3 Brothers (and fire update)

It has been a rough week. Mine and Jeremiah's hometowns are being threatened by the second biggest wildfire in Arizona history.  So many memories are tied to those beautiful mountains,

from our first date (Homecoming 2000), to our mini honeymoon in Greer.

 I have spent many many hours this week stalking facebook and glued to the news, waiting for updates on the fire.

Springerville and Eager are evacuated but my dad, Jeremiah's dad, and my Grandparents stayed behind to protect their homes and property from spot fires and looters.

So far everyone is ok, and I just found out that Greer made it out of the fire almost unscathed. They only lost a handful of houses. This is fantastic news because last night we were all convinced that Greer would be a total loss.

Did I mention that Greer is probably my favorite place in the world?

Anyways,  to try and keep my mind off of the fire I got my boys together to get some pictures of all 3 of them. Melesa has been teaching me some photo editing tricks with Photoshop and I have really been enjoying playing around with new pictures.

And I couldn't help but snap some shots of little tiny Mason by himself.

My favorite shot of the day.

 Simon really loves his new brother. He has already started "teaching" him things like how to wave and alphabet sounds. He is such a loving brother. Ryan still can't understand why Mason won"t talk to him or play with him. But I have found him giving Mason kisses and rubbing his soft hair. I think they will be best friends someday.

Someone told me this week that having 3 boys is "nirvana". 

I completely agree.  

10 days old

I'm a lucky girl. I have some very talented friends, including a few good photographers. My friend Erica Horihan is just getting her photography business started and she offered to come take some newborn pictures of Mason. She came over on Saturday when Mason was only 10 days old. It was so amazing to watch her work. Everything from props to poses to photo composition was just fascinating to me.

Mason was a little angel for her and slept through pretty much the entire 2 hour photo shoot.

So if you are in need of newborn photography or family photography I highly recommend Erica. She has a good eye for what makes a great picture.

Thank you again Erica. I can't believe how cute these pictures turned out!

This is just a handful of the pictures she sent to me. Now the hard part is going to be choosing which ones to get printed.

My first photoshoot with Mason!

I have my very own newborn baby to hold, snuggle, love, and to practice my photography skills on!

I had to take advantage of all his newborn baby cuteness. I set up a mini photo studio in my bedroom and snapped some shots of my sweet little guy.
After taking these shots I have a whole new respect for newborn photographers! It takes time and tons of patience.
After taking these shots I got a crash course in Photoshop. I called up Melesa and got some advice from her on how to use the program as well as some tips for editing newborn pics. I'm really happy with how they turned out for my very first newborn shoot. Now I am hoping I'll be able to snap some photos of Heidi's new baby when she is born in August.

Today my friend Erica came by to take some pictures of Mason. She is a very talented photographer (way better than me)! Mason slept "like a baby" during the entire shoot. Now I am anxiously waiting to see how cute they turned out. I just can't get enough of my little boy, the more pictures the better!

Here are my favorite shots I took of my sweet little Mason:

BTW, The cute little Teddy Bear Hat was made by Melesa. (It's so cute I can hardly stand it! Thanks Melesa!)

6 Days Old