It's been almost 2 months. Gulp.

Hi! Yes it's true, it's a new blog post!! Wow, I knew it had been awhile since I last blogged but didn't realize it's been almost 2 months.

Life is busy! 3 little ones, a husband, a home to clean, laundry to clean, selling Scentsy and being extremely busy with my photography and being pregnant = very little time for blogging! So, now to try and think what's happened the past couple months :)

As I mentioned, I've been extremely busy with my photography - which has been wonderful! I truly never expected for it to take off the way it has, but it's been such a blessing in so many ways and it's something I truly enjoy and am passionate about. I love capturing moments that turn into lifetime memories for families, it's so much fun! My season is winding down now - as I have just 1-2 sessions left and then am going on "maternity leave" through March/spring. I've enjoyed it so much - but it's been taking a toll on my body now that I'm so far along in my pregnancy and I'm ready to relax and nest a bit before this new babe arrives.


I'm 35 weeks pregnant today, hard to believe I just have 5 weeks to go! Here's the latest photo of my baby bump - it's getting exciting knowing we will know soon whether this little one is a boy or girl. Jeremy says girl and I'm saying boy :) I'm feeling good but definitely having more aches and pains this time around...I'm sure being a busy momma, carrying the kids around and my body doing this 4 times in 5 years is a lot...but overall I'm doing good and baby is going great. I will have another ultrasound in a couple weeks (this is new) to get an estimate of baby's size and also they can see how much fluid is around baby, etc. I'm due December 10th - but hoping for this little one to come on the 12th....his/her birthday would be 12-12-12 and I think that's super fun :) My midwife said if I am still pregnant on the 11th, she can give me this special drink (a combination of 3 ingredients) that has put all of her overdue patients in labor. It's safe for me and baby - but wouldn't taste good of course. So, we'll see :) Here's the latest baby bump photo of me.

The kids are doing well. Ethan is doing well at Preschool and thriving. Gracelyn is getting prettier as the days go on and constantly makes us laugh with her little tude'. Lincoln is playing right along with his big siblings these days and doing great. He's one happy little guy - well, when he's not teething or sick with the longest cold ever :) He's still waking us up multiple times most nights - so we are still a bit sleep deprived - but, we're used to it by kid # 3 :)

Not too much else to report that I can think of. Just busy living life with our littl crew and enjoying it :) The baby's crib came today (thanks Grandpa and Grandma Harrison!) so it will be fun to set that up and start getting the house ready for a wee one again.

Thanks for stopping by and reading :)

Momma Keri

Happy 1st Birthday Lincoln Jude!

I know I say it as each birthday comes, but wow, our little Lincoln is one years old today! This past year has been such a beautiful one watching him grow and watching our family of four grow into a family of five. I've loved every minute of it.

Lincoln's arrival was such an emotional moment for me. All my babies arrivals were but after previously losing a baby, Lincoln's birth was just a little extra special for me. I just felt so overwhelmed with thankfulness, love and hope when they placed him on my belly. A new little life that would soon fill our hearts and family with so much more love. He surely has done just that. He has been such a joy and is such a happy and peaceful little guy.

He is totally getting into everything these days exploring, taking all my pots and pans out of the cupboards and turning around smiling at me with such accomplishment as I watch him. He is walking alongside the furniture and is taking steps now too. He'll be walking full force within a month I'm sure. So crazy how fast it all goes by! I try and treasure each day with my babies and am constantly thanking God for their health - as we don't know what each day may bring. I'm very blessed!

Here's a little collage of photos of our sweet boy from the past year. LOVE.

That last one was him at 9 months. I don't have the last couple months of photos organized so that will have to do for now :)

Tomorrow we celebrate with family and friends at our home for his 1st Birthday party. We can't wait! I ordered him a Lincoln Logs cake - seeing as that nickname has stuck with us since the nurse who helped deliver him called him that the minute she saw him :)

In other news, life is great! Gracelyn is flourishing in every way and oh so beautiful. I haven't taken many recent pics of her lately since her 3 year session, so forgive me....and trust me when I say she gets more beautiful as the days go on :)

Ethan is thriving and started preschool this past week. He absolutely loved his first day and I think it will be great for him. He's ready to meet new friends, and get out and do more than just sit home with mom and sister and brother....although he loves that too :) He's just going 2 days a week right now for a couple hours - but we may be switching him into a different preschool in the coming weeks that is 4 days a week and free :) Just waiting to hear back on that one. Here's a few photos from his 1st day.

Here are a few photos of ME - that I got from Molly, the girl I mentored under a few weeks back. She did a great job and it's so fun having some new cute pics of me :)

Here's my favorite of me and my most loved Nikon!

This is cute too :)

Loved mentoring with Molly!!

Here are a few photos from recent sessions I've done:

Phew. That was a lot of photos for one blog post :)

In other news, Jeremy and I enjoyed our birthday/anniversary weekend away together. While it wasn't totally relaxing since we had little Linc with us - it was still a nice break. Thanks so much to my sister for watching our other two and doing so many fun things with them while we were gone! They loved it!

Well, it's time to finish up lunch with the kids and get them down for their naps. We are getting new carpet installed today in our family room, living room and stairs so I am SUPER excited. The carpet the house came with was white - which has been horrible with having little ones. I got a much warmer tan color and am excited to get it installed today.

Have a great weekend!
Momma Keri

Mentoring with Molly...

Yesterday I had the privilege of doing some one on one mentoring with a photographer in the Bay City area. It was so much fun! I heard about her through a friend a few months back and started following her on facebook. I quickly grew to love her photos and felt we were very similar when it comes to our photography. From shooting with the same camera and lens, to the way we casually pose our clients, and our editing styles - she just reminded me so much of myself as a photographer....but better and more experienced.

I've been wanting to do some one on one mentoring with a photographer for awhile now, and she just seemed like the perfect fit for me.

So, I saved up some $ for her mentoring fee and decided to do it! I headed to Essexville yesterday and our session began at 2pm. I started by asking her to tell me her story, and how she got started in photography. Her story was so similar to mine, it was so funny. We chatted for the next hour and 45 minutes and then we headed out to a local state park to do a family shoot together. It was great being able to watch her and just compare our settings, etc. Here's a sneak peek from a shot I took of the family we photographed together.

After they left, it was time for a mini session of ME! :) It's included in her mentor fee. It was fun to get dressed up cute, put on a little make up and curl my hair....seeing as most days I'm still in my pajamas and often don't get a shower until late afternoon, or some days have to skip it all together. That's just the season of life I'm in right now being a mom of 3 kids under 5....and soon to be 4 kids under 5 :) She posted a sneak peek last night and I absolutely adore it! Here it is, me and my beloved camera :)

The image looks sooooo much better when not uploaded to the blog or facebook. It just messes with the pixels and clarity - drives me crazy! I'll be sure and post more from the session when I get my hands on them. I'm anxiously waiting but know she has many sessions to edit before mine.

After we finished up my mini session, we chatted for another 30 minutes or so until it was time for me to go, because she still had another 2 sessions that evening! She's one busy girl!

I left feeling very encouraged because while I definitely learned some things that I think will help me improve, I didn't feel completely clueless and was already doing most things the right way. I was even able to teach her a thing or two - which felt great! We definitely hit it off so easily and started a friendship - which is so awesome! I hope to have her do a shoot of our family this spring, once our little one arrives. I'm saving up for it :) I may assist her in one of her weddings this summer. I told her I would do it for free, because to me I will gain more knowledge and more experience and we work so well together!

I'll leave you with a photo from a wedding I assisted with back in July. I absolutely love this shot! This stunning bride was just hanging out on the golf cart, not realizing that I was sneaking up behind her to capture this image. This is why I love candid shots - they turn out to be some of my favorites!

Much Love,
Momma Keri

Just dropping in...

To share a photo I took tonight of the girl who has my heart.


Amazing.

Yup, I'm thankful she has 2 brothers. They are going to come in real handy in about 15 years ;)

She truly is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. So blessed she's mine!

Love,
Momma Keri

The big ultrasound!

So, we had our big ultrasound on Wednesday. Let me tell you how the appointment went.

As we were sitting in the waiting area I kept thinking, "I can't believe we can find out boy or girl if we want to!" but felt I would be able to stay strong and really did not want to know the gender. Jeremy didn't think I could not find out (I'm the girl who counts down the days until u/s day and can't sleep the night before because I'm so excited to find out!) but I really wanted the surprise this time around, and knew I could do it.

We sat down and I laid on the table and I immediately told the tech (who I remembered from past u/s) that we did not want to know the gender. I didn't even want her to say, "I know what it is, do you want to know??" at all, or I may officially cave. So, as soon as she squirted the gel on my belly and saw baby, she said, "Well, baby's legs are crossed anyways so finding out the gender would be difficult today anyhow." I thought that was too funny, as this is the first pregnancy we decided not to find out, and the first pregnancy our baby had his/her leg's crossed.

I told the tech I wanted to see baby, but please tell me to turn head if you think anything could be revealed.

So, the ultrasound starts...and it was so wonderful seeing our little peanut. It finally felt real to me, we are having another baby!! My heart was thankful every time she would say a body part looked normal. 2 kidneys, 4 chambers of the heart, 10 fingers and 10 toes, spine looks good, head looks good, etc. Thank you Jesus!! That was my only prayer, a healthy baby. I truly felt so grateful.

So, she continues to scan, and comes to the butt area and I'm watching the screen and as she scanned over the butt/legs I quickly thought I saw a boy part. I immediately turned to Jeremy and he was puzzled by my look. I looked away, then looked back at him again and said, "I think I saw something. It's a boy." I then said it out loud to the tech, that I think I just saw a penis. She said there is a lot of cord between the legs and went on. At that point I felt super bummed because I felt the surprise was ruined for me, and yet I didn't know 100% if what I saw was what I saw. Ahh, it was almost worse to me than knowing or not knowing!! I thought I saw a pee pee twice, very quickly. At the end of the ultrasound I just felt so unsettled, and bummed out. I asked the tech, "Ok, I know you know we don't want to know the gender...so maybe you are just trying to be nice, but do you know the gender?" She replied no, she hasn't been able to tell and again stated there is lots of cord between babies legs.

So, we left the office and headed to lunch. I was extremely bummed. Instead of the total suspense I had walking in, I felt I walked out certain I saw a boy part, yet the tech said it was just cord. I mean, I have had 2 boy ultrasounds before and kinda know what to look for, ya know? I expressed my disappointment to Jeremy, as I really wanted it to be a surprise but felt now I would just think boy forsure. He said, "Ker, why were you even looking at the screen?" I said, "because I wanted to see our baby! And I told the tech to please tell me to turn away if she thinks I could see anything." Grr.

We went to lunch and I was pouting. My sweet husband, trying to figure out what to do about his hormonal pregnant wife, and how to make it better. I just felt so proud I waited this time for the surprise and now thought I saw something but wasn't sure. I was like, I would rather know forsure, or have no clue...not think I saw something but then tech say it's cord. Plus, I don't know the tech well enough or her personality, maybe she didn't want to be the one who felt she ruined the surprise for me.

So, my hubby was trying to tell me to call the office and talk to the tech. I said no way, I already asked her twice if she saw something and she said no, she will think I'm a nutcase.

Are you impressed with how long I am able to make this story? :)

I continued to pout and eat my tacos while sipping a coca cola. I said hi to my midwife quickly as the tech was walking me back to the room but I didn't have an appt. with her that day, so it was just a quick hello. I wanted to say bye to her on my way out, but she went to grab some lunch.

So, we finish up lunch...me still pouting...and it came to me. I truly wanted to ask the tech if baby was measuring on time! My original due date was December 10th, but after an ultrasound at 8 weeks showed baby a week behind, it got changed to the 17th. I was really curious to see what this ultrasound said and forgot to ask. Perfect, I now had an excuse to go back, and not totally look like a nutcase.

I walked up to the receptionist office, and asked if I could speak with the tech, as I just had an ultrasound and forgot to ask her something. I waited and a few minutes later she came back and told me she already left for the day. Boo! She said Jeanne (my midwife) is here though if you want to chat with her. I quickly said sure, I always love seeing Jeanne, she's awesome.

We went back and sat down with Jeanne as I tried to muster my crazy feelings about how the whole thing went down. I told her we wanted the surprise, but then I thought I saw the boy part, but tech said it was cord, but maybe she was just being nice, yadda yadda. She then said to me, "So you DO want to know the gender?" I said, "well, I want to know if the tech really knows the gender or not, but truly wanted the surprise this time." She told me to sit tight and she was going to go find my ultrasound paperwork. I nervously waited, while I'm sure my hubby was on his iphone looking up something about Michigan football, while thinking his pregnant wife is a bit nutty :)

Jeanne came back with the paperwork, my heart was racing! Ahh! Well, the tech typically writes S1 or S2 at the top of the page, when she knows the gender. S1 stands for one sex, S2 the other. Instead she wrote a "U" which is unknown. I immediately felt better! Ok, if she truly didn't see the gender, I probably didn't see what I thought I did....or did I? :)

Are you bored yet?? ;)

Jeanne looked at my ultrasound pics and said, "I can't tell either and I do see a lot of cord." I assured Jeanne I in no way thought her tech was a liar, I just wasn't sure if she didn't want to ruin anything for us. So this was perfect, I was able to come back and talk to Jeanne and the tech will never know, thus will never know I am a nutcase. :)

I thanked Jeanne for being so awesome, and we left. I felt much better but still wondered and leaned towards it being a little boy.

Ok, let's have a little intermission....take a peek at our sweet peanut!

Cute baby don't ya think? :) As my mom and I were studying the photos, we looked at the second photo from the side...and you can see the one eye open and looking right at you, a little nose and cute pucker lips. We both thought, it looks like a girl face! Then my mom looked at the spine photo, (which I didn't post) was amazed, and said it looked like a dinosaur. Hmm, maybe we are both a bit nutty.

Later that day, I stumbled across a website and got totally freaked out when I was reading about their product and the woman/mother who started the line. Her name was the name we've had picked out for a girl, even spelled the way we've chosen. Ahhh! I then felt it had to be a girl, it was a sign! What are the chances I come to this website for the first time ever, on my ultrasound day, and the owner's name is the name we have chosen for our *maybe* little girl??! It had to be a girl. And no, I will not tell you any details about this website or product :) The name is top secret!

We are pretty set on our girl name, but our boy name, we aren't set. We have one we've mentioned all along the way, but are not set on it, at this point.

Fast forward to the last two days. I had fun with some of the "myth" gender tests, you know, just for fun. I did the baking soda test, result was boy. I then did the red cabbage test this morning, again, result was boy. I was reading about different women online who have done this test, and they were all accurate so far. I even read about a woman who had 6 children, and the cabbage test was correct for all of them! Umm, ok, I'm back to feeling confident this is a little boy. After all, I did see the boy part :)

I am incredibly grateful baby is healthy, that's truly all that matters to us. I will be honest and say, I've been really hoping this little one is a girl, mainly for Gracelyn. I want her to have a sister...especially when she's told me from day one it's a girl baby in my belly...a sister...my best friend. It's the sweetest thing, and I surely don't want to disappoint her. Plus, have you seen how gorgeous my girl is? I'm dying to see what another Harrison girl baby would look like?! Anyhow, pretty sure it's a boy though, and feel I will be totally surprised if it's a little girl. I can't WAIT to know! I do think Gracelyn is the perfect girl to have all brothers. She can hold her own and is a fiesty little beauty :)

Another way I should be able to tell it's a boy, is that my mom thinks it's a girl, and she has been wrong with each pregnancy. lol. Sorry mom, I still love you :)

So, that concludes my novel, "The big ultrasound with Keri". Hope you enjoyed reading this :)

I forgot to mention baby was measuring at an estimated due date of December 12th, but Jeanne will keep my due date the 17th, just to give us more time, seeing as you now have to induce once you're a week late, and we want to avoid that if possible. Either way, I was happy baby was measuring a bit earlier, I should be home by Christmas :)

Oh and one last thing...boy or girl? Would love to hear your guess :) I added a poll to my blogger page, so be sure and cast your vote...it will be fun to look back on once baby arrives!

Much love,
Momma Keri

Hello hello :)

It's been on my mind for days to find some time to sit down and write a new blog post, I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last one! Time sure flies.

Let's see, I'm trying to remember all that's happened in the past month.

Kids are doing well. Ethan is almost 4 and a half years old and growing up so quickly it seems. We've been practicing writing his name and while he's getting good at writing the letters, he gets frustrated with me when I ask him to write them in order. Ha! We practiced again a bit this morning and he's getting better. I haven't enrolled him yet, but he will be going to preschool 2 days a week come September, for just a few hours each day. I think he will love it!

Gracelyn is doing well, and beautiful as ever. Pretty sure that girl gets more beautiful as the days go on. I can't wait to see what she looks like as a teenager. Nothing too new with her, still her spunky and sweet self.

I did ask her the other day if the baby in my belly was a girl or boy. She always says girl and this time was no different. "It's a girl baby, my sister...because that's my best friend. I want to hold baby but will need your help so baby doesn't fall off couch." Ha! She's so serious when she has these discussions with me and she simply has the cutest voice on the planet so I just love these conversations!! Another funny one...her bed is broken in one spot and I keep forgetting about it. Jer will push the pegs back in and then I forget and sit on it, and the one part caves in. (We need to get Grandpa Petke on this soon ;)) So anyways I went to get her from nap the other day and sat on it and fell through. She looked at me with her beautiful big green eyes with concern in her voice and said, "Momma, it's because your butt is too big."

I died laughing but was trying to stay quiet as the boys were both sleeping in their rooms. It's so funny the things that go through kids minds and then the things they say. I'm forsure writing that one in her baby book :)

Lincoln has changed the most in this past month. He has now mastered crawling, pulls himself up on everything, has gotten his first two teeth, waves bye bye AND gives kisses when you ask him! He's had quite the productive month! I can't believe in another month I will start planning his birthday party, wow, this year has flown by!

Baby #4 is doing great. I saw my midwife last week and baby has a strong and healthy heartbeat. The baby kicked for the first time a week ago, which is so exciting and it now feels real that we have another little peanut on the way! I'm excited to order this little one's baby book soon, and start jotting down the few things I can fill out already :) Our big ultrasound is in just 5 days!! And I'm sorry to disappoint you Grandma's, but, I'm actually sticking to it this time and not finding out the gender. Typically I am counting down the days towards u/s day and so so so so excited to know what we are having...but for whatever reason, the idea it being a surprise this time around is more exciting to me. My labors are long and hard, and it will give me something extra to look forward to. Jeremy and I both lean towards it being a girl, but, time will tell :) We forsure have our girl name chosen and we are pretty confident with our boy name but not definite. Typically, with all of our kids, we've always only been strong about the a name that we ended up having that gender...which is why I'm leaning towards girl this time around. With Ethan we had no girl name. Gracelyn no boy name and Lincoln no girl name. Of course all we care about is a healthy baby, but I would LOVE having another daughter, and mostly a sister for Gracelyn. I really want that for her, but know she will be fine with all brothers if that should be the case :)

Please join us in praying for a completely healthy baby as we have our ultrasound on Wednesday.

We are taking the kids to the Toledo Zoo next week, which I'm really excited about. I had Jeremy take a day off weeks ago so we could go. We took the kids to the Detroit Zoo last year when I was like a week away from delivering Lincoln....and it was fun but Ethan was very sad they did not have elephants there. Good news! The Toledo Zoo has elephants :) It should be a fun day and I'm praying for good weather! Not too hot, not too cold and for the animals to be out :)

Another fun thing that has happened this past month is my cousin Nathan and Elizabeth tying the knot! Jeremy and I were both in the ceremony and it was a beautiful wedding! Elizabeth could pass as a real life princess and their love is so special. It's funny because we always tell them how much they remind us of ourselves at that age. Nathan is a lot like Jeremy and Elizabeth a lot like me...and we just have a lot of similarities in how long we dated, personalities, etc. We told them get ready! 8 years from now they will have 3 kids under 4 and 1 on the way! ;)

I have some really exciting news to share. Yes, I saved the best for last :) I spent 5 days creating and designing a website for my photography. It's something I've thought about for awhile, but haven't pursued. I decided I should and I couldn't be more excited about it! It went live on Monday and I've received so much positive feedback. It was fun to design and choose a lot of my favorite photos for the site. Another fun thing is that I also now have a logo. I've been wanting to do that for awhile too and found someone online through Etsy that did custom work and was super affordable. I gave her an idea of what I wanted...which was just something simple and a little added fun to my logo...and she did a great job! It took a good dozen or more revisions before it was exactly as I wanted it, but it's perfect and I love it. So, from now on you will see this watermark on all my photos, as well as my website and my marketing materials, etc. Isn't she (as in my new logo) cute?? Here's a recent photo from a session I did on Wednesday evening.

Speaking of my photography, I'm keeping really busy and have been getting so many referrals, it's been wonderful! There are still a few areas I seem to struggle in, which I know comes from lack of knowledge and experience and I get frustrated at times with some of my photos. The good news is there is a photographer I have been following on fb for the past month who lives just an hour from me and she does incredible work. She has like 8,000 fans on fb and does 4-8 sessions a week and then 2 weddings many times on the weekends! She's good and it's obvious looking at her photos why she's so busy. I've contacted her to see if she does one on one mentoring and she does. Which really excites me. I really feel I need someone to help me figure out the things I'm doing wrong and just the areas I am struggling with. There is SO much to photography. It's not free of course and will cost some $, but I feel it will totally be worth it and beneficial for me. I think she will be a good mentor for me. She mainly shoots outdoors like me, she shoots with the lens I own, and our styles are similar and she's my age. I just feel she will be a good fit for me. I will get to meet with her and go over any areas I need help with, chat, go out and shoot and practice together and then also be able to email her anytime after our meet up with questions, advice needed, etc. I am going to meet with her in August...as I have two weddings I'm photographing in September and I REALLY wanted to meet with her before those. So, I've offered a few discounted sessions this last week on my photography page to save up the money for our mentoring session.

I'm also saving up for Jeremy and I's get away weekend alone together late August...to celebrate our anniversary and birthday's. It will be the first weekend EVER in 5 years (since having children) that we are going away together for 2 nights. It's going to be a much needed and wonderful time together, I'm looking forward to it. So, saving up for our hotel costs (which is right on the beach!!) and some spending money, restaurant money, etc too.

I'll leave you with a couple photos from the 2nd wedding I photographed a couple weeks ago, which was my friend Bonnie's wedding. I haven't edited her wedding yet, but here are some of the sneak peeks I've given her.

Oh and one last photo. We took the kids to Holland last weekend, to Lake Michigan and had a great time playing in the water! Someone offered to take a pic for us. It's not super clear due to her taking the photo with my camera and not knowing what settings to use, etc. but it's still a sweet memory of my clan...and I'm all about candid shots like this :)

Oh and be sure to check out my website!

www.keriharrisonphotography.com

Much Love,
Momma Keri

Life is beautiful.

Life is beautiful. Read on to see why :)

Let's see, we got a new van! Woot woot! The whole transaction of selling our old van and getting a new one was so perfect. A family who prayed about purchasing the right van and it being ours after they looked at many. They drove over an hour to come test drive it and purchase it. Pretty cool and confirmation to my soul that we were making the right decision in selling it, seeing as we were going back and forth about it. After many months of research and wanting something budget friendly, we ended up purchasing a 2009 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT. It's white and quiet beautiful I must add :) We are enjoying it, especially the kiddos, seeing as it has 2 DVD players in it :) It's a blessing to have something a bit newer and under warranty seeing as I'm a momma with a van full of kids...no worries about it breaking down on us.

Here's a pic of my new wheels :)



The kids are all doing well. They are all growing up so much it seems and I am enjoying these precious moments with them while they are little. I love the snuggling, the kisses and hugs and the, "You're my best friend" comments that come from their sweet mouths. So cute and I hope they always see Jeremy and I as their good friends, and not just their parents. I think it's so important to develop a friendship with your children, and not only play the parent role, if that makes sense. A safe place they can come to with anything and know they will be accepted and loved and listened to. I'm excited to live life with them, they are so much fun and I just love our little family. Although maybe 3 and one on the way isn't considered little these days :)

Gracelyn's 3rd birthday party was quite a hit! We did a Dora theme and that girl got more Dora stuff then I knew existed! Ha. A special surprise (to both the kids and myself) was when Aunt Kristy showed up as none other but Dora herself :) I cracked up laughing, totally something my sister would do! The kids loved it and the kids friends really thought she was the real Dora :) Kristy, thank you so much for putting all the time and effort into the costume and playing Dora for the party, a memory I'm sure that will be cherished forever. Here's a few pics from the party. Can't believe my beautiful girl is already 3! It seems she was just brand new the other day. Look at my beauty!



And now...








It was a really fun day celebrating our girl. So blessed she is my daughter and I look forward to watching her grow up, as much as I want her to stay little sometimes :)

My photography and Scentsy business' are going very well. I've been staying busy with both and I'm enjoying it very much. I am actually shooting 3 weddings this summer (eeek!) and assisting with another. Weddings still make me a bit nervous, but I've decided to push myself and go for it! I figure if the couples have seen my work and want to use me, it's silly for me to think I'm not good enough. Every photographer starts somewhere and I know it will help build confidence and experience for me. I'm shooting a longtime friend's wedding in early July and then the other two weddings in September. I've been busy with family sessions and newborn sessions too, which is always fun. Here's a picture from my recent newborn session. Isn't she precious? She was already 3 weeks old by time I took her pics, but still little nonetheless :)


Pictures like that make me excited to meet this little one in my belly :)

Speaking of which, I go for my second appt. today with my midwife. I'm anxious to hear the heartbeat for the first time. I've already had an ultrasound around 8 weeks and saw the heartbeat, but hearing it is always a great sound. I'm interested to see if she will change my due date (since the ultrasound showed I was 8 days behind) or will keep my due date the same. Right now my due date is the 10th of December, but if she changes it according to the ultrasound it would be the 18th. I'm really hoping she keeps it the 10th, because my last two babes came 5 days late and that would put me at the 23rd of December if I went 5 days late, with a due date of the 18th. I know it's out of my hands, but I REALLY want to be home for Christmas. One, it's my favorite Holiday and two, as wonderful as it would be having a brand new baby, I want to be home with my kids and family on Christmas. So anyhow, I'm praying that I will be, and believe I will be. After all, God cares about the details of our lives (Psalm 37:23) so I'll be home with my bundle for Christmas :)

On another note, I think we've decided we are going to be surprised this time around and not find out the gender. It will make me go crazy, seeing as I'm a HUGE planner and look forward to ultrasound day so much, but, I also LOVE surprises and can't think of a better surprise! Hearing my hubby say, "It's a GIRL!" or "It's a BOY!" after my long dreaded labors sounds amazing, so, that's the plan :)

I'm also super excited because yesterday I booked Jeremy and I's very first weekend away together alone since having children. Aunt Kristy is babysitting the kids for us while we have a weekend of laying on the beach, eating out in peace, and a couple uninterrupted nights of sleep and relaxation. As much as I'm sure I'll miss my babies, it's good for my hubby and I to have some time away together, just the two of us. We're staying in Traverse City and going away for our anniversary/birthday's in August. I can't wait :)

Alright, I've saved the very best news for last. My little brother is getting MARRIED! I couldn't be more excited for him. I absolutely adore his fiance Kate (umm hello, it's meant to be, she was meant to be our sister! Kristy, Keri and Kate:)) and my heart is just overflowing with joy for them. My brother (and Kate) have both prayed and waited for God to bring the right one into their lives and the timing is perfect and so beautiful. Kate asked both Kristy and I to be in the wedding, so that will be fun. They are getting married this October, so nothing like being 7 months pregnant standing up in a wedding :) It will be fun, I cannot wait! I had the honor of being there to capture their special moment and take a few photos...here's a little video I put together for them, it pretty much makes me cry every time I watch it :)

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Blessed,
Momma Keri