I had every intention of posting these before Valentine’s day, but it just didn’t happen. In fact, I have a few valentine posts, so I guess you’ll just have to suffer through them this week.

Well, of course I always love to make photo valentine’s for my kids. And, of course, the night before class parties when I am tying them to a million treat bags, my husband is always rolling his eyes and wondering why I didn’t just buy the ones from the store. At that point, I’m usually wondering too. I actually give the kids a choice on whether or not they want to do them (or just buy them at the store) and then they get to select a theme. I thought for sure this year that my second grader would rather buy some Star Wars ones at Target, but he still asked me to make his.

So here they are. Each of them is so totally ‘them’, which I love! (Even though I don’t love the fact that our house was a cave when I took the bed jumping ones (so no good light AT ALL), and the outside ones were FREEZING.) I got the cutest little handrawn elements from this etsy seller. SO cute! Love her etsy shop!

Jump for Joy

Instant Friend

Rock and Roll

And just because we had fun doing these, here are some pictures that didn’t make it on to the cards. Happy (late) Valentine’s Day!

For the last few weeks, I have been right there with the rest of the world. Captivated, shocked, and heartbroken for the people of Haiti. Praying for their safety and relief.

Haunted by stories like these.

To see those photos of orphaned children, of homeless families, of injured elderly, of a city that is just so broken is truly heartbreaking. And we only have to imagine how bad it must be. They have to live it.

I know you are just like me and have felt moved to help.

I mean, how could we not?

We see tragedy and we are motivated to do our part. It’s been uplifting to see millions of dollars donated to the relief efforts. To know that people truly care. And while it will take much, much more for their restoration, it’s refreshing to see that there are great teams of people who will use those donations to make it happen. To rebuild and restore something that is so broken.

But goodness, even though we have ‘helped’ by giving our resources, I have to say that its left me feeling a little bit helpless. Because despite the fact that nothing could be accomplished without monetary donations, I am feeling helpless because I am physically unable to be there making a difference. Frustrated by feeling like there is no way to really do my part.

In our Wednesday night Bible study with our youth group, we have been studying Proverbs. We spent some time on these 2 verses from Chapter 3 last week.

²⁷ Do not withhold good from those who deserve it,
when it is in your power to act.

²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor,
“Come back later; I’ll give it tomorrow”—

when you now have it with you.

While sharing these verses with the awesome teenagers in my group, I could totally feel God convicting me.  I started wondering why I was so willing and eager to help in another country of need (not that there is anything wrong with that; we need people to help!). But why was I not always freely giving to those in need all around me? Right here?

The media has done a great job making us aware of the needs in Haiti. It’s been on our hearts and minds constantly. And we have longed to helped. And I got to thinking that if I was more aware of the needs of those around me, that they would be on my heart and mind constantly. And I would feel that same longing and eagerness to help.

Because while we are obviously not in the middle of the kind of massive destruction that the people of Haiti are undergoing, there are still massive needs all around us. Friends on the brink of divorce, emotionally struggling teenagers, people suffering from the loss of a job, neighbors in need of encouragement, lonely people in need of a friend.  And while physically making a difference in Haiti will likely be no more than a longing for most of us, physically making a difference here can be a reality if we step out of our comfort zone just a bit.

I’m praying I will become more aware and do just that.

Six months ago, sweet baby C looked like this…..

And now, well, I’d say she’s grown a bit. Loved every minute of this shoot this weekend. We were stuck inside the whole time while it was super freezing and snowing outside, but 6 month olds are THE BEST (especially sweet little girls with 3 super cute outfits) so we didn’t miss the outdoors at all.

And of course, I couldn’t leave big sis out. I’ve had the privilege of photographing her since she was a newborn, so it has been awesome to see her grow up. I love my job!

Location: Client’s home

I LOVE Christmas cards. Making them, giving them, receiving them. But by the time it rolled around to make mine this year, I was super out of energy and frankly just kind of burned out. I’m actually not sure if they even made it to the recipients before Christmas. The photo shoot was totally last minute, I didn’t get a single pic of the three of them that was cute (well actually that’s not true, I did get one cute pic of all of them laughing because my little one’s skirt fell down to her ankles, but it wasn’t exactly card appropriate), and it was freezing cold outside. But even with all of that, I got several pics I loved and wanted to share them here.There’s totally more pics of my middle daughter only because she was really the only cooperative one. I let them take turns running back and forth from the car……

So anyway, Merry (late) Christmas!!

This is the verse I used on the front of the cards. Thought it fit the pics (and the season perfectly):

It started when God said, “Light up the darkness!” and our lives filled up with light as we saw and understood God in the face of Christ, all bright and beautiful. 2 Corinthians 4:5

A long time ago, I had a personal/family blog but haven’t updated it in a LONG time and finally have come to terms with the fact I probably won’t get back to it anytime soon. I miss it though, so I decided to make this blog more personal. We’ll see how it goes….

I love all the snow we’ve had recently. Winter is my least favorite season for sure, but I think the snow makes everything look so sparkly and pretty. Kate says it looks like glitter. I love that it covers everything up and just leaves behind a fresh, clean slate. And I thought it was pretty appropriate that we had snow on the ground for the new year. When I sat down to think about my goals and resolutions for the new year I didn’t have a hard time coming up with a list of things to improve upon in 2010. In fact, I had a hard time NOT adding more things to the list. Because the simple fact is that there are just so many things I would like to do better.

Be a better mom.

Be a better wife.

Be a better friend.

Exercise more.

Eat less junk food.

Be more organized.

Cook more.

Plan better.

Be on time.

Stop procrastinating.

Give back more.

Live more simply.

Spend more time reading my Bible.

Do more unexpected, kind things for others.

See what I mean? The list is somewhat long. And although it’s true that I’d really like to improve in all of those areas, I wanted to have a more narrow focus. Cause when you are trying to stay on track with four thousand resolutions it gets out of hand pretty fast. And I imagine it would be a bit hard to stay on track or really even determine your progress for that matter.

So what to do? How would I narrow it to just one? Because all of them seem important.

I started praying about it and actually felt a clear answer. One resolution that stood out from the rest. And it’s simple.

Love God more.

That’s it.

More of Him and less of me.

Sounds simple enough, of course, but we all know that through the busyness of daily life its sometimes easier said than done. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that this resolution really is the most important for a couple of reasons.

The main reason is because He tells me so. The following is from Matthew 12…..

• ²⁸One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
• ²⁹“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[e]30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^{[f] 31}The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[g]There is no commandment greater than these.”

The second reason is that loving God more means I am doing my best to live by the spirit. Which has its own benefits.

• ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Galations 5:22

And it hit me that by following through on that one resolution means I will be making progress on all of them.

Be a better mom. PATIENCE.

Be a better wife. LOVE.

Be a better friend. GOODNESS.

Exercise more. SELF-CONTROL

Eat less junk food. SELF-CONTROL

Be more organized. SELF-CONTROL

Cook more. PATIENCE.

Plan better. SELF-CONTROL

Be on time. SELF-CONTROL

Stop procrastinating. SELF-CONTROL

Give back more. KINDNESS.

Live more simply. PEACE. JOY.

Spend more time reading my Bible. FAITHFULNESS

Do more unexpected, kind things for others. GENTLENESS.

See what I mean?

Even though it snowed a tiny bit more today, most of the snow is already gone. I took couple of photos of the last bits hanging around our yard and I couldn’t help but think that as much as the fresh snow represents a clean start, it’s not too long before it gets all messy and then disappears altogether. Kind of like our resolutions.

But I’m resolving to follow through on mine the best I can. We’ll see how it goes…..:)