Happy New Year!

From our house to all of yours, I hope everyone is having a happy and safe New Years eve / day this year. Lauri and I are finally able to sit down and enjoy our new home this evening, so we are very happy about that! Here's a picture that probably only a select few will know the true meaning of, but this IS new years eve for our families (the pots and pans may make an appearance later too - hint hint).

2007 has been quite a year for the Shields families, it was one that we experienced both great joy and great sorrow. In the words of one of the photographers, whose blog I follow, good bye 2007 - hello two thousand and awesome. It's going to be a big year for us with our new addition on the way, and I'm sure there will be many more things to be greatfull for. I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us.



Happy New Year, and God Bless!

John

Work in Progress...

So I haven't posted a blog in almost a month now, and I'm sorry to say there won't be a picture posted with this entry either. Lauri, Baby, and I have been pretty busy over the last month. That's what the picture I was going to post would have shown. We've moved into our new house and we're working on settling in now.

Let me tell you, moving is for the professionals... That will be the last time I try to move all of our belongings without hiring a moving company. We owe a HUGE thank you to our family and friends for helping us with the process (Mom and Dad Shields, Mom and Dad Zabor, Jess and Tony, Lindsey and Ryan, Matt and Chrissy, Meghan, and Jim). Especially Matt, for letting us use his trailer and doing so much work with us. If anyone out there needs an irrigation system for their house, get a hold of Matt at Michigan Irrigation , they do good work.

Lauri and the Baby will be taking it easy from now on while I do all the hard work. We had an unexpected trip to the hospital on Saturday night (which is why I didn't have time to get a picture posted yet), thankfully everything checked out ok with both Lauri and the Baby. On the bright side, we did get to take another look at the baby via ultrasound, and wow has it grown (the last time we saw an ultrasound was on Haloween)! We've also done a test run to the hospital for when the baby is ready, hopefully there won't be any police officers out on that night either :) ... Oh and sorry to all my family that was over on Saturday night for both the scare and having to cut the party short... We'll have to do it again some time.

So maybe later today I'll be able to get some pictures posted. I have a shot my Dad took of Lauri and I finally relaxing in our new house after a long move, and one of my brother's dog - Rocky - from when the two of them came over last week to help me with a few things and check out the new house.

How much is my BLOG worth?

Found this today, pretty cool. Although I'm not sure where I can go to sell it for this much right now, I sure could use me a new Nikon D300!

Find out how much your blog is worth @ http://www.business-opportunities.biz/#html

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth?

Tandye + Rob's Wedding

Here are a few of my shots that I got during the wedding of Tandye + Rob which I first blogged about around a week ago now. Finally squeezed in a few late nights here and there to get a few images edited and online. Let me know what you think. Thanks, and again all God's blessings to Tandye, Rob, their families, and friends.

P.S. - Check out my Dad's Blog for a slideshow of this event (click here).

As promised, here are a few of the shots I got at Yates Cider mill during the engagement shoot of Aaron + Laurie.

Trying to catch up...

I'm not sure if anyone really follows my blog, but in case they do, have no fear I haven't forgotten about it. Things have been pretty crazy lately with both, the "home selling" and "home buying" procedures not to mention the baby and "shower registry" stuff.

I promise I've got a new post in the works from the engagement shoot I helped my Dad with two weeks ago for Aaron and Laurie. There's just a little more editing to do before it goes online. Check out my Dad's blog for a couple of pictures that he's posted from this day (click here).

I also helped my Dad with a wedding this last weekend that was planned in a 24 hour period for very personal and family reasons to Tandye and Rob (the bride and groom). I've never experienced a wedding this intimate and special before. I'd like to thank Tandye and Rob for asking Jim Shields Photography to capture the emotions of their very special day. Please check out my Dad's BLOG for a slideshow of this event as well (click here). I pray for all the best for Tandye and Rob, and their wonderful families. May the Lord bless all of you.

Hopefully I'll have some more pictures up soon.

Thanks.
John

Big Day - Part 2

Here's part two of my previous post, finally. I've been taking some heat from a few unnamed sources on how I haven't gotten the pictures of the house on the blog yet. So here they are. It needs a good bit of T.L.C. throughout, but what house wouldn't. That's the "fun" part of owning a house, making it your own, or so I've heard.

Oh yeah, and this was my birthday present from Lauri, we found out our offer was accepted on my birthday. Thanks Lauri!

Street view:Backyard view:Den on the left off the foyer:Living Room on the right off the foyer:Kitchen: Dinette: Dining Room (living room in background):Living Room (family room in background):Living Room:Living Room (4 seasons room in background): 4 seasons room (deck in bacground):
Bedroom 1:

Bedroom 2: Master Bedroom: Master Bath

Big Day

Today was a very big day for Lauri and I, it started with the inspection of the house we're planning on buying. My Dad joined us to check out the place, and I asked him to take a few pictures for record purposes. He took a few more than "a few" since he knew he didn't have to do any post-editing, but I'm happy he was there to check it out and give us his oppinion. Pictures on that to come later, because more importantly, today was our first ultrasound for Lauri and the Baby!

People always tell you how exciting it is to be there for this procedure, but I never really understood what they meant until today. It was so exciting to see the baby wiggling around inside of Lauri on the screen. Usually all you get to see from other people are the still images that are produced from this procedure, but today Lauri and I got to see our baby for the first time moving all over the place! I'm not sure if it just wanted some excercise, or if the ultrasound was bothering it. But anyways, here are our Baby's first pictures!!!