Yearly Archives: 2014

We’ve been sick:  ALL OF US!  With this awful sinus infection that has last like 3 weeks long!  SO NOT FUN!  Especially not fun in the summer when all you want to do is just go and enjoy the days and long summer evenings of beautiful sunlight!

I can say that these sniffles and hacking coughs haven’t stopped us from soaking all those long sun bathed evenings up and Linc has been going to bed waaay later than usual (bonus he’s been sleeping in way later than usual too, score!)

But all these sick days and all these long evenings have gotten me out of my usual schedule and I’ve been MIA for a bit.  I’ve been kind of stuck and so I’ve been just soaking up my family and trying to regain some inspiration.  I’ve been trying to set some goals for myself and take stock of where I am in my business and figure out where I want to go and how to get there.

Sometimes in order to do that though, you need to pause and see where you are!  So here’s where I am and here are some things you might not know about me!

In my real life:

  • I am slightly addicted to coffee and usually start my day with 2 cups.  The addiction didn’t happen until after Linc was born and somehow that makes me feel better about it all!
  • I am always cold no matter what the temperature is outside!  ALWAYS!  So I usually wear a hoodie or 3/4 sleeves!  It can be 100 outside and I’m still rocking a hoodie!
  • I usually don’t wear make-up, especially in the summer!  I rub my eyes too much and that leads to smudging and that leads to more dark circles under my eyes which makes me look like I have black eyes…. so I just leave it all off!  It’s not glamorous and I probably would look more decent with some mascara and something else but I don’t wear it usually.  (It would also help if I knew how to put make up on properly instead of looking like Linc took a permanent marker and scribbled all over my face too)
  • You can usually find me in yoga clothes!  I teach body flow which is a Les Mills Yoga class… so that’s my excuse!  But let’s be honest here, they are just comfy!  AND because I teach I wear fancy yoga clothes so they look like real clothes anyway! 😉
  • Linc and I usually match our hairstyles!  When I say this I mean he smeared yogurt in his hair during this morning’s breakfast and because I can’t resist a hug or a kiss, he also clumped it in my hair too so now there’s a big ratty yogurt knot in mine!  (at least it makes it smell good?!)
  • I make a million lists every day… and then I lose track of them.  So I make more (of the same list).
  • I am a lover of the heating pad ( and it makes me feel like a little old granny)
  • I laugh a lot and I snort when I do it… sometimes I do the gasp even like my toddler!
  • My loved ones are afraid of me when I eat a buttered biscuit because I can detach my jaw to do it!
  • I have all these ideas for photo sessions and I seek families to help me create the magic in my head!
  • I’m a horrible business woman and my goal for this next year is to learn some skills!

All these little things and so much more help me see where my business is today and also where I want my business to be in the future!  It helps me see who I am in my business and how I can grow to make my business better suit myself and my family!

Sometimes taking stock like this is helpful!  Who are you in your real life?!

Just a few pictures from our usual days:  soaking up the pool, playing with the new family member… paddle board lessons.  Our life is full of  a streaking naked toddler and a zooming blurry mass of a dog!  Dinner is what we scrounge or crock pot and afternoons are splashes and monster truck crashes!

What do you get when you have a gorgeous family, a sassy full of personality and love baby girl, a little bit of cake and some amazing light?!  You get a bit of magic!  

I’ve known Berkley since we were little, we grew up in the same neighborhood and I went to school (all schools) with her big brother!  The best part of my job is when I get to reconnect with old friends and seeing Berkley was amazing enough, but seeing her as a mom:  breathtaking!

This family is gorgeous and not just gorgeous on the outside (which they completely are!) but they are gorgeous on the inside and instantly once you meet them and spend even 5 minutes with them you feel like you are a part of the group!  A silly group filled with laughter and fun and inside jokes.  This is a family that supports one another more than 100 percent and respects one another in ways that makes your heart so full!  And then there is Ms. Isabelle:  EVERYONE loves Ms. Isabelle and is totally enamored with her!

And who wouldn’t be?!  This almost 1 year old beauty completely commands the room’s attention and she is soo full of life and spirit and happy sass!  She is fearless and she is spunky!  Everyone wants to surround themselves with her and it is a fight to see who gets to snuggle her, who gets to make her laugh and who gets the most kisses!

I felt truly honored to be able to spend an evening with Berkley’s family!  What started out as a simple family session ended in a super fun family cake smash.  Everyone was involved from cake smashing, to cake eating to sticky, slippery ooey goeey mess after!  No one was left un-iced and everyone had a blast!

This truly was an evening full of family and joy in the way that every family hopes and dreams about!

Here’s a peek at some of my favorites from our evening together!  You can truly feel all the love everyone has for one another and the joy they feel at just being around each other!

 

“Touch Touch Digger”, It’s all we’ve heard now for the past week!  Which is actually pretty awesome!  It was a spur of the moment decision, one that for most people might not have been worth the drive but to us was beyond anything we could have imagined it to be!  

I never expected Tuck to even be home on Father’s day!  I spent hours in the hallmark stores buying the perfect cards:  deployment cards, super hero cards, from your loving wife cards, miss you cards, just because cards and then of course Linc and I made our own cards to send.  I planned our Father’s day box down to the package stuffing and what day I was going to send it out to make sure it got there early!  I was prepared!  But we all know that when you prepare and plan, life has this funny way of throwing you a curve ball and saying:  haha plan for THIS!  The THIS just happened to be a wonderful surprise and we all got to be together for our second father’s day!  That was really the best gift anyone could ask for!

So we woke up in the morning and had our normal routine of breakfast and cards and I asked Tuck what he wanted to do today?  We would do anything he wanted, although I knew he just wanted to spend time with us.  We ran through a list of things we could do:  play in our pool which Linc loves, go to the aquarium which is usually fun but kind of quick, go to the beach like the rest of our area, or we could do something totally different.  We could drive to see the Grave Digger!

Linc’s super into monster trucks these days and I have to admit, it’s really a lot of fun!  So we packed him up, packed up the car full of snacks and drinks and we made the hour or so drive just to see the Grave Digger!  We are really lucky we live so close and both Tuck and I felt we needed to take the time to seize the opportunity, take a Sunday drive with the windows down and enjoy the time together when he is this little!   Enjoy this time when he his so full of excitement and that wow factor is so fresh and so new!

So we drove and we talked and we laughed!  We parked and Linc was able to “touch touch Digger”!

We came home with a few goodies (of course, how could you not when you are right at diggers dungeon).  We came home and we all napped and then we played in the pool together for the rest of the day.  I’d say that was a pretty perfect if not amazing Father’s Day!

It was more than I could have ever dreamed up and my heart was just so full!  Linc is still talking about the day and I am still thanking God for that day!

We have big muscles, just like those big trucks do! One of my favorites! So sweet, nothing like daddy Big hugs for mommy!