DECEMBER!!!

I've decided to run a special in December!

Here it is!

The pictures themselves can be for anytime in the next 3 months but you need to BOOK them in December!

Since I charge $250 for a session...That brings the cost down to $212.50 (plus tax)!  Um...that is AWESOME!!!

The price also includes a 2013 calendar design.    

Book today!  elliecutlerphotography[at]gmail[dot]com or 801-332-9242

Family Sessions

Um folks?

It's October.

That means Christmas is RIGHT around the corner.

That.Is.CRAZY!

That also means that you should probably get your family pictures scheduled.

Like...yesterday.

So here is the info to do that m'kay?

Yup...I will talk to you at the session, get a good idea of what you want in your card...and custom design you a Christmas card.

Like this one:

 

(click on it to see the actual dimensions)

So be sure to get booked cause

a) I'm filling up fast and

b) you really need your Christmas Cards done so you don't have to worry about it and

c) I love love LOVE family sessions and it will be tons of fun.  :)

All my contact info is in the About Me tab above!  Talk to you soon!

My Baby

I know most of you already know that seeing as I posted a picture on my photo blog last week but here is his hospital birth story...in pictures.

Most people hire photographers to do this but since I am INSANELY private...there ain't no way (pardon the horrid grammar) I was letting someone into that room other than those that just had to be there. And lucky me...I have a husband who is a fantastic photographer himself (he second shoots with me at weddings) and who felt like he needed a job. So I handed him the camera and said get to work!


So we get all settled in and as luck would have it...my OB was actually at the hospital. Not at the clinic where she normally is on a Weds morning. So not only could she approve my induction...she came in and broke my water. Nice. So that happened at 9:30 and the pit drip started at 10:30.


So that's when things got pretty boring. Until Jeri showed up. Jeri was a research nurse and since my water had been broken...apparently I qualified to participate in a study of a new machine. It's been in use in Europe for years and years and for some reason is just now making it to the states. You can put a node directly on the baby's head and it monitors the baby's blood gasses which helps prevent unnecessary C-sections. So if baby's heart rate drops it's assumed right now that baby doesn't have enough oxygen. This machine will tell you if that is in fact the case. I thought that was pretty cool so Hubs and I said sure. Plus we got paid $25. :)

So without any further adieu...meet Stan (He's the one on the right).


Then we just watched a movie. Sense and Sensibility. Really...the hospital's collection of DVD's is quite sad. I highly suggest bringing your own.

And then I had a contraction. And it hurt. Bad.


I was going to wait a while and just see what labor actually felt like. Um, no thank you! If that one contraction hurt that bad...I really couldn't see the point of putting myself through all of that unnecessary pain. So I called for my epidural.


With my first baby...I had Dr. Silver. Oh blessed man. He injects the IV while the patient is laying down and on their side. This time...I don't know the man's name...the guy had me sit up and hunch over a pillow...during a contraction. Really? You expect me to sit perfectly still while I'm sitting up and hunched over and that contraction really hurt. Grrrrrrr...

But in the end it all worked out. The epi kicked in and life was oh so happy again.

Jeri came back in to hook up Stan now that I had had my epi and then suggested a new position that would really get labor hopping. She put me on my side and then put my leg up in a stirrup. This was at about 12:10...


And then 20 minutes later they repositioned me on the other side in the same position.

When they checked me before the epidural, I was at a 3. After being in this position for about another 30-40 minutes...I started feeling intense pressure. I told the nurse and she checked and sure enough...I was a 10. After being started only 3 hours earlier.

I don't think either Hubs or I was ready for that. We looked at each other in shock! We were expecting a 4 or 5:00 baby and here it was about 1:00.

So they put me on my back and stopped the pit drip and started getting everything ready!


Well...they called my DR and she was at Ogden Regional Hospital at a C-section. The exact same thing happened last time. My OB is one busy lady (speaking of busy..she just got back from hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro...and her husband wants to go climb some other huge mountain. Yeah...crazy stuff). So she said she'd be there in about 30 minutes so I just breathed through the pressure to push.


Oh...and Hubs needed something to do so he held my hand. :)

Finally Karen got there and they hooked the pit back up because my contractions had slowed. After a few more minutes we started pushing and after 2 sets of pushes...our little boy was born.


He shocked us all by having dark hair...and actually having hair! He was born with the perfect amount of hair for a little faux hawk.


I was (and am) quite happy about that. :)

Needless to say...we are completely smitten. He's such a wonderful, chill little guy and we just love him so much.


So that is his story. A 4 hour labor...start to finish. Easy peasy baby. We are pretty lucky people. :)

The rest of the pics are just him during and after his bath...which they did in my room. LOVE McKay-Dee. :)


And a couple from when we got home...cause I couldn't resist. :)

Spiders. UGH! Oh, and Mini Sessions

Ok. Yesterday was a traumatic day. I woke up. It was my 5:30 day so I rolled out of bed...went and prepared myself some Peppermint herbal tea...and then walked down the stairs to go to my office. All of a sudden I notice something out of the corner of my eye.

It was the...

BIGGEST

NASTIEST

MOST DISGUSTING

spider I had ever seen.

EVER!

Um...as in the size of a silver dollar huge. HUGE!!!!!!

I seriously can't believe that I didn't scream. And that I didn't drop my steaming hot mug of Peppermint.

I just had slippers on too so it's not like I could just smash the thing. And if you're one of these people that "save" spiders...? I'm very unapologetic about my hatred of the arachnid family. If it's in my house...? It's on my turf. My house...my rules. And if a spider comes into my house, they accept my rules. It's basically a suicide mission.

But...since I was wearing slippers, I couldn't smush it. So I backed up to the stairs (there was no WAY I was going to turn my back on that thing. Spider = enemy. Don't turn you back on the enemy). I RAN up the stairs and woke my husband up. I think I was slightly panicking. Not sure about that though...ANYWAY! The Hubs woke up and groggily grabbed a shoe and some paper towels and headed downstairs.

The bugger had made a run for it.

DANG IT!

It was gone. The thing had disappeared. The Hubs looked and looked and I just called from upstairs until I absolutely HAD to get to my office to clock in.

And trust me...that's not the end of the story. BUT! This is already a huge post so I'm just going to leave you hanging until tomorrow. Bwahahaha.

In the meantime! This is the Rich family. They won a mini session from me at a youth fund raiser. So glad they won 'cause look how cute they are.





I love this picture. It makes me laugh.



It was the out-take for this picture...



But I like 'em both so I posted them both. :) Haha!

Diego...

...is one. ONE! I love Diego's cute family. And he is a little guy who can make me smile anytime. All it takes is one smile from him and any kind of bad mood I'm in is gone. I mean...look at this smile...



How cute is he? He's exactly 6 months younger than my daughter and anytime we see him we always tease her. I can't wait until she understands what teasing actually is... Hee, hee!



OH! And this post actually comes with an announcement. I now have an amazing assistant named Megan. It was great 'cause I was sunburned after my vacay last week and my camera bag was rubbing my burn so Megan was able to lug my stuff around. It was GRRRRRREAT!!!

So I found out she had an interest in photography and we decided to have an impromptu camera lesson. I let her snap a few pics of Diego and she seriously shows some awesome talent! Check this out...



...and this was the first time she has used an SLR. Great job Megan!!! You're awesome!!!

Sneak for Joe and Lisa...

Short on words today. Maybe it's because my alarm went off at 5:30 am. No, it wasn't a mistake. And no I wasn't able to just turn it off and go back to bed. I had to drag my body out of bed and get up. It really should be some kind of law about having to get up that early. To all of those people out there who are just chipper and lovin' life this early...I am jealous. EXTREMELY jealous.

Anywhoo! Joe and Lisa. Here's your sneak!!!! You guys are seriously the cutest family. There are lots more...these are just my fav's. :)





And congrats to Joe and Melina who got OVER 15 comments on their pics. They have won a free print. Woot woot! So experiment over...I'll try something else later. I just have to think and now isn't not the time with my brain all foggy. I'd end up giving away a horse or something. :)