happy thoughts.

some happy thoughts of late:

the sweet things about this little boy:

when he plays "baby",

when he acts all dramatically adorable during the times when he actually lets me photograph him,

early mornings when he is all sticky sweet and rolls all over me squeaking, "hi mama"s at me.

when he is sad in his car seat and all he wants is to "cuggle" (cuddle) and kiss and hug.
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finding old mama/baby photos like these.

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photo shoots that turn out all dreamy and wonderful.

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freshly washed baby hair and finally fitting into a thrifted treasure that i bought for him when i still couldn't imagine him ever growing this big.

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many mountain adventures with these guys. :)
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an early morning starbucks and cloudy park date with my littles.
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soft skin, natural light, his favorite shirt.
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roman taking to heart and showing off to us after i keep telling him how adventurous he is.
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and these brothers, of course. always trying to make me grow as a person, even when i don't feel up for it. :)

happy thoughts.

well, it's a new week!

things are changing slowly around here... we've still been busy doing a whole lot of nothing, but also hiking a ton in the mountains which has been absolutely won.der.ful. in every way. :)

we're getting ready to head to my grandparents' house for another couple days of yard work. aaron will probably be starting his new job this week or next. i have a photo shoot coming up this weekend. i have been busy scouring homeschool curriculums and trying to put some plans in place for roman's kindergarten this fall.

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 amidst all of that, i wanted to stop in and share some miscellaneous photos from recently and some of the little "happy thoughts" in our lives right now :)

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two little faces and four little hands with chubby fingers to adore.

also, it kills me that roman love to wear my t-shirts to bed right now. ;)

 ( yes, i know they have mullets. this was pre-haircuts! )

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these crazy curls, and this soft, smooth, cuddly little baby boy of mine.

i always hate to trim his hair, but as you can see it gets a little out of control. ;)

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asher's spider obsession. 

he literally LOVES this little collection of "piders" as he calls them. he has all these little games he plays with them and i love when he says, "where pider?" or "he nice!" while petting the big tarantula. it kills me that asher is getting big enough for these things. i still think of him as the little baby padding around, but here is now-  packing up roman's hand-me-down backpack with his favorite toys.
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summer beauty.
now that i really think about it, i am definitely not ready for fall.. and surely not winter. how will i be able to survive without all the sunflowers and sunshine?

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asher eating a quesadilla on the counter,

colorful bowls + great natural light.

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that's it for now ;) what are your happy things?

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would you take a minute and vote for me?

brothers.

during the turmoil that was today - aaron reminded me that,

"nothing lasts forever."

it's true that someday soon, asher and roman will be able to play together more nicely. i have no doubt that these two boys will be partners in their imagination and will have all sorts of joyful play together for a stretch of many years. 

but today? today, i am happy to have a 5 year old and an almost 2 year old.

i love that i can still plop them up on the cement blocks at the end of our driveway and take pictures of them.

i feel lucky that they are still so small and so cute,

and i know that by having each other, they are learning lots and lots about love.

happy friday.

(november 2012)

i love this photo where roman popped in front of my lens while i was trying to take pictures of asher.

goodness they grow too fast! their nice haircuts here may be part of it!

today is lazy and whiny so far.

asher has thrown a can of pop which exploded on the floor,

taken his diaper off and peed on the floor,

and then decided to eat his lunch off the floor.

my poor carpets - please don't tell the landlord...

happy friday!!

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teddy bear.

ok, so these are obviously old, but i think that they are too special to never share.
i have so many photos of this boy, of these boys of mine.
and they sit on my computer. or on disks. or on flashdrives. and my computer is jam stuffed FULL,
 it always is.
lightroom has 16,000 photos on it right now. as usual.
i have client sessions backed up all over the place in no particular order.
i am a disorganized mess. with random photo albums + half started projects here and there and everywhere.
with all these photos, yet none on my wall.
with visions and dreams of what to do with them, but never really doing much...
honestly it stresses me out sometimes.
 but in reality, it doesn't really matter. at all.
i kind of like being a disorganized mess - thank you very much.
and at the end of the day, it means nothing if the baby book is caught up,
or if i have a  baby book at all.
i'll get around to it, and if i don't, it's okay.
i just want to appreciate my photos for what they are - real moments in time with my blessings.

so, here are some photos from last spring to enjoy, at our last home, when asher was 10 months old.
playing in the back yard with his teddy bear that aunt hillary brought him from europe.

oh these boys, and these days. a dream come true.

p.s. how do you all organize family photos?? i would LOVE some ideas.
you know, ideas that i may never get around to doing ;)
also, do any of you have suggestions on a good external hard drive? 

 

brothers.

life lesson that i am still learning - don't make photography forced with your children. of course i had in my mind these amazingly cute photos of my boys wearing matching outfits but i ended up just getting so frustrated with roman because he was being persnickety and wouldn't smile. which is just hilarious because why do i expect my son to smile on command?? oh well. regardless – still happy that I got an updated shot of these brothers :)

it is so interesting to see the way that asher looks at roman. he literally admires him in the deepest sense of the word. he is constantly watching roman and doing everything that he does. i constantly catch this happening. roman laying on his back reading a book on the bedroom floor - asher grabs a book and lays next to him mimicking him. roman jumping from bed to bed fighting imaginary bad guys - asher following him, jumping and making fighting sounds as well. the other day roman left the room to grab a shirt. when he came back in, asher was right behind him holding his own shirt. he watched roman put his shirt on and brought me his shirt to put on! I DIED.

just loving, loving the chance to watch my boys grow daily into their own individuality and also watch their relationship grow as brothers.

such a blessing :)

these warm winter days.

these photos are from before Christmas on one of those crazy warm winter days that we seem to have more and more of over the past couple years! i usually absolutely despise winter. i don't do well without light and warmth i guess. the past two winters though have been AMAZING! i realized yesterday that i actually don't even mind winter that much this year! there have been so many random warm days that it really breaks things up and doesn't make me feel like i have just been holed up inside freezing for months at a time. i think another reason that winter is tolerable this year is that we have gas heat and our house is actually pleasantly warm as opposed to last year!

my boys LOVE to be outside. especially asher. when we open up the front door he bolts outs with a picture of pure happiness on his face! i am so blessed to have aaron who is always willing to take the boys out to play on days that are warmish but still too cold for me to want to go outside. during our big snow after Christmas he took roman out a few times and they explored while asher and i stayed nice and warm inside.  just last night roman was rambling on about someday when he'll go on camping trips with dad and i know that there will be lots of outdoors adventures in the future for 

aaron and my boys :)

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!

brothers.

bath time :)