me and Golds

I have basically no real photos of Hero and I together when she was a baby and I'm determined to not let that happen with G. I'm always telling mamas how important it is for them to be in photos with their littles and so it's high time I start practicing what I preach. I hope Goldie can look back on images like these one day and get a sense of how our relationship was back then and how much I loved and will always love her. 

It's so fun and interesting to see Goldie's personality show more and more. I think Chas and I would both agree that the best part about her is how quick she is to smile. Just by looking at either me, Chas, or Hero, she bursts into the sweetest, brightest, happiest smile. And then there's those big blue eyes of hers. I call them her "Disney princess eyes." So big and sparkly and pretty. 

She is a little more tricky of a baby than Hero was and we're still trying to really figure her out and how to best meet her needs consistently but we are patient with each other and in this thing together! Thanks for coming to our family, little G. We love you!

reading books

(So maybe I totally set up this cheesy little photo situation but, turns out, Hero was super into it. Giggling and walking around the circle on the books again and again. And then, of course, she lined them all up in a "book train" to walk over a million times. I gotta tell ya, it's pretty dang fun having a toddler who willingly and happily lets me take her picture.)

Hero's always adored reading books. I was the same when I was her age. In fact, my parents have home videos of me sitting on my bed and "reading" (reciting from memory) Clifford books. I LOVE that she enjoys reading so much. Not a day goes by that the two of us don't spend 30 mins to an hour sitting and reading together.

A few weeks ago, we had our very first real library experience. We brought home about 10 new books and, for the next 48 hours, I probably read those books to her for about 5 cumulative hours. A few days later, we took those books back and got new ones. I have a feeling this is going to totally save me this winter. And, the thing is, although I get pretty sick of the books that I've read a hundred times in two days, I NEVER get sick of the actual activity of reading of them to her.

When Goldie's awake, I've been letting her in on the action, too. I hold her on my lap and Hero snuggles up to me real close. With a warm, cozy blanket covering all three of us, I read to both of them. I'm pretty sure it's the closest thing to heaven that there is. Actually- I take that back- when we can watch the snow fall outside WHILE reading all together- THAT will be absolute heaven on earth.

my hero says

(Speaking to her stuffed monkey): "Are you happy, monkey? Make pancakes already!"

(Every once in a while, she'll stop whatever she's doing randomly ask very frantically): "Where's my haircut!?"

(When we ask her what she dreamed about during the night, her answer is always the same): "Becca." (her babysitter)

(Two days in a row, she came to the doorway of Goldie's room while I was feeding her in the morning, stated very matter of factly): "Apples, and pears, and raisins, and acorns. Ok, mom?" (And then she'd turn and walk away. She's also started saying the exact same phrase every night as we're walking out of her room after putting her to bed. NO CLUE what it's about but it is cracking me and Chas up.)

(Sometimes she'll look at me and say so enthusiastically and supportively): "Cute haircut, mom!"

my golden graham

I remember time feeling slower with Hero. Every month felt like 2 or 3 months and I got to do almost nothing all day but soak her in. She was my whole world- all day, every day.

Goldie will be 4 months old on Tuesday this week. I can't even believe how fast these 4 months have whizzed by. She's rolling over, sitting up in a Bumbo, giggling, and growing out of her clothes like crazy. Being a mom of two is worlds different than being a mom of one. There aren't enough hours in the day to do all I want to do. I'm so busy caring for Hero. I read to her, play with her, feed her, change her, take her to the library, the aquarium, build forts with her, dance with her, and talk, talk, talk to her. And then there's cleaning the house, laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, dinner, etc, etc, etc. Oh yeah, and photography. Goldie's in that heavenly baby world of sleeping lots. For the few hours a day she is up, she's just content being by Hero and I, taking it all in. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm missing Goldie grow up a little. Obviously, I love both my girls with all my heart but how am I supposed to divide my time equally between the two when one is a toddler who needs lots of attention and help (as all toddlers do) and one is a little baby who sleeps and lays quietly and simply observes? Goldie is coming up on my most favorite baby stage (4-6 months old) and I just want to fully BE there for every bit of it. I don't want to miss it. 

I think I'll start praying about that. How to be more fully in the moment with BOTH girls, help with discerning their individual needs, and having the energy, strength, and time management to try and give them each what they need most every day. 

I hope she never stops

She plays with, twirls in her fingers, and gently pulls my hair when she wants to really kick back and relax in my arms. I hope she never stops.

the perfect way to start the day

Hero's usually a great sleeper-in-er but with the daylight savings time change, she's waking up at 7:30am. And yes, we know full-well that 7:30am is still probably the definition of sleeping in for most parents but when you're used to 9am and sometimes even 10am, 7:30am feels like the crack of dawn. The fact that we're still up with Goldie 1-3 times a night probably doesn't help either.

But there is definitely some good in this little scenario and that's getting to spend precious alone time with just Hero before we start getting ready for the day. Lately, one of us will simply take a turn getting up with her so the other can rest a bit more but what I really love is when we both just bite the bullet and get up so we can all three be together for a while. 

Hero's is a big, full-blown kid now and so sometimes we have to kiiiinda force her to come snuggle in bed with us. She'll start immediately saying things like, "No bed!" and "I want breakfast!" as soon as we bring her into our room but we've become pretty good at being able to distract her from all that just long enough to get her into bed and under the covers with us by talking about fun things we did the day before and what she dreamed about last night. Ok. So maybe it's a little sneaky but we've been bringing her into bed with us almost every single day since she was born and just because she's growing up and starting to protest a little bit, doesn't mean I'm suddenly ready to let go of our family morning snugs just yet. No way. And, besides, within minutes, she's happily participating, giggling, and then eventually jumping around on top of the bed with us. She just needs a little reminder initially that she secretly loves to start the day this way with us ;) 

Growing up is hard to do. 

on mondays we do family night

(I've really got to start handing the camera over to Chas so I can actually BE in some of these photos too.)

Chas and I aren't consistent in every area of the gospel. We seem to always struggle with maintaining great scripture study practices and our prayers are definitely prone to becoming less heart-felt and intentional than they should be. We need to get to the temple more frequently, also. We're working on it. 

But one thing that we've tried really hard to establish in our family- from day 1 of marriage- is making family home evening happen every monday night. During the new-parent adjustment period after Hero was born, family night kinda fell by the wayside most of the time. But we're back on the wagon and doing a pretty good job nowadays, I think! 

Hero LOVES family night. In fact, most nights, after dinner, she'll say something like "What do now, guys? Family night?!" Her enthusiasm makes it so much fun. Sure we can only hold her attention during a lesson for about 7 minutes max and maybe some weeks the lesson consists only of us sitting her on our laps and talking to her for a few minutes about something like prayer or temples but watching her cute face beam with happiness the whole time is enough to make me want to have family night every stinkin' evening. 

Sometimes I'll make time to actually prepare a short lesson with a fun visual aid or small game. Things like a really simple lion's mask for Hero to wear and "rawwwr!" with when we talked about Daniel and the lion's den or word strips with different "happy choices" and "sad choices" she could make during the day and then corresponding smiley face and sad face cups to put the choices in. Last week, when we talked about building a strong foundation of faith, I got two small tupperware bins- filled one with dirt ("sand") and put a large rock in the other, made two little paper houses, put one on the sand and one on the rock, and then poured water into each tupperware. My personal favorite was making us all little Thomas S. Monson puppets (taping his picture to a stick) and using them to sing a song together: "Where's the prophet? Where's the prophet? (hiding it behind our backs)...Here he is! Here he is! President Thomas S. Monson. President Thomas S. Monson. We love him. We love him." 

Besides a lesson, we also always start with a song (usually "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" at Hero's request), a prayer, and family announcements (where we talk about what we have coming up that week). After the lesson, we let Hero decide what she wants to do for our family play time activity and sometimes (rarely) we have a small treat. 

Short. Simple. Kinda perfect. 

After last night's family night activity we did the whole bath and bedtime routine. Nothing special or out of the ordinary. But for some reason, everything in the world just felt wonderful. Probably because, during those evening hours inside our little brick house, it was. 

a saturday morning

I feel like our Saturday mornings are sacred family time for me. We usually try not to plan anything until later so we can save the first part of the day for hanging out in our jammies together. 

Taking these photos this morning felt so happy to me. I loved being able to just see all the sweet goodness that was naturally occurring with Chas and the girls and then capture it happening in the moment. All these small moments are what make up our life together and I can't believe I've never taken the time to properly document it before now. 

Love this life. 

my hero says

a few of my favorite hero quotes from this past week:

(speaking about her "rock train"): "It's special to me in the whole world."

(after I helped her take a picture of her bee backpack): "Good job, bee backpack! I'll always be your friend."

(when asked if she wanted to watch Frozen): "Olaf so nice. He needs a carrot nose. ...Ok, Olaf!"

(speaking to the big stuffed zebra in Goldie's room): "I'm going to Zane's house. Ok, sweetheart? I love you, honey. Mwwwwahh!"

>>>

Obviously this girl has lots of love to give.

A part of me is still a little sad that the total indiscernible jibber-jabber stage is gone but, then again, getting to really hear more clearly what goes on inside that crazy head of hers is pretty fantastic.

yesterday's trains

Yesterday was the first time I took out my real camera with my girls. It felt really great. These photos are nothing spectacular but they capture a few sweet, precious moments during just an average, quiet day at home.

Goldie fresh and clean out of the bath. Hero, with baby in hand, carefully building a million different "trains" everywhere. She's always so proud of every single one of her trains, no matter how small ("a baby train!") or how many times she makes them. Each one is special.

I particularly adored her arrangement of the two trains she made on the kitchen floor from rocks and small nature objects. She enthusiastically told me how pretty that dead little flower was. She also asked me to give her a "hair cut like mommy" after seeing me put my hair in a little bun. Gosh, I love her to pieces.

She's also doing an awesome job learning her letters and knows almost all of them. So proud of her. I think I'll start practicing numbers with her next. The first thing she does with the number "8" magnets is lays them horizontally: "glasses!"

And then there's that Goldie baby. I'll never get over how much I love her eyes. They're perfect. She's gotten to be so smiley lately. Such a sweet heart. And last night she rolled all the way over the first time! Time is going super fast with her. Makes me a little sad but I'm also looking forward to when these two sisters can play together.

Goldie's blessing day

These photos were actually taken the day after Goldie's blessing. Between having all the family over for dinner and dark, stormy skies on Sunday, I threw the dress back on her Monday morning to get a few shots in better lighting. Of course Hero wanted in on the action. I'll never get tired of seeing her in that giraffe costume. She's such a nut. 

Chas did a beautiful job blessing Goldie and it was really fun to have her wearing my sister's original blessing dress (it's either Hailey or Sarah's). The shoes were a gift from a friend and added the perfect touch of "gold" for my Goldie girl on her special day. 

fyi

hey all. just a little update that i've been meaning to post here. 

so when i'm not working on my little photography business, i'm giving my attention to my husband and daughter. and i like it that way. trying to keep up on this blog is ultimately taking the back seat so i can focus on other priorities. 

but i just wanted to let you know that i am blogging and actually writing thoughts (along with the images) on my photo blog. and then, of course, there's always instagram- which is probably the closest thing to this personal blog here. 

if you care to follow along, i'm much much more active and consistent in my posting in both those spaces. just fyi :) 

i'm definitely not saying that i'm shutting down this blog- just that there are other social media outlets that get more of my attention as of late. 

photo blog: www.samanthakellyphoto.com/blog

instagram: @samanthakellyphoto