rainy days.

     i took these photos last sunday, on a rainy day. we dropped aaron off at work in the rain and i spontaneously planned to hold a little photo shoot of both boys in their room wearing matching pajamas. they clean their room on sundays now, so it seemed like a perfect time. much to his brother's relief, asher decided to steal the show and so it turned into this. he would give me his best jumps and then run over to check the photos on the back of my camera. he was so impressed with himself and his "flying". i would give him a big smile and he would absolutely beam with pride. we had such a special, sweet time. i cannot stress enough how important these moments are to me: these are truly the photos that i live for. and yeah, i'm pretty impressed with him as well - these photos are awesome.       I have had the pleasure of getting to know a great group of ladies in the past couple months. If you are looking for some wonderful new blogs to read, check out the links below!

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"Rain" is the April writing prompt of The Mommy Blogger Collective. In addition to a monthly writing prompt, the collective hosts a monthly blogger featurette. This month we are featuring Katie of Hello, Little Bean. A few words from Katie --- Hi! I'm Katie and I write a blog called 'Hello, Little Bean.' It's about life as a new mom to my cute daughter, Lark Story. I'm California born and raised, but currently live in Michigan with my soon-to-be husband, James and my soon-to-be stepson, Brennan, as well as our little Lark and two kitties. I'm a full-time graphic designer who loves all things artistic and creative. I'm overly sensitive and sentimental, sarcastic and foul-mouthed at times, a foodie and a reality tv junkie who's completely and utterly in love with motherhood. You can also find me on instagram, facebook, pinterest and our little online boutique, Bold Threads. .

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 /// The Mommy Blogger Collective /// Christina, Courteney, Dena, Erica, Erin, Gillian, Katie, Misty, Nicole, and Renée. ///

portraits of asher.

(( portraits of asher // 32 months ))

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     i am completely smitten with these photos. asher is continuing his phase of actually enjoying having his picture taken and i couldn't be happier about that. yesterday i was able to have two different mini-sessions of him in the boys' bedroom, which is the absolute best room for natural light photos in our house. these photographs just fill me up inside. entirely. i am a big fan of plain backgrounds and sweet faces and this set of photos remind me a little of these + these.

 

soft, gentle moments.

     moments like the ones you see here, hold such healing and magic for me. i mean really, truly, they do. painting photographs. writing them as a poem, bundling them up one heavy click at a time, to be read later and forever. for myself , for them, maybe for others. these photographs were taken during a  quiet evening outside. and my heart was quieted as well when i saw the light settling perfectly on his creamy peach-baby skin. highlighting his hair, his fingers, his chin, his lips. a slow and steady peace settled inside of me as i captured these soft and gentle moments. and with these, part of my heart is pictured as well.

 

portraits of asher / 31 months.

i love this boy + these pictures.

he radiates joy and appears so wild and free here. which is exactly how he felt in these moments:

frantically climbing from rock to rock, mountains as far as the eyes can see, happily running and breathing in the fresh air while slyly posing and looking to the side for his mama who loves to take
his pictures.

looking at these photos, i feel once again the peace and quiet and happiness of the moments in when i took them.

just a little glimpse of time,

saved.

pictures of cows.

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we were driving around the reservoir over the weekend, looking for new spots. and first of all, let me just say that i was so dang happy to get a picture of those cows. i have been thinking about taking pictures of cows for years. no really, i'm not just saying that.
many times as i drove home to our house in indiana, i would look at all of the cows that i passed and think about taking photos of them. indiana is full of so much pretty scenery: old barns, endless soybean and corn fields, pretty hazy sunsets and wildflowers. and there are so many cows. they truly became my favorite animal when we lived out there.
but i never took the moment to get the pictures that i wanted. i'm really bad about that; just stopping and getting out of the car to take a photograph. i'm too lazy i suppose.
and frankly, it never seems worth it.
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but this day. the other day, when i saw these black cows grazing in the hills like this, i finally had aaron pull over the car and i rolled down the window and i got it. it was just too, too perfect. because if there is anything better than cows grazing in the fields of indiana, it is certainly cows in the mountains. hands down.
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asher was stressing out in the backseat and roman was yelling at me and i had one of those mother-fail moments where i snapped for a moment.
and i just told everyone in the family to get used to it.
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sometimes i'm going to hang out the window when it's 20 degrees out to take a picture of the creek by the mountains. and sometimes i'm going to ask aaron to turn the car around so that i can get a picture of the orange and aqua sunset even though everyone is tired and wants to get home. in times like these, little boys are sure to squeal at me from the backseat.
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but gosh darn it, sometimes i'm going to pull over the car and take a picture of some cows.

and it's going to make me very happy.

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oh, and my family is cute too. they forgave me and then i snuck in some pictures of them as well ;)

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where the wild things are.

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i always feel like the more i learn about photography and the more i pursue it professionally, the less and less i love it. this fall was definitely a struggle in that aspect. in between working on sessions for clients, i had just about every technical problem in the book. i love photography, i love art, but i do NOT love technology. not at all. i am the least patient person in the world, which doesn't help.

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after finishing up the season client-wise, we took the boys out on halloween to one of our favorite walking places for photos.

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it was so freeing to finally be using my camera to capture what my heart beats most passionately for, my two wonderfully-made-perfect-lovely boys,

out in nature - happy and joyful,

romping in the tall grass sunflare,

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like the little wild things that they are.

;)

portraits of ash.

 

two portraits of my twenty one month old asher.

"i am your quiet place; you are my wild"

-Maryann Cusimano

pursuits of a five year old.

putting on his raincoat,
noticing that the flowers smell like candles, touching the soft white petals and feeling thankful that, "now we have our own garden!"
choosing some for mama,
placing them in a mason jar in the bathroom for all to enjoy.
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just some of the daily pursuits of a five year old.

happy friday.

today is:

vacuuming with my little helper(who uses a grocery cart instead of a vacuum),

 actually getting homework done during asher's nap(yay!),

lemon kombucha,

milk + cheerios on the floor,

cleaning the bedroom (i hope),

finding staples in roman's shorts(why do thrift stores do that??)

wearing my favorite comfy sweater,

looking forward to cuddling my boys to sleep and finally getting to see aaron 

after an always good in ways but also tiring day!

what does your friday look like?

(photos from a photoshoot i did for Spearmint Baby a while back)