Little Miss independent, little miss stubborn, little miss capable.  But oh how I love that you still need your blankie, your song before bedtime and that half way through the night I feel your sweet little body clamber over me, your little arms circling my neck and warm body snuggling up close.  Oh yes, you might think your a ‘normous girl now’ but you’re still my baby.  You’ll always be my baby and I will spend your fourth year cherishing every baby part of you.

Your Mama xoxo

Please continue on through this circle to read more letters from some  very talented women, starting with my sweet friend and amazing artist, Rashmi Pappu <3

We live right next to an Orchard, my sweet girl calls it The Secret Garden.

Please continue on through this blog circle, starting with one of my favorite photographers and someone I’m blessed to be able to call a true friend, Elle Walker.

It’s time for another Letter to you both, and this week I’m finding it difficult to find the right words.  I can’t articulate how watching the two of you together makes me feel and anything I try to say won’t come close to the feelings that I have for my two fruit-loops.  Once upon a time,  we didn’t know that you would have one another, and it could have been so different but how could our lives be anything but this – I dare not even imagine it.  What I have now is everything.  Sunny, bright, dreamy days with hearts full to the brim just from being near you, and all of that despite the weather.

But the two of you just work.  You fit together like intertwined hands, one leading the other, and most days it’s hard to tell who is leading who.  Yesterday I walked  past your bedroom door with an armful of laundry and stopped in my tracks at the sound of your giggles from within the room.  Just out of sight,  I stood as still as I was able so you wouldn’t notice me watching you, just drinking in your togetherness.  I don’t even remember what you were playing with because all I could see were two little faces, lit up with laughter at something or another that you found amusing.  I left after a while, and carried that euphoric ‘I’m the most blessed Mama in the world’ feeling around with me for the rest of the day.  It’s just another one of many moments that I will bring out and revisit often.

Keep on laughing together my sunshine girls,

Your Mama xoxo

Please continue to scroll through this circle and read more letters from some of the most inspiring women I know, starting with  Kirsty Larmour   Her images of her sweet girls are always breathtaking.

There is something so special and unique about these lenses, not only because they give a soft, ethereal and dreamy feel to images but because the images they produce are unpredictable and unexpected.  I love that you never really quite know what you’re going to get before you shoot.  I’m excited to explore my love for lensbaby, along with this very talented group of women who feel the same way

A girl and her blankie.

It covered her from the moment she was born and she won’t sleep a night without it.

Edge 80

Please continue to scroll through this circle of wonderful women for more lensbaby loveliness, starting with Sarah Vaughn, of Sunshine Lane Photography

Just a few lines today because it’s the weekend and I want to be spending my time with you instead of writing about you.  I know that the importance of keeping these memories and words safe so that you can read them whenever you choose, isn’t any more important then the time we have in reality:  so I’m trying to keep a careful balance.  Especially with you, my sweet boy.   You have a tendency to melt into the background, into days and into life.  It’s easy for you to become absorbed in something else, and to give me space to work etc and I don’t want you to think that I’m ok with not seeing you for large chunks of time.

One day soon, and it will seem soon, you’ll be flying off to your own life, embracing your own dreams and there will be plenty of hours then that I won’t get to look upon your sweet face.  So lets just take today, and what we have now and celebrate it.  Lets never become complacent about the time that we have together as a family, as this family.

Love you little man  x

Please continue to scroll through this blog circle of amazing women, starting with my friend and one of the sweetest ladies ever, Lacey Meyers <3

I don’t know when it is that you’ll be reading this, but one day I hope that you will.  I want to show you  something, a glimpse into your lives through my own eyes.  I know that I say it a million times a day,  but it’s not just words, because I  do feel like the most blessed Mama in the whole world.   I say it constantly because that is how you make me feel.  Imagine how incredibly lucky I feel when the first thing I see when I open my eyes are your sweet faces.  How could I not feel as though I’m holding the whole world in my hands when I have you both.

Poppy,  you funny little quirky fruit loop of a girl.  I adore every inch of you and your individual ways.  You do and always have followed your own beat and it’s so beautiful to me.  I see your trusting eyes, eyes that tear up quicker then any other i’ve known (well except Gabsie maybe), and eyes that look to me when the world gets confusing.  Never holding back, you speak with your heart, pouring out your hopes and dreams and the funny little thoughts you have, thoughts that always make me smile and want to hold onto you just exactly at this age forever.

When you’re being so serious about something that is very important to you, your sweet face in earnest as you speak, it’s all I can do not to smile.  I don’t though, because I don’t want you to think that I’m not paying attention, but you are so beautifully innocent still in your seven years, so trusting, and my heart is so happy that you are.  I want to hold onto this for as long as possible because as you grow I know that knowledge and experience will change you and make you more wary.   I love that in your eyes, the world is still a wondrous place where fairies fly around your room at night and where Mamas make everything right.

In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t have dreamt up a little girl as beautiful as you.

My sweet Lucy, It occurred to me just the other day, that you are coming to the end of your third year.  I’ll be honest with you, it makes me want to weep.  A little part of me is angry with time for disappearing in the blink of an eye.  My last baby, you’re beginning to loose the sweet chubby cheeks, the dimples on the back of your hands, the downy hair at the back of your neck and the lisp that you’ve had since your first words.  Not all gone just yet, and I’ve convinced myself that I have to kiss those hand dimples a thousand times a day just in case we wake up one morning and they are gone.  I know on that day I will cry huge big sad Mama tears.   But I don’t want these letters to seem sad and melancholy to you.  You are the cause of so many happy thoughts that go through my head.  I will always try to cling onto every second of you that I can, but I also rejoice those seconds and they are all tucked safely away just ready for me to bring out anytime I need a smile or a hug.

And I know too, that you’re not quite ready to give up your babyhood just yet.  We went a whole month with no suckies it was a wrench for you, but you did it and you were so proud.  I missed that little face with the sucky in it because at night time it had just become a part of you, a part of our routine, but I was also so proud that you managed what we thought would take you so much longer.  And then two nights ago, you crept into my bed in the night, as usual, and I felt your sweet arms around my neck and low and behold, what could I hear in my ear but the old familiar sucking noise.  I have no idea where you got it from, but it was back!!  And now we are having trouble separating you from it all over again! It’s ok though, I understand the want to be able to hang on to the baby moments for just a little longer.  We can be patient, I know you’ll do it when you’re ready. <3

But the best thing of all.  The very best thing, is seeing you two together.  Growing up together, learning together, loving together.  I know that you girls will always be there for eachother, I feel how strong your bond is and as much as I want to hold onto these young childhood days, I can’t wait to see the lifetime of ‘togethers’ that you both have ahead of you. <3

I love you two precious little girls, you make every day a sunshine day. <3

Your Mama

xxxx

Please continue scrolling through this blog circle of wonderfully talented women who I’m honored to be able to call my friends, starting with Amy Lockheart. of Amy Lucy Photography.   I can’t look at her images enough, she is a truly remarkable Mama and one of the sweetest women I know.

I want to thank you all, each one of you and your sweet faces and kind hearts for allowing me to continue my two loves combined, to capture my daughters on a daily basis and indulge in my love for photography.  I know that this journey would be far emptier without you travelling it with me.  You are the heart and soul of my work and if I’m able to find meaning, truth and emotion in my images, it’s because of you.  I am positive that if I’ve been at all successful – it’s because i’ve found a way, another dimension to show the world how I feel about you.   I don’t think you will ever know how grateful I am, or how proud I am of you.  I know you probably sometimes think that i’m just a soppy, cheesy Mama, but one day I really hope that you look at these letters, read these words and realise how proud I am of you.   I gave you life, but my life truly only began the moment you came into it.

Every thing about being your Mama is precious to me, from  the holding you when you cry, comforting you when you fall, to the laughter, the love and  the crazy times.  Every single second is cherished, taken and locked away in my memory to bring out, re-live  and remember.  This is why my images are so priceless to me, they are our memories, our history, our moments.  I will always remember the details, the way Poppys hair curled around her face in ringlets as a toddler, the way Lucy balances her suckies on her nose when she sleeps, the way Daisy acts like a clown and makes us all laugh.  I’ll never forget that my sweet Gabs has the most beautiful dimple when she smiles, or that Libby holds her hands clasped tightly together when she’s excited and happy.  I will have these details not only etched in my mind but right there for me to see, forever.

These images of you Gabs, I treasure because you allowed me to take them, you trusted me, and I’ll never take that for granted.

But these next images I treasure because they contain the details.  In these, I hold forever the little things that are so precious to me and these are the images that have my heart.

Having you for my Daughters, means that I’ll never stop feeling lucky and blessed.

Your Mama

xxxx

Please contine through this blog circle, starting with the amazingly talented Shalonda Chaddock of Chubby Cheek Photography, her photography is so beautiful and her use of light just out of this world.