Family Is Love

I had a session with a beautiful and fun family yesterday! They were up for anything! Their little boy is only a week younger than mine and he is just a doll! This family just oozed love for their little man. I had a great time Stacy! I hope you enjoy your sneak peak!

My song pick for this session is Life is A Highway from
the movie Cars.This little man just loves that movie!

A sneak peak of Gavin

Today's session was of a beautiful 12 day old boy, Gavin. He was such a doll. His parents are such a cute couple! I loved watching them interact with their baby boy. They are so in love with him! I had great time getting to know this family. Here is a sneek peak at a few of my favorites from our session together. Enjoy! :)






I thought the song playing was a perfect choice for Gavin!
His entire nursery is decorated so beautifully in Old Fashioned
Pooh and friends. Such a beautiful room!

We are Family

My neice and nephew came over yesterday for my daughter's birthday party. They had so much fun together! Here are some shots from their day.

My "Ladybug" holding a baby ladybug!

Isn't she lovely?

Proud that she blew out the
candles all by herself for the
very first time.

Telling daddy "Love you".

My new favorite of my neice.

Rare sibiling moment.

Guess How Much I Love You?

I took this on Valentines day and then forgot about it, unitl now! I love this image so much. It speaks volumes to me. I did not place the candies in her hands like this. She was playing with the candies and just grabbed a huge handful of them, and by chance, the "I Love You" candy heart was right in the middle! It was like my own personal Valentine! My heart melts every time I look at this photo.

Spread your wings

(click on photo to enlarge)

The coldest birthday ever!

Today is April 15, 2007. My daughters 4th birthday. And it is feezing cold outside!! And would you believe it is SNOWING?!?! I couldn't believe me eyes when I woke up this morning. Normally it is in the lower to mid 70's on her birthday. The weather has been absolutely crazy this year! Thank goodness we rescheduled her birthday party for next weekend, due to the stomach bug entering our house. I checked the 7 day forcast and it said that next saturday was going to be 76 degrees. Yippee!! Warmer weather is on its way!

Here is a quick snap of what was going on in our backyard just 15 miniutes ago.

Well, Happy cold Birthday, Ladybug!

Sick and tired of being sick...

Being sick is just not fun! It has been crazy in my house all week. My two kids got some nasty little stomach bug last week. They got over it just to get it AGAIN this week! Now they are better, but my husband has it now. I am hoping and praying I am not next!! You should see me, its funny really. I am going around disinfecting everything in sight! I even had the thought of spraying hubbys clothes with Lysol! I am a bit of a germaphobe, I do not like being in such close contact with funky germs like this! I have my mom to blame for this. She is the exact same way....but worse! So thanks mom....you've made me a neurotic little freak! lol!

I hate it when my husband is sick. He does not get sick very often, but when he does it's BAD. I hate to see him not be his happy and funny self. Am I the only wife out there that gets emotional when their husband is sick?

Well, on to the picture. I did this a couple weeks ago. I just love flowers. They are full of beauty and peace. I found a little old and very weathered antique wooden bistro table, hidden away in the back of our garden a few weeks ago. The people who lived here before us must have forgotten about it. It's so beautiful and full of character. I just had to photograph it with my tulips. I love the end result! I may have this put onto a really big canvas for my bathroom.

Autism Awareness

April is Autism Awareness month. I tell you this, because Autism is a word that is used on a daily basis in my house. My 2 year old son, Jon, may have an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Gosh, it's hard for me to even type those words.

Our journey with Autism started March 2006. It was the first week of Spring, and we were pushing Jon-Jon in his swing outside. He loves to swing. My husband and I were casually talking about how Jon seems to be behaving differently. Then, out of the blue, I had this sickening feeling in the bottom of my stomach and a tear rolled down my cheek as I asked my husband "What if he is Autistic?" Then I just stood there, looking at my precious boy, and I started to pray that I was wrong. Oh, how I wanted to be wrong. I did some research on Autism that night. I wanted to make sure I had all of my facts straight before I went to his doctor with this. The facts were over whelming. I printed out all the different materials and we started to highlight the symptoms that matched our son. By the end of the night, we were staring at a piece of paper that had 17 out of 28 symptoms/charcterstics highlighted in yellow. The next morning, I called Jon's doctor for an appointment. We were referred to a behavioral specialist in Nashville. It was 3 months before we could get in. The next 3 months were full of fears and anticipation and questions with no answers.

Jon had his first evaluation for an ASD in June 2006. We were there for almost 5 hours. And the results came back as inconclusive. They said Jon-Jon had some definate red flags, but could not be diagnosed because of his young age. But they were worried enough to want him to start therapy right away. By August 2006, we were full swing with speech and occupational therapy. We love our therapists, they are so great with Jon. He has made some progress with speech. He has a small vocabulary of single words, but he says them a lot more than he used to. That's great improvement! His occupational therapy is another story. Progress is slow with OT. But progress is being made.

Jon's therapists and social worker all agreed that he needs to be re-evaulated for an ASD sooner rather than later. But it is a looong waiting list to see the psychologists. We do not get to go until August of this year. They said though, that since Jon is older that we should be able to get a clear diagnosis one way or another. I hate waiting. I hate not knowing.

Sometimes, I look at my son, and think that he is just a typical 2 year old boy. Nothing is wrong. Then other times, it seems so appearent that there is somthing there. My heart breaks when he goes into hour long meltdowns and will not let me even touch him or hold him. Sometimes, I feel as if I have failed Jon as his mom. A mom is supposed to pick up the peices when your world falls apart. But he shuts himself out and won't let us help him when he gets to that level of frustration and anger. But, I stay srong in front of him. I reassure him that mommy is right here and mommy loves you. As long as he understands that he is loved, everything else will be ok. The best part of my day is when Jon gives me hugs and kisses. That makes it all worth it.

Our faith in God is what keeps us strong. I pray every night that we can find the answers to this mysterious disorder. That we can find the answers we need to help our son. That one day, a cure will be discovered for ASD.

These are some recent pictures I took of Jon. It is becoming harder and harder to get eye contact out of him. I took him to a new location I wanted to test out, but nothing good really came from the short session. He had sensory overload within a few seconds and couldn't sit still or even make the slightest bit of eye contact with the camera.

I love it when I do get him to look at the camera. I love his big bright eyes. There is so much wonder in those baby blues of his. I can sit here for hours just staring into those eyes.

Click on the song of the week to listen to Jon's song. It is from the Disney Dumbo movie. I heard this song for the first time when Jon was only 2 weeks old. I sing it to him when he his sad.