picture-perfect

Just a smattering of pictures and some captions.... Enjoy!

Josh & Brenda- Engaged, in love, awesome to photograph. One of my favorite shoots to date.

 
Keegan- this little guy made me work for those smiles. He's so handsome!

Leo- I'd be lying if I said that he didn't give me a bit of baby fever! He's such a cutie-patootie! His parents are awesome too.  He gave his smiles away a little more freely...

Little toes. Sigh.  I need another niece or nephew, quick! *hint*hint*  :)

Maybe a favorite....    This was at my dad's 30th Ordination Anniversary celebration.  Madigan is as happy as a clam when Grampy has her. She's been in hog-heaven since grandpa and grandma Gibbs are here this whole week! Spoiled girl, she might be hard to deal with once they leave...

Anyone have a favorite of the above pictures?

It's my Soap Box...

If you ever ask me about how Madigan came to be, I wouldn't hesitate to tell you that my freshman health teacher was a liar about how easy it is to get pregnant. 

When we first talked about having a baby, we gleefully told God how to put this child together. 

Please God, from my genes give this child my nose and cheeks, my sense of humor, and my love of the water. From Brett's genes, give the baby his eyes and mouth, his patience, and dear God, please give it his head circumference. Is that too much to ask?

Then after almost 2 years we changed our demands a little bit:

Dear God, please give us a baby. Amen. 

The short story is that we had to try a bit harder than your average couple to get pregnant, and in the end we learned an important lesson:

Patience. 

Modern medicine is wonderful, but it's not fail-safe or fool-proof. I left the clinic after hearing my doctor tell me "You can't get pregnant this month, so don't get your hopes up" and came back 6 weeks later for an ultrasound where I saw and heard a beating heart. My doctor then said with a wink "There you have it for modern medicine...." 

That little 6 week sac of baby and beating heart is now a 1-year-old, 22 pound sassy baby girl who owns her mother and father in the best kind of way. 

Although what we endured to conceive Madigan is most definitely considered "Infertility Treatment Light" I won't hesitate to tell our story to anyone who might listen, in hopes that it alleviates some of that loneliness that is inevitable when (in my own words) "you can't even get done with money and medicine what two teenagers can accidentally do in the back of a car". 

Infertility (the inability to conceive after 12 or more months of trying) affects 1 in 6 couples. 

Think about those odds. 

So thank your lucky stars if you happened to have all your prayers answered the first time around. 

Heck, I thank my lucky stars that I didn't. 

Because the lessons I learned along the way were indispensable to my ability to be a better mother. I realized that when I stopped telling God how to do his job, I could hear him telling me how to do mine. 

In the end, we didn't get that baby we special-ordered from God...

We got better.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder... ?

Yeah, Yeah, it's been a while.    We've been busy. 

We found and removed mold from our basement. (Made possible by the generosity of my family- thanks guys; without you, there'd be a "fungus among-us"!) We are slowly putting our basement back together, and will hopefully have the house on the market by the first of August. The winds of change are blowing us, we just don't really know where!

Then, our baby turned one year old.  *sob*  I'm still calling her my baby, even if she's technically in "toddler-hood". You must have known that a child of Gibbs-Hille genes would know how to eat a cupcake. Even if she's never had one before- (and yes, both Brett & I are well aware that some of you make fun of us for withholding sugar from our daughter. And so you must know that we make fun of you behind your back. So there.)

She figured out very, very quickly how to eat a cupcake. 

Face-into-frosting-first! 

Atta Girl!

She at the whole thing. At least the parts that she didn't end up wearing. 

Then she proceeded to have a serious sugar crash, and napped on daddy (who was happy to provide a lap).

We also were very sad that Brett's great-grandmother Josephine, (fondly known to many as simply "Gram") passed away on the morning of Madigan's birthday. At 107 years old, we knew this was imminent, but we greedily hoped that we'd have more time with her. We were so grateful that we made it back to WaKeeney in time to see her. 

Although a recent stroke took her ability to speak, Madigan and Gram made a wordless connection during our last visit. It was obvious that Gram knew who Madigan was, and we will always have memories of Gram reaching up to touch Madigan's nose, and Madigan leaning in to kiss Gram before we left. 

Gram was born on St. Patrick's Day in 1902, and she left this world on the birthday of the last great-great-grandchild who got to meet her. A life worth celebrating, indeed.

Lastly (for now), Free Range Photography has been busy too! This is an engagement shoot I did last week. I need to get them finished before my three upcoming shoots this week.... 

No time to be idle in this house....

Just the way we like it!

R&R @ B&B

This father's day weekend was spent in Simpson, Kansas at a relaxing Bed & Breakfast called Cottage on the River. We met up with my parents and Ben & Jamie on Saturday in Beloit, and drove in together. We had lots of fun exploring the area and eating at Trapper's restaurant (the food is almost worth the wait!! :) 

There was a lot of great old magazines and books available at the cottage, and as you can see Brett, Jamie, and even Madigan enjoyed looking through them! (Although I was particularly smitten with the 1970's magazine "True Story" myself.) 

On Sunday after an amazing breakfast of rolls, omelets and juice, we went exploring the area. 

According to information that Grandma Joyce had given dad, her Grandpa Beck had built a stone house in the area in the 1880's. Sure enough, we found it and explored away! We found the rock with his name and date on it above what used to be the old front door. 

This is a picture of the inside of the house- as you can tell it's not exactly kept up anymore, but I found it amazing that a house built in the 1800's by my ancestors was still standing at all.

 After finding the house and looking around the area, we also walked through the old Simpson cemetery. There are several old headstones, some hand carved. One even had this interesting "Confederate War Veteran" emblem beside it. 

Itwas a nice relaxing weekend, and considering the week we have ahead of us, we really needed it. Thank you, so much, mom & dad for providing us with that great escape!

Happy father's day!

I figured I should start a post with a video, since I've been a little behind on posting pictures with my blogs the last few times. It doesn't help that the point-and-shoot digital is broken. 

*cough*cough* 

And it also doesn't help that we've accrued vehicle repair bills, air-conditioner repair bills, and life-in-general bills so that replacing said digital camera seems to be lowest on the list. Did I hear that we're in a recession? Oh, yeah, I guess so. 

I've digressed...

The Video- here's the set up: Brett is recording Madigan feeding herself while I hold the jar. Don't mind Brett talking to Madigan in his weird baby voice. Or the fact that every video we have from him starts with the phrase "I'm recording". Also, disregard the horrendous quality of the video, since it was recorded on a cell phone. I am happy that we have cell phone video cameras, since I think we'd be borderline creepy parents if we hauled our actual video camera around filming our child eating at restaurants and such. We are obviously first-timers though, since things like this amuse us. I'm sure by the time we get to child #3, we'll be lucky to have a couple cell phone shots to print and throw into a shoe box a.k.a. "baby book box" like Brett and I both have. But that is assuming that we're lucky enough to get to child #3...

I believe I've digressed again.

Yes, she knows how to use a spoon, which we are pretty sure makes her a prodigy at 11 months. I haven't called the Guinness Book of World Records yet, but I think she might have qualified for something here... My favorite part of the evening was the conversation that followed this video. It went something like this:

Random Fellow-Diner: That's one smart baby. We've been watching her, and she's a smart girl!

Random Diner's Wife: And she's super cute too! (they leave)

Me: I believe that calling her smart is a better compliment than calling her cute.

Brett: No way. Looks will get you everywhere in life. You've got to prove yourself when you've got brains.

Me: Don't listen to your father, Madigan. Beauty fades, brains will make you someone.

Brett: Whatever. Looks will get you everywhere, especially if you act stupid when you've got 'em.

Madigan: YUP. 

Then again, if her brains or her looks don't get her anywhere, she's obviously going somewhere on her sheer dance talent. 

Watch out, Paula Abdul.

Move over, Michael Jackson.

Madigan Bryn is coming for you!

(As long as she can have Vanilla Ice as her MC)

Go Ninja, Go Ninja GO!

Vote For Me!

Actually, Vote for BRETT! I entered this photo of him holding Madigan as a newborn into our local paper's father's day photo contest. If you feel so obliged, please take a second to register (free) and then vote, 5 times, every day! We are quite a bit behind the leader, but I know that we have enough family & friends to put us in the lead! :) I have attached a link on the right hand side of this blog, down below my "Pray for Stellan" button, and I think you can click directly on that to go to the website as well.

Otherwise, click right HERE and it should take you to my photo. It's titled "Safe in Daddy's Hands". 

He would really, really appreciate the new recliner that the winner gets! 

Final Countdown...

So, it's the "final countdown" to the big First Birthday Party! Not that it's big, by any standards, but it seems like ONE whole year is something worth celebrating! It's actually just going to be a small, family gathering in Kansas (so most of the family won't have to travel). I think to include some of our Kearney friends, we will have cake/ice cream party for Madigan the week after her birthday as well back home. Because, you know- all the cool kids have 2 birthday parties! 

We finally got back on track from this weekend- my BFF Mandy got married!! :) It was fun, fun, fun! Madigan even enjoyed staying up and "dancing" with mommy and daddy! She's also sprouted 2 teeth on the bottom, but I can't manage to snap a picture of them... 

It surely has nothing to do with the fact that I broke the point-and-shoot digital... *yes I broke it*

GRRR. 

I'll try to post tooth pictures when I can manage to snap them!