Saturday, May 28, 2011

Quick Peek for Lacey and Blair

I had the pleasure of photographing Lacey and Blair on their wedding day on April 23, 2011. I've finally given her the CD of images so now I'd like to share a few of my favs:
(For you editing gurus out there, my apologies, this was my first attempt at using lightroom)

Here's Lacey getting help with her dress from Maid of Honour, Inez

Blair was super nervous (and had to be reminded that he couldn't wear white socks...haha) but pulled it off quite nicely with this shot.
Lacey and her girls arriving at the church
Rings have been exchanged


Group shot on the front steps of the church


Now one of Lacey and the lobster pots

Someone asked me if I brought "backdrops" (What the...?) Who needs a fake backdrop when you have THIS gorgeous scenery!?!

The rings in the lobster pot. Poor little Maria had just bumped her head and wasn't feeling too good...but I think it's a great family shot regardless.

I had to keep reminding Blair to smile but the serious look goes over sometimes too, doesn't it?
Another great backdrop.

Probably my favourite of all...so sensual!

The cake...very nice!
Lacey and her step-dad dancing and having a fun moment together.
Kisses for Mama = So sweet!


Thanks Lacey and Blair for entrusting me to capture your memories. Wishing you many happy years ahead.


Enjoy!

Myrna

Friday, May 27, 2011

Great News!

If you've followed for a while (last year at this time I posted this) then you know about how we have to go to St. John's every year to take Sarah to the Janeway to see the pediatric urologist.

We left on Tuesday morning to drive in. It's such a long drive and a little more challenging this year with baby Charlotte in tow.

Wednesday morning was "doomsday" for Sarah. I always take the time, as recommended, to explain the procedures in advance to give Sarah time to process and understand. Nevertheless, she was still very nervous and scared. Her memory is very good and no amount of explaining can take that away.

The regular ultrasound went very well. A breeze. Last year, Sarah freaked out just laying down on the table, regardless of the fact that an ultrasound doesn't hurt a bit. This year, she was actually quite interested in seeing how that magic camera could see inside her body.

The VCUG was a different story. We were in the waiting room and Sarah's name was called. The nurse approached her and said, "Are you Sarah?" to which she replied, "No! I don't want to go down there." Poor thing thought that if she didn't admit to being "Sarah" then she wouldn't have to walk down that hall. We got to the xray department and Sarah immediately remembered the room and the big machine and started to cry. The xray technician was amazing and patient and let Sarah choose which colour gown she wanted, which stickers she wanted, etc. All was going well until Sarah saw a "boy" and she started freaking out again. She said she didn't want that boy to see her private parts. That boy was the doctor coming in to do the xray himself. Sarah was assured that he would not see anything, only the girl nurse would see her to insert the catheter, etc. All was ok again. Until it was time to inject the dye to fill the bladder. Sarah had to go pee. This is necessary to get the results to see the direction of the urine but Sarah couldn't understand why she was supposed to pee on the xray table and wanted desparately to go to the bathroom. Oh my! What a fiasco!

After all was said and done, the doctor said he couldn't see any major reflux and thought there was definite improvement. What exciting news! But we still had to wait for confirmation of those results from our pediatric urologist. The appointment was on Thursday afternoon. We had to wait. We said our prayers of thanks anyways.

On Thursday, with Dr. Akhtar - who made Sarah cry just by walking in the room, regardless of being told the tests were all done - we were given confirmation of the wonderful news. In previous years, Sarah's reflux had progressively gotten worse to a level 3-3.5. This year, it had improved to a level ONE! This means no more daily medication and a full TWO years before we have to go back to the Janeway to follow up.

When we went back to our apartment, Sarah immediately threw her medicine in the garbage. She was very excited about that part. And we thanked God for being able to fix little girls and their broken parts :)

Thank you to those of you who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. We are very happy to be home.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Embarrassed

Last week I decided it was time to pull out the next size of baby clothes. Charlotte is growing so fast and I am constantly purging and sorting. I went to our storage area downstairs - TWO huge bins marked 9 - 18 months. I dragged them upstairs and began unpacking. I was overwhelmed by the amount of clothing, embarrassed even that my baby has so much.



I counted:

51 dresses (like, seriously, even my baby who attends church regularly doesn't need 51 dresses!)

33 pairs of pants

26 sleepers and pj sets

A laundry basket FULL of shoes

5 bathing suits

numerous sets (track suits, skirts with matching tops, etc)

20 sweaters and hoodies

and an uncounted pile of shorts and tanktops for summer!


These are, of course, all hand-me-downs from Sarah. And in my defense, I could literally count on both hands the items I purchased myself. The rest were hand-me-downs collected from our older nieces.


So much! My mother saw it all and shook her head.


And then a friends sister, was literally stuck among the forest fires in Slave Lake, Alberta. Her family, including their little girl, finally got out (Thank God!) but lost everything. That hit home and reconfirmed it all: these things mean nothing. Yes, we need some things. We obviously need clothes. But not even close to that much!


Embarrassed, I tell ya!


So I am packing up my favs and giving the rest away. Does anyone know someone specific who could use baby girl clothes (I have sizes from Newborn - 24 months)? I'm hoping to send little Chloe (the friends little niece in Alberta) the girl clothes she needs.


Have you been embarrassed by your material things lately? I think we need to be overwhelmed by it all sometimes to put things in perspective...don't you?