This is a classic Chase expression…

If you have a child session coming up with me…don’t  be afraid to get creative!  For my boys, at this stage, this was the perfect set up for them.  My little Huck & Tom.

If you are wondering, I am booking for the remainder of 2011 right now.  Most of my availability is in September, but have one or two spots left in October/November.  No minis this year.  But if you are up for a fun creative child/family session, I would love to chat with you!!
Erin xoxo

We were thrilled!  But by like week 6 I started feeling SOOOO yuck.  So tired, so nauseous, just yuck.  I had those symptoms with Shay too, but this was intensified the nth degree.  My conclusion:  this one HAS to be a boy.  I was talking to a friend and told her how I had been feeling.  She sighed and responded with,”Erin, I think you are having twins.”  Ha!  Nooooo… it’s just got to be a boy this time.

Around 8 or 9 weeks I went in to my OB/GYN for the appointment that confirms you are pregnant and they give you the chat on eat this, don’t eat that, etc.  When Dr. L asked me how I had been feeling, I told her.  I also told her that my friend thought I was prego with twins… we both kinda laughed and went on to the sonogram.  Right away I hear an “OH!” from Dr. L.  She covers her mouth like she’s a little surprised and then looks me straight in the face and says,”There are 2.”  I thought she was pulling my leg since we were just joking about the comment my friend made.  And then to prove it she turned the monitor towards me to show the two little peanuts in two little sacs.  I think that was the first time in my life that I cried tears of shock.  I was literally just so surprised that it took at least 10 minutes for it to sink in and shock to turn to joy.

So we were on our way to being a family of 5.  I was thinking of letting baby #2’s gender be a surprise until birth, but the news of multiples ended up being surprise enough for us.  We were scheduled to have our ultrasound to find out what we were having on my birthday, so we decided to give our families the news that night at dinner.  We handed a card to my mom and one to Matt’s mom.  They opened them one at a time, to reveal that we were having two boys!  I have no doubt that the Lord has a sense of humor because I was actually a nanny for twin boys for about a year.  And the friend that told me I was having twins, is a twin mom herself.  I now joke with my girlfriends that twins are contagious, so just hang out with a twin mom long enough and you might be in for double trouble…double blessing.

My pregnancy was smooth and I went into labor at about 36.5 weeks.  It was a loooooooong labor, but super quick delivery.  I didn’t have a C-Section because they were both head down and ready to go.  I had an awesome cheer team of family and friends that stuck around the hospital for the 17 hours of laboring…and they got to hold the boys when they were just minutes old.  I was looking at some of their birth photos today and can’t believe it’s been 3 years already.  Time really does fly when you are raising little ones.  But they (along with sister) are our blessing every day.

To the left:  a continent.  To the right:  love at first sight.

Those beanies on their heads were VERY IMPORTANT for helping us know which boy was which!

One of the sweetest things that I’ve seen most twins do is naturally gravitate towards each other.  We would put both boys on their backs and they would usually roll into each other and connect arms.  I have a picture of them at 4 days old with their arms intertwined… and they did it on their own!  Guess when you hang with someone for 9 months in utero, you sorta get used to them being RIGHT THERE all the time.

Caleb- my “Monkey” and Chaser- my “Goosie”.  I can usually tell who is who, but this one had me guessing for a few minutes!

Hair inspired by R Patz:

This is “Scrunchie Face.”  It must be genetic cuz all my kids did it at this age.

Last year:

Still don’t know if they are identical or fraternal.  They didn’t share anything in the belly, which only occurs in about 20-30% of identicals from what I understand.  They would have had to split in the first day or two for them to be this kind of identicals.  Otherwise, they are fraternals who just look a lot alike.  We get asked this all the time and well, we don’t know.  They definitely have different personalities though!!

As we celebrate three years of life with these little ones today, we are overflowing with gratefulness for the gift of these boys.  I hope they will grow up realizing what a special gift God gave them in having not just a brother, but a twin brother…someone that they get to walk each step of life with.

Happy Birthday 3rd Birthday Caleb & Chase!!

Since the kiddos were with Grammy and Pappy tonight, hubby and I celebrated Valentines a day early… and hubby gets major brownie points!  After I got home from my shoot {hello T if you are reading this… had a blast with you guys!} he made me stay upstairs until he came to get me.  At first I thought he was trying to cook (my man would live on frozen pizza and cereal if he wasn’t married), so I was a bit worried!!  When finally I am allowed downstairs, the room is lit with candles and my favorite flowers of the moment- gerbera daisies- are on the counters.  On the dinner table sits a very nice looking meal to which I gave a raised eyebrow and he pointed to the take-out bags.  Now that’s the guy I know and love!  Watched Dan in Real Life after dinner, split a tiramisu, and laughed really hard at the suggestive Hallmarks we exchanged (it’s always a contest of who can find the funniest card…Matt won this year!)  Awesome night with my best friend!  Had to brag on him a bit.

Hope you enjoy today with all the ones you love!

Joyfully, Erin

~ Luke 2:11-12 ~

I think this is my very favorite ornament hanging from our Christmas tree… the reason we celebrate this wonderful season in the first place!

Merry Christmas from the McFarlands!!

I processed all these images with textures… what I like to call a little “Photo Art”.  This is probably more my style because of the dramatic quality it adds!  So why don’t I do this to ever image I process?  Well, for two reasons.  One, some images do look better without texture.  For instance, a back lit image where most of the background is blown out would not benefit much from any texture.  You really need something in the image for the texture overlay to “cling” to.  Two, it takes quite a bit of time to do this properly to an image.  It’s a lot of little tweaks and brushing to get it right.  So worth the finished product though in my opinion!  (textures from Flourish)

My sweet girl… she has turned into quite the chatter box!  I love her little Shay-isms though… those little things she says that make Shay who she is.  Sometimes I think she’s a 30 year old in a 3 year olds body.  Not that she doesn’t have her share of 3 year old moments, but she comes up with things that I didn’t even think a three year old would really grasp.  My little smarty pants

Does this look like mirror images to you?  We are pretty certain our boys are fraternal, but they sure do look a lot alike sometimes!  Their hair is finally growing back out from their summer “Daddy” hair cut (AKA shaved heads).  Now they are officially rocking the bed head look!

Now, I have way more photos of my girl from this little shoot because she will work with me a bit more than the boys.  With the boys, it’s a lot of chasing and hoping I get in front of them and nail my focus before they go storming past me!

Chase slowed down for just a second to let me snap this one…

Hopefully I’ll get one more little session in with my three kiddos before Christmas!

I’m so glad that Shay has cousins so close to her in age to do these fun activities with!  She loves her Gracie & Olivia so much!

Little dancers…

They have such a fantastic teacher!  She was so wonderful with the girls…

I had the three girls all run down the tunnel near the dance studio showing off their new moves…

Little Dancer Gracie…

Little Dancer Olivia…

Little Dancer Shay…

And the Shay’s littlest cousin Madi, our ballerina in waiting

It’s amazing how much Shay and her littlest cousin look alike!  Jeni and I hear this all the time, which is fun for us

Dream big little girls…

She loves having her “coffee” with me in the morning (don’t worry, she really gets a little mug of milk, but does all the “mmmms” with every sip like she’s savoring a great steamy latte).

She loves Mickey Mouse, animals, and taking care of her baby dolls.  We are starting to do puzzles, and other pre-school activities to stimulate her ever expanding mind… all the “what’s that” and “what’s this” questions are a part of every day now (at least she hasn’t started the “but, why?” questions yet… but I’m sure that’s just a matter of time!)

She loves her brothers (as long as they aren’t stealing her toys, getting in her way, or pulling her hair).  She always reminds me to sing “Jesus Love Me” to them before bed and then wants to be the one to close their door.  She will alert me if she sees one of them doing something that may cause them harm by saying “Mommy!  No-No-No-Baby Boy!”

She’s getting in to drawing and painting more, though that holds her attention for about 5 minutes and then it’s on to the next thing

She’s definitely moving on from those sweet baby years, but I love watching the girl that she is growing into.  I am so thankful to the Lord that I get to be this sweet girl’s momma!

Happy 3rd Birthday Shay!

Here’s the pretty cake that my mom made for Shay’s birthday party… it was really yummy too!

Make a wish…

And a quick snap from her first swim lesson…

I remember when I was in elementary school, we had a career day where everyone was supposed to dress up like what they wanted to be when they grew up.  I just kept thinking that all I really wanted to be was a Mommy when I grew up.  I can’t even remember what I dressed up as that day, but my desire to be a Mom didn’t change as I grew.  

I sometimes watch my three little monkeys doing their thing each day and am still in awe that they are mine.  Each one of them has their own distinct personality that I adore… don’t get me wrong, they have their fair share of Tasmanian Devil- like tornado fights, where the three of them are all screaming and tugging on the ONE PARTICULAR TOY that happens to be coveted by all that day!  All you mamas out there know what I mean… countless toys in the house, but they all want the same one.  Regardless of that little detail I hope that I can bury deep in my memory all the little things they do, say, all the little looks and giggles, even the giant crocodile tears and toddles straight to my arms when they need a boo-boo kissed… I don’t want to forget.  

I love you three more than you’ll ever know… you are my dream come true!

These next few are the “out- takes”  Actually, these ones are how my kids REALLY are… (FYI these next few have not received proper photoshop love, but I’ll get over it

These next two crack me up!!  Check out Caleb (orange shirt)… “What? Is that Sissy’s arm around me?”… 

“Um, yeah, no touching Sister!  I remember that toy you stole from me earlier… and I’m NOT over it!”

And that would be Daddy making everyone giggle… who would have known he was THAT funny!  I kid… Babe, you know you always make me laugh

And one of just my sweet girly girl… she rocked that pose all on her own!  

Happy Mother’s Day to all you mom’s out there!  Remember that all you put into each day, all the hard work and emotion and planning and caring… just look at your “babies” (no matter their age) and realize you have the best job in the world being their mom!