Ramer's First Photoshoot

Here is where I pretend I'm a photographer and post the pictures from my photoshoot with new baby Ramer.  Here is also where you laugh in my face, sigh, and think, oh, she has so much to learn.  I know these are far from perfect; I have not mastered exposure and composition and softening a baby's skin in photoshop, but Ramer is perfect and so that makes them worth sharing. These pictures were taken on day 3 of his new life, the day he came home from the hospital.  The daylight was quickly slipping away and all I had for props was a basket and a couple of blankets.  He was sleeping soundly and I just laid him in the basket and wrapped him up.

I love this profile shot with that upper lip sticking out.

Whew!  Taking photos is hard work and can wear a little boy out.  And look!  His daddy's already taught him how to throw up deuces.

We tried to go for more poses but I got the hint that he didn't really want to do that.

My dad was not happy that I was snapping pics while Ramer was crying, so he scooped him and said the photoshoot was over.  It didn't take him too long to snuggle in and fall back asleep.

Just for good measure, here's a picture of big brother who was being entertained by Doc during the photoshoot.

I have about a billion more pictures that I just haven't edited yet.  I really don't know how some people edit every picture on their blog before posting them...it takes forever!  I think we're going to try another shoot this weekend so maybe I'll get some better ones!

New Baby: First Meeting

The truth: these pictures aren't from my first meeting with the new baby.  They're from my camera's first meeting, which was day two for the new baby.  Yes, I stupidly forgot to take my camera with me to the hospital the day he was born.  But I made up for it the next day by snapping 3,284 pictures.  Ok, slight exaggeration, but there are a lot of them. Before we jump into the day two pictures, let me back up to day one.  Erin (my sister-in-law) was scheduled to be at the hospital at 3:45 am to be induced.  My parents kept Parker (Ben and Erin's 3-year-old) Friday night and the 3 of them picked me up on their way to the hospital.  Anna spent the morning using her Easy Bake Oven to make a birthday cake for the new baby (she was so sad she didn't get to go to the hospital, but when you're 10, sleepovers with friends come first).  Throughout Erin's pregnancy, Parker has insisted that his little brother's name would be Target.

She decorated the cake like the Target bullseye.  Hilarious.

My parents didn't tell Parker what was happening that day until they left for the hospital.  He had on his Big Brother shirt when they arrived at our house.

You can't have birthday cake without singing the birthday song and blowing out a candle, so we let Parker do that for his baby brother.

After the birthday party, we grabbed the cake, loaded into the car, and hit the road.  And my poor camera was left sitting there on the counter...

Now we can get to the Day Two pictures!  Doc and I went to the hospital after church and walked in right as the rest of my family arrived and pictures were being taken of the new family of four.

Parker was so excited to see "his baby" again.

I think he's gonna be a good big brother.

The first person the baby got passed to was Jett.

Sweet cousins!

All the little people (our kids had already gone home).

We got kicked out of the room for a few minutes while the nurse came in to check on mama and baby.  While we were waiting out in the hall, I snapped this picture of Bren.  I'm afraid my 3-year-old niece might be more stylish than me.  And I would kill for her hair.

Back in the room, I was finally able to get some good pictures of the man of the hour!  At this point in the weekend, he was still nameless.  I'm happy to announce, though, that at 3:30 Monday morning, his name was officially decided.

This is David Ramer.  He'll go by Ramer, my mother's maiden name.

I had to unwrap his hands so I could see his little fingers.

And his little feet!  His daddy said his anklet was because he was on house arrest.

Brennie was too shy to hold him, but she did spend a few minutes petting his little head.

Look at those cheeks!  Right now we think he kinda looks like my brother, but that could definitely change.

Doc love, love, loves holding babies when they're this little.  If he could get paid to hold newborns all day, he'd make a career change.

I finally got a turn too!

Beth saw a few sleepy grins while she held him, but I couldn't quite catch them with my camera.

Aunt Elizabeth and Ramer.

Beth and her two sweet babies, who look like giants now compared to Ramer!

Wait, did I say sweet?  I meant wild and crazy!

(Kidding - they really are sweet peas.)

After we'd all had our turns holding Ramer, we said our goodbyes.  Brennie gave Parkie (that's what they call each other, no joke) a hug goodbye.

We left the baby in my dad's hands, still asleep and completely oblivious that he'd just been held by a swarm of new people.

I went back the next day for more snuggles and had a mini photo shoot.  Pictures coming soon!

Hullabaloo

Woah, I'm really behind on posts.  There's so much to share (like my new nephew that was born yesterday!) but in the spirit of keeping things chronological around here, I'm going to start by finishing up the events of last weekend.  So, to recap, Anna and I made fall wreaths for my mom's front doors Friday night, and then we all got up bright and early Saturday morning for Wyatt's football game. After the game, and a quick shower for Wyatt, we headed to the church for the annual Hullabaloo.  It's our church's biggest fundraiser and it's chock full of activities.  There's a rummage sale, silent auction, country store, food, games, pony rides, train rides, and a bounce house.  I'm sure I'm leaving something out, too.  We arrived right at noon and were all pretty hungry, so we started with the food.  The men of the church spend a good portion of the week leading up to the hullabaloo smoking barbecue butts, and the end result is usually pretty tasty.  We all enjoyed barbecue sandwiches or barbecue nachos.  Yum!

It's funny how much more I like hullabaloo now that there are so many little people in my life.  I love getting to see them take in all the excitement and participate in the activities.  The first little person I ran into was Jett.  I'd heard earlier in the week that he'd lost his first tooth, so I asked him if he needed me to come help him find it.

He said we wouldn't be able to find it because the tooth fairy took it and left him five whole dollars.  Five dollars!  I'm pretty sure back when I was losing teeth, the tooth fairy just left what ever spare change my dad had in his pocket that day.  I never got folding money, especially a five dollar bill!  Jett lost the tooth right next to that one this week, too.  I might have to borrow some shopping money from him now that he's getting so rich!

Parker and Bren were there too, but they were way more into the ring pops they had just scored than my camera.  I couldn't get them to take a good picture at all.

  

After lunch, our kids ran off to play games.  I finally caught up to them when they were painting pumpkins.

I made it over to the pony ring just in time to see Miss Wesley finishing her ride.  She may have on a ballerina-esque outfit, but I think she's got a little bit of cowgirl in her.  She was a natural up there!

Little Alice (in her AR cheerleading uniform!) rode a neigh-neigh too.  I'm not sure that she was thrilled to be put up there, but there were no tears and she stayed on the whole time!

After one lap around, she was an old pro, holdin' on with just one hand like it was no big deal.

The bigger kids were too fast for me to catch on camera.  By the time we left, they had bags full of candy and several inflatable toys. I think they had a pretty good time.

It was announced in church the next day that the silent auction portion of the event brought in over four thousand dollars.  I wasn't there when the auction ended but I did check the bids before we left.  From my estimate, the tents that Mom made along with the few things Beth and I donated accounted for at least a tenth of that total.  Yahoo!

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful.  We had a low-key night at home Saturday night and Doc left town for a work trip Sunday after church.  I think that gets us all caught up, so now I can go upload the pictures I took of a sweet baby boy!

Are you ready for some football?

I broke out my telephoto lens at Wyatt's football game Saturday morning.  It was nice being able to zoom in that much!  The home team's side is on the opposite side of the bleachers, but with my lens I felt like I could watch the team and the coaches and see everything that was going down on the sidelines. I have tons of pictures from the game, but I'll try to narrow it down to just the ones where you can really see him.  I should do some editing but I'm feeling kinda lazy right now.  My narrating will probably be sparse too, not because I don't feel like chatting typing, but because even after being a cheerleader for 3 years in high school and 2 in college, I still don't really get football.

Here's our star player running onto the field.  This was a "purple team" game, which is like a B game.  I thought Wyatt got in some pretty good playing time.

This was snapped in between plays.  I think he was trying to sneak a peek at his big cheering section.

Here he is in action!  I don't really know what's going on here - maybe some blocking?  Holding?  Head-to-head combat?  I do know he plays defense but I don't know the name of his position.  When they all get lined up, he's standing on the outskirts, not crouched down in the bunch.  (Doc is probably cringing at my football terms.)

Number 83 has his eye on the runner and is going for him!

See the picture below?  Wyatt is the purple team player down on the ground.  This play got his name announced over the loud speaker!  Apparently he pushed the guy from the other team out of bounds.  Or something.

More action.

I like this one.  He's right in the middle.

It was a no-score game until the end of the last quarter.  I don't really know how it happened, but the other team sneaked in a touchdown and the purple team lost 6-0.  Boo.  But we were very proud of our player and he seemed pleased with his performance too!  He led the team out to shake hands with the other team.

Wyatt is our very own little Rudy.  He may be little in size, but his heart and energy are big, big, big!  We've enjoyed watching him play this season...and rumor has it, he's trying out for basketball next!

October 1, 2008

It was a Wednesday. I know for sure because Doc took the kids to dinner after work, as is their normal schedule.  He was late getting home, "home" being the house we live in now.  I lived in an apartment within walking distance.

His parents would be in town two days later for a weekend visit.  The house needed to be cleaned and it had to be done that night.  There was a booth with my name on it for a local craft fair that weekend and setup would be Thursday night.  After work, I stopped by my apartment to change clothes before walking over to the house.

I wore my comfy clothes to clean.  Grey sweats and a t-shirt.  I scrubbed the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher.  The bathrooms were cleaned; I dusted and ran the vacuum.  All the sheets got washed and beds were remade.  I was in the middle of folding laundry when he got home.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

Of course.  I was ready for a break and Minnie needed to go out.  I slipped on my shoes while he put on Minnie's leash and we headed out the front door.  The street was quiet.  As we rounded the first corner, he started the conversation.

"You know I love you, right?"

Oh great.  This couldn't be good, as it sounded like a follow-up statement was coming.

"Yea, why? What happened? Is something wrong?"

He assured me everything was fine.  He just loves me and wanted me to know. We kept walking.

I was the next to speak.  I rambled on about my day.  I was annoyed by a mass email I'd received that afternoon.  I ranted and vented while he listened.

We'd made it around two corners of the block and were in front of the house with the yard Minnie loved.  We always stopped here so she could sniff around.  This night was no different; we stood under the light post.  I turned and watched as a neighbor drove by on a golf card, and when I turned back, he was on a knee and holding a ring.

"You know I love you, right?

Completely caught off guard, I didn't know how to respond.

"Is that real?!"

And it was then that he asked me to be his wife.  To love him forever.  To be partners in life, through thick and thin, good and bad, ups, downs, and the in-betweens.  To become a family and raise children together.  To be best friends.

Three years ago today, an ordinary day became extraordinary.  I was asked a question that would change my life.

And I said yes.