Something wicked this way comes..?

So sometimes I dream a dream that feels spiritual in meaning. I haven't had one of these in a while so I want to share this. I'm not entirely sure what the interpretation should be of all the symbols but I feel that it has something to do with our current state of freedom-stripping and a coming tribulation.

I don't remember how the dream began but it felt mundane as if we were all just going about our normal daily routines. There was water at my feet, pooling around my ankles in my house and I felt that this was not just in my house but in everyone's and we were living with it as if it was just the norm. Slowly the water began moving and picking up a dark color as it filled with debris. The dirty water started rising and it was as if we knew it was time. Eric and I gathered the girls, unalarmed and waded through the first large wave that carried us from our home. When the water subsided and receded back to the flooding around our ankles we were heading to what seemed like a mall (or public place- I feel that represents America in general). As I walked through a door to an outside area I could see another wave, like a tsunami wall coming toward us. I felt "ready for it", as though this is what we'd been preparing for and I almost want to liken it to labor for some reason. There was a little girl in front of the door I was walking through and I warned her parents to pick her up quickly. Moments later the wave hit and swallowed up the little girl. The water was thick and dark with debris and up to my chest. It carried us away and destroyed everything in its path. We still seemed calm and un afraid. I held Anna up above the water and Eric held Aubrie.
That's the where the dream ends- in the middle of tribulation I suppose. I have my own ideas of what this means. What do you think?

Pictures N' Stuff...

I have the most beautiful baby passed out in my arms right now. All of her features are highlighted by the computer screen and I just want to kiss every single inch of her!
Sometimes I wish I had a Nikon attached to my head and blinking released the shutter. A thousand times a day I see something beautiful and precious in my children and there's just no time to grab the camera before the moment is gone :/.

Anyway, Thursday was Aubrie's hearing test and she passed with flying colors (I KNEW she was just choosing to ignore me when I was calling her name over and over! lol). I expected as much but we just wanted to rule out any hearing and inner-ear problems before we move on to speech therapy. Dr Lee said AZIP would be giving us a call to set up an appointment. Hopefully that happends soon!

Alright, so I've been trying to get Aubrie out to the park for these "2 year" photos at this very specific time of day for about 4 days now. FINALLY last night we were able to do it! Surprisingly she was a little more cooperative than I expected and I was able to get some cute stuff :).

 

I love my sweet two year old girl. She's so beautiful and loving and animated. Her spirit is bright and curious and wonderful and I'm so blessed to have been given the enormous honor of being her mom. <3

ABC's & run to ME!

So while Aubrie seems to jibber off in her own language she can recognize EVERY letter in the alphabet and names them perfectly (go figure). She's also counting to 8! I need to upload a video of it! We're talking about daycare again for her so she can socialize... It's just so expensive for two (4 hour) days a week and our last experience was traumatic. She literally cried the entire time and acted out for a whole two weeks afterward :/.

Anna is running! Her newest thing is running across the room into my arms and let me tell you- it's got to be one of the cutest sights I've ever seen! It makes my mommy heart all warm and giggly. I find myself calling her from across any distance with my arms spread wide open just to watch her perfect chubby little baby lump come diving into me. She then promptly finds her thumb and nuzzles into my chest. <3

I took a day yesterday to be completely computer-free. It was nice to focus on the girls a little more. I'm still trying to figure out a good balance as the work-from-home-mom. How do you shut off the creative process and taylor it into a set amount of time during a specific period in the day? I have a hard time telling inspiration- "not now" but I need to..

This morning after breakfast the girls and I made a kitchen table tent! I thought it would be fun with Christmas lights.

 

Aubrie was obsessed with sticking her head inbetween the spaces lol.

Anyway- it made for a pretty neat little adventure.

 

 

 

On another note, the tea party pictures were cute but I still have this whole elaborate outdoor thing in my head I want to try. Tonight we might give it a go... we'll see how well it works out. It might just end up being pictures of a cute new banner and set up with Aubrie running in the other direction lol!

 

Ok, off the work now! :)

Tea Party!

Oh my, so much to do today. I have a session to finish editing, an entire website to re-build and all of my portfolio images need to be re-saved with a single watermark (I have so many different ones and it looks sloppy), I need to get the house in order and the fun part- upload the images from our tea party this morning!
I'm about half a year late on Aubrie's 2nd Birthday cupcake session and that reminds me... I never posted the pictures from her Chucky Cheese party! :/ I didn't take that many- I was trying to juggle two babies and socialize a bit...

Anyway, tea party! I wanted to do this outdoors maybe in the beautiful grape vines at Sahuaro I'm always photographing- but it would have been impossible to keep both girls focused and in one place. Aubrie especially gets a kick out of chasing the peacocks and roosters around and I doubt even the temptation of tasty cupcakes would have worked in my favor.
The studio window worked well enough :).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Alright- Aubriella is having a meltdown (no doubt from her sugar high). Time to get back to life!

Sea Life Aquarium!

Yesterday we tried to catch a mommy meet-up. It's been a while since I've been able to make one and the new aquarium at the Mills mall looked really fun.
Of course getting out the door on time didn't happen and we were about 20 minutes late, by which point all of the mommies had already been in and out of the aquarium :/... So much for that.

We went through it anyway and afterward ended up running into my dear sweet friend Carri, and her little bug Tristan, who offered to go through it again with us!
Carri, by the way, made the most delicious cake for her little guy's Cake Smash shoot and I'm having her make Anna's cake next month! I need to scower pinterest for ideas... More on that later.

Now for fun aquarium photos! :o)

 Aubriella talking to the fish. lol

 



Annaliese is a pretty tasty snack!

Geez that thing was enormous!

 



 This was cool. Its a projection on the ground and when you walk over it- it ripples like you're walking through water.

 

 Haha Aubrie loves the "Memo and Corro (Coral, the mom at the beginning of the movie)" fishies!

 

 

 Fishy kisses! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently in Lettmanville..

Ah it seems like there's so much going on; new milestones, funnies, work, etc,. The girls are so entertaining lately. Aubrie loves that Anna is walking and they chase each other around the house. When they really get going- its hilarious! Anna's into peek-a-boo and if you catch her eye around any corner- the game is on. She's also become absolutely obsessed with my clothing. One shirt in particular seems to find its way into her grasp constantly and she holds it close to her cheek while she sucks her thumb. Kind of warms a mama's heart! :)

We're concerned about Aubrie's speech delay. She's two and a half now and stringing very few words together (that we can understand). She babbles with plenty of inflection and dramatic gestures as if she knows what she's saying but it's in some foreign baby language. She's beginning to pick up new words and associating sounds with animals but we're having her hearing checked and also have someone coming to assess her development within the next week or so. We'll see where she's at..

Work is keeping me busy for the moment. I'm so SO thankful for the steady business I've had suddenly since right after Anna was born. God has moved in such amazing ways in our life this last year. My business had grown so much and I know its because I've trusted Him every time He said "leap!". I've encountered so many wonderful people and had so many amazing opportunities nearly dropped in my lap. It's insane to think that this time last year I'd had maybe 3 commissioned shoots for the ENTIRE year. Now I'm nearly turning away business because my weeks and months are so swamped (with the exception of these hot summer months when things quiet down).
I'm praying that new opportunities open up to keep us afloat in this time... and I have a feeling they will. God hasn't let us down yet!


Some of you know I gave up coffee and switched to organic chai tea. So far so good! I started on the 1st of this month and haven't caved yet! [That's kind of a big deal.. I was totally addicted! lol] :)

On a funnier note: this morning I tried my hand at pancakes..... not successfully

Mom-fail.

I tried to fix it with blueberries.

And then I burnt mine... lol

Aubrie's reaction to the mis-shapen mickey mouse was pretty hilarious.

Oh well- I'll get the hang of it one of these days!
That's all for now- back to editing! :)

Getting AWAY from Facebook.

Hi friends and family!
        I've been wanting to get away from Facebook for a while now... for many reasons.. but I didn't want to lose out on the ability to post new photos of the girls and update how things are going. I thought this might be a nice happy medium. I realize it's not nearly as convenient as scrolling through your news feeds but I feel that it was neccessary to remove myself from the addiction and seperate personal from business lol. My photography page is still there and I will update it with sessions and whatnot (for those of you who follow it) but the personal stuff will be here. :)

Oh! And I'm not quite sure how to make the blog private so most of my pics will probably have a little watermark on them.. just in case :/.

I love you guys!