Sunday, November 16, 2008

Naked Baby!


Today was officially naked baby day. It all started late last night when we suddenly realized we were completely out of diapers. But I'll let Kelsey tell you the rest of THAT story! Later on this evening, I decided it was time for the naked baby photo shoot that I've been wanting to do before Avery gets too big!






The milestones keep coming for this cute little girl. Yesterday Kelsey made Avery laugh for the first time. It was a quick awkward laugh, but a laugh nonetheless! And today, she said her first Spanish word! Sometimes when I talk to her, she watches my mouth and repeats what I say and today she said "hola"! Only 2 months old and little Ave is already well on the road to becoming bilingual...








I don't know if she was enjoying being a model or being naked, but whichever it was, she wasn't happy after the photo shoot was done!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Katie & Steve - October 18, 2008










Katie & Steve's wedding was so much fun. All day, I felt like I was a member of the family. All the details were totally classy and beautiful and God blessed them with the most gorgeous fall day you could ask for. I think their video turned out really well!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Girls


Last weekend, Lauren came up to visit us, in part so she could watch Avery while Kelsey and I shot a wedding together. During her visit, we enjoyed a quick little photo shoot!






This was Avery's second "official" photo shoot. The brisk fall air made it a bit harder for her to cooperate for this one!








Kelsey and I call this face Avery's "old man face". It appears often in two situations: when she's upset and when she's...pushing. This particular time, it was the former!










Thanks again, Lauren, for helping us out! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Go Vote!

It'll make you feel good!

Avery Speaks!

At some point, I plan to take all my footage of Avery and make a really cool video out of it. That might be a little while in coming, so for now, here's a quick little sneak peek! Recently, Avery has been smiling and "talking" quite a bit, which has made her one very fun baby! Here's a little excerpt from our footage:








Friday, October 31, 2008

Christa & Paul's Engagement Shoot


Our friendship with Christa and Paul began at Northwestern College where Christa and Kelsey were fellow art majors. Kelsey is actually going to be a bridesmaid in their wedding in September and they've asked me to be their photographer. I am very excited to take pictures for their big day! A couple weeks ago, the four of us headed down to St. Anthony Main in Minneapolis for an engagement photo/video shoot and we had a lot of fun! During the majority of the shoot, I was actually getting video footage for Christa & Paul's "Love Story" video. Kelsey was taking most of the pictures. But there were a few times when I had a photo idea and she was gracious enough to let me steal her camera for a few quick shots!







During the time that I was NOT stealing Kelsey's camera from her, she captured a lot more shots than this and I thought they turned out really well. Check out her pictures of Christa and Paul here.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Avery Abelle


After nearly 41 weeks of growing in preparation for the world, Avery was ready. On September 9th, Kelsey and I walked to Subway for dinner and then came back and played some Wii. About this time, the contractions started, but we didn't think too much of it, because it was about the gazillionth time Kelsey had experienced contractions. Three hours later, we started taking it a bit more seriously. We left for the hospital around 2:30am, and after Kelsey's epidural, we actually got a short bit of sleep. Around 9:15, Kelsey started pushing and at 9:44am Avery arrived! These first 4 pictures were taken during her first 5 minutes.










Check out that beautiful new mom! After delivery, we all stayed in the hospital for 2 more nights. We enjoyed some postpartum Papa John's delivered right to our room, Kelsey drank about 2 gallons of water per day, and Kevin was so tired that he slept soundly on his pull-out couch. Kelsey was just as tired, but she was more attuned to Avery's cries, so I'm not so sure she slept as well...











Avery is a very energetic girl. She is also very strong and stubborn. She is almost always wriggling around, flailing her limbs in every direction. From Day 1, she was able to hold her head up without any support. She likes to fight sleep, she loves being held, she loves her books, and she loves music - she gets mad when we take either of the latter two away.



















Happy baby, angry baby, sleepy baby - Avery rotates quickly between the three personas, and often in that order. Hungry baby also shows up often, scattered among the three!








Avery was about 2 weeks old when we brought her along to Afton Apple Orchard. She liked picking raspberries a lot more than picking apples - probably because the breeze made it feel much cooler around the raspberries.







Our beautiful little girl.