Today I

Posted on January 31, 2010

Today I:

• painted my toenails red
• discovered gassy children
• in a moment of brilliance, fed said gassy children some chili
• chased a naked child
• finished editing a session
• sang silly songs with the girls
• kept a fire going to battle the cold…and high propane bills
• discovered that I need more cardigans
• chased a naked child..again
• celebrated putting Aryah into one of her cute little outfits sized 0-3 months.  It fit!
• celebrated putting Aryah into another cute little outfit after a diaper exploded poo
• cleaned up poo from the girls’ room since a naked child decided the floor was much more fun that the potty
• wondered when my house became the poo house
• threatened to duct tape clothes on the naked child if she stripped down again
• explained that cows don’t lay eggs nor do doctors cut babies out of their tummies like they do to mommy
• saved the yarn for the blanket I’m crocheting from being unraveled
• caught up on some blogs
• read a new blog that put things into perspective
• researched phones again in hopes that I finally pick one out
• made my bed
• giggled

The Little Guys | Northwest Arkansas Lifestyle Photographer

Posted on January 5, 2010

I have four kiddos.  Four beautiful, bright, funny children that light up my life.  There are days when they drive me insane, days they make me want to cry (and sometimes I do) and days when I think I just can’t do it anymore.  Mostly, though, there are days where I am completely amazed that these little people are mine.  That they need me.  That they love me no matter what.

It’s cold.  It’s snowy.  The baby is asleep and I should totally be taking advantage of this time to finish cleaning the living room, but I’m going to share these little snappies of my babies instead.  I edited them in Flickr’s PicNik mode for fun.

I don’t have nearly as many photos of this guy as I would like. Not only do we only see him on the weekends, but he has hit a stage where he is just too cool for photos. Today while chatting on the phone, I actually got him to agree to a little mini-session the next time he comes over. I’m super excited!

He just HAD to include the new PSP he got for Christmas. This is actually his 2nd one. The first was stolen a few months ago and he has been such a sad panda over it.

Santa brought a Wii this year and my sister gave us the New Super Mario Bros. She is rather obsessed with it and plays whenever she is allowed. I find her concentration game face hilarious!!

Bright, blue eyed beauty, huh? She got her intense eye color from her dad. She got her dirty face from cereal, I think. She’s pretty amazing these days. Lots of pretend play, learning to talk, and recently, attempting to master the potty.

Peanut! Little peanut! We can’t forget her. I love this photo because she looks like she is saying, “Um, Mom. Why aren’t you picking me up? And why did you leave me way over here?” Well, doll, because Mommy has to clean the house sometime!!
Two months tomorrow. Wow.

Notice the spring attire on the older two? Apparently they don’t notice the snow on the ground. I made them change into something warmer shortly after this was taken. And see how sad our couch is? Santa apparently didn’t think I was good enough last year to bring me a new one. One of my goals is to get a new one sometime this year. This one had a good life, but I’m so ready for a change.

Supper needs to be made, a certain baby needs to be fed, and I need to inspect just how ‘clean’ is defined by a five year old when it concerns her room. She says it is done, but I have my doubts.

Good-bye, 2009! Hello, 2010! | Northwest Arkansas Lifestyle Photographer

Posted on January 1, 2010

2010.  It is finally here.  It brings soo many changes in my life, both personally and with Raining Light Photography.  This will be the year my daughter starts kindergarten.   Can she really already be at that point?  My son will turn 12!!  I can vividly remember twelve being a turning point in my life in so many ways and so I look to this milestone of his with bittersweet anticipations.  Our sweet Paeton will turn three!  She is so independent and headstrong now.  I can only imagine what she’ll bring to my plate this year.  Even though tiny Aryah is but seven weeks old at the moment, I know that soon I will planning to prepare for the first birthday of my last child.  I’m so glad I have many months before that one!  I’ll hit the big three oh this year.  As of right now, I’m okay with that.  My life is pretty sweet.  You may, however, be hearing screams from me around May because I’m not sure how calm I’ll be about it as the date gets closer.    Seriously, though, I think I’ll be fine with thirty.  It’ll be thirty-five that will most likely be scary for me.

Be on the look out for some changes for Raining Light, too.  I’m restructuring my pricing, completely revamping the boudoir line-up (and will be moving that aspect of the business to its very own site in the near future!), and implementing some new ideas into the wedding side of things as well.  There will be some new products, new packages with emphasis on digital, and a more streamlined process all the way around.  2009 was a great learning year and I hope that I can really make 2010 better!   I also hope to blog at least once a week and show more sides of Cherron as a person.  I realized this year that some of the greatest inspirational blogs from my favorite photographers, the ones that I can’t wait to check in the mornings to see who posted something new, were the ones that showed glimpses of their personal lives as well as the photography side.  I’ve decided that I need to do that as well.   I want my clients to feel like they know me well before the first click of the shutter during a session.   There is no reason why I can’t make my business the type that I WANT to run and not the type that I think people feel it should be.

So, yes, 2009 was great even though it was a slow year because of my pregnancy.  I learned a lot, developed a more solid idea of where I want to be in the future, and grew so much as a photographer and as  a person.  I’m so ready for 2010 to be even better!  I’d like to thank all of my clients in 2009 for such a fantastic year.  You were all an absolute pleasure to work with!!

I hope that 2010 is a beautiful and healthy year for all of you as well!

xoxo

Cherron

Last Days of Warm Weather | Northwest Arkansas Children’s Photographer

Posted on November 29, 2009

I was able to go outside and enjoy the end of a beautiful day with my two oldest girls recently.   It was nice to let them just run around like crazy children while I tried to snap some photos of them. I got a ton of cute shots of Tatum. I also got a lot of cute shots of Paeton running away from me.

Here are a few of Miss Tot.

I think I may need to put her hair in pigtails more often. She looked so adorable.

They did surprise me and let me get this photo of the two of them together. I do believe this will be on our wall soon!

Perhaps right along side this one?

The little stuffed animal is named Peepers. He was a gift from Daddy to Aryah, but Tatum has sort of adopted him until she is bigger.

I’m going to miss the warm weather.

Sweet Baby Of Mine | Northwest Arkansas Newborn Photographer

Posted on November 29, 2009

Now, first of all, let me say that I’m so glad that I’m much better at this with babies who belong to other people!    My little peanut would NOT go to sleep no matter what tricks I tried to pull.  Out of an almost three hour session, I only got a super small handful of photos that I like. I did, however, get these two that I just LOVE.  And that makes it all worth it for me.

Hard to believe that she was supposed to be born this Wednesday but instead will be almost a month old!  I can’t believe it sometimes.

Surprise! | Northwest Arkansas Lifestyle Photographer

Posted on November 22, 2009

Wow. So much has happened in the last few weeks. Where to start? Well, my maternity leave was supposed to start on the first of November, but I still had a few loose ends to tie up. In fact, I even had a session on the 4th that I squeezed in for a wonderful senior girl at the last minute. (I’ll be showing her sneak peek later today. ) I remember her asking about the pregnancy and I joked about how ready I was for the baby to be born. Typical banter for a pregnant momma at 35 weeks, right? It’s not the most comfortable of situations by that point, but if I would have realized how close I was to not being pregnant anymore, I’m not so sure I would have been joking about it!

The next day I had a routine appointment with my doctor as well as an ultrasound to check on the baby’s growth one last time before the home stretch to delivery. I have to have c-sections and my doctor likes to make sure that my babies are all looking good since they are taken at 39 weeks. I’m so glad that he does this!  The ultrasound showed that my amniotic fluid levels were really low.  Also, we discovered my blood pressure was very high and still climbing.  I was starting to show signs of preeclampsia.  Again.   I suffered through that with my first pregnancy and ended up having major complications as well. I knew how serious this could be, but I was only 35 weeks!  Towards the end of the pregnancy when I started to get really swollen, I told John at one point that I felt like I was starting to look like I did when I was pregnant with my son.   The thought that I might end up with preeclampsia again was a vague concern for me, but never did I think that I might end up with a preemie because of it.

I was sent to the hospital to be monitored and was told that it wasn’t known yet if a delivery would be that day, the next, or the following week, but there was no way I was going full term. After many hours on the monitor (all on my left side, too, ouch!!) it was decided that I’d have another ultrasound the next morning to check the fluid levels. If they were high enough, I would be sent home on strict bed rest to try and make it to 37 weeks. If they were not adequate, we would be having a baby that day. This plan, by the way, was formed about five that evening and I was starving!! See, I woke up late that morning and didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast before my morning doctor’s appointment. Since there was a chance that I would have to go into surgery, they wouldn’t let me eat anything all day until a game plan was established. Oh, it was a long, hungry day. I’ve never been so happy to see food!

The next morning the ultrasound showed that my fluid levels had actually dropped in the night. I was having a baby that day. Five weeks early. It was pretty shocking. I tried not to think about the bad things that could occur with an early baby. Besides, 35 weeks was a lot better than 30 weeks! Things could always be worse, right?

Aryah (Uh-rye-uh) was born on the 6th on November and weighed four pounds and thirteen ounces. She was able to breathe on her own and never required help to maintain her temperature. We were so lucky. She did have some problems with eating the first few days. She would get tired very quickly and wasn’t getting enough calories, so she had to have an NG tube, but even that obstacle was taken care of within days. I admitted into the hospital on a Thursday, discharged on the following Monday, but stayed in the hospital with Aryah until her discharge on that Wednesday. They let us take her home weighing only four pounds and nine ounces. She was soo itty bitty.

She is now two weeks old and weighs a whopping five pounds! Still itty bitty. Still very precious. Here is a snapshot that her daddy took of her while we were in the hospital.

We are taking her official portraits tomorrow since John has the weekend off and can help out.

Availabilty and a Baby Chef | Northwest Arkansas Lifestyel Photographer

Posted on September 11, 2009

Just the baby, cooking up some freshly cut grass. We had a BBQ with some of our friends and she thought she would help out with the meal. So cute.

This weather we’ve been having lately is so gorgeous. I have two weddings in the next week and a half and just hope that the weather stays this nice and cool for them. I keep telling my husband that I hope it stays this nice until the start of winter. I would looove to be able to keep my windows open for the next couple of months. So beautiful.

I only have three more dates left available in September! It’s not too late to book a session! I know for sure that I’ll be open for a couple of sessions in the first two weeks of October, but may start my maternity leave a bit early so the last two weeks are still a bit up in the air. If you are wanting to book for Christmas cards, this would be the time to do it!

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