Saturday, September 10, 2011

Photographers

Part of having children is finding different ways to capture the activities, the expressions and the growth that our kids go through. Fortunately in this world of technology creating videos and taking pictures has become very easy and affordable. Anyone with a camera and an eye for the shot can create some good pictures. But there really is an art to being a professional photographer. The professional can capture images in a way and with an eye that the best amateur can't get close to capturing. They have the equipment, the expertise, the eye, and the experience that the rest of us don't have. I guess that is why they call them professionals and hence why we pay them money to use their skill for us. After 3 years of photo shoots I thought it would be good to say Thank you to the 2 professionals that have captured our family with amazing photos. They are both wonderful photographers, unique in their own way and fun to work with. Choosing a photographer is about a lot more than just getting some pictures and so I will leave out our decision making process and just let you enjoy some of the pictures that were taken by them.

Lauren DiMatteo - http://blog.laurendimatteo.com/ has been a family friend for years and is an amazing talent.
Rebecca Dawson Deaver - http://www.charmingphoto.com/ - we used her for a shoot when Lauren was unavailable and were very pleased with the results
May I suggest that if you are looking for a photographer these are 2 good ones to choose from Thanks for reading

Monday, September 5, 2011

The 2nd Child

Do you ever find it annoying when people tell you "Just wait until you have ..." or "When you have 2 things will be different...". Partly because it assumes they know something you don't which bugs all of us and partly because inside you know they are right. It gets to the heart of what we strive for as humans, control. We want to be in control of all situations and when we are not it makes us crazy. Different levels of craziness depending on the personality but crazy the same. The best antidote for this of course is to stay single and die young, then you have no worries and no problems with relationships. Of course, that whole death thing can bring problems of its own. Short of that you are going to have to realize that you are not in control of much of anything. This is why I prefer to understand that God is in control and not me. It allows me to step back and look at the beauty of a situation, no matter how crazy, and try to see it from His perspective. We are thoroughly enjoying having Eliana home and for the most part she is a perfect (as my mom likes to say) little girl. It is those situations when you are without sleep and she decides to be fussy for the first time in 3 days that really gets to you. But that is just being a parent of a newborn and as they say "These things will also pass".

Eliana is a cute, wonderful, beautiful and feisty little girl. Patrick is a wonderful, handsome and super energetic little boy. Together they are going to be a wonderful pair of siblings. Right now there are a lot of unknowns. You can see the look in Patrick's eyes. "When is she going to talk with me?", "When is she going to play with me", etc. There is in addition a look of love and acceptance of his new sister and we as parents know that he will grow into his role as big brother. Eliana will have to spend a litte more time awake for that to happen :)

So if you have 1 child and are going to have 2 let me tell you "It will get harder but it will be worth it" And for those who have twins or more than 2 let me encourage you as much as I can to see the beauty in the kids because I will never know what it is really like to have more than 2.

I knew it was time to write another blog entry but I was lacking in something coherent to say so hopefully the above makes sense and resonates with you.

Thanks for reading