Photos: A Day Out With Thomas & Backyard Sprinkler Fun

Halloween in February

I’ve been pretty busy lately and have not been finding much time to post. Lilah is nearly two years old now and I just transferred a bunch pictures from my camera onto my computer. This latest post is a glimpse of our trip up to Connecticut in late October of 2013. The first set is our trip up Talcott Mountain with my parents.

The second set includes our trip to Brown’s Harvest in Windsor, CT, where I grew up. Here LIlah got to pick out a pumpkin, walk in a small corn maze (not pictured) and take a ride in a wagon.

Next on the list of pictures was Halloween. For Lilah’s first Halloween, we dressed her as a duck and it was one of the cutest things ever. This year we wanted to do something completely different. My wife came up with the brilliant idea of not dressing her up at all, but just to have her walking around with an Alien bursting our of her tiny chest. Of course, I was on board with this 100%. With help from my mother and sister, the Alien body was constructed completely out of styrofoam. It was painted and decorated with some kind of nails or pins for the teeth and eyes.

Even Lilah was impressed with the finished product.

We had to keep her busy with food so she wouldn’t keep messing with it.

This was her first time trick or treating so she was a little apprehensive at first and stayed in her stroller.

But pretty soon she was out walking around and knocking on doors herself.

She wasn’t scared, as her uncles were there to protect her from the few ghosts and goblins wandering the streets in search of a sugar fix.

Though it was a short night of trick or treating since it was raining slightly, it will be a memorable one for me and my family. One day when Lilah is old enough, she will be able to look at all the pictures and laugh at them alongside us. And then there is always the alternative; the costume has scarred her for life and she will be able to use the pictures in emancipation proceedings. At least I can always say that it was all Mommy’s idea.

Photoshoot for Lilah

Since we have a lot of friends and family that live so far away, my wife and I like to do small photo shoots with Lilah so that they are able to see her. Here are some of the most recent pictures that we took:

Atlanta Botanical Garden

After Lilah was born, my parents came down from Connecticut and I took them to the Atlanta Botanical Garden one day. I took my camera along as I wanted to try and get some pictures of flowers for Lilah’s room. Here are some of the many pictures I took that day:

A New Chapter: The Birth of Lilah (Part 2)

Not knowing how things were going to play out with my wife’s labor, I felt a rush of emotions. I felt excited that our daughter was going to be born shortly, worried that the birth plan was falling apart, awful for Charlotte because things were not going as she had hoped (also because she was in pain) and extremely grateful that my mother in law was present. I forgot to add too that Charlotte was given pitocin, the night before she had her water broken, in order to intensify her contractions. She was given the least amount possible at the start of the pitocin drip and by the time her water was broken the next morning, the dosage was maxed out.

Once Charlotte’s water was broken, at around 10AM, the contractions started to get much stronger and closer together. At around 1PM, 24 hours after arriving at the hospital, the pain became too much to bear and Charlotte wisely opted for and received an epidural. Right after receiving the epidural, a staff member came in and joked with us saying that she could accurately guess the time of birth just by looking at the mother. I challenged her and she thought for a second, saying that our baby would be born at 6:21PM. Charlotte and I chuckled about it and wondered how close she would come to the actual time.

A little while after she received the epidural, Charlotte started shivering uncontrollably. This worried us, but the doctors assured us that this was typical. Extra blankets were brought in to keep her warm and though her contractions were getting even stronger, Charlotte took a nap. This is when I left to get some lunch for myself and a much needed caffeine fix. I also went out to our car to get some last minute things.

When heading back into the hospital from the car, I remembered thinking that the next time I left the hospital that it would be with our daughter. I could not believe it took this long to finally hit me. Once I got to the lobby, I phoned my parents to give them an update of the days events. In the middle of this I received a missed call or two, as well as a text message, from Charlotte’s step dad. It was time for Charlotte to start pushing. I rushed upstairs to be with my wife.

Originally, Charlotte and I agreed that I would stand up by her head so I could hold her hand and give her words of encouragement. In the moment though, I stood by her side and held Charlotte’s left leg as she pushed. Her mother held her other leg on the other side of the bed. It was one of the best experiences of my life, as I watched the first sight of Lilah – a long curly tuft of hair, then her little swollen face and misshaped head. Her shoulders came out and then the rest quickly after. The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and once around her body, but the doctor was not worried because she had been monitoring the baby’s stats throughout the delivery. I cut the cord when I was instructed and the doctor handed me my daughter, still slippery and squirming. I was afraid I was going to drop her but I managed to pass her off to her mother.

From the time Charlotte started pushing to the time Lilah was born, was only around 45 minutes. Lilah Arsenault was born on Tuesday May 8th, 2012. She weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 19 inches long. She was born at 6:31PM, exactly 10 minutes after the prediction (pretty impressive). I was the happiest I could ever remember being, watching my wife hold our newborn daughter.

Needless to say, there were plenty of photo ops in the hospital room and afterwards.

The Best of March – Photography

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these posts, but my wife and I recently went to Florida for a weekend and I got to take some pictures. The main occasion was that two of our friends got married. Here are some of the pictures:

We also did a little exploring…

A Wedding Story

Again I am forgoing the monthly ‘Best of’ photography blog, but more on that later. The weekend of 11/11/11 brought my wife and I up to Charlotte, NC for the wedding of two of our friends. When they asked my wife to perform the wedding ceremony, she happily agreed to do so. We made the four hour trip up to Charlotte and were glad to find a great hotel, since we didn’t have any reservations. That night, we showed up to the rehearsal and got to see the venue – an art gallery:

Those are just two of the awesome pieces that were inside the gallery. After the rehearsal, everyone was invited to head to the rehearsal dinner. This however, was not your typical rehearsal dinner. The bride works in a movie theater, so she reserved one of the theaters and got food from Wild Wing Cafe for us to chow down on. The Wedding Singer played on the big screen at low volume, so we could still chat if we wanted.

The next day was the wedding and as we arrived at the gallery, I realized that I had forgotten the camera at the hotel. I dropped my wife off and made the round-trip to grab it. I barely made it back to the gallery on time, took my camera out of my bag and ran into the building. The first thing I noticed were the envelopes sitting on each of the seats:

I thought this was a very innovative way to do the programs. It fits right in with the couples laid back attitude. Another thing that was hard not to notice was a banner that hung above the bride and groom as they were married.

Since I arrived late to the wedding, I did not have a great seat…so no ceremony pictures. Before the rings were presented, they were passed around the guests for blessings/well wishes. Embarrassingly enough, as I was passing them to the woman behind me, they dropped on the ground…which drew some gasps and laughs from guests. Sorry guys!! Anyways, I thought this was also a nice idea.

Now, I’ve helped photograph a few weddings and have been right in the thick of things. It’s a lot different however, when you are a guest. The couple hired a photographer who was running around snapping shots. I also had family to compete with, which I did not want to do. Better them to have the best pictures than me. So I sat back and took pictures from afar. They didn’t turn out too badly in my opinion.

We ended up staying until all of the pictures were taken, and then it was time to head to the reception. As my wife and I got outside and reached our brand new car, our mouths dropped open in shock.

We couldn’t believe it. Apparently, the only thing taken was the camera bag…stupid me for leaving it on the floor. Luckily I had the DSLR camera with me and I snapped pictures for the police/insurance company. Unfortunately, the bag had my camera charger in it, along with some cables and a point and shoot digital camera. So no more photography until I buy a new charger. (Weeks later, we found out that the damage to the car ended up costing over $1500 to fix. So glad for insurance!) After a quick call to the insurance company we headed off to the reception, passenger window-less. We were not going to let this ruin our night.

We surprisingly got to the reception before the bride and groom were announced and we had a good time eating, dancing and drinking…well, I did all of the drinking since my wife is pregnant. I really loved the idea for the cake.

There was also a photo booth at the reception, which was very popular with the guests. This was a cool idea and loads of fun, especially after a few drinks.

Congratulations Joe and Kara!

The Best of September – Photography

Working six and seven days a week, did not leave me much time for photography this month. This post should simply be called September Photography, since this was almost all of what I shot in September. Of course, the one day I decided to shoot, my battery was almost dead. Poor planning on my part, but here they are:

The Best of August – Photography

Along with some of my other photography posts this month, here is August:

All Good Things Must Come To An End

I’m sad to say that our ‘Summer of Rylee’ is officially over. While my wife and I were both unemployed this summer, we babysat our niece Rylee three days a week. We had many fun days of going to the playground, watching Dinosaur Train on tv, and having ‘Rylee Dance Party’ in the living room. This all came to an end now that my wife and I found jobs. (Welcome back to the real world!) I’m gonna miss the little bugger…