Did I check anything off...

Not really. I kept busy yesterday, but not with anything on my list. I proofed more pics from my friend's maternity shoot, got tired so had a nap. Then went shopping at St. Laurent with my friend - didn't buy anything, but it was nice to be in air conditioning! Then came home, went for another walk with Eric and Bender. Then picked up the girls. Unfortunately, all that walking and staying up didn't induce labour. I had more contractions, but not the full on what I was hoping for. But, at least I was having contractions again, so today I'm going for two longish walks with the dog. It's cooler outside and hopefully the bugs aren't too bad. I'd also like to stop by the Chelsea flower shop to get some nice flowers, I have a little "project" in mind! But for now, the dalia's are blooming and beautiful right now. They are my favourite flowers in the garden after tulips. Actually tulips and dalia's are equal, and luckily they bloom at totally different times!

This is called: "Dalia after the rain"

Keeping Busy

August 17th and now officially 4 days late. I was 3 days late having Gillian, but right on the nose with Abby, so I guess this one is just waiting for the perfect moment to come. It's really hard not to sit here 24 hours a day and think about how I want more than anything to start labour, and meet this little girl. But I do, and it's probably stressing me out. Eric is now at home, and we get daily calls from everyone wondering if I've started yet. Trust me at this point, everyone will know if it starts!! I've been pretty good at keeping busy, but now the pain of baby's legs pushing my ribs outwards is getting to be a bit much and it's hard to walk because of where the baby's head is. So as much as I have a million things I'd like to do, just the act of sitting here at my desk to write hurts! But the only way to keep my mind off of things is to keep busy, so here is the to do list for the rest of the week.

1. File. I bought a new filing cabinet last week, built it this weekend, now I need to file.
2. Go for walks with Bender - hope the intense heat dies down a little... we are both very slow!
3. Design the birth announcement, I'm determined to send them out this time, it's the last time and I'm hoping to get a cute shot of the three girls after the baby is born.
4. Scrapbook, I'm so way behind it doesn't matter where I start!
5. Get my health card renewed - yuck. It means having to make myself look half decent, going to the SAAQ office, waiting for an hour, and getting the photo taken. Not high on my to do list, but I think I'd rather do it without a screaming newborn than with!
6. Get passport photos taken and renew my passport. Perhaps 5 & 6 will be done together - tomorrow.
7. Design business cards - got to do this because people are starting to ask for them.
8. Blog...
9. Sleep....
10. Bake a cake - I have a craving.
11. Keep taking pictures, it's hard when you are in so much pain and can't move!
12. Burn/Backup my images...I think my hard drive is getting full!

So there you go, I think that is plenty to keep me busy until the weekend, at which time I'll have to see the Dr again, who will then probably send me for an ultrasound and book me for induction. Not my first choice of going into labour, but what must be done, must be done!

A few parting shots from today, before heading off to bed...

night night!!

Photoshoot, sleepover and bunk beds

I did a really fun photoshoot on Friday. An old colleague and friend, Yana, came over with her little boy - 8 months, and also brought along a friend, her husband and their brand new baby girl - 14 days!

I was a little nervous about shooting two different babies at the same time, but it worked out really well, while Dina tried to get her baby to fall asleep, I would shoot Yana's boy. He was great, didn't cry, didn't pee on anything and had lots of smiles for us!

Here is the link to my blog to check out some of my favourites from the shoot:

http://christinedenisphotography.blogspot.com/

Saturday we had a treat, in that Eric's parents offered to take the girls overnight, giving us a date night/sleepover combo. We went out for supper to Suisha Gardens, yummy sushi, followed by a martini at Zoe's at the Chateau Laurier. We went with another couple, since we never get the change to hang out with them without our little ones running around. It was a lot of fun, but needless to say I fell alseep on the couch at 10:00 pm, about 20 min after we got home! It was very strange to wake up and not have the girls around, I sure did miss them, but I did enjoy the quiet morning also!

Before going to pick them up, we drove out to Ikea to finally buy a bunk bed. We've been looking for a while on-line, second hand, and in stores, but decided on the Ikea one that matched the furniture we already have in Abby's room. We still haven't put it together, but Abby is already excited to see it, and start sharing her room with her sister.

I only have 3 more weeks of work! And non of them will be a full week. The next two are 4 days long, followed by a 3 day week, then I'm done! I'm at 32 weeks, and today I started to swell up. I never experienced that with the other two, and I must say - I don't like it! My lower legs fell really tight, and even my wrists are feeling "full"! I just hope it's normal and as a result of lots of soya sauce last night and not enough water... just hope it goes away!!

Project 365 - remember that??

Well I haven't totally fallen off the band wagon of project 365. I've found renewed energy with the time change and therefore brighter/longer days! I've managed to take a photo each day in the month of March except for 7 days.... ok so that is a lot now that I think back on it, but things were low, it was dark, snowy, pregnant, working... well you know how it goes. Anyway, I did a couple layouts to keep going on my layouts of my project 365 here they are: (hey look Beth: PINK!)



Hey remember this girl:

Well I'm happy to say her water broke yesterday over night (so very early in the morning of March 30th). But it was one of those things where it broke but she wasn't sure, because no contractions, so that meant into the hospital for an induction and as I write she has probably just delivered! Can't wait to hear if its a boy or girl April Fools baby!

And finally some parting POTD - some more dance moves, courtesy of our resident choreographer - Abby!

Last week's update this week

In my last post I said I was going to go backwards from last Tuesday... well I didn't make it more than one day. I was pretty tired for the rest of the week and was falling asleep around 8 pm each night - Fun! So I'll just go over the highlights. Starting with the most important one:

We had our second ultrasound for Baby#3 and all was good. The tech. said that the baby was very healthy from all the measurements and that nothing was out of the ordinary, which is always a relief! Part way through the ultrasound, Eric asked the all important question of "Have you seen a penis yet??" to which the tech. replied... "Ugh... no not yet... I think it's going to be like your other two..." So she zoomed it and pointed out all the girl parts, to which Eric replied "are you sure that's not a penis and balls?" and the tech replies - "It's not." So that is that, we are having another girl!! What craziness is 3 girls going to bring us, I can't even imagine! Abby and Gillian are so fun, it can only get more fun! Here are a couple ultrasound pics (not the greatest but you get the point):


The morning of March 23rd, I did Shawna's second maternity shoot. She was much bigger so it was much better for getting the shots right. I liked the shots from the first session, but felt they would be even better when she grew near the end. Here are some samples from that session:

(edit: This one changed to some funky colour when I posted...
got to figure out what's up with that??!!)

I was happy how it turned out. As always - lessons learned...
1. Don't crop in so tight all the time, I need to make room for cropping in PS;
2. Turn subject into the light! duh!
3. Iron backdrop! Or get seamless paper;
4. Need 24-70 lens... I think I've mentioned that one already.

Now I need to find a next willing subject for a shoot - Anyone game??

I'm back - Las Vegas Pictoral Overview

I haven't blogged all week!! In part because the girls have been sick and more in part because I've been too tired every night. Ugh! I feel so out of touch, but really I don't have a desire to be on my computer...weird eh?? Must be the hormones!

Anyway a quick recap of Vegas. Conference wasn't so interesting, and smoky casinos were not for me. I'm glad I saw it, doubt I'll ever go back unless I'm paid to do so. The surrounding landscape is beautiful so that would be the only draw again. It's very expensive, so if you plan on going, plan on spending a lot! Here are some highlight photos:

Outside of the Hotel Casino "Paris"

I liked the look of this awning.

Inside "Paris". Huge Casino in the middle,
then shops and "cobble stone streets" surrounding it.

Exiting Bally's

Caesar's Palace though the Bally's arch.

Halted construction of new hotel casino's on the strip.
With the downturn, all of the construction is basically
stopped in Las Vegas. The cranes stand still.

The MGM Grand Lion - this was a HUGE casino!

New York New York Hotel Casino

No description necessary.

Free music and water show outside
the Bellagio

Caesar's Palace behind the Bellagio

Front facade of The Venitian
Another Huge labyrinth of a casino and shops.

Ceiling of the Venetian

The Venitian Canals

St. Marc's square. The roof is
painted like the sky, so it looks like "outside" 24 hours a day!

We took a 1/2 day trip to Hover Dam
This is the Colorado River downstream of the dam.
You can see at the top where they are building the new hwy.

Hover Dam

Rented a car and drove out to Red Rock Canyon - beautiful!

This week was busy, as it was back to work, the kids were sick, I had my photo class Wed night, then the best part on Wednesday we had our first ultrasound. All went well. I drank too much water, as always, the baby was jumping around like crazy, so that was fun to see. Heart Rate was 138, so Eric is convinced it's a boy. Can't imagine having a boy, so we'll just have to see!

Here is the photo. Not much to see really, head is to the right, legs were all scrunched up, thumb was in the mouth most of the time this is at 12 weeks:

Off to veg in front of the TV and eat ice cream bars!