We are driving down to Orting tomorrow to get our family pictures taken by Alecia Silva from The Portrait Place.  I’m really excited because I don’t have a nice picture of the family yet.  I’m always behind the lens taking pictures, so it will be fun to be on the other side.  Tomorrow’s trip will be Blake’s first outing and my first time going out since the birth.  I am ready to get out of the house, although it’s been really nice staying in my nest with my wonderful baby.

I decided to take a picture of Blake on my green chair every single week for the next year.  When I’m done I will put together a collage to put up in the nursery.  I think it’s going to turn out really neat!  By the time I finish the series I will be a changed woman, I’m sure…  And I will probably look back and miss this sweet baby stage.  So I’m going to do my best to take in all the greatness that comes with having a newborn and not take things for granted.

I have to share this last photograph to show how much Charlie loves the baby!  He spends hours staring at him, it’s really adorable.  At this point Blake doesn’t appreciate Charlie kisses, but I’m sure he will some day.  It will be so cute to see them play together in the near future.

I cannot believe how much love I have for him.  He fills my heart with so much joy and I can’t imagine my life without him.  Being a mommy is such an amazing experience.  There’s definitely a steep learning curve, not just to be a mom to Blake, but to also have the shifting dynamics with my husband, but I am loving EVERY minute of it!

So without further ado, let me introduce my baby, Blake Noa Halvorson!!!

To begin the tour, here are some pictures of Blake’s mobile.  I was looking for a mobile that would be personal and representative of nature and tranquility.  After searching for endless hours on etsy, I found Jahje’s beautiful mobiles from Baby Jives.  I was in love with all her mobiles, it was so hard to pick one.  The purchase was also quite an investment, but I knew it was worth it to get this piece of work.  It also felt good knowing the money was going to a mom not some giant corporation!  I got some money from my dad and my grandma as a gift, so I decided the mobile would be a baby gift from the two of them.  I got to pick my own colors and patterns for the birds and I am so happy with the way the mobile turned out.  Even Charlie loves the mobile!  He is seriously obsessed with the mobile and spends hours in Blake’s room staring at it. Thank you Jahje for this beautiful piece of art!  I love it to pieces.

We put our lovely secondhand glider just to the left of the crib.  This is where I imagine I’ll spend a lot of time nursing and putting Blake back to sleep.  We found the glider on craigslist and I was excited to save money and the environment at the same time!  Reusing is such a wonderful thing!  :)

Did you notice the cute birch tree behind the glider?  That is a wall decal I purchased from another etsy seller, Art Wall Project, and I had such a great time putting it up on the wall with my friend April.  She’s an interior designer, so I needed her eye to get the decal up just right.  I put up the tree trunk/branches and April did a great job placing all the leaves in the right spots.  Thank you April for all your help!

The wall shelves above the glider hold some things that are dear to me.  ”Hug Time,” is Blake’s first book that we bought back in June.  Chris and I decided it would be fun to start reading to Blake while he’s still in the womb so we went to a local book store to find the perfect first book.  The moment I found “Hug Time,” I knew that book had to be Blake’s first book. It’s about this cat who travels the world to give all the animals a hug.  It’s a really sweet story.  I love it when Chris reads the book to Blake in my belly.  I can’t wait to see Chris read this to Blake when he’s a little older.  I can picture them yelling “hug time!” and giving each other a great big bear hug before bed time.  It makes me want to cry just thinking about it!The Sophie giraffe was a gift from Auntie Mika.  I’m sure Blake will enjoy putting his drool all over it! I framed the birthday card that Chris got for me last month.  It was really sweet because he wrote a message inside of it from Blake using his left hand to make the writing look childish.  How cute!  He chose this card because we are planning on having a water birth and the heart in the water represents Blake’s safe and loving delivery.  I also framed a card that April got me that I love.  That card will always remind me of my first journey through pregnancy.

On the other side of the room we have a corner shelf with a bunch of robots on it thanks to my little brother Taiyo.  He surprised me by making all those robots for Blake right before he left to go back to college.  Thanks Taiyo for bringing a little bit of nerdiness into Blake’s life.  

We put Blake’s dresser on the left side of the room.  I looked for days on craigslist to find an affordable white dresser.  At one point I was going to buy a maple colored dresser and paint it white, but decided it wouldn’t be worth all the effort.  I’m not really into diy projects…  I was really close to giving up and dropping a load of money for a brand new white dresser, but found the perfect dresser on craigslist at the last minute!  Woo hoo!  This is the hermes dresser from Ikea.  I usually don’t like furniture from Ikea because of the poor quality, but this one feels very sturdy.  We bought some blue knobs from a local hardware store to make the dresser more baby-like.  

On top of the dresser, I have a cute green basket full of goodies which was a gift from my mom.  I filled it with homemade gifts that my dear cousin Anne  made for Blake.  It’s so special to have homemade things!  Thank you Anne Kay!

Here are some last minute purchases I made yesterday to remind me of my nesting stage.

I have 3 frames hanging above the dresser.  The center frame holds a letterpress poster I got from etsy seller, Sycamore Street Press, and I love reading it.  The other 2 frames will hold pictures of Blake.

Our dresser is full of baby clothes we got from our friends!  I also bought some used clothes on craigslist.  My mother in law bought us a set of 24 Fuzzibunz so we can keep our baby’s bum bundled in some nice quality cloth diapers.  Thank you Vicki!  If you need some cloth diapers, be sure to contact Natalie from Punkernoodle Baby. She is very knowledgeable and we found it really helpful to have one on one time with her to pick the right brand of diapers to fit our needs.  I am a little nervous about using cloth diapers, but I’m giving it a shot since I really care about protecting our beautiful environment.  

That wraps up the tour of Blake’s nursery.  It feels so good to have his room complete… Now I just need the baby to arrive so I can begin a new chapter in my life.  I can’t wait to learn the joys of motherhood which so many of my family and friends have been telling me about.  I believe that having a baby to love is life’s most incredible gift.

My next blog post will probably be all about Blake’s birth story.  I’m planning a natural child birth at home, which I am really excited about.  I’ll keep you posted on how that goes!

I am no longer booking family sessions for this fall season since I am 38 weeks pregnant and not in the right condition to chase after little kids.  However, if you would like to book a senior session, my schedule has opened up to take on a few more.  There is no guarantee that I will be able to keep our session date since I might go into labor anytime.  I know most first time moms go 10 days overdue, but I am keeping my fingers crossed for an early delivery.  I just can’t wait to meet my little peanut!

Class of 2012, I am all booked for the month of October and November.  Please contact me at capturedbyemi@gmail.com if you would like to have a winter or spring session.

Class of 2012- I only have 6 available openings for senior sessions for the rest of September and October.  Please e-mail me at capturedbyemi@gmail.com for more information.