One Year Ago Today

9lbs 5oz. and a head full of hair (and yes I had awful reflux)

Look at that beautiful BIG boy!

The nurse bringing Will to me for the first time

(everyone else had seen Will I had to recover from the general anesthesia)

First Family Photo

(dont mind my 300lb appearance....LOTS of fluids & wild delivery)

The Proudest Daddy on the Planet

He actually looks tiny here

Heading home from the hospital

One of my favortie pics

I found this poem and of course it tugged at the heartstrings and since my baby boy is one today I thought I would share

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

by Dawn Mitchell

I still remember the day that you were born
I cried when the doctor placed you in my waiting arms

So precious and small, a sight to behold
In the blink of an eye, my baby boy has turned 1 years old

I still remember protecting your head and neck with my hands
In the blink of an eye, you're crawling and rolling around on
the floor like a little man

I still remember looking in your mouth and seeing only gums
In the blink of an eye, tiny teeth are popping up one by one

I still remember when you would only smile in your sleep
In the blink of an eye, you are laughing and giggling
The sound is so sweet

I still remember holding a bottle to your lips
In the blink of an eye, from a cup you now take sips

I still remember when girgling was all that you could do
In the blink of an eye, you're yelling Ma Ma and Da Da too!

I love you so much and I'll continue to cherish all that you do
Because I know that
In the blink of an eye, my one-year-old will be two

It is so crazy how fast a year goes by. This time last year we were anxiously waiting our sons arrival and then in a flash he was here (he decided a regular long labor was not for him he couldnt wait to see everyone so an emergency c-section is what he had planned) My heart almost burst the first time I laid eyes on our precious gift from God. We are the luckiest parents in the world to be chosen to look after one of his sweetest little angels! We have watched Will grow from a small (ok not so much) newborn into the wild little toddler he is today. Everyday he shows us just how special he is. I have so many special moments i share with Will but I think my favorite is when I check on him in his crib at night. He is so cute sound asleep cuddling next to his boppy. My heart is filled with such love for this little boy and although it happens way to fast I cant wait to watch him grow more and more with every passing day! I am also looking forward to his birthday party this saturday and hoping it doesnt rain although I know it is suppose to but hey Im sure god has a plan and it will all work out! But for now I gotta go get little man ready for his one year dr appointment. Stats to come!

Sleepless Weekend (But sooo worth it)

so this weekend I finally got back to my friday sunday schedule which is much better than fri sat! So friday I went to work and then I came home sat am and slept for about two hrs then I headed to botanic gardens for a photo shoot for my dear friends Chasity and her family. I cnat wait to get to editing and posting the pics her twins are just too cute!!!! But editing will have to wait atleast for the week . But anyways after the shoot we headed to my sis in laws house for her twins (Wills cousins) 3rd birthday party! It was so much fun it was a princess theme so I put will in his orange gingham shorts with his prince charming smocked tshirt. He was a DOLL as always ( I may be partial but I would think most would agree lol) Well Will played his little heart out ALL afternoon in the backyard. They got a cottage for their bday and Will was cruising all over it. He even tried to climb up the slide (big kid slide) and made about half way up! He just loves the outdoors soooo much! Maybe that means I will get a tan this year :) AFter playing we headed inside for presents and cake both of which did not dissapoint. Will and his cousins on my moms side got the girls a set of disney princess barbie dolls Im thinking they liked them their reactions were priceless! And then the cake was soooo yummy Jenn made it with nannies recipe. After the party we went to the Bagwells and had dinner and then headed on home. Sunday was the usual we went to church at 930 and Will played in the nursery with all his friends. We skipped lunch this week and headed to Walmart so that I could get some birthdya party must haves out of the way. Then it was time to head home for a nap before work which ended up being only an hour but hey I still had a good night! I was worried an hour wouldnt cut it bc after I left work this am I went straight to the hair salon to get back blonde! and then I had a newborn photo shoot for my friend Laura. And Finally after all that excitment I picked Will up from MDO a litlle early and we came home and SLEPT all afternoon. So I am feeling refreshed and now it is time to CLEAN bc tomm my little boy will be ONE can you believe it! But that is a whole other blog in and of itself. But I better go bc the cleaning wont do itself and I have a lot to do before the party on saturday. And to all my blog friends out there please say a prayer the rain stays away bc my house is to tiny to hold everyone and our backyard is to pretty to not have the party outside. Thanks. Now I will leave you with a few party pics! Actually they will probably be above bc i am feeling to lazy to put them from top to bottom lol forgive me this once!

The New Bathroom

finishing touches and paint color

Light Fixtures

Vanity Detail and the faucet swivels (and yes it is suppose to lol)

Shower Floor -still hazy and needs to be wiped down

The ceiling of our new shower (still needs to be wiped down a few times from the grout the WORKERS failed to do that)

The Shower Details that shouldve have been "extra" apparently???

The entrance to the shower

The Vanity and toilet and basket (the basket is not my fave but will do for now and there is junk everywhere bc that is how they left their FINISHED job

Without a mirror but I found one at tj max for 16.99 pics to come

So the pics are a little outof order but I am in a super hurry so they will have to do! Casically this is a rouh draft of the new bathroom. Now that they are finished(haha not really but i guess what they have done will have to do) I can start cleaning away I hope to have it all squared away byWills party so everyone can see it...Wish me luck!

In the words of Yo Gabba Gabba-think Happy Thoughts Happy Thoughts

Ok so I needed to take my mind off the stress that is the bathroom situation and think Happy thoughts which immediately made me think of Yo Gabba Gabba. With that being said my Happy Thoughts always take me to my little man and here are a few pics playing out back the other day. I dont have the one where he is standing on his own uploaded yet but these will have to do they worked for my purposes anyways :) enjoy




Drinking his real milk!

Taking a break

Waiving and saying BYE BYE to the trees

Getting off his ride

OMG! The ABC's of our Bathroom Remodel

WOW I am at a loss for words I am so angry! You would think with our bathroom being completed...finally (and technically not really bc they have to come back to put down the threshold) that I would be jumping for joy INSTEAD i am fuming mad! So a brief run down on our renovation is this a- we demo ourselves b-we realize we get in over our head and decide to wait to start on the remodel until after Wills birthday c-our friends bring over their remodel guy and he quotes us an amazing price to remodel the bathroom which includes all labor we just hae to buy materials d- we say HECK YEAH e-they start work and are almost done exactly a week after starting f-I pay them on their supposed "last day" g-it ends up not being their last day, they cash the check and disappear!!!! h-after calling and calling and excuse afer excuse we get them to come back i-they start to install all of our purchases and go figure i buy all the WRONG stuff so we reschedule them to come another day...j-the please come and finish our bathroom game begins again k-they finally say they are coming to finish at 1 and dont show up till 6! l- I pay extra for trim and apparently that doesnt include the ceiling so i ask if i buy it can they put it up...since they have to come back anyways since they are still not finished? And they say yes (not that will cost you....) m-they finally come to finish tonight and go figure they forget the threshold to transition into bathroom from bedroom. n- i go in the bathroom after they are done and guess what the SINK is LEAKING 0- I am completely over this but i was going to tell them about the leak in the am when they come with the threshold. p-thats when the text comes (not even a phone call like a real man would do) saying we really should pay them 350 more dollars but its up to us if we agree with that...are you kidding me?!?! q-Joey texts him back saying basically we paid you what you asked whats up with this r-they text back that normally that job would have cost triple what we paid s-lesson learned we will not try to get good deals on the next remodel we will just do it ourselves or pay a real company to do it!!!! Ok so I only made it to r and that might have been the stupidest way i have ever describied something but you will have to excuse me bc like i said before I am fuming. I understand we made out with a great deal BUT that is the price that was quoted to us if you wnated more money you shouldve asked for it up front. Apparently they think they tile we picked should be worth more money bc they were 2x2 tiles. Well yes i would aggree EXCEPT they were 12x12 sheets so its the same size as all the other tile UGH ok so i just need to stop typing now bc instead of making me feel better I am only gettingmore mad...so I am gonna go take a shower in my new bathroom and enjoy it HAHA! Goonight bloggers I promise to be refresehed in the am and to post pics of the newest moneypit :)

Such a Beauty lol!

I Love how this image shows the speed at which he goes these days :)

He mastered the Red Rocket!!

So for Christmas Joeys parents got Will a RadioFlyer Red Rocket. At the time he loved being pushed around on it but he was still a little wobbly and no where near playing with it by himself. This remained true until Friday. The above pics are of him playing with his most favorite toy! He got on it all by himself and pushed himself all across the living room. I was laughing hysterically bc it was the cutest thing i have ever seen. I hate that he is growing so fast but I love watching all the different things he is learning literally on the daily basis. He has started standing from a sitting position still not walking but I think we are getting close. He has learned what bye bye means and how to say it and wave its so funny! He is talking up a storm too bad we have no idea what he is saying except when he says Dada MaMa Dog Bye bYe and i think from time to time he says MiMi and GiGi. I am still in shock that a week from today my litle baby will be ONE! I cannot wait to celebrate his birthday I am starting to get in the zone and no worried I will post LOTS of pics after the party is over :) Until then I am off to bed, gonna try to kick this insomnia UGH! Had a photoshoot today and I have another one tomm cant wait :)

ut

Logo

Sooooo what do you guys think? I was playing around on the computer and I dont know what it is but this logo i made really stood out to me. I tried different pics like a baby carriage which I still may use for newborn photos but this was by far my fave. I made it the header on my photo website but I wanted to hear from all my friends and see what you guys thought. I am tossing around the idea of making business cards (dont know that I really need them yet but???)
Other than photo business theres not to much to talk about on the homefront. I painted the bathroom and I am STILL WAITING for the crew to come back and finish the trim...UGH!!! Will has finally started playing with his radioflyer red rocket toy. he even knows how to sit on it and push it forward. I took pics yesterday so I will be sure to post them by the end of the weekend. The Sod still looks great and I am staying on top of poop patrol and watering! Birthdya plans are coming along looks like I will be taking cupcakes to FTM's next wednesday bc the actual wed the week of birthday I have a work class so we wont be there :( More to comelater but for now night night (for you guys anyways I am working so I will hit the hay around 8 am)

The Busy Bee

Easter Kisses!

Will getting his basket just realized i shouldve waited for him to be all dressed up :(

Will trying to climb out window-climbing is our new fave

Wills First Easter Basket

Will and Daddy

Our Failed attempt at a Family Photo

**for some reason blogger is SUPER slow uploading my pics so more to come later!

Ok so I feel like I have not blogged anything of any real importance in so long!!! (It is probably not as like as it feels like but still) I am so proud to say that i have been swamped with photo shoots and editing. I NEVER thought I would say that and I am so excited to be able to. I guess swamped may not be the best word bc i dont want it to sound like a BAD thing bc that is so far from the truth! I feel blessed to be doing what i love not only for myself but for others as well. It still kinda shocks me that people wasnt ME to take THEIR pictures...crazy huh?!?! So instead of blogging lately i have been choosing to edit away. Just last night i stayed up till 2 am and i only stopped then bc the computer died lol! Other than my photography stuff i have been slowly getting the house ready for Wills first birthday it is April 24th and i still feel like i have sooo much to do. Tomm I plan to mail the invites out. This weekend we got the sod laid and it made all the difference in the world in our backyard it looks amazing and I cant wait for everyone to come over. The bathroom is going good it is almost done. We had a small issue in the fact that i paid the guys last thur bc they said they would be finished and then they werent but they decided to keep putting off coming back (UGH!!!) But my neighbor got them back over here so now they are just waiting on me to paint and then in goes the vanity and toilet and we will be done!! Then I promise to post pics as of now it doesnt look much different than the pics i have already posted! On a frustrating note though to know me you must know that i am well for lack of a better word a slob! I try i really do but i just cant seem to keep things straight and when i do clean its like it is a mess an hour later which is exactly what happened monday :( I cleaned a majority of the house and i even dusted (since our house was filled with dust from the bathroom) and wouldnt you know they hadnt sanded the walls to prepare them to paint so after they did that there was even MORE dust than before. All that hard work was a wasted effort! Oh well I will just have to keep cleaning bc as hard as i might try wiggling my nose just isnt cutting it :) Ok so now on to Will he still amazes me at just how much he continues to grow and sirprise me. He is cruising everywhere. I am not in a rush for him to walk with all our hard surfaces (no carpet) but i am afraid it will be here before we know it he gets braves sometimes but normally ends up on his but. He is still saying mama and dada and even say dog, and hi and by sometimes but its not all that consistent its more on his terms. and let me just tell you he is ALL BOY! We have been playing outside a lot bc we now have grass and it has felt amazing and the other day i could not believe my eyes when i looked at him about the time he shoved a huge chunk of mud in his mouth. I have to say poop doesnt bother me but that muddy mouth had me gagging!!! he didnt seem to mind and actually cried as i was wiping it out. What am I gonna do. Speaking of which we have now start throwing tantrums as in full lay down on the floor lay his head down and scream tantrums???? Where did this come from I thought they didnt act that way until there 2's and 3's i have a feeling we are in for it! But i wouldnt trade him for the world he makes me smile (even mid tanrum) Oh and back to him saying dog this has come about bc he now likes to share his food with them. It is the cutest thing i have ever seen i will have to try and get it on tape he takes a bite then hands it off to one of the pups and say dawg. I think that is enough of an update right now check out my facebook fan page and my phot blog for updated pics from all my recent sessions !

Happy Easter!

So I just thought I should post something to refer to my mood at this current moment but still embrace the holiday!!!!! I know that once I get home things will be all better bc i will be with friends and family but until then i will leave you with this picture I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Holiday and remember the real reason for the holiday! And while everyone is sleeping i will be patiently waiting for 7:08 ok you caught me NOT so patiently waiting... I stand corrected!

Botanic Gardens

I Cannot believe he is going to be ONE this month!

How Beautiful is this and its even in Memphis...Whoa!

Little Man wasnt interested in pics this day

And this is slowly becoming my favortie pic!

So after FTM on wed a few of us decided to go to the botanic gardens for the afternoon and let me tell you it was gorgeous. All the flowers were in full bloom and the grass was green and geez i could go on and on. Of course i had to have a photo shoot with Will and i even got some good pics of all the other babies (see facebook album blogger is too slow to post lots of pics) I believe Will is going to be getting a membership for his bday and since we are right around the corner i think we will have to go A LOT! Who would pass up such fun! On the home front there is good news the bathroom is 99.5% complete. The tile is finsihed and grouted they just have to come clean off the excess and put the trimming up and then its on to our part...painting woo hoo (insert groan here) We actually picked out a vanity and all that jazz today. i had wanted a crafty pedastool sink with a bowl and the whole nine yards but since it is a smaller area we decided to go with a traditional cabinet (it helps with storage too!) I think it will look good. We got a granite counter top and then the oil bronzed pixtures to match the other fixtures in the shower. I cannot wait to see the finished product not to mention use it! It is soooo pretty and to be in such a small space it feels sooo roomy! Oh and for all my photo friends out there the zoo started their contest today. You can go to the zoos website and submit your photos they will then pick their faves and post to facebook to have people vote on their faves and then the winners will go in the 2011 calendar. hope everyone enters their photos!!!