One of the prettiest girls I know…

I had sooo much fun a few weekends ago.  My darling sister asked me to shake the dust off my camera, and do a photoshoot.

I was so excited to take her maternity pictures.

Right after she asked me, she ended up in the hospital because of her Placenta Previa.

I rushed down there as fast as I could, and hoped she would be better and feel up to photos.  I prayed that all would be well.

Luckily they got everything calmed down, put her on a mild bedrest and…

told that baby to stay put for a while longer.

He needs to bake a little longer.

We also did some photos of the whole fam showing their love to the babe in the belly.

Hank was not showing his love.  He was kinda mad, but that’s a 3 year old

He was mostly mad about his sweater.

We finally got him to perk up at the end, after we found a dog for him to pet.

I am so amazed at the strength and beauty of this women.

She has been thru many hard things, and always comes through smiling and teaching me how to be better.  I learn to be a better wife and mother from her.

I am so excited to meet this new little guy.

I know he is a special little spirit.  He is so lucky to have Kristin as his Mom, and Jared as his Dad.

I am ready to hold him, but not yet!! He needs to stay put a little longer.

This was a fun day.  I loved capturing this moment in time.

Thanks for letting me a part of this, I love you sis.

Lost…

If you noticed or even cared, I took a six month hiatus from blogging. 

It was for many reasons.  One reason was to do some thinking but, probably among the biggest reasons was building our new house, and moving.  It took a lot of time and energy.  We built a custom home.  I started by sketching out a design on paper, and ended by picking out every last detail inside.  Needless to say, we were here for every step of the process.  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!  I want to share more about the process here, so more on that to come.  Here is a pic of the finished product:

We moved in at the end of October, and had just enough time to get our front yard in.

If you want to follow more of the process, you can follow us on Instagram @valleyviewabode It has originally been a private account, but I have felt very led to make it more public, and have it be a design and creative Insta account for me.  I will still keep our family Insta acct. private however. 

After all those house decisions, my brain was a little tired.  I tried to tell myself that I would blog about the process.  At night, when I thought I would have time to blog, I couldn’t.  I could not think about one more thing.

I blamed my lack of blogging on no brain power.

Then we moved in to this new house, and settled in.

  I realized that I was lost on this blog and the true me, long before that.

I lost myself somewhere between Pennsylvania and Utah.

When I look back over my blog posts, the frequency and even my heart seemed to diminish somewhere between Pennsylvania and Utah.

When I would sit down to blog, my heart wasn’t in it.  I was lost.

I went out a few days ago and took a few pictures after a huge snow storm we had, and I realized I felt a little like this bird.

  Lost.

Why is this bird here in all this snow?

As I started taking pictures, I remembered how much I love having this camera around my neck.

  I remembered how much seeing a scene through my view finder brought a quickness to my heart that I almost can’t describe.

When we moved in this new home, I started feeling bits of the old creative me coming back, and wondered where she had been.

I am beginning to feel more like me again.  I haven’t been a full Andrea since we got to Utah. 

I’ve been half an Andrea.  I’ve been a mom and a wife, but not a photographer, a blogger, a creator.

I think I figured out why.  Some of the reasons why are very personal, and I will keep to myself, and some are as simple as I forgot to find time to be creative.

I need time to be creative and use my creative brain each day.

Sure, I have gotten away for a weekend here or there to scrapbook, but once I came home; I was lost again.

Now that we are in our new home, I have my own space to find myself each day.  I have my own craft room/office.  It is amazing how that space has brought me back to life.  I can just walk in to that room and my eyes light up. 

It helped me realize that creativity is so important for me.  15 minutes in there can do my heart good.

When I was blogging frequently, I used to make time for photography.  That was a huge outlet for creativity for me.  When we moved here, I told myself I didn’t need to work anymore so I kind of just tucked my camera away, and started using my iPhone.  That makes me really sad.  I need to use my brain, I want awesome pictures of my kids.

  I need to remember how to use my big girl camera, and stretch myself with it.  It’s what makes me happy. 

{Photos of Stella from our impromtu photoshoot, on a snowday this week, oh be still my heart; this is true happiness for me.  My children + photography = happiness}

When I share my thoughts here, when I share a pretty picture here, or a creative idea; all these things bring me true happiness.  We all need to find what it is in our heart that brings us our personal happiness.

For you it might be soccer, or a good book, painting, or exercise.  Let’s not forget to make TIME. 

I have lots of things in life that bring me happiness; my kids, my husband, my church.  This, however, this one is about ME!!  This one is about spending time with me.  Doing what I love.  I kind of lost that for a while.  I let some of my anxieties, the world, some health challenges, being busy, and telling myself that I didn’t have time, take away some of that happiness.  I’m kind of tired of being lost.

{Photo Circa 2011- taken by: Krysta Moes}

So… my camera is back around my neck.  My desk is a mess again, and my computer is open once again…. and your gonna have to listen to me ramble here at own little corner of the world wide web.

Well… I guess that’s if you want to. 

Thanks for being here.

365 week two

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Jonathan gave me these flowers a week ago, and they opened up so beautifully today.  The secret? Jonathan added sprite to the water.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

A perfect Sunday activity; helping the kids work on their Disneyland scrapbooks.

Monday, January 12, 2015

I have been doing some cleaning out and moving around here in the house.  I decided to add some sparkly feathers to the mix.  I love the way they look.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Today is a snow boots kind of day.

It is also a two for one day. Two pictures for the price of one.  I thought you might enjoy seeing how pretty it is where I live.  I live up near that pretty mountain. It is so beautiful here, when the snow is fresh and white, and when the sun is shining.  It’s not so pretty when the snow gets dirty and the inversion sets in.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

It’s laundry day.

Thursday, January 15, 2015

I have been cleaning out the house all week long. This is what clean-out looks like in my garage.  This is the second trip I will need to make to the thrift store.

Friday, January 16, 2015

I spent the day organizing all of Isaac’s legos.  Then he decided to play with them.

Pictures in the snow.

Pictures taken in the snow are my favorite.

I love them because it is the best light.

With the best glow off the snow so..

you really can’t go wrong.

Let’s face it: Snow pictures make the prettiest pictures.

The Saturday following Christmas we took the kids sledding on the hill I grew up sledding on.

The kids loved it.

I was surprised by little Tess, she was the first to hop on the sled and go down.

Kids smiles are priceless.

They enjoyed having grandpa and dad spin them around and send them down the hill.

They also made a contest out of seeing who could go the farthest.

This is Isaac walking up the hill with his sad face on because he didn’t make it the farthest.

I stopped him half way up and told him to just be happy about the fun we were having.

He gave me this look:

Then I made him give me a smile; this is the best I could get:

Then he decided to push his sleigh up the hill…

and smile and go down the hill again anyways.

You can’t go sledding with out taking the time for some warm nose kisses.

…and every picture folder isn’t complete with out a Tween trying to throw a snowball at you.

I decided that I needed a turn to go down that hill from my past too.

I decided that I would be less scared if I had a partner to go down with the next time.

Then our cousins showed up.

It was fun watching the kids play with their cousins, aunt, and uncles.

It’s always fun to share something with those we love.

I enjoyed hanging with my sisters.

I also enjoyed watching the littles go down the hill,

and seeing the little cuties all bundled in their snow gear.

Tess loved having London around to sleigh with.

My sisters love having Stella around to babysit the littles.

It was a fun day.

One of those memorable days.

Oh, and the best sort of days because I got to take pictures in the snow.