Maternity Shoot

I'm so excited about my first nephew that's due to arrive in about a month. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to take some maternity shots for my sister.
If you're interested you can check them out here: http://alyssaannephotography.blogspot.com/2008/12/c-maternity.html
Now I'm looking forward to a special newborn photo shoot!

Sunday School

Even after my kids are potty trained, I'm always nervous about an accident when we're out and about. Diapers remain mandatory while on the go for a little while after they're potty trained. But a few months back we decided that Adriana ready ready to be diaper-less at all waking moments.
I still worry a bit that I'll see my number flashed at church with a message waiting for me to go clean up the puddle in room 2B. So the other Sunday before church, I gave the pep talk,
"Okay, Adriana, now Momma will take you to the potty when we get to church and when I pick you up from Sunday School. But if you need to go while you're in Sunday School, who do you tell?"
She quickly answered, "Jesus!"

Thanksgiving Day

Watching the Macy's Parade...she was kicking her legs along with the Rockettes:

Waiting for turkey:

The whole crowd:

Pumpkin Pie

While my sons are running around the house like wild Indians, my daughter would much prefer to follow me around trying her best to help out with housework. She loves sorting the laundry with me or taking a wet rag around wiping walls or splashing in the dish water. Her absolute favorite thing to help with is cooking. So Saturday when Steven whisked the boys away for some "guy time", Adriana and I made a couple of pumpkin pies for our caregroup's Thanksgiving meal. I had her help every step of the way, and she stuck with me through the whole task and was thrilled to be doing such a "big girl" job. So while there are times, that having a two year old at my heels can reveal impatience in my heart, I love having the company and getting to begin the beautiful task of mentoring my girlie. What a gift!!

And thanks to Auntie Caroline for sending those matching aprons!

Intruder

In the middle of last night, I woke with a start. I had a gut feeling that someone else was in our room. While Steven slept soundly beside me, I lay still wondering if I had been dreaming. Then I heard breathing that I knew was not my husband's. My mind raced and my heart pounded. If it was an intruder, did he have a gun? Should I move? I opened my eyes but was unable to see anything in my pitch black room. I quickly shut my eyes thinking that it might be best to pretend to sleep until my husband awoke or I thought of a better plan. The breathing continued or what I'm sure was only a matter of seconds, but what seemed like long minutes to me. Finally there was a small noise I thought I recognized.
"Who's there?," I mustered. Elijah had been standing over me the whole time waiting for me to wake up to console him from a bad dream. You can imagine my sigh of relief. And when the morning came, I'm sure I saw a couple new gray hairs on my head.

One Little, Two Little, Three Little...

I have not been consistent about making sure that our Tuesday art projects get photographed and posted on the blog; but like almost everything else in my life, it will just have to be sporadic. I had to post of picture of the three little Indian chiefs, though. I don't think I've ever seen my boys that excited about an art project. My house has been full of wild Indians since this morning. Actually that's inaccurate, my house has been full of wild Indians for the past six years...

Another Blog

Since I have so much free time these days *snort*, I thought I might as well start another blog. No, seriously, I've been hearing and reading about how much a blog can help market a photography business and decided to give it a go. I figured that throwing a few photos on a blog shouldn't be that hard (isn't that about all I do here?). The point is to not only give potential clients a feel for my photography, but also have a place for clients to get a first sneak peak of their own photos.
So if you feel like checking it out, it's www.alyssaannephotography.blogspot.com

Give Me A Caption

This has to be one of my favorite photos ever. I didn't even realize what Adriana was doing when I took it, but I laughed so loud when I looked back over my pictures the next day. A photo truly is worth a thousand words. But I wanted to hear from all of you; leave me a comment with what you think would be a good capture for this pic:

All Three Before the Wedding

Wedding

My brother's wedding was Saturday. It turned out to be a gorgeous fall day that was enhanced by the fact that the wedding and reception were out near the Appalachian mountains.
Elijah put on quite a show as the ring bearer. During the first practice of the rehearsal, he walked faithfully down the aisle while staring at the ground the entire time. My mom told him that the next time he should try to look up. So for the second round of practice, he stared at the ceiling the entire time. We had a good laugh and instructed him to just look at Josiah while walking down during the wedding. The next day during the real deal, he walked down the aisle looking straight at Josiah and sticking his tongue out the entire time! The whole place was laughing, and my brother later told me that he was so grateful for a good laugh to calm his nerves.

The goofy crew:










The groom and best man, A.K.A. my baby brothers:


Matt, Christine, and baby:


My handsome parents:

I'll post some pics of my other two kiddos in a few days.

So we officially have another Mrs. Helms in family, and we couldn't be more happy with the girl behind the name!