Here are my perfectly imperfect snapshots of the night. to remember the moments:)

her first ring pop…note the tongue:)

the balloon guy made her a turtle bracelet…cutest thing ever. This is her expression when she was wrestling around with Brad and it popped…cutest face ever:)

this is her expression watching fireworks for the first time. shot at really high iso…think 6400, only light is off of distant fireworks, no tripod….its perfectly imperfect:) We photographers have to remember to love the perfectly imperfect photos that will later on make us smile remembering the moment.

Tonight she was singing it and asked for it.  I, once again, tried to explain the concept of radio and how we don’t have it in the house on a cd.  Her reply, “don’t worry, I have it in my mouth”  and then goes to singing it:)

ps.  I am ashamed at how far behind I am in Lena and life posts.  seriously, I have decorating eggs for easter in undies for goodness sake! The blog has been jam packed with all things business and I’m feeling like a guilty momma who gives her kids an mostly empty baby book…must start documenting more.

so here is to my wish right now.  to remember these crazy days and every fun moment of this thing we call life.

cards were exchanged. lena spilled her chocolate milk. my gas light came on on the way there and Brad rolled his eyes because that is typical me.

and we were just us.

everyday normal us.

and thats what I love, just us.

In other news: I was the guest blogger on Tiffinbox today chatting about building community in the photography industry.  Woot! Go check it out!

while my hurt is far from over and my emotions feel like they are in a bounce house I do know this,

that God is so good because He gave me you guys.

From my clients to my family to my friends, some of whom I only know through this great thing we call the internet.

Seriously,

I have been amazed.

and blessed.

thank you so much

for your prayers

your comments and emails

just for being there.

they have gotten me through this.

love you,

shannon

ps…some awesome pictures coming up this week and then I promise we’ll get back to some Five on Fridays and a little Mission Monday stuff too! I’ve missed them:)

I’ve written this blog post in my head a thousand times.

it hurts my heart to even have to think about writing this letter, this post.  but I must.

you see, this blog is my home on the internet.  its my heart, my business, my legacy.

and I want to remember you.

this moment, even though its the hardest I’ve ever walked through will one day pass. and I want to honor you, the hopes and dreams of you.

********

We found out about you in perhaps the coolest way possible, on a RV heading back to San Francisco after a week in Yosemite.

We were with friends and spent that night by the ocean.  and I thought of you.  and hoped and dreamed.

because I’m pretty sure you were going to be an awesome kid with that cool of a start, don’t you think?

*********

Your dad thought of names, rearranged furniture so your crib had its own space

I planned how I was going to tell the world

(a video of your sister announcing it was how I was going to do it)

and we dreamed.

*********

I’ll always remember your sister finding out about you.

She just screeched “a brother or sister?” and jumped around.

she would have been a great sister to you.

she’s magic, you know.

********

So even though you were just a hope and a dream, no more the size of my pinky, we’ll miss you.

i’ll miss you.

love, mommy

ps. God is good, all the time.

She made up a bus song on the way down singing “we are on a bus, with pops, and momma….” and then just sing songed whatever was going on.  It was so cute! Thanks pops for the memories and adventure!

it’s my husband’s birthplace and hometown.

it’s where we first met, where we first loved, where we married

and its drowning.

and forgotten.

1000′s of water rescues, 29 now confirmed dead.

and they can’t get FEMA help because the president hasn’t issued the emergency status needed.

(something about oil leaks being more important right now…)

photo on flickr here

here’s how you can help:

Text ‘REDCROSS’ to 90999 to donate $10 to disaster relief.

I grew up visiting the Opryland when we were in Tennessee.  It was the most magical place for a kid at Christmas.

Back in January, I stayed there for the first time. It was amazing.

(click the link above for a good before shot if you haven’t ever been there)

These pictures hit home bad

and got me teary eyed.

our dear Opryland.

pictures by Stephen Lee (click to see more)

Brad’s family is in Nashville, here is part of an email his mom sent (hope you don’t mind me sharing Denise:) )

“Water conservation is the next big issue. We may run out by the end of
the week. It is critical. Bethpage and other smaller towns are having
to boil water before using as of Monday. The health director said if
you or your kids even get the water on your hands, you should wash it
off immediately. They said everything is in it from gas, oil, fecal
matter, metal, wood, trash, etc. Clarksville is having to release raw
sewage into the river.

This is something that no one has ever seen before and none of us should
live long enough to ever see it again according to what they are saying.
Tell Brad they had the weather channel guy all over yesterday showing
him around town. I guess he will camp out here because this is much
worse than a tornado or fire because the water stays until it has
somewhere to go. Knoxville is sending rescue boats and people to help
us. There have been over 1000 rescues as of last night. Now they are
beginning to find bodies. It is just unbelievable. Love, mom”

_________________

Please help Nashville! Even if you just copy and paste the bold type about the redcross in your facebook status.

thx,

me

So, 24 hours in a car in the span of 4 days=get creative! Although I am blessed with a little girl who LOVES to travel (hmmm…wonder where she gets that!) so we actually had a ton of fun. We did take a couple side trips to see the giant “pinwheels” as Lena called them.

yes, I know they have a giant windmill coming out of their head but I had to include this because this picture makes me laugh. The wind was bitter. bit.ter. and we got out of the car with grand delusions of walking to the windmill but 5 feet in Lena turned around and we all happily followed. This is my mom and dad. giving their very stoic “i’m freezing and about to blow away, why are you pointing that camera at me” pose:)

then this is what happens when you get bored. first up, self portrait of me and the lena bean.

next up, an impromptu photo shoot while Lena ate grapes (hence the hilarious mouth!)

Well, for some reason the last week just blew up on me. I have worked 8 straight days which means Brad has been cooking alot of macaroni and cheese:) But, I’m not complaining, I am REJOICING in the fact that I love my job, that God has given me amazing clients, and that I’m busy. I’m hopeful, thankful, and blessed. Even in the hard and busy times.

Ok, end of the sap:) So, after missing last week because of the craziness, we are back to our five on fridays! This week I wanted to pay homage to my Lenabean, who is growing up right in front of me. Just to document the fun stories so that later in life we can remember these busy crazy simple fun days.

1. Dora has alot of rank in the Kelley house. But we let Dora get by with it because when Lena busted out numbers 1-9 in spanish the other day I figured it may be a good thing. Sometimes Lena will mumble something off and my 2 year old translating doesn’t get me anywhere and finally after 10 minutes of guessing I realize that Lena is speaking some spanish word I don’t know. She even busted out “Donde esta” the other day:)

2. Speaking of Dora, Lena calls unicorn’s “unicornio’s”. She loves her unicorn from her playset that her mimi got her. So the other day she spent a morning having fun with nana and came home as proud as a peacock with this painted on her face.

3. Funny little story that I don’t want to forget: If you are my facebook friend or if you were driving by lowe’s looking at the fools standing in the parking lot laughing, you may remember where we went to Lowe’s on one of the first pretty Spring days and bought a bunch of plywood for some projects and then realized we didn’t bring the truck. Well, in the midst of trying to figure out what to do I put Lena in her carseat and I must have sighed or something at our little predicament. Lena looked at me and said “mommy, don’t be ustrated, it has blue sky today”. And with that I realized yes, we have blue sky today, no need to be “ustrated”. So, we returned the wood and just laughed about it. What else can you do?

4. Lena LOVES school buses. I have no idea why really. Every time we see one she screams “A BUS!!!!!!!!!” at the top of her lungs. True story.

5. Some other fun things to remember: Every night before bed Lena asks “maybe we go to the park in the morning”. Every.single.night. She lives on grapes, yogurt, toast and “leabs” (lettuce…she calls leaves), mac and cheese, applesauce and strawberries. She isn’t up for exploring more options usually. She is ticklish. She says “big hugs guys” when she wants us to have a group family hug. She loves her window down in the car and yells hi to anyone who is outside when we stop (the construction zone the other day was hilarious).

the svelte nana!

cute cheeks and shark eyes. the indie bear.

they took me to trader joes. i stocked up on almond butter and then tried their hummus at the party and realized I should have stocked up on that too! I’m now planning all my trips around Trader Joe’s and Ikea:)

then we loaded up Lena’s cart with the important stuff…bwahahaha!

quick story for memory purposes: Lena loves penguins. all penguins. but especially the one’s from Madagascar. So we found this one right before we went on our trip and it talked, not when you squeezed it but with motion. So the whole entire trip all we heard with every slight movement of the car was “cute and cuddly boys”, “soldier, you can share a foxhole with me anytime”. Needless to say the penguin lost his voice a few days ago and no one is mourning the loss:) The penguin was also the first cousin rivalry so by the end of the trip we had found Indie one too. Love these pictures. Love that they capture one of her favorite toys and the hands on the cheeks in the first one:)