Our halloween

Hello all!  We had a wonderful Halloween this year!  We had friends over and celebrated Daniel's 40th birthday.  We had a much needed relaxing - family - fun - and friendship, no stress kind of day and evening.  Yes, much needed indeed.














Hope yours was wonderful too!  Have a exciting, adventuresome, creative weekend!

First day of school - 2013

Today was officially our first day back at school.  Or should I say school(s)!  We're in three different schools this year and four buses.  Yep, this is a family that loves challenges I say!  After the last bus came and went and once back inside and dishes and kitchen were cleaned, I found Nathaniel busy with his block activity, he loves putting things into containers.





Seeing him play like that made me think of this moment from 7 years ago when I got back home from taking my now 6th grade middle schooler to Junior Kindergarten for the first time.

First day of school - 2006




I remember there was this strange quietness in the air as the siblings who are left behind got lost in play.  I can now feel my heart sink a little lower in my chest.  Its not often that we stop long enough to sit in these moments, there is so much hustle and bustle going on in our homes that sometimes its hard to feel the tenderness.  These little ones are growing up so fast.  Hopefully the butterflies went away quickly for everyone who was a little more worried than usual this morning.  Its all so normal.  I'll sit and anxiously await each of their arrivals this afternoon.  I'll hear their stories, laugh with them about their day, share a snack and enjoy our reunion for the evening.  The first day back to school . . . its glorious I say! 

First day of school - 2006



First day of school - 2013 - today!

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from my week.  I want to pause and savor this moment. 

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from my week.  I want to pause and savor this moment. 

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from my week.  I want to pause and savor this moment. 

Portraits of my children

Whenever I can capture the essence of my children with my camera, I am delighted!  There are times when I view my world as through a camera lens, I can see the pictures before I ever see them on screen or paper.  It can be frustrating to me when the camera isn't seeing what I see for whatever reason, the lighting might not be strong enough for the camera, or it might be too strong, or the pictures come out blurry from the movement of the child.  These days, it’s rare for me to be able to capture that special millisecond of time because of all of the demands, but it certainly is special when I do.  Sometimes it comes from a child calling my attention, other times I happen to be a part of the action and can see the photo unfold right before my eyes. 

I love portrait photography.  It tells a story without words, it has emotion, it has meaning.  It’s like carrying that one moment into eternity; that one moment that gets frozen forever.  It’s that special. 

Last night I had one of those moments.  The story goes like this.  Elise comes up to me telling me about this bee costume she made, I look up from the computer and know instantly to go grab the camera.  She had cut and pasted bee antenaes and wings, found the perfect yellow shirt from her drawer, attached a stinger, she had thought of everything.  Out the door we went to get the right amount of lighting and click click click.  The photo I was most proud of was captured towards the end as we were wrapping up our little session.  She happened to look up at the sky and there is was, that was amazing.  Intuitively, I had an a-ha moment and snap, I got it.  Now I have a wonderful little memory of these 5 minutes spent reveling her little homemade costume, and grateful I took the time to make a big deal of her creativity.   

It's his turn

It seems like only yesterday that I was introducing you all to our newest guy in the family.  He’s been with us already for a whole year.  I’m stunned.  This has been the fastest year of my life.  He’s a joyful little bundle, loves to be held, loves to play with all his siblings and loves to say his first word, "good!" 

This birthday celebration I wanted to keep simple.  Simple in a 7 person family kinda way.  I picked a rainbow theme, bright and definitely cheerful and is he.  I was coming up empty handed as far as a handmade mama gift, so last minute I headed over to Good-Will and purchased a large men's tie-dye t-shirt to sew him a pair of pants for the party!



Party production was at its finest in the wee hours the night before!  Sewing, and cake decorating made for quite the memories, was so glad to get the machine back out again, it had been far too long.

We had an amazing day!  Everything came together perfectly for his first little birthday.  So many memories were made that day, I'll never forget how he ate his cake and how he played outside, how nice it was to have family over and relax and enjoy the day in a non-stress kind of way.  We're so grateful for this little guy, his sweet, and charming personality.

Happy 1st Birthday Nathaniel Gene!
xoxo,
Mama