the holidays according to my iphone.

2011 was a such a good year for us. We saw so many answered prayers and were grown and stretched. We started going to Red Door and found the kind of deep community we'd been looking for for so long.  We added a new 4 legged addition to the family. My photography started to "click". We had fun. I'll miss 2011, but 2012 promises a whole new set of lessons to be learned, community to be deepened, and fun to be had. Here are some pictures of our Christmas. It was so restful and magical. 

The 1st Christmas tradition Matt & I have had as a family, Awaited. A creative, beautifully told play about Jesus's entrance into our world. 

we had lots of snuggle time!

Matt's dad gave me Harry Potter glasses to hint at my gift of the entire Harry Potter series. Hilarious.

It was so fun watching our niece experience the trees and lights and general Christmas magicalness! 

pretty pup, pretty tree.

Our very special Christmas desserts. YUM.

This was the first year we got to have Christmas day all to ourselves. It was perfect. We started by spending half the day in our pj's and wearing our bed head and making a delicious breakfast.

My mom & I had dinner at Nada & then went to see The Nutcracker. It was so magical. I loved every single second & will be going back every single year. 

My grandma & niece on Christmas Eve. 

2 of my favorite gifts from Matt! So much beautiful imagination!

We rented out Book Bums & welcomed 2012 with good friends and a fancy dress party. I didn't get the 20's theme memo until it was too late but it was so much fun. I don't want to forget spending an hour from midnight til 1 am dancing with a friends daughter and watching fireworks go off from the house across the street. Such a good way to celebrate. On New Years day we headed down to Williamstown, KY to spend the day with Matt's mom and stepdad. It's so pretty & peaceful down there. I love being able to just stand in front of or behind the house and see nothing but sky and rolling hills. Then we stayed up way too late a second night in a row playing games & snuggling Jim the cat with our second family (or what most normal people call small group). 

How was your Christmas? Did you celebrate the new year? Praying that you are blessed and filled with love and joy in 2012! xoxo.

Kiddos Christmas photos.

I nanny part time for 3 of the best kids on the planet, and their mom asked me to take some last minute Christmas photos of them last week. This one is my very favorite. It showcases their individual personalities perfectly. I just love them so much!

I'm done with photo sessions for the season I think, and can't wait to start again next spring. I'm really proud of myself for how far I've come with photography this year and I'm so excited to see where it takes me next year. I'll be back Monday with some favorite 2011 moments in pics. 


I hope you all have a magical & safe New Year!


xoxo.

Emma::children's session

I have had the pleasure of photographing miss Emma twice now. This year, we headed down to the the Krohn Conservatory, which was decked out in Christmas decor and had a fun train show.  It's so fun to document the growth of a little human being. Emma is so darling and so sweet. I love taking her pictures! She is just beautiful and I couldn't stop snapping away; and she has a laugh that is hilarious and heart melting all at the same time.  Here are a few of my favorites from their session:

Thanks for coming back to me a second year in a row, Christain, Chad and sweet Emma! Can't wait for next time!

Megan & Rebekah

Whoazers, has it really been a month since I've written on the blog? I didn't realize I'd been neglecting it that long! It's been a great month, but for now I'll just share some pictures I took last month. I had the privilege of doing my first sister session w/ Megan & Rebekah. They hadn't had their pictures taken in 4 years and it was a special Christmas surprise for their mom. Both of these girls are SO beautiful inside and out and I was blessed to get to spend the afternoon with them and document their awesomeness!

I loved photographing you, Feeneys! You are wonderful!

How has your month been?

on choosing thankfulness...

Matt and I are in a season right now where we hardly see each other. As in, we get to spend 1 day a week together. He works A LOT of hours. I've gotten used to it mostly, and we have an awesome community that doesn't let me get too lonely, but it still gets really hard sometimes. So far this week he worked 12-10ish yesterday, but I left for my part time job at 6:50 a.m. before he was awake,and today has worked since 9 and will probably work until 10 or 10:30 because Tuesdays always happen like that. We usually get to spend Wednesdays together, but then it's a lot of separation again until the next Wednesday. There are definitely times when I choose to be frustrated and upset about this. But I have been remembering this verse:

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Tonight I prayed and looked around my living room at all the things that I don't even need but have because God has blessed us with this job and with people who love us and give us things. I have a clean, warm house in a safe neighborhood with more bedrooms than I need and clean, running water. I have a comfy couch that I have spent the day lying on because I have a nasty cold. I have more warm blankets than I know what to do with, a bed with no bugs and I get to CHOOSE what temperature my house will be when I go to bed at night and get up in the morning. I get to be choosy about how I decorate my home when most people in the world hardly have a home and couldn't decorate if they wanted to. We have not 1, but 2 cars, one of which was GIVEN to us. I can buy organic groceries while there are people in my city and probably on my street who have to use food stamps to feed their families. I have a landlord who just knocked $100 bucks off our rent as a Christmas gift while I know for a fact that there are lots and lots of people out there who's landlords could care less about their Christmas. I get to wear clothes that I like and feel good in while there are people out there who are just struggling to stay warm and covered. This time last year, I'm pretty sure I overdrew our account when I bought a book of Shel Silverstein poems for my niece for Christmas, the other day I spent $150 on gifts for Matt and our two nieces without having to worry where the money was coming from.

WE ARE BLESSED, and I will choose to rejoice in the fact that God has provided my husband with a job and we can pay the bills and give to others INSTEAD OF choosing to be bitter and mad that he has to work another long day. I will choose to pray in my moments of loneliness and discouragement and repent of my unthankfulness. I will choose to pray for my husband who is bearing the load of the long hours and sometimes seemingly fruitless work way more than I am. I will choose to GIVE THANKS for the fact that we spent most of last year living in peoples spare rooms and basements and now we live in a warm home of our own INSTEAD OF acting like we are in some kind of bad situation. I will choose to have hope and trust that when the time is right, Matt will be provided with another job that will enable us to be together and allow him to pursue things he actually wants to pursue. I will CHOOSE joy & thankfulness, even when it's hard.

Look around you. We are given so much that we don't deserve. What are you thankful for?

music monday on a tuesday: Kate Nash

Last night I listened to Kate Nash while making this soup and Kate Nash makes me dance, so if you want to dance you should listen to this song and watch the fun video that goes with it. 

hope you had a wondrous weekend!

on living frugally...

In mainstream America being frugal is not really considered a positive thing. Everywhere we look we are bombarded with media telling us to " buy buy buy" and convincing us that things we simply want are actually things that we desperately need. Before we were married and a few times since, Matt and I have talked about how we want to live simply and frugally and what that looks like for us. Frugality is not an easy trait to possess when you've lived much of your life with the conventional world telling you that you can never have enough and that there is always something better that you need to buy. But we are slowly learning the art of it.


A big reason I choose to live simply is that I believe that we are to be good stewards of God's creation. God's creation, to me, means ourselves, our surroundings, and all living things. He made it all. He entrusted it to us to care for. I want to help take care of it. Another big reason is that for us, being frugal is necessary for our lifestyle. I work very part time, a couple days a week with photography bringing in some money here and there, but for the majorly most part Matt brings in all the money. We are by no means rich and when we don't guard ourselves against materialism, our finances can get puh-retty tight. Our finances can even get a little tight when we DO guard against materialism. Why don't I just get a full time job, you ask? Because wives are called to support and help their husbands, and for ME, that means literally working at home to make sure that it is clean, cozy and peaceful when my hubby comes home from his 50+ hour work week. In our family, me staying home is more helpful to Matt than if I had a full time job. I am honoring God AND Matt by staying home. I will continue to stay home and raise our family when we have kids. We have committed to this lifestyle. I am passionate about it and will guard it the best I can until I am called out of it. 


I am always looking for new ways to live simply and spend less, and wanted to share some small ways to make it happen. If you are interested in living frugally or are already doing so, these are EASY ways to make it a habit and then a lifestyle. These are all things that I do, have done, or plan to start doing. 


~1st, choose the 1 or 2 things that you are willing to spend more money on. For me, it's our food. I am absolutely willing to spend more money on better quality food.  Yes it's more expensive.No I will not ever be one of those coupon queens who get hundreds of dollars of processed crap for $25.00, but this is what I'm willing to spend more on. Knowing what I'm willing to spend more on helps me to cut out spending in other areas.


~shop at thrift stores. I'd say at least 80% of the clothes and material things I buy come from the thrift store. And I like pretty things, so know that frugal does NOT equal ugly. Shopping at the thrift store has helped teach me patience if there's something in particular I want and helps me keep in mind the difference between what I NEED and what I WANT. The hard part for me is not going to town and buying tons and tons of clothes just because they're cheap, because then I've defeated my purpose. But I'm getting there : ) Thrifting also ensures that your money is not going to sweat shop labor, which is something else I'm passionate about.


~make your own laundry detergent. WAY cheaper and I've heard great things about it. I'm going to start doing this when our detergent is out. Plus, homemade detergent keeps a lot of those nasty chemicals out of your clothes.


~make your own shampoo & conditioner. I've done this, I like it, and I'm going to keep doing this. I have a friend who doesn't use the no poo method but does use castille soap, which can double as cleaner for other things, which brings me to...


~make your own household cleaners. You can use soap and water, vinegar and water, or research other methods.  I love making my own cleaners because it's insanely cheap and the cleaner cleans everything from counters to windows. So I don't need multiple cleaners filling up space. 


~ eat at home. This is something Matt and I are still working to get better at. I love to cook, but we like to eat out. It's not as healthy for us AND it's money that would be better spent somewhere else. I don't think you should completely cut out restaurant eating, but I would like to cut ours back to maybe a couple times a month. Don't know how to cook? There are a plethora of recourses online for you. My favorite places for recipes are simple bites, pioneer woman, real girls kitchen, shutterbean and pinterest. 


~get rid of cable tv. We got rid of ours long  ago and went with netflix. Then we downgraded from the streaming and movie delivery to just streaming. We now pay only $8 a month for tv, we haven't run out of things to watch yet, and we're also avoiding the massive amount of media that was being shoved down our throats when we had cable. 


These are just a few, small steps we have/are taking toward more frugal living. What do you do to live simply?