welcome home michelle

it's fun when people you really like that moved away come back. michelle is one of my best childhood friend's sister and believe me when i say she's amazing. i was so excited when i heard her family was moving to platte city. i was excited just to have her around, but also because her son rocco is deacon's age, and will be in the same class. they are in the same preschool class now, and i love that i bump into michelle some mornings, her smile always makes my day. i'm grateful to know i'll be seeing that smile as our kids grow.

they built a beautiful new home and i loved getting to spend a morning playing with rocco meeting hank and photographing their little family.

eating words

i got an email from gina a few days after our shoot, the subject: i'm eating my words. it's okay gina, that's part of being a parent. i'll never have a picky eater, my child won't eat mcdonalds or candy, sleep in my bed, be impolite, scream in target, etc etc etc. all the things we say before we have kids, then they arrive and we realize we don't have nearly as much control as we thought, and sometimes life just happens.

they had a pretty successful time getting little britton to sleep, no passy, sound machine or those other things that help until they aren't there. but after a few sleepless nights those creature comforts came in pretty darn handy. don't worry gina and dan, you're good parents, just be consistent in the things you find really important and you'll be just fine.

meeting needs

the sweetest gifts are the ones that are unexpected, undeserved, and that weren't asked for. in the last several weeks i've really been thinking about how grateful i am for the kind of friendships that give without question, filling needs that make life better than you ever thought possible. i guess i've been thinking a lot about it, because i've been on the receiving end.

a few weeks ago our sweet friends "broke" into our house and repainted our bedroom. we've just not had the time, or energy to do it and as i get closer to my due date my nesting is starting to intensify. my friend natalie decided she was going to make it happen for us. forget the fact that her husband is in the thick of bar prep, they have an infant and a 3 year old, and tons of other obligations- they decided to bless us. i won't ever forget how that made me feel. we walked in from a weekend out of town to a bright new room, and one less task on our list.

today my little boy was given a gift that made our whole family feel humbled. another set of friends decided to give deacon their incredible wooden clubhouse. we wouldn't have been able to do that for him, and they wanted him to have it. not only did they give him this incredible gift they spent the entire day tearing it down, loading it up, and resetting it in our backyard. other friends volunteered their time, trucks, and trailers to make it happen. i kept saying i felt like i was at a barn raising and i didn't even make a pie. all these people had better things to do, the clubhouse could have been sold, but they decided we were worth it.

i just needed to say thank you to my sweet friends, for making life good for me and my family. because of you, i want to take care of others the way you've taken care of me. thank you. and amy, you're awesome.

how can you bless someone today?

redemption

one year and one day before their wedding i wrote about mary. i was in awe of her story and what she was clinging to. she knew God had redemption in mind for her, she believed it with everything she had. and there we were a year later, the girl with those beautiful eyes and smile that would melt any heart waiting for her groom. she didn't know it would be him, but God's gift to her came in the form of a faithful man.

God is redemptive, and the things that get messy along the way will be made beautiful in His own time. i suppose nothing is a better picture of that than a wedding. a bride and a groom, with different backgrounds come together and hope that their union will be a blessing. they are bringing everything they've got in hopes of blessing each other and the lives of their family. messy yes, imperfect absolutely, but genuine beyond belief.