My baby is 5 years old!

I know this post is super late, but my 1st baby turned 5 on July 3rd! I can't believe that it has been 5 years! Where does the time go? It just seemed like last week he was an infant in my arms and now he is a big boy getting ready to start Kindergarten.

Ian was born 5 weeks early after I developed Pre-Eclampsia and had to be induced to avoid having seizures. After starting my induction on Tuesday evening, I finally went into full blown labor in the early mornings of Thursday, July 3rd. My labor progressed so quickly that I didn't end up getting an epidural and had Ian naturally at 10:17am. He was a peanut at 4 lbs. 10 oz. He was a slow breather and a preemie so they took him off to the NICU right away. Here are a few images from July 2003.

BTW: The monster hand in this picture is my husband's!
Ian was just so tiny the hand looks enormous!

Now 5 years have passed and my little baby has become my little man. He is growing up so fast. I am just trying to take in every moment with him. Here are a few pictures from Ian's 5th birthday party.


Happy Birthday Buddy! I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Busy, Busy, Busy!

So life has gotten in the way of my blogging. (I hate when that happens! LOL) I have 3 great weddings to post, Ian's birthday to post about and another accomplishment to post about....but alas, I am packing to take my boys camping. LOL

Now anyone that knows me well is probably laughing pretty hard at that last statement as I have NEVER camped in my life. (Unless you count church camp and sleeping in cabins with running water.) But Shan and I were lucky enough to get this weekend off from wedding work, so we are packing up the tent and a thousand other camping things and are heading off to camp for a few days.

So my apologies for my lack of blogging and I promise that when I get home, I will get caught up. I will even post pictures of my first camping adventure.

Until then, pray that I enjoy this because I have a feeling with a family full of boys that we will be doing this often! LOL

See you all next week!
Steph

Congratulations Angela and Rick!

Angela and Rick were married on June 28th at the Louisville Church of Christ in Louisville, OH. The day started out very beautiful with blue skies and big puffy white clouds. Angela was beautiful and her family was so welcoming, they helped me feel like part of the family. The weather turned just after they had their grand exit from the church and it started to pour! So unfortunately, we weren't able to do any outdoor pictures. But we had a great time. The reception was held at the Foltz Community Center in East Canton, OH. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the dance floor was full all night.













Thank you to you both and your families. I appreciated feeling so welcome and enjoyed capturing your day!

Steph

Congratulations Andy and Jennifer!

Andy and Jennifer were married at Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, OH on June 21st. Their ceremony took place at the Tea Houses at the end of Birch Allee with the reception immediately following in the Carriage House.

The day's weather had been threatening to rain, but being the optimist that I am (and I think others were too) we were convinced that it would just blow over. As the ceremony took place, a very large storm cell was blowing in from the west. In the distance I could see lightning and we all heard thunder at different points. The best part of that was the fact that it made for amazing images!

About 5 minutes after they were pronounced man and wife and had walked back down Birch Alley and the guests had headed for the Carriage House, the sky opened up with large amounts of rain and even some hail! We also headed for shelter and after about an hour or so we were blessed when the rained had slowed to a drizzle and then stopped completely in time for some beautiful garden images and sunset images. An amazing rainbow even came out so we incorporated that into the day's images as well.














Thank you for having me in to capture your day with you! Through the ups and downs of weather you guys had an amazing day!

Steph

Congratulations Josh and Stephanie!

Josh and Stephanie were married at Zion Lutheran Church in New Middletown, OH on June 14th. They integrated so much of themselves into their wedding. They are very into music and so had a variety of different musical elements including steel drums, flower pots, soloists and clapping music. It was such a unique combination of musical elements and it really made the day all about them. They had their reception at Das Dutch Village Inn. The decorations were amazing and they had a great time with their friends and family.












Congrats guys!! Thanks for sharing your day with me.

Steph