just us l july 2012

it's already that time again for JUST US.   this is a time once a month, when i make sure to get "into the pictures" with my family.  i love being a part of this amazing group which was formed on the bloom forum.  i find so much inspiration in these ladies. they are all so amazingly talented. this month my sister-n-law was so sweet to snap a few shots of me and my three kiddos while we were at Longboat Key (my husband had left a couple days early to head out on a mission trip with our church to Guatemala).   i hope you enjoy.  maybe next month i will get a little creative with my remote and tripod...who knows?!

please follow our group and see what fun pictures they have captured of their sweet families.  next up is the beautiful Celeste Jones l Wilmington Deleware Photographer.

today you are eight l a birthday letter

dear e, the past eight years have flown by much too quickly.   my  heart changed in unspoken ways the moment i became a mother.

this year seems extra sentimental to me as you enter a new phase of life.  you are not quite a little girl anymore, but not quite a teen-aged girl either.    i certainly see changes in you as you gain more independence and curiosity about the world around you.  when i think of you, i think of the tenderness that fills your heart.  you are so loving and so full of compassion for everyone in your life.

we've shared so much in these short eight years.   in the last few years daddy was deployed quite often and you were my rock.  you were there to make me laugh, to give me snuggles, and to be a help in more ways than you'll ever be aware.   indeed, i missed daddy, but these memories will forever be etched in my heart.   i love the bond we share and i hope we never lose it.

i've enjoyed watching your faith in God and love of Jesus grow over the past year.   you have questions and passion and it makes me so happy.   my prayer for you is to grow closer and closer to Him.  i want you to let Jesus  lead you and trust in Him for everything in your life.  if you do this, you will forever be blessed.

i know the next few years will continue to bring changes as you grow into a young lady.   i pray for wisdom in guiding you,  love and patience in teaching you, and an open heart, to be there for you always.

i love you to the moon and back!

happy eighth birthday!!!

xoxo,

mama

me and mine l january

  “enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – robert brault

i read this quote recently on my dear friend gretchen's blog.  and how true it is.  i can hardly believe my oldest child is now almost 8 years old.   it seems like yesterday we were just finding out we were going to have a precious baby.   the years simply pass by so quickly with our children.  many have said that the days are long; but the years are fast.  and that is true also.  as we go through each phase of  life raising our children, some days we are just in survival mode. but somewhere within each day there are those moments you just want to grasp and hold on to forever.  the moments that make your realize just how precious the gift of motherhood is.  and really its a combination of all these moments so small each day, that we will realize were so big.

i long to capture all of these moments.  but  i also long to capture moments of me in these moments .  i know i've said it before, but it really is so important to preserve memories of  US with our families.  many of you may think how much you dislike being in pictures. others may say you are all just too busy.  or that you don't care for the fuss of  it all.  but your famly will look back on these memories and treasure them one day.   last year i made a commitment to try and be in more pictures with my family.   as a photographer i have thousands of pictures of my own children, but i realized i was the one always taking the pictures.  so, i bought a remote and tried at least once a month to snap a shot.  my husband was overseas at the time and really loved to receive pictures with me in them as well..(since he got a handful a day emailed to him of the kids). 

 this year i am so excited to partner up on a fun project with my sweet friend Lexi Winters, who also happens to be a photographer. last fall the two of us helped each other by taking our family Christmas card pictures.  it worked out so well for both of us that we knew we needed to do this more often now that i have moved back to town. we realized our husbands aren't going to want to be in monthly photo shoots, but Lexi and i both thought it would be such fun to get together monthly and just snap away some fun times with our kiddos ( and we also knew we could sit and visit about photography, motherhood, and most anything else for hours at a time).  

so,  for this month i have a few that she took of me and the kids while we were doing our card pictures.   i am so grateful already for this project because i just love having these to remember me with these special babies, right now, just how we are...

 now , head on over to Greenprint Photography, and see the pictures i captured of lexi and her beautiful family...