Family Photos

I really wanted some family photos of the three of us, before Eloise gets TOO much bigger. So using my trusty camera, tripod and self-timer, we ventured out. I had the perfect park in mind, one we had gone to the week before and was definitely the most beautiful place I've seen in Greenville/Eastern Carolina yet. However, we made the 'mistake' of going the day after thanksgiving, and apparently all park workers were out Black Friday shopping, because it was closed. I hate it when parks are closed - isn't that one of the purposes of them? Enjoy the outdoors, at any (daylight) time? Anywho, after many tears on my part -- blame the postpartum brain -- we ended up walking a LONG ways on this winter-fied trail (read: dead trees, swamp-like feel, no colors or pretty light), we walked all the way back, only to take photos at the part of this other park right by where we parked the car. It turned out looking A LOT prettier than it actually was, thanks to getting just the right angle to cut out the dead trees here, too. And you know what? I LOVE how they turned out. And I especially love that we have nice photos of the three of us, and of each of us with Eloise. And when she's a little older, maybe I'll find a good photographer out here who I can pay to take photos, and maybe even get some of Dylan and I together? What a thought :) I just need to get better at figuring out poses that will work for the three of us with the self-timer -- it's so hard to get in to a fun and casual position when you're running for the spot!

Let me know what you think - favorites?

Eloise Jayden

Introducing the newest Cannon: Eloise Jayden. Born November 2, 2011, at 12:02 am. Weighing in at 6 lbs 15.1 oz, and 19.5 inches long. We are completely in love with her, which makes up for all the sleeplessness and crazy adjustments in our lives. Dylan went back to school this week, my mom went home, and now she and I are braving these long days together, figuring things out as we go. She finally went down for a nap without having to be held, so I got a chance to upload these photos and make sure we record this moment in our lives.

Day of birth

2 days old, in her favorite spot in the world - cuddled up with Daddy

2 days old

Cannon family 'little ears'

Holding Mommy's finger

Holding Daddy's finger

4 days old, napping on Daddy on a Sunday afternoon

4 days old - little ears again

Had to capture her shedding skin and wrinkly hands before they became soft newborn hands - and she has the LONGEST fingers! No idea where that came from

Perfection.

She curls up in to the smallest little ball on Daddy's chest

Skinny legs! And LONG feet

Perfect, wrinkly newborn feet

For more pictures of her (in the hospital, at home, etc.) go to our family blog

Maternity Photos: ME!

Last weekend, Dylan and I finally got around to getting some pictures taken of me, in my 9th month of pregnancy. Unfortunately, I don't know any photographers anywhere close to here, so I basically had to direct Dylan from in front of the camera. He did a fabulous job, even with a feisty, over-heated pregnant woman calling the shots - he really is amazing. It was a little hectic - me fiddling with the manual settings, jumping in the frame, looking to see what needed to be adjusted, jumping back in....you get the picture. And we picked a pretty warm and humid afternoon, too, so the end result may be a very sweaty (so, true-to-life) rendition of me. Then I did some tweaking in Lightroom when we got home, and voila! Maternity pictures.
Anyway, what do you think? Didn't Dylan do an amazing job?

So excited!!

The amazing photographer/husband/best friend/man