Oh Malachi | Eighteen Months | Personal

My sweet, sweet boy...

I don't know how we got to eighteen months so quickly. I feel like we were just bringing your wrinkly little self home from the hospital yesterday and here we are a year and half later. You are just growing up so fast and I sometimes catch myself wishing we could go back and do it all over again. But then I stop and think of all the fun that is to come and I cannot wait to see what is coming next.

This has been a bit of a tough week around here. Your grandpa had a heart attack on Monday and we are slowly trying to find our way back to normal. It was particularly rough on you little man. We left you with a sitter (Another big thank you to Calina and Scott for coming and being your friend while we rushed downtown) for bed time and you werent entirely sure how to respond to that one. Tuesday was followed up with another sitter and some quality time with your daddy and the rest of the week we spent trying to get you back to normal. We had a hard time with that but we finally found our way back to somewhat normal. I am just so very grateful that your grandpa is still alive and here to watch you grow up. Things could have ended so differently, but I will always be so thankful that it didnt.

Your Grandma Cynde was here to spend time with you this past weekend! We had such a great time just loving on one another. There was so much joy. We had lunch out, went garage sale-ing, took some pictures, went to the zoo and played. It is always so good for us to get to spend time with your daddy's family and for you to get to know them as you get older. You are so loved and any time spent with them is time that we cherish as a family. Thanksmas is coming up and I cannot wait for your aunts and uncles to get to spoil you with their love and for you to get to play with your cousins for the first time! It will be such a sweet time of laughter and joy and just sweet memories.

You are just a ball full of energy sweet boy. You open your eyes in the morning and you are on the move. You eventually play yourself to sleep, and then we do it all over again until bed time. Your just the most beautiful storm of love and chaos all wrapped up in one. You love to play. Your interests have become much more wide spread. You love to build blocks and legos. You love reading books and you can identify most of the objects that you see. You have have a few look and find books and you can find almost everything that we point out to you. You and Duffy have gotten really close in the last few months. He keeps you safe at night and you take him pretty much everywhere. You absolutely love Toy Story. Your Buzz and Woody that you got in Disney World are still easily your favorite toys. You are obsessed with the movies and you will watch them over and over again if we let you. You love to color and do stickers. We dance and sing and you are a pro at both. Your dances have become much more interpretive haha. You have this new monster walk dance that you do and you have your own car dance. Thats my very favorite. We are going to start gymnastics in the spring and I cannot wait for that. You're going to be such a rockstar.

Your food choices have become a little more picky lately. We figured out that you have a milk intolerance, so the  few things that you did like have gotten even smaller haha. You love to eat fruits, which is a plus. Its the veggies we are having a hard time with. You love chicken and you will eat waffles and pancakes for days. You love oatmeal and have finally taken to the much less expensive big people oatmeal as apposed to the very expensive little people oatmeal and for that your parents are very grateful. We even discovered the Sweet Frog has a really tasty non dairy option that you love so we can still have our dates there. That makes me so happy inside! I love my dates there with you and your daddy.

We havent had your well visit yet, but when you were very sick a few weeks ago, you weighed in at 26.2 lbs, you lost some while super sick, so Im assuming your upwards of 27 lbs now and around 34 inches tall. You were 2t shirts, 18 month shorts and jeans, 3t pajamas and size 6 shoes. You are in size 4 diapers both daytime and nightime and you are rocking the spikey short hairs now. You are quite a stylish baby if I do say so myself. We have all your clothes for the winter and fall all washed and ready to go and I have to say that I am the most excited about the Captain America hoodie. You will look so good this year!!

You are really close to putting together some sentences and occasionally they come out clearly! You say "I did it!" and "I love you" most of the time haha, and you will occasionally say things like "Look what I got" and "All done." Its pretty hit or miss. You say gone and uh oh like they are going out of style. You say most of your animals and can do all of the noises that go with them. Including what does a fish say which is you making a fish face and opening and closing your mouth. Cutest. Trick ever. You have also learned the difference between squeeze and shake from helping daddy clean up your bath toys, so we are working pretty hard on squeezing and giving mommy a foot rub in the process. Best thing we are learning yet hahahahah!!!

Your little personality has gotten so much bigger, if that is even possible. You are all about affection lately. You give hugs and kisses and you also give "ugga-muggas" which is an eskimo kiss that you learned from watching Daniel Tiger. You like to race yourself across the room  and you love to let us know what you want and how you want it. You pick out your own snacks and you are very clear about your wants and your needs. You make the best faces and they all look just like your daddy's, which I absolutely love. You are surrounded by so much love in your life and I cannot tell you enough how much I will always be grateful for that. You will never go a day in your life without knowing that you are loved and we will make sure of that.

Malachi who you are and the calling on your life are so apparent in your every day. You are so full of joy and life. And you have no fear. None at all. You will do anything, look at anything, embrace anything without even thinking twice. It has been so incredible as you have grown to get to watch the calling in you take shape and begin to be seen. Someone gave us a word over you before you were even born that you would be a child of vision, and that before you were even old enough to write them down yourself that we needed to get you a special journal for all of your dreams and visions and to write them down for you. I cannot wait to help you write everything that Jesus shows you. I can see that in you already and the day that you tell me what your seeing for the first time will be the best day of my life.

I thank God every single day that he loved me enough to give me you. You are the joy in my every day, my meaning in my life and even at my worst, you love me most. I will never be able to show you just how much your little life means to me. So know that as you grow and you become the very best you that you can be, that I will always be the very best friend that you could ever have. I will never love you less for your mistakes. Helping you grow and become whatever and whoever you are meant to be is an honor Malachi and one that I do not take lightly. You will never be alone.

Happy Eighteen Months, my beautiful blue eyed boy. There's not a day that goes by that I dont thank God for you.

I'll eat you up, I love you so...

All my love,
Your mama

48 Days and Counting | Bridal Shower | Event Coverage

Calina and Scott are one of our October wedding couples and also happen to be two of our best friends! Calina's grandma suffered a stroke a few weeks ago and wasnt able to attend her bridal shower, so I offered to bring my camera along and capture a little bit of everything for her so that she could share some of the magic with her. It was an honor to be a part of her special day in this way, and to get to help Grandma to be part of the day from far away. We cannot wait for Calina and Scott's wedding. It will be a day of sweet love for sure. Enjoy a few of our favorites from the shower and be sure to look for their wedding day on the blog this fall.

The Bridesmaids had Scott write down what he loves about Calina and then framed them for her as table decor. Sweetest. Thing. Ever.








Calina loves Christmas time, so they had everyone bring an unwrapped Christmas tree ornament and decorated a little tree with what everyone brought. My mom and I provided the snowman... and a squirrel.








A time of prayer for Calina's grandma.










The bridesmaids made Calina a scrapbook with pictures and letters. Lots of tears haha!!




We can't wait for your wedding guys!! Married life is the very best there is! Love you both!!!

Monday Moments | The Real Us | Personal

This week was birthday week!! Birthdays are a big deal around here and this week was mine! We had a few sessions to finish up in editing before going into this weekend's sessions and we spent the whole day Friday celebrating! This year I really wanted to just relax for my birthday. Having a kid is hard work haha!! So Nic made sure I was pampered for the day! I went for a massage in first thing in the morning while my parents hung out with the little man. Then they treated me and the little man to lunch, we bought a gift for my dear friend Calina's bridal shower, made a Target run, bought an ice cream cake and made our way home to meet up with Nic coming home from work. Then the parents kept the little man while my best friend of a husband took me to get a pedicure and even joined in on the experience. He really is the best around. We came home to facetime my brother and have ice cream cake. Then we got the little man to sleep and binge watched some White Collar before going to sleep for just a few hours before partying it up with the little man for a few hours in the middle of the night haha!! It was a great birthday indeed!

We spent our Saturday together making plans for our future and loving our little man. Sunday was bridal shower day for Calina! It was so fun to shower her with so much love before her wedding this fall!! I got to photograph the event and loved every single minute of it!! Last night we had a great session with a beautiful family and their sweetest little girl.

Also. Malachi snuggles a teddy bear while he sleeps now. Its pretty awesome.

We are so excited for what God has next for our family and we cannot wait to share all that is coming next for us with you all. So stay tuned over the next few weeks and look for all that is about to happen for us! We know God has big things for us and for our business! Thanks for believing in us and for helping us chase our dreams! We love every minute spent with you all.

Brian's First Birthday | Infants and Children | Portraits

A few weeks back we celebrated Brian's first birthday with him! We had a fun hour filled with Mickey Mouse, lots of crying filled cake and balloons and some sweet memories made for mom and dad. The weather made for a difficult choice of moving indoors for his session which is new for us since we don't typically shoot indoors for these types of sessions, but since the Curtis family is from out of town, we made the best of the situation and still managed to get in everything that we wanted!! 

Enjoy a few of our favorites from this session!

Happy Birthday big boy!! We loved being part of your special day! 

Look for our Monday Moments post early next week and look for another beautiful session hitting the blog next Friday!! 

Monday Moments | The Real Us | Personal

It has been a few weeks since we posted a Monday Moments post, but it has been a crazy few weeks around here. We have had so many sessions and we have had some crazy things going on in our personal lives.

This week we have really taken some time to seek the Lord as a family. We have had some big changes in our lives this week and it really caused us to take a step back and think about what it is that God has for us. We don't have anything we feel comfortable sharing right now, but we promise that in a few weeks we will bring everyone up to date on what is going on with us.

Malachi caught some kind of nasty virus at the playground on Friday. He was perfectly fine all day and around 3:00 he climbed up on Nic's lap and he thought he felt a little warm. We took his temperature and found it to be more than just a little warm. 103.5 and climbing. We got some Motrin in him and took it one hour at a time but by Saturday afternoon he woke up from his nap and his little face looked like a fire engine and his ears looked like he was on fire. His temperature at that particular moment was upwards of 105. We were in the car on our way to Children's within 5 minutes. We got his fever under control and made our way home with instructions to push juice and fluids and love on him. So thats what we did. We watched whatever movies he picked, played what he wanted to play, bought him his own quart of Mango Rita's Ice, and nursed our sweet boy back to health. Sunday morning his fever started coming down and over the course of the day our sweet boy made his way back to his funny, loving self. This morning the pediatrician said that the ulcers in his throat are starting to heal up as of this morning and gave us the same instructions to love on him and get him back to health. This is the first time that our sweet boy has been this sick and let me tell you it is a helpless feeling to not be able to take that kind of pain and discomfort from your child. His pitiful little face. Broke my heart in about a million pieces.

And that was our week. We have a beautiful session to show you later this week and we have another personal moment post to share with you early next week. We can't wait to show you what we have planned. You'll love it. I know it.