New X-mas card design

Here is the new Christmas card that I made earlier.... I think it's the best one I've done so far.

Jen's Fabulous Family

Here are a few from this week. I did a short shoot with just Kruz and his mommy... one of my other Besties Jen. Then today I did a shoot with the whole family and thought I'd show a preview of at least one.

Birth Announcement

i finally finished the birth announcement (one month later) since I finally took some good pics of the baby and his sister. Thanks to Rita at CoffeeShops blog for the tutorial on how to make your own storyboard, this is how I accomplished it.

Little Man- 1 Month Old

Here are the pics I took on the 1st of my kiddos when my little man was exactly one month old.... You can tell his sissy loves him, she is definitely a big help around the help and wants to always change his diaper.

Kiddos on Halloween

Here are my kiddos this Halloween 09'

Athena wore the butterfly costume to school on Friday and a bunny Sat. night, she was so cute she looked like a mini playboy bunny :) My little man was a little dalmatian as you can see.

I'm Back

so sorry that I have been MIA and haven't blogged in over a month.... the new baby keeps me busy. I do get online quite a bit though just not to blog... I have become a facebook addict and find myself farming a lot.... at least until the baby requires my undivided attention :) Here are the first set of pics I took of him at 10 days.

He's Here!

Well the week started out really crappy.... I went to pick my daughter up from school and was stopped at a stop sign and this woman is turning onto the road where I'm stopped and he truck dies losing all brakes and steering. Needless to say she smacked into the front of my car. I wasn't injured but it shook me up for a few hours. That same night and next day I developed an extremely itchy rash that the doctor thought might be related to the accident and caused by nerves. To be on the safe side she wanted me to come in today and do lab to rule out anything bad. When I got to my appt. this morning my BP was high 148/102 and she just decided that it was time to deliver the baby and said they were waiting for me already in Labor and Delivery and I needed to go straight up there. I called my hubby at work and had him meet me there.... wouldn't you know the one time I told my hubby I'd be OK to go by myself and told him to stay for his all day meetings today, it would be time!

The C-section turned out great and I kept my calm the whole time and didn't panic, in fact I was more anxious and excited that we finally get to see my lil boy we've been awaiting so very long for. He ended up being 5lbs. 12oz. and 18 inches. He is the most perfect baby I'd ever seen, along with my daughter. I hate to brag but we make beautiful babies. He sure does have a set of lungs... he came out crying and screaming. His apgar scores were great: 9 and 9. Here are a few pics from today. I will definitely be posting more once we get home and I can take some of than just random snapshots.

My first finished Quilt!

So I have recently took on a project to make a baby quilt for my little man who will be here in about 2 months. It only took me less than 2 days to do (although I still have to sew the trim around) but here is a pic of what it looks like. I am so happy with the way it turned out and how it pretty much looks like what I had envisioned in my mind. Keep in mind that although I own a sewing machine I'm am still a newby to it. I probably only take it out and turn it on once every couple of years. In fact the last time I used it before this week was to try and make my daughter a quilt before she was born and she's 5 now. Needless to say her quilt never got finished because I ran out of a certain important fabric so I still have it in a bag in case I find any tan demin fabric not being worn so I can finish it one day. We did however buy her some new fabric to make her a new quilt and when I finish all the projects I have in mind I plan to start it (and finish it hopefully too) :)

I have been finding lots of instructions on how to sew your own baby sling and nursing covers which I absolutely want since I will be breastfeeding. It is a necessity that I get a "Hooter Hider" or at least attempt to make my own. I also have a few baby showers coming up and I usually make a tutu for the newborn girls or for girls birthdays to save money plus I love to get personal gifts like that and I'm sure everyone else does too.... (at least I hope they do) but my nephew is having a boy and I'm sure a tutu isn't the right gift for him so I am going to buy some plain onsies and sew a little tie to the front. I have seen them and they are so adorable. I actually found a tutorial which seems pretty easy so we'll see how it turns out. I've also always wanted a trendy decorated wipey case but could never afford it so I thought I would give that ago also since I have tons of fabric left. One for me and one for my nephews little one who will be born a month after my baby Aries.

Baby Shower in the works...

For some reason I didn't want to have the generic premade baby shower invitation that you fill in by hand. I decided to try to make one of my own so I could put a little more info and use the colors I want. Since a lot of the big stuff we've bought for the baby has been an orange oak and my hubby loves OSU so the colors are orange, white and black I decided to go with the orange theme for the invitation and maybe even put his room in those colors.... let me know what you think about my cheezy invitation :)

My Pregnancy and Life Update

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant with a little boy and have a lot on my plate. I have gained 20 lbs. already although it's all in my belly. They convince me there is only one baby in there though (:

this is a self portrait I did a little over a month ago so I was about 22 weeks. Huge huh?

Sorry I haven't posted in a while but things have been crazy. I've worked an 8 to 5 job up until about a month ago when I decided it was best for me to stay home with my now 5 year old daughter. Plus my pregnancy was starting to get exhausting especially when I have problems sleeping at night because of congestion and drainage.

anyways, at my 20 week ultrasound they noticed that the baby had only 2 vessels instead of the normal 3 they are supposed to have. there is a slightly higher risk of cord accident of course... it's important for me to do kick counts especially when I feel like he's not moving around like usual, but luckily he does karate in my uterus constantly. there is also a risk that something may be wrong with the baby, such as renal problem or even heart but only about 25% of 2 vessel cord babies have any abnormalities. I'm a little worried but I can't really worry too much. The pediatrician will do a renal ultrasound after the baby is born and also look at the heart.

Also Wednesday when I did my glucose screen it came back a little high so I I have to carb load for the next 3 days and go back fasting on Monday and do a glucose tolerance test. You know this is all I need, to have Gestational Diabetes on top of everything else and the higher risk of delevoping Pre-E and HELLP again.

So far my BP is good but we'll still keep a close eye on it.

Home Fashion Show

My daughter has been kind of adament about doing a fashion show at the house for the last couple of days so we did it today.... I was really hoping she wasn't going to make me dress up too... well she didn't, thank gosh! I made her a new little tutu this morning to match one of the outfits she wanted to wear. There were a total of three outfits and one funky hairdo I did for her... I wanted it to be wild and this look just came to me while I was styling it.... here are just a few shots from the first outfit. I thought they turned out great and she looked adorable, like a real ballerina!

I'll post more when I edit them a bit... I still have pics to edit from my last photoshoot first.

Daughter's 5th Bday PARTY

My YUMMY cupcake I made!

Her cousin really enjoying one of my cupcakes!

Athena opening some gifts...

The birthday party went great yesterday although I was extremely exhausted afterwards. We indeed did have an outside water party. Here are a few pics from the party. I made those cupcakes the night before, chocolate and vanilla (keep in mind I've never decorated cupcakes before except for just spreading frosting). a couple of hours before the party I sat outside by the faucet and filled a whole bucket of water balloons and got soaked in the process doing it because our faucet wasn't easy to turn on and off so I had to keep it on the whole time while filling them up and so I got sprayed several times, good thing I had my mega maternity suit on (:

5 years old... WOW

Yesterday my little girl turned 5. OMG where did the time go. We are having her party this afternoon and boy is it going to be a great day to have it. It should only be about 86 degrees which is awesome considering we've been having 100+ days and that's not including the heat index. We are going to do outside water fun as the theme and have squirt guns, water balloons, kiddie pool and a sprinkler. I'm even looking forward to getting wet. I will post some pictures sometime soon from the fun day.

What's been going on...

So I actually got a little sleep last night. I did however go to bed while still light outside at 8:30. I was trying to prove a theory of mine that I could sleep easier with more light. I fell right asleep but found myself waking up around 10 when it was dark and had a sudden feeling of not being tired. After that of course I went and sat in my nightly recliner. It was hard to go back to sleep but once I turned on TV I didn't have much of a problem even though I didn't watch it at all.... What's the deal. Am I nocturnal or something now? I usually have to watch TV or get online to totally exhaust me so I can go to sleep. It sure doesn't help that I'm congested at night time and feel like I can't breathe.... anyways I am just glad to finally sleep more than 2 hours total during the night.

As some may know yesterday was my last day at the University. I gave my notice several weeks ago because my daughter needed me to stay home with her again. Frankly I was ready to be a stay at home mom again. Plus we will be having our second child in a few months... Athena be 5 in 2 weeks from today. We have yet to plan a birthday party because things have been hectic and we're kind of broke. I think we've decided to buy her a nice set of kids drums though... she is very musical and has been wanting drums for months. She actually has natural time which is crazy. Are we kidding ourselves though buying her the drums she wants and we'll be regretting it later?

The both of us are about to get around and get dressed to go to a yard sale in town from a friend of mine. Baby Boy clothes here I come. Honestly I'm not too good for used clothes. I love it when friends give me outgrown clothes of their kids. I of course pick through the yard sale clothes and for the most part don't get completely stained up clothes. I do know from experience that babies get dirty no matter how hard you try to keep them clean. I have about 2 tubs of girl clothes that I need to go through for myself to sell at the yard sale. Even though they tell me it's a boy I'm still hesitant about getting rid of all girl stuff. I definitely had enough to spare some though. I always had my favorite stuff Athena wore that I will probably keep and let her use for her dolls.

Anyways so for the long update, it's been awhile. I still have more to post later about my insurance meltdown...

Maternity Self Portraits

Earl Grey Tea coloring (ONE OF MY FAV shots)

Soft Dewberry Glaze coloring

Soft Strawberry Glaze coloring

Regular adjustments but I love how I accidently cut off my head :)

Regular adjustments but it accidently didn't focus completely but I like it!

Me and my girl with the Orton effect action

Here are some of my favorite self portraits I took today... I've been needing some maternity pics other than just snapshots. Let me know what you think. I just want to thank CoffeeShop's blog for some of the actions that I used.

2 Week's Notice

So my husband and I decided it was time for me to stay at home again so I gave my 2 week's notice at work today. We have been trying to get to a point where I could quit anyway but we were hoping that I could work up till when I had the baby so I could have my 2nd insurance to cover the complete medical bills that I would incur. It really didn't work out as lovely as we had first planned. Here's how it all kinda started:

You see my mother in law watches my little girl everyday. Don't get me wrong I love my MIL and all but ever since school has let out and she has to keep her all day all week it seems like she started slacking in the caretaking ability. The first thing that bothered me was she was coming home EVERYDAY all banged up and damaged. She said she fell one day but she came home with a fat lip and it was purple and black all under the top lip and was fat for 2 days. When it first happened she didn't even know she hit it. Evidently she wasn't watching her very good to know it and why did it even happen in the first place. I don't like the idea of her playing outside by herself for extended periods of time without supervision. She said she checks on her about every 10 or 15 minutes but that is too long for me when she is just 4 and not fenced in... there are perverts in this world and who could snatch her up in a minute flat. I guess I think the worse but I am and have been real protective of her always and she has never got banged up like that in my supervision. She said kids get cuts and bruises... that was her defense.

I left yesterday morning and asked her to make sure she gets a bath and make sure she washes her hair and body.... specifically I asked those things. You see since it's the summer she'd rather take a shower or bath in the morning like mommy and daddy so that is why I never get a chance to do it, because I'm at work when she gets up. Well when I got home yesterday evening the shampoo wasn't in the tub and I knew she had a bath. I asked her did you not wash her hair and she said No. I flipped out... who considers a bath of just sitting in water not washing hair and body a bath? That's more like swimming and playing. Every now and then skipping a bath might be okay but she has a very sensitive area and if you don't wash it everyday it gets VERY irritated from pee and such. She has told me a few times that Grandma forgot to give her a bath... I kind of blew it off until now. I just feel like I'm the only one who can take care of her properly. She doesn't make sure she is fed right either. I hear about all the junk she eats and how she really didn't eat good that day... well I wonder why. You need to put your foot down as a caregiver and say no to things sometime and make deals with the kid, that is what we have to do.

And I asked Athena if she wanted mama to stay home everyday with her and not go to work and she said YES... so that just melted my heart. I balled because I was so upset about her well being yesterday so my husband finally put his foot down and told me to give my notice and quit. He looked at the bills and they are definitely going to be tight for awhile, at least until he is able to get his raise after the first of the year when the freeze is up. I'm hoping that now that I can spend most of my time with my photography business that it will take off and help us out with the bills, or at least buy us food. I have recently started a myspace photography site until I can actually afford to get a real webpage. It is www.myspace.com/wendyclabornphotography so check it out if you're bored. I'm also hoping that the band my husband is trying to get together will take off and start making money soon. I offered to promote the band and try to book some of their gigs when they got a little tighter as a band once they knew all of the singer's songs. I'd get anywhere from 5-10% of the booking if I booked the show so that would help too.

WISH ME LUCK!

BTW... yesterday was my 7 year wedding anniversary and it sucked. It was extremely hot at work because the AC wasn't working right and I come home and have to cook and deal with the MIL drama. My eyes were still dry, irritated and swollen today from crying the night before. What an anniversary, and to top it off I didn't get any lovin' :(

My Cousin's Wedding

So I offered to take pictures at my cousin's wedding this weekend. They couldn't afford to hire a photographer and so I thought I'd offer as my gift to them. Keep in mind this is only my 2nd wedding EVER to take pictures at and my first was with a 35 mm camera several years ago. Here are some of my favorite from the day.