Grand Opening

This past year has been a whirlwind. Life is funny sometimes. How you work so hard for something all the time, but maybe aren't sure why.... This life seems like a game. A game in which you can only succeed at anything by missing out on what is really important- by hiding who you are- and by going against things golden and true. Sometimes I wish life was a fairy tale. You could run away into the country or the mountains and forget about the stress and expectations and buzzing of our electronic bureaucracy. I'd like to think sometime somewhere there was a society where people really put in their days work and then everyone spent the evening together interacting and being close with family and friends instead of watching a tv a computer monitor or having to stress about business or bills. I love what I do, but building a business is hard. Its hard to see my baby girl shipped off day after day without any choice and to still only be scraping by as I build everything up. Just had my Grand Opening. Thankful for the support of so many, but praying for strength as these next few years will be hard as I manage and build. A part of me still longs for grad school, but I don't want to leave all my family and friends. Thanks to everyone for your encouragement, support, and many hours of helping out on the studio or babysitting. I couldn't have done without you. So excited about being at this place in this journey, yet so much more excited for what is to come. Praying it will all be worth this hard work.

-Amanda



Dear Boo-Boo,

I love you so much. On hard days your smile lights my world. I am so excited for busy season to slow down so we can spend this winter doing play dates, visiting family, and having fun more often. Thank you for being so full of energy and happiness. Your constant joy is beyond my comprehension. I pray you never change.

Love, Mommy

February 2011 6 Months Old

Lots of firsts this month. Nieva started sitting up a few weeks ago. She got to start sitting in her high chair this month too which has been great. She entertains herself so much better now and I have been able to catch up on a lot of house work. Thanks to a few friends' organizational suggestions I have been able to get the energy in this house feeling so much better. Business has been good with photography too. I keep perfectly busy imo. Much more and I would feel a little overwhelmed, so that is good. Nieva has been loving her toy drum and bouncy set this month too. While Jordon and I were in Utah Nieva cut a tooth and then a few days later she cut one more. She can stand for periods of time with no help holding onto items and so far dr's appt have been good. She also started eating her first meals (organic one grain oatmeal). She enjoys spitting this month too and sadly thats what happens to most of her solid food thus far (it gets spit and sputtered across the room when she is sick of it lol. Her 6 month appt is tomorrow so will try to update with weight height stats.

-A <3

January 2011

Baby started her second "year" of life. Lana and Steve and Nieva's cousin Sarah came to help celebrate the babys' first new year with us. We took pictures of them and had a fun time. Shortly after I went with Nieva down to my parents to spend about a week. My dad broke his foot so thought we'd go help keep him company. Nieva had fun in Gma and Gpa's jungle swing and even slept part of the night in their playpen (Nieva has never slept in a crib or playpen through the night). In fact at 5 months old she has yet to have spent more than an hour in her crib...once..... aside from that she hasn't lasted more than 5 minutes. She wants to snuggle with Mom and Dad in their King sized bed. I guess I have to admit that now that she is into a routine we both really enjoy her sleeping with us for now. Nieva also took her first vacation towards the end of January. We went out to the black hills and she got to meet my friend, Mary and her almost 3 year old, Stella. She also go to meet our friends Ryan and Annelie and their 10 week old, Chloe. We took Nieva swimming for the first time at an indoor water park in Rapid City. She was a little unsure about it at first, but soon after I think she had a lot of fun. She started scratching at things last month to feel the texture and has continued doing that on everything this month. When she gets tired she makes hoo-ing noises. She's been sleeping a lot better also. usually when we lay down and turn the lights out she goes to sleep and gets up a little after we wake up. She's been getting a little more into a routine also. Usually a few cat naps throughout the day and in bed sleeping around midnight (which probably seems late, but Jordon works til 9 a lot and that way he gets to spend time with her). She has become increasingly warm and smiley and will smile at pretty much anyone that pays attention to her. She is getting really close to sitting up on her own and will scoot a little bit when she is on her tummy if you put your hands behind her. She also tries to get up on her knees when on her tummy. She loves to grab your face when you get close to her. We bought reusable diapers and so far those are going well. She is wearing 6-12 month old pants, but 3-6 month tops. She will often hold her own bottle this month. She did it for the first time right before Christmas.

December 2010

I am trying really hard to give at least a once a month breakdown of Nieva. So fa I appear to be failing. December was a long bad month on my end. I did Christmas mini-shoots that were a big hit, but got quite sick shortly after and ended up being sick for about 3 months in December. First it was bronchitis, then flu symptoms or maybe a reaction to antibiotic, then I was in with a fever and had a large cyst forming under a mole that I had to start antibiotics for again.... ugh.

Anyways...Nieva was great fun in December. She continued to stand and get more and more interactive throughout the month. She also started to giggle more and more and slowly began to get a little more independent. She started rolling both ways and at Christmas even opened her own gift (pulled the paper out of her bag all by herself while standing over her present). She helped us go out and cutdown our tree and then we video taped us decorating the tree with her. That will be fun to look back at someday. She got a bouncer from my parents that she enjoyed for short bouts. She also decided she loved things that crunch and crinkle (she went crazy over a cheetos bag). She also started watching very carefully as we ate. She continues to get more curious about food. They told us at our 4 month appt that since nursing is going good though there is no reason to start solids until closer to 6 months so as of now that is the plan. She also started drooling excessively... not real fun, but somewhat humorous. Still no teeth however :0 ) I will soon upload some pictures from December. :0 )

Grateful

Today I am feeling grateful. Grateful that I am able to go through each day without a close loved one or myself experiencing severe pain, bad health, or loss. So many people I know right now have a loved one with a serious ailment. I don't understand why sickness and loss must pervade this world, or why so many have to experience sorrow and suffering. I don't understand why some get to live and some have to die. I cannot understand these things, but I know that we are all part of something so much bigger than ourselves. If we can fathom even for an instant how minute our existence in this life is compared to the eternity we can experience thereafter, we can perhaps begin to understand what greater things lie ahead for us. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord".

I am so incredibly grateful to have my father be cancer free for about 15 years now. My dad is amazing and I can't imagine my life without him. I know I have never told him this, but I look up to him so much in everything I do and I know many of my friends and acquaintances have said the like. He has always been an incredible role model to m and my sisters through his relentless commitment to my mom, our family, our church, and my home town community. I feel so incredibly blessed to have two healthy parents, and even more amazingly to have four healthy living grandparents. My husband lost his father two years ago to cancer and has no grandparents still living. I can't understand this. It doesn't seem fair to him.

I know that life will not always be perfect for me (nor has it been), but I am very thankful for now... a time when my immediate family is healthy. I hope I get many more years to spend with them all because I love them all very much.

Please keep anyone you know that may be suffering from a loss or serious illness right now in your prayers... and don't forget to give praise to God for what IS good. Even in the shadows there is light.

-A <3

P.S. Sorry if that all seemed random and that... none of it was about Nieva directly (even though this blog is supposed to be about her).... but thoughts are thoughts and this is just what felt right for this tonight.

November 2010

Where do the weeks fly? Here it is the day after Thanksgiving and I haven't written since Halloween. This month has been busy in various ways. Photography picked up again with a rush before Christmas and I did a wedding last weekend. Ava has been so much fun aside from her dreaded sleep schedule (Typically around 5am-12pm ish...) Her smiles keep me going through that. She gets more playful by the day and looks at everything so carefully. She is enthralled by the moving pictures on television, her eyes study the pictures as I read to her, and her new favorite is help standing up. She can stand for several minutes at a time and absolutely loves it. Her new favorite toy (....FIRST favorite toy? haha) is an alligator that has scrunchy material in it that makes noises and lights up. It also has rings and other things attached to it she can play in. She also loves her little toy station that helps her stand that my grandma and grandpa had found her on a rummage. She wears herself standing until her legs give out. All this at only 3 months old!! She may be walking soon!?! We had some concern about her getting a little rashy and congested a lot this past month because we have 3 cats, but the doctor said babies don't have allergies to cats develop until they are much older so he thought she may have an aversion to something in my milk. He recommended cutting out all dairy products...... Okay... you have no idea how much of a problem this becomes for me. I practically live off of cereal, oatmeal, coco wheat and cheesy products like pizza and macaroni (Yes I am aware this isn't the healthiest diet). This news came the day before Thanksgiving luckily so I will have many other options over the following few days, but I am hoping this helps. I don't have much else to share of great interest that I can think of right now, but if any other hi-lights pop up I will be sure to add them in. I will also try to add a few pictures from this past month soon

-A <3


Dear Ava,

You are such an alert and curious little girl. You already seem to love learning so much. You don't seem like a baby to me, but a little person that cannot wait to communicate. I have slowly been teaching you sign language because I am so eager for us to be able to understand each other more. You are such a happy baby the majority of the time. You make everyone around you light up and are so easy to love. Daddy has been continuing on with his quest for you to learn Spanish. He still speaks to you only in Spanish and reads Spanish stories to you. He also plays cartoons in Spanish for you while you doze off in your swing. He is excited for you to attend Rosa Parks and hopefully be a part of their elementary Spanish program. In other news, I have been hearing more and more lately that people think you look like your Mommy. This has been fun for me because until recently everyone has said you look like your Daddy. Your hair is still red as of now though so we are all curious to see if it will change or keep the shade it has been since you were born. Only time will tell. Daddy and I love you so much!!

-Mommy

October 2010

October was a pretty quiet month because I stayed pretty busy doing family portraits for people. I surprisingly only had 1 wedding this October, but that was great because it allowed me to enjoy time with Jordon and Nieva. The first weekend of November Jordon and I took a weekend trip to Minneapolis and Nieva went to the women's retreat at my Mom & Dad's Ranch. Mom volunteered, but somehow poor Dad got stuck with our (I don't like)sleeping beauty. We went to Valley Scare and Renaissance Fest. I also did a shoot while I was up there which was fun. The park we shot at was beautiful and it was such a nice day. I missed my baby girl horribly and was so glad to see her when we got home. The following week I had a LOT of family shoots and wedding. That weekend Becca came up and we went to the Apple Orchard for Pumpkin festival. We took lots of pictures of Nieva and topped off the trip with some caramel covered apples. We also had a couch surfer from Oxford that entire weekend.

That Monday was Jordon and I's 2 year anniversary. We spent it with nieva. Back to the apple orchard we went so Jordon could partake in the fun. We went apple picking and showed Nieva the animals in the petting zoo. After that we headed to the mall. Jordon got a new coat that he loves and I got a great pair of knee high brown leather boots. For supper we went to Minerva's. All went pretty well until Nieva decided to pee all down herself while I was changing her. All we had for a spare was Jammies so Nieva spent her first evening in a fancy restaurant in her jammies lol. Luckily though she didn't make a peep and it went pretty well. The remainder of that week was spent editing. The third week in October I was very busy again with shoots all week. That Thursday we had a great couch surfer from Ohio. Since she was in to the arts also we had lots to talk about. We all went with Michelle, Derek, and Niki to see Ben Kweller in Brookings and got autograhs after the show and pics. Was pretty cool. That weekend was our baby girl's shower. Jordon and I sing "The Prayer". We took lots of adorable pictures and spent the day with family.

The following week I was sick all week :0 ( Guess the first part of the month wore us out because Nieva was sick too. The following friday I thought i was better only to wake up to 102.8 temp at 3am sat morning. Turned out to be mastitis from Nursing. I had a temp and flt icky all weekend and regretfully had to miss Lana's shower and one of the last days at my grandmothers house. I am sad to think of it. I have so many amazing memories from my childhood there. It just doesn't seem right or real, but I hope my grandparents find something amazing and are really happy. I was bummed to have missed Halloween festivities being sick, but sill had the energy to dress up Nieva in her proncess costume. Jordon and I couldn't stop smiling. She really is our little princess. Wish everyone could have seen it.

-A <3