Liberi Photo Session

Thank you Liberi Family for allowing me to capture your family!!

On the way. . .

 

to sitting. . . . .

He is not quite there yet, but he is getting stronger and stronger.

Remembering the First Days of Mommyhood. .

 

It has occurred to me recently that I never posted the photos of Daniel from the first moments after he was born. I want to go ahead and do that now. At the time I didn’t really think about pictures of course, but I am really glad that we have them now.

Just so that we are clear: it takes a lot of guts to post these photos of me, but I have confidence that you will have mercy on my appearance as I had been laboring for nearly 30 hours at the point of these pictures. Well except for the first one.

This was taken on Sunday (the day before Daniel was born around 10:00 a.m. I was having a contraction while this exact photo was being taken)

These next pictures are from the NEXT Monday morning. (around 6 hours before Daniel came) Those of you that are not familiar with this machine: this kept track of my blood pressure, heart rate, and the baby. The paper is my contractions. I cringe seeing those black lines spike. That meant it was a painful one. The number 48 that you see on the monitor is the level of contraction I was having at the moment. I saw that number go into the 100’s, but 48 is pretty uncomfortable, too.

I asked Erin to come be my “coach” while I labored in the early stages. I say early, but it felt late to me. At this point, I had still not had the epidural. All I will say is, we are still friends, and this is a good thing. She saw me in a pretty personal way that I am grateful didn’t scare her away! I was thankful for her support. It meant a lot to me to have my mom there, too. In my mind, I thought that the hours leading up to his birth would be “enjoyable.” Meaning, I thought I would be myself, and we could all just hang out. I was……… WRONG! I was not much fun to hang around. I can see the anguished body language of my mom. I know that she hated to see me in such pain, but I know that she was so excited for her grandbaby to get here.

Now, if you fast forward a few good hours: You have the first moments of Daniel’s life.

(I apologize for the “natural" nature of this photo, but it is what it is) Dennis is cutting the umbilical cord here. That cord was tough!!!!

My poor baby was cold! When I laid eyes on him for the first time, all I could see was that he had his daddy’s mouth! I mean, that is ALL I could see. I was so glad. I love Dennis’ features, and it was an honor to have a son that looked so much like him. And then the second thing I noticed: the kids was ALL hands and feet. I hoped that he would grow into them.

I love love love this picture of him here with my mom. As soon as I had him, we invited our family and friends in that were waiting.

 

I know that all mommas believe that their baby is the most precious thing that they have ever seen, but I really did believe that he was prettiest little thing, ever. But, again, he is my baby, and I am his mom. Of course, I am going to think so.

This was brought to us for dinner the second night that we were there. It was really yummy.

These next pictures marks the day that we brought him home. I was really excited to leave the hospital, but I was also very scared. I really relied on the nurses to bring me that awesome ice. I could drink all the Coke I wanted. (non-caffeinated of course) and I loved it. It was my favorite thing.

This was one of our first family pictures. I was VERY VERY emotional that day. I just couldn’t stop crying! Everything was just beautiful and sweet. And, everything seemed overwhelming.

When we got home, Daniel needed his first at home diaper change. Dennis pretty much did everything those first few days at home. I was so nervous for him to go back to work. Just looking at those pictures, it reminds me of the cold in the air that January afternoon.

Cousin Cole holding him for the first time.

and my mom gets another squeeze of her grandbaby.

and now. . . . .

 

I get to wake up to this sweet little boy every day. He has grown up before my very eyes. I cannot believe that it has already been nearly 6 months since our lives have changed. We love our sweet Daniel. Thanks for journeying back through those memories with me. Love to all.

Our First Fruits. . .

 

It has finally happened!!! We were able to pick the first “fruits” from our garden later this week!! We thought we just had a squash, and then this morning Dennis went out to check the garden before church, and in a blink, we had these two large Zucchini's! We didn’t even see them coming!!!

So we had a small dinner tonight, and I fried the squash because Dennis had never had it before. I mixed the Zucchini in with a pepper and onion blend. I am just LOVING this garden. It just brings so much satisfaction. We have been very fortunate to not have to use any type of netting or fencing to keep animals out, and the bugs seem to be leaving them alone, so we have had no problem keeping our veggies organic! Love that.

Before there were 5….

 

there were just two…………

July 4th Holiday Weekend

We had a great holiday weekend! We started out on Friday night with our small group, or well, those of them that were able to come. We missed the Bollings, and Williams’!

We celebrated Mason & Zach’a birthday, too.

We all crowded around the deck with all of our children. It was really fun!!

Dennis wrote me a love note in the driveway! So sweet.

Saturday and Sunday we didn’t reall do a whole lot, but on Monday we went to the pool and hung out with my Dad all day. Dennis enjoyed some pool time with his Dad.

After that, we went to the parade. Daniel was NOT happy with the fire trucks and rescue squads honking their horns and sounding their sirens. I had to talk him through most of that.

Then after that, we went to the Buchanan carnival and celebrated with our annual french fries, petros, and ice cream! It was a lot of fun.

When we go out like this, I don’t bring my Grand Canon, instead, I bring little bitty Canon so that I can easily take pictures. That is why some of these are just blurry and you can see a lot of motion.

This picture below would have been good if the camera would have worked! Grr….

Even with the loud rides, games, and music, our little sleeper went to sleep anyway. He woke up on the first bang of fireworks. He would look up at them and then as soon as the color would disappear he wouldn’t look back up until the bang, and by then, again, the color was pretty much gone. Hopefully next year he will have a better attention span to enjoy the fireworks! It was a great weekend. Now, we are back to the nitty gritty!