one of a kind.

haven't really shared anything lately, although i have so many photos to share. and i guess thoughts and things to share as well. 

but i've been busy just not wanting to share anything at all, if that makes sense.

i've just been working at school work, and doing some with my photography business as well.

not been in the best of moods either.

trying to hang on and learn and grow and keep it together, but it is hard for me.

that's putting it mildly, hah.

but here's a little photo of our littlest, who i always call "teeny boy".

he is such a teeny boy, he just feels so little and teeny and special and warm.

he has the craziest little spirit and takes a lot of energy to deal with some days, or most days rather.

 lately,  i have just been noticing all the special things about him.

i thank God for blessing us with this little teeny boy who

has these spunky little qualities about him that came from who knows where.

i thank God for asher's surprises and specialness.

he is truly
 one of a kind.

happy friday.

  so far today has been filled with morning coffee + waffles + photo editing, haircuts + baths for the babes ( + ross of course ), an attempt at a photoshoot with the boys outside that ended in everyone cranky, shipping my lens back from borrowed lenses + hoping that mine will be fixed soon,  andgreen tea + homework at the coffee shop.

now i'm preparing myself for the next 24 hours which I always hate because aaron works 17 hours and I'm whiny and pathetic as ever every weekend when he does. 

here's to hoping you all have a good weekend

and that I will survive (as I always do) until tomorrow evening!

roman + ross.

roman right now:

always wearing a scarf and gloves, even inside.

carrying "ross" (his stuffed dog) around everywhere with him.

reading his new bible at night with mama.

playing basketball outside with daddy and asher.

looking through the pages of calvin and hobbes.

eating with chopsticks.

jumping on the beds and jumping off the ledges in the living room.

saying "i don't want asher to grow up!"

yelling out, "halloween!" whenever we pass halloween decorations.

just being our little halloween-loving, growing-every-day, unique + creative little boy

and making us smile everyday :)

life right now.

 

we are in our new house now. some things are unpacked, a lot of things aren't. i feel a bit  overwhelmed because i have realized that we have too much junk and it bothers me. i mean my dream is to live in a one room teepee or a tiny tree house, but my reality is that i live in a three bedroom home filled with boxes upon boxes of STUFF that has nowhere to go but that i somehow feel the need to hold onto. sigh. comparatively we live very minimally and my husband and i feel very strongly about not owning lots of stuff. however, we have TOO much. i feel overwhelmed and stuck in our unpacking venture right now. blah. i took these photos of the boys a couple weeks ago before we took a family walk to the park. it was a very fun family fall-ish night. stress levels have gone down significantly by living in town. ahh the beauty of quick trips to the store! 

 

and in further news, my little ashey-pie was featured on spearmintbaby which made my day, so check it out!

4.

you have no idea how many times i have ideas for photos and i wait too long and the flowers die or the field changes. everything beautiful out  in the country is only the same for an instant and then everything is changing, changing.
but i caught the soybeans at just the right time while they were golden yellow,  a little bit green still but also turning brown. and i caught roman in a good mood right after asher fell asleep for his nap, and he told me i could take a few photos of him across the street. the soybean field has now completely changed to brown, and our little four year old is ever so quickly growing and changing as well, his "4" shirt is just a little too short in the arms and he looks a little too much like a big boy since i gave his hair a little trim last week. luckily, he is still wonderfully little and cuddles and kisses and hugs and melts my mama heart each day.

baby curls.

just a little pre-haircut memory from a few weeks ago :)

then + now.

(asher + mama, september 2011)

(asher + mama september 2012)

a lot has changed since last fall when we moved into this house. but a lot is still the same.
a little newborn has learned to sit and stand and crawl and walk and turned into a toddler.
 our little peachy three year old has become an artist, a super hero, a tee ball player and has also turned four.
and aaron and i have gained another year as parents and as partners to each other.
 and now it's time to move on and move all our stuff with us to a new house. and a year from now, who knows where we'll be ;)

flashback.

(roman, 2009)

it seems like just yesterday it was this guy who was my little toddler running around. and asher was just a name and a dream in a notebook somewhere. i'm realizing just how different your first and second baby really are. at least it has been different for me. when roman was a toddler, he was my only and my everything. we lived in a one bedroom apartment and everything had a place. we took little adventures together, taking photos, going to the park, walking to daddy's work, picking dandelions and putting them in a basket. life was so much slower and roman was our world and our every moment. looking back i feel like i was just a girl playing house.

with the second baby, i feel like we are a real family and there are all sorts of real life family things going on. asher doesn't get every moment of my attention and it's going by super super fast. last night i took asher to the grocery by myself. i hardly ever go anywhere with just him. it was nice to be able to focus on my asher. it was so sweet to look at my second baby, sitting in the cart, wearing his brother's hand me downs and jibber jabbering away. later, asher and i spent some more alone time together while aaron + roman went to town. i gave him his first haircut in the bath and we playing with a little car together. i was so thankful for this time with my littlest. sometimes it is unsettling to me that i don't get to spend all my attention on asher like i was able to with roman for three years. i feel the need for everything to slow down so that i can get it all right, all these memories and moments. so yesterday it was nice to take a time out from everything family and have a few moments alone with  my littlest. to remember how special and perfect and wonderful he is, and how much i longed and wanted and waited for him.

roman.

just a little roman love...

life right now.

everything is back to "busy" around our house. however, our version of busy isn't terribly busy in comparison - so for that i am grateful.

summer is officially over, in a way. the weather is still mostly warm which is good because i can't bear to think about winter, christmas, thanksgiving, halloween, snow, ice, space heaters, coats,  boots, socks or anything related to COLD. there have been some sweaters and long-sleeved shirts here and there, and it's hard to admit but i've somewhat enjoyed it. hopefully by the time winter comes i will feel better prepared for it. and maybe not living in the middle of nowhere in a huge terribly cold farmhouse will help.

aaron and i have been back in school for 2 weeks now. there has been lots of whining, but also some happiness on both ends. we both feel a little more motivated this year. there is just more peace and clarity in our decisions right now and we have bigger goals and plans and priorities in mind. not to say that we have it all figured out in the least. i'm taking one class on campus this semester and one online. the best part about my on campus class is that aaron and the boys have taken me both weeks so far! i am so happy about that because i love long drives with my family and my coffee. (our school is over an hour away.)

there are homeschooling books all over the place. (i'll mention our start back to homeschooling another day.) we finally went to the library in the little town we live in (usually we go to the one in another town nearby) - and i was nicely surprised with it! i get to a point where i feel like i've read every book of interest in a library, so it is always nice to find a new one :)

we are moving sooner than later.  leaving behind all these pretty painted walls with nice lighting pouring in the windows and all the corn and soy bean fields makes my heart cringe. our new house has an adorable upstairs with white walls and wood floors and it has lots of trees and a woodsy feel - so that is good. and i like change. i actually LIKE moving. so for those reasons i am excited and happy.

these photos were taken at the end of july, the evening before asher's birthday at our neighbor's wood pile. i love how they are doing almost the exact same thing in these photos, it weirds me out when that happens. i guess they are truly brothers. and in just over a month they have already grown a little older and longer and bigger. sigh.

happy weekend.

many wishes for a weekend filled with cardboard box rocket ships, 

baby blond curls 

and rediculously cute little faces to you all!

grilling out + roman photos.

just some photos i took a couple weeks ago when we were waiting at the park to grill out with aaron's parents...
asher growing big and tall,

 baby bed hair

and asher and daddy hanging out. i always love how those two look together :)

roman didn't make an appearance in my photos that day, but he did agree to take some photos of asher and i in front of the silos that are across the street from our house.

we always try to keep roman awake on our way home by saying, "whoever sees the silos first wins!." i don't even know how many times we've said that phrase along with, "do you see the silos?" keeping roman awake is always a challenge and if he naps - it's a nightmare at night. it's so sweet because now he always pretends that he doesn't see the silos to give us a chance to "win" or he says, "the whole family wins!" love that little voice in the backseat. i still always think of the house we lived in when he turned two and how his teeny little 2 year old voice sounded when he said, "we're home!" from the backseat  as we pulled in. :) these little memories are some of the best for sure.

brothers.

bath time :)

little.

"you can always call me little, but i won't always be little."

this is what roman said to me the other night and it broke my heart as motherhood always does. these photos were taken a while back and they definately capture a little bit of the sweetness that is roman. his namaw and papaw bought this curious george for him on his second Christmas and that round little sweet monkey face reminded me just of roman as a toddler. he has certainly already grown since these photos were taken in june. another summer has passed leaving him a little bigger. but he is still  just as sugary sweet and precious to me as the day he was born. and he still has that bright shining round smiling face. i'm thankful that i can always call him little,

 and i'm thankful that today he still is.

end of summer + computer photos.

we've totally been immersed in and enjoying the end of our summer and also the end of our life here in our country home. i just haven't been taking photos, haven't been working out, and have been spending more time just soaking in summer and the days at home with my littles.

 life lately has been full of cleaning and organizing like a maniac, beginning to pack, signing a lease on our new  house in town that is tucked away just enough to make us feel like we aren't in town (thank goodness for my husband's fantastic house finding abilities), deciding on classes for the fall (i STILL have yet to register...), swirling ideas for romey's homeschool going on in my head constantly, joking around with roman and hearing all his wonderful plans for his "school" that he is creating, watching asher change from a baby to a toddler in a blink of an eye, cudding with aaron as the weather slowly is changing to fall.

and slowly accepting the change of it all ;)

time with my oldest boy during asher's nap.

and i had to include this one of asher when he fell asleep on my shoulder :)