22 January 2014

Sandbox Fun!

Mara and McKenna's preschool class took a field trip to this really cool indoor Sandbox place in South Seattle (Katie, we have to meet there sometime soon!!). Amy had to work that day so I offered to take both Mara and Mckenna and the big kids too! :) It was an adventure!
 
 
My new friend, Sam, and her adorable daughter Saylor who is also in the Mara's class!

 

Go HAWKS!

Payton, Liv and Kennedy showing their spirit.

Sledding or BUST... (It was a bust)

Sean, Harv and I took Kennedy and Roderick up to Snoqualmie last weekend to go tubing on their super fun tubing hill. Sarah, Kevin and Wyatt met us too.
We did not bring Mara and McKenna because we thought they would be too little.
We quickly realized they would have been the better two kids to bring as these two little buggers are NOT risk-takers.
They each went down one time and refused to do it again.
Instead, they rolled around in the snow and whined a lot.
Finally, we got some hot chocolate and drove home.
 
I on the other hand, thought tubing was a blast.
Next trip: no kids, just adults... and a flask. ;)
 
  This pic pretty much sums up Kennedy's tubing experience.

 
 

21 January 2014

New Mamas

Two great friends of mine, Margaret and Melissa, both welcomed their first babies in December. Baby Jack was born to Margaret in early December and baby Parker was born to Melissa at the end of December. I had both of them over for lunch a couple of weeks ago. Melissa lives in Seattle so we don't see her as often and I thought it would be nice for she and Margaret to talk babies. I remember when I had Kennedy, I loved talking to the few friends I had who also had new babies. It was nice to talk with someone who was going through the same thing (and who was equally as sleep deprived as I was!).

We had a really nice afternoon and I got a nice little baby fix too! ;)
Jack and Parker are both beautiful and precious babies! Congrats to both of my beautiful friends! Welcome to this crazy and wonderful thing called Motherhood.

P.s. Margaret and Danny asked me to do their newborn photos shortly after Jack was born. They are some of my most favorite images to date... you can check them out here.

 My girls LOVE playing with dolls. They spend hours and hours playing house with their dolls. And often, Kennedy makes Mara be the baby and that game can span hours, as well. So you can only imagine their excitement at the opportunity to hold REAL babies. Pretty sure it was the topic of discussion for about three days afterwards.

Welcome 2014!

We spent a fun New Year's Eve at our house with a few overnight guests. The Williams and Willoughby families joined us for a fun night of dinner, drinks and the hilarious game Cards Against Humanity. The Richards(with new baby Jack!) and our neighbors, the Heimgartner's, also came for some of our night as well! I only took a few photos ... Heidi took quite a few and if I get around to getting them from her, I will add them to this post!



Six (because I couldn't think of any more) resolutions for 2014...

1. Be more present. Fall was a really busy time for me - I felt swamped with balancing photography, the girls, the house etc. My photography has turned into a solid part-time job but the problem is I don't have any childcare so I do my part-time job AND my full-time job which is the kids and the house. My goal for 2014 is to find some balance with this either in the form of some childcare 1-2 times per week or in the form of cutting back on the photography. I have not felt as present and in the moment with my kids the past couple of months and I don't like that.

2. Lose 10 lbs. (c'mon... what New Years Resolution list isn't complete without this one?!?!).

3. Get one of my photographs published in either a print or digital form.

4. Eat more veggies.

5. Spend more time outside.

6. Re-discover reading.... one of the great loves of my life that has been seriously neglected as of late.

02 January 2014

Jesse + Alicia

I had the pleasure of photographing my cousin Jesse's wedding in early December.
I posted their "official" wedding photos over on my Junebug Photography blog page here but
I wanted to post some here of the more personal photos from the reception of my little family and some of our extended family!

Six of the Simons siblings (missing Tom and Mike)


My mom and her oldest sister... my Aunt Sharon.
They are 20 years apart in age - both so beautiful! 






Rachael and Paige ... cousins one week apart in age!




 
 Two of my favs... Uncle Bill and Aunt Judy
 Love, Love, Love this photo of my mama and Mara.

Joy.

Giving these photos a post of their own because I LOVE them.
Before heading to Mass on Christmas Eve, I took the girls outside to snap these.
I love how they turned out. Excited to make them into a collage to display each year.

We really enjoyed our girls this Christmas. I feel like you really only get a handful of truly authentic Christmases where they wholeheartedly BELIEVE. This was one of them and I really did love every second.