i realized the other day

that it has been entirely tooooo long since i've just had my camera out while finn & i are doing nothing at home. maybe that's a good thing... i'm living in the moment, not so concerned with documenting our lives & sharing it here with you. that's something i've always struggled with, finn makes it ten times worse. but, my photojournalist inside yells "bad girl! bad mama! get back to work!" and so i did the other day in between my two portrait sessions. my business life is picking up. barely anything since november & then in the past two weeks i've had 2 weddings. 3 engagement shoots & 2 family shoots. i love meeting new people & being invited into their lives so intimately. yipppeeee!!!!! i'm one happy happy pigeon!

so here are a few of the pictures i took of finn playing the other day. he's so biiiiiig. & in 10 days he will officially be a one year old. & nine months, but for some reason we don't count that time.

anyways. back to peanut.

he is a picker-upper. he can sit there and destroy an area & then he'll put it back together.

a few squares of toilet paper equaled 20 minutes of fun yesterday :)






he's such a busy body now... he doesn't hold still long enough to look up at me for more than 2 seconds.
i love this one. it's my new favorite picture of him. can't you see him as a handsome teenager with that lil smirk just knocking all the ladies down! please oh please stay orange hair!

hope you have a great week.

just cause he's cute.

happy friday!!!! we hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend!

finn turns one

we threw a joint 1st birthday party with neil & jody. we figure these boys are going to be celebrating a lot of their lives together... being only two months apart, so why not start now. it was very entertaining how differently they handled their cakes... you'll see later!

but first i want to say again how GRATEFUL we are for bryan's uncle dennis & aunt teri for letting us have the party at their house. last minute the plans changed & they stepped up & offered/got cornered :) into having it. their house was beautiful & roomy enough to hold most of our loved ones that were able to come. it was quite a large gathering with: the paris', the meyer's, the miller's, the resch's, the bryson's, the lou crew (our highschool group of friends) & a few of my friends from random parts of my life. we originally planned for it to be at a park, but we forgot it's not the desert... and that it rains in kentucky in the spring time. doh. it was going to be so cute. bryan has a life size curious george & we were going to bring that so people would know they had arrived. we were going to have little stuffed animal monkey's on each table... we simplified, but it was still a fabulous party. jodi, grandma dee, nana, great aunt di, aunt melissa made the cupcakes for the guests. they were soooo yummy.

walter took some photos for me, (thank you!!!!!) so i could enjoy the day & here they are:

i spent about 10 hours making this banner. i'd seen in on a blog & loved the idea of replacing those paper/plastic ones with one that will last forever, have meaning & be earth friendly. i love it! & i love my new sewing machine that made the last part fly by :) thanks mom for the mother's day present! i used all scrap material for the banner. the brown canvas is left over from finn's curtains that i made. the letters are t-shirts, blankets & some fabric from my friend jill's scrap box -all sorts of things!
i was pretty persistent about making finn's cake. i used the excuse it was his first birthday, which was totally true, but i'll be making all of his cakes. it's just something i know i'll enjoy doing. i thoroughly enjoy knowing what he's eating is good for him! even cake. this is a vegetable cake & it is damn good. i decorated finn & gabes' with curious george. not bad, huh? i'm especially proud to say that bryan wrote the letters!

the recipe:
half a box of lemon cake mix.
two carrots. (ground/blend all the vegetables)
two celery stalks.
some cabbage.
some radish.
half a zucchini.
two eggs.

bake as the box indicates.

do NOT add water or oil! which makes it even better for you. if you want to add a little bit more sweetness to it you can add pineapple rings to the bottom before you bake it. we went ahead and made the icing ourselves for the boys cake, so we could decorate it, but it's sweet enough that you don't need to.

the lou crew ladies, minus aubrie. tillie, claire (born two days after finn) & ellen!
getting ready to blow out the candle!
finn dug right in. no hesitation. what's so ever.

my angle during the yum yum time.
gabe was precious. one little finger, with just a little taste. then maybe one more. and then maybe one more little taste.
is he really a year? well no, not yet. but really?
& then he decided this was just too slow- so he decided to eliminate the middle man.
we finally took it away from him at some point & this was his reaction. that's how good this cake is!
so, then he saw gabe's & decided to help himself.

thanks to everyone that came!
we really appreciate you helping us celebrate this sweet little boy's first year in this world.
we see that's he's already made quite an impact :)

love megan, bryan & finn!

mother's day.

i have a pretty amazing mama... so may 9th has always been on my radar. wanted to make sure she knew how much i loved her. respected her. was grateful for her. admired her. and wanted to be a mama just like her.

and i finally am. a mama at least.

bryan made me feel more than special on sunday. he was incredible. he asked what i wanted for breakfast around 10pm the night before & went to the store to get the supplies.

i awoke to the sound of finn & bryan giggling in the living room. then bryan made me some french toast :)

we played with finn some before putting him down for his nap. i got to open two cards. one said "where would you like to have our portrait session this evening?"

i'd mentioned casually that i wanted to get one done soon, for finn's first birthday. so bryan called our friend jill & arranged everything!

i was so excited!!! i even went out and bought a blow dryer for this special occasion! i've never owned one before.

we get all dressed up & bryan takes me to dinner at cafe boa, one of my favorite restaurants in tempe. it was yummy- voodoo penne pasta. yum. mojito, yummier.

then we headed to old town scottsdale for the shoot.

jill's already released a couple pics :) i love them!!! so i'll share them with you.
thanks jill- you're the best & it's kind of appropriate you're the one to do the shoot- since you were here for finn's very first breath!






finn wasn't a fan of being in the middle of the fountain. right after this shot i almost lost my balance turning around & the fountain sprayed up in my face. it was ridiculous. my hair was soaking wet! i couldn't stop laughing.




ah. what a fabulous way to spend my first mother's day.

we've vowed to do this every mother's day. it's so very important to have your entire family documented together at least once a year! it'll be fun to look back at how much our lives have changed from year to year.

i hope all you mama's had a wonderful day & thank you to bryan for being so awesome.

kace, emma & finn playdate

our friend marnie invited us over for a lil backyard playdate. rosie came with.

she'd just gotten this awesome sand & water table, which finn loved & i'm now hunting them down on craigslist! but anyways, the kids loved it.

finn getting familiar with his settings.
sweet, sweet kace & rose.
ah, the table. the fun has begun.
finn eating it.
doing his obligatory offering to the gods.
now his song about how goooooood the sand is.
happy, dirty boy.
miss emma is becoming quite the pro with this walking thing.

i love the way kace says lily, his girlfriend. he sticks his tongue way out, sorta like the if all the gumdrops were raindrops song... it's adorable.
those damn eyeballs & lashes. and that ridiculously sweet face. she'll have these boys wrapped around her fingers in no time.
blowing kisses.
the three pals.
kace fist bumps!
and so now, what made this lil visit hilarious. we're all sitting in the yard with the kids, talking and laughing when all the sudden something pokes up out of the ground under my butt. i'm a little startled & then i'm instantly drenched. i jump up screaming, which then allows the sprinkler to spray all over everyone else. no one had any idea why i was yelling because my booty was blocking the sprinkler. everyone starts screaming- the kids are terrified and frozen. i run over to the table to put my camera down & am the last one to reach their child. i'm a terrible mother :) rose rescued one of the kids & once she handed them off to their mama she grabbed the camera and took these next two pictures. we were all laughing sooooo hard. the kids were not amused.

and then finn wanted to play in the sand some more.
boo!
naked baby booty escaping a diaper change. i'm a gmum by the way so if anyone has any questions about these AMAZING DISPOSABLE diapers let me know.
ah. we must do that again.