Nixon: Now More Than Ever

Here’s the progression thus far! I’m due January 9th. 

12 WEEKS

13 WEEKS

14 WEEKS 3 DAYS

15 WEEKS 3 DAYS

and this blog will be updated soon too! We are settling in after moving to northwest Arkansas! I’ve been so busy so that I haven’t even blogged about that yet but we HAVE moved and I will tell you more in the next day or so! Happy blogging!

Check it out!

The inquisition…
1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player tags 5-6 people, posts their names, then leaves a comment in their respective blogs to let them know they’ve been tagged.
4. Let the person who tagged you know that you posted your answers.

Questions…
1. What were you doing 10 years ago? 

Wow. 10 years ago feels like it was yesterday. I had just finished my freshman year at JBU and was bored out of my mind the summer following it. All my friends were out of town for the summer so I spent a lot of time on the phone. I was working for my mom at Formal Evenings by day and taking kick-boxing by night. It was not my favorite summer. By far.

2. What are 5 things on your to-do list today? 

-blog (check and check)

-go to the library

-laundry

-start packing

-lay on the couch (I get to put this since I’m pregnant and all!)

3. What are some snacks you enjoy? 

Ugh. Right now nothing sounds good. I haven’t had any real morning sickness but food in general is just not appealing. Normally I would say just about anything sweet. Since food isn’t working for me I’ll suggest that napping counts. It is delicious and good for me!

4. What would you do if you were a billionaire? 

Please! I can’t even imagine how much money that is!!! I would definitely do a lot to help out the orphans in the world. I have such a heart for these little babies and kids and would love to be able to do something huge for them. (Although I think we can all do SOMETHING for them and the greatest of all gifts is adopting them into our families…not to get off subject though.) I would love to be a benefactor to others and give gifts that can change lives. Of course-I’d also travel the world with my family and probably own a few houses here and there but who wouldn’t!

5. What are 3 of your bad habits? 

Only 3? Are you sure? Okay-I am notorious at leaving clothes in the dryer when they are done. I just hate hanging them and folding them. Perhaps this stems from when I was a child and would get in trouble I would have to fold baskets of laundry for punishment. So-I’m blaming this one on my parents. Sorry, mom. Another habit (although not bad but perhaps strange) is my insistence on wearing shoes (flip-flops) around the house. I have a strong intolerance of any dirt or grit on my feet and let’s face it…unless you have new carpet…it’s gross. So-knowing that some other family used this carpet before me, I really don’t want to walk barefooted on it. Now, when we owned our house and put new carpet it I actually enjoyed walking on it. It was clean and fresh! Wood floors are okay too as long as they are super clean and there’s no grit but what are the chances of that? The reason I put this under bad habits is b/c it drives my husband nuts! And lastly. Hmmm…I have the tendency to leave behind tissues from where ever I was last using them. I will clean them up but not always immediately. This is really only a problem when I’m sick or my allergies are acting up. BUT-in my defense I would like to say that this is a better habit than one I saw displayed last night regarding used kleenex. We were at our church small group and we were praying. Well…my eyes slipped open long enough for me to see one of our member using tissues and then putting them BACK INTO the box of clean ones! Talk about GROSS! Oh course…he’s only 2 years old but still! It IS worse than my habit!

6. What are 5 places you have lived?

-Siloam Springs, Arkansas…born and raised

-Dallas, Texas

-Plano, Texas

-Allen, Texas

-to be determined

7. What are 5 jobs you’ve had?

-Photographer

-Camp Counselor

-Interior Designer

-Nanny

-Intern of Event Activities (JBU)

8. What is currently playing on your IPOD? 

The most played is my workout mix but since I’ve been so tired as of late the only workout I’ve been getting is my arms routine. That consists of lifting the remote. Sad, but true.

9. What are the last 5-6 books you’ve read? 

Whew. I read books so fast I can hardly remember them. Let’s see. In the past couple of weeks I’ve read Karen Kingsbury’s Firstborn Series (5 books), Shopaholic, The Boleyn Inheritance, The Constant Princess, and Your Pregnancy Week by Week.

10. Who do you want to tag?

-Sharee

-DeAnn

-Sara

-Dayna

-Julie

to the northwest side? Doesn’t have quite the same ring as the original but it is true nonetheless! We are moving to Northwest Arkansas!

Here’s what’s going down.

James has been looking for a job (in DFW) for the past 3 months but we just haven’t found anything really worthwhile. NWA has always been tucked away in our minds as somewhere we’d like to live but the timing just never seemed right. Well…at least until now.

With sweet Baby in our lives our desire to live in small town Arkansas by family and friends has grown stronger. The fact that no interesting job prospects have been found in DFW and with housing prices the way they are here (for what we pay in rent for an apartment here we could have a really nice home in NWA) the timing has never seemed better. So, we prayed that God would guide us and not allow us to make a mistake and…this is the decision we’ve come to! My wonderful parents are graciously hosting us when we make our move and until we can find where we will live and James is settled into his job. (He left today to go up and start looking.) 

We will make our move around the end of this month. Our current lease is up July 5th. So-it will be quick which is better for me (go on and rip the band-aid off fast!) because although I am extremely excited about this move it will still be bittersweet leaving Texas behind. James’ family lives an hour from us right now and we have many friends that we will miss. And I have to admit…I will even miss being a Texan. There is some kind of pride that must be secretly injected into a person when they move here and like a virus it grows and gets into your blood. So-I WILL miss being a Texan gal but it will be well worth it to live near my fabulous family!

With all that being said here are a few other notes of interest. We are not sure exactly WHICH town we will settle in but we have hopes that it will be Siloam Springs. Red House Photography will being making the transition with us, of course (with reduced sitting fees announced soon). We would love your prayers as James is looking for a job this week and following. We would love your photography business too! We are super excited about this new era in our lives and look forward to spending more time with you dear friends in NWA! I’ll be keeping you updated!

Coming Early January 2009.

Yep. That’s why I have been MIA. Once I recover from some serious jet lag I’ll be back in action.

I had a wonderful shoot today with little Ryder. I’m just convinced he is the cutest and sweetest little boy in the world! And, his hair…it stands up naturally all the time! How completely precious is that? His mama did style a mohawk for me later on in the shoot. I just can’t get enough of this little guy and got more than a reasonable amount of amazing shots. In fact…we captured an absurd amound of cuteness today. Here’s just a little taste of the hundreds of great shots from today.

FYI-my website WILL be up soon…as in a couple of weeks. That’s my goal. I’ll let you know.

Well…I’m still awake but after I post this I’m going to go hop in bed and curl up next to my sleeping hubby. Then I’m going to warm my cold hands and feet on him…he’ll love that, I promise! Actually though, considering he woke me today by putting HIS FREEZING cold hands on me (which of course he thought was HILARIOUS), I think it’s payback time!

Anyway, here is precious, precious Leah. I can’t wait to see how she’s grown next trip…though it will inevitably make me a little sad! My mom said she has really changed since Christmas is just has more personality than ever. Love her!!!

Again, click here to make it larger. 

So…have you ever wondered, “What does Jonna do in the middle of the night?” Well…tonight, I’m answering that very question! Lucky you!

Since I found myself awake and thinking of all the fun things I’d like to be doing rather than lying in bed NOT sleeping, I decided it was time to just get up. So, I’ve been goofing around and decided to post a little collection of pictures that I took of Elenna after Christmas. I’ve been meaning to post them anyway so…here they are. I’m just having WAY to much fun with my new actions.

By the way-James and I gave her cowboy boots for Christmas (because she wants to be a cowgirl when she grows up…NOT because we’re mean and thought she didn’t need any toys.) I made her cowboy hat as part of her gift too! I LOVE it!!! I also love that she is wearing a dance leotard, boots and the hat. Too cute!

Pictures of Leah coming soon!  

Click here to see it larger.

Finally…here’s some pictures from my shoot with Em. We had so many good ones I just chose a few to put up on here. She was a fabulous model and we had a blast!

Yesterday I took her to wait in line (in the 16 degree wind chill) for Jonas Brothers tickets. Like me you probably have no idea who they are but they’re HUGE with the teen girls. It was absolutely FREEZING but was worth it for her because they actually showed up and surprised the crowd by playing 3 song on the awning of the Nokia Theater building (and…they weren’t too bad!). There was some serious screaming going on in that crowd, let me tell you! AND…Em got 8th row tickets so it was worth it for me just to see her so excited. Oh…and we might be on Ellen on Monday. They were their filming for it so look for us in the crowd. We’re the ones bundled up but still freezing. Oh, wait. That’s not gonna help.