Yearly Archives: 2015

There isn’t anything more beautiful than the sun rising over the ocean on a warm breezy and peaceful morning… except when you can enjoy it with THIS family!!!

To say I am honored to know them is an understatement!  To say that I adore my time with them is just silly because it goes far beyond and greater than that!

I’ve known Berkley for as long as I can remember.  Her older brother and I have been in the same classes since elementary school and so we all grew up together!  We’ve pretty  much been IN each other’s business for soo long now that it’s fun and funny at the same time!  We were able to reconnect through this wonderful world of photography and images and family portraits and I can’t honestly thank my lucky start enough!

Berkley’s family is undeniably the definition of awesome!  Her WHOLE family!  The family she was born into, the family she has created for herself and the family she has cultivated in her friendships!

When I think about the Lifetime Experience and when I speak from my heart about wanting to BE this lifetime photographer… Berkley always comes to my mind!  She probably always will for so many reasons:  to many to list and too many to explain!

All these though are why when we sit down and come together for a family session, I find myself just lost in it!

Our yearly portrait session this year happened to be a matter of we need to do this now so when can it happen fast so Alex could travel and go and be amazing!  So she could spread her wings a bit and learn and intern and show the world who she is and make her mark!  This girl folks, not only is she stunningly beautiful but she is SMART (all caps kind of smart) and she is going to change the world with that and she’s already doing it as I type right now!  I have no doubt about it.  So this session you see here turned into a beautifully early sunrise session!

A session where it may have chosen them initially, but it was completely meant to be!

It was a beautiful and even though early it was still a lazy kind of morning once everyone arrived and we claimed our little piece of sunrise beach!  There were some interesting people we met along our way but that just added to our fun and playfulness of the morning!

In true nature of how this family rolls all the time, we just played and laughed and relaxed!  It was a morning filled with fun!  A morning filled with lots of laughter and sandy frosting kisses!

A morning that is so perfect for where this family is in this season…

Here are a few of my favorites from our morning on the beach together!

Ohhh girlfriend… these curls kill me!!!

Girlfriend right after my own heart….

And my most favorite…

Monday is HERE…. and I kind of feel like it should already be Wednesday!  My days are all mixed up and sorted around!  I feel like I’m in a Bond movie except I’m inside the drink that’s been shaken, not stirred!

Anyone who was with me yesterday, will laugh and understand that joke!  Everyone else it’s ok if you don’t laugh or even understand why that’s even a joke!

FIRST:  I just want to say a GIANT thank you for all your support, encouragement, shares and comments on The Motherhood Journals!!  I am truly overwhelmed and in awe by the stories you have shared with me and all the love and how many of you want to share and be a part of this!  These Journals were created FOR YOU and it is because of you that we will truly be able to create a community for each other and really be able to lift one another up!!!  THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

This weekend was CRAZZZZ-YYYY!  In the best ways possible!  Today I’m exhausted and I can barely  move!  I feel like my bones and my muscles are about 120 years old and I’m walking like it which makes for some interesting conversations with my neighbors!

This weekend was chock full of events and I barely saw my family but it’s weekend’s like these that make me appreciate them all the more!  The boys had an entire weekend to themselves and they played hard!  Linc was spoiled with outdoor time, ice cream dates with daddy, and grocery shopping that included no structure and lots of random junk food in the carts!  They had squirt gun fights and tub times filled with too much water and over the top splashing!  I love it when they can have time like this just to themselves because Linc and I always have so much time one on one and it’s so dear to my heart!  I want Tuck to have those same precious moments, moments that are just his that he shares with his son… no girls allowed kind of moments that both of them can remember years from now when time has seemed to pass by all too quickly!

So while the boys were at play, I was spending my time with an incredible family welcoming in a beautiful new bright spirit and little girl!

I will never ever get over how amazing, wonderful, beautiful, blessed, honored, thankful and a million other words I could say but will never do justice to every emotion in my heart about how truly and seriously grateful I am to be allowed to wake up each morning and participate in these moments with these families of mine!

Ashley and Joe have trusted me and have allowed me the pleasure and honor of being a part of this entire journey with them from the second they found out they were pregnant all the way through the anticipation of being induced and the arrival of their sweet little girl and Wavelry’s baby sister!

This friends is exactly what it means when I say I WANT to be your lifetime photographer!  How amazing is it that I get to be there for the first few moments when you find out your pregnant, when you decide to share it with your family and friends, as your experiencing pregnancy and getting to know your little one as you wait for them, and then when you meet them for the first time!!!

Let me just say ya’ll… I cried!  I cried so many times from Thursday until her birth on Saturday morning!  That’s all I’m going to say because I don’t want to spoil the actual blog post that I will be honored to write soon!

But ya’ll truly, I just don’t have words!

So… I came home Saturday evening a changed momma!  I just did!  Then I crashed hard on Saturday night early and woke up early again Sunday to attend an advanced training for Body Flow instructors.  What was I thinking?  10 hours of AIM Body Flow after not much sleep and an already exhausted body… I’m hard core ya’ll!  Once again though, it rocked my world and I came home Sunday evening a changed person!

So lessons learned friends…

  • Every time I shoot a birth, I come home wanting more babies!  When I’m behind my camera in that room, what I see is all the love that brought you to the laboring!  I see the hands gripping each other soo tight!  I see the unconditional love and determination from the mom’s willing to do ANYTHING for their children before even having laid eyes on them.
  • I see women who are selfless and giving saying already before having laid eyes on their baby, touched their baby, kissed their son or daughter, loving them before themselves and over themselves!
  • I realized this weekend that I am so much more than a situational crier!  haha I am a think about it, feel it, look at me and I cry.  I guess that’s called a drop of the hat crier!  If I had a super power or possessed any kind of magic I think I would be an empath!  (yes please forgive me I like magic and I’m a total nerd!)
  • Going to that Body Flow training changed me as a person and I was only there for 10 hours… what is going to happen if I go to a full weekend event?!
  • The power of listening, like actual listening, in today’s world has a profound effect!  We need as a culture to learn to quiet ourselves a little more and be present and listen.  That means being fully present when someone is talking!  We do this by focusing on THEM… not planning what we are going to say next to them, not thinking about how THEY are perceiving US, not thinking about ANYTHING else except what they are saying!  It’s actually extremely hard to do sometimes but we need to practice it more often to help further the human connection!  Try it out today!
  • REAL eye contact is rare but it’s amazing when you receive it along with meaningful listening!
  • Finding balance in our lives is all about finding a good pace and then allowing ourselves to move in and out of that pace!  I notice I’m out of balance when my car is a wreck… so this morning instead of rushing in and getting to work and crossing things off my to do list;  I cleaned my car!  I feel much better about everything around me!  Now I can tackle my to do list… and yes I’m a bit odd and awkward!  But at least I have a clean car and de-cluttered mind!

Lot’s of really fun things coming up this week:  A super fun sun rise session filled with bubbles and donuts and sandy toes!

There’s also a little bit of this coming your way too…

Happy Monday!

Are you ready…. because there are times that I feel I might burst from my heart ready to introduce this very special project of mine to you!

Am I ready?! because this is something that has my full heart and I’ve waited so long wanting it to be so perfect, but that’s just it REAL and NOW is better than perfect ever will be!

It all began one night while Tuck and I were doing the dishes!  I had been praying to the Lord to use me for His purpose!  I love photography and after sharing my story with postpartum depression I had begun to realize that there was a deeper meaning and pull with my photography;  there was a way that I could use it and connect it with my love for mother’s and this crazy unconditional love/bond we have with our children.  I had been praying and hoping and needing to serve a greater purpose:  HIS purpose.

It hit me drying dishes one night:  all my prayers and askings hit me with one answer:  document that bond and those stories, ALL OF THEM!  Document them in a way that is raw and real and through the words of mother’s themselves… all mothers in every stage of motherhood!  Let them tell their stories as you have told yours and allow them to see the beauty in their journey so far.  Let them hold those stories with images of their family that are candid and beautiful and in their own definition of who they are as mother’s.  And in the end, put each story together side by side in a beautiful legacy for each mother to hold anytime she needs!  Bring these mother’s together in a way that can be shared again and again and passed on for future generations to share and grow and lean on!

The Motherhood Journals

As mother’s our beauty is unmatched!  I believe it comes from somewhere so deep and shines so bright from within that it can’t help but shine on the outside as well!  Our true beauty comes from our ability to love so unconditionally and so selflessly!  Even in the depths of exhaustion and sleepless nights, temper tantrums and last minute ‘to do’s that crop up out of nowhere… we are breath takingly beautiful with or without our makeup!  We don’t ever need to have the perfect hair, the perfect clothes or outfit and our mascara could always be running but to those around us we will always be radiant and stunning!

We are Mothers:  we hold treasures and secrets that know no value!  Our hearts are heavy with love that we never knew could possibly exist!  They ache and break and love all at the same time!

We have stories to tell about adventures, success, challenges, wins and sometimes such heart break that doesn’t seem fathomable!

Stories that should be brought to life and honored!  Stories that should be celebrated!  Stories that should be heard and documented so that it might live on and be passed on to other mothers!

Stories that could build a community and have purpose!

This is the goal of the Motherhood Journals!

Let’s share our stories!  Let’s celebrate our love and our connect our hearts!

Let’s celebrate our wins together and share in our victories and adventures!  Let’s cheer for one another and get to know each other on a real level, a raw level that is vulnerable and says… this is me and this is my story!

To honor this, even though you know me and most my story I wanted to kick us off!

Each Journal Entry comes with a lifestyle session!  A RAW lifestyle session!  I want these to mean something to you so we would discuss what or when you feel is the most meaningful moments in motherhood to you!  What you feel at this time are the most special everyday motherhood moments!  For me it only made sense that I would feel the most at home playing in the mud with Linc.  It’s something we do every day and it’s something I cherish and will always remember.  God placed this little boy into my life so that I would learn more about myself, the world, how to love and how to serve!  He knew being Lincoln’s mother would teach me how to be a better human being and He gave me the best gift by giving me this little human!  Our time in the mud is the time where I can appreciate this little boy the most for all that he is and at night when I lay in bed, I thank the Lord for those sweet moments of messy play!

So with the exception of telling my story because I have told it so often and this is not about me today… here is a sneak about what a Journal Entry would look like…

 

 

 

If you are interested in being a part of The Motherhood Journals and sharing YOUR story and helping to create a community of mother’s who are real, raw and inspiring…

please don’t hesitate to contact me   BROOKETUCKERPHOTO@GMAIL.COM

 

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

  • June 6, 2015 - 12:05 am

    Emily - ummmmm you’re amazing and I need to meet you!!! I love this!!!!ReplyCancel