There are no words.......

I know we are WAY overdue for a post about our little man Hayden but where do you begin! It has been such a whirlwind for the past 5 weeks! In a nutshell - we are so in love and having such fun getting to know this new little person!

We couldn't have survived the past 6 weeks without the generous help of our friends and family! My mom held us together before and after the big day - how she makes it all seem so easy is beyond me. Since then Adam's folks have been ready with extra arms to hold baby and generous helping hands.

As Adam was in LA I was pampered by two of my favorite women - my best friend Sarah and my big sis Kim. They were amazing - and worked way too hard but left me with more sleep, a smile on my face and a very tidy home! Along the way we also had friends bring dinner, bring thier camera and bring such great company! We are so blessed and SO THANKFUL.... and I have every intention of stating that in the thank you notes I swear I will get to..... soon.... I mean it!
One of our recent visitors was Jean Shifrin - she is one of our photographers for The Decisive Moment and a dear friend. She brought her camera along and despite Hayden's less than cheery disposition that day- captured the little man we are so in love with! What a looker :)

Jean has such a gift with little ones and shoots a pretty fantastic wedding too!
Jean's website is www.shifrinphotography.com

We will try to be better with our updates as we adjust to life with a little one!

Much love!

Mommy

Baby Hayden arrives!

In this corner weighing in at 9 lbs 10.5 oz introducing Hayden James Linke! He was born into this world at 2:39pm Wednesday August 22nd. There will be a slideshow update later this week. But for now I just want to say thank you to all of our friends and family for their thoughts and prayers and support. It was a day that changed my life and I give special thanks to a close friend of mine Mark Adams for documenting Hayden's birth and capturing images that will always bring us back to those emotional and energizing moments. Here are a couple of quick pictures...

This is just a short post to let everyone know that we made it through ok.. If you need to some more pics immediately, you can check out LaCour and they have posted some beautiful pics. This is our friend’s blog and I think it is the second or third post down.


Talk to everyone soon,


Adam

Partner Con LA

It is not very often that we talk about work on our personal blog, but I thought it might be fun for friends and family to see what this trip to L.A. is all about. For those of you that know what I do profesionally, I am wedding photographer as well as the Southeast regional pro consultant for a company called Pictage. A couple times a year we hold a members only conference to collaborate, teach, learn, and reconnect with many of our peers in our industry. I have the great fortune to be speaking at this conference about marketing. So check it out for yourself, and thanks as always for reading our blog... Below is a video snipit that encapsulates what this conference is about. Many of the photographers seen in this video are the best and brightest in the industry.

Adam

What's north of Dahlonega?

Besides Tennessee? Actually, in the two years that Jenn and I have lived on the outskirts of Atlanta, we have never actually ventured north of where we live except to go into Dahlonega to hit our favorite Mexican restaurant. To my delight, Jenn and I drove up to Unicoi State park (map) after work last night so I could do little mountain biking. I might have been inspired by my brother in-laws recent post (Sam and David Infanger, and his recent post). SO, we got up there and I thought there were 6 trails to choose from and I had my mind made up to try this very easy 2.5 mile track to warm up. I couldn't figure out why it said it would take 2.5 hours to complete. I was thinking, "wow, this must be pretty hilly." These turned out to be hiking trails only. To my sad surprise the only Mountain biking trail was the one they used for Mountain bikers to train for the 1996 summer Olympics. The actual course that was used was located in Conyers, GA. That being said I was a bit worried that my first outing of the season might be an unforgiving one.





That was not the case. The course ran about 7.8 miles and I think I made a wrong turn that reduced it to about 4.5 miles. 4.5 miles was the perfect break in ride. It took about an hour and there were a couple of pretty steep climbs. The course itself was in great shape and a lot of fun to ride. It also splits off and you can ride to the nearest town, Helen. This town has a fantastic history. It was revitalized in the 60's and became an alpine themed German town in an effort to boost tourism. They hold one of the largest Oktoberfest's in the country. Click here for the complete chronology.





I look forward to my next adventure up in northern GA.
























Here are a couple of Pics from the evening...

This lil Turkey is Cooked!

Today we are officially 37 weeks and medically considered - FULL TERM. That means Mr. Hayden James Linke is good to go! He is statistically around 6.5 pounds and 19-20 inches from head to toe. The home stretch is definitely proving to be a challenge physically, emotionally and mentally!

Physically - I"M HUGE!! Getting around is definitely a major challenge with all the various aches, pains and extra pounds. I had a great time this past weekend having friends at the lake playing but imagine we will keep things pretty mellow for the rest of the time! I'm pooped!

Emotionally - well I'd tell you but then I cry for absolutely no reason at all and then hurt my belly by laughing at myself :) :( :) :(

Mentally - I am freaking out about all the things we have left to do and prepare before Hayden arrives! Unfortunately, I too darn tired to do them - which makes me cry, then laugh, then my belly hurts... you see the vicious cycle.

We did finally take new preggers pics a couple days ago! Adam did a great job despite his difficult subject :) So this is me - a very large, crazy, pregnant lady ready to pop!

Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated! We are so excited to meet the little man and see that he is happy, healthy and whole!

Much love

Jenn

Foreign Visitor

This was a visitor that stopped by to say hello this morning. For a full backround on this little guy click here. It is always nice to have visitors...

I love Lamp.

Okay, I admit... I have always wanted to start a post with a quote from Anchorman, and now I have. Now, on to the reason I am posting. It is time to unveil a sneak peak at mom and dad's little project that has kept them quite busy over the past 9 months.

They are finally going to have a house to call their own! Here are a couple of pics to get ya'll excited about coming down for your next visit!

Pontoons, I guess they can be cool.

Well, we knew it would happen someday.


My parents finally got their first pontoon boat today. It is kind of a rite of passage into retirement when you purchase one of these bad boys. A pontoon is all about relaxing, enjoying a cool beverage or two, listening to good music and taking as much time as possible to reach your destination. Unless of course your my dad. This pontoon has a little 250 HP Mercury outboard on the back and we were able to tip the speedo's at just over 42 m.p.h. Not too bad for a an old fart boat...





Anyway, this is the most relaxing comfortable boat I have ever ridden on. So, I hope this encourages all friends and family that read this blog to head on over for an evening cruise with some cool beverages and great music.

Ohio, Trevor and Chelsey

This Past weekend we were out in Alliance, OH for Trevor and Chelsey's wedding. Trevor is Jenn's cousin and we had a chance to visit Uncle Mic & Aunt Phil's beautiful lake house. We hung out with family and friends for the 4th of July so here are a couple of pictures of our home made fireworks show...It was a fantastic opportunity to see a large part of Jenn's extended family.

Mic Cain, Trevor's father, was the Officiant for the wedding and held a moving and emotional ceremony as he married his youngest child. They brought in a huge tent and held the ceremony and reception overlooking the lake. It took a lot of restraint not to grab my camera and shoot a couple of hundred pictures. The weather couldn't have been better and everything about the day seemed to fall into place. It really was a perfect day. Here are a couple of pictures of friends and family from the evening.. And I would alos like to say a special hello to Trevor's friends Aiden and Johanna who traveled all the way from New Zealand for the occasion. Click here for a quick slide show...

Washington DC

Everytime Jenn and I get a chance to visit our nations capitol we have fantastic time. Of course it doesn't hurt to family there. :-)

Here are a couple of pictures from our weekend. We went to the Mall to see the Cultural Festival. I As you can see, it was a great time to have a super unhealthy hotdog and take in the sights.

I hope my brother in law Dave appreciates the excellent use of condiments... lol.

This is a Jeepny and is a fantastic way to get around in the Phillippines. Jenn used to ride one of these all the time. I just think they look cool. :)

The meaning of friends..

Congratulations Michelle and Michael. I just had one the most fantastic weekends in recent memory. I had the priveledge of being a groomsman for one of my best friends Michael. As I write this, he has already whisked away his bride Michelle to Paris for their honeymoon.

This past weekend I had the chance to catch up with just about every friend I have in one setting! How rare is that? There was hardly a face I didn't know or have a funny story about. I am linking a slidewhow with this post (Click here). I always love putting together these slideshows as this is something we do in our business for our clients and I love telling a story through images. I now understand why they can be so powerful, as each image in this show has special meaning for me. I was suprised how much this affected me. So to all my good friends... Watch, laugh and be thankful... I am.

When I was a little girl/navy brat, my family moved to the Phillippines! My dad was stationed on a tiny little base called San Miguel where he was the doc! When we got there I met Chrissy! Chrissy and I were inseparable (unless I was watching General Hospital - strange obsession for a 4 year old I know but we were lacking for good TV on our 1 channel)! We were best of friends from preschool thru 1st Grade! Yes - thats us to the right with our matching Care Bears. (thanks dad for the photos)

Our moms were also great friends and though we all moved on to half a dozen locations after that - they maintained their friendship! Well this year Mom and Mary were planning a girls weekend when my mom told her I was having a baby - as it turns out ... so is Chrissy.
We are both having boys and she is due a couple weeks before me. So with this great coincidence our moms decided on a Mother/pregnant daughter weekend!
It was so much fun to see them both! It was also great to have a girlfriend going through the same exciting adventure of a first pregnancy! Between shopping, a spa afternoon and boating on the lake we had as much fun as ever - there is nothing quite like picking right back up after twenty something years!
Chrissy is living in Colorado with her husband where she does floral design and is a design student! I can't wait for our little guys to meet in the near future!

Thanks Mom and Mary for getting us all together!!

(me, Colleen, Mary, Mom & Chrissy)