Hmmm...

I am all about the beauty of breastfeeding, and I have no objection whatsoever to the World Health Organization's current guidelines of breastfeeding your baby at least 2 years and as long thereafter as is mutually desirable by both mother and baby. But it seems to me that you have to draw the line somewhere!

FAIR WARNING: Don't watch this unless you want to be a little icked out.

What I'm working on right now...

I really wanted to go to Body Pump at noon today, since I won't be able to hit the gym this evening due to a photo shoot. Unfortunately, the deliciousness of the collage I am currently working on made it impossible for me to tear myself away! A little preview:

Norah - 7 Months Old

Norah is now 7 months old, and is we are trying to teach her to sit. Unfortunately, so far, this is not going exactly as we planned.

Oops.

When Autumn asked if she and Bear could go play in the creek in our back yard, we said "Sure!" Unfortunately, none of us realized just how "in" the creek she would end up. Photos by Jason.

Road Trip!

Well, after days of procrastination, I am finally packed and about to hit the road for Vicksburg! Norah and I will swing through Mena on the way to pick up Mom and Dad, and then it's off the land of cotton, carriages and casinos for a 3-day stay in the Old South!

We'll be there to photograph a wedding, and we'll be taking lots of pictures along the way, so tune in next time for pictures from our adventure! : )

Yes, I actually found him this way.

Photo Shoot!

It seems like we are always taking pictures of other people's kids, but we seldom stop to take "real" pictures of our kids! And by "real," I don't mean actually real, I mean the kind of real that the assorted grandparents get very happy about hanging on their wall. : )

Well, the other kids are still overdue for this, but we sat Norah down the other morning for a quick photo shoot by Daddy. I love it!

Pretty Girl!

It seems like all I hear from everyone when they meet little Norah is how much she looks like her Daddy. I like this picture, though, because I think Norah looks a little bit like me in it!

Wednesdays with GrandJo

So far Norah's relationship with her GrandJo (Jason's mom) has been a little rocky. It seems like Norah is not a huge fan of anyone that isn't me, and for some reason, she seems to quite randomly select the other few people she will tolerate, and GrandJo is not one of them. Since she was about 4 months old, any time GrandJo gets anywhere near her, Norah just has a fit. I know that everything you read says that 4 months is too young to have this reaction, but apparently no one bothered to fill Norah in about that!

I wish we had filmed it and put it on YouTube when it was at its peak. The closer GrandJo got, the more irritated Norah would look, and then if she tried to hold her, Norah would scream until she turned purple and started holding her breath! It is very strange, because GrandJo is so sweet with her, and we can't for the life of us figure out why she reacts this way.

In any event, in an effort to get Norah to warm up to her, we have started having Wednesdays with GrandJo! Every Wednesday, Joanna comes over and plays with her here in hopes of Norah deciding that she is not so bad after all. I think it is starting to work! Last time, she let Joanna hold her while she did "Ride a Little Horsey" and "Peek-A-Boo" with her, and this time, she let Joanna hold her down on the floor and even smiled a time or two! We'll take progress where we can get it. Joanna lives just a few blocks away, and I would do just about anything to get myself such a handy babysitter! ; ) Seriously, though, I hope she outgrows this soon. She's going to love her GrandJo so much, and we would rather this start sooner than later. Cross your fingers!

Here are a few pictures from our last Wednesday visit.

Mena

I have posted some of my photographs of last week's tornado in Mena on CNN's iReport website. I know pretty much everyone that reads this has already seen them on Facebook, but I thought I'd share the link to view them here as well. Click HERE if you'd like to see the photographs and read a story about the tornado.

I will be in Mena again this weekend, and if anyone wants to get together or has something they would like to see photographed, please feel free to drop me a line. You can reach me by commenting here, e mailing kori@thehudsonsrock.com or calling me at 479.466.5823.

The folks down in Mena are working hard, but there is still so much laying ahead of them. Keep them in your prayers!

Stupid Professional Photography.

I know it's silly, but I really wanted to enter Norah in the BabyGap modeling contest. Just because she's so stinkin' precious! : ) Well, unfortunately for us, they had a little clause in there saying that if a parent of either child derived more than 50% of his or her income from photography, than the child was ineligible. Stupid professional photography.

So today at the mall, I noticed that Children's Place is having a cute baby cover model contest too! Well, I really want to enter, even though their clothes are not quite as cute as BabyGap's clothes, but again, the contest rules are trying to foil me! Luckily, I found a loophole this time. The wording of the official rules just states that the photograph submitted must not be the product of a professional photographer, and says nothing about whether or not the CHILD is a product of a professional photographer... or two. ; )

Solution! I am going to have Bear take a picture of her for the contest. No one can say he is a professional photographer, because he is 5. And his pictures are pretty good to boot. Say hello to your next cover model, Children's Place!

SpiderBear

I present to you:

SpiderMan...




...And SpiderBear!

Random Photo of the Day - Chicago Skyline

I love taking pictures in big cities. Well, I pretty much love taking pictures anywhere, but metropolises seem especially ripe with possibilities. We'll be in New York City for a wedding next month, and we built an extra couple of days into the trip just to walk around the city and shoot. I can't wait!

Deep Thoughts by Barrett.

"I wish I was born 7. Then I would never have to take a nap."

Trip to the Botanical Gardens (AKA "Revenge of the Giant Bow!)

Bear got quite a treat today, as our photo shoots took us to both the Botanical Gardens and Wilson Park, and he got lots of free time in between to play at both! While Jason was doing a Life Shoot at the Ozark Botanical Garden, Bear and I played around with the camera. First I snapped a few of him and Norah, and then he borrowed the camera to work on filling up the whole square, or filling up the frame, depending on whether you're 5 or not. : ) He did a great job! That boy is so smart it amazes me. I think he is going to be a brilliant engineer or something some day.

In the meantime, it was time for Norah to say 'Hello' in her enormous hairbow, and for Bear to be his adorable self, as usual. I love my kiddos!

Hey Jude!

I was just listening to this song on my iTunes, and was reminded of how much I just dearly love it. If we ever have another baby (a lot of trouble, but completely worth it, by the way), and it's a boy, we may name him Jude. I love that name!

Random Photo of the Day!

Hmmmm...

I have no idea what is happening here, but I appreciate my sister taking the time to document it! Disclaimer: Photo stolen from Jamie's blog!

Trip to the Circus!

I was very proud of Autumn for being so brave during her school musical! Last year she was not so sure about getting up in front of everyone, but this year she really seemed to enjoy it. She had quite a crew there to watch her... Aunt Jamie and (soon to be) Uncle Joe, Garner and Papa, Nana, Grandjo and me, Jason, Barrett and Norah. I think everyone may have thought I was insane, because I brought the BIG long lens with me, but I remembered last year that I ended up stuck at the back and that it was impossible to get any good pictures with a normal camera, so this year I came prepared! In any case, between Nana's video camera, Papa sitting in the front row, and us at the back with the long lens, I think her performance was well documented. : )Sorry there are so many pictures in this post, but I'm not very good at narrowing it down!

With no further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen... Children of all ages... It's circus time!

Here she is waving to me at the back.




We were apparently not the only ones who decided to document the occasion!































I love the clown jumping at the back during the big finale!



Here is her teacher, Mr. Folsom (who we absolutely love by the way), along with some lady who appears to disapprove. Of what we do not know, but it looks pretty serious!



Mrs. Jones, the wonderful principal.



Greeting her friends after the play.















Forget the pretty smile. This one shows the real deal! ; )



Garner and Autumn at Cici's Pizza after the show.



Autumn and me! 

Wow. I can't believe you're still reading this. That was a long one! Hope everyone has a great weekend!