Red boots and a new haircut April 10, 2008

Ok, I finally did it.  I broke down and cut Hayden’s hair.  The reason I was letting it grow was b/c I wanted it to look like this.  That was a maternity shoot that Corine did and I fell in love with the little boy’s hair and I just KNEW if I was patient, Hayden’s hair could look like that   Well, sometimes I guess mama needs to think of Hayden’s feelings and not just how cute he’d look.  Its getting so hot and muggy here that there was no way I could continue to let his thick hair grow.  So today, he know looks like this:

He’s just as cute with short hair, so I guess I’m okay with it.  Maybe after summer, we’ll try the long shaggy look again

So, while doing this shoot the other day:

As you can see, the dock is wet.  The water was really high and the water was lapping up through the cracks.  We also realized as we tried to head to Front Street, that the levee is closed.  Apparently, the river is rising b/c its spring and all the rivers from the north dump into the river here, causing it to flood.  When I drove over the bridge a few days ago, I saw that you could no longer see the rocks you can see in this picture, its now covered with quite a bit of water.

This is what it looks like now:

So, I decided that because Hayden now lets me take pictures of him and we had nothing else to do, we’d go to Walmart and get him some rain boots and I was going to let him go splash around in the water and look at the boats (there are normally a handful of shrimp boats docked here).   He picked out some really precious red rain boots (Crocs-style) and we headed to the sea wall.  We also picked up a $2 toy camera that he absolutely loves, he’s going to be a photographer like mama!

Once we got to the seawall, I realized that the water was a bit deeper and muddier than I realized, so there was no splashing around in it, but we did walk back and forth on the seawall, taking pictures and throwing little rocks into the water.  Hayden saw a tugboat and I told him Grandpa works on boats like that, so he “took a picture” of it.  That was the only boat we saw, though.   I did get lots of cute pictures, though!  You can check them out in our April 2008 album.

Tuesday, we headed to Lafayette to visit with Mandy and Ethan.  While we were there, we took Hayden to The Incredible Pizza Company.  It was such a neat place and Hayden had a ball.  The food wasn’t so great, but everything else was nice and fun.  Hayden even got to ride a real go-kart with Mandy!  I was excited that he was big enough to go.  He was grinning from ear to ear and was so excited to be in a real “race car.”  Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera with me, but next time, I definitely will!

Part of our wedding video April 6, 2008

Corine has been working really hard on getting our wedding video done and I’m so excited about it!  I love that we’re getting to see it so close to our anniversary, it brings back all of the wonderful memories of that day!  So far, she has a wedding recap video online and its so awesome!  Wade and I laughed and smiled through the whole thing.  Its beautiful, touching, funny, sad (to see Hayden so small)… thank you so much Corine for working so hard on our video!

www.studiotranblog.com/jamie_prep.wmv

Blog slacking again April 3, 2008

I know, I’m majorly blog-slacking again … is that a word?  Well it is now!  So much has been going on, its just been crazy.  We took our Easter trip to Toledo Bend, and it was OK.  A fishing vacation isn’t exactly my idea of a good time and I was basically doing the same thing I do when I’m home … sitting around keeping Hayden busy while Wade was off fishing.   Only I didn’t have internet, yuck!  It was a bit better once the rest of the family arrived, but all we pretty much did was nap, a lot!  lol  Oh, and take trips into town to go to the smallest Walmart EVER.  The highlight was going to Dairy Queen for dessert one day   We did take Hayden and Ethan to Hodges Gardens for an Easter egg hunt, only we had the wrong time and didn’t get to hunt eggs.  We had a nice time walking around the gardens, taking pictures and looking at all the beautiful flowers.  I’m on a hunt for a sweet olive tree now, I just LOVE the way they smell!!  And the camellias were huge and gorgeous!

We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday night, which Hayden loved.  He kept dropping the eggs in the cups and splashing dye everywhere.  He also kept putting the same eggs in over and over again and his hands were solid green by the end lol.  Wade helped him fix his basket up with grass and eggs for the bunny.   Hayden was excited about all his Easter stuff, but I still don’t think he “gets” it.  He probably just thinks mommy or grammy left it for him.  He was gobbling his Hershey’s kisses all morning, though!  Later that day we fried a turkey and had an egg hunt for Hayden and Ethan.  Hayden enjoyed the hunt, especially because the eggs had money in them.  While the turkey was cooking, we were packing and everyone left a day early.  We were all ready to get home and have a day to rest before work.  Well, everyone else had a day of rest, I wound up proofing pictures ALL DAY and my poor dad had two jobs to go on, both of them required traveling.

The week after Easter was pretty busy.  I had a couple of Seniors to get proofed, I had some ordering appointments and then orders to place, then I had several sessions.  Two maternity sessions, a couple session and a couple of Seniors.  I also had a doctor’s appointment in Lafayette on Wednesday morning.  I was anxious to go because it should have been my first ultrasound, but then my dr. told me our insurance only pays for one u/s now, so I’ll only get one around 20 weeks.  Fortunately, they were able to pick up a strong heartbeat with the doppler, so I had some reassurance that everything is going well.

I’ve been feeling pretty decent, not too bad.  I don’t sleep well and I often feel really drained, but today was much better.  I was actually able to clean a good bit of the house today, which is something I hadn’t been able to do for a while.  I’d clean for 10 minutes then get nauseous and have to sit down.  I didn’t have any nausea, thankfully, so maybe I’m done with it?? 

We had a rough couple of weeks with Hayden and at first I thought it was because of us taking away  his pacifiers, but then I started thinking he needed some one on one time with Wade and I.  I wasn’t feeling good most of Easter week and Wade was fishing a lot then when we got back, I had a lot of work to do, so last weekend we did lots of family stuff.  We watched movies, played outside, took Hayden to Chuck E Cheese and took a couple of trips to Houma.  Wade built a sandbox for Hayden and its his favorite thing.  For about 4 days after it was built, he’d wake up in the morning and from every nap and ask to go in his sandbox.  He hasn’t been able to play in in the last couple of days b/c it rained and the tarp blew off, so it got wet and hasn’t dried out yet.

We’re still having problems with nap time, so I just gave in and now I lay down and nap with him.  I try to wake up after about an hour and get some work done while Hayden sleeps.  Bedtime has gotten 110% better, though.  We got back into a routine of bath, quiet TV time in bed with mommy and daddy, then we read books and put him in bed.  For the last week, he’s gone to bed without a fight and has slept in his bed all night.  Its been really refreshing!!  I just wish naptime would be as easy!

I’ve got another few busy weeks / weekends ahead, so it may be a while before I update again, but I do have a lot of pictures that I’ll try to post soon.  I don’t have time to really edit them, so I’ll just put them online the way they are.  Hope you enjoyed the update and I’ll try to get to it more often!  If not now, then once April is over and I’m pretty much done with Seniors, I’ll have more time again!

Hug your kids February 1, 2008

I came across this blog somehow, months and months ago, and spent hours reading through Ava’s memorial site, reading about what happened to her and how much she was loved. Recently, I came across it again b/c her mom is a photographer and it was posted on a site I go to. Besides the beautiful and amazing photography, its a daily reminder to hug and cherish your children every moment that you have them. Sheye’s writing is so poignant, it always touches me in a way that’s hard to explain.

Sheye Rosemeyer Blog

So sad, I can’t even imagine the pain and heartache she feels every day of her life.

To read about what happened:

 Superprincess Ava

Getting back to normal January 3, 2008

I think we’ve all just about caught up on sleep and have gotten back to reality after the holidays. Our house is “un-Christmased” and we’re back on schedule. Hayden and I have just been hanging out and taking it easy the last few days. During the day, we’ve been running errands (returns, groceries, etc) and at night we lay and watch movies. Hayden is really getting a lot of use out of the portable DVD player that Grammy and Grandpa got him. Its so neat, too! Its blue and has a handle to carry it by and the buttons are green, red and yellow. Hayden already knows how to work it all by himself! In the afternoons, after his nap, Hayden and I play with his new toys! Mama’s favorite is the PlayDoh, but Hayden has many favorites! Here he is playing with some of his stuff:

Train table, saw and fishing pole (sishing hole) from Santa:

Little People from Gigi, Gramps and Uncle Corey:

Elmo car set from Nanny, Uncle Chad and Ethan:

Watching Little People on his DVD player from Grammy and Grandpa:

And, like always, you can see these and many more photos in our family gallery:

January 2008

Family visits January 3, 2008

As I mentioned before, Wade’s family was in, visiting from Charlotte, NC.  They stayed for a long weekend and we had a nice time with them.  Hayden had a blast while they were here, he was constantly dragging them into his room to play.  As we usually do, we ate a lot while they were here   Wade cooked a delicious seafood gumbo their first night and we had steaks on the grill another night and Tampico’s take-out (YUM!)  They also went to eat boiled crawfish another night, but Hayden and I just wen to Sonic   They were able to come to Lafayette for Ethan’s baptism and after lunch at Harbor Seafood (remind me not to go there again, I didn’t enjoy it too much) they flew back home on New Year’s Eve.  We hope they can all visit again soon and maybe we can convince Wade to take a trip up there

I took these and some others on Saturday when Jess was able to come visit.  It isn’t often that they are all together, so Ms. Tammy asked me to take some.  I wish I had a different location, the fence in the background aggravates me!  But other than that, I thought they came out cute.

After we had lunch, Wade, Hayden and I headed to the Westbank to see my mom and dad and to pick up my new glasses (I’ll have to take some pics)  The three of us were going to go to the camp for NYE, but Hayden was so exhausted from the holidays, that we decided to ask my parents if he could stay with them.  They were happy to do it, so Wade and I headed to the camp for a quiet NYE.  We sat around a bonfire, drank a little and popped fireworks.  We were in bed shortly after midnight.  Next year, I really want to take Hayden with us, I think he would have enjoyed running around the camp with the other kids there and watching the fireworks.

NYD we had a yummy traditional meal (cabbage rolls, black eyed peas, pork roast) and then headed home, all 3 of us absolutely exhausted.  Wanna know how tired I was?  Well, I NEVER rent or watch movies, I’d rather sit around on my computer and work or surf the net, but Tuesday night, I was too tired to even do that.  I rented 4 movies and set Hayden up with his DVD player next to me on the bed and we watched movies for a few hours while Wade watched football.  So far, I’ve watched The Heartbreak Kid (VERY funny) and The Nanny Diaries (cute, I only got it b/c I read the book).  And I’m halfway through I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry.  Wade and I will probably finish them this weekend, if there isn’t too much football on

Christmas Day December 25, 2007

Our Christmas day began at about 8am when Hayden woke up and came into our bed.  We asked him if he wanted to get up and see if Santa came and he said, “no!” lol   Wade went into the living room to turn on the lights and get the video camera read while I changed Hayden’s diaper, then we sent him out into the living room.  At first he kind of just stood there, and looked around.  He spotted his Cars case first, and played with that for a few minutes.  He grabbed one of the cards and yelled, “Flo!” … I didn’t think he’d know that character!  Then we started to point him to other toys – he got lots of goodies – a train table, art easel with tons of supplies, a TV gaming system, Elmo laptop, Play Doh, and a Mr. Potato head family, which I think is his favorite.  He’s been playing with “tato-head” all day!  He really loved his train table, too, and has played with that a lot.  I think his favorites are the train table, Cars and Potato Head, though he played with his T-ball set a bunch, too.  He also got a fishing pole from daddy, which he has also been playing with a lot as well as a Mickey Mouse doll from both of us.

After Hayden had opened all of his gifts and was playing with his stuff, Wade and I exchanged our gifts.  We both really got lots of stuff this year.  Wade is such a thoughtful, good gift giver.  He did a lot of research to pick out just the right things for me.  He got me tons of photography stuff including books, filters, props, oh and my flash!  Which he tricked me into thinking he didn’t get.  I got him a Dremel tool kit, crawfish boiler, turkey fryer and lots of framcd photos for his office as well as some smaller items.  We spent the morning relaxing and checking out all of our new “toys.”  We got dressed and headed to his mimi’s house in Metairie at about noon and we spent a couple of  hours there.  Hayden got even more great toys there, including some Melissa and Doug puzzles and blocks, a Curious George book and Thomas DVD and some money.  We had to bring his “tato-head” with us in the car, too lol.

I’m looking around and realizing that we’re entering the stage where toys have tons of pieces.  I really need to get Hayden a book case and tons of plastic containers so we can keep everything nice and organized.  I can’t stand when pieces of toys get spread all over the house.  At least once a week I go through Hayden’s room and the living room and make sure that all toy pieces are together in the same spot.  Its going to get harder and harder with all these new toys!

So now, we’re exhausted, but happy.  Hayden is just getting out of the tub and will be going to bed soon.  We have one day to recouperate and get things cleaned up for Gigi, Gramps and Uncle Corey to come.  Hayden is so excited that they are coming.  He hasn’t seen Gramps and Uncle Corey in 6 months, they aren’t going to believe how much he’s changed!

Christmas Eve December 25, 2007

What a great Christmas it has been!  Hayden was at such a fun age this year and I know it will only get better as he gets older!  Christmas Eve was spent at our house, so it was laid back and relaxed.  We spent the early part of the day cleaning, cooking and getting ready for my mom, dad, sister, Chad, Ethan and Chad’s brother to come over.  We had such delicious food!  Wade and I cooked roast tenderloin, homemade mashed potatoes, baked macaroni and green bean casserole.  Everyone came over at about 3:30 and we all ate immediately because we were starved!  After dinner, we exchanged gifts, and we all got some really nice things!  I was shocked when I opened my first gift from mom and dad and it was my backdrop stand!  Then the next one was a pocket bounce for my flash and then a lite dome … apparently, Wade had sent my B&H wish list to my mom, so she got me these from my list.  I was so excited!  I love photography goodies!  I also got some beautiful fleur de lis necklaces and a bracelet and a few other things.  Hayden got a lot of great things as well.  He got a basketball goal, which he is so cute playing with, I’ll have to take some pictures of him tomorrow.  He got a really cute Elmo garage and car set from nanny and lots of other toys from grammy and grandpa.  Ethan also racked up for his first Christmas!  About an hour or so after we opened the gifts, we were all sitting around, wondering what to do next and Wade was putting out all of the trash.  There was a black garbage bag by the door and when he looked in it, it was filled with more presents!  Apparently, mom had forgotten about them, so Ethan and Hayden got even more lol!  What was really funny was that Hayden’s portable DVD player was in there and none of us noticed when he didn’t open it the first round of presents!

Everyone packed up and headed to Mandy’s house not long after that.  We were all so exhausted already from the weekend, but we still had more celebrating to do!  Wade and I let Hayden watch a dvd on his new player and then finally put him to bed about 8pm.  We were surprised when he actually went to bed the first time!  We had told him Santa wouldn’t come unless he went right to sleep and before he went to bed we put out cookies and milk and told him Santa was coming through the fireplace.  Wade and I spent the rest of the night drinking wine and relaxing, just spending some quiet time together before we headed to bed pretty early ourselves.   Sorry I was seriously lacking in the picture taking on Christmas Eve, I only have a handful of pictures!

Hayden opening his gift from Nanny

Ethan opening his gift from us

Our living room after Santa came!

More Christmas party pics December 24, 2007

Our family got together at my mom’s house yesterday to celebrate Christmas and it was really a fun day. Its always nice to have so much of our large family get together in one place. We even had Brad, Heidi and little Laken with us this year! I haven’t seen them since Laken was first born, 3 years ago! We also got to meet baby Aiden, Blake and Kristen’s new and very gorgeous little guy. We had so many kids and babies this year, our family is growing so much! We did miss the Livingstons, though as well as Jenny and Robbie with their family and Aunt Cindy. It wasn’t quite the same without you guys, I hope you all have a great Christmas! We had so much good food, including a yummy fried turkey that my dad made. And sweets, did we have sweets!!! And I made some coffee punch, which I had first had at Corine’s baby shower … it was a big hit!

Hayden got so many nice things from everyone, so thank you all so much. He loves all of his new toys and goodies! He had such a great time playing with all his cousins, too.

My handsome little man:

Mandy and Eleni

Playing his harmonica, which we had to take away b/c it got so annoying lol

So happy with their grandchildren!

Hayden playing with one of his favorite gifts, a bag full of dinosaurs

Ethan practicing his new skill of spitting lol

I know, we’re mean, but you know you are laughing out loud, too!

I know I’m biased, but he’s the most gorgeous baby EVER (except for Hayden )

Beautiful baby Ivana, chewing away on that finger

Our newest little guy, Aiden and his daddy … look at those gorgeous blue eyes!

The newest members of our family

The sweetest little girls

Laken is such a doll and she loves babies!

More family pictures here:

Christmas 2007

And some more of our Christmas baby photos here.

Let the festivities begin! December 24, 2007

Hayden and I got to New Orleans Friday afternoon which started a looooonnnnggg weekend of Christmas festivities. Don’t believe me about how long and tiring they were? Its now 10am on Monday and Hayden is STILL SLEEPING!! Friday night was relatively relaxing and calm. It was just Hayden and I with my parents, so we had a yummy dinner at Lil’ G’s and then settled down to watch tv and relax. The next day was full of running errands and preparing for our family Christmas party on Sunday as well as our girl’s Christmas party on Saturday night.

The girl’s Christmas party is an annual tradition that I look forward to every year. All of my girlfriend’s from high school get together every year to have dinner and do a gift exchange. This is the 3rd year that I’ve been attending and it really is such a great time every year. This year we had the party at Courtney’s house, Rebecca’s younger sister. We had delicious roast (made by Rachel’s husband, thank you Jimmy!), yams, macaroni, cheesy potatoes, artichoke casserole (thanks mom, it was a hit!), dirt cake (I had two helpings, Rebecca, send me that recipe!), cheesecake and of course, wine. Our gift exchange actually got a little hostile this year, for the first time! We do the naughty Santa game where everyone brings a gift and we all pick one to open. The first year I went, only one person stole a gift (Courtney) and we teased her about it b/c she stole from Maggie, who had just lost most of her stuff in Katrina just a few months before. (We love you Court!) So last year, no one stole gifts from each other. This year was a different story. There were so many great gifts that everyone wanted everything! I wouldn’t have stolen any if my original gift, a beautiful picture frame (we all know how much I can use those!) wasn’t taken from me. So of course, I then had to steal this awesome fleur de lis suitcase from Dana, which she had stolen from Courtney. In the end, though, everyone wound up with gifts they loved, which is always the case anyway.

We also got to spend time with Quinlan, Dana’s beautiful new baby girl, who is an absolute doll. It was great to have here there and we passed her around like a little prop, taking pictures with her!

From left to right: Courtney, Rebecca’s sister, Rebecca, who I’ve know and been good friends with since our Key Club days in high school, me, who looks funny b/c I set the timer and ran into the picture, Renee, another good friend who I’ve known since high school, Andrea, Rachel’s SIL, down in from from left to right, Tobie, Rachel and Dana, all good friends who I’ve know from high school, Quinlan, Dana’s 4 month old baby girl and Dana, Rebecca’s best friend from high school.

I love love love Quinlan’s expression in this picture lol

Sorry we didn’t get a pic of you and I together Bec! I guess we’ll have to get together again soon so we can get one

The rest of our party pictures can be found here: Girl’s Christmas Dinner

And here are some more pictures of Quinlan that I took:  Quinlan’s Christmas Pictures