Sarah

A few of the kids from school have been coming over for the Mavs games. I recently saw a photo I really liked and wanted to try to recreate the effect, so I asked Sarah if she'd model for me while I tried out what I thought would work. Here is the photo I ended up with. I didn't get the look I was going for, but I still think what I got looks pretty cool. Thanks Sarah and Emily (she held the light behind Sarah)!

I Tried...

...I really did. I tried to post something other than William, but I haven't been able to get anything else during the day, and I have been stocking up on William photos, so here they are.

These two are of him turning circles in his crib




Here he is in a new, mobile jumpy thing that one of Jonathan's work out clients gave us.










He somehow always loses his socks...I'm not sure how.



These last two photos and the video are from today. William had his first drink from a real cup and his first "real" food (rice cereal). He was very intent on the tasks at hand and wanted to do them himself! Little independent man we have here.

William's 4 Months!

William is 4 months old today. Here are a few pictures of his day...


Spending time with mom in the morning...









Jumping in the Johnny Jump-up...














Reading a bedtime story with dad...








..and here are a couple videos. This first one was taken last Saturday the first time we put him in the Johnny Jump-up.


This one was taken today. He's figured it out for sure!

Deep Thoughts By Emily Alexander (no, seriously)

Today is Ash Wednesday. For those of you who aren't Catholic, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of a 40 day period of spiritual renewal, fasting, and abstaining leading up to Easter. Obviously this is the first year we've had a child for this. Tonight we went to receive ashes and the guy who was administering them gave them to William as well, and for the first time the significance of this day really struck me. "Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return." are the words that are spoken as the cross is marked on your forehead. Looking at William as just a baby, not even 4 months old yet, being marked by the ashes and having those words spoken to him, words that he doesn't understand, really made me think about the huge responsibility Jonathan and I have to his spiritual growth, because in the end, "to dust he shall return", and it's what's left that will count. Yeesh.

Las Vegas

OK, so this blog is a year late. Last March I went to Las Vegas for the annual DWF (Digital Wedding Forum) convention. Unfortunately, I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and felt absolutely miserable. I went to all the seminars I had signed up for, but missed all the networking (which was probably the most important thing about the convention) which happened after hours while I was sleeping. :( I also didn't feel like blogging when I got back to Texas, so I had all these photos from my trip sitting idly on my computer. The DWF convention for 2008 just ended, so I felt that it would be as good a time as any to post some of the pics from my trip.

Here are two of my roommates Stephanie and Kristin. Stephanie second shoots for Kristin a lot. It was the first time I'd met her and she was really cool. The two of them took pity on me and hung out with me some during the days.










Our hotel was right across the street from Bally's which was right next to Paris, which I loved. I spent a decent amount of time there sightseeing and window-shopping. Kristin also ran into David Hasselhof (who was starring in The Producers) while we were having lunch there one day. I guess that's Vegas, baby!





























One of the events at the convention was a desert photo shoot with two of the premier wedding photographers in the U.S. I wish I had taken a picture of all the photographers behind this shot. You had the main photographers doing their thing, and then behind them, probably 200 other photographers huddled together (it was COLD!) taking photos of the photographers taking photos....and each other...and whatever else they could. That's what happens when you get a bunch of photographers together!




Kristin again...




OK, they hired a car for the shoot and the driver wasn't too bad looking. Kristin and Stephanie of course picked up on this and talked him into doing his own mini-shoot with them.




Here are a couple of pics I managed to get of the couple. Can you believe that backdrop? It looks unreal! I can't imagine having that in my backyard to do photo shoots in whenever I want!










These were taken in The Venetian.




This is "St. Marc's Square" I put that in parenthesis because it doesn't look like the real St. Marc's Square. Well, maybe the back part. (I sound so pretentious, don't I) When I was studying in Rome, we took a class trip to Venice, so I knew what it looked like. I had heard that the Vegas one had a real gelateria, so I really wanted to find it. ( I know, pregnant lady on the hunt for ice cream - what a cliche) I must have walked through this place 3 times before I finally realized that it was the Las Vegas St. Marc's Square.



















I'm pretty sure this was at The Bellagio. They had this fabulous flower garden. To tell the truth, it wasn't at all what I was expecting, but it was pretty amazing. The garden was like you had walked into the movie "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" except everything was made out of flowers. At the center of it all was a butterfly sanctuary. Really pretty.




I'm not really sure what this is, but is was all over the ceiling just outside the garden.

Happy Anniversary Jimmy and Heather!

Ok, this was actually supposed to be posted on Sunday, but due to me not buying the right stuff to transfer these videos to my computer a couple times, it's a couple days late. This was taken at my friend Vanessa's Super Bowl Party Sunday (heck yeah Giants!!).

Uh-Oh, I've Got Video!!

Sprint gives you credit to upgrade your phone every two years, so Jonathan and I got new phones Saturday. Not only do our new phones have cameras, they have video cameras!! So! This is first and foremost a photography blog, but I will be posting video (albeit very amateur video) every now and again, mostly of William. We have so many friends and family scattered across the globe that this is a nice and easy way to share his growth with them all!

Roll Over, Roll Over!

William learned a new trick today. He rolled over for the first time. This morning I put him down on his tummy in the living room for Tummy Time and went to the bedroom to make the bed. I could hear him making protesting-ish noises and then all the sudden they quit. When I came back in, he was on his back! So I turned him back over, and it happened again! Basically, I don't think Tummy Time is going to happen anymore because for the rest of the day, as soon as I put him down, he was trying to flip himself over! I'm so proud of him!!!