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The Motherhood Journals | Brandi’s Story

January 13, 2016

The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography

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The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography

” My mother…she is beautiful, softened at the edges and tempered with a spine of steel.  I want to grow old and be like her.”  – Jodi Picoult

These words, written on the pages of novels so beautifully by one of my favorite authors couldn’t describe this gorgeous mama any better!

Brandi is stunning both on the inside and out!  When you meet her, especially in her role as momma, she instantaneously takes your breath away!

Her patience is unrivaled and her imagination brings a world of magic and merriment for her two littles that I know will continue even into their adult lives when they are having children of their own!

The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography

Brandi is a mother of two:  BK and M!  She is a wedding/event planner by day and by night she is the creator of fairy tales and dreams for her family of four!

She is beloved by every single person she meets and she is the kind of woman that the second you meet her, you know you’ve earned a friend for life!  Kind can’t hold a candle to describing who she is in her heart and she has passed that on to her little girl in a fierce way!

She and I have been talking about her motherhood session for a while!  It’s a session I’ve been dreaming about actually!  There are so many ways that I thought we could shoot her session, but Brandi surprised me and just wanted a quiet morning at home.  These mornings are her place, where the whole family is gathered and it’s a sleepy/lazy kind of morning!  It’s those mornings we all cherish as momma’s… there is nothing required and nothing to do except just BE together and enjoy one another’s company.  There’s no rushing or hustling!

It’s these type of sessions that I truly feel blessed!  In these moments, where I just get to sit with Brandi on her bed and talk real talk, one on one, and truly hear her heart!  We get to cry a little bit together as we realize as mother’s and as women we have so much in common.  We have so many hopes that are the same and so many wishes!  That although we have different backgrounds, we have the same heart.

It’s these sessions here when I just sit back and allow the families to forget I’m there that I feel my heart swell and realize what a gift they are given me by allowing me to capture such raw and true images!

On this special yet no special morning, we made a breakfast of the best kind… bacon!  We enjoyed some one on one time dancing to Mickey with little M who’s big boy first year birthday was right around the corner.  We snuck upstairs to wake up big sister and then we enjoyed a little cake!  I watched as Brandi and her husband S worked their magic in their house with love, patience, kindness and a quiet that I have never seen before.  It was a comfort that even I felt wrap it’s arms around me and invite me in!

We eventually made our way… with little baby fingers and toes covered in chocolate to the bath tub filled with bubbles and this is where Brandi told me her story!

So please… in her own beautiful words, met my loving friend Brandi!

The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography

What is my biggest success as a mama?
It’s Probably the fact that I just keep on trying. Not like half ass trying, but every day I promise I full on TRY my hardest. I exert every effort. I may be sad or depressed or overwhelmed, but I try to compartmentalize my babies, my family, and keep them in a bubble that is pure and whole and happier and so, so loved than most walking this earth!
The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography
My biggest adventures as a mother?
With Bk we traveled together very early, we went home to TX to see my mom, and i just remember being terrified. She was amazing on the way to TX but on the way home she lost her marbles. I was starting to get very self-conscious and anxiety wracked, but the most spectacular thing happened:  a random woman walked up to me and said “I would absolutely DIE to hold your baby. I have not seen my grandchildren in months, and don’t you want to make an old lady happy?” She just took BK, walking, bouncing, making friends with other fliers. She phrased it so that I felt like I was helping out, but really, she did me the favor.
She allowed us both the chance to reevaluate and calm. Then she told me, “Honey it takes a village to raise a child. Whether it is one or three children, whether that village is family or strangers on a plane. Ofter the person who offers to help needs it more than the person asking for help. So don’t turn it down, God is sending you help.”
Her words just rocked me. I had brooklyn thinking “I got this shit”… As in, no one touch her, don’t read to her, don’t bathe her, don’t look at her, I’ve got it all. I was so overwhelmed, I cried every day. I cried out of gratitude, for her beauty, for her sense of humor, just her. I was in over my head and I had no idea. But we did it, we made it, and she is so, so smart and funny.
Then we added Maddox, and man did he rock our world. Between the genetic testing coming back abnormal, requiring extra testing, delaying our announcement, finding out he was a  BOY, then a big +big boy, and finally the ultimate christmas present.
I feel like it’s the daily stuff, the deep + bring them to life stuff, that has more weight than our adventures to Mexico. But really isn’t it about the day to day, the “mundane” as they call it, because i have yet to have a mundane day in motherhood.
The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker PhotographyThe Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker PhotographyThe Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography
My greatest challenges are probably my own to bare. My greatest challenges are being present for my family and turning work off when I walk through the door.
My greatest challenge is not taking out my work day frustrations on my 3 and 1 year old, because oh my gosh they are babies.
My greatest challenge is balancing being an amazing mother while also being an amazing wife.
My greatest challenges are truly my own.
The Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker PhotographyBeautifully Honest black and white Motherhood Photography by Brooke TuckerThe Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker PhotographyThe Motherhood Journals, Brandi's Story by Brooke Tucker Photography
My advice for new moms would be “do you”. Screw the advice. You will have an abundance of unnecessary advice, all with the greatest of intentions, but you and your family are different. Because you’re your’s.
So do things your way, whether your best friend or mom says otherwise, you have got to do what is best for y’all.
Trust your instincts because you will know what your baby needs!
Try harder, throw in the towel, its up to the two of you to decide.
Trust that you know what is best, your baby does.
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 Dear Brooklyn and Maddox:

Today was an ordinary day. Brooklyn Grace was in a tutu, Maddox danced to Mickey Mouse. We had bacon for breakfast. Daddy and I tag teamed the whole routine because we were lucky to catch him on a day home. Most of your days will be normal, breakfasts before you wake up, slow mornings, home cooked meals, lots of snuggles, spontaneous dance parties, but SOOOO much love. That’s it, that is all I want you to remember, our love.

That mommy and daddy literally would have laid down for you. I hope that you’ll remember how mommy was always trying to get us to read, and throw silly celebrations, and never turned us from her bed at night. I hope that you’ll remember how daddy loved wrestling and gangster rap, that he was crazy in shape, that he always made mommy kiss him even when she was mad, and he had silly, silly jokes.
But most of all, I just hope, I hope that you know that you (brooklyn and maddox) are our end all be all.

You rise our sun and set our moon, there is no life without you. The parties for writing your first sentence or going peepee on the potty, those will fade. We just want you to know that you are truly the best jewels in our life. Without you mommy and daddy would feel incomplete. We love you so.

XO

 

*I stayed with Brandi and her family as their read their book on the couch and M fell asleep in Brandi’s arms.  I stayed in their warm house that was full of so much love and comfort and joy!  It’s always the smallest of details (like their winter bucket list taped to their fridge of fun things to do) that make the most in a family’s life!  It’s in the way that S allows BK to pour and crack the eggs into the pan for breakfast no matter if she spills or makes a mess!  Heck… that’s all the more fun!  It’s these little things that Brandi’s littles WILL remember and pass along to their children and so on.  The way that Brandi and Stephen didn’t care about a mess and let them enjoy being kids.  It’s the way they were loved and allowed to have dance parties!  It’s the way they were encouraged to be who they are and allowed to wear tutu’s to the park and eat bacon with wild abandon!

These are the memories we hold so dear!  The silly bath time kisses and toothbrush smiles!  The stories on the couch and the way that mom and dad look every day and look at us as children every day!

Thank yo u Brandi for sharing your heart!  Thank you for being so brave and bold and real!  Thank you for letting me come in to your morning during such a precious time!

I am blessed beyond measure to know you!

 

xo

  1. Amanda says:

    Just love this Brooke! Well done!

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