Did you know......

That I do photography? I know some of you do because I have taken pictures of you, but I don't think I have ever blogged extensively about my photography. It all started when Cory mentioned to me that he thought I'd be good at it. It was something I had always wanted to try, but never knew if I had the "eye" for it. So he bought be a SLR camera for mother's day. Then a super-duper huge I-Mac just as a random gift to help me with editing. What a great husband, right?!?! Well, it is going great and I have found a new love. I love how creative you can be with photography. So far, I have taken pictures for about 10 families and am hoping to get an official business going soon. Anyway, I wanted to share some of my recent work with you guys.

Please let me know if you'd like me to take pictures of your family or if you know anyone else who is interested. I need referrals. Even if you are in Lake Charles or Natchitoches, we can try to schedule something while I am in town during Christmas.

More pictures to come in my next post. I ran out of time before having to leave for church.

Oh Louisiana! (Part 2)

Finally, Part 2 is here. I said that I would blog about our Lake Charles/Singer leg of the trip in the next couple of days. Sorry it turned out to be the next couple of weeks instead.

We didn't tell my dad we were coming in. As a matter of fact, my mom did great at keeping it a secret from everyone. My dad was especially surprised when we showed up at his work on Thursday afternoon. We kicked off our trip by eating at the beloved CASA. If you are from Lake Charles, I don't even have to put the rest of the name. For those who are less fortunate and have not been privileged enough to eat there, it is a wonderful Mexican Restaurant that has been in Lake Charles forever. It is not authentic, by far. But when you have grown up in Lake Charles, it tastes like pure heaven to you. Ok enough about that. Here is what we did for the rest of our trip.....

Visited with friends and made new ones. Here is Landry with her new friend John Paul Dawson. What a cutie!

Picked and ate oranges right off of PawPaw's tree.....over and over again.

Wondered around in the country. She looks like she got caught doing something.

Found baby Christmas trees that PawPaw planted. In a few years, this will be the perfect Christmas tree for GiGi and PawPaw's house.

Made friends with a scarecrow

Went to the Singer School Fall Festival. Landry got to play Plinko.

Here is one of her prizes

Visited with Aunt Connie's donkeys

And finally, Landry got her first driving lesson. You can do that in the country, you know.

What a fun trip!! We can't wait till Christmas to do it all again!

My God Is So Great!

I caught Landry doing this in her mirror the other day. It doesn't last long, because once she spotted me recording her she quit. But it's still really cute!

Before Church Photo Shoot

I made this little dress for Landry and took a few minutes before we left for church to shoot a couple of pictures of her. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

We had lots of fun this Halloween. We were really hoping to bring her to Rock Ranch, a very cool place about an hour from here, but the weather would not allow it. Instead we took her to Barnes and Noble and Toys R Us early in the day. And then I took her to the Fall Festival at the Church Cory worked at this summer. Sadly, Cory was not able to go with us this evening because he had another engagement at the BCM, but Landry surely had a blast. Her favorite thing was the jump house. It was small and designed for toddlers, so I didn't have to worry about any big kids pummeling her. However, since we took our last trip home, Landry has been screaming at people randomly when she doesn't want them to come near her. So anytime a new kid would come in, she would scream and I would have to pull her out for a time-out. As you can imagine, this got VERY tiring for me. But consistency pays off, right? Oh please say it pays off!! When we got home, Landry was so wired. She wanted to show off all her candy to Daddy, and she was talking up a storm. I'm crossing my fingers that the later bedtime will insure a longer sleep time, since we are supposed to gain an hour tonight. Here are pictures from our day.

Hamming it up on the kids' stage at Barnes and Noble. Her favorite thing to do there.

Our little Rocker! Check out the shoes!

Sing it girl!

Here is Landry in the bounce house

Eating Cotton Candy

Bean Bag Toss

Hope everyone else had a great day as well! Can't wait to see pics of everyone dressed in costume!

Baby Babble - Week 20

So here are the belly pics from this week.

When I lifted my shirt for a picture, Landry came running and wanted to insert her finger into my belly button of course. It made for a cute picture.

Then she decided to give the belly a kiss. Sweet girl!

I forgot to mention yesterday about our little boy's performance on camera. He waved at us, sucked his thumb, and gave us the peace sign. We never saw any of that from Landry so it was pretty cool. Everything checked out fine with him, but I will have to get another ultrasound next month so they can get a better picture of the spine. He wasn't laying the right way for them to get a good look at it.

Also, he is about 10 inches long right now and weighs about 3/4 of a pound. He's been very active in the mornings and at night. Every once in a while he gives me a nice strong kick that really surprises me. I Love It!

It's a.....

BOY!!

I've actually called this baby "little buddy" and "little guy" all along. But everyone else seemed to think it was a girl. I started believing this myself because my pregnancy has been pretty much identical to my pregnancy with Landry. So when the ultrasound tech showed us that we were definitely having a little boy, I was a little stunned. Maybe I should trust my first instinct.

We are so excited, however we would have been just as excited for another little girl. This will just be a new and exciting adventure for us. We are so blessed!!!

I will try to post another belly pic this evening. I think you'll definitely be able to tell a difference!