Wedding Pix

John and Jenny's wedding was simple and elegant. I was honored to be a part of it and felt that things went pretty well. I'm pretty proud of how the pictures turned out and I hope they like them as much as I do. Aren't they a cute couple? Aw...

This Week...

Thursday Deb, Dane, Isaac's cousin Jenna (she's 4yr) and Nate and I went to the Covered Bridge Festival in Parke County. We met up with some of my family. Grandma (my mom), Hannah and Kyle were at Billie Creek Village in Rockville reenacting a 1900s one room school house with some other home-school families. I have some of the greatest memories of doing that growing up. We've been going there during the Covered Bridge Festival for 10+ years now! Maybe Nate and I will go dressed up next year!


Nate and Daddy hard at work at the family business - Penrod Counseling Center. Somehow alot less work gets done when Nate is there... hmm... I can't imagine why! jk

Faces!

Nate has many of the cutest faces you'll ever see! Here are just a few of my favorites!

3 months old!

This past Saturday was Nate's 3mos b-day! He's grown and changed so much in such a short time! We've been so incredibly blessed by him already. Its hard to imagine our life without him.
Isaac and I went on a date without him for the first time a week or two ago. We put him to bed and left him with my sister, Lauren, while we went to a late movie. Of course we would go to "Flight Plan" - a movie about a woman who's child goes missing! It was a good movie, but nerve wracking! We were very happy to come home and see Nate safe and sound in his bed!

Also, Saturday was my friend Mia Bley's baby shower. Here, Mia is pictured with Sarah Patterson another girl from church who are both due in the next month or so. It was nice to get together and show our love and support to her. Our church has a baby shower game thats become a tradition now, where we video tape the father-to-be a series of questions before the shoer, then at the shower we ask the mother-to-be the same questions. After hearing the mom-to-be's answer to the question, the guests have to guess if dad's answer will be the same or different. Then we show the dad's response. Mia's husband Eric is an interesting guy and had some pretty comical answers. Its a fun game and helps you get to know the couple a little better which is cool.

Reflections

Look at how cute he is! He is really showing interest in his reflection now and getting into his toys more. He's doing great sleeping at night (most of the time) but his naps during the day aren't very regular. Some days he'll have a good long nap and be happy all day - others he'll have a whole bunch of cat naps and get cranky and tired. Oh, well we're still working out the kinks of this whole parenting thing... I think we'll be doing that forever, right? Anyway, I've had alot on my mind recently, pray for my patience and peace, I've been over-worrying lately. I have a hard time being open about my struggles... I feel like I need to put on a happy face all the time. I'm trying to work on that.

Sorry no pix

Hey I know at least one person has been to the blog and been disappointed at the lack of updated pictures. I'm sorry.... our computer is being weird and its not letting me upload to the blog right now. I'll have Isaac look at it soon and see what he can do - he's so much better than me at stuff like that.
Nate is doing well. He's growing cuter by the day. Smiles are becoming easier to get out of him and he's so responsive when we talk and play with him. Its so much fun to see him changing and see his personality starting to emerge.
I love you all and hope you're having a good day.

Go Cubs!

Here is our cute little family showing our team spirit. Aren't we all cute in our Chicago Cubs gear? Isaac's family is a bunch of die hard Cubs fans and they're trying to convert me. I'm not quite there yet.

Photoshop Fun

I was playing around on Photoshop and created these filmstrip collages. What do ya think? I like them. I'm still working out a few kinks but not too bad, eh? I have a wedding that I'm doing in October, I'm reading a book on how to pose couples and groups to prepare for it. I really really hope it goes well and we have good weather for some outdoor pix!

Cool Dude

Nate thinks he's a little stud in his shades! Surprisingly, he seemed to like having them on and was all smiles for mommy's camera! He's getting to be so much fun! Sometimes I have a hard time getting anything done during the day cause I just want to play with him all the time!

Smiles!

While we were at the lake relaxing this weekend (just the 3 of us) We had plenty of time to play with Nate. He is smiling much more often and its so much fun to try different things to see what he likes. He reacts to our voices and faces so much more, and he is gaining more control over his movements, pulling our hands closer to him when he wants to keep playing. So far he seems to like us more than he does toys... which is cool. We are very much enjoying our son and the joy he brings to our lives. What a sweetheart! Does he have the cutest smile you've ever seen or what?!?

First Farm Experience

Last week Nate and Jett got to "play" with Shania the miniature horse and the new baby goat on my parent's farm! They may not get too into it now but it won't be long before they love the animals! Aren't they so cute?!?

Bathtime!

Nate likes taking a bath. He enjoys the water. Isaac and I tag team when it comes to bathtime. One of us does the bathing, the other does the diapering and dressing afterward. Nate usually gets a little upset when his bath is over, he seems to want to stay in the water. We're hoping to get him into the lake this weekend if weather permits!

2 months old!

Well, Nate turned two months old on the 8th... He's grown and changed so much already. We're totally smitten with him to say the least. His personality is showing more and more. He can focus better and his eyes even follow people across a room sometimes. He's such a good natured baby, he's got me spoiled. We'll prolly have a holy terror next time!
I'm helping another photographer with a Crisis Pregnancy Center event on Tuesday. Pray that everything goes well. I met with her the other day and was really encouraged to hear that she started out alot like me - in her spare bedroom with no formal education, wanting to stay home with her son. With the $ from my next few gigs I'm gonna try to get a little more equipment. And Isaac is gonna help me set up a simple website soon. I'm really enjoying doing this and hope that it will someday be an actual side income instead of a hobby. We'll have to wait and see. :-)

Weekend

We went to the lake for a long holiday weekend. The weather was beautiful! Nate got to experience his first campfire and first boat ride. He was pretty cool about the awkward life vest for awhile but got tired of it and wasn't afraid to let us know that he'd had enough.

Nate's 2 month birthday is tomorrow... I'll have to break out my backdrops and take some more pictures! he he I still can't get over how amazingly cute he is. Omigosh... he is making so many new sounds and faces... aw, its adorable!

Shots

There is our growing boy! He's almost two months old and we're already putting him in some of his 3mos clothes!
Monday Nate had a doctor's appointment. He weighed 12 1/2 lbs! What a chubbster! I didn't know what the appointment would include - I thought it was just a check up. But we got surprised with him getting his first set of shots... we both cried. And the doctor didn't warn us that babies tend to cry alot, run a fever and sleep alot after getting shots. I wish they would have informed us a little better. Apparently its "widely known" that you're supposed to give your baby Tylenol just before getting the shots to minimize the discomfort and aftermath. Well obviously it wasn't widely enough known because neither Isaac or I had heard about it. Anyway, Nate is back to his usual happy-go-lucky self.

We're off to the lake again this weekend. We're hoping to take my siblings with us. We'll have to break out the tube when we go out on the boat! Whoo hoo!

Here is a pix of Nate and Jett, who is a month older. Aren't they a cute pair? Jett's hair stands up like a mohawk and his dad calls him Rooster!

Congrats Shan & Eric

Well, after weeks of planning and preperations Shannon and Eric's wedding went off without a hitch! Everything went very smoothly, looked beautiful and most imortant of all, Shannon seemed very pleased. We had a good turnout and everyone seemed to have a great time. I did the pictures and all in all I think I did ok for this being my first wedding gig (even if it was a freebie). Even though it stormed for awhile we were still able to get some great outdoor shots! Yeah! Here are a couple of my favorites.

6 weeks

Nate enjoys bathtime. He's such a cutie! We haven't found many things that he doesn't like, he's such an easy going baby! We're so blessed by him, I can't even describe it. As you can see from the picture, he is filling out rather nicely. When we went to the doctors' office Tuesday for our 6 week checkup he was 11 and a half pounds! I got the thumbs up from our CNM, she said even though the birth wasn't exactly as planned, we had a practically perfect pregnancy and recovery. She said everything looks good and she is sad that we won't be coming back anymore. We'll miss her - Kandy was great.
I've been helping my mom finish up the decorations for Shannon's wedding. Its the day after tomorrow! Ah! Things are coming together... pray for good weather because I really really want to get some outdoor pictures of Shannon and Eric at this beautiful garden area I found down the road from the church. I'll let you all know later how everything goes.

Per "Aunt" Cindy's request... here is the pic of the 3 generations of Penrod men by the Oakwood tree.

Nate's 1st Oakwood Trip

This weekend was Isaac's dad, Dane's 50th birthday. We had a full house at the lake with visiting friends and family. There was a big BBQ in his honor and lots of game playing (Dane loves playing games of any kind). This was the first weekend that we had 3 generations of Penrods together at the lake and we got a picture of Dane, Isaac and Nate by the Oakwood tree. Above is a pix of our growing family by the same tree. Nate seemed to enjoy being at the lakehouse for the first time. He was the highlight of the party - he got more attention than the birthday boy!
Final plans for Shannon's wedding will be falling into place this week (thats the plan anyway). So please keep us in your prayers! Hopefully all will go well and nothing awful will go wrong. I found this great botanical garden area to take pix! I'm so excited!

State Fair Fun

Last night we went to the State Fair and a Switchfoot concert. We got the tickets given to us at the last minute (thank you Edens!) and really enjoyed wandering around the fair, the good show that Switchfoot put on, and of course the great fair food - Isaac was psyched about getting his fried turkey leg... and I must admit, I liked it too. We found a nice gift for Isaac's dad's 50th birthday which is this weekend. Nate was such a good sport, he was a sweetheart most of the night. He was pretty tired and ready to go by the time we left though.
Last Sunday was my sister Shannon's bridal shower. We kind of threw it together at the last minute but it ended up coming together nicely. It was nice to visit everyone, especially all the babies. The wedding plans are coming along also. Only a week and a half left until the big day! I think the planning process has brought us Stahlhut women a little closer. Its been nice, us working together to make Shannon's special day happen.
We're going up to the lake this weekend. It'll be Nate's first trip up there. And it'll be a busy weekend with a full house due to Dane's big birthday. We're looking forward to relaxing and hoping for good weather... so far this year its rained every time we've gotten to go to the lake, darn.

Cousin News

Yesterday Isaac's brother, Zach and sister-inlaw, Janice found out that they are having a baby boy! They are due in January and we are all so excited that the the boys will be close enough to be buddies! The ultrasound pictures were very clear... there is no question that they are having a Jeremiah instead of a Naomi... he's very proud of his manhood. he he

Here are a pix of Nate today... still as cute as ever!! Here's a big yawn!!