It's About Time - "Tyler's Buffalo" - Buffalo Painting

I've been married to my amazing husband, Tyler, for almost five years and I just now sat down and made my very first painting for him. It's about time, right? For some odd reason, the American buffalo is his favorite animal, though to me, they just look like overgrown cows.  =)  Anyways, I've been wanting to do a painting like this for him for some time now, but just couldn't get the courage up to do it. I say "courage" because it seems like all the ideas that I've wanted to do for a long time are really hard for me to finally sit down and do. I don't know if any of you are the same way, but I really struggle with this a lot. And while it's not my favorite painting (in fact, it was one of the more irritating ones I've ever done), I learned quite a bit from it and am very happy it's done.

"Tyler's Buffalo"   11x14   Acrylic on Canvas

Little Jianna

Here's Jianna, born last Monday at around 5 in the morning - suffice it to say it was a very long night for mommy and daddy. I took her mom's maternity pictures, as you can see in my earlier posts, and I was so excited to finally be able to take these of their precious baby girl. It was so much fun playing around with her during her photoshoot, and I learned that if you leave a baby naked long enough, they will pee. Twice. But she is seriously one of the most perfect babies I have ever seen and was so much fun to photograph. Thank you, Shannon and Jeff, for letting me come and do these with you.

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago yesterday, I was admitted to the hospital at 31 weeks of pregnancy for the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life. Ever. After hours of waiting and testing, they discovered that I had Gallstones. I was already under watch for preclampsia, and now I had this. They kept giving me medicines that didn't work, and even made the pain worse, until they eventually had to admit me overnight. By random chance, the Dr. decided to do a second blood test on me in the morning to make sure everything was okay, and discovered my blood had thinned 50% in a mere matter of hours. I remember the call to my husband, who had only just left with my blessing an hour before, to tell him that 1) yay! my pain was finally gone, and 2) I was going to be transferred to Walnut Creek to have our baby. I was surprisingly calm, by the grace of God, but that was still one of the strangest calls I've ever had to make.

One year ago today, I rode by ambulance to the hospital (which was actually one of the coolest experiences of my life for some odd reason) to go have my son two months early. It was so unexpected and shocking, and yet I was so overwhelmed by God's peace about it that I'm still amazed. I had my son two days later, a 3 lb. 14.8 oz. preemie with a full head of black hair who had to be rushed to the NICU and be put on a ventilator to breathe. And today, he is such a chunky, healthy, happy and vibrant baby that no one would ever suspect from what dire circumstances he came. And I am still in awe over how much God was in control of everything. Had I not noticed my high blood pressure and been put under watch by the doctors because of it, had I not developed gallstones, had I not been admitted overnight because of the intensity of my pain, had the morphine worked and not made it worse, and had the doctor not randomly decided to do a second blood test (which the next doctor on was shocked and very happy about), then we both would have most likely died. How great is our God! I am truly amazed by how much he really does work all things for the good of those who love Him.

Here is that baby boy, born almost one year ago under less than ideal conditions, who brings joy to my heart every day. He is a testament to me about how much God loves us and cares for us.

He's such a happy baby, too, which I think is pretty obvious, especially in the next few pictures...

"If I Could Give You the Moon" - A Whimsical Seascape from the Series "In My Land of Make-Believe"

This is the first "free-style" painting I've ever done where I went into it with nothing particular in mind, just picked up a paint brush and started painting. It was harder than I thought, but once I got started, everything sort of fell into place. I used to draw a lot this way. In fact, some of my most interesting drawings were made like this, and so I wanted to challenge myself to do this in a painting.

"If I Could Give You the Moon"     9" x 12"     Acrylic on Canvas Board

Shannon's Maternity Pictures

Wow, I can't believe I'm finally doing this! I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile now as a way to share my art and my story with the world, and I just now finally built up the courage to do it. Not to mention, I was able to convince my amazing husband to show me how to set one up and realized just how much fun it was! =)  Thanks baby!

Here's a sneak peak at some of the pictures I took for my dear friend Shannon. She hasn't seen them yet, so Shannon: I hope you like them, my friend! It was so much fun to be able to do this for her, and I seriously can't wait to take even more pictures for her of her precious little baby girl when she gets here. 

And here's even more pictures...