Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

New Years Eve has always been a fun and special time for Rich and I, but as of last year, it gained our appreciation for an entirely new reason: It was six-week-old Alana’s FIRST time to sleep through the night! We’d spent a fun evening with our dear friends The Holritz’s, and had put Alana to bed in the portable crib for the first time. She slept until we woke her to drive home, and she continued sleeping as we transferred her tiny body into her crib at home. We awoke a glorious six hours later.

And so, New Years Eve had yet another very positive connotation in our home.

And this year was absolutely no exception. Our dear friends, the Bergtholds, allowed us to be their honorary Sunday School friends at their home on New Years Eve, and we gladly accepted the invitation. I think everyone there (excluding us) was part of their Sunday morning clan at Woodland Park. It’s an awesome group, and we could quickly tell that they all genuinely care about each other. We were honored to be part of the fun. 

But, before we left, we spent a few minutes together since we wanted some New Year Eve 2008 photos before Alana would go to bed. Here is my amazing man, being the melt-your-heart daddy that he is. 

Rich captured a fun game that Alana and I play from time to time. Sadly, her enthusiastic face is not visible in this photo! 

Reading, reading, reading. It’s the theme in our home this month. Alana has really begun to discover the fun and excitement that reading can bring, and is absorbing it all; learning new words and noises. Rich is just incredible with her…she often picks up a book, waddles over to him, and plops into his lap, awaiting a new adventure. 

Sweet little entertainer…

As we arrived at the Bergtholds, this was the mouth-watering sight that greeted us! They catered Qdoba, and it did not disappoint. I love assembling my own food like this - it’s the little things in life make me so happy

Kristy keeps a beautiful home, and I enjoyed documenting a few of the festive details: 

The stunning tree: 

Thanks so much to Steph for this fun shot! 

Tim and Steph’s son, Lake, cracked us up…somewhere he found a little pair of pink, squeaky shoes and apparently, enjoyed them more than his own! So silly

I love watching Tim and Steph with their boys…and I love capturing a moment when my subject is unaware of the camera! 

While a group of us played Apples to Apples, (Thanks for this photo, honey!)

Another group rocked out with Guitar Hero! A perfect New Years Eve activity! 

Lyssa, one of Scott and Kristy’s incredible (and I do mean incredible) girls…

And Laini, another Bergthold princess! 

Scott and Ryan mean business. 

Some sneaky person confiscated our camera and snapped this one of Rich and I. It was actually my very first time playing Guitar Hero. It was fun at first…

And then it got a little stressful. The notes started flying across the screen, daring me to hit them all. I was too busy just trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing, and needless to say, didn’t do so well. I think I was squeaking and bouncing, because I kept hearing laughter from behind

Midway through the evening, we even got to enjoy a Bergthold fireworks display! Totally intimidated by the science of taking a photo in a situation like this, I did not even attempt it. I let Rich take over, with his tripod, and get all of his camera settings ready for a fireworks display. He did a great job, as usual! 

And we concluded the evening by getting a group shot. I was sad that we hadn’t thought to do this earlier since several couples had already left! So, not included in the photo are the Brenneman’s, the Blackiston’s, and a few others that I am not remembering at the moment. Thanks to everyone for being game for a group shot, and thank you to the girls who had to, gulp, pause guitar hero to be in the photo

Here’s our rockstar pose! My personal favorites are Scott and Lyssa

To the Bergtholds: thank you so very much for your friendship, for the memories, for the incessant photography referrals, and for the incredible New Year Eve 2008. We love you guys. And just for fun, I thought I’d post all of the Bergthold sessions that Rich has done! Here is Levi’s Four Month Session, which happened to be Rich’s first ever! Then came Lily Kate’s Newborn Session, her Two Month Session, her Six Month Session, her Nine Month Session, and her First Birthday Party! 

And to all of our new friends: it was so nice to meet all of you, and we wish you a wonderful New Year. May God bless all of you richly and be the source of your JOY!

It’s hard to articulate just how therapeutic it is for me to blog once I’ve spent a week with my family and our time has come to a close. It’s my way of hanging on to the time we shared and keeping the loneliness at bay.

Rich, Alana, and I spent the week in Fort Lauderdale for Christmas, and, if you’ve been following my blog lately, you’ve already seen part 1 of our time together. We returned to Chattanooga yesterday, and at the conclusion of our eleven hour drive I just simply did not have it in me to blog. But today, after a good night of sleep (and a stressful first day back in town), I’m prioritizing this decompression exercise. 

With a five-week-old Alana last Christmas, you can imagine how sleep deprived and exhausted we were, and as a result, did a very poor job of documenting Alana’s first Christmas. This year I decided that we would do a better job. I cherish these memories and wanted to capture the love, the laughter, and the uniqueness of Christmas with a 13-month-old. 

So, depending on how enthusiastic a blog reader you are, you may or may not actually make it through this post. Regardless, no hard feelings! I took a million photos and love many of them - and since I’m in charge here - they’re going on the blog! If you’re really committed, grab a cup of coffee or chai and hang out with me for a while as I recount the Lashbrook Family Christmas 2008. 

I tried to document many of the things that make my parent’s house a “home.” My mom is, among many other things, a great decorator. She makes the house feel so festive during the holidays, so I grabbed a few detail shots around the house, starting at the front door:

Christmas Eve was spent doing a bit of last minute shopping and relaxing around the house. Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale had Christmas Eve Services all throughout the day, and we attended the 4:30. I took a few photos of Alana in her little Christmas dress before we left…

Chubby cheeks and Christmas tree lights…could it really get any better???

My beautiful mom…

At church, Christmas displays of all kinds were set up around the campus. We found these huge gift boxes and had a little fun…

Uncle Shawn! 

A gigantic Christmas tree! (Thank you honey, for all of these photos!) 

My dad was brave enough to take this photo with Rich’s 40D, and we were so excited for the family photo! He did a great job! Thank you, dad!!!

After the service, my dear friend Lisa stopped by and it was so good to catch up with her. I find it so difficult to find time for friends when I only see my family a few times a year, but I just needed to see Lisa! We’ve been friends since middle school, and we’ve been long distance friends ever since I moved away from Fort Lauderdale to go to Covenant College in 1999! Her family just keeps growing, and she stopped by with her three adorable boys while her hubby, Matt, was at work. It was so great to see you, Lisa! 

I used tags from Kellie’s Etsy store to identify gifts this year. If you haven’t visited her store in a while, do! She constantly lists wonderful new things and is too talented to describe! 

A sampling of our gifts this year! 

Christmas morning was, well, adorable. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and a fun yet relaxing time of gift opening. We always love to open gifts one person at a time and enjoy each others’ excitement. Alana just revolved around the room, being held by different family members… 

When she got really sleepy, she climbed into her daddy’s arms and enjoyed a new blanket from Aunt Pam! 

She seemed to perk up a bit when she opened her gift from Aunt Pixie, who, sadly, could not join us for Christmas. We missed her very much, but it was so fun to open her gifts and enjoy her in that way. I adore the following photos that Rich took…he so captured Alana’s reaction to her new musical book! 

Toys and slippers from grandma and grandpa! 

Chubby Chipmunk treats from Amber to dad! 

Opening gifts with grandma! 

Baby toes. Need I say more? 

Alana got a second wind and became downright entertaining:

Stocking stuffers for dad and Shawn: “Coke Bombs.” Brilliant marketing by Coca Cola, as usual: package a few ounces of coke in a cool shape and sell it for the price of a two-liter! I’m a sucker for cool packaging, so I gladly grabbed a couple of these and thought it blog-worthy! 

I’ve had a bluetooth for a while now and love it…so I highly recommended mine when dad suggested getting one for mom. Now we match

Ah, the joys of hands-free chatting. I could never go back! Especially now that I lug a baby, diaper bag, purse, and whatever else needs to get from point A to B. 

Post-Christmas playing and silliness…

Examining the new toys…

Hugging the new toys…

Moving on to other new toys…

Quality silly time with grandma! 

This expression has some focused intensity, which tells me it probably had to do with food

Family breakfast at Einstein Bros!

Then off to run an errand. Do you see how much “shopping” gets done when Alana’s around? It’s really all just one big game, and we tend to forget what we were doing in the first place. Here, my dad plays peek-a-boo with Alana in the shopping aisle! 

Why ride in the boring old shopping cart when you can ride on grandpa’s shoulders? Seriously! 

I love this shot by Rich! I love the movement, and the natural aspect of it. No one knew he was taking this photo - go honey! 

Our last night in Lauderdale called for something a little special. So we headed down to Las Olas for some fun shopping, a little sight seeing, and ultimately, some Cheesecake Factory luscious cheesecake and playing Apples to Apples! I wasn’t around when Rich got these photos of my mom, placing a princess tiara on Alana’s head, but I definitely love the images! 

Um, priceless. 

Okay, whew!

I have, hopefully, remembered the things I’ll want to remember when I revisit this blog post ten years from now. We hope that you and your loved ones had a blessed and truly special Christmas!

And now, Happy New Year!!!

(photo by Holritz Photography)

I suppose I have to use words in order to inaugurate my first Wordless Wednesday!

Several of my friends do this on their blog and I thought it was a cute idea. So, from time to time on Wednesdays, I plan to post a photo sans verbiage!

Enjoy the first wordless wednesday photo! 

(And no, I didn’t let her suck on her first candy cane for more than a minute!)

On Sunday, Rich, Alana and I visited the Chattanooga Market for a special Christmas event. We wanted to visit our sweet friend Tobi with Ivey Handcrafted, because it had been way too long since we’d seen her! 

I’m so annoyed with myself, because I got too distracted taking photos of her wonderful products and totally spaced out and forgot to have Rich take a self-portrait of the three of us! Argh! I still need to process the product shots that I took, so those won’t be in this post. 

I took a few photos of Rich and Alana…she’d never been so bundled up before, since it was SO COLD! She looked like a Michelin baby with her little puffer jacket! 

Ah, he is the sweetest daddy! 

And Rich grabbed a couple of Alana and I…

She didn’t know what to do with her hands…it was her first experience with mittens. So funny!

Since I failed so miserably to take photos of Tobi, I wanted to be SURE to document the adorable headband that we were excited to get from her on Sunday! Since Kellie and I planned to hang out and take photos yesterday anyway, we decided to practice on our favorite little subject: Alana! 

We’ve been practicing a lot lately, and are so excited because, even though we still have much to learn, we are beginning to feel more confident with our camera settings! We spent about ten minutes in my front yard with Alana, and here are my photos! I love the way they turned out, and I am excited to give Tobi these images to continue promoting her amazing work! 

Look at that little Ivey Handcrafted headband! It’s fun to have something to put on her head to make her look girly…barrettes don’t work because she doesn’t have enough hair

I think this is my favorite…

Then she decided she wanted the headband off, so Kellie and I just kept shooting for a couple of minutes…

This is one of the faces that my sister, Alana’s Aunt Pixie (Amber) taught her. Alana and Amber are going to be tight…they are both such hams! I also love this photo because Kellie is in the background - she and I have been taking photography lessons from Rich for several months now and she’s my shooting buddy

Oh ya! Check out Kellie with the 16-35mm lens! She was so excited to be able to zoom since she’s been using the 50mm 1.4! Go girl! 

Thank you again for letting us come visit you, Tobi! We loved seeing you and must get together soon. Thank you again for the completely perfect little headband - we love it  

And as always, Kellie, thank you for your friendship and ALL of the laughs and learning, encouragement and challenge that you bring to my life! I love you so much!