The Motherhood Journals | Brandi’s Story

” My mother…she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel.  I want to grow old and be like her.”  – Jodi Picoult

These words, written on the pages of novels so beautifully by one of my favorite authors couldn’t describe this gorgeous mama any better!

Brandi is stunning both on the inside and out!  When you meet her, especially in her role as momma, she instantaneously takes your breath away!

Her patience is unrivaled and her imagination brings a world of magic and merriment for her two littles that I know will continue even into their adult lives when they are having children of their own!

Brandi is a mother of two:  BK and M!  She is a wedding/event planner by day and by night she is the creator of fairy tales and dreams for her family of four!

She is beloved by every single person she meets and she is the kind of woman that the second you meet her, you know you’ve earned a friend for life!  Kind can’t hold a candle to describing who she is in her heart and she has passed that on to her little girl in a fierce way!

She and I have been talking about her motherhood session for a while!  It’s a session I’ve been dreaming about actually!  There are so many ways that I thought we could shoot her session, but Brandi surprised me and just wanted a quiet morning at home.  These mornings are her place, where the whole family is gathered and it’s a sleepy/lazy kind of morning!  It’s those mornings we all cherish as momma’s… there is nothing required and nothing to do except just BE together and enjoy one another’s company.  There’s no rushing or hustling!

It’s these type of sessions that I truly feel blessed!  In these moments, where I just get to sit with Brandi on her bed and talk real talk, one on one, and truly hear her heart!  We get to cry a little bit together as we realize as mother’s and as women we have so much in common.  We have so many hopes that are the same and so many wishes!  That although we have different backgrounds, we have the same heart.

It’s these sessions here when I just sit back and allow the families to forget I’m there that I feel my heart swell and realize what a gift they are given me by allowing me to capture such raw and true images!

On this special yet no special morning, we made a breakfast of the best kind… bacon!  We enjoyed some one on one time dancing to Mickey with little M who’s big boy first year birthday was right around the corner.  We snuck upstairs to wake up big sister and then we enjoyed a little cake!  I watched as Brandi and her husband S worked their magic in their house with love, patience, kindness and a quiet that I have never seen before.  It was a comfort that even I felt wrap it’s arms around me and invite me in!

We eventually made our way… with little baby fingers and toes covered in chocolate to the bath tub filled with bubbles and this is where Brandi told me her story!

So please… in her own beautiful words, met my loving friend Brandi!

 Dear Brooklyn and Maddox:

Today was an ordinary day. Brooklyn Grace was in a tutu, Maddox danced to Mickey Mouse. We had bacon for breakfast. Daddy and I tag teamed the whole routine because we were lucky to catch him on a day home. Most of your days will be normal, breakfasts before you wake up, slow mornings, home cooked meals, lots of snuggles, spontaneous dance parties, but SOOOO much love. That’s it, that is all I want you to remember, our love.

That mommy and daddy literally would have laid down for you. I hope that you’ll remember how mommy was always trying to get us to read, and throw silly celebrations, and never turned us from her bed at night. I hope that you’ll remember how daddy loved wrestling and gangster rap, that he was crazy in shape, that he always made mommy kiss him even when she was mad, and he had silly, silly jokes.
But most of all, I just hope, I hope that you know that you (brooklyn and maddox) are our end all be all.

You rise our sun and set our moon, there is no life without you. The parties for writing your first sentence or going peepee on the potty, those will fade. We just want you to know that you are truly the best jewels in our life. Without you mommy and daddy would feel incomplete. We love you so.

XO

*I stayed with Brandi and her family as their read their book on the couch and M fell asleep in Brandi’s arms.  I stayed in their warm house that was full of so much love and comfort and joy!  It’s always the smallest of details (like their winter bucket list taped to their fridge of fun things to do) that make the most in a family’s life!  It’s in the way that S allows BK to pour and crack the eggs into the pan for breakfast no matter if she spills or makes a mess!  Heck… that’s all the more fun!  It’s these little things that Brandi’s littles WILL remember and pass along to their children and so on.  The way that Brandi and Stephen didn’t care about a mess and let them enjoy being kids.  It’s the way they were loved and allowed to have dance parties!  It’s the way they were encouraged to be who they are and allowed to wear tutu’s to the park and eat bacon with wild abandon!

These are the memories we hold so dear!  The silly bath time kisses and toothbrush smiles!  The stories on the couch and the way that mom and dad look every day and look at us as children every day!

Thank yo u Brandi for sharing your heart!  Thank you for being so brave and bold and real!  Thank you for letting me come in to your morning during such a precious time!

I am blessed beyond measure to know you!

xo