My Cute Family...

Taken with my new Camera!! I love it!! Hopefully I will post pictures of the three of us someday...

Home...

I remember when Drew and I first got married we kept referring to Oklahoma and Texas as "home." We would joke around with one another and say, "this is your home now." Now that we have made a home, life and family of our own, being "home" (ok/tx) is so strange. The whole time we have been on our little vacation I have longed to be back at our home in MV.

On the other hand, this break has been so nice and refreshing. Here are some High Lights...
~I got to see my best friend marry the man of her dreams. Evan is the only guy that I would trust to take care of her.
~I got to spend time with my sweet Dziadz (this means Grandfather in Polish, yup I am Polish). He lost his second wife to cancer this July... but he is still trudging through life with a smiling on his face.
~We got to experience our first Christmas with our sweet baby girl!
~I have had the opportunity of shooting 4 awesome photo shoots.
~A wonderful Christmas with both of our families.
~Lots of time sitting on the couch watching TV and drinking coffee (and SONIC)
~I FINALLY got the camera I have been saving up for (well, I ordered it and it should be arriving in a few hours!!)


I hope that everyone has enjoyed their break and the Christmas Season!!

Wishing you a HAPPPY NEW YEAR from the Cunningham Clan!

Sneak Peak!! The Goff Family and Sweet Daisy!!

Seriously guys?!!? Don't you see me?!?!





Daddies girl...

Emily's Senior Pictures

Sneak Peak!! She's a cutie! Thanks for a fun afternoon Emily!!

Alise...sneak peak!

Alise and her sister are pregnant together and I got to snap some of their pics today! Here are my two favorite!!

Madeline Grace...

Just a sneak peak!!

TX/OK here we come!!!

10 weeks...

you have to admit, she's precious...

The Photo Above...

This picture makes me so happy. It reminds me of sweet care free days, falling in love, feeling so much and no worries.

Drew and I used to go out to the Shawnee Twin Lakes every week the last semester of college. In fact this is where I fell in love with the guy. Having great conversations watching the sun go down. We would go sit and talk about life and our hopes and dreams. It was so fun.

At the time I was taking a film photography class and he had been working on getting Drew into photography as well. He bought the original Rebel from my old roommate Tracy (Thanks girl) and he instantly feel in love.

Anyways I guess I was shooting the sunset here and he snapped a picture of me! Pretty good for a beginner huh? Great job with the silhouette and he captured the sun and reflection so well. Can't believe this was two and a half years ago. My how things have changed.

Anyways, this photo just takes me to a happy place... just thought I would share :)

It's official...

http://shancunninghamphotography.com/

So I finally have a website! I am so excited to have a place to send clients! I ran into people at the park the other day and had no where to send them!! So YEA!!!!

website...

my photography website is almost up and running!! I have finished the proofs for the Chartney's that I shot on Sunday!! Let me know what you think!!

http://shancunninghamphotography.com/chartney/

Dear Carsyn...

You better get in a better mood or your mama is gonna lose it.
:) Thanks

8 hours...

Carsyn is officially a rock star sleeper. She goes to bed around 7 or 8 and if she is not in bed by then she gets REALLY mad and lets you know about it. She loooooves her crib... I think she would hang there all day if I let her! She sleeps until 5:00 no matter what... so that is nice.

The bad part about this is that I am not sleeping during this time. My body is sooo used to getting up at 3:00 to feed her that I am waking up anyways... WIDE AWAKE and having to go pump. It stinks!

Thanks goodness for Starbucks Christmas Blend... It's so smooth and yummy and helps me make it through my day!

Anyways... we are heading home in one week from today and I CANNOT wait! I have the privilege of being in my best friends wedding on the 20th! I cannot wait for this either. I have a few photo shoots planned and am really looking forward to them. Remember if you want me to shoot your photos while I am in OKC or TX let me know!!

Hope everyone is well!!

Baby Talk...

So Carsyn learned to "talk" this week and now we can't get her to hush. During the day we are talking to her all of the time just carrying on conversations... and it is the cutest thing in the world! But... at 4:00 am when she wakes up... just to chatting into the monitor, it's not so cute...

Here's a conversation we had this evening. I found her in her bed just laughing and talking away, so we got out to play!





Here's another one of us last night. Sorry about the noise in the background it's her wave machine!

a day in the park...

This past Sunday I got to shoot some of our dear friends the Tiemans. They are loads of fun and were willing to do any pose I put them in! I have REALLY been focusing on posing lately because I tend to look back at my pictures and wish I would have spent more time getting the pose right. We had a ton of fun and I learned a lot. Thanks Tieman's for being flexible and for being my ginny pigs in so many new poses!! My friend Kelly (an aspiring photographer as well) came along and we had a blast. Hope that you enjoy the images!!

Life these days...

Sometimes I feel like I might be losing my mind. We live in a tiny apartment and pay WAY too much for our little space (can I get a "what what" from my seminary friends). Anyways, we don't have a dishwasher and our lives are fairly busy. I am staring at a sink full of dishes right now and it is making me want to vomit. I don't want to do one more dish. Our apartment is incredibly messy and I cleaned it this afternoon. Pillows and burp clothes all over the place, the car seat and diaper bag thrown on the futon, Drew's bag in the middle of the floor...

what is a girl to do??

I laugh when all of my friends post picture of their houses... ha! I wonder if they know how lucky they are to live in a house.

(I am SOO lucky to live where I live, not that I think I am unprivileged, I know I am)

But I can't complain, we chose to live here... and I love it. You couldn't pay me a million bucks to move back. I feel called here, I feel called to the people here, I have a heart for the people here.

We will probably always live in a tiny place and we will probably always pay too much for it. I will probably never own a dishwasher. And all of this is okay.

I just fee like being a little selfish for a moment! ;)

Breath Holding Spell...911

Well, we did it. We made our first 911 phone call and spent our first evening in the emergency room.

First time parents, what a joy!

So last night after sleeping in her car seat for 3 hours while picking up some friends at the airport I had to get Carsyn out, change her and feed her. While changing her she started crying, which is usual after she's been peacefully sleeping. Crying quickly turned into red faced screaming then all of the sudden she WAS NOT BREATHING. I freaked!! She was wide eyed, mouth closed tight and stiff as a board!

Drew came running in and grabbed her, we ran to the living room, I grabbed her started blowing in her face, Drew grabbed her and we RAN OUT THE DOOR to run, well actually drive, to the emergency room. We stopped to try to get her to breath (still holding her breath) and then I remembered our friend Jason had just taught me baby CPR, which I didn't remember. (and which she didn't need she wasn't passed out) So we started RUNNING to his house, by the time we reached there front door she caught her breath and starting crying. Somehow during all of that I got on the phone with 911?? Nothing like a frantic mother on the phone screaming MY BABY ISN'T BREATHING!! The lady kept telling me to calm down, UMMM my baby was NOT breathing no calming was going to happen.

The whole fire-station piles into our friend Jason and Emily's new apartment that we had burst into at 1 in the morning while I was full on exposed feeding Carsyn. Of course they had to check her out but I refused to remove her from my ehhmm boob so they had to check her out while attached. (SERIOUSLY- what is a girl to do? I wasn't about to piss her off again).

The firemen kept asking if we were first time parents?? I kept thinking, what the heck why are they asking us this?? Is this something children do? STOP BREATHING?? If so, I am not okay with that. Anyways they say she looks fine but we have to take her in and do we want a ride in the ambulance or would we like to drive ourselves?? Well, to save $1,000 we'll drive thanks.

We arrive at the ER and finally around 3:00 they let us go home. The pediatrician explained to us that kids have these things called breath holding spells and thats probably what she did. AND she will probably do it again... but we don't need to call 911 unless she passes out, goes limp or turns blue.

All in all, I am EXHAUSTED and scared to death to let her cry!

Schedule...

When I had Carsyn I chose not to follow any books, didn't want to do the famous "baby wise", and didn't want to force her into a schedule that worked perfectly for me.

I wanted to get to know Carsyn and her needs and from there form a schedule. I knew that eventually we would work things out and she would form her very own schedule... and she has!!

She eats at 5:00 am 8:00 am 11:00 am 2:00 pm 5:00 pm 8:00 pm and 10:30 pm... sometimes in the afternoon she adds in an extra feeding if she is growing or just needing some extra love and I am totally fine with that.

She sleeps from about 11-11 but wakes up for feedings.

I am REALLY hoping she keeps this schedule for when I go back to work... it will be ideal!!

Well... here we are today just hanging out... and I snapped one of her working on a poop!

Photos...

Hey friends! So I am working on building up my portfolio and furthering my photography skills BUT I need your help!! If anyone wants to have their pictures taken, just let me know!!

I will be in OKC Dec. 29th-4th and W Falls Dec. 22nd-28th!

Any of my bay area friends you know I am available anytime!

So if you are interested let me know!!

Baby Mathew's...

Yesterday I joined my pal Rachel for a photo shoot. She has grown so much in her photography skills the past year and has been so gracious to share with me some of her great skills! She's been teaching me lots about Lightroom2 and now about posing and shooting. Check out her website to see her great pictures...

http://www.rachelblackwellphotography.com/


Anyways we got to shoot some of our dear friends Stacy and Josh and their little baby girl growing in her belly. I didn't get that many good shots because I was observing more and shooting from a different angle so no smiles were coming my way... but I got a few good ones...

Isn't she gorgeous?!?! I cannot wait to meet baby girl Mathew's!!

Sick baby girl...

My baby girl is sick :(

She just has a bit of a cold (I think) but she has just not been herself. She is always happy and content and the past few days she has spent crying and being fussy... Therefore I have not had time to brush my hair and possibly my teeth nor have I had time to dress nice or even look in the mirror. Needless to say we are both looking rough... (note the amazing photo of us)



She is finally resting beside me, SNORING loudly... I am not sure if it is just her usual snore or that she has a little congestion. I am taking her to the doctor tomorrow to get her checked out.

I will posting pictures later of a good friend that I had the privilege of shooting yesterday!

Sigur Ros

Carsyn loves Sigur Ros. If she is fussing and just trying to get to sleep I just turn on the Hvarf-Heim album Samskeyti and she is OUT within seconds, maybe even one second. I love the sound of the piano in this song. Something about it is just beautiful. I was trying to explain the feeling that it gives me to Drew the other day and he couldn't help but laugh. It makes me feel like I am in a field full of daises and beautiful rolling green hills... It just make me happy.

I wish I had learned the piano when I was little.


Here she is as the result of the music... and here is another picture of us this morning... I was copying her serious face!

Mallory Rose