Monthly Archives: January 2015

OK! Here it is… the big news!  I’m so excited to really kick off this new year the right way!  Who doesn’t love a little GIVE AWAY?!

Here are the details!!  It’s really soo simple!  Only a few guidelines and you are entered to win!

  1. All participants must LIKE Brooke Tucker Photography on Facebook!  (Easy Peasy!)
  2. Leave a comment in the comment section under the image posted for the give away… WIN!
  3.  You can earn a double entry if you share the image on your own facebook page!
  4. All sessions will be done in Virginia Beach (time frame will be around February/March time frame!)
  5. Make up will be provided for the gorgeous mama!  YAY!  That is so exciting!!!
  6. Session will be styled and have some props but will also be laid back and free to allow your own family’s personality to shine through!
  7. Two dates will be secured (one in case it rains!)

 

The winner will be chosen (by random) at 7 am and announced on Facebook tomorrow morning!  Good Luck!  I am so excited to work with you!!!  I can’t wait to start this new year with some wonderfully fun family images!

  • January 7, 2015 - 7:56 pm

    Ileana - Win!! ReplyCancel

  • January 8, 2015 - 1:52 am

    Janice - Can’t wait to meet you! My hubby and I have 3 sons, 3 daughter in laws 1 granddaughter and 2 grandsons! What a wonderful family photo this will be….ReplyCancel

  • January 8, 2015 - 1:58 am

    Janice Monroe - WINReplyCancel

  • January 8, 2015 - 2:11 am

    Nikki Hofmeister - WIN!ReplyCancel

This past holiday season has been super crazy!  Why is it that once we become adults all of a sudden time just seems to fly right by us?!

I feel like once you become a parent, it’s even faster, but in this really odd way.  One minute it just seems like the hours are dragging on yet at the same time even though it feels like it’s the same day you check the calendar and it’s an entire month later!  Does this even remotely sound familiar to anyone?!

I am still having a hard time believe it’s already January!  Our little family has had some pretty crazy moments over here lately… both awesome and awkward ones!  We tend to usually be a little more awkward than others but sometimes our awkward moments are the ones we love the best.  I think that’s part of the reason Tuck fell in love with me… because I am so lovingly awkward and goofy!  Great thing Linc is also just the same adorably weirdly awkward person like his mama!  Oh the poor girl that falls in love with him!

Awesome:

  • Linc still talking about how “the magic happened!”  Every. Single. Day.  To multiple people, anywhere and everywhere.  It doesn’t matter who you are, or where we are.  If you look friendly enough or open enough to receive his magical message, he will tell you all about the magic that happened at our house over the holidays.  His best re-tellings are in the grocery store, with his hands full of the grape bag spoils!
  • Our carpet cleaner that we bought!  It’s no joke, it’s a legit carpet cleaner machine and I love it so.  It’s not a product, it’s a full on plug into a wall and suck up, wet it down clean the carpets machine!  It may not be exciting to you out there on the web right now, but when you have a toddler that LOVES smashing his goldfish crackers into cookie monster’s open mouth and forcing him to munch those little fish, it’s a genius!  Plus Linc can jump in some puddles like no other and his rain boots are his favorite little shoes right now so that cleaner is a mud buster!  I’m super stoked on it and you better believe it makes me happy!
  • Tuck has some exciting things going on right in his world!  Things we’ve been thinking really hard about and praying about.  We are still working on some things but for right now, we are just excited to see some pretty nice developments and think of possibilities!  (I know I know it’s a little secretive and cryptic!)
  • 2015 photography season is already booking and that’s AMAZING!  Mind. Blown!  BOOM!
  • Potty training!  And the fact that daddy is rocking the training out like a rock star!!!  Tuck has fully taken this on and I have to say, he’s been fantastic.  I give him ALL the credit for this huge milestone in our lives!  Well that and the fact that all of a sudden one day Linc decided he wanted to wear his “undaweahs” and that was that!
  • Potty training and rain boots!  Enough said!  That’s it.  Some days it’s all we wear (and all we do!)  We might wear a shirt, but that’s pressing it!

Awkward:

  • Linc likes to get out of his bed at night and this is a new development.  We don’t even make it a few feet when we hear him jump out of his little bed, flip the light on and start moving all his friends and blankets to the corner of his door.  He likes to make a little nest in the nook of his door jam and then fall asleep there.  It was really cute at first, and Tuck and I started to wait it out and then go upstairs (snap a quick pic to document his cuteness) and then scoop him back into bed.  Now it’s a bit awkward because we are wondering why he likes to do this!  It’s every. single. time!  If you follow us on instagram, you will see his nightly pictures there.  It’s really cute but I think people are going to start to wonder if he has a bed at all!  (Which he does and it’s awesome!  It’s a dune buggy guys!)
  • Potty training!   Ok so it is awesome and Linc is really good at it!  What’s awkward is having to bring the little “to go” potty everywhere we go right now.  He’s super particular about his toilets!  If you happen to be going out with me probably this next month or so, just be warned that there will be a small portable toilet in the back of my car!  Could be helpful on a photography session!  “You never know when you could have the go…” isn’t that the saying?
  • SO also on the potty training front:  the small toilet in the center of our living room!  If you aren’t around little ones, that could be a bit awkward for you.  That and our stripper toddler right now!  Boys will be boys!  He’s not scared!
  • When you are in the grocery store and your toddler tells the nice elderly lady next to you that “mommy can’t sing!”  Yep!  That happened!  And the next sentence… “Mommy does big tooties!”  Ohhh the mouth of babes!

I’ll just leave you with that last one there!

Hope you all are having a wonderful week!

TOMORROW:  BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!    Be sure to check the blog tomorrow for a big announcement!  If you are a family, you will definitely be interested… trust me!!!!

xo

Hey…we love our awkwardness over here!  Thank you Elizabeth Friske for always capturing us for who we are!  We love ALL our moments… the good, the awkward and the pee pants ones!  Some families are naturally gorgeous and tender and loving and beautiful.  Our family:  we’re weird, an awkward and a bunch of crazies.  Just ask Linc!  But that’s why we all fit together so well!

Love who you are… embrace who you are and let it shine!

  • January 6, 2015 - 10:47 pm

    Elizabeth - Love you and your awkwardness!! This time it was the pee pee pants dance and last time was the no pants dance! Xo!ReplyCancel

Happy Monday guys!!!

Can you believe it’s already January 5?!  This weekend flew by and actually I feel like all the weeks are flying by lately!

All this time moving so quickly has really made me want to just hit the pause button and slow things down a bit.

At night lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot on the past year and working on my goals for the next 12 months.  I’m a person that likes to have goals.  I always like to feel like I’m working towards something and constantly growing as a person.  Tuck is the opposite… he likes to appreciate the process.  We actually were joking about this just the other night as I whined about him laying with me on the couch and “let’s have a deep conversation”.

I’ve been taking my time coming up with my goals this year and really thinking about what worked this past year and what didn’t… both personally and professionally!

One thing I noticed and I think isn’t quite ever mentioned enough is the support that is needed from your loved one and partner!

If I could choose one thing that is essential to make a small business continue to grow and succeed:  it’s the support from your loved one and partner!

Amanda Hedgepeth talks a lot about this in her blog here!  If you haven’t read this post yet, it’s kind of amazing!  Her husband Mike even weighs in and his words are really powerful!

I feel like sometimes I take Tuck’s support for granted.  I think sometimes we small business owner’s take our love one’s support when they give it freely like they do, and then forget how much that support means!

I can say with 100% certainty that I would have put my camera down and stopped pursuing this dream without Tucks encouragement.

He picks me up and teaches me about smart business practices almost weekly!

He bends his own work schedule around so that I can go out on sessions without having to worry about who is taking care of Linc.  He never questions me or makes me feel the slightest bit guilty about it.

If he notices that I’m getting restless or feeling “stuck”  he often suggests I go out and scout out new locations or shoot for fun. He just gets it!

There are times when I worry if my balance is OK or if it’s getting off.  We’ve had an extremely busy year in 2014 and I am eternally grateful for that!  There were times though, when I worried that I wasn’t spending enough “down time” with just Tuck.  We had family time but Tuck and I didn’t get a lot of time just the two of us, and that was hard especially because he had just returned from a deployment.  Those nights that I worried, Tuck would sit on the couch in my office and talk with me while I edited images.  He knew that sometimes just being in the same room together would make me feel better.

I know that I am one extremely lucky girl to have a husband that supports me completely and unconditionally like this!

I know that this always ins’t the case.

I know because it wasn’t until I went on a mentoring session with Katelyn James and she pointed it out to me how lucky I am to have someone that supports me like this!  I thought about that on the drive home from her house and realized that I don’t often extend the same to Tuck.

I have loved my time with him and our family so much this past year (and especially the years before that) that I have been extremely selfish.  I don’t often allow him to pursue his passions with as much love and care as he allows me to do with photography.

It’s a very sad thing!

Our passions are a huge part of us, it’s a part of why our loved ones fell in love with us in the first place.  Our passions help define us and shape us!

If we don’t encourage one another to develop those passions and go after them (whatever they might be) then we can’t say we are truly loving one another!

So for this year:  make it one of your goals to support your loved one!  It’s the biggest most loving thing you can do for them!

It will mean more to them than any other one thing you can or could provide!

One of my biggest goals this year is to give the same amount of unconditional support to Tuck as he does to me!  He’s kind of an amazing husband and I’ve been kind of a selfish wife… hopefully I can learn a few things from him this year in that department 😉