lately

We've been spending all our free time after dinner and on the weekends riding our bikes along the most beautiful American River trail. Its been so good to just ride with the warm sun hitting your face and letting go all the worries and stresses of the day. Mike will pull the trailer with the girls and every single time they have fallen asleep after squealing with delight when he rides fast down some bumpy dirt hill. And then its just him and I riding side by side having the long conversations that we can't always have when the girls need our attention. Its been the best way to spend time lately. 

Its so hard to believe that I just moved up here only 6 months ago and having gone from not knowing this city at all and now to feel like home. I've been feeling so bittersweet lately about moving again in a few months and wonder what these feelings all mean. We have grown so much as a family, as a married couple, as husband, as wife, as children, and as individuals in the last 6 months. I see all the hidden blessings behind our trials now. I look back and reflect on every prayer, every desire in my heart and I am moved to tears each and every time at God's goodness. I look at how he has answered every prayer for me, even when I couldn't see it then. Once again my future looks blurred, but our time in Sacramento has shown me that through trusting Him, I will one day see. +AMDG 

12/52

Sophia: she played in our yard with a new friend from across the street. He came over with bubbles to blow and she brought out her princess toys and they were singing to the Frozen soundtrack. 


Zaylee: she has been talking so much this week and forming little sentences. 

a new journey

I don't even really know where to begin. So as long as I can even remember, I have loved taking pictures. You can ask mike, we even got into a argument about it during our honeymoon because I was taking way to many pictures. He made a funny video about it, and one day I will have to share it in all humility.

Well, long story short...I have recently started my journey as a photographer. And well, i feel like a bunch of lights turned on in my head or a lot of puzzles in my life just kind of fell into the right place because I LOVE IT. Its like my passion and all this creative energy I have all came together. I feel so incredibly blessed to be doing what I love.

So there you have it. I'll be sharing more pictures from some of my photo shoots that I have been working on. I hope you enjoy them!

11/52

and so it happens...i'm behind on these weekly pictures again! 

Sophia: There were lady bugs everywhere and she was finding them on this field with friends.


Zaylee: She is so stubborn sometimes, but I can still distract her enough to crack a smile. 


"A portrait of my children once a week, every week in 2014."

mom life

I'm emptying my iphone pictures and find all these hidden gem photos among my day. I'm glad I remembered to snap these fleeting moments. Welcome to my mom life in a nutshell. 

We are busy busy busy from the moment our eyes open in the morning and until we close them at night. There are block building, dressing up and lots drawings around my house. But we also watch tv, take selfies and brush our teeth together too...come on, lets be real now.  

We try to leave the house at least once a day, most days. Sophia is such a little party animal and needs to socialize with other people besides me. We do stuff like get donuts in the rain and then I brave the grocery store with two littles who demand their own cart. Now that was fun. Just kidding...it really was, sort of. 

We play outside almost everyday after naps. 

^^^ These pictures are obviously not mom life pictures, seeing Mike is holding Zaylee's hand...but they had to be shared. Zaylee is a purse girl and a shoe girl. Here she is trying to keep her shoulder straps up using her cheeks and then realized the solution is to just walk with your one arm up. Girls gotta do what a girls gotta do. 

10/52

I'm a little late to post last weeks pictures...but better late than never! 

Sophia: She builds these amazing castles with blocks. I'm wondering if becoming an architect is in her future?

Zaylee: On the weekends, dad is the only one that can hold her hand, wipe her butt, and take her out of her carseat. Anytime she wants anything she yells, "dada!!" 

"A portrait of my children once a week, every week, in the year 2014."

*sorry for the grainy iphone pictures this week. 

almost 2 and 5

Spring is almost here, thank goodness. I see signs everywhere from flowers blooming, the steady rain, trees becoming green again and new life being ready to be born everywhere (especially my many pregnant friends). Spring also has me reflecting on my children because they were both spring babies, including me. Spring babies are the best. I always joke to my friends that my children are liturgically correct babies because of how my trimesters always correlate so well with the church calendar. I've always greeted my second trimester with the start of Advent and the holidays, which is so perfect because my appetite is usually back and so is my energy. I enter my third trimester with the beginning of lent and when Easter comes, my babies are here in my arms. So, now that lent started yesterday I'm starting to feel nostalgic again and realizing my spring babies will become a year older very soon. 

It really is incredible how much they grow up and change in just one year. Sophia realizes she is growing up too and changing. Lately, she keeps commenting about her voice changing (haha!) and that its starting to sound like a big kid voice. I can actually see her personality now and who she is. I think about her future and I wonder what she will. Her little 4 and 1/2 person tells me that she might become an artist or a florist. 

Sophia sayings as of late:

"What is a glutton free cookie? Does it have glue on it?"

"Next time I'm going to do a talking hand" (after learning that she needs to raise her hand quietly)

"Mosquito is a wild animal"

"I'm not eating peanut butter anymore because I realized its making me dehydrated"

"I don't have much experience with heat, like Olaf" (regarding to the movie Frozen)

I can't believe my baby Zaylee will be two years old next month. I don't even want to think about it. 

This girl is my wildflower. She's got this great free spirit but is stubborn as a ox. I'm still watching her personality develop and her confidence grow. She is shy, sweet but can totally hold her own. The other night we had friends over for dinner and their 15 month baby boy (who weighs much more than Z) grabbed her shoulders, she pushed him down to get him off her. All the big kids couldn't believe it and I walked into the room with Zaylee beaming. Speechless. 

She loves babies, bubbles, the color blue and all things that start with the letter "B". She is our family clown. She makes all of us laugh and smile, even Sophia finds her so funny. 

She says "ooohh" as if we have told her something so profound whenever we correct her. 

She still answers "no" for everything.

When she says "hello" it is the cutest thing ever. Its more like, "ello, ello?"

She says, "i poo" everything she has a dirty diaper. 

She begs to go to bed with a snack every night. 

She calls dogs "woof woof."

She will tell me everything is the color blue, even her daddy's hair and every once in a while she will say something is yellow. 

And the best part...we can still bribe her to give us extra kisses and hugs randomly throughout the day :)

9/52

Sophia: watching her dad and sister climb up the hill. She is my very patient child. 

Zaylee: She loves the camera.