WELCOME!!! This site is a documentation of our lives - at least the parts of them we think you may be interested in.  Julia's usually the main poster, but I jump in occansionally.  Hope you love the site as much as we do and please leave some comments to let us know what you think! 

BROWSERS: IE 7, Firefox 3, and Safari 3 all {appear to} work great!  Finally, Firefox caught up to my layout.  Previously, some had trouble with our site crashing Firefox 2 on Macs - I have absolutely no clue why that would happen, except that Macs are dumb.  Good luck with that one!  :)

We got a surprise wake up call from Link this morning!  It was 7 am and we were incredibly tired because we shot a wedding last night and didn't get in until after 3 am - but I was so excited because he was completely on his belly when I found him!  I didn't know that happened this young! I ran back to get Tyson and to get the camera.  Then every nap afterward we found him on his belly, very upset.  Later we plopped him on his mat to catch him in action!  Here's the very first time we saw him roll over! 

This was a few minutes later: 

I've been looking forward to dressing Link for "Fall Festival" way before he was born :).  There are so many adorable costumes!!  Tyson and I plan to dress up in something that coordinates with his outfit.  I'm sure you can guess what we'd be with a little Yoda.  With the Lobster we'd be scuba divers!  Superman would be the hardest...maybe we'd just be superman/superwoman? 

What should Link be??!! If you pick "Other," leave a comment with your suggestion, because apparently we can't see the "Other" responses with a free poll account...

Okay - so, we've broken all blog rules by going three straight weeks without a post!  We're still here!  Hopefully that won't happen again in the near future.  A lot has happened in the past few weeks.  Most notably..... I have a new job!

I'm now a Domestic Engineer and I couldn't be more excited!  That's right - I left my incredibly awesome setup of working from home as an Industrial Engineer at Walt Disney World to become a full-time wife and mother.  I absolutely loved my job at Disney, but I knew that I would be bothered inside as long as I kept it.  It's been my true desire for a long time to be a stay-at-home mom.  Also, I always want to put 100% into everything I do - I feel I did that with my academics and I did that during my six years of working with Disney.  I now know it's time to put my 100% into being a wife and mother and I couldn't be more excited about it!

Now, there will definitely be some new skills I'll need to acquire.  As noted, I put my all into academics and Disney for quite a while....so cooking and cleaning is something I know absolutely nothing about.  However, I figure that somewhere in my years of being an Industrial Engineer I should have gained the skills necessary to manage a household in the most efficient manner possible :).  I'll keep you posted :).  But right now, I'm just loving being with Link!

We went to Disney two weeks ago for one last hurrah.  I have to say, it was a bit different going through the park with a stroller than walking around in business attire :).  I never before truly noticed all the million strollers!  I suppose that will happen after spending months picking one out! 

The days are flying by and Link is certainly growing!  At 6 weeks, he was 10 lbs 4 ounces and 23 inches long! 

SLEEP - Around week 5, his nights started to get worse.  It finally occurred to me that it might not be because he was hungry!  After a few nights of simply comforting him back to sleep, Link only wakes up once between 11 pm and 7 am.  This still doesn't mean Tyson and I are rested!  I never thought I'd be thrilled with four straight hours of sleep.  The thing I love though about the job of being a mother, is that it's so rewarding to spring out of bed at 7 am.  I just can't be in a bad mood when he's there smiling at me ready to start his day!  However, I'm right back in bed as soon as he starts his nap!  Regarding falling asleep - he's almost a pro.  He doesn't like it though if he wakes up during his nap and suddenly finds himself away from home.  But hey, who can blame him!

EATING - At the beginning of week 6, the routine we've been striving for really took off, and better than I could have imagined.  I think it's because he now gets so much sleep at night.  Ever since then, he almost always wakes up at the exact same times every day to eat - we're talking within five or ten minutes!  It constantly amazing me and makes it much easier to plan the day. 

FUN! - Link definitely looks at us when we talk now and is just starting to react to our facial expressions.  The best part is that we get more and more smiles every day!  In the morning, he's always in a great mood and is happy with anything.  He's perfectly content lying on a blanket listening to music or relaxing on my lap while I read to him or putting up with me taking pictures of him.  In the afternoons...not so much.  He's pretty tired and the naps come a lot sooner.  Overall, his awake times are definitely getting more exciting and it's so neat getting to know him more and more!

Here's Link saying - Why'd you just open the blinds, take my blanket away, stick my hair up, and put a camera in my face???!

HAPPY!

This post is LONG overdue!  Dave & Dorilin and their adorable son Jordan are a super fun family in our young married class at church.  Before this shoot, they only had family pictures taken once and they accidentally lost the pictures!  When they told us that, we knew that had to change!  We had a blast hanging out with them and hope they now have some good family pictures!! However - they're gonna need family pictures again soon because they're now expecting a second child!  We're super excited for them!! Here's the Mariney family!

I thought he looked like a little clothing model in this one :)

It's always so nice to get Tyson for an extra day because we always seem so busy every weekend.  On Saturday, we got up super early to do a sunrise bridal portrait session for Nikki (turned out awesome! can't show till January though.).  Link came along for the shoot and you wouldn't have ever known :).  I wore him on the front of me while I took pictures and barely felt him!  Here we are (yes, he's in there)! 

Then we came back and relaxed :).  Since sleeping for long stretches hasn't happened in six weeks - going out for a day takes a toll on you.  It's the best feeling ever to snuggle up with a newborn though!  I love my two boys!

Julia and I are friends with Isaac and Kyle Treesh - they're in our Sunday morning Bible study class.  Isaac's brother Aaron is in the Army and will be deployed to Iraq very soon.  Aaron and his fiance Katie Brittain asked us to do some beachy Florida engagement photos for them, so we headed down to Fort DeSoto park, which was named the top beach in the USA by that Dr. Beach guy a few years back.  We had an awesome time, and are very proud to be able to help Aaron and Katie create these memories.  Thanks for your service to our country, Aaron!