In the middle of all this, Jesus had a birthday...

Happy birthday to Jesus! There is no limit of presents under a tree that would be the equivalent to the gift God has given us.. Eternal life! Getcha some... It's been a blessed holiday season for us... time with family, good food, moments with our kiddos, a multitude of gifts... did I already mention the great food ? oh and my glorious anxiety issues ofcourse.. they only ruined about half of what I tried to do this holiday season :) This was my favorite Christmas for one reason only... it was Kellen's very first Christmas! He was adorable on every level. Now next year he will be romping around everywhere walking, so the tree might actually be a danger zone but this year he didnt bother any of them at all. Just sets in front of them and looks with me and claps his hands in approval.. ha.. if I say 'wheres the Christmas tree?' he will turn and look right at it and point. precious! Though he has been sick for the past few days he has been happy and joyful through it all. Jaxson got to spend the holiday with us this year also, so that was an added treat.. Jon said several times to me on various occassions, 'we are now the parents and no longer the kids waiting for Santa.' It was a fun realization for both of us that we have changed roles in the Santa saga and we're responsible for making sure all the 'kid fun' of Christmas is awesome for them, just like our parents made it for us.. pressure cooker! :) It was sweet watching him get everything ready for the boys, him and Jaxson set out 2 cookies and a glass of milk for Santa, and then before they got up he went and turned on the tree, ate the cookies, chased them down with milk, and made sure everything was ready for their big morning. Infact, im really not sure who was more excited him or jax.. close call :) Jaxson was the first one up, he came in our room to get us... we let Kellen sleep and let Jax go see what Santa had brought...I am proud of us. Rather then get caught up in trying to have 50 gifts for them under the tree we kept it simple... Jaxson was appreciative of all his gifts and seemed pleased, and Kellen is 10 months old.. he could have cared less about the presents he only wanted to tear off pieces of paper and eat it! And with coffee in hand I couldnt help but set back and take in the sweetness of our little family moments...

Holly Jolly Holiday Season!!

What a wonderful time of year! My child's first holiday season, how exciting it was for both of us! And lots and lots to do with family!
Jaxson got here Wednesday night and it was off to Pops and Mimi's house for some baking cookies and going to the square to look at lights..

 Jax was hamming it up and loving the lights of the ozarks, and Kellen was taken by the 2 guys playing the bongos and singing carols... and well us adults we just froze!

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A few weeks back we had taken Kellen to see Santa one day while out shopping. He did fine, sat on his lap, smiled, looked at him and smiled.. no issues.

but Thursday with his cousins was another story.. he was NOT liking the big man with the crazy white beard!! (Jaxson sure looks handsome though! He got right up on Santa's lap and started giving him his list of wants...ha

Santa saw this crew coming and said, um, this will work best if I get out of the line of fire and stand behind the chair !!

Pictures with Santa, lunch at Red Lobster, and the movie Tangled were all on the days agenda...When these 5 get together its a boy party!!! (Kellen's first movie by the way, he slept through almost all of it.)

cute cute movie!
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And more sugar cookies!! Gramma came over and the boys got to bake again...

Little dough for little fingers...

It was short lived as you can imagine the only thing he wanted to do was eat it !!

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It is our yearly tradition to celebrate Christmas eve with my family, either at my parents house or my brothers house... This year Jon and I took on the challenge of hosting the 'bidding game', which is a gift game my mom started for us a few years back... Of course we tweaked the rules a little and added some 'swap' cards and S.O.L. cards... have to keep it entertaining! After my 3 year old niece went to see Tangled a month ago she went home, found the scissors and decided to cut her hair.. when Angie came in and asked what she had done she told her , 'i'm cutting my hair like Repunzel'.   MERCY and guess what we happened to have already bought her for Christmas ??? the Repunzel wig!

He's checking it out... seeing if its cool enough to bipass chewing on the paper for...

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Christmas day was breakfast at Gramma's...

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Keep seeing posts of various trees with frillz and glits, but I think my mother-n-law takes the cake for having some really neat classy trees...

Those are all gifts !!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!  

In the Christmas spirit.

Boy Tree!!

A friend of mine was telling me she wanted to do something special for her kids so they would cherish and have fond memories of Christmas traditions at their home. She decided to collect various nutt crackers... another friend collects the little villages of people they sell during the holidays.. Well this kids tree is one of the many traditions I want to have for our kiddos. For a couple years now we have put up a tree in Jaxson's room and dubbed  it the 'boy tree'. Each year we will add fun new ornaments to it until some day it is a huge tree filled with adorable keep sake ornaments from year after year.. My hope is that they look forward to seeing this tree every year and take a few minutes to look at the ornaments that are on it and remember when they made them or got them.

Our friend Lisa gave us this ornament last year, so perfect..

The difference one year makes is incredible! Last year Jon and I enjoyed a quiet kidless Christmas morning  while sipping coffee and enjoying each others company. We opened gifts and talked and laughed about how next year we would have a baby crawling around everywhere as well as Jaxson's year to spend Christmas with us.. so lets recap, one year we have a kidless Christmas holiday and the next year we have a family of FOUR !! Well, this is that next year !! We now have the adorably spunky baby crawling around almost walking, and we will have our five year old here as well.. Makes me smile just thinking of how chaotic but enjoyable it will all be. Totally worth it.  Maybe its the family mode that has kicked in with me or maybe its the getting older part, not sure.. but i am sooooo loving all things Christmas! Fantsy boxes, wrapping gifts, ornaments, decorations, baking cookies, looking at lights, candles that smell like cinnamon something, taping cards to the door to see how many I can collect, even Christmas cd's, bring em! My sons first Christmas, woot. here's hoping for SNOW !  

Baby quirks at the 10 month milestone!

Unless they've changed things,  the 10 month mark is only two months away from being ONE year old!

This little gift from God is at his 10 month milestone.. with 6 teeth and more on the way he is eating almost everything we eat for dinner. He says momma and dada plainly and sounds out first letters for several other things including dog (da), red (re), you get the picture.. Loves refried beans off the fajita plate (go figure) and eats organic baby crackers and cookies with ease.. the entire thing goes in all at once! Pops and Mimi have a 'talking fish' named Bubba Bass on the wall in the living room (its Arkansas, this kind of thing is fairly common)... Anyways, Kellen LOVES it. He has his Pops wrapped around his finger and he will get him to pick him up as soon as he sees him and will point to the fish and say xxss... we're all guessing that means fish, ha. Bubba sings two songs, 'Don't worry be happy' and 'Take me to the River' and K will stand on the side of the chair and dance and smile and clap... HOOT 

we are over a week into teaching him to go straight to sleep at bed time and for most naps, and not waking up in the middle of the night for a bottle. It took me pretty much two nights of him crying for 30 minutes or so.. but each night he cried less and less until finally he is smiling at me and then going to sleep. Typing that out and then reading it, it sounds like it would be such an easy ordeal, but its actually very high stress, no joke. Hearing your child cry is horrible for a mom, and knowing they want you to hold them and comfort them but youre trying to teach them its okay to learn to fall asleep on their own.... awful. My sister-in-law gave me the book on teaching the Ferber method.. supposedly it works wonders and will help the mom get some good sleep as well as the baby.. so far so good! Of course like everything else I am only following the jest of the idea and tweaking it with my own input and way of doing things.. ha. --In the past few weeks he's starting to cuddle and give hugs. He is a remarkably sweet baby anyways, but this is just precious. He is saying hi to everyone and will wave and say bye bye.. I continue to be in complete aww of this child. 

   

Happy Holidays from the Davis family

 The grand plan was to get some stylish family pictures done this year and use them for a really rockin Christmas card for me to design.. (im always looking for an excuse to do this.)  The day was ice stinkin cold for starters, and Kellen had yet another allergic reaction to something. I'm guessing it was the unwashed beanie and tee-shirt he wore for the event... I wash ALL of his clothes in dreft before he wears them, and if I questioned why I do this before, this is WHY! Thankfully benadryl was there again to save the day, but in stressed out- momma mode and frozen- fingers of it all I completely forgot to get the pictures we needed.. you know, like actual pictures of the KIDS! I am someone who has great ideas at all times.. Can come up with great ideas, great plans, advise you on whatever it is you need, but when it comes to actually implementing the plan for my own self and family it is a train wreck! Bless their hearts for loving me inspite of my quirkiness! And thanks to Ali for weathering the freezing cold day with us :)

 Our little beanie baby



mmm...mmm. turkey day, gobble gobble

Two weeks ago I called it quits on my day job... Saying goodbye to my corporate America gig of nearly 8 years was both awesome and bittersweet. A lot changes in your life over the course of working a job for that length of time... let me be clear, A LOT changed in my life over the course of 8 years! A single rowdy semi- grounded but mostly crazy girl experienced what i'll just refer to as, adulthood.. I grew up! Got over all the hoopla and road to a lonely and meaningless existance and found a really comfortable place for myself in this world. yada yada..Not to say I wont ever grace a corporate building with my presence again but for now the chapter is closed.  The transition has been good and the extra time with Kellen has been wonderful. I'd love to say I am able to do nothing every day, shop and set around eating bon-bons, but thats not the case. The imagery emporium,lol, my picture biz is going strong. To God be the glory for it being a success..  Kellen's first Thanksgiving was good.. It's fun when you are so excited about your child's 'firsts' of everything like holidays and the christmas tree etc. and try to talk to them about it and they just look at you and smile and then pinch your nose!

K's first Thanksgiving

A grand tradition to draw names ... Kellen and Lily got to help decorate the name cards. well, Lily apparently helped Brittany drink her iced coffee and Kellen chewed the markers, but STILL... grand tradition.

 

Brittany and Christopher came up for the holiday also... Kellen wishes she would just move back!

We love you Britty Louise Mandella Lavern the 33rd!!



20 tips from Anne Geddes for taking great photos..

As a new momma I keep up with Babycenter.com on a regular basis.. This site helped me out soo much during my pregnancy and even now as Kellen grows each month I stay up to date with his age development. During pregnancy, it was a place for me to go and read that millions of other women were experiencing what I was going through...An outlet to help keep us paranoid occassionally over dramatic self, SANE!  I ran across this article and wanted to pass the great info along.. Our daily reality has evolved into a Facebook crazed world and everyone and their dog are snap happy and busy documenting their every breath.. and thats ok! I read several comments weekly of how 'annoyed' everyone is with each other for their daily posts of life and pictures.. I find myself thinking there is a line of sharing and just taking it to the extremes.. well, here's the deal,  if you dont want to look at it don't, if you dont want to read it, dont.. its that simple.. ya heard! Read what you want, take in what you want and ignore the rest..
and if you are someone that has joined the ranks of posting and sharing, let me stress to you how important it is to make sure you have your images saved and keep printing them..don't rely on the internet, blogging, fb, shutterfly, etc. to do the saving for you, keep your pictures saved on file elsewhere.. Otherwise you chance losing all these valuable and meaningful copies of your cherished moments.. The ol memory bank is great, but its not fool proof. save save save your pictures on a back-up.. This article mentions this as well, along with other great tips on how to get great pictures of your little ones.. My opinion is to let the professionals or the person you believe captures great images of your family continue taking your family portraits each year, but take plenty of snapshots of your own along the way. ok I think im off my soapbox..  These are helpful tips for anyone, even for every day snapshots. thought I would share :

(http://www.babycenter.com/0_20-tips-from-anne-geddes-for-taking-great-photos_10338944.bc?page=2)
We asked world-renowned photographer Anne Geddes for advice on taking great baby photos. Her tips and tricks can help you capture memories that’ll last a lifetime.


Do your own thing
Please don't try to replicate any of my images. They are created after hours of preparation and under careful controls in my studio, where I am supported by a team of talented professionals.

Be prepared
Keep your camera at the ready at all times. The more familiar your baby is with a camera, the more natural your photographs will be because your baby's curiosity won't be aroused by the camera. And with a camera at hand, you'll always be ready for those special spontaneous moments.

Consider the background
Keep your background simple to let your baby take "center stage" in the image.

Change your perspective
For a more personal point of view, get down to your baby's eye level.

Get ready
Ensure that your baby is safe, well fed, happy, and comfortable and you can be guaranteed some lovely images.


Time it well
Choose the time of day when your baby is happiest. Every baby is different.

Let there be light
I love using natural light. It is always more flattering to use the soft directional light coming in a window than the flash on a camera.

Go early or late
If you are photographing outside, try to take advantage of the early morning or late afternoon light. The mid-day sun doesn't bring out the best in anyone, and it can be especially harsh on your baby's perfect skin!
Don't splurge


You don't need an expensive camera to take a great photograph, because the best image begins in your heart, inspired by the baby.

Candid camera
The loveliest shots of your baby will most likely be candid ones.

Forget the props
The photograph is not about the props (no flowerpots please!). It's just about your beautiful baby.

Make it personal
Take pictures in settings that have meaning for you. Make your images personal; this will give them an even deeper resonance.

They grow so fast
Remember, babies are only this tiny for such a short time. You might not believe it now, but you will forget how small your baby was in the beginning, so try to show your baby's size in relation to the surroundings. For example, images of a baby's hand in a family member's hand are so poignant because they capture that sense of scale.

Put it in context
Try for a sense of place, as well. You might think that you'll always remember that day or the story behind the image, but it's not always the case, especially as more wonderful events occur as your baby grows. If you can use a background that "sets" the image for you, it helps bring the story back to mind when viewed years later.


Put yourself in the picture
Do try to include yourself in as many photographs with your family as possible. Your children will want to know what you looked like "way back then" when they were newborns and as they grew up. They'll thank you for it later!

Save, save, save
I enjoy working digitally and with film. With your digital images, do try to download them from your camera on a regular basis, saving them to files grouped by months when your baby is young (so many changes occur so quickly in the early years).

Get organized
When saving your images, try to add a key word that will help you find the image when you're seeking it later for a holiday card or scrapbook. Instead of "Amy Summer," try "Amy 6mos in hat" – something memorable, so you can locate it more easily months or years later.

Back it up
Always, always back up your digital images. They are as valuable and irreplaceable as film negatives.

Try a video
Try out the short video feature on your digital camera. Those "small" spontaneous moments will be precious additions to your keepsakes.

Use technology
Have you sampled any of the new digital photo frames, apps like those available for the iPad's multi-touch screen, or features on Flickr? They are a lovely way to share treasured images with family, open albums with a tap, scroll through smaller "thumbnail" images to find favorites, play and share slide shows, manage photo sets, geo-tag photos, favor photos, comment on them, and much more.

Nine (9) months old...

This little whipper will be 9 months old tomorrow, craziness!

Jon and I were running some errands and needed to check out an upcoming

wedding location so I through an outfit together and we got some shots of K..
Like most children whos parents have discovered dslr cameras

he is all too familar with a lens, and when I break out the camera he breaks out

the 'serious' expressions.. I have our daily routine down to a science, but when it comes to breaking out of the mold of routine and running errands or traveling, 9 months later I'm STILL trying to get the momma to-do list down pat... 

 1.) bring the baby  2.) FEED the baby 3.) pack plenty of snacks 4.) pack plenty of supplies 5.) leave room for a nap.. things like that.
It's a blessing for me that he is an easy going baby!
Saturday night he had his first 'play date'. Some friends invited us over for dinner. They
have a baby girl named Sydney a little older then Kellen. Miss Sydney is a doll. K is around
older kids alll the time but other babies not as much. She was a good sport to put up with
his face tugging and pushing her down. He opted to give her a Kellen kiss which was
stinkin cute. Kids are so entertaining.. Surprisingly enough I left the goods at home and wasn't able to
document the evening. we'll get it next time.

Tidds and Bitts...

As you can see here, we now have SIX teeth...

How could this happen you ask ? I have NO IDEA! 

One day we had 2 going on 3 and now this.

unbelievable how fast these babies grow.

Jon thought it would be entertaining to see the expressions

he made if we gave him a taste of a lemon.. guess again dad!

This baby didnt even skip a beat, he loved it and just wanted

another bite... he's a tough cookie

Standing and holding on to tables and chairs and balancing well enough

to hold on with only one hand, I bet hes walking by Christmas.

His favorite treat so far are Gerber's yogurt melts, peach flavor. (His Gramma

is helpful with keeping these in supply.)

We gave Luvs a whirl because of the price difference compared to Pampers and Huggies..

Pampers are by far my favorite but I was impressed with the Luvs (didnt think i would be). no leaks and no issues.. our experience is they work the same for a cheaper price!

A few baby quirks of his... we have a highchair seat that straps into one of the chairs to our
dining room table (saves room in a small dining room).. There are long blue straps that hang off the back
of it and onto the floor.. K loves to set and play with the straps, tugs and pulls them and just giggles and  laughs and thinks its so funny.. and watching him do this makes me smile and laugh and giggle.. its a WIN/WIN for both of us!
I bought a jumbo pack of white wash cloths at Wally world specifically for cleaning up after Kellen,
even keep them in his designated section of the kitchen.. Somehow we manage to go through a minimum of five of these things daily... sigh