Jackson’s Newborn Photos

Here are the newborn photos I did of Jackson this weekend. He was such a great model and would fall asleep in every pose I put him! I really wish I had more props and backdrops. Maybe one day I can invest in all of that. I have a few more poses in mind that I would like to do with his sisters but for now, I have some great pictures. That is the real point, right?

Welcome Jackson Max!

Our third child and first son was born on June 1, 2013 on his actual due date! I woke up that morning feeling some contractions but went about my business since they were not too hard and I had been having contractions off and on for days. At this point I was already 4 cm and 80% effaced. After about 2 hours of timing they were averaging about 3 min apart and lasting about 40 seconds. Still not terribly hard but we decided to go in and at least get checked. This time around I was NOT wanting to deal with false alarms so I was even hesitant to go in at this point. I had one false alarm with Avery and several with Norah so I was not in the mood (being his due date and all) to be sent home. We had a plan to tell the nurse and doctor on call that if I was at least 5 cm I wanted to stay.
Sure enough I was about 5 cm and the nurse told us that since this is my third baby and had a history of short deliveries, she was going to do everything she could to let me have that baby that day. I was on board and they admitted me right away.
I got the epidural a few hours later but my contractions never picked up. I figured I would go ahead and get it before everything got too bad. My water finally broke shortly after that and we thought for sure we would be holding him very shortly. My body had different ideas though! It never wanted to kick into active labor. According to the monitors, my contractions never got harder (with the exception of a few here and there) and they even seemed to be subsiding. I was getting so discouraged! I really didn’t want to have a super fast labor where I couldn’t get the epidural but since I had the pain meds I was really not wanting this to drag on any more! after about 4 hours we started to request some Pitocin. The doctor on call did not want to give it to me just yet so we waited a bit longer.
**side note: I don’t understand why some doctors wont listen to the patient in situations like this. I was obviously not in a critical situation so I could think rationally. I knew that as soon as I got just a tiny bit of Pitocin I would have the baby almost immediately! I had done this twice before. I think I know my body! She wasn’t even my actual doctor! sheesh
Anyways, sure enough as soon as I got the Pitocin, I had the baby an hour and a half later at 6:15 pm. Could have been about 4 hours earlier if they would have just listened to me and Jeff. Oh well!
We had a healthy big boy weighing in at 9lb 6 oz and 21.25” long!! I knew this whole pregnancy he was going to be huge! I could feel every little ounce of him; I was in so much pain at the end!! Here are some pictures from the hospital:
Waiting and waiting…

Finally here!

We are so excited about having a son! The girls are adjusting greatly. Avery is a little momma to him. She is OBSESSED with babies right now. She is a great helper holding his bottles, changing diapers, baths, etc. She loves to sing to him and gives him kisses any chance she can get. Norah is a little jealous but only here and there. Having Avery around to play with helps with that I think. I was feeding him a bottle the other day and she came and sat next to me, took my hand from his bottle and put it on hers and she took her hands off the bottle. She wanted to be fed like a baby too. It was very cute and I knew right there that she is watching every little move I make and does not want to be forgotten about! Of course, she could never be forgotten but I know that I need to make a conscience effort to give her lots of extra love right now.
I can not believe some times that I have been blessed with 3 beautiful children! It is so surreal that I am at this point in my life. I could not be happier and thank God for Jeff and my babies every day! I could not love anyone or anything deeper and stronger than I do right now. My cup overflows!

Encaustic Painting

Here is the second art technique that I think would be fun to do with my photos.
Back in April, a friend and I went to The Woodlands Art Festival. It was so nice to get out of the house just us girls and do something that we are both very interested in! Thanks Tammy for going with me!!
While we were there I discovered a type of art that I had never seen before I am was instantly intrigued! I couldn’t get any of the artists to tell me all of their secrets (understandably, I guess) but I  had to know how they did it!
Let me back up. If you have not heard of Encaustic painting, it is basically painting with wax. The possibilities are endless and you can transfer images to the wax and layer paint and colors and objects all within the wax.I knew instantly that this is exactly what I want to do with my photography.
Here’s some examples:

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Aren't these beautiful?! I love art that has depth and dimension and texture to it! I have been doing some Googling on techniques and it definitely looks like something I would fall in love with doing. The only problem? It is not simple to get started in. I do not have any of the tools or the set up for it. I found some classes in Houston that I would just love to take one day. Maybe once the kids are in school…..

Transferring a photo to wood

To keep me busy today I decided to try a craft I saw on Pinterest. I want to make some art for over our new bed  and I have always wanted to hang some of my photography so I thought this would be a great combo. Is it just me or are just plain photos (no matter the content) are so boring! Being a photographer, that is probably shocking for me to say, but I have always felt like they are missing something. Well, I think I have found my solution! 2 actually, but one is much similar than the other.
If you are a fan of Pinterest, you have seen tutorials for transferring photos to wood. I was a bit skeptical that it would actually work until this afternoon. I found a piece of scrap wood in our garage that was 5”x6” and chose this picture

at random from my portfolio and printed it on my printer on normal printer paper. I figured I would start with the easiest stuff first. I covered the wood with mod podge and used the back of spoon to smooth out the bubbles in the paper. The tutorials I found say to leave it over night but I got impatient and after about 4 hours I thought I would give it a try. I got my fingers wet and slowly started to rub the paper off with water. Obviously you have to be gentle with this but for whatever reason, the image sticks to the wood and the paper crumbles off! Here is a picture I took after I rubbed the paper off:

** sorry for the lame iphone pics in this post. Like my toes in this picture?? lol did I mention I am being really lazy lately?! ;)

As I was typing this I turned around to look at it and noticed that when it dried it had a white “film” over it. I had not rubbed all of the paper off so I wet it again and scrubbed a little more. You have to be careful because you don’t want to rub too hard or you will rub the image off in spots. I don’t mind the roughness around the edges and depending on the picture, a little distressing could be cool. If it is someone’s face, though, I would not recommend it! lol
I decided to try adding a top layer of mod podge to the top while it was still damp to see if that helps. we shall see…

A few hours later, Here is what it looks like. It’s not perfect so I need to do some playing around with different materials, but I think I could really make some cool artwork!

Here we go again

Hello! Ive been going through another blogging slump lately. I have plenty I could talk about but finding the motivation sometimes is the hardest part. Why? I have no idea. Hormones probably. I have not had much motivation to do anything. We decided to get real bedroom furniture so that has taken up a lot of my mental capacity. It’s amazing how much energy it takes to to just simple tasks when your 9 months pregnant and chasing 2 toddlers. I think I can say good bye to energy for at least the next year.
I am 2 days from my due date and at the end of my rope. As of 3 days ago I was already 4 cm and have been having lots of contractions, just not regular enough to time, so I am praying something happens very soon. This boy is getting big (and momma is getting HUGE) so I can’t take it much longer!
Ok, done complaining….
I was able to get one quick maternity picture done this time around. I really was not worried about doing a whole session with someone since I really only want a belly picture for a future project I have in mind. Thanks to my sister who came over to help, I was able to set the camera up and guide her through shooting one for me. I think it turned out pretty cute!

Laundry Day

I had 2 baskets of laundry to fold yesterday. That’s it. Sometimes the simplest chores are the hardest to accomplish around here!
The girls have always LOVED playing in laundry baskets and ask to get them out and for me to push them around the house in them. Want a serious work out? put two kids (about 55 lbs total) in a laundry basket and push them around a 3200 sq ft house for 30 min! Carpet gives lots of traction so its even harder on the butt and thighs lol. Anyways, I have several pictures on my phone of them playing in the baskets but nothing a photographer can love.
Yesterday was just one of those days when I really could care less if the laundry got folded and put away right away. Hormones are surging with Jackson due any day and I felt really nauseous and weak. So, I have to pick my battles. With toddlers “help” folding clothes, it doesn’t really happen that efficiently anyways. I decided to just sit back and let them fold the clothes while I got the camera out. Having kids is great practice! Here are the pictures. They turned out so much cuter than I predicted!

I had seen people on Pinterest hang pictures in their laundry room so I thought this would be a great fast project! I knew I didn’t want to do just plain ‘ole picture frames so I wondered around Hobby Lobby and came up with this.

Found some wood plaques, painted them green (if you know me, green is pretty much my go-to color (besides white). Its my favorite and I love how lively and pretty it is! ) and added picture hangers to the back. I wanted to incorporate clothes pins since they were going in the laundry room, so I used them to hold the pictures. Got my favorite 8 printed at Walgreens and that’s it! I really wanted to have a plaque that said something like “Laundry Day” on it but it didn’t work out at this moment so I may have to add that later.
Hope you like it! I sure do!!