krew's newborn photos

During the past several years, as I studied portrait photography, took a few online photography classes, started a photography blog and had 16 paying clients, nothing made me more excited than the idea of someday taking newborn photos of my own child.  During the 2 years we struggled to get pregnant, seeing other people with their new babies was often hard for me, yet taking their photos never was.  I dreamt of the portraits I would someday take of my own little one, and considered each newborn session that I did to be great practice.  Of course, once I found out I was expecting, I began pouring over newborn photos, making notes of all the great shots I wanted to capture of my baby.  The problem was, by the time Krew was born, I had too many ideas, too many props, too many poses, and I forgot about the fact that not only would I be the photographer during the session, but the mom as well.  I forgot that when I do a newborn session for someone else, when the baby gets fussy, mom picks them up while I set up a new shot, or make necessary adjustments on my camera.  I forgot that when I am just the photographer I'm not running on four hours of sleep and recovering from a delivery.   Also, it took me forever to edit all the pictures since I had a newborn baby that needed to be snuggled (no complaints about that from me). So, the experience was quite a bit more stressful than I had planned for, and I can't help but feel that these pictures are missing something. 
But, then I thought about the "photo shoot" I did with my twins when they were a few weeks old.  I had a point-and-shoot camera, horrible lighting, and about ten minutes.  Of course there have been times when I regret not paying the big bucks to have a professional photo session done with them, but I treasure these pictures.

Why? Because they are pictures of my tiny babies and that's all that matters!

Now that that stress of the situation has passed, there are several photos that I am in love with!  And now, after that lengthy explanation, here are some of my favorites from Krew's newborn photo session(s)!

krew thinks he has a twin too!

The other night, Bart put Krew in front of the mirror in our hallway, and Krew was so excited to see the other baby.  He talked to himself for quite a while before I could find my camera.  It was so cute, and fun for me to remember when my twins used to do this when they saw each other!

3 months!

Krew is 3 months old!!  I feel like I just took his 2 month pictures, and now he's 3 months old.  Crazy!

 He is still such a good baby.  He's been giving lots of smiles, and making lots of cute sounds.  A few weeks ago he learned to say his "g" sound, so he's been telling us a lot about "goo"  and "ga" and "ging."  Last week he laughed for the first time!  I was the only one home, and felt bad that I was the only one who got to hear it, but a few days later, he laughed for Bart too.  Now we are just waiting for the giggles to be a regular occurrence!

 His cheeks and thighs and tummy keep getting bigger and cuter! He's wearing size 6 months clothes, some that Kade and Ky wore when they were 7 or 8 months old.  I guess he's just going to be a big baby!

Isn't he precious?  I think I'm in love!

party time-lightning mcqueen style!

On Saturday, we had a birthday party for Kade and Ky.  Only a month late, but that's what happens when your birthday is four days after Christmas!  They are obsessed with Cars 2 right now, and since I lifted my ban on tacky character parties (which I feel limit creativity, but are super easy) because I have a 3 month old baby, a Cars birthday party was the obvious choice.  It turned out really cute, and I think everyone had a good time!

This Secret Agent Special mission scavenger hunt was my favorite activity, and I actually thought of it early that morning while I was up feeding Krew.  Nothing like adding a game the last minute, but I'm glad I did because it was fun for the boys.

 We also had a contest to see who could stack the most "tires" aka chocolate cheerios.

 We went fishing for McQueen with Mater's tow cable, fixed the road (put together a road puzzle), raced cars on the race track, and went tractor tipping! 

 My incredibly talented friend, Brittney made this amazing cake!  I'm so glad that I gave up on the idea of trying to make the cake myself this year, because this cake is a zillion times better than what I could have done, and the boys loved it.  Kade and Ky greeted their friends as they came to the party by saying, "I got an awesome Cars cake; it looks real!"

a hockey game

For Christmas, Bart's parents bought us tickets to a hockey game!  They also gave Kade and Ky pucks and team shirts to wear to the game.  Last Saturday was the big game, and Bart's parents came to our house to watch Krew so that the rest of us could enjoy the game without worrying about the baby.  It was the first time I had left him with anyone else, so of course I cried all the way to the game.  But, once we were there I had a great time.  It was so nice to spend some time with Bart, Ky and Kade the way we used to.

 We sat right behind the opposing team's penalty box, and Bart and the boys had a great time harassing the players that got put in there.  Here you can see Kade's disapproval of this player.

 And at one point, the other team had 3 players in the penalty box at once!

 Apparently I disapprove of their silliness, or something like that.

Aunt Sadie was at the game with another group and she stopped by to say hi!  We had such a great time, and the boys cannot stop talking about it.
Thanks Zen and Denni for the tickets and for snuggling with Krew while we were gone!

i have a chubby baby!

My first two babies were tiny!  Sure, they eventually got chubby legs, but they were still tiny little things.  But, I finally got myself a chubby baby!

 See?

There's lots more squishiness for me to snuggle!