My Once Upon a Time...

We always have Fox's pictures taken around his birthday and we have used this photographer for the last three years. She also comes to all of his birthday parties to document his special day. This was a new location for us, Katie really liked it, but I thought it was just okay.  Katie gave him an orange that had fallen from the tree to hold, and before we knew it, he took a bite! He thought it was so funny! It's getting harder and harder to get smiles out of him, but we got a few good ones. And a few fakes ones as well...ha!

This is one of my favorite projects I did all year...246 days (started April 30th)...1 second video every day. This was our life in 2016.

I have a Love/Hate Relationship with Family Pictures. I love the end result and it's always worth it in the end, but getting there...it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.  I've followed this photographer on Facebook for a few years now and always loved her work, but she only does maternity and newborn pictures. Once a year, she opens up 9 spots for family sessions and when she announced this year, I knew I wanted to get in with her. She is crazy expensive, she doesn't let you choose a date or time and you also don't have any say in the location...sounds like a real dream huh? I knew getting a spot would be worse than Black Friday Shopping, because she is THAT popular, so I set my alarm for the time she released the application process and kept refreshing my internet browser every 10 seconds, waiting for the announcement. I know, crazy, but apparently that's what you had to do, because when I emailed her immediately after she posted the rules, we got the ...

You all have probably noticed that when Fox grows up, he won’t lack on having childhood pictures of himself. My friends often joke that he is the most photographed child in the world and although I’ve been trying to scale back on photos (it was so much easier when he was little and couldn’t run away…ha), that is probably still true. While he has tens of thousands of pictures of him, Katie and I are trying to do a better job of taking videos of him. And by videos I mean more than those 10 second clips we capture on our phones.  I remember three years ago, before I got pregnant, I thought it would be so cool to document our IVF process, the pregnancy and of course, Fox as a newborn. But the idea intimidated me, I didn’t feel comfortable in front of a camera, I had no idea how to edit videos and the whole idea was just daunting. So I didn’t. And now I regret it. That’s how it always goes, right? While I still don’t feel comfortable in front of the camera and have very l...

This post is about three years late, but I wasn't ready to share this part of our lives back then. Even some of our friends don’t know about it, not because we are uncomfortable sharing, just because it’s not something that would come up in everyday conversations. Sometimes I share our story voluntarily, and sometimes I just don’t.  If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might remember my post about our Embryo transfer . The part we never shared about our IVF journey, was the Egg Retrieval. Because if I would’ve told you about it, I would’ve also had to tell you that it wasn’t me who underwent the egg retrieval. It was Katie. So while I carried our precious boy for 9 months, he is Katie’s biological child.  So let’s back up and go all the way back to February of 2013. We had just found out that our 7th IUI with me didn’t work and I was devastated. I had tried it all…pills, injections, changing donors, changing doctors, crazy diets and even bee stings ....

Happy Halloween from the Waldo Family! This year we sent out a few Halloween Cards for the first time, and while I wish I could've sent one to each and every one of you, this will have to do! :) The front: And the back! We knew that this year would be the last shot for us to choose a Halloween Costume for Fox. He also picked out his own Halloween Costume that he will wear to his Halloween Party at School, but we also wanted to do a family theme and since Fox loves the Waldo books, it was an easy decision. I'm sure going forward we will be a Superhero Family for the next 8 years or so!  One of our favorite photographers snapped these pictures in less than 10 minutes (that's why we love her) and Fox thought it was so funny that we were all Waldos! I didn't think he would leave his hat or glasses on, because every time I wanted to try them on at home, he would throw a fit, so I had no idea if his hat actually fit until the...

Every year, we visit the Arizona State Fair. We are lucky enough to get free admission, since we work with the facility, but this year they really hooked us up!  First, we went to visit the Monster Trucks and got a behind the scenes tour.  Fox and I even got to sit in one and it made his entire day! Next, Hannah, Katie and Fox all got to drive on one of their trucks! I'm not sure who was the most excited, but they were all beaming when they were finished! The event coordinator we work with gave us an envelope with some ride tickets for Fox and when we opened it, there were like 60+ tickets in there! The fair is crazy expensive, I think it was like $3.50 per kids ride and in most cases, the adult had to pay too, because Fox wasn't allowed on every ride by himself. We were so grateful for these tickets and Fox had a blast! We slid down this giant slide about three times, until we got too tired to keep walking up the steep ramp each time! ...