5 on friday!!

1)  Carter has started to say “I love you” unprompted.  Melts me everytime.  He seems to do it in the proper context too, which melts me even more.  This week I was typing an email to a friend who lost her dear daughter at just 9 days old.  I was crying as I typed the email, when Carter walked up to me, pulled on my sleeve, and said “Mama?  Yi Yuh You” (Mama?  I love you).  He then climbed in my lap, put his head on my shoulder and repeated it 2-3 more times.  He’s a heart melter, for sure!

2) I’ve mentioned on my facebook (and in the #1 above) about the Gilmore family.  Mara and I were due about a month apart.  We were so excited to be pregnant together.  Mara’s sister Megan (Carter’s swim instructor) and I had our boys about 3 weeks apart and it was looking like Mara and I would have our children about that distance apart too.  Well, Mara had to deliver early due to a life threatening condition called Hydrops to baby Grace.  Baby Grace fought and fought for 9 days and passed away on Sunday night.  Many many prayers to the Gilmore family!

3) I guess since I’m 32 weeks, it’s time to come to grips with the idea that there will be a baby coming home with us soon.  We have the nursery all set to go (as it’s Carter’s nursery) but Carter’s big boy room is still a cluttered office/workout room.  Yeah.  We better get moving on that.

4) For all wondering, I am shooting sessions until mid-March.   I am due March 23rd, but went 12 days overdue with Carter and have a funny feeling that will be the case this time too.  My mom was never less than 2 weeks overdue with myself and my 2 brothers, so I’m planning on April   I’ll be resuming sessions about the first week of June.  I’ll definitely have the blog fired up to share pictures of the new baby and some other fun stuff!!

5) I went on vacation after Christmas to North Carolina.  It was dual purpose.  We stopped in Charlotte because that’s where my sister-in-law and her family live!  Also, my cousin, Kim, lives in Raleigh.  We usually make stops at both places, but this year was special exception.  Kim (who is way more like a sister than a cousin… our mom’s raised us as sisters, not just cousins) delivered a healthy baby boy on Dec. 23rd (yes, you’ll see pics of him here soon, I promise).  So Richie, Carter, and I drove to Charlotte and then I left the next day to head to Raleigh by myself to help out Kim and take some pictures.  I managed to squeeze in time for a session with new big sister, L, and her cousin, E!!!  These girls kept me moving, that’s for sure!!  L is a PRIME candidate for bribing, and let me tell ya, we did plenty of that!!  Here’s some of my faves from their session!!

These 2 girls, may be super active, but they adore each other!

First up, is the fabulous Miss L.

Next up was little cousin, E.  She has that BEAUTIFUL china doll face!!  Just scrumptious!!

I’ll be back soon with some of the new little brother’s session!  Enjoy H family!!

Look at me with 2 blog posts in a week!  I’m getting back in the swing and hope for even more frequent posts in the future.

1)  Kind of an exciting week here!  Last Friday was Richie and my 5th anniversary!   We celebrated at home with a great dinner.  We did filet’s (from Chop Shop of course!!), coconut shrimp, caesar salad, mashed potatoes (more like smashed potatoes with skins on and big chunks) and the crowning jewel of the meal which was my blondie brownies!  Those were actually Richie’s anniversary present.  Because our anniversary is exactly 3 weeks after Christmas and both of our birthdays are in December, our anniversary is usually light on gifts.  We do something special, but it’s usually “anniversary on a budget”.  And that’s ok.  What’s important is we celebrated the day, not the amount spent on it.  Lord knows we spent enough on the wedding!  I’ll have to check the annals to see if I can find a wedding photo of us from “way back when”

2)  We’re making progress on things around the house to get Carter a big boy room.  About to order bunk beds!  We need to move the office/workout room to the Florida room first though.  There’s also a closet that needs to be tamed.  Lord, help me!

3)  Well, not Lord help me, but Aunt Peggy help me!  My mom’s sister (and my godmother) has SELFLESSLY volunteered to come down here in a few weeks to help me nest and stock my freezer in prep for the arrival of a certain bundle of joy.  I’m going to try to get through that closet on my own first.  Otherwise, the crew from the TV show “Clean Sweep” may have to make a visit!

What, you can’t picture what my Aunt Peggy looks like?  Not a problem!  I’m here to help!  hahaha.

When we were on vacation in Orlando, I headed over to their house in Apopka to take some photos for their Christmas cards.

4)  And in baby news, I found myself on self imposed bed rest for a bit this week.  I had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions that did not want to slow down unless I was laying completely down on one side.  Turns out an infection was to blame, so I’m on antibiotics and they’ve slowed down significantly.  Now, don’t go assuming I’ll go into labor early.  I did the same with Carter (and an infection was not to blame) and still delivered him at 41 weeks 5 days.  …but who’s counting

5)  Lots of exciting stuff is happening behind the scenes at Jennifer Mauren Photography!  Updates to the online buying experience, updates to the website, and lets not forget the excitement all business owners go through in January.  That’s right!  Year end bookkeeping!  (do you detect a note of sarcasm on that last one?  You should, because I was laying it on plenty thick)  Stay tuned for some giveaways, progress on Carter’s new big boy room and client images too!!!

So, today’s photo is my best work so far.  And by that I mean my family.  I had great hopes of getting to take some photos of Carter this week but he got sick this weekend.  Last night he went to bed early and slept until noon today.  He’s normally up and chipper at 7am.  I had to wake him up at noon.  We went to see Dr. White, and it’s just a virus that has to run it’s course.

One of Carter’s favorite activities is to play the Wii with Richie.  He sits in Richie’s lap and holds the controller.  He did this tonight (Mario Kart was the preferred game tonight) and fell asleep while playing.  I have many pictures of Carter asleep on Richie from when he was a little baby, but none in the recent past.  This is taken with my iphone in REALLY low light, so the picture quality is awful, but this is what I’m most proud of… my familiy.

I’m trying a few new regular installments.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to post on my blog more regularly!!  So my Monday posts will be “mine on monday”.  They may be portraits, they may be snapshots, they may be totally random, but they’re mine   I love getting to know my clients personally and like sharing my world too.   So, here’s a snippet of some images of Carter from around Christmas.  The first two are of Carter at the Christmas tree lot.  I told him Lightning (McQueen) was hiding in a Christmas tree and he held still long enough for my shutter to capture him.  My mother-in-law was there too trying to capture him with her camera and she quickly learned what a “joy” (note the sarcasm) he is in front of a camera.

I like to think with this next one that he’s thinking “…and now I take off”!    LOL!!

We were at Ft. Wilderness campground when I did a shoot with him for our Christmas card images.  I’ll share those soon too.  Here are two that didn’t make the card, but I love them just the same!  The trick to getting these shots?  A new Wall-E doll that I used to play hide and seek, peekaboo, and sang silly songs with.  Hey, I got the shot.  What do I care if the people staying at the campground think I’m certifiable!!  LOL!!

be prepared to see some of my co-workers from Stage Door Studios here soon!  I just finished up headshots!