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Welcome to the Erica Holland Photography blog and website! I combined my blog and my webpage to make things simpler for me and easier for you. Everything you need is all right here and this way you can look at even more images (which is the best part anyway!) I spend time in Germany, Washington State and sometimes Utah. I specialize in on-location photography of babies, children, families and seniors. 

I post a lot on this blog, so keep checking back. I'll put up sneak peeks from all of my sessions, and once a week I post something I love from Europe. You will also get to know my family here - my husband, Brad, and our daughter Annika.  We love to travel and we will be sharing our European adventures with you. Enjoy the pictures and leave a comment. It is great to have you here!

Spring?

The sun has been out the last few days, which makes it feel like spring is on the way. It is amazing how just a little sunshine can make you feel so happy! Since it looked like good weather, we all bundled up and headed out to the park today only to find that it was 33 degrees outside (and that doesn’t include the windchill.) It had taken us two and half hours to get ready (and that is with lots of help from my wonderful mother-in-law), so despite the cold, we ate lunch and let Annika play. I was determined that after all that work we would have fun! Annika had a blast, so in the end I didn’t mind my frozen fingers too much.

It appears as though winter hasn’t yet relinquished its hold here in Germany. At least I have these tulips, so with the sun shining in (and the heat on), it feels like spring inside.

Home at Last

A week ago today we got to bring Lucy and Elise home with us. It is a wonderful blessing to be all together as a family in our own home. Annika is adjusting nicely with a little stability, and she loves her sisters to death. Lucy and Elise are eating constantly and growing quickly. It is already hard to imagine how our family felt complete without them. So far having three children isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. The twins just sleep all day, and Annika loves to hang out with us when I am feeding them. It also helps that Brad’s Mom is here now, and so Annika has a constant playmate. I can hear them laughing together all day long. I feel wonderful — it is a great feeling to be able to walk up and down the stairs and bend over to pick things up. I am getting much less sleep now than when I was pregnant, but I don’t feel nearly as tired. I didn’t realize how uncomfortable I was until I wasn’t pregnant anymore.

Having Lucy and Elise in the NICU was harder than I thought it would be, but once again my heart is full of gratitude — to the Lord for giving me experiences that teach me to trust Him and help me grow, for three beautiful little girls, for a husband who cooks and cleans and feeds the twins once a night so I can sleep, for a mother-in-law who has already been extremely helpful, and for so many friends who have sent hand-me-downs and gifts, brought in meals, and offered any help I might ever need. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Welcome home, beautiful baby girls. You don’t know how loved you are.

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“Baby Tisters”

Annika got to see Lucy and Elise for the first time on the day they were born, but only from a distance. Later, when the girls moved into a room where the healthier babies stay we felt comfortable letting her get a little bit closer, but we still made her keep her distance. Yesterday we felt the babies were healthy enough to really be able to meet their big sister. Annika loves them to death and constantly asks “Annika see baby tisters too?” She was gentle and sweet and full of love. I hope that she treats them that way forever.

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An Introduction

This post is overdue, but given that I am currently living at the hospital and that I am spending almost all of my time feeding babies, I hope you will forgive me.

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Meet Elise Katherine and Lucy Abigail

February 8th at  7:11 am and 6:51 am

4 lbs 11 oz 18.1 inches and 4 lbs 10 oz 17.2 inches

The girls are beautiful and healthy and growing and have stolen our hearts already. Since they decided to make their entry into the world a little bit early, they have had to spend some time in the NICU here. We are grateful for wonderful doctors and nurses who have been diligent in explaining the progression and growth premature babies need to make  (regulating their own body temperature, learning to stay awake long enough to eat and gain weight, getting rid of all that biliruben that causes jaundice, and remembering to breathe all of the time.) We had hoped to be out of the NICU in a few days, but soon learned that it would take a little bit longer. Although we were very disappointed, and we long to have our family all together again, we are glad that Lucy and Elise are getting the care that they need and that we have this time to get to know the newest members of our family.

One of my greatest fears in having twins was that I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart and that I would mix my babies up. Lucky for me, not only do Lucy and Elise look different, but they have personalities that are already polar opposites.

Lucy is a little fireball already. She is the one that caused all the trouble when she broke her water sack early Monday morning. She had been baby B the entire pregnancy — the baby that was supposed to come second. However, at the last minute, she pushed her way past her sister and made her way into the world first. She was the one always kicking me during my pregnancy and she is still the most active now. She is stubborn — we cannot make her wake up and eat if she does not want to, and she will purse her lips together and scowl when we try to force her. But, when she does want to eat, she gives 110% and you can hear her chugging across the room. She is my little squirt.

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Elise is the more mellow of the two. She is sweet and more patient than her sister. While she had more problems initially, she is doing better now and is just waiting on Lucy to come around so that we can go home. She is full of smiles and rarely cries. She is a better nurser, and nurses for longer, so I get to spend a little more time with Elise than with Lucy. (Lucy gets a bottle more often, so she has been getting more bonding time with Dad.) I already have one Daddy’s girl in the house. Maybe Elise will be a Momma’s girl.

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My favorite part is that they seem to love each other already. As soon as they were off of oxygen and glucose drips, we starting putting them in the same bed together. After another day we started swaddling them together so they could get more skin-to-skin time. They love it. I have been nursing them separately until they get the hang of it and can stay awake long enough to not need prodding. Whoever is in the crib will always be fussy until I bring back her sister. As soon as we snuggle them together and swaddle them next to each other they settle down and don’t make a peep. Their bigger sister Annika loves them already too and I am really hoping that I end up with three best friends in my house. (More on Annika and the babies in a later post. . .  so stay tuned!)

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We are hoping to have them home within the week, but it may be longer. I am dying to get some great pictures of them and I will certainly post them here when I do. These girls better get used to the sound of the camera clicking!

Grateful

Being pregnant with twins has been hard at times, and I hear that actually having infant twins is even harder, but even so, I don’t know that I deserve the outpouring of love and support I have received this pregnancy. I am incredibly grateful.

In no particular order:
I am grateful for a daughter who has sensed that big changes are coming her way. For an almost two-year old she has been incredibly understanding of my limitations and sometimes inability to meet her wants. She knows that Mommy can’t carry her, so she just asks that I “hold hand” when we walk down the stairs. When I am laying down she will run all over the house getting things for me and sometimes even picking things up for me. She likes to steal my chair, but always moves when I ask. She will be a great big sister. She is already a great friend for her mom.

I am grateful for two other daughters that have decided to hold out on making their entrance into the world. It has given me some much needed time to not only get our house physically ready for their arrival, but to prepare myself mentally for the changes in my life (at least somewhat.) I am almost 36 weeks now, and even though I feel like I am going to burst I keep reminding myself that everyday I don’t go into labor makes the babies that much bigger and stronger and healthier.

I am grateful for friends who have stepped in to bring me meals, to babysit Annika, to cut my hair, or just to call and talk. Thanks. It has meant the world to me.

I am most grateful right now, for an amazing husband who has taken the last few weeks without complaining and only a little bit of teasing. He works hard and then comes home and works even harder. He has cleaned the house, cooked dinners, washed laundry, done the grocery shopping, played with Annika, and finished his project of refinishing and painting our kitchen table and chairs. He has bought me peanut m&m’s just because he knows I love them and listened while I shared all of my fears (many of them irrational) about the babies coming. He puts up with extra pillows in the bed at night and extra messes around the house that I don’t have the energy to clean up. Yesterday we drove to Trier to buy Annika some birthday presents before the babies make it extra hard to get out. We hadn’t planned on taking pictures, but at the last minute decided to do an impromptu maternity session to document a size I hope to never be again. I am grateful for a husband that makes me feel beautiful even when I waddle and look like I swallowed a watermelon and by my own admission resemble a beached sea lion when I try to get off the couch or out of bed (at least that is how I feel!) Even though we both laugh at the impossible size of my belly he continually reminds me that I am beautiful, and for that, I am grateful. (Plus, he is a great photographer, no?)