Friends to act like friends,

Neighbors to act like neighbors,

And for me to be a better one of each.

Happy New Year, friends.
Eric, Sara, Adrian & Madeline

10+ countries visited

9…  years snapping photos for business

8… years since I started dating Sara

7…  years of concerts at the Underground Cafe

6… digital SLRs (Nikon D70, D70s, D200 x2, D300, D700)

5… 35mm Film Cameras (Minolta x-370, 7000i, 600si, Nikon N80, Argus C-Four)

4… Apple computers doing photo work (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, MacBook, iBook G4)

3… continents wandered (North / Central America, Europe, Asia)

2… wonderful children Adrian & Madeline

1… amazing sweetheart Sara.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

(Full longwinded ramble recap on the way too.)

With weekend events to photograph and mix, lots of final touches to the house, early Thanksgiving dinner (yay!), and scheduled c-section with hospital recovery in the coming week I wanted to put a notice out early to let everybody know I might be out of touch for a few days.

We’ll be back at full speed Tuesday, December 1st.

To everyone that’s going to ask, Sara’s doing well, looks great, and is more than ready to have our daughter soon. Last month soon. Adrian likes to put his hand or head on Mommy’s tummy and say “baybee” and I’m pretty sure he knows something’s up but not that he’s about to be ousted as the youngest in the house. There’s also that sharing thing to get used to.

You needn’t remind me to take lots of photos. I’ll have the exclusive since it looks like Madeline’s holding off for early Thanksgiving dinner this weekend and staying in her nice cozy hideout till Tuesday’s scheduled c-section delivery. We’ll announce when it’s ok to have visitors, keep in touch here, facebook, twitter, and faxes. Just kidding. We keep it old school, telegraph time.

Be back soon! – Eric, Sara, Adrian and Maddie

It doesn’t have to be the 4th Thursday of November to be thankful. What things are you thankful for today?

Here’s a handful of favorites from our family’s first Christmas with Adrian. He loved playing with the boxes and paper more than most of the things that were inside the gifts. Who said joy has to be anything complicated, expensive, or obligated? This kid has it down plain and simple.

Christmas joy from a baby boy

Adrian and Eric decked out for Christmas

Happiness is a toy to chomp!

I've been good... mostly

Baby snuggles for Mama

Adrian's first Christmas Ornament

One of the coolest ideas for a first Christmas ornament I’ve ever seen. My sis Genna knew a painter at the local Farmer’s Market and used a photo my mom took from a (cough, yuck, cough) cell phone and made the coolest baby ornament I’ve seen!

I posted the original photo in the Deedle Beetle post last month, and have to say I much prefer the sledding version for the ornament.

Happy New Year this week!

What an awesome first Christmas these two celebrated back in 2006, the same year as my first newlywed Christmas. This year as it’s single-digit temperatures we’re looking back on the nearly 50-degree wedding day we shared with Katie and Nathan to think warm thoughts as Christmas nears. (Is global warming on vacation or what?!)

Click the photo above of CLICK HERE to see the extended-play slideshow with music by friend and groomsman Skyler, as well as one of the most upbeat Christmas wedding recessional songs out there.

Enjoy!

Adrian’s 1st Thanksgiving.

Adrian and Aunt Aliya ready to dig in!

Adrian finds dessert… mess ahead!

Truth in photography and business from WhatTheDuck.net

(Trouble seeing the photo in your subscription? Click HERE)

FIGHT FOR KISSES – if my son Adrian and I were “fighting for kisses” he’d be winning by a long shot – I hate shaving. But he does have really soft skin and for the first couple of weeks home I felt like he was making faces at me for getting (almost) all Sara’s attention.

Today I played Mr. Mom for a good part of the late morning till 7pm and got an even better appreciation for all it takes to raise a child and all the hard work Sara does to keep up with Adrian, me, photography, work, and life all at once. I had 4 loads of laundry hauled next door, washed / dried / folded, some photo orders to send out, feeding / changing / cuddling / laughing with Adrian, phone calls, planning to move in the next few weeks… and probably more that I’ve forgotten. I’ve never wondered what a housewife “does all day” as I work at home and have always been in the middle of it all and helping keep up with it all. Hats off to moms!

Last Mother’s Day Sara and I went out to lunch with her older sisters, a niece with kids, Dad, and some family friends to celebrate the moms. I told Sara that soon enough we’d celebrate a Mother’s Day of our own, and only a few weeks later we found out that our little Adrian was on the way!

This coming weekend brings LOTS of celebration with my birthday on Saturday and Sara’s first Mother’s Day on Sunday. Nothing like spring weekend celebrations!

let it snow (new year’s eve),

let it snow (new year’s morning),

let it snow… (all day new year’s day)”

T8wvWJ3Jhgo

OK ENOUGH ALREADY!

Being stuck inside wasn’t all bad. Waffles started the day while we watched the Rose Bowl parade. I got some office stuff caught up and year-end paperwork started. We got a lot of housework done. There was a foot of snow on the cars when I went out to get some storage tubs for our little afternoon project, Operation Nesting.

We’re within the last month of pregnancy – an even bigger countdown than a new year brings! Baby’s been growing really quickly and kicking around more than ever. As of tonight he hasn’t dropped in place for his exit strategy but he will be soon. We cleaned up kitchen, a bit of the office nook, and most all the bedroom. Sara got bags of excess clothing ready to give to friends and relatives and our closet has never before looked so organized! I had mentioned us sorting through old clothes earlier on when she wasn’t as pregnant as she is now but… the baby kicking around was the motivation we both needed to plow through some big projects.

In football… Watched Michigan beat Florida in a bowl game. I’m not necessarily a Michigan fan but I’m less of a Florida fan… and the Wolverines have been handing a whooping to the Flailing Irish for quite a while so I cheered Blue today. I didn’t even know who the Fighting Illini are till today when they took on USC. I’m a dedicated “anyone but USC” fan so I watched a quarter and soon forgot who the Illini are as quickly as I was introduced to them at kickoff. Ouch. One quarter was enough to dredge up flashbacks of ND’s last season and remind me why I hadn’t watched much college ball this year. But on the bight side, Jay Leno reran the USC vs. Texas A&M show and … USC got beat that year. Lots of Orange in the audience. I was a dedicated aTm fan that game after seeing USC scrape out a questionably-fair win against a winning ND in 2005. Also Ouch. After my dad and I screamed ourselves hoarse at the game – as in AT the game, in the stands – I talked to him about proposing to Sara. Not sure what he was feeling about it as we didn’t have voices to talk about it much. Even such a sorry ND loss turned out to be a great day in my memory.

Sara and I have been watching through LOST Season 3 dvds… waiting till season 4 starts January 31st. Anyone up for a LOST season 1-3 marathon week/end before #4 kicks off? Wait… baby’s coming right around there. THE BABY, CHARLIE! (had to)

Stay toasty & warm, and enjoy this nice start to the New Year.