whew!  we made it through the first full week of school.  eliza loves everything about kindergarten so far.  she actually complains that we are picking her up too early when we get her at the end of the day!  ryder is enjoying better naps without his boisterous big sister at home and i am able to get a little bit of work done.  :)

one of the many highlights of school is the treasure chest that the kids get to visit on friday.  eliza thoroughly enjoyed her ring pop.  this was the only shot that i got that was in focus.  it is difficult to shoot a kid hopped up on sugar and excitement!

my big 3 month old!

have a great labor day weekend!

yesterday was eliza's first day of school.  she was very excited!  aside from the battle about what to wear on her first day everything went well (eliza won the battle).  she ditched me as soon as we got to her classroom to go to the carpet and listen to stories with her new friends.  i think she felt really comfortable because we had an all school clean up day on saturday where everyone pitched in to get their classroom ready.  we also went to open house on monday night, so by wednesday she felt right at home.

we made a quick stop by her poppy's room to say hi (he is a teacher at her school) and then headed to her class to find her cubby.

having a dog puppet to welcome the kids was brilliant, especially for my little dog obsessed girl.

this is eliza and her friend allie, undoing the cleanup project that i did on clean up day.

new friends fiona and jennings sharpening all of the pencils on clean up day.  after all of our hard work we ate pizza and got to know each other a little better.

a funny side note...eliza's teacher came up and hugged me when i dropped eliza off because she thought i was crying.  it looked like i had been bawling all morning because i am suffering from a severe allergy attack and my eyes are red, running and swollen.  it was so funny every must of thought that i was having such a hard time with my baby starting kindergarten when it was just the opposite, it was thrilled because eliza is so happy.  : )

i can't believe that my husband goes back to school on monday (he is a teacher) and that my little baby girl is starting kindergarten in two weeks!  she is very excited.  i am not stressing about it because she will be going to my husbands school, so he can keep an eye on her.  : )

this summer we spent a lot of time at our lakehouse in lake norman.  here are a few shots of our summer fun.

woo hoo, go jolly mon!  our friend mr. robb jolly is in "the club".  to be inducted into the club you have to jump off of the boathouse roof. 

the cousins meet ryder.

liza idolizes her big cousins.  they are so sweet with her!  brad's brother, "tio nico" with ryder.  check out our cool burp cloth that photog friend jena murray made for us.

ryders ususal look....wet bib and covered in spit up.

these were taken on the 4th of july.  i admit life has gotten better since then, but back in those days this is the exact reality of my life.  crying baby and spewing baby.  i can't believe brad caught this shot of ryder mid stream.  it was so bad back then that we had to laugh to keep from crying!  thank the lord that ryder is feeling better.

liza with her crazy bed head and self styled look, bikini and chucks...perfect!  daniel, our cousin, giving maceo some lovin.

eliza dresses herself.  here she is in her favorite dress that she put on "special for fishing with uncle charles".

she wanted to kiss the fish and see if it turned into a prince, but was scared, so uncle charles tried it with no luck.

our friends, nicole and raul, from NYC.  after visiting the lake and eating fried green maters and nc bbq raul was ready to pack up and move to lake norman!

me and my sweetie.

our wacky friends!

so long summer, see you next year!

eliza LOVES to play dress up.  today her elaborate fantasy world included ryder.  this was his first game of dress up!

i just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for their support and suggestions on ways to deal with an unhappy baby.  i am thrilled that ryder is starting to turn the corner.  after much distress we finally discovered that we had a bad case of thrush that did not really present itself in the normal way.  we got that cleared up and that helped with all sorts of problems that ryder was having.  he still has reflux and he has a "colicky" time of day in the evenings, but i can handle that!  a couple of hours of crying at night is nothing after you have lived with a baby that cries every waking minute! 

take a look at my little sweetie.  i am so in love with him that i could not pick my favorite expression, so i had to post three pix.  sorry, proud momma disclaimer.  : )

the faces of ryder.

our little man decided to make an early appearance on may 27th.  he was not due until june 15th, so things have been a bit crazy around here!  i had a lot on my to do list (blogging, uploading, reprints, etc) to get accomplished before the 15th.  i did not even have my bag packed for the birthing center.  i actually had a shoot scheduled for the night ryder was born.  : )

luckily i had some sort of maternal instinct that he was coming and i got the nursery all ready and summoned my husband home.  he was on an 8 day camping trip with his school in kentucky.  (thanks to all of the parents and teachers on the trip for letting brad leave early!)  if he had not come home early he would have missed the whole birth.

we had an amazing experience at the chapel hill women's birth and wellness center.  our midwife, leigh ann, and our nurse, sheryl, were excellent. 

although i thought ryder might come a little early, i never expected him to arrive before eliza's big 5th birthday bash on the 30th.  so, 3 days after giving birth we had a big party with about 50 people at our house.  it was all a blur, but everyone had a great time, especially the birthday girl!

now we are working on getting settled into the new rhythm of a family of four.  right now i am concentrating on oohing and ahhing over ryder's sweet little facial expressions.  melanie is still on the road traveling for shoots (bless that girls heart!).  we truly appreciate all of the support and patience that our amazing clients have shown during this period of adjustment.  things will settle down soon and we will be back at it!  : )

in the meantime, here are few shots of my new little sweetie.

samuel ryder harrell, aka ryder

8lbs 6oz, 20.5 inches

proud big sister.

i love this face.  he makes this expression all of the time.

gotta go....ryder is calling!