5 kids + 4 adults = FUN!

Yesterday, I went to play with one of my favorite families for their annual Holiday Picture.  I've been photographing Nichole & Scott's family now for 3 years and have really enjoyed seeing the kids grow.  This year Nichole's brother, Tony and his wife, Megan joined us for the session.  I really enjoyed meeting them and hope they will continue to be part of the sessions in the future.  

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from the session (truthfully, I have not finished editing them all and know that I will have many more favorites!)   

Nichole & Scott, as always it was so much fun, thanks for lunch and look for the gallery to be up later this week, I'll try to keep the pics to a manageable number :)

Learning About Government

In September the kids in Mrs. Melton & Mrs. Hanfland's classes were learning about the Government and Mayor Allegood spoke to the classes about the Bill of Rights & Constitution.  It was a  lively question & answer session with the children asking some very interesting and thoughtful questions.  

Mayor Allegood was so impressed, he asked the kids to come and speak to the Board of Aldermen at a City Meeting.   Accompanied by Mrs. Hanfland, Mrs. Curran, the principal of Acworth Intermediate School and Mrs. Bagley, the 4th & 5th Grade Guidance Counselor, a handful of students from the classes got a chance to ask their questions in front of the Mayor, Aldermen and a large group of citizens.

Congratulations to Peter, Jacob, Danielle & Kianna from Mrs. Hanfland's Class and Emma, Jon, Kyle & Kaitlyn from Mrs. Melton's Class.  You all did a great job!  There were some well thought out questions ranging from "What does the Mayor do?" to "What can the city do about the smell from the sewage treatment plant?"

getting ready to go into the meeting

Mayor Allegood & Principal Curran

Mayor Allegood, Mrs. Curran, Mrs. Bagley & Mrs. Hanfland

Emma asking her question!  I was so proud of her speaking up!

well deserved applause from the audience!

congratulations from the Mayor on a job well done!

Baby Elizabeth's Birth Story

For our birth clients we create a birth story slideshow celebrating the journey from pregnancy to new baby.  I love making these and sharing them with the family as it is a very personal keepsake that they will treasure.   I am excited to be able to share this one with you.   (Don't worry it is "Family Friendly") click the image to play the show.

Megan, Ziggy, Madeline & Elizabeth thank you for allowing me to document the journey and I look forward to staying in touch as the girls grow.  

Enjoy!

Welcome Baby Elizabeth

Friday morning I (finally) got the call from Zig that Megan was indeed in labor and that they would be ready for me to join them sometime soon, so I headed to meet them at North Fulton Medical Center to document the labor and VBAC arrival of their baby girl.

I arrived around 11:15 am, just after they got settled in their room, and Megan was doing great, she labored well and arrived at the hospital at 7cm!  She was doing great with the surges and Zig was a fantastic support (and counter pressure provider) along with my friend Kate who was their Doula and Hypno Birthing instructor. 

After a while things started to get more intense, and she moved to sitting on the birth ball, working the baby down and still doing fantastic!

Then around 2:30 things got really intense and Megan started pushing!  At 3:05pm baby Elizabeth made her appearance!  

Mom's first look at her new daughter (who has a head full of brown hair).  It was love at first sight for all of us, she is just adorable!

When Megan was finally ready, it was time for Elizabeth's first Bath, Daddy did a great job assisting the nurses in cleaning up his little girl.  Then it was time for those important statistics...  8# 12.2 oz and 21" long!  (and this was supposed to be a SMALL baby) 

Since Megan and family live 2 hours away from Atlanta, and big sister Madeline was not at the birth, I stopped in to visit them yesterday at the hospital.

Madeline received a present of her own, a baby doll named Mackenzie ("Baby Kenzie") that she can mother just like mommy.  She eats 'Special Milk' just like baby Elizabeth and even has a hot pink car seat for the trip home from the hospital.

I just love the hats for the girls, Megan learned to knit just to make these (I think she may have to make a couple for my prop box :) as I know I will get asked about them!)

Congratulations to Megan, Ziggy and Madeline and welcome Elizabeth.  Enjoy the preview, I am excited to finish up your slideshow and to do a few more pictures, since we did not get to do some of the ones we wanted to yesterday.  I hope the ride home was easier than the last trip north :) and that the girls are settling in well.

EDITED:  Here's the link to the slideshow! 

Halloween Fun!

Yesterday was full of fun and fantasy.  After a quick trip to the store for 2 blocks of dry ice,  I had the opportunity to spend the day with Emma at school helping her teacher with science activities with a halloween theme.

The first experiment was to see if you could blow up a balloon with just a piece of dry ice in a test tube.   Yes it does, and the longer you wait the bigger it gets!

The favorite of the kids was to put some dry ice & a little water in a cup and put an airtight lid on it, and watch what happened...  (note all participants were wearing safety glasses!)

Emma did not have a halloween shirt and made her own, our little fashion designer.  She took a sheet of labels and drew on it and then pinned it on securely.

trapped CO2 caused a bit of a bang!

the lids deformed right before flying off, sometimes whole, sometimes in pieces!  The kids were a bit sad that we ran out of lids.

Another experiment was to have the dry ice blow a bubble, it looks so cool, but was even more fun in person watching the gasses swirl inside the bubble soap.

if you got too much bubble soap in the dish with the dry ice it made "brain bubbles" that would pop in a puff of "smoke"

Sometimes it would bubble and burst like a swamp in a science fiction movie.

The experiment Mrs. Melton & I were not so fond of, touch a metal object to the piece of dry ice and listen, it was far worse than fingernails on chalkboards!  Thankfully, paperclips freeze fast!

We had to have a snack befitting the day...  Smoking Pond Scum Punch served from a scary bowl

And cake (yes it was wonderfully good!) that kinda both grossed and excited the kids!

After school it was time to get dressed in her costume and go trick-or-treating.  Emma designed her costume this year.  She found a pair of black & blue fairy wings and made a tutu to go with them, added combat boots, fishnets and a top and shorts from dance class and you had a "dark fairy".  I helped with hair and makeup to complete the transformation.

She had a great time with her friends and thankfully shared the loot!  While editing the images, Emma wanted to do some herself, so this is her contribution to the images.  A "glamour" version! I need to train her some more so she can help edit images for us!