adventure family in motion.

     last friday, i had a chance to share a guest post over at the adventure family in motion blog and i wanted to let you all know about it! adventure family in motion is such a neat blog dedicated to families who are passionate about living a life filled with adventure and a love for the outdoors! you can find my post by clicking here where i share a little bit about our family's move to colorado.

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    preparing for this post, i went through a lot of photos that i've collected since our move here. i have seriously adored being able to appreciate the gorgeous scenery where we live and to be able to capture the ones i love amongst it. you can head over to my guest post to view some more of my favorites, but i'll share a few here as well. they are repeats, but worth it i'd say. ;)

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     one thing that i touched upon in my guest post is how much we love to spend time outdoors hiking here in colorado. nothing fancy; we just pack up the kids, grab some water bottles and head out to explore. does your family spend a lot of time outside? what are your favorite kind of adventures?

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( if you enjoy my blog, click below to vote! )

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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portraits of ash.

 

two portraits of my twenty one month old asher.

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

-Maryann Cusimano

happy friday!

i didn't used to like the idea of sharing my professional work on my personal blog. i like to be able to scroll down and just see uninterrupted photos of my boys, my family.
my blog is like a sweet little scrapbook. however, i have realized that my professional photos DO feel personal to me. after i put so much effort and care into them, i feel like i want to share them as many places as i can!

so there's a little preview of some photos i did for my sister's roommate for her graduation. you can see the rest of the photos on my sparse photography blog here.

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in other words, today is aaron's last late night shift at his job!
for the year, and maybe, probably, hopefully forEVER!
because in the next eight weeks we are planning to MOVE across the country!
but, more about that later ;)
for today, i need to start cleaning my house since my family is coming to stay the weekend and we are going to celebrate my sister's college graduation!
and right now, my little one is climbing up onto the sink to wash dishes
(his new favorite thing)
so, have a great weekend everyone!
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happy mother's day mamas!

wonderful.

{ roman, a super grainy off-focus portrait. }

i'm all for getting the "perfect photograph". i'm all for natural light and the perfect match up of camera settings.

but don't you think that if we're always wrapped up in trying to find perfect,
we might miss out on wonderful?

this + that.

well, i'm super stressed right now. it's the end of the semester for school, and in true-gillian fashion i've left everything to the end. so i have 4 papers, 3 exams AND my honors art history presentation that i'm making this thursday looming over my head. oh my, help me.

just wanted to share a few other things in my life with you all. like these wedding photos i did last fall! i'd love for you all to take a peek and let me know what you think. photography is coming second to being a mom right now in my life, and that's the way i like it. but i've worked on putting together a few advertising things last week. it was so fulfilling to put together this blog post. i put so much work into editing client photos and it is so meaningful for me to put them all together and see the finished product. 

obviously, i work for my clients, 

but my photographs are also my work, 

and it is important to document them for myself as an artist as well. :)

also, my spearmint baby post from last week! i had so much fun putting this together, because oh my goodness spring is finally here and i couldn't be more thrilled!

happy earth day everyone, thanks for stopping by!

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.