Claire is here!!!

Claire Marie Carpenter
Born: January 6, 2008
Time: 5:39 am
Weight: 6 lb. 9 oz.
Length: 18.75 inches











What an amazing couple of days! I know that many of you have been waiting on this post and I have been anxious to write it. :) Our sweet little Claire came into the world on Sunday morning. We thought for sure we would be sent home Saturday night when we went to be monitored for my contractions. However, after walking for 90 minutes (and doing some standing squats:)--I wanted her out:) Claire decided that she was ready. I was admitted around midnight and had our sweet little blessing at 5:39 am that morning. Things couldn't have gone better. On top of having a wonderful experience we had a dear friend of ours, Amanda, offer her amazing skills to document the event. I told her that there are some "not so pretty parts" during it all, but if she was willing we would love to have her there. Just last week I asked her if she still wanted me to call even if it was in the middle of the night...she said yes and I am so glad she did. We knew it would have been hard for Jeremy to document since he would be tending to me. We would have missed so much! If you would like to see some of the moments that she captured just click on her name. Amanda...once again, thank you a million times over for being there, not only to take pictures, but to support us. We love you!

One of our highlights was when Gabe got to see her for the first time. It was absolutely precious. He just loved on her and kissed her and kept saying, "Hi Baby Sister Claire, hi." It brought tears to my eyes. He is already a wonderful big brother and is adjusting well to her. She is a very sweet baby and loves to be held. We are dealing with some jaundice issues and have been making daily trips to have her monitored (which is part of the delay in getting this posted), but overall is doing wonderful. Keep checking back for updates as we capture these quick changing moments in our little girl's life. We are going to be doing her newborn session this weekend and I will share as soon as they are ready.

Thanks to all of you for your well wishes and support as we have prepared to bring this beautiful life into the world. God has blessed us beyond measure and we are so thankful to be able to raise not one, but two, little miracles. As for our winner...it was a close call. We had 3 different people choose Sunday. However, Megan Stankus, one of our 2007 brides, came the closest. She guessed Sunday, January 6th at 3:34 pm. Our second place winner was Brittany Miles, a 2008 bride, with a time of 5:15 pm and the third place winner was Joy Bradley, a portrait client and friend, who forgot to mention her time guess. :) I will be in touch with our lucky winners! Enjoy the pictures and many blessings to you all.