June Wedding

 "Because every guy wants a girl to teach him how to drive his truck!" Those were the sarcastic, but wise words of Mrs. Thomson to her daughter as an encouragement to maintain her goal of being patient and sitting in the driver's seat of the relationship. From my sideline point-of-view, I'm fairly confident that Rachel does not regret her waiting.  She married an excellent driver =).

There are so many similarities between Doug and Rachel.  I mean this as a complete compliment, but when you spend time with them, you get a sense of a past age of complete manners, chivalry and modesty that makes you think that motorized vehicles should not be in existence right now and that women should still have hoops under our skirts.  They are unique, caring and immediately make you feel valuable just by being a part of their lives.  I'm pretty sure I can count on just one hand the number of conversations I have had with Doug due to him being out of state for most of their relationship, yet I get the feeling he would do whatever he could if there was a need he could meet in my life.  They are nice people, but they would be very quick to clarify to anyone reading this that whatever good is seen in them, it is only because of the grace of their loving savior Jesus Christ.  They are just the mirrors reflecting His glory.   The entire day exuded the gratitude and worship to His feet where it truly belongs.

The footprints that these two leave are priceless.  It was a complete honor to be asked to capture their momentous day.

This is the ring that Rachel's father gave to her when she was younger as a reminder to the commitment of purity and integrity she made.  She gave this ring back to her dad during the ceremony since it had fulfilled it's duty.

Probably one of the sweetest moments of the entire day - Their FIRST KISS!!!! I don't mean the first kiss as man and wife, I mean the first kiss of Doug and Rachel ever!  Isn't that incredible!?

When the newest Mr. and Mrs. were coming down the aisle after being announced as man and wife, I whispered to them, "Go practice!"  They did and lets just say the following images after had some amazing intensity to them!!! ooh la la

 I wasn't lying about the intensity was I - ow ow Rachel!

And yes, I do believe that they will live happily, ever, after...

I thought she was going to be a boy...

I thought she was a boy. I would have bet money 4 years ago that my oldest child was going to be a boy and no one but the ultrasound tech could have convinced me otherwise. So you can imagine my shock when I was, well, convinced otherwise!  I was shocked but not disappointed at all.  We were thrilled for Miss O's existence and have been blessed ever since by the Lord with her crazy and dramatic addition to our family.

I LOVE me those little rosebud lips!

We found out we were expecting and couldn't have been happier!

(2 tests just to make sure)

I decided to go about this pregnancy a bit differently. Unlike with Miss O when I could hardly wait to find out if she was a boy or a girl, I wanted to be surprised about the sex of this baby (yes I'm serious, no, hormones did not transform me into a highly patient, calm and collected Christina).  

The love of my life however, took a whole two seconds to tell me I was nuts and that he wanted to know at first confirmed sighting. Thus began the debate towards me initially trying to get him to join my side (with no budging) to at least finding a compromise where he could find out but he wouldn't tell another breathing soul (it felt like a compromise at the time). We had a scheduled ultrasound for the first week of March so we had to come to a decision by then.

The ultrasound technician was a huge team player (team Christina that is) and promised not to say a word, but instead wrote it down on a post-it note and handed to Justin who immediately (without even glancing!!) stuffed it inside his coat pocket.  It was then that I started to doubt my great idea.  He left to return back to work before me and later told me that he could only wait until the elevator to peek.  The great idea was looking less and less great to me.

I came home and realized that this was a lousy idea (who thought of this anyways?!) and that I was ready for him to tell me...now, that second, not another moment! (hormones anyone?)  Thankfully he talked me out of that idea, reassuring me that he had a great idea of how to tell me at a later time and promised I would not have to wait a month (DYING INSIDE).  If it had been any other person I would have disregarded him in a heart beat, but my husband is a SUPER creative person (much more than me) and I knew it would be worth the wait.  I was convinced by his track record that I would look back and be glad that I didn't try and strong-arm him into spilling the beans now but rather wait for whatever grand scheme he came up with.

It was well worth the wait!

March 27th, my birthday, came and Justin proceeded to spoil me rotten!  I received a BEAUTIFUL bouquet of bright spring-colored flowers at my office.  He surprisingly had asked off for a half day and brought Miss O to kidnap me and take me out for lunch.  When I came home from work at the end of the day I found a super-clean house and a plate full of homemade chocolate cupcakes with candles (pregnant woman's love language)!  Miss O was still taking her nap so when Justin asked if I wanted a cupcake before she woke up I was already reaching for one!  I bit into the moist cupcake and looked down to find that it had filling inside that was.....

Oh and no, I didn't catch the fact that there were mustaches on my cupcakes till afterwards...

BLUE!  We were having a baby boy!  I couldn't believe it, I was speechless for about two seconds right before I blurted out, "I knew it!'

At the end of July, Titus will make our little family of 3 a family of 4 with even girl/boy teams!  We are so incredibly blessed and I can not WAIT to hold my sweet little prince in my arms! 

Thank you to all for your prayers and encouraging words that we have received as a family thus far!  

McCarthy Senior Pictures

It's so cold and snowy out, I thought this would be a great time to catch up on all my past blogging go down memory lane and reminisce a warmer Summer!

I had so much fun taking these images with Mr. McCarthy and he was a great sport! I think I told him about 10+ times that he had the best male on-the-spot smile!  Most guys will get a painful face at first, but not Mr. M! He was Johnny-on-the-spot whenever I would request a smile, and he was so incredibly comfortable no matter if we were taking pictures in the gym with onlookers, or outdoors on a Friday night in front of his school during a football game. The guy has no qualms or lack of confidence.

I couldn't resist a picture of him with his mother.  Between his winning smile and beauty, it was quickly a favorite picture of mine (pretty sure of mom's too).  He's the oldest and the lucky one to experience all of these changes with mom for the first time.  I hope these images bring memories of how proud she is of her son, and how lucky is to have a mom like Mrs. M.

It was so much fun shooting with you guys! Best wishes on your big adventure of post-high school!