Wedding Dress Photos - 4 years old

Another year, and another photo of this gorgeous girl in her Mama's wedding dress. This year was special for a few reasons (1) we took the photos in our new backyard (where the dress was first worn all those years ago) and (2) after months of a new healthier lifestyle for me, I fit back into the dress, so we took some really cute photos of both of us in it and Jenn worked her magic. I say it every year that this year's photo is my favorite, but they just keep getting better every year. 

Look at this beautiful 4 year old girl of ours. I am so honored that she still agrees to put this big heavy dress on, and I hope she'll do it for many more years to come! 

And just for fun...we'll do them all in order to see our girlie grow up.

How much longer will he want to spend quality time with me?

I've always heard that once your kid turns 14 that it's all bets off and they don't want to be anywhere near you. I sure hope that's not true and that this handsome guy continues to want to go for walks with me on rainy days. After school yesterday he asked if he could come with me for my walk and we ended up having a great half hour together. 

Yes he still holds my hand, and yes I have his permission to post this photo too :) 

He's such a sweet boy and sure loves his Mama. He promises me that he will still like me when he's in his teens so I'm going to keep this post and show it to him a few years down the road :) 

Pick your road

This is one of my favorite spots in the Millenium trails near the Complex. This particular fork in the road always makes me very thoughtful about where I am in my life and where I want to be. Probably totally corny to look at something and see something completely differently. Some people just see two paths, I see two opportunities, each with their own landscape and feel to them.

I have spent a lot of time the past 10 months walking alone and thinking about who is in my life and what they bring to me as a person. I have many wonderful people that I am surrounded by. I live a very big life, with lots of moving parts to it. 3 kids and 3 jobs makes me very busy, and very connected. I have connection with my jobs, my kids friends parents, my family, old coworkers, mom friends, work friends and current coworkers, volunteer committees, kids sports, etc. Everywhere I go in our town I see a friendly face (behind the stupid masks of course) of people I know or recognize. It is a peaceful feeling to me to know that me and my family are part of a friendly community. I am proud of the life that Jim and I have grown together over the past 15 years being here. 

Over the years I've certainly made some choices I'm not proud of, but I've also done some extraordinary things that make very incredibly proud of who I am as a person. I'm changing every day and for the most part I love who I have become. I still have things I'd like to change about myself, but I'm working hard to change the things I can, and forgive and accept myself for the things I can't, and don't want to. 

Every time I come to that particular fork in the trail I think about my life and what my choices are for today. It's symbolic and means a lot to where I'm at in my life right now. 

I swore my daughter would never leave the house dressed like this....

 ...but seriously she's just so frigging cute that I couldn't say no. She was so proud of her "matching" stripes" that I didn't have the heart or the energy to fight her on it. Then she finished off the look with a hat with her little pigtails and I just couldn't resist her cuteness and I let her wear the whole crazy ensemble to school. 

*Found this post in my Draft folder from back in the spring and thought it was too cute not to share it*