Love is…
November 29, 2009 | Filed Under Eliza Dove, Judah, Love is..., Photos | 24 Comments
Love is… not caring that he wears his pants backwards on a regular basis…
Love is… adoring your baby sister even though she’s a brute and occasionally beats the crap out of you…
Love is… holding hands and walking in the same direction…
Love is… not always needing to talk…
Love is… sometimes eating dirt together…
Love is… helping each other up…
Love is… making sure the other is no worse for the wear…
Love is… brushing off the dirt…
Love is… together, holding hands, face to the wind…
Love is… staying close…
Love is… being content with each other…
Love is… understanding that it’s a woman’s prerogative to change her mind…
Love is… enjoying the ride…
What is love to you?
Judah’s Four!
November 27, 2009 | Filed Under Birthday, Judah, Photos | 19 Comments
(Judah’s card from Daddy…)
Judah-
Happy Birthday! I love you sooooo much. I am very proud of you for growing so big. You are four years old, how cool is that! I’m going to need a 4-year-old-boy-hug when I get home.
I love you my son.
Love your Daddy
Judah is a very blessed little boy to have Daniel for a Daddy. Daniel and I are very blessed to have Judah as our son. And I am very blessed to have that baby boy out of my body.
He was… 9 pounds and 23.5 inches long. I was… miserable.
But now I get hugs and kisses and a little boy who wants to marry me. The misery was completely worth it…
Judah’s best birthday present was from God… SNOW!
I made him (and Eve) close his eyes and I led him outside. Such excitement when I told them to open their eyes! Well, except for Eliza. She has forgotten her Vermont roots, apparently.
A happy day and a happy FOUR year old boy.
(Mama’s pretty happy too… “Three” has gotten the heave-ho! Hooray! May “four” be a much easier and less dramatic year, please.)
The Conversation.
November 17, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Deployment Blog, Military Life, Perspective | Comments Off
**Differing opinions are starting to trickle into the comment section…
The conversation… the comments are really where it’s at.
I continued the conversation today.
Baby Haven
November 16, 2009 | Filed Under Infant photos, Photos | 16 Comments
Is there a better way to start off a new week than looking at photos of a sweet baby?
I think not.
Pretty (5 days old) baby Haven…
Very much loved by her Mommy…
Her Daddy…
And her big sister, Jericho…
I love her too. Especially her multitude of wrinkles and sweet baby rolls…
Isn’t she just sugar?
I am very grateful for the opportunity to freeze time for Seth and Tarah. Hands down, that is my favorite aspect of taking photos… any photos. Taking the emotion of the moment captive. I can look at any of the photos that I’ve taken in the past six years and instantly my memory is flooded with smells, the emotions, the way skin felt… I love that.
In case you were wondering… I am not the least bit sentimental.
It’s only my middle name.
Winter’s Comin’…
November 14, 2009 | Filed Under Photos, Winter | 13 Comments
It’s true.
Winter’s coming…
whether
we
like
it
or
not.
I say… bring it, ‘ol man Winter. ‘Cause I’m moving back to New Mexico where I’ll have a man in my bed keeping me warm…
Howl away, wind. I win.
p.s. I wondered so I wrote. And I left the comments open.
Wedding Rings…
November 13, 2009 | Filed Under Lovers, Photos | 8 Comments
While chatting with Daniel yesterday we talked about “Ruby” the truck and how her exterior is in need of a good washing.
It’s on the list, I assured him. Not terribly high but definitely higher than before I noticed how blackened her once shiny rims had become.
He was a bit disappointed that I had let her get dirty but how is a girl to do everything? I just can’t. I’ve tried. And failed. He understood… And the disappointed in his voice lifted a bit when I promised him that the inside is clean… very clean, due to our “no eating in the truck” rule. And possibly because of my obsessive issue with toys and garbage not filling my truck. Oh, and the equally obsessive vacuuming issue I have.
I have many issues, I know this.
This morning when my ears heard the gentle clang of my wedding bands as I out of habit straightened them, I looked down. I noticed that they weren’t sparkling; they were filmed over from lotion and life.
If the truck was on the list to be cleaned didn’t my best gift from Daniel, my rings deserve to be also?
I tugged the bands off my finger and trudged to the bathroom; leaning over the sink I squeezed some toothpaste on an old toothbrush and scrubbed. I scrubbed til they shone. I rinsed and rinsed; as I did the memories of my marriage to Daniel flitted across my mind’s eye like old film. Daniel desperately working to get my ring onto my finger on our wedding day… the times we’ve placed our rings on each others fingers promising our vows anew… seeing his ring resting on the window sill patiently waiting for him to come home from work and slip it on his finger… seeing his ring on one of our babies newly born finger, laughing at how large it looked… feeling his lips kiss the wedding rings on my finger, rubbing love into the simple gold…
Today I am thankful anew for those memories, for the vows, for the work, the life that our wedding rings represent.
Veteran’s Day 2009
November 11, 2009 | Filed Under Daniel, Deployment, Military Life, Photos, Veteran's Day | 19 Comments
My husband’s view every evening… an Iraq sunset
Thankful and proud…
I am thankful for the path of blood, sweat, tears. Of young lives given; of thinking and wanting nothing in return; the sure focus, the pride of sacrificing all for one’s country – values – religion. The willingness to lay down one’s life to assure freedom for those yet to come.
I am proud of my husband, a patriot. Of his decision young in life to choose sacrifice; to choose the harder path; to live for a cause greater than himself.
I am proud to be living in the shadow of much greater women who have gone before me; to be living and serving alongside strong courageous women who sacrifice daily under the title of “military spouse.”
We live for our men, for our children, for our country.
Is there any greater calling?
Camera sent to Daniel from the very generous Sara
Emotions
November 10, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Eliza Dove, Eve, Judah, Photos | 29 Comments
These are my kids:
Attitude, Drama, and Toothless
I’m never bored.
Ever.
We expressed some emotions today:
Tired (Why yes I am, thanks for asking!)…
Mad (Some of us more than others)…
Silly (All of us)…
But, there’s lots of love…
Lots of love…
Too much, sometimes…
Mama sees the look of desperation in your eyes, baby. I’m comin’…
We love you and miss you, Daddy. We promise to save a bunch of kisses and hugs for you…
Attacking these last six weeks with camera in hand…
November 9, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Photography, Photos | 13 Comments
Busy.
That’s been the way to describe me lately.
Simply having three small kids is busy enough. But raising them on my own is really busy. And then adding in homeschooling… that takes busy to a whole new level. Except that I have decided to add to the crazy and do a few photoshoots and another wedding with Amanda. Because why not? If I’ve already committed to the crazy… why not go all.the.way.
Last week I finished up editing Jen’s “Hot Mama” photoshoot. (I totally own at that I am slow at editing.)
She’s fierce, my friends. Very fierce. And totally beautiful.
I am working on editing Erin’s sweet family photoshoot…
Levi is the sweetest, smiliest baby. Love him.
Rosy and I did a photoshoot together…
We swapped photos for babysitting (I’m all for the barter system!)
On Friday I shot a “Rock the Frock” with Jen and her husband Jon… Oh, that was amazing! I am itching to rock my frock with Daniel now!
Their love is amongst my favorite. Absolutely beautiful.
Yesterday Amanda and I set out. She is hardcore, y’all. Totally sick but she was out there trekking through tall grass in barefeet.
We laughed a lot. I think that’s my favorite part of doing photoshoots… the laughing.
It’s me, 48 bazillion photos, photoshop, and Mozart after the kids go to bed. Every night. And I really love it.
So, life is busy. Yes, very busy. But, I am happy and ready for this final push towards the finish line. Christmas can’t come fast enough this year!
From Daniel to Andrea – Happy Birthday Letter
November 7, 2009 | Filed Under Birthday Letters | 29 Comments
Happy Birthday love!
It’s hard to have to write this from so far away. We are meant to be together, and especially so for your especially special day. Today you may have friends and family around you (I hope you do) but I know that a Daniel-size part of you will feel alone. But know that alone isn’t always bad.
You alone have my love.
You alone can turn my day around with a smile and a hug.
You alone know me well enough to not need words.
You alone can narrow my focus so that we are the only two in the world.
You alone inspire me, with all that you do, your photography, your cooking, your love to help others.
You alone captured my heart and,
You alone will have my hand to hold, my lips to kiss, and my eyes to catch. . . forever.
I love you. Happy Birthday.
Your man.
Birthday letters from Daniel:
It’s a New York Fall…
November 1, 2009 | Filed Under Deployment, Eliza Dove, Eve, Fall, Life in New York (the apple trees and dairy cow part... not the city!), Photos | 32 Comments
Fall in New York is breath-taking…
I have been getting out and enjoying every bit of this season because I know I won’t have this opportunity again for maybe the rest of my life.
I took the kids grape picking at the vineyard this past Sunday evening.
It was, in one word, beautiful.
We enjoyed every minute of it. We had been a couple of weeks before that and it was lovely then, but for some reason the moodiness of the leafless vines…
…and the fallen grapes made it seem all the more beautiful.
The kids helped me pick, they taste-tested, they played tag up and down the rows (we were the only patrons), and they gave each other wagon rides.
Such a good time.
This past Thursday, my Mom and Dad invited us to go to a park with them for a picnic.
We are always up for picnics in parks with a fire and roasted hot dogs! Miss Eliza wore (Eve’s) pink beret the entire night.
She may be slightly in love with hats of any sort. Eliza wore that hat, or, “Haaa…” as she says, with great pride.
Even when she fell down (it’s tough “trailing” through the woods when you are little!) that hat stayed right on her head.
As Eve would tell you, fashion is where it’s at, even when one is “trailing.”
Eliza has taken that nugget of “truth” to heart!
We had a great time at the park; I can tell you exactly just how much fun by the amount of dirty laundry I had to wash!
I am thankful that I have had the energy and determination to get out while Daniel has been deployed. It hasn’t always been easy, in fact, sometimes it took more than I had to give. I have three small kids, after all! But, I refuse to have any regrets. I don’t want to look back on this time in my life and wish I had not held back. Sure, my heart waits for him but my life has moved forward. How discouraging it would be for Daniel to come home and see that I am still the same girl he left six months earlier!
Anyway, happy November first! Not only is it my birthday month,Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday!), and Judah’s birthday month… most importantly, I get to say: my husband is coming home NEXT MONTH!
Hooray!
