Happy new year everyone!!! I hope everyone rang in this brand new shiny 2015 in a very safe, fun and loving way!
Over here we had our traditional sushi order in dinner for two and movie night. Neither of us made it to midnight (I didn’t even make it to 11 pm)! I know I’m lame! I didn’t even wake up when my set alarm went off at midnight to roll over and kiss my sleeping husband!
I’d love to say this is what happens when you have a family… but it’s totally not! You can still be fun and go out! You can still be fun and hang in… we just love our sleep over here! Plus Linc monster is an early riser. If you follow me on instagram, you saw that he was trying desperately to stay awake for the festivities himself (in and out of bed and having his own little party in his room with his friends). Eventually he came to our dark side of thinking! 🙂
Tuck was able to sneak upstairs, catch the cutest snapshot and then gently and stealthily place him back in bed for the night!
When I did finally make my way into bed last night, at the ripe hour of like 10:30 (I know I know! I’m a wild and crazy animal) I took a few moments to reflect over this past year! I have always kept a gratitude journal on my bedside table so that I can remember before closing my eyes at night all the things that I have to be thankful for, even when sometimes life can feel crazy and chaotic.
2014 was a year of intense growth for me: as a person, as a mother and as a business owner! I faced a lot of challenges in 2014 that really pushed me to move beyond boundaries and realize things about myself that I didn’t think were capable. I had to find strength that I didn’t think I possessed and in the end as much as I didn’t start off loving 2014, I am extremely thankful for all that this past year has taught me!
Here are some of the lessons learned for our little family in 2014:
Tuck’s deployment is the biggest one that is always going to come to mind for this past year. 2014 taught us about our little family: how strong we are together and how strong we are when we are apart. I had to be completely independent and stronger than I have ever been in my entire life. Linc and I together laughed and danced our way through extremely high fevers and hospitalizations. We played our way through amazingly beautiful park days and freezing cold snow adventures. We kept daddy a part of it all through photos and stories and skype! We learned that we are forever blessed with some truly amazing friends that spent many evenings dropping by and helping with baths or dinners or just talking! I quickly realized that as independent and solitary as sometimes I feel that I am (I like my “me”time) I need to be around people! Without some of my girls this past year, I’m not sure where I would be or what state I would be in. They kept me sane and they kept me going. They spent many nights bringing me up and keeping me laughing. Elizabeth Friske would often just let herself in, plop down on my couch and stay until I was so sleepy I was falling asleep. She would often leave me dinners on the front porch. She would take on ridiculous projects with me to keep me busy, and she would photograph me and Linc to help remind me how blessed I was! These are the gifts we have around us every day in life that we so often take for granted!
I learned how to become an excellent multi-tasker and became extremely organized. At least for the time being 🙂 I learned that you can really have it all: family, friends, teach body flow, AND run a successful photography business as long as you stay on top of all the little tasks and have a system that works for you! Organization is the key! Plus who doesn’t love really fun office supplies?!
I also learned that you have to WORK for it! You get back what you put in! This goes for EVERYTHING in life, but especially the photography world! If you aren’t working for it, I promise you someone else is! But more importantly it is NOT a competition friends. We need to support one another and love one another. We need to remind one another to work hard and love it just as much as we did the day we started!
This competition thing goes for life too. LIFE is not a competition! This year I read Bob Goff’s book Love Does and it really did change my life. Instead of competing and comparing ourselves to and with each other, instead we should just be focused on loving one another. If we can’t do that maybe we should just try focusing on loving ourselves completely and wholly first!
2014 is the year that I finally listened to my sweet and smart husband when it came to the business side of things; and guess what… he was completely right about all of it! Having smart and saavy business practices actually helps to turn a profit around and GROW your business! I’m all heart when it comes to my business. I’m a sensitive, emotional, and loving beautiful mess! My husband is all practical. We balance each other out. You have to have both in order to succeed.
2014 was also the year I learned to find my patience! Linc and I had a rocky start when it was just the two of us. I needed to learn to relax and let it go. (Don’t you kind of want to break into the chorus now whenever you hear that phrase? I do!) I wanted to be the kind of person that is just free. That is go with the flow and relaxed about life! I want to enjoy everything for what it is: the adventure that it is! And I”m on my way there. 2024 helped me realize that is who I want to be and to start that process and become more self aware. Patience is so important for that. Patience and positivity and being present in the moment~! We only get to do this once… I want to do it with wild abandon and as much fun as I can!
As I lay there last night reflecting on all these moments from 2014, I realized I am really ready to move ahead! I don’t want to look back, I just want to embrace 2015 knowing this year is going to be pretty flipping awesome!
I made some goals for myself… some pretty BIG ones for 2015. No holding back! Goals that I plan on sharing with you next week! I truly believe if you don’t put them out into the universe then you can’t expect any help in accomplishing them!
I hope you have had some time to reflect on 2014 and all that it has brought to your little world. What has really impacted you the most from 2014 and what do you hope to accomplish now in 2015?
As always there is so much gratitude and love to Elizabeth with Elizabeth Friske Photography for taking these BEAUTIFUL images of our crazy and wild little family! What you don’t realize is that to take us out on a session is like going out with the wild things and you have to be Max!
This session was like 30 minutes long and it was a crazy mess of a show! Linc and I were on a bear hunt with music included via Iphone. About half way through our bear hunt, he decided he was actually scared of the bear hunt, so that got changed thanks to Elizabeth’s quick thinking and notice of the surroundings to a duck hunt! We also encountered pee pants and had a quick outfit change in the freezing cold which might have switched an attitude as well!
Also let it be known that Tuck HATES photo sessions. He HATES being in front of the camera… and most of our images look like this….
Not all photographers have perfect families with perfect smiling children and husbands! In fact… most of us have husbands who complain, make snarky faces or stick their tongues out! Tuck lasts about 30 minutes and he’s done. He does it because he loves me and he knows it is super important to me. He also does it because he knows how important it is in general because he learned to value what I do while he was deployed. Without images of Linc and my “craft” he wouldn’t have been able to see the changes and watch him grow as much as he did.
Give it time though and he will go back to his ANOTHER ONE?! BUT WE JUST DID ONE 9 MONTHS ago way of thinking!!!!
Thank you Elizabeth for capturing us the way we truly are… and then making us look happy and loving and normal! 🙂
Happy New Year EVERYONE!
