Senior Pics

My brother-in-law is going to be a senior in high school this year and I had the privilege of taking his senior photos. My wonderful husband made a backdrop holder for me out of PVC pipe and I bought a couple of sheets from Walmart to use as backdrops. Since I was doing this in our house we obviously don't have the best lighting so once again my wonderful husband while holding our dear son held a desk lamp for me to help with the lighting. The pictures actually turned out not too bad...I think? Here are a few of my favs.








I would really like to start doing this for an added income for our family but am having trouble figuring out how much to charge. My brother-in-law said he has a friend who would also like me to take his senior pics as well so I guess I really need to decide how much to charge. If anyone has any ideas for me I would greatly appreciate it. So I guess this is a post that I would love to get a lot of feedback on so give me your opinions.

4 Months Old

Josiah is now 4 months old! I am a bit late at updating this on his 4th month since he turned 4 months on the 18th but better late then never, right?

4 months old and now...

-Weighs 15lbs (50th percentile)

-26inchs long (82nd percentile)

-sleeps without being swaddled (was a bit hard to break him of it)

-still sleeps 10 to 11 hours a night

-rolled over from front to back and from back to front

-talks and giggles all the time

-wears cloth diapers

It's been so fun to see him grow and do new things. He is such a blessing in our lives!

We have had a few more visitors as well. The girls came out and spent 4 days with us. Kaia, Cassie's baby girl who was born the day before Josiah came as well

Megan, Cassie, Kaia, and Anne came to visit for 4 days!

Kaia and Josiah

Last week Brett, Josiah and I took a trip to Minnesota! I had the privledge of taking the pictures for Pat and Trisha Casidy (formerly Elmstrand). We were able to see some friends while we were in the state but unfortunatly we just did not have enough time to see everyone so I'm sorry to all of you who we didn't get to see. Rachel L. so graciously joined me to take the wedding pictures!

Thanks Pat and Trish for letting me take your wedding pictures, I had so much fun! And thank you Rachel for joining me in the picture taking!

recent photos

We've had a lot of guests lately (which we absolutely love) but it has made it hard to get over to use the internet which explains my lack of blogging lately. I thought I would just post some recent pictures of our happenings although I don't have our 4th of July pictures on the computer yet so I can't post those. We spent a magical day down at the river just relaxing, enjoying the company of friends, fishing and boating.

4th of July

calm before the storm...I think he had
had enough of me taking pictures of him

I know he is my son but I just think he is so darn cute!

He absolutly love to be in just a diaper!

sorry I don't have the rest of the pictures with Brett and I. I will try and post those soon!

3 Months Old

Josiah is 3 months old!

Yesterday, Josiah turned 3 months old! That may not seem very old to many of you but it is just crazy to me how those 3 months have flown by. I'm loving being a stay-at-home mother, what a true blessing that is.


Josiah is now 25 inch. long. He has officially grown out of all of his 0-3 month sleepers (his legs get curled up in a ball because he is just too long for them). I'm not sure how much he weighs now but I'm sure it is over 12 lbs since that is what he weighed at his 2 month apt.


Around 2 1/2 months Josiah started sleeping 10 hours a night. I give him his last feeding at 8pm and then off to bed he goes and does not get up again until 6am. I'm able to feed him then and then he goes back down to bed for another hour to two hours in which I also go back to sleep :) I pray that he continues this!

Nursery

We have the nursery done! Josiah was born a month before we were going to move from Illinois to South Dakota so since our place was filled with boxes there was no room to set up an actual nursery for him. I had been looking forward to getting his room all set up for quite some time and now that it is done I thought I would post some pictures of it for everyone to see (it was actually the first room we got unpacked and completely set up in our new place). Here are the pictures but if anyone wants to come and see it in person (and see all of us of course) we would love to have company!

2 Months Old

On monday (May 18th) Josiah Timothy turned 2 months old!

He had his 2 month check up on wed. and found out he...

...is weighing in at 12lbs...

...and measuring in at 24 1/2 inches long!

He is growing like a weed and full of smiles!

Here in South Dakota

We have made our new home here in South Dakota. I can't believe it has been nearly a month that we have been here already! This also means that Josiah is almost a month old and growing like a bean. It has also been almost a month since I have last blogged and while I don't plan on going over every event of the last month I will give you a few highlights...

As of day 2 of living here Brett has been hard at work on the farm...and loving it! We came right at the beginning of planting which means very long hours in the tractor which equals not a lot of family time but we are adapting to our new change of living very well. Josiah and I make frequent trips out to the tractor to bring lunch and supper where we usually hop in the tractor for a ride and spend some family time. Josiah falls right to sleep and does not wake for the whole ride (even the 3 and 4 hour rides we have done a few times) which leaves plenty of time for Brett and I to talk and just be together.

We had a wonderful surprise visit from the Russell's! They drove all the way from Oregon and showed up at our door step...I was scared out of my mind because we heard a car door slam and it was 11pm. Brett said he was going to go down and check it out (I wanted him to grab a bat) and as he went downt he stairs and I sat in bed scared out of my mind (let me remind you that we moved out to the middle of nowhere). Then from downstairs I hear someone yelling in a familar voice "Tanna!" "Tanna!" only to find out that my best friend Chelsea was at our place! It was a wonderful surprise. I was able to spend the next few days with them and they were finally able to meet Josiah!

We took Josiah on his first fishing adventure. It turned out to be pretty windy that evening so we bundled him up, put him in the sling, and tried our best to catch us some fish. Josiah of course slept the whole time.
It was such a beautiful day out the other day so I took Josiah out to our swingset to see what he would think of riding on the swing. He just sat on my lap, eyes wide open (and mouth) and just soaked it all up. I had my very first mothers day! My wonderful husband made me breakfast (and did all the dishes) and we spent the day over at Brett's parents. Dan and Heidi and the twins (Anna and Evelyn) were up visiting for mothers day as well so we were able to spend the long weekend with them. It was so good to see them again and talk about how big the girls and Josiah are getting each time we see each other.



We adjusting well to all the changes and are really loving South Dakota. We do miss all of our Peoria friends but are hoping we will get some visitors soon! Anyone and all are welcome! We do not have internet yet and I actually am not sure when we will even get it so for now we use Brett's parents interent and other friends so I will try and update as often as I can...hopefully once a week . Love you all and miss you.