{Cami, Charlie & Coleton}

Little Coleton has been a favorite subject of mine for a while now. He's such a little cutie and has some amazing, blue eyes! I have done two sessions with him, and this is the first one of him with his mommy and daddy. They were so much fun! We walked around the Depot, trying to stay warm and avoid the other large groups getting their pictures done.

**UPDATE**

So here is the x-ray I was talking about last night, where you can see the nail. As I said, it went through two chambers of his heart. We aren't sure what stopped it from going all the way through the heart, but whatever it was, that's what saved him. The nail was essentially acting like a plug, keeping all the blood inside the heart.

I went first thing this morning to visit Eric. He's doing extremely well - making progress well beyond what any doctor expected of him.

He's out of bed and walking around - entertaining every staff member who stops by to see the "guy with the nail in the heart."
He's in great spirits today - laughing and asking for coffee. Just like Eric. If he continues on with this progress, he will be home Friday morning. A true Christmas Miracle, indeed.

Goofy non-stop.....nothing has changed. :)

He's Alive

My day started out pretty normal. Got up, got myself and the child ready, went to work. All things "system go". And then 9:37 a.m. rolled around and my world got ROCKED. I got a call from my husband, who informed me that he just accidentally shot himself in the heart with his nail gun. With a 16 penny ring shank nail, which is 3+ inches long. The longest nail you can get. Into.HIS.HEART. Here is what one looks like.

How do I know? Because this is the one they removed from his heart. FROM HIS HEART. I'm going to keep saying it because it's still so surreal to me.

So he went on in the call to tell me that he loved me more than anything and that he didn't know if the ambulance would make it in time. Basically the call every wife NEVER wants to hear. EVER. It will resonate in my brain every day for the rest of my life.

So they transported him to McCall hospital (he was working in Donnelly), where they performed a preliminary x-ray of his chest. The doctor decided to forego all additional treatment, and they life-flighted him down to Boise. He was taken into surgery immediately.

The nail shot through two chambers of his heart. Naturally, the surgeons didn't want to just pull it out, so they had to open up his entire chest cavity to access the heart. They were able to remove the nail and repair two of the holes. There is still a hole between the two chambers, which SHOULD heal on its own.

So he stays in the cardiovascular ICU at the hospital through Christmas. He will be off work for four weeks after that. He has a long, long recovery ahead of him. Please keep him in your thoughts.

(these are pictures of pictures.....obviously I wasn't in the OR with him)

I do have an x-ray picture, but for some reason, my phone isn't sending the picture to my e-mail at the moment. So I will post that picture as soon as I can. In the meantime, think happy thoughts and remember to tell everyone you love them every chance you get.

A Weekend Recap - Picture Style

This weekend has been nothing short of busy.....as it usually is this time of year. Eric was actually in town the entire weekend, so we were able to get lots done. Friday night, we went out for pizza. After that, we came home and just laid by the fire, watching Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs with Carter. We did take time, however, to let him shake some of his presents. Horrible parents, I know! How mean!

I simply love our tree this year. I think it's the best one we have had in quite a while.

And the fireplace? It's certainly my best friend.

Saturday afternoon, I had another family photoshoot (pics to come in a couple days). It was chilly outside, but nothing we couldn't handle. So we hustled and got out of the cold, and then it was time to head to Eric's family's Christmas party.

Carter and his Grammy Michelle.

Me and my MIL.

Someone didn't waste ANY time diving right into the food. Shocker!! Michelle and Janelle.

GG Dort sneaking up on Carter. He was giggles and squeals all night long! And then the karaoke madness began.

Carter playing with is Auntie Ashley.

I'm sure this was one of the Michael Jackson songs......everyone seemed to know the words to those.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted! We crammed too much into one day.....however, that's pretty much how we have spent life for the past 8 weeks since Eric has been working out of town. Another 2 to go and hopefully we are done. Until then, let the madness continue!

It's Baby Time!

Last weekend, I had the chance to do my very first indoor shoot. I ordered a background set online (MUCH cheaper than Idaho Camera) and got it all set up. I don't have a lighting kit yet, so I had to make due with what was in my house. And let me tell you, I NEED a lighting kit. The low lighting in my house makes the pictures quite grainy, and I wasn't about to turn my flash on.

So cousins Coleton and Tahtiana were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits, and we made sure to have plenty of props to keep them busy and happy. I bought these huge peppermint sticks, and Coleton LOVED them. He was quite a messy boy by the time we were done!

And Tahtiana was just a doll in her little dress! It was glittery, so there were sparkles all over the place.

Coleton was quite impressed with her bow, so he kept trying to grab it off of her head. Too funny!

I even brought out Carter's big rocking horse for Coleton to try out.

Then I decided we were going to strip the babies down to their diapers and just wrap them all up in garland. I loved it!! It was so cute....and Coleton is such a chunk and chunky babies are the best!

Hopefully by the next indoor shoot, I will have my lighting kit and I won't have to deal with grainy, poorly lit pictures anymore. But for the meantime, these will do and they are naked babies....how can you not love them?!!!

Finally

So I mentioned before that I had four photoshoots last weekend. It has taken me ALL week to edit these pictures.....too much!! The baby Christmas shoot will have a blog post all to itself later this weekend. In the meantime, here are samples from my other three shoots, which consisted of two family shoots and a maternity shoot with a couple who are good friends of mine. They lost a baby earlier this year and somehow got pregnant right away. Everything appears to be perfectly normal with this baby, so this shoot was extremely special to them since they didn't get to do one with their first child.

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