needed to clean the glass up & give the landlord some space to board the window.

they didn't touch finn's room. but, they had a field day in my office.

poor bryan suffered some verbal abuse from me on top of it! i'd gotten a phone call during the wedding, that luckily i was able to take because i was pumping during a break. "we've got your dog". i ask if they have both of them & it's just kylie. so i call bryan so he can go get her. he answers and says:
i was just on my way back from the pound trying to find her.
did skye get out to?
no.
bryan, how did they get out... i can't be dealing with this right now!
i must not have closed the gate all the way when i took the trash out this morning.
you KNOW you have to be careful with that...

damn. i felt horrible. he'd prepared the story just in case someone had found her & called me. they had apparently kicked kylie out of the house, meanwhile skye was in her cage & safe. we are so fortunate to have found her. she had some blood on her, so we don't know what that came from. i kinda hope she scared the living day lights out of them so they gave her a little wonk. she was fine. bryan bathed her and couldn't find the cut.

bryan & i joke that we hadn't grown-up yet & made any adult purchases. everything we own is from college. we haven't invested in furniture other than our new couch. dvd players, cd players, televisions were all from college, possibly before.

so take that robbers- you stinkers... go ahead & take our garbage.

luckily we had renters insurance & even luckier for us they didn't take anything tooooo sentimental. they stole an external hard drive that had some personal pictures from the first year we lived here & the film camera i learned to take pictures on. everything else can be replaced. though, we've pretty much decided not to replace any of the material things- we haven't really missed them yet.

to bring us back to a happier note here's some cute finn-ness.

bryan needed new glasses. he'd finally gotten his eyes checked out & his prescription had changed slightly, to my surprise. the lady brought us some cute kid glasses & finn was adorable in them.

hmm......... mc=3 squared. or something.

aren't bryan's new glasses stylish???

good to know he won't mind em if he needs em!

some more cute randomness. my friend kim, opened a new studio! so we attended the open house. most of my photog friends hadn't met finn yet, so it was a very fun party.

cristi, one of the sweetest peoples you'll ever know :) took these next few of finn & me.



kim had a photo booth set-up & everyone took turns doing fun poses. this is my facebook profile pic, but for those of you not on facebook: my family! i emailed kim asking for a larger file, but i haven't received it yet. will update this when i get it.
we have a very busy weekend coming up. tom our good friends ted & sarah are coming in to town. our ultimate league finals are on saturday. (bryan & i are captaining together & our team rocks. we finished 1st in the regular season & are ready to take the title! we hope :) then, i'm documenting ironman on sunday & a family portrait session. should be fun!

have a great weekend!

new york, the second time.

i had three weddings in upstate new york this spring/summer/fall. finn went with to all of them. my little traveler. like last time steph met us at the airport & we drove the two hours north to my favorite place in the world. silver bay.

we had some down time before the wedding so steph & i decided finn needed to check off another state on his list: vermont!!!!!

here's steph getting him dressed up for the occasion.

we had lunch at a cute diner by the river... it was lovely.


here are a few purty pics from our road trip.




finn's haybale. i had to have this picture, so we did a u-turn & found the perfect one.
how cute is this? desktop picture :)


things are slowing waaaaaaaaaaaay down with my business so hopefully i'll be much better about posting on peanut's blog. thanks for being patient.

resch's

while we were home in ky my uncle paul let us have a lil gathering at their beautiful house. my dad cooked this amazing spread & brought some yummy phlen's bakery goodies (my absolute fav... i mean i crave these things even in my sleep!)

i wish now i'd taken more pictures, but i was just enjoying relaxing with my family. i promise to take more at thanksgiving!!!

we had some additional "extended" family members come by the decosta's & greg & sue ellen & their adorable son, davis, all came to play!

megan & her sweet lil boy, connor. her mom & my dad are very good friends, so we have grown up together. we are both june babies, so it's pretty cool that we both ended up having june babies too!
dad & finn, margaret & connor.
my dad for some reason makes a pig sound to all babies. he thinks they like it & they do usually smile at him... but, really papa?
baby swap.

auntie & corinne had finn giggling...
too cute.
salivating at that counter....
caroline & finn... i can't believe how old these girls are.
davis, the super stud. in the 3-d chalk glasses... which i soooo want some. it was very cool.

yeah, for sunday morning brunches. love you resch's!