A delayed announcement...

Sorry I haven't been able to post this week, but most of you have already heard ITS A BOY!!! We are so incredibly excited to have a son. I know he and Gracyn are going to be great friends. Here are a few ultrasound pictures from Wednesday- all profile shots. He is pretty smashed in there, already looking pretty long, so we didnt get to see the front of his face for any pictures... Everything is healthy and exactly how it should be! The last shot I didnt want to post, but Greg scanned the 3 together. But you can see his heart and his little boy parts from a profile view- lucky you, lol.

Baby Steps

Gracyn is getting closer to walking. I bought this push toy awhile ago but she has never had much interest in it. She would play with it, but as soon as it started moving she would sit down. This week she has finally started taking steps behind it. She started with one or two and now walks up and down the sidewalk to our neighbor Lidia's house. Its so cute to see! Here is a video of the first night she started trying to walk behind it.

my little pumpkin

I took these a few weeks ago at the pumpkin patch with Jake and Julia. She was pretty excited to be around the pumpkins and of course wanted nothing to do with mommy or the camera. I think that was the sentiment for the day since Jake and Julia didnt want pictures either!

11 months

This weekend I went home to Indy to visit family and go to my college roomate's 30th birthday party. I was fighting a cold last week but by Thursday night it was insane! I couldnt breathe or sleep, I lost my voice and Im pretty sure coughed up at least one lung. I was miserable, but it was nice to be with my family who spoiled Gracyn rotten. My sister and I decided to take Gracyn out to get her one year pictures before her birthday party. I didnt shoot because I was sick, but Amanda got some great shots of her at the Flying Cupcake (which has to be the cutest cupcake bakery I have ever seen...). I dont want to share all of the pics yet, because she is in her birthday outfit for some and I want to save those for closer to her birthday. But, here are a few my sister sent me that I love. I still cant believe how much she changes every single day and all the new things she does. She is a pro at kisses and waving and bouncing "aka dancing" when asked, she also does the sign for "more" pretty well and is working on a few others. She is getting pretty stable standing up without any support in the middle of the room, but still isnt making many attempts at walking unless its around furniture. She is very into putting things into other things, like stacking her cups or putting the rings on a stacker, etc... sometimes that translates to putting toys away but not enough for mommy to be completely happy, lol. Anyway life is good! Check out a few of the pics...

laughing at mommy dancing...

My Littlest Bird

I wanted to post a video of Gracyn dancing to our new favorite dancing song, but of course she started pitching a fit when I left to get the camera to capture her. So anyway for today I will just post the music video for the song, maybe tomorrow I can get her dancing to it. This is the Be Good Tanyas, this is the only song I know of theirs and found it as a fluke, but I love it so I will have to search them out on Itunes and find some other good stuff. This just makes me happy...

I have the best husband in the world....

Tomorrow is Greg and my 3 year anniversary. Since I will be out of town, he surprised me tonight by having his parents come over to watch Gracyn while he took me out to dinner to Francesca's, which is where we had our rehearsal dinner. Dinner was delicious and it was so nice to have a night out with Greg alone. I feel so blessed to have a husband who takes care of me the way he does. I hope and pray Gracyn is so lucky in love one day!

First time at the Beach

We headed down to Lake Michigan last week to shoot with another photographer I know. Gracyn started out loving the sand, but quickly became miserable as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. She was so cold and wanted nothing to do with pictures! I really did have layers on her, but she was still shivering and mean mommy just wanted to keep shooting! Anyway I didnt get much of her, she is a classic photographers kid who wants nothing to do with pictures, but my friend Shannon got some great ones of her. I will post hers another time. Here are a few I liked...

here her lips were really purple, tried to fix that in photoshop


sad eyes...






happy when we first got there, playing in the sand


still finding sand in her bags and stroller...

Giving Kisses

Gracyn has started making kissing noises a lot and we just figured out tonight that she will make the noise when asked for a kiss, so we had to capture it on video. So here she is giving a few people kisses :)

Testing a new blog template

Trying to find something with options for bigger images.... ignore the poor quality of the pic, just wanted something bigger than the old template.

Capturing the moment

So many times during the day, I think of something I want to capture on camera... then never do it because the light isnt right, or her outfit isnt the cutest, etc. I have this weird thing that I need to only take great pictures and I miss out on a lot because of that. I have been trying to be better (taking pictures in class, etc), but I still need to make more of an effort.

Yesterday we were out with Greg while he was mowing the lawn. Gracyn loves to watch him and wave as he comes up and down the row. It is finally fall weather and she had her little fall clothes on and she looked so cute! Never mind the fact that she had 5 different shades of purple on, lol. Anyway the light was fading and not ideal, but I decided I had to capture the moment. So while these pictures are blurry and grainy, I still love everything about them. I cannot believe how absolutely grown up my baby is... I have no clue where this year went. But every single day I fall more and more in love with her and with her daddy for blessing me with her and taking care of us so incredibly well.

Day 6 and 7

Ah I failed. Last night I got caught watching the debates and today has gotten away from me. I have nothing to say of interest so Im just going to apologize for missing the last 2 days, say I love my life and my family and Im going to go spend some time with my hubby...you should do the same!

Day #5/7

Megan's Top 10 Favorite Baby Things (Gracyn's too...)

Im at a loss for what to talk about after 5 days in a row, soo I am going to make a list of some favorite baby things. Too bad Im not as rich as Oprah, I would send you all samples :) These are not in any order... Click on the links to see the products...

#1- I could not live without my Ergo baby carrier. I love this, esp if you have a big baby. I can still carry Gracyn around comfortably and she is 20lbs now. She can go on my back, facing me, or on my hip. And Greg feels comfortable wearing it too. When she was little I also loved the Moby wrap, its perfect for newborns and keeping them close and snuggly.

#2- The Aden and Anais swaddling blanket, I wish I had bought these when G was a baby because she could not fit in any receiving blankets except one my friend Jen made for her. I have been using these for photoshoots and I cant wait to use them on the new baby.

#3- The Phil and Teds Stroller, this is a great stroller. Easy to use and it converts to a double stroller, which will be great in a few months.

#4- Summer Video Monitor- I love this, I can watch her without having to go in her room. This was great for the insane first time mom I was in those first months.

#5- Babys First Books- these have brought her hours and hours of entertainment, I always have at least one in my bag

#6- The Fisher Price Learning Home Endless entertainment. Gracyn and every kid I have seen around it loves this house! She has really grown with it, learning how to do new things on it all the time. By far one of the best presents she has received, thanks Chrissy!!

#7- Her Taggy This is great because when she is in the car seat and I am driving, and she is fussing bc she cant find her paci, I can always find it easily without looking back just by feeling for her taggy. It doesnt look exactly like this, but this one is Extremely cute! I bought supplies to try and make some.

#8- Formula Mixer When I registered for this I didnt know if we would actually use it. It seemed silly, but I figured for $4 we might as well try. This has been wonderful, esp since we use the Dr.Browns bottles and you cant really shake them with all the parts inside (you can but its recommended not to). Its fast and easy to use, the formula seems less foamy than after shaking too, which is good for the little tummies.

#9- the Bundle Me Its recommended to not use coats or buntings on babies in car seats now, to keep the straps more secure, so this product is great for winters and new babies. Stick them in there and they are all nice and cozy and you dont have to worry about blankets and coats. Im going to try the toddler one with Gracyn this winter, we will see how it works.

#10- Carters Cradle and Soothe Bouncer Gracyn quickly outgrew her fancy papasan seat I bought for her and I happened to find this on clearance at BRU. I am convinced its the best seat ever. She fit in it for such a long time and she is a big girl! It also has 2 positions so when she would fall asleep we could recline her flat.

Im sure there are a million more favorite things I have, but these are the first ones that came to mind.

Day #4/7

So Gracyn is now taking 2 classes each week. On Wednesdays we go to Wonderful Ones, which is at the library. Its basically just some story time and some singing with like 10 min of play time at the end. It goes way too fast every week. I feel like Gracyn is just starting to warm up and its done. She is a lot more shy in public than I thought she would be. I know some of that has to do with the separation anxiety for this age, she doesnt like to crawl very far away from me. She also sits most of the class with this funny look on her face, she just takes it all in. She is by far one of the biggest kids in the class but is actually one of the youngest. She is one of the few that are not walking yet. These are pictures from 2 weeks ago and from today's class. I need to bring my better camera in there, but I am embaressed no one else is taking pictures. I was afraid to even use my flash for these, I didnt want to distract anyone. So the quality is horrible but the sentiment is still there. It is so nice to get her out of the house and around other kids. I feel like she must be bored hanging out with me all day. Tomorrow we have her sign language class so maybe I will post about that then.

color was wacky, had to make it bw




This is to show how she always sits, its too cute!



not sure she wants to crawl out to the middle to play with the kids...



Her face through most of the class...

Day #3

Well today was a good day, I had a doctor's appointment and got to hear the little munchkin's heartbeat, always amazing! Everything looked good at the appointment. Im 16 weeks and the baby is now the size of an avocado. He is currently about 5 inches long (Gracyn was born at 22inches so we still have a long way to go to beat her!). Over the next three weeks he should double in size! I am already not fitting into my jeans so that just sounds wonderful :) You may notice I keep calling the baby "he"... that is not for certain yet, but I hate calling the baby "it". Here are some pics from 12 weeks. The 4d one is freaky to see, the baby doesnt have enough fat to make it a cute picture.



On the way to the hospital I got pulled over (sorry mom!) for speeding! YIKES! So Im shaking in my boots and I hand the guy my info, he asks if I know he speed limit, the usual routine. However I happened to mention in passing I was on my way to the hospital and I was a nurse there. To my shock and awe his response was "your a nurse? well thats good enough for me!" and he hands me my stuff back, tells me to drive safe and walks away! Now people have always told me this nurse card works but I just couldnt imagine it really would! Not that I plan on pulling that card, I drove 55 the rest of the way there and home!

Ok so one last note- this is a random post, all over the place. Gracyn is now eating people food (as opposed to dog food) and coming up with meal ideas is throwing me for a loop. I have never been a good cook or creative with meal planning but now I feel like every night I am scrounging to think of something healthy to feed her so I need to start planning our meals out in advance. I want her to be a much healthier and diverse eater than I am. So I am putting out a plea for ideas, if you have a meal you love that is easy to make and somewhat healthy please send me the recipe! I would love to have more ideas to throw into our usual mix. Here is my recipe for dinner tonight incase you wan a new idea for chicken...ps this is not super healthy, but not horrible! We had some broccoli and stuffing with this.

Flash Roasted Chicken
1 oz package of dry ranch mix
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cup finely crushed tortilla chips
2 tbs melted butter or margarine
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Mix first 3 ingredients together in shallow pan, reserve 1 cup of the mixture for sauce. Dip chicken in mixture and coat with tortilla chips. Drizzle butter over chicken and bake at 400degrees for 20 min or until chicken is cooked through. Heat sauce in small saucepan. Serve over chicken.

Day #2

yikes I have nothing interesting to post today but said I would... lets see what did we do today? absolutely nothing! we played house, we played ball, we played with cookie monster who was her favorite today. we watched curious george and we took a nap. yep it was a good day :)

like I said, a waste of a post but oh well. I will leave you with a daddy pic, this is my fav from our trip to Colorado... I need to proof the rest of the pictures still, Im behind as usual but have to work on client's pictures soon...

Babies wont Keep....

So lately I have been stressing over the fact that I cant seem to keep my house clean, and the dust keeps getting worse and how do I find time to clean the toilets, ect...

Today Greg of course gets like 50 things done around here before noon. I love him for his energy and his willingness to help, but sometimes watching him makes me feel so guilty. Like I should be able to get as much done as he does. He never ever complains about stuff that isnt done, but I still feel like I should be a better housewife. I just cant figure out how to balance Gracyn and life. She is 10 mos old and you would think I would have this down. And considering I only have 169 days till the new baby comes I had better figure something out fast!

I think Im going to make a chore list so that each day I do one thing. I made one before but I never stuck to it, so this time I have to really dedicate to it. I would love any other mom tips out there you guys have for ways to find time or organziation tips, etc...

In the meantime I found this quote today and it made me feel a lot better about the fact that I am playing ball with Gracyn instead of doing the 5 loads of laundry I have waiting. I thought I would share it with you guys...

Cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,
For babies grow up, I've learned, to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep.
(Ruth Hulburt Hamilton)


ps- this is my first post of my 7 day challenge to myself. im going to make an effort to post something from our day everyday this week. (dont hold your breath though, lol)

I must admit....

I have a guilty pleasure- I love the Young and the Restless. I promise Im not a trashy mom who sits around all day watching soaps with her kids! I record it and normally watch it during nap time, but occasionally I will watch it with her in the room. But it's really not a trashy soap, I promise! Even my grandma and grandpa used to watch it everyday. Anyway something I have noticed that is so funny to me is that she will sing along with the theme song. She is mesmerized by any music that comes on the tv, she always shakes her toys or sings or goes and stands next to the tv... I tried to capture it on video but she saw me with the camera so was distracted. But its still cute so I thought I would share.

No I have not remembered that I need to hold the camera horizontal yet.

One Sad Blog

If you havent already figured out that this blog is called "onesadblog" because it is horribly neglected Im sure you are catching on now! Im sorry I havent written in a long time.

Life here is great. Gracyn is almost 10 months old now. She is an insane monkey, the girl has no fear of anything including trying to climb anything she possibly can get a foothold on. She is babbling up a storm, though nothing truly coherant. Greg sometimes picks up sounds that he says are words, but Im not sure they are intentional words. We start a baby sign language class next week so that should be fun! Im not convinced it works, but hey its something for us to do together and another way to get her out around kids. We also start a "wonderful ones" class for kids her age to play and have story time together, etc. Its at the library. She is eating all sorts of table foods now so I've had to challenge myself to actually start cooking a bit. In my dreams Im this very organized house wife who actually cooks and does laundry and cleans her house... too bad thats not quite reality! Im sure with the new baby coming it will be even further from reality and I think I need to just accept that!

Here are a few pictures from August. Gracyn is now 20lbs and 30.25inches! She is so big! She is wearing 6 mos shirts but 12-18mos pants already, I just cant believe that. I promise she does wear more than this outfit, these and the video of her fit where all taken on the same day.






time to baby proof the house! we have been putting it off forever and finally went to buy gates this weekend...






And finally a quick video of her climbing the chair.... she can usually climb all the way to the wall behind her...

Only Because Im Bored

So this is way early, and Greg would kill me for posting this... but I was bored and decided to make a name list on babynames.com, then I decided why not let people vote. No people, I DID NOT LEARN MY LESSON THE FIRST TIME AROUND :) But at least I think I have developed a thicker skin and realized as long as we love the name that is all that matters. I think that realization came after learning to brush off the "oh well that is unique" comment I get everytime I introduce Gracyn to someone! So anyway vote away, But no "tatum=tator tot" comments!

Good Intentions...

Well I set off to record her climbing the furniture, and to show what a monkey she has become. However after a few failed attempts to get my keys off the ledge behind the couch I ended up with this video which I thought was so much more funny :) Im really not a mean mommy, but someday I think it will be funny to show her these little tantrums she would throw. You can see part way through she starts to laugh because Im laughing at her, she is so obviously faking the tantrum. She is definatly learning to manipulate! Anyway just thought it was funny, though Im sure no one else thinks so...