Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Oh, blogging helps on days like this. 

My parents left this morning, and once again, it is an appropriately gloomy, rainy day. It seems that every time they leave, the day corresponds with my mood. 

So to console myself, I wanted to post a blog with photos of our time together. It always helps me to do this, and so here we go! 

Amber flew in late Friday night, so Alana and I didn’t get to see her until Saturday morning. Rich had gone to pick her up around 1 in the morning, since he fares much better than me when losing sleep!

Saturday was a fun but busy day, preparing for the birthday party the next day. Amber, Alana and I went to Fresh To Order for lunch and gobbled up delicious salads while Alana got reacquainted with her aunt. 

Alana took to Amber so quickly I was amazed. Alana is a very cautious baby, and doesn’t let most people hold her. But Amber got down on the floor as soon as Alana woke up and started playing with her, laughing with her, tickling her, and interacting! It was so sweet to see how quickly Amber won her over. 

When we got home from lunch, Amber humored us and helped with some yard work. THANK YOU, Pixie! 

Amber had her camera lying around all week, so most of the photos in this blog are hers! Thank you, Amber! She grabbed these photos of Alana being a little ham and I LOVE them! 

Then, Saturday night my parents and Shawn got here! We visited, chatted, laughed, and made a few preparations for the party on Sunday, and then crashed!

Alana’s party was an absolute blast, and if you haven’t already, check out the blog post by Amber Holritz from the party! 

Here are a few snapshots of the day…

My family! Let me draw everyone’s attention to my dad’s big blue eyes! That is where Alana gets her eyes, since people ask me ALL the time! Everyone seems to think that Alana resembles my dad in general, too, which is so interesting to me! 

SIBLINGS!!! 

Alana started slow, but definitely caught on eventually…

Seriously! The girl can destroy a cake! 

Bathed, changed, and in a sugar coma…

Rich, modeling Alana’s new sweater dress from Aunt Pixie! 

My mom, sister, and dear friend Kellie! Since Kellie and I spend every Tuesday together, she willingly helped me with all of the party decorations so that everyone was ready ahead of time. There aren’t enough words to describe how thankful I am for Kellie, and for so many reasons! I love you, Kellie! 

Birthday girl! 

Uncle Shawn and Alana. She adores him, and he is SUCH an amazing uncle! 

Some post-party tissue paper fun: 

This is pretty much what the week consisted of for Alana: she is a little food-moocher! She’d float around the room, going from one person to the next, begging for food, even if she’d just eaten! It was hilarious! I have no idea how she is so petite! 

A wonderful lunch outing to P.F. Changs! Amazing, sweet, helpful grandparents! I love them, and Alana loves them! 

On Grandpa’s shoulders wearing an adorable sleeper from her other grandparents for her birthday! 

Then, Thanksgiving day was spent with family and with Jason and Kellie! We were so happy to have them over, as their wonderful families live in Oregon! Jason and Kellie will be going to visit them for Christmas, but for now, we substituted happily and loved having them over! 

Aunt Pixie playing with Alana! This is another birthday dress from Amber to Alana, and it really couldn’t have been cuter! 

Hooray for new toys!!!

Thanksgiving fun! 

I melt when I see my family with her! They love her so much and she just had the time of her life with them! 

The most popular birthday toy! Alana spends most of her waking hours with this little car now. It honks, sings, plays piano, and best of all, she is practice walking all over the place! She pushes it around, walking like a pro, back and forth across the living room.  

Then on Friday morning, Amber headed back to the airport to fly home. We miss her so much already and are going to have to start planning our next get together immediately! 

We had the privilege of spending half the day on Friday with my in-laws and the Smith Family. We enjoyed each other’s company and ate delicious food, and failed to take ANY photos! I get so mad at myself when I do that! I am just so thankful that Amber was taking pictures here all week, or I wouldn’t have any of my family, either! 

Sadly, my mom, dad, and bro left yesterday morning and the house is much too quiet, much too empty, and there just isn’t quite enough laugher echoing through the walls. Alana seems to notice that something is missing too. We are just so excited that in three short weeks, we’ll be headed to Fort Lauderdale to spend the week together again! 

I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving with their friends and family as well! It is invaluable to spend time thinking of everything that we have to be thankful for, and all of God’s goodness in our lives! 

Rich took me outside a couple of weeks ago to snap some photos of my new haircut…being that I chopped, oh, about ten inches off! I guess to other people, it’s still not short, but to me, I feel nearly bald!

And then, with all of the craziness around here, I completely forgot to blog them! 

Losing more than half of my hair makes me feel very lightweight and we’re saving on shampoo and conditioner, to be sure

Thanks for the fun photos, honey!

More importantly, my amazing family is here for the week, and yesterday we celebrated Alana’s first birthday! The party was a blast, and thank you so much to the friends and family who joined us for the celebration!

I will be blogging very soon about all of the birthday festivities!

Sweet Baby Alana,

Today you are one year old.

One hundred generic statements are coursing through my mind, because each one, in it’s own silly way, encapsulates the way I am feeling today. Among them, the most prominent is “How did the time fly by so quickly?” Everyone told me to cherish your baby days because the time would inevitably speed by and you would never be this little again.

Well, as much as I followed their advice and cherished this first year of your life, I’m still not quite ready to let it go. 

One year ago today, your daddy and I welcomed you into this crazy world with excitement, wonder, a little anxiety, a lot of expectation - and on my part, a good deal of pain

We wondered what life would be like now that we’d gone from a family of two to a family of three. We wondered what would change, what would remain the same. We wondered what you would look like, who you would resemble. We wondered what personality you’d display for us, and what would make you happy, sad, angry, and excited.

And this past year we have stood by and watched as all of our unanswered questions transpired into deep, exciting, fresh knowledge for us.

We have fallen in love with you.

We have embraced your little God-given personality and all of your passion. We could not be more smitten with you, sweet pea. You are a gift from God, and we are so thrilled that he has chosen us to be the ones to spend a lifetime with you.

Today you are only one year old. But it’s been a year FULL of learning, growing, loving, and becoming a new, redefined family. We are praying for many, many more years to enjoy you, little ‘Lana. We want to be here for you no matter what life brings your way. We want to encourage, protect, nurture and teach you.

Happy, happy FIRST birthday, sweetie. We love you more than words can say.

Love,
Mommy

And in honor of Alana’s birthday today, I wanted to post my very first photo shoot outing with Rich. He took me out with the intention of working on some particular skills I’d been learning, and we had a blast. I am so excited to be learning under him, and our first session went very well…albeit overwhelming.

While I have so much to learn, this time we only worked on backfocusing and utilizing the light (rather than figting against it) and I worked on my stance while using the 70-200 mm lens…which is SO heavy and can easily leave your sore and hurting the next day if you don’t learn how to hold it properly. I worked just a bit on zooming but didn’t do too much in that realm. I also tried to focus a bit on composition, but again, didn’t want to get too overwhelmed on my first official outing! I’ve had lessons before on depth of field, so it was fun to actually put my knowledge into practice with an aperture of 2.8.

Here are our favorites, and please check out the slideshow below for more! Rich and I alternated taking shots of each other with Alana (so it will be obvious who took each photo), while the shots of Alana by herself were all taken by me.

This following sequence was taken by Rich…it was Alana’s very first time in a swing, and you’ll see how much it terrified her!

 

And so, here is the slideshow of my first photoshoot! Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

Okay, listen up everyone! I have an exciting announcement for all of you moms who would love an opportunity to learn from lifestyle baby photographer Amber Holritz!

It’s a Moms with Cameras Workshop! Check out her blog here for more details! The workshop is sure to be super informative, fun, and enjoyable. Having been to one of Amber’s workshops before, I can urge you with complete confidence that it will be WELL worth your time and investment!

So don’t waste any time! Go, sign up, and I will see you there next month!!!

Franklin, Tennessee.

Just 30 square miles and a mere 40,000 residents but boasting more than the average city. It sits in the middle of the state, about 2 hours driving from here in Chattanooga…

…and it might just be my favorite place I’ve visited in this country. 

The reason for our second visit to Franklin? Our dear friends, The Hickling Family. I knew them from my years living in Fort Lauderdale, and then happily reunited with them as they moved briefly to Chattanooga before settling in Franklin. 

Franklin, I think I’ve mentioned before on my blog, is wonderful for a multitude of reasons. It’s family friendly. It seems every neighborhood proudly displays it’s own lovely park and playground. Everywhere you look is gorgeous; there is simultaneous natural beauty along with resident-prioritized care and cultivation. You can tell that people take pride in where they live. There is no litter, every lawn and green expanse is neatly manicured and tediously cared for. Churches abound, and the people are kind. The shopping is unique. The list of notable residents is ultra impressive. The developed areas peacefully coexist with the untouched fields and meadows. It’s just a little utopia right here in Tennessee! 

Dan and Becky invited us to join them for a Fall Festival, and boy, did I underestimate the kind of gathering this town could produce!

Rich, Alana and I arrived at the Hicklings on Saturday morning, just in time to head downtown for the fun. And there it was: all of downtown had been converted into a kid-with-parent-trick-or-treating-bounce-house extravaganza. We saw every Halloween costume ever invented, being sported by miniature people of all shapes and sizes. So cute! 

Alana went as a little ballerina, and somehow we failed to get a good full-body photo of her sitting on the floor with her poofy tu-tu. Just looking at her little eleven-month-old ballerina self made me deliriously happy. 

Apparently, she was happy, too: 

 

 

My wonderful, amazing little family. Ah, I am smitten. By both of them. 

 

I took the following few photos of my man and my little bitty. I used his awesome camera, but of course, I cannot take credit for these fully, since Rich had the settings already programmed for me. I tell you, the more I know about photography, the more I realize how MUCH I have to learn. It’s a complex combination of an artistic eye and a thorough understanding of the science and technicality of the camera and lens. I refuse to be one of the thousands who claim to know more about photography than I do

Nonetheless, I think I captured a few special daddy-daughter moments: 

Snuggles. 

 

Nuzzles. 

 

Cuddles. 

 

Sleepiness. 

 

Little Danny was adorable, and here, had just enjoyed sliding down a big bouncy yellow thing! 

 

Lauren was a good sport and went as hannah montana, even though they don’t really watch it at their house. She looked so cute, and enjoyed the trick-or-treating too! 

 

Alas, the weekend went by much too quickly, and we said our goodbyes and meandered back to Chattanooga, not so eager for the workweek to start just yet! 

 

Dan and Becky, thank you once again, so very much, for having us at your lovely home and all of the great laughs and chats. We loved it!