WEEKEND GIVEAWAY

It is my anniversary. I have OFFICIALLY been blogging for one year! As a thank you to all of you who tune in every week, I am hosting my first blog giveaway. All you have to do is post a comment, with your first name or your blog name, and I will enter you into a drawing which will be held Monday evening. I will post the winners name on Tuesday morning and a package will soon arrive to the lucky winner's mailbox. Don't hesitate to enter...this will be fun!

As most of you know, I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with family and friends and to post about my children's activities and fun filled days, but this blog has become so much more. I am so thankful to be sharing my family with all of you, and to receive feedback on ALL my photographs, but I also feel like I have made so many new friends most of who I have never met. I love that I have connected with so many wonderful people. It has been a great year and I look forward to many more.

I wanted to close by posting a few of my favorite photos from the year. Most of these have appeared on my blog before, but some have not. I hope to have many more to share in the coming months.

Have a FABULOUS WEEKEND and thank you for staying tuned to GreyGill Fish!

SNOW DAYS

You never know what you are going to find when you leave GiGi alone to entertain herself for a while. I walked into GTO's bedroom and she was putting on a show. I thought it was definitely camera worthy.

Baby Announcement

We are iced in at home. The kids have been out of school for two days, and I have cabin fever. Yesterday, I finally had to break away from playing Wii with the kids and do something creative which involved creating Gracie's birth announcement (with Hubby's help). I don't enjoy making cards. I usually leave that to MWP, or KJ. They enjoy doing it and are GREAT at it! I am not a wizard at photoshop like I would like to be, but HUBBY sure is. We usually don't work very good together on projects, because I am a CONTROL FREAK, (yes, I admitted it.) but yesterday we worked really great together and came up with this...

(Back of card)

Oklahoma City Newborn Photographer

Yes, that's right. I am advertising myself in my title, because I just found my dream job. I photographed Baby Gracie for her newborn shoot and had so much fun! As my talented photographer SIL, MWP, put it this morning in her post, I go a little "gaa gaa" over babies, so this is the perfect job for me! (Thanks Shan). I may just resign from my current job this week if I get some more business. LOL!

There are a lot of photos below, because I had trouble narrowing it down. We had so much fun dressing Gracie up in all her accessories. She is 9 days old. Isn't she precious???

Don't you want to kiss all over these sweet cheeks?

Does she look like Aunt Jemima?

When I found out Mel was pregnant, I purchased this gown...hoping she would have a girl we could dress up. I am glad she got to use it.

I know how fast time flies with little ones. I know before long, little Gracie's baby booty will be crawling away from my camera. I still have a few more photo sessions before that happens. Until next time Baby Gracie.

BREAKING NEWS...

THE TOOTH FAIRY IS GOING BROKE!

GTO is getting rich this week. I think he is going to lose all his teeth at once. By the way, is there an actual story about the tooth fairy? GTO keeps asking questions..."How big is the tooth fairy? Is it a girl? What does she do with the teeth? Where does she live?" So, why isn't there a universal story about the tooth fairly like Santa? Am I missing out on something?

So here is my story...The tooth fairy is a very tiny beautiful fairy from tooth fairy land. She flies into your room to leave money under your pillow. She is so small that you don't even feel her when she is collecting your tooth. The tooth fairy collects all the kid's teeth to build onto her beautiful mansion which is built from teeth of course. Everything in the mansion is made from teeth. (A toilet from enamel intead of porcelain doesn't sound so bad does it? LOL!) She leaves $2 for your first tooth, and $1 for each additional tooth.

So that is my story and I am sticking to it. Hopefully, GTO won't discuss this with any of his friends, because I doubt anyone else believes this far fetched story. And I am hoping he doesn't talk to any of those kids who get $5-$20 from the tooth fairy. He will feel so cheated. Seriously, why does anyone do that?

Happy Day

This big boy was excited to go to school today to show off his new look.

Notice the difference? Fairly obvious, huh? :)

Gracie ART

Weekend Update

This child has given me fits all weekend. I hope she got it all out of her system. I stated in my last post that I wanted another child, but after this weekend, I am reconsidering.

Okay, that was enough reconsideration. After seeing Gracie this afternoon, I do want another baby/babies.

WARNING: DON'T LOOK IF YOU HAVE BABY FEVER

I spent 7 hours at the hospital yesterday with these two couples, and now can officially say I HAVE BABY FEVER in a bad way!

This beautiful couple welcomed their first born, a son, weighing 8 lbs. 3 oz.

Funny story: She was in active labor when they arrived to the hospital. Hubby let her out at the front to go up and check in while he parked the car and brought in their bags. Labor and delivery is on the 6th floor, but her elevator became stuck between the 3rd and 4th floors. She was all by herself and had to push the alarm button. By the time Hubby arrived which was about 10-15 minutes later, the security guards and maintenance workers were prying her elevator door open. They had to physically hoist her out of the elevator. A story they will someday share with their little guy.

Isn't he adorable! His name is Luke Anthony. I think he looks just like his Daddy.

Matt and Mel welcomed their third child, a girl, named Gracie Rae.

I was so happy to be at the hospital when this precious baby girl arrived.

Gracie Rae weighed 8lbs 7 oz and has the cutest chubby cheeks. I kissed them many times.

And now I NEED one of my own!

The Invasion

Have I told you that the aliens have captured GTO??? This obsession of his gets deeper and deeper everyday. The other night we were doing math homework and he was turning his numbers into aliens. I am ready for this obsession to dwindle down a bit, but IT DOES make him happy, so I guess that is what really matters.

Sometimes, GTO goes to work with me if he is out of school. On our way to work, we pass this old building with graffiti down the sides. He has been asking to stop there for a while, but we haven't had time, because Mommy can't seem to get to work on time...EVER! A couple of weeks ago, I DRAGGED him away from his Wii alien game to run errands with me. I told him we could go take alien pictures and that sealed the deal for him. Unfortunately, the sun was on the wrong side of the building so the alien shots didn't turn out very good, but BOY WAS HE EXCITED!

We moved to the other side of the building to take a few "COOL" pictures.

"Hey Mom look! I am running through a cartoon."

I love GTO's personality. His broad imagination can take him anywhere.

We had so much fun together this day. I know I always say he is my sweet boy, but he really is the kindest, most precious, sweet-tempered boy...even if he would like to live on another planet.

2009

I am not one who makes New Year's resolutions. Only 5% of people succeed with their resolutions, and I don't intend to set myself up for failure at the start of a new year. However, I have set a couple of goals for myself to try to attain this year. One of which is to learn more about photography and hopefully improve, but also to start sharing my passion with my kids, even if it means sharing my camera. A while back, GiGi asked me why I take so many pictures. (Hhmmm, I wonder why she thinks that???) Instead of trying to explain it, we borrowed Hubby's truck one evening, ventured out into the country, pulled over on the side of a road, and watched the sunset while standing in the back of the black Chevy. Her reaction, "Mommy, MOMMY! look, look, LOOK!, the sun is making colors and is going down." I then knelt down placing my camera strap around GiGi's neck and told her to start snapping. She was so proud of herself, but even prouder when she saw this on the computer...

I think she is one step closer to understanding now.

My SILLY Girl

Okay, this is the last birthday post (at least until the birthday party), but I had to share this series of photos to show Miss GiGi's personality. I usually post the more serious, posed pictures of GiGi, but these photos show the REAL THING...HAPPY, SILLY, DRAMATIC, and CRAZY rolled into one little being.