Quiet Gardens, Raging Seas Part Deux
A String of Nevil Family MomentsArchive for Practically Speaking
Photography Studios and their Evil Schemes!
I vividly remember when I had the joy of sharing my pregnancy with two other friends in my Young Married’s class at church waaaaay back in 2005. My friends Erinn and Shane and I all gave birth to our babies, our first, within 2 weeks of each other.
Alivia
Cooper
Tyler
It was so fun sharing the ups and downs and the joys and pains of having our first babies all together! We went out to lunch to celebrate (and I think this was our first outing since the babies had been born) even though we had stitches in unmentionable places, hemorrhoids and the like. I do remember begging them to stop making me laugh because it hurt! (I had Cooper via Caesarian) HA!
L to R; Erinn, Shane and Me with our sweet new babes!
Well, these three gals taught me a lot about being a mom. Stuff I didn’t know you are “supposed” to do. I remember when one of them, I forget which, called me to say that they just got their one month pictures taken of the baby…and I’m thinking, “Oh,…you’re supposed to do that?” And then, I remember one of them telling me about the 3 month pictures they got taken and I thought, “Oh,…you’re supposed to do that too?”.
Eventually I swallowed my pride and asked about all this picture-taking nonsense. I learned that apparently, ah-hem, Mom’s of the Year take their baby’s to photographers to have their pictures taken once every 3 months for the entire first year of life. WHAT?
Who came up with THAT plan?
Because you know what happened when I made said appointment for my precious little babe right? Yeah, I dropped like $150 bucks on PICTURES of my child. Which I promptly gave to all the grandparents like any good daughter would…..
I’m pretty sure that the first year of life, Cooper got baby announcements, 3 month pictures, 9 month pictures and then like 12-18 month pictures. That’s a pretty impressive track score for me. We won’t discuss a monetary amount….
Chase on the other hand…aw…my sweet Chase. I made him the MOST ADORABLE birth announcements (thanks to my friend Amber!). Seriously, they are so cute. And they sit on my computer…finished…unprinted and unsent.
Additionally, the child is 10 months old and I have personally taken lots and lots of pictures of him. But no one else has…
Oh my road is riddled with good intentions! But alas, we’ve had other things going on right at those points. And technically he did have his pictures taken when he was 3 months old; they were just family pictures of all of us, not just him. I guess in my weak defense I can say he has announcements and 3 month pictures and just nothing since. There’s still time, right?
Well, then I went and saw this website. And SHEESH! I could spend a FORTUNE here! I think if I went, they would be forced to have me sign Chase up as their next child model.
Anyway, while I reel from trying to put this in the budget (HEY! Jeremy is getting a raise in January!), why don’t you savvy parents share your secrets of the photography trade. I leave you with pictures of Chase.
Chase, mere minutes old
Chase on Day 1
Chase at a couple weeks old
Chase at 3 months
Chase at 6 months
Chase at 9 months
Chase now
Ok, there, I feel better. See what I mean? I’m gonna be broke….
Man=Hard to Shop for…
My Men Last Christmas
I have Christmas on the brain. Thanksgiving just gets the short end of the stick this year. I’m WAY too excited about Jeremy coming in to town not to think of Christmas. But thinking of Christmas makes me think of presents…
I don’t consider myself the best gift-giver. Every once in a while I get it right, but it usually takes me about 7-8 wrongs before I’m there. Gift giving is so important to me though. I always want to do better than I often end up doing. (Hmm….I’m sensing a trend here…)
Part of the problem is that it is really, REALLY tough to shop for guys. Dude. Seriously. When shopping for a female, there just seem to be SO many more options. I mean even if you totally bomb there are still fall back options like Bath and Body Works for example. What woman doesn’t like SOMETHING from that place? But with guys, it’s never as fun. In fact, it’s really like torture to me. I know of no such place that is as good of a fall back option for guys. (And ok, Best Buy doesn’t count because you need to read my next point…please continue.)
Here is what I mean: I have a budget to stick to. I can’t spend more than between $30 and $50 on one person (and sometimes not even that much). That’s just the reality of where life has us these days! And guys always like expensive things. Electronics are expensive! Frankly, there isn’t a lot of gift options out there that fit my budget and make the A-A+ grade for guy gifts. To me a gift card is so cold. I relish the response of a much appreciated or well liked gift. I would really prefer not to do gift cards.
Incidentally, at my house growing up, we did Christmas like this: my Dad played Santa. He went around the tree and picked up the presents and brought them to you so that you had a stack o’ presents. Then, when all the gift boxes were handed out, we started around the circle and everyone opened one gift one at a time while everyone else watched and commented etc. Gift cards makes the morning and this kind of experience so much less fun.
So, men who read this blog, I need some input here. I’ll start off a list so that it will get your brain cranks rolling. If I have something on the list that stinks, do tell me. The men in my life will thank you for it. (For those of you ladies who read this and who ROCK the manly gift-giving or have some sort of other worldly perspective, do share.)
Manly List of Gift Ideas:
- wine (I DO live in Washington)
- movie tickets
- shop vac?
- movies/dvds
- books
- clothing/shoes
Help me finish the list guys!
