It's All NEW To Me

Hope you all had Merry Christmas - Murphy with Santa at the Fire Deptartment Christmas Party.

Happy New Year!

Well this year started off pretty well for our family. We visited some of our family in Birmingham and to ring in 2009. We also stayed at the fabulous Marriott at Ross Bridge. If you haven't been there I highly recommend it - it's beautiful! We are planning to go back in the summer so we can soak up some sun at there awesome pool! Anyway, I hope you all had a great holiday and enjoyed being with your children. We had so much fun with Murphy Alan, even though he's just a baby, we bought a few little gifts for him. We are looking forward to many more!


With a new year comes a lot of new things to consider. Some of us make resolutions - mine are very simple. I want to serve God and give Him the glory in all that I do. This is something that we sometimes forget. We get caught up in "look what I did" or "I'm successful because of what I've done" when really all our blessings are from Him. Praise God for all he has given!


I have a lot of NEW things to share with you. I'm a new mom as most of you know so I'm learning how to juggle work, wife and motherhood. I work from home so I sometimes get distracted with Murphy inside and me outside working. My mom and husband keep him, but I still want to be with him so I catch myself checking in on him quite a bit. My schedule is new because of trying to juggle who can keep can Murphy. I will only be working one Saturday a month. So if you need an appointment please plan ahead and let me know. Another NEW is props. I am starting to shop around for some new props to use in the studio. With the space I have here I sort of have to be smart about what I buy and keep. Also please know that you are always welcome to bring props from home - it's always nice to have something sentimental in the shots.


I will post more later on some new products and new services we may be offering in the spring and summer.


Here are some pics from the Holidays - as well as our Christmas Card and my Mom's Christmas Card too! Quite funny!











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Just Can't Help Myself

Murphy is finally getting bigger (10 pounds)and growing into his outfits that I've been waiting for him to wear. I love hats! He has pretty blonde hair, but I love hats on him for some reason. Probably because it's the only accessory available for boys. Girls have some many options of bows, jewerly and waaay cute clothes - but boys sort of get stuck with plain outfits - so I have to spruce him up with a hat every so often. Now that he's in these outfits that I love so much I can't help but take his picture. This is already getting out of hand - but I don't care - it's so much fun. We spent most of Wed before Thanksgiving doing Murphy's 3 month session. He's not 3 mo yet, but I am trying to get something together for a Christmas card. I'm sure I'll take more in a couple weeks when he's actually 3 months. I realize that I put his pics on the site a lot, but there again, I can't help myself. I want everyone to see my sweet baby! Forgive me : )

Thanks Misti for helping with the pics of our family.

Check out more of Murphy's pics on the website - his password is murphy.

We've been really busy here, just trying to get orders in for Christmas and such. We will be taking a break from Dec 22- Jan 5 for the holidays. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Good luck shopping and fighting the crowds. I think I'm going to be doing a lot of online shopping this year - baby and shopping just don't mix right now.

Long time No Blog....

8 weeks old here

Ok let's see if I can remember what's been going on the last few weeks...

First of all - my computer has a virus! So the past 2 days I haven't been able to work on anything. My photo shop was disabled along with several other programs. My pictures are all backed up, but it's taking a while to get the software back. What a headache! I know so many of you are waiting on your proofs. I promise one of these days things will get back to normal. New baby, new schedule, and computer problems can really set you back!


Murphy is doing well. He's slowly growing - he's really long and skinny. Just like my brother was when he was little. I've been nursing and supplementing with formula - which is not what I intended to do, but he wasn't gaining as much weight as he needed to. Has anyone else had this problem? Also when we switched to formula he started having trouble going poop and is still struggling with that - does anyone have any suggestions? We've switched formula several times, tried the Karo syrup, warm baths, suppositories , you name it we've tried it! I'll take any suggestions.

Other than that little problem we are doing great. Trying to get back into the swing of things at work - that's been hard, but I'm making progress. I'm blessed that my mom and husband are able to help to keep him so we don't have to worry about daycare expenses. I'm also blessed to work from home and be able to look in on him as much as I want.

We've had lots of visitors and have enjoyed everyone meeting our precious little boy. He's been to church about 5 times - the first church visit was to my grandfathers church where he preaches - Colbert Heights Church of Christ - I thought it was appropriate for his first sermon to come from his great grandfather. I hope we can go hear him more!


We had a fun halloween - Jason was supposed to dress as a firefighter and Murphy was his companion as a dalmation. However, we were doing good just getting Murphy dressed. We made the rounds visiting family and getting pics with everyone. Then after Halloween - Nov 1st was our 5 year anniversary so made a trip to Nashville to the Opryland Hotel - we took Murphy too. It was great to get out of town - however taking a baby on an overnight trip is a lot of work as most of you already know. It takes a lot to keep such a small person happy - stoller, diapers, bottles, clothes, bibs, bags, blankets and all the other stuff for entertaining.

So life has totally changed - it now takes an hour to do something that used to take 10 minutes, I require very little sleep, and I am able to warm a bottle, hold a baby and talk on the phone all at the same time. It's amazing how you just know how to do stuff for your child - the motherly instinct just kicks right in. It's the best thing ever! I love being a mom and I wouldn't trade it for anything. He's our joy and makes everyday special.

Professionally - back to work and trying to get orders and sessions completed. We are not doing christmas sessions this year, but we will next year. It's too much to take that on right now. Hope you will all understand. Right now I am booked through the end of year and taking appointments for January 2009.

Wow....has it been 4 weeks!

I can't believe how the time has gone by - we aren't sleeping a lot, but other than that all is well. I am lovin being a mom - the hardest best job ever! I love Murphy Alan so much and he is the joy of our life. Most days are spent feeding and changing and trying to get a nap. I was going to post more, but baby needs me.... more later.

Jen

Updates on Murphy Alan....

This has been one of the best times of my life. I can't believe that tomorrow has been one week since he came into this world.

Ok so here's how it all happened. On Friday the 12th I started having contractions about 10 or 12 minutes apart. Not bad ones, just enough to make me uncomfortable. These continued through Saturday and by Sunday morning at 3 am I was tired of going through this at home. I talked to my doctor and he said to come in and we would get things going. Well they got going in a hurry. We got to the hospital around 7 am Sunday morning and by 2:27 we had a little boy! It was really fast. Thank goodness for epidurals!!

He weighed 6 pounds 2 ounces and was 19 inches long. He has the most beautiful head of blonde hair - it's so soft! I can't keep my hands off him - I could just stare at him all day. Feedings are going well - we started nursing an hour after he was born and he latched right on. I feel so lucky to be able to provide his nourishment. It's wonderful to bond with your baby this way.

We had lots of visitors Sunday night - mostly family and some close friends. We came home on Tues afternoon and have been here just hanging out. He's sleeping a lot, but when he's awake he's so alert and just looks around. He's a great baby and let's us sleep most of the time. We usually have to wake him up for feedings.

There are some pics online - go to proofs and enter password: murphy

Also if you get on facebook I have posted pics there as well.

That's all for now - I'm sure I will have lots to say in the next few weeks.

Thanks for all your prayers and good wishes.

IT'S A BOY! HE'S HERE!!

MURPHY ALAN TIDWELL IS HERE!!

Born Sept 14th at 2:27 p.m.

6 pounds 2 ounces

19 inches

MORE PICS LATER - these were taken with my cell camera - this was the fastest way to get them online for now.

Patience....

I WILL BE ON MATERNITY LEAVE SEPTEMBER 18- OCTOBER 24

I went to the doctor yesterday and things are progressing. As of right now I will have a baby by the 22nd of this month. I am so excited, but it's hard to be patient. There's a lot on my plate right now with work and getting ready for this new life. I have a full week of appointments of next week and then I am going to try to get orders out and proofs done before we go to the hospital.

Here's what I need from you - my wonderful clients. I need your patience. I don't know how I'm going to get all this done in two weeks, but I'm going to try. However, if I don't get to your proofs or orders before Murphy gets here I am asking that you please be patient till the end of October or beginning of November to get them.

Misti will be in the studio one or two days a week checking messages and mail for anything that may come in. So you may get a call from her. If you email an order it may not be checked for a while.

Most of you are moms so I know you will understand. Thanks for your patience.