A star is born!

Here is a quick snapshot of Karsyn's first commercial shoot!

It was for an insurance company out west but was filmed here! It was pretty cool to be on a live set and see how they do stuff~ One cool thing they did was make it seem like day time when it was pitch black outside. Anyway, enjoy the shot!

She was a pefect angel, slept the whole time and has been sleeping great at home too!

Thank you Jesus!

Well we are settling into to home now with our new little bundle.

She's a great sleeper so far, we need to work on it at night though! She's kinda got it backwards, but not as bad as brayden did so I think we'll survive.

Funny quick story. We were being considered for karsyn modeling for a commercial that needed a baby, but they said we were pushing it too close to her birth etc. So they picked two other babies instead. However, I sent her pic anyway and they contacted us and said, "We canceled the other two, we want Karsyn!" Soooo, I assume that my bias has nothing to do with how cute she is!!!

We are headed off to watch the Buckeyes at grandma and grandpas house. We have the cutest little onesie (sp?) for her to wear that has buckeyes on it!

God bless you all!

Speaking of "God bless you all", have any of you read "Irresistable Revolution"? Wow, gotta read it, it's really making think about all I have, do, possess and access and asking tough questions about it all.

Also, if you haven't done so, please consider going to www.thirstrelief.org and sign up as a monthly donor, it's so easy and so effective. One $5 a month contribution will save a life every month! That's a life time of water for one individual for ony $5. Each month someone new will receive a lifetime of water! If you want to understand more about how $5 can really save a life read about it on the home page of www.thirstrelief.org

For real, God bless you all!

Introducing . . . Karsyn McKenna Hicks! 7lb 3oz, not sure how long but cute as can be!

Pray she stays as easy as she is so far! She's nursing great, beautiful and very happy so far!

If pregnancy wasn't so miserable and dangerous for lara we'd probably have more! Wow, 2 hours or so of contractions and 2.5 pushes and she was out! Dr. Raymond is an incredible Dr. and did a great job!

And I'm sooo proud of Lara, she's such an amazing woman and it was so wonderful to experience this together. After it was all done and visitors faded, we had the most amazing time in the birthing room just sitting and enjoying as we turned the lights off and enjoyed the sun coming through the window and we just sat with our little girl! What a hard road this has been but so worth it! Thank you Jesus! For real, thank you Lord! What a gift from above.

We are soooo in love already! More pix to come in the future. I'm off to the hospital!

Wednesday around 2:00 p.m.ish we expect to meet Karsyn face to face! Karsyn is our new little daughter that we are so excited to meet! I really am crazy excited to meet her. Honestly I'm a little afraid it wont be a her as my friends Mike and Kim Lotz thought they were having a girl too and it turned out to be a boy!!!! Our Dr. say's he's 99.9% sure and our boys were very obviously boys when we did the ultra sounds with them, soooooo, we'll see! Either way we'll be very excited to meet Karsyn or Carson :)

Now, a tribute to the beautiful woman that helps me look good in the photo above! My wife Lara. Wow, what a woman. She has been through a pretty rough ride with this pregnancy. Not sure how many of you know the details but she gets incredibly sick during her pregnancies to the point of total bed rest and in home care just to keep her from vomitting! She ended up this time hospitalized (was previously too, but before it was hydration related) this time she had an infection in her leg where she was receiving her anti-nausea meds. It turned very ugly, very fast. She could have easily lost her leg or have died! Dr. Raymond sent her to a specialist immediatly and they hospitalized her right away. Then, while in the hospital she almost died due to an allergic reaction! Our friend (and creative assistant) Anne Marie called her in the hospital and woke her up, she realized she couldn't breathe as she was passing out. So she hit the nurse button and a ton of Dr.s came rushing in and were hooking her up to a bunch of stuff etc. and going kinda crazy! They said "good thing your friend called you honey!" Well, she made it through and has just been dealing with the general overall misery of pregnancy that "most" women experience I think (though i hear some bizzare stories about those that actually feel better pregnant!" All that to say, Lara, I commend you, honor you, love and respect you for carrying three of our babies even through the misery of it all! I love you and so appreciate you for all you have and will do! Thank you. I'm excited to have a daddy's girl!

And YES, we do plan to be done, we're all about adoption from this point forward!

Quick Question for anyone reading this.

Would you be ticked if this image came to you in an email, unsolicited but as the result of signing up for Columbus Bride magazine? (Advertisers receive free access to their mailing list and I've never done anything with them until now, and only cause we've had so much fun shooting these sessions we figured we'd market to those that may or may not have been happy with their wedding pix. Not our couples of course :) but for those that maybe couldn't afford our wedding coverage but would still like a similar style only on a weeknight shoot!)

Anyway, I'm excited to shoot the sesssions for those that were happy to get it! No offense was intended if you did receive it and didn't want to. (this goes for any photogs that could be offended too, I've not had any negative response from any but I thought about it later and thought "Hmm, that could be offensive to a photog too if they think I'm trying to take their clients away from them or indicating that their work wasn't any good."

I did a Sr. Port session the other night. I had hoped to do alot of outside stuff too but it was just raining like crazy. I suggested we reschedule but they wanted to go ahead with them. We actually did a few shots in the rain too but I like the studio stuff best.

Anyway, Jackie is a super sweet girl and it was fun to get to know her and her mom!

This has been a pretty big week for Ashton! Tuesday was Orientation at Kindergarten (I seriously cried like a baby. It was very hard for me to send him off to school and still contemplating alternative ways to educate.) I actually heard a great quote from John Wimber "I don't mind education so long as it doesn't get in the way of learning!" This can be very true when a child doesn't learn affectively in a traditional "education" model. Ashton is definitely a artist who reflects much of me, my parents say he's EXACTLY like I was at that age. (artistic, talkative, creative and managing, he's always orchestrating something and getting others to help him fulfill his plans.) Anyway, we'll see where that goes. I have so many thoughts on this, but I'll save it for some other time.

On Wed. we did a daddy date and went crawdad hunting for hours in the river! What an amazing time. Ashton kept saying to me "Dad, this is soooo fun. I'm so glad we did this!" I even blitzed on an important conference call as a result of not having my watch or phone with me in the river. It was absolutely worth it and they were incredibly gracious in understanding.

Then the first and second day of kindergarten and a lost tooth! Enjoy the pix above they are of the first morning of school and the lost tooth. The last pic it's hard to tell but he's holding his tooth on a string.

I'm so blessed.

Karsyn is on her way in less than 2 weeks! Keep us in your prayers.