Newborn Photo Shoot

So as I mentioned before, we decided to forego hiring a photographer for newborn pictures and try to shoot some of our own.  We did a few rounds of pictures and we got some that we really like!

In the Hospital

 We actually had every intention of getting professional pictures done in the hospital.  The photographer came by on Monday (the day before we were discharged) and gave us all of the pricing info and we told her we were probably interested, so she said she'd put us on her list to check back on Tuesday before we went home.  Tuesday morning Cooper had his circumcision and due to some crazy complications we had to stay at the hospital a little longer for some lab work to be completed.  So we figured we'd have plenty of time for the pictures.  But no one ever showed up.  So after Coop got back from his procedure, we decided to get him dressed and try to shoot some pictures of our own.  David took these shots since I still wasn't moving around too well and I think he did a great job!

Fun fact-- we took this onesie to the photo shoot we did with our friend Amy back in November for our Gender Reveal Christmas cards.  It was fun having a baby to put in the onesie, I personally think he makes it look even cuter!

I ended up being so glad that the hospital photographer never showed up, because we would have paid for and probably gotten some great pictures, but I'm really happy with what we were able to take on our own!

At Home

We did the majority of the newborn photo shoot the Saturday after we got home when Cooper was exactly 1 week old.  I looked through a bunch of tutorial and pose ideas on Pinterest.  I used a lot of tips from this post, mainly the setup ideas and positioning suggestions for how to place the props and camera in relation to the window.

I started with a few of him swaddled while we figured out the lighting.  I basically positioned myself/the camera and then took several shots in several different modes.

Then I unswaddled him a little so we could see his precious hands--he likes to bring them to his mouth and suck on them

Since he was good and asleep, I was able to move him around a little to get this sweet shot

My Aunt Beverly bought him this bear and brought it when she visited us at the hospital.  I plan on using it in his monthly pictures (which will start in just a few days--I can't believe it!) so we grabbed one of him at 1 week old with the bear too.

We also took the Baylor and OU baseball cap pictures during this photo shoot.  

We used a combination of these pictures and the ones from the hospital shoot to create Cooper's birth announcement.  And then we ordered a few extra prints for some family.  I felt pretty good when the photo center at Sams called to verify that we had taken the pictures and that they weren't taken by a professional photographer before they would release them.  I know a professional photographer would have probably gotten a lot better shots, but I was happy with how they turned out

Family Pictures

We also wanted to get a few pictures of us with Cooper.  When looking at different pose ideas, there were several for taking pictures in the nursery and several for taking pictures on the bed.  Cooper's nursery does not get very good light any time of day because of the trees in our front yard, which will be awesome for him sleeping, but not so great for pictures.  Our bedroom is usually pretty dark with our blackout curtains, but when I opened the one on the East side of our house up it brought in a lot of natural light, so we shot a few pictures on our bed.

Daddy loves his boy

And I'm pretty fond of him too

First picture of all 3 of us taken outside of the hospital!

We sure love our little guy and are glad to have these pictures to capture this special time for our family.

What's Up Wednesday

It's hard to believe April is almost over!  I'm linking up with Mix and Match Mama today for What's Up Wednesday

What we're eating this week

Our friends and church family have so generously been bringing dinner a few nights a week since we got home from the hospital, so we are eating well AND we're not having to cook.  We've had lasagna and chicken spaghetti, takeout from some of our favorite places like Chiloso and Tom and Chee, and last night we had a Pork Tenderloin with a Cherry Chipotle sauce and some delicious roasted vegetables and baked potatoes.  We are definitely eating well!  We haven't even used any of our freezer meals yet!

What I'm reminiscing about

Currently, nothing.  I think these are the days I will end up looking back on and reminiscing about

What I'm loving

Baby Snuggles with my little guy

What we've been up to

Tummy time

 Lots of naps

 Reading books

And going on a few walks

What I'm dreading

Nothing at the moment!

What I'm working on

Cooper's baby book and documenting his first days and weeks.  I have a goal to take at least one picture of him every day for the first year--which so far has not been hard.  So I've been organizing those in a folder to put together after the year is up to see how much he changes.  I know it'll fly by!

What I'm excited about

This big guy has his Pre-K graduation next week and his little sister will be in her first school performance.  Cooper and I are looking forward to going to see his cousins then!

What I'm watching/reading

I'm about to start this book for my Book Club that meets again in a few weeks.

We've been watching a lot of TV since we got home from the hospital.  David made a comment about not realizing how much time we'd have to just sit and watch things, but we really do. We've been watching through Scrubs on Netflix and catching up with the current season of Scandal.  I also watch a lot of news and talk shows during the day when I'm home.

What I'm listening to

Still going strong with podcasts, but I am also loving Amazon Music.  There is so much available through our Prime Membership.  We've listened to a few fun playlists that Amazon has as well as these albums:

 Such a beautiful worship album

 Fun lullabies and songs about babies

Brad Paisley's new album!

What I'm wearing

A lot of yoga pants and nursing tank tops.  I also got a few nursing tops from Old Navy that I am really loving these days.

What I'm doing this weekend

Spending time with my 2 favorite guys.  We've been going out to get breakfast on Saturday mornings, so we may do that again.  We'll probably try to make it to church.  David's parents are coming through town Sunday evening so we'll spend some time with them.  And David is taking Mondays off for the next month, so we get an extra day with him each weekend!

What I'm looking forward to next month

First Mothers Day with Cooper!  

What else is new

Just in case you were wondering about her--Lily is adjusting just fine.  She is very interested in Cooper and likes to be closeby all the time.  She has been good with him so far and she is enjoying having me around all of the time.  

Wildflower Pictures

One of the beautiful things about living in Texas is wildflower season in the Spring.  So when I saw that the City of Richardson had posted about a few spots where the flowers were blooming, I wanted to try to take a trip out to get a few pictures with Cooper.  After church yesterday, we stopped by Crowley Park and found the field of beautiful flowers.

We snapped a few pictures of Coop on his blanket with the flowers, but since they were so tall and we didn't bring any other props it was hard to get many good ones.

 So then we hopped in the pictures too!  We have hardly any pictures of me and Cooper so far, so it was fun to get to take a few when I was already dressed for church

 And Daddy got some with his boy too.

It was a beautiful day to be out at the park for a little while!  It's crazy to think that next year when if we take wildflower pictures that Cooper will probably be moving all around and on the go!

Cooper's First Bath

Cooper's Umbilical Cord fell off Thursday night, so we were finally able to give him a bath!  We've been wiping him down with wet cloths frequently because he tends to get milk all over his face when he eats and his hair is always a little crazy since he has so much of it already, so it was nice to give him a full bath.

We put him in the water and covered him with a warm washcloth. 

 This is when he was still okay with it.  He soon got upset about the whole bath thing :)

He was glad to be out of the bath and wrapped up in his towel

Still a little mad at us in this picture

Daddy is really good at getting him swaddled in his swaddle blankets, so he got him all wrapped up

And then he was good to go! 

 Our clean burrito baby!

Cooper's First Easter

We had a great Easter weekend!

Since Cooper was doing pretty well on Friday, we decided to try out his first trip to church for Good Friday service.  We always love getting to celebrate Easter weekend at Woodcreek, but we knew we wouldn't be able to make it Sunday morning, so we were glad to spend Friday evening there.

 Cooper hung out in the Baby K'tan and slept through most of the service.  

Sunday morning we got up and got ready for Easter.  We snapped a few pictures of Cooper in his Easter outfit with his bunny that his Nanny and Pappaw gave him.

He knew it was going to be a long day ahead and just thinking about it made him sleepy

Then we headed to my mom's house for breakfast before church.  We spent Sunday morning at her church with my family.  Cooper once again napped in the K'tan through the service.  Then we headed back to her house for lunch and an afternoon of family time.

This is pretty much how Cooper spent his afternoon:

He had lots of hands to hold him and he snoozed most of the day away

He slept while his cousins hunted Easter eggs.  It's hard to believe that he will be out there with them soon!

And he got some snuggles from his big cousin Chase.  Piper still isn't too sure about the baby, but Chase enjoys holding him and is very sweet with him!

 By the afternoon it was time to change into his comfier clothes for the rest of the day.

He enjoyed a few more snuggles with Grandma before we headed home to rest.

We all 3 took a nap when we got home and then we got up to get ready for the week since David headed back to work on Monday.

It was a great Easter weekend with our families.  

Family Birthday Dinner

This past weekend, in addition to celebrating Easter, we also got to celebrate a very special guy

 David's dad and Cooper's Pappaw!  His birthday is this week, so we had dinner together Saturday night to celebrate him.  Since getting out with Cooper for more than an hour or so is quite an ordeal, David's family kindly came to us and brought a delicious dinner from Pappasito's.  We enjoyed fajitas, cake and conversation.  And of course Pappaw was a little overshadowed by all the attention that Cooper got, but I don't think he minded. 

Big life transitions (like having a baby) are always a reminder to me of the things we will miss out on with my Dad.  When I think too much about it, it makes me sad that Cooper will every only know one of his grandfathers--but the one he has is a pretty fantastic one and I know he will enjoy making lots of good memories with his Nanny and Pappaw. 

Cooper is a lucky little guy to have so many people who love him!  He definitely didn't mind all of the attention and snuggles Saturday night.

Easter Sunday

 

Oh, the glory of this blessed day—the day our Christ walked out of the grave, saying, “Greetings!” How can we but celebrate?

Our promised Savior has come, and His work is complete. We cannot add to it or take away from it. It cannot be undone (Ephesians 2:8; John 10:28). 

Our Redeemer has risen. “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” The risen Jesus is the “yes” to all God’s promises, echoing throughout eternity (1 Corinthians 15:54; 2 Corinthians 1:20). 

Our hope is eternally secure. The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our future glory sealed in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:22).

We will not find our Lord in a tomb. He has risen, just as He said.

-from the She Reads Truth devotion. http://shereadstruth.com/2017/04/16/easter-sunday/

Happy Easter

When I realized Cooper was going to be born right around Easter, I knew I wanted a picture of him in an Easter basket.  This is the one my mom bought for him to have at her house (yes, she still gives all of us Easter baskets every year!), so she brought it over for us to play around with.  He woke up as we were shooting the pictures, so I didn't get a ton, but I thought this one was cute.

And he's pretty cute when he's crying too #outtakes  I had to snap a picture quickly and then I picked him up and got him out of that silly basket like he was asking me to! 

We also bought a few Easter themed clothes at Target for him.  Since his daddy likes a good pun, here's his favorite.

Cooper doesn't look too cracked up here :)

We're looking forward to seeing both families this weekend for birthday and Easter celebrations!  Cooper is a lucky guy to have so many people who love him. 

And as we stood singing in Good Friday service last night, I couldn't help but think about how much the Easter story means to me this year.  I am so grateful for a healthy and happy baby boy, but I'm so much more grateful that no matter what comes our way things are well with my soul because of Jesus.  And I'm grateful to get to raise Cooper to hopefully know that same assurance.  What a huge privilege.  

Newcomer of the Year

We've been having fun taking lots of pictures of Cooper in the 11 days since he was born.  We are loving our Canon Rebel DSLR camera and how easy it is to use and get good pictures. 

I had decided to try to do our own newborn photos instead of hiring a photographer.  They may not be as perfect as we could get, but we thought we could get at least a few good shots!  David actually shot several pictures while we were waiting to be discharged from the hospital and most of those were really good.  And then we set up a little backdrop in our living room Saturday afternoon and took some more pictures.  

We ordered birth announcements with some of the pictures on them, so I'll wait until those go out before sharing most of the pictures from the photo shoot, but I thought I'd share a few that aren't going on our announcement.

One of our free Saturdays in the Fall we were out running errands and decided to drop into Rally House to see if there was anything we might want for Cooper.  And of course there was.  We found a lot of things that we liked, but ended up narrowing it down to 3 Baylor things and 3 OU things.  The outfits we bought are still too big for him, but we also bought these ball caps that say "Newcomer of the Year."  They are obviously too big for him too, but we thought they were fun for our photo shoot.

  

We love our little Sooner Bear!

We got a lot of Rangers clothes for him--both hand me downs and as gifts--but it's fun to have a few things to represent our colleges as well.