So one of my very favorite, and very inspiring photographers… Tara Whitney, threw down the gauntlet last month. She challenged the readers of her blog to join her in a project, to photograph your family- once a month for 12 months! When I saw the challenge, I was happy to take up the challenge.
I have to admit that this picture was taken in some of the last light of the day back in mid-February! I told myself that I would try to do our monthly family photo on the first weekend of each month… to have a schedule, but that somehow didn’t happen. We only have Wesley at our house every other weekend during the school year, and I really wanted him to be in our family photos… so my window for taking these monthly pics, is really narrowed down to about 4 days a month. But we did it!
Notice that Campbelle is already in her favorite “Hello Kitty” pjs for the night. It was feeling a bit like winter, the evening that I shot these images, so I was able to convice the family to stand still for a whopping 3 images… taken with my timer, while my camera was propped up on the tailgate of my husbands F-150 truck! I just knew that if the wind happened to blow to hard, that my camera would fall crashing to the ground! Thank goodness, it was a relatively calm evening.
So here we are! Campbelle is 4, turning 5 in April. Wesley is a total pre-teen at 12, and little Rylie is 2.5 and getting ohhh so sassy these days. Notice the growing belly. I am now 26 weeks along with my third pregnancy. I am much larger this time around. I actually had to purpose to buy maternity clothes last weekend, because I have out grown almost all of my normal pants. I do have a few pairs of sweats and draw string pants that still fit… but they are too casual for work. My biggest frustration is that I feel so ding dang tired most days. I suppose the fact that I am working full time, coming home to 2 kids under 5, and pregnant… may have something to do with it!
I also, haven’t been sleeping very well since my father’s passing. I wake in the middle of the night… something disturbs me! Mike is snoring (which he swears he doesn’t do), or the baby starts to wiggle, or I struggle to roll over… but whatever it is that wakes me, my mind won’t rest to let me doze back to sleep. I rehash conversations, I think about what I would want to say to my father if I had a chance to have one more conversation! I have also been visited by my brother, who passed away about 10 years ago, in some of these semi-asleep dreams. With Eric around, I don’t feel quite so alone in this grief. Then at some point I do eventually fall back into a solid sleep. The other night, I actually took note of the time, and I was in and out of sleep for about 2 hours, from 2-4 am.
Either way! I’m exhausted. I need a vacation! I want a BIG glass of wine!! Why is it that we always want what we can’t have??
