my heart

these images capture my family. my happy. my heart . . . 

thank you simply rosie photography for freezing this season of our lives. you gave us a gift, a treasure that we will hold onto and look back on for years to come. 

kendi turns two

gosh typing out the title of this post was not so easy for this pregnant, hormonal mama who all she wants to do is freeze time and slow it waaaaaaaay down every where she turns as of late. i simply cannot believe our baby girl is two. TWO. how crazy amazing this precious life is. we celebrated our sweet kendi rayne's birthday close to home this year. she woke up with the sun the morning of her birthday to a room full of balloons and fresh flowers from the market and we ventured about the day doing the things she loves. a simple day it was, but a beautiful one nonetheless. 

over the weekend we had family over to celebrate. our backyard filled up with our favorite people as we rang in another year with our baby girl with a fabulous taco bar spread, cake and ice cream, and presents of course. the cousins played hard, chasing each other about the yard, practicing their handstands, cartwheels, and yoga and engaging in a fun game of duck duck goose. it was a simple day. nothing crazy or super eventful, but our family was there, everyone had smiles on their faces and the joy on our little girl's faces was priceless.

kendi rayne, you bring such profound joy and love into our family. you have a heart of gold and wild spirit about you and for that we feel truly blessed. you adore your sister and your puppy and prefer to be active all day, every day. you have energy like a strong wind and are constantly go go go. you have taught your mama about love and patience more in these two years than i ever had before. you have shown me that hugs always work and that dancing to the sound of a good beat brings you great happiness and joy and most of the time will bring you back to center. you love to snuggle in and prefer to lay next to your mama at bedtime, pulling my face close to yours right before you drift off to sleep. you run faster than any other toddler i know and are so quick to get to the back door to welcome our daddy home from work. all these things and much much more, are what we love about you.

happy happy birthday baby girl!

and….

because i don't want to forget the fun you had, how shy you were opening your presents and how you cried when you were sang to. how bright your smile was that you so gracefully shared with the people you love and how you didn't want the day to end or to say goodbye to your special guests. how i washed off the leftover food and cake frosting on your face and your dirty legs and feet from playing hard outside in the kitchen sink while singing your favorite song and whispering in your ear, i love you i love you i love you. and how after what was a really good day, i swooped you up and you immediately fell asleep in my arms and me suddenly feeling nothing but the warmth of your body pressed up against mine as your chest rose up and down with each breath. these are the detail that i don't ever want to forget. these are the moments i want to bottle up for all my years…..

mama loves you so, sweet kendi rayne.

july 4 2015

i am finally getting around to sharing some of our july 4th celebration. this day was nothing short of sweet and i keep finding myself thinking about this very day quite often. it was one of those days that if it was possible to restart over and over again, i'd be more than okay with it. we started the day picking strawberries, which is was one of my favorite pastimes as a child growing up. i remember going to the strawberry field with my mother down the road from our home and picking in the late afternoon hours, just before dinner or after. i remember it being such a special time for the both of us and to relive some of those same feelings with my own children, ahhhh my heart sings just thinking about it.

what a joy it was to see our two little gals enjoying themselves. kendi probably ate about fifteen strawberries or so, freshly picked, unwashed with not a care in the world other than feeding her tummy with delicious and ever so sweet berries. kaia loved finding the really big ones and teaching little sister the ins and outs about how to pick the berries and what to look for. nothing like making a mama's heart smile when you witness moments of your children teaching their younger sibling or siblings how things are done ;)

after picking berries the day was still young and we ventured on home to our little abode in the city where we spent the rest of our day soaking up the gorgeous weather with water games in our beloved backyard, fixing up our first homemade strawberry pie (that turned out soooo good by the way!), and fireworks in our back alley. it was such a perfect day celebrating this beautiful country.

here are a few iPhone images of our day together…