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After  weeks and weeks of being told that he would come early, Keilor Elias made his arrival in the world last Saturday morning just two days shy of my due date. That being said, he made his entrance with quite a lot of drama and excitement! I woke up around 4:15 Saturday morning and had a contraction that was much more painful than the ones I’d been having for the last few weeks. I knew that it was different and woke Corey up to go to the hospital. One of the doctors had told me that he thought I would have a quick labor and to get to the hospital quickly once the contractions began. Because of that, I was determined to just show up at the hospital rather than calling first because I thought they would tell me not to come until my contractions were closer together. We arrived at the hospital around 5:15am and were eventually told that I was not in active labor (despite contractions 5 minutes apart) and that we should go home. The nurse said that she thought I might be back that afternoon but that if nothing else, I would be back for an induction within a week. There’s not a lot you can do when they kick you out so we left! It was about 7am and we came home. Needless to say, I was definitely in active labor and progressed so quickly that my insane screaming and absolute insistence led Corey to take me back to the hospital within a matter of minutes. We didn’t know what was going on or have any idea how close I was to actually giving birth until we got back there. As I was begging in agony for an epidural, the nurse eventually told me that there was no time and that they were just trying to wait for the doctor to arrive so that the baby could be born. The doctor left her house at 8:15, arrived in the labor and delivery room around 8:20 and Keilor was born at 8:40. Insane. Traumatic. Painful beyond comprehension. But unbelievably wonderful, exhilarating and incredible too. Keilor is amazing and we are so overwhelmed with God’s tremendous generosity to us. Grayben loves his little brother and has done so well thus far. We are truly without words at the grace we have been shown in these two little boys. More pictures to come soon. As always, our families are caring for us in such selfless ways and we would not be making it right now without their help!

The Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy. Psalm 126:3

We all know how hot it is and has been all summer long. I have to say that I really think this was the hottest shoot (so far) of the summer. I know it’s quite a coveted award! Still if you had a shoot or wedding with us this summer and you were really hot, you can be thankful to know that you did not have the absolute most humid and scorching day! They were all great about it and I truly love the pictures that we got. I had the hardest time narrowing down what to post for the blog so if you want to watch their slideshow, click here.

It is totally crazy but I have only about 5 weeks until my due date! We cannot believe that there will be another baby in our family in just a few short weeks. We have tons to do before then but we are also excited about making plans for the fall. As most of you know, fall is one of our favorite times as photographers. I love it because it means that I get to see so many of the families that I only see once a year–I love reconnecting and seeing how all the kiddos have grown and changed. I just wanted to give a couple of updates about our fall schedule. We’ve decided to allow more Saturdays for portrait sessions than we’ve been able to the last few years. I hope that will be helpful for lots of you who need weekend dates. Also, Christmas card samples will be up before you know it! I’m already excited to show you this year’s designs. For those of you newsletter subscribers (if you’re not, you totally SHOULD be!), remember that there are a few more days to take advantage of this month’s awesome deal!