happy friday.

  so far today has been filled with morning coffee + waffles + photo editing, haircuts + baths for the babes ( + ross of course ), an attempt at a photoshoot with the boys outside that ended in everyone cranky, shipping my lens back from borrowed lenses + hoping that mine will be fixed soon,  andgreen tea + homework at the coffee shop.

now i'm preparing myself for the next 24 hours which I always hate because aaron works 17 hours and I'm whiny and pathetic as ever every weekend when he does. 

here's to hoping you all have a good weekend

and that I will survive (as I always do) until tomorrow evening!

roman + ross.

roman right now:

always wearing a scarf and gloves, even inside.

carrying "ross" (his stuffed dog) around everywhere with him.

reading his new bible at night with mama.

playing basketball outside with daddy and asher.

looking through the pages of calvin and hobbes.

eating with chopsticks.

jumping on the beds and jumping off the ledges in the living room.

saying "i don't want asher to grow up!"

yelling out, "halloween!" whenever we pass halloween decorations.

just being our little halloween-loving, growing-every-day, unique + creative little boy

and making us smile everyday :)

life right now.

 

we are in our new house now. some things are unpacked, a lot of things aren't. i feel a bit  overwhelmed because i have realized that we have too much junk and it bothers me. i mean my dream is to live in a one room teepee or a tiny tree house, but my reality is that i live in a three bedroom home filled with boxes upon boxes of STUFF that has nowhere to go but that i somehow feel the need to hold onto. sigh. comparatively we live very minimally and my husband and i feel very strongly about not owning lots of stuff. however, we have TOO much. i feel overwhelmed and stuck in our unpacking venture right now. blah. i took these photos of the boys a couple weeks ago before we took a family walk to the park. it was a very fun family fall-ish night. stress levels have gone down significantly by living in town. ahh the beauty of quick trips to the store! 

 

and in further news, my little ashey-pie was featured on spearmintbaby which made my day, so check it out!

4.

you have no idea how many times i have ideas for photos and i wait too long and the flowers die or the field changes. everything beautiful out  in the country is only the same for an instant and then everything is changing, changing.
but i caught the soybeans at just the right time while they were golden yellow,  a little bit green still but also turning brown. and i caught roman in a good mood right after asher fell asleep for his nap, and he told me i could take a few photos of him across the street. the soybean field has now completely changed to brown, and our little four year old is ever so quickly growing and changing as well, his "4" shirt is just a little too short in the arms and he looks a little too much like a big boy since i gave his hair a little trim last week. luckily, he is still wonderfully little and cuddles and kisses and hugs and melts my mama heart each day.

baby curls.

just a little pre-haircut memory from a few weeks ago :)

then + now.

(asher + mama, september 2011)

(asher + mama september 2012)

a lot has changed since last fall when we moved into this house. but a lot is still the same.
a little newborn has learned to sit and stand and crawl and walk and turned into a toddler.
 our little peachy three year old has become an artist, a super hero, a tee ball player and has also turned four.
and aaron and i have gained another year as parents and as partners to each other.
 and now it's time to move on and move all our stuff with us to a new house. and a year from now, who knows where we'll be ;)

flashback.

(roman, 2009)

it seems like just yesterday it was this guy who was my little toddler running around. and asher was just a name and a dream in a notebook somewhere. i'm realizing just how different your first and second baby really are. at least it has been different for me. when roman was a toddler, he was my only and my everything. we lived in a one bedroom apartment and everything had a place. we took little adventures together, taking photos, going to the park, walking to daddy's work, picking dandelions and putting them in a basket. life was so much slower and roman was our world and our every moment. looking back i feel like i was just a girl playing house.

with the second baby, i feel like we are a real family and there are all sorts of real life family things going on. asher doesn't get every moment of my attention and it's going by super super fast. last night i took asher to the grocery by myself. i hardly ever go anywhere with just him. it was nice to be able to focus on my asher. it was so sweet to look at my second baby, sitting in the cart, wearing his brother's hand me downs and jibber jabbering away. later, asher and i spent some more alone time together while aaron + roman went to town. i gave him his first haircut in the bath and we playing with a little car together. i was so thankful for this time with my littlest. sometimes it is unsettling to me that i don't get to spend all my attention on asher like i was able to with roman for three years. i feel the need for everything to slow down so that i can get it all right, all these memories and moments. so yesterday it was nice to take a time out from everything family and have a few moments alone with  my littlest. to remember how special and perfect and wonderful he is, and how much i longed and wanted and waited for him.