Mothers

I write this post not because I am a mother, but because this is my hearts desire.  I've spoken this to a very few people, but God knows my heart's cry.  I have many passions in life, dreams, and goals, but not one compares to the want to have children.  I feed this desire by loving children that aren't mine like they are mine.  Serving in the nursery, babysitting whenever I can, and sometimes paying more attention to my friends kids then my friend:-).  

There is so much beauty, on so many levels, that is captured in a mom moment.  When they think no one else is looking and they surrounded with nothing but the presence of this little person in front of them.  I bet it would feel like there is no one else on the planet in a moment like that.  Pure, right, and beautiful.  I long to have moments like that, but until then I live by capturing those moments.  I live loving others that aren't my own.  I wait patiently with a speckle of hope that God has children that He will give me someday and if or until that day comes I wait patiently for my mom moments.  

This is a picture of my cousin/best friend Megan and her first son, Colton.  Colton is now almost 5 years old but in this picture he is just one.  We went to the pool for the day, it was late spring and incredibly warm.  Megan got in the water with Colton and I hung back to play with my camera and I caught a few images like these.  This one is my favorite.  Later Dan, Colton's dad and Megan's husband, joined in the fun and I got a few good shots of them all too.  

 This photo of Megan and Colton is a little grainy only cause I blew it up on the blog, but I like it like this...adds some character!

 This is my cousin Robin and her little boy Sammy.  It was her daughter's two year old birthday and she wanted some pictures of her, but amongst the playing and trying to get Melina to smile I captured this moment.  A boys love for his momma...precious.  Robin was looking down at him too and it was definitely a 'mom' moment for her, but I chose to capture the joy of Sammy's face as his mom embraced him.

This is an image I captured of a dear dear friend of mine, Wendy, and her son Nicholas.  This was just this past August we took our youth kids to a retreat out in Alabama and Wendy's kids got to come along.    Nicholas was playing the ocean and he got stung by a jelly fish and this is an image of mom comforting son.  Tired, long day in the sun can make a jelly fish sting that much more dramatic to his little eyes.  Mom snuggles fix everything.  

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Along side the beauty and purity in being a mom is being a kid.  I mentioned in the 'about me' section of this blog that taking pictures is capturing God's perfect moments.  The moments that most overlook, don't get to see, and will forever be forgotten.  These moments are in the little things, the little expressions or hand motions.  These moments are always there, around every saying, every thought, and every emotion, but without something to freeze that exact moment you would overlook it.  Too many go unnoticed.  And it's in the look of a child's eye that the world and God's creation makes so much more sense.  The innocence of littleness....

The simplicity...

The beauty...

This is Tucker, Megan's youngest son, who is now one and a half.  At my cabin this past summer we were at Grand View Lodge and while his older brothers and mom were playing on the playground I just let this little guy crawl around and explore and these are some the moments I captured.

It's been a while...

I know I did one post and then abandoned this blog...oops, story of my life.  I guess i've been focused on it being a blog to post my photos; however, I struggled with not having it be just that either.  So instead of over analizing everything i'm just going to do whatever:-)!

Through God's eyes I am just who I need to be and so much more, to His eyes I am beautiful and worth every bit of the struggles i've put Him through.  Through God's eyes I am precious.  But when I look in the mirror do I see that?  No, not the way I should.  There are too many girls out there that don't believe this about themselves which doesn't surprise me based on how I feel, but at the same time extremely disheartening.  If a girl came to me feeling this way I would only preach truth into her heart and pray that she recieves it right there.

How much time do you spend in the morning thinking about how others will perceive you based on what you look like each day?  How could you spend some of that time contemplating your worth in God's eyes?  By walking up to that mirror each day and realizing or just knowing how precious you are to Him.  He cherishes us as a precious creation and I believe in the bible the apostle Paul explains it this way:

Christ arrives right on time to make this happen.  He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready.  He presented Himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious  to do anything to get ourselves ready.  And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway.  We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice.  But God put His love on the line for us by offering His son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to Him. (Rom. 5:6-8)


I've struggled with perfection with what seems like my whole life and it's been a constant issue i've had to confront in so many different ways.  When you are a perfectionist you tend either to push yourself all the time to be better or to go into failure mode and give up, believing that you'll never succeed.  My tendency was to live with a sense that God was disappointed in me-that I was not good enough.  God has assured me countless number of times that I am secure and loved by Him.

Because there are so many of us out there that spend much of our time trying to please others, we are uncomfortable in our own skin and don't know who we are.  Unfortunately, we are deriving our sense of worth from what we do or don't do for others.  It's all based on false and conditional love.  We can get so wrapped up in this that we can't see beyond it to see our worth in God- who we are in Him.

In the Stillness

What's next?!  Where to now?!?  This picture was actually taken about three years ago when my family took a train into the mountains to go skiing.  I was sitting behind my sister, Jackie, watching her stare out the window into an old rustic looking train station.  At the time I thought it looked cool and artsy, just a fun photo.  It's definitely not a great picture by any means but looking at it now it still looks kinda cool I think.  Sitting in trains, cars, planes, or buses this is what you usually would find me doing...mostly because I get car sick if I don't just stare out the window...but watching Jackie just stare out the window through the lens of my camera put the image in a little different perspective.  Getting lost in your thoughts as you watch the space outside whiz by you is mesmerizing and addicting.   

 This picture I took on one of those days I was just out shooting and playing around with all those buttons my camera has:-)  This is just one of the many beaches I could visit while living in Pensacola.  Okay, so there are many things I miss about Minnesota and the weather is definitely one of them; however, after living here a year I can honestly say that the winter weather here in Pensacola isn't "that bad:-)".  This picture was taken on one of those winter days that aren't so bad!  There was no humidity, sun was shining and there was a cool breeze.  The temperature was a balmy 40 degrees and I can say in all honesty that it was gorgeous and I was happy to be a Floridian.

Hahaha-okay, so maybe i'm laughing to myself right now; however, if you remember or read my first post I mentioned that I took my camera out and found some wooden posts to photograph!  Well, here they are.  There are actually a bunch, but these are two of my favorite.  Yep, wooden posts with some dumb seagulls inhabiting them:-)

An Amateur

Taking pictures is something i've always loved doing.  People tend to make fun of me because I show up to most things with my camera.  They also like to tease because there have been many times where I will just get in the car with my camera and drive until I see something pretty or picture worthy and i'll park my car and start shooting.  Yes, this even consists of getting out of the car to take pictures of posts (wood posts)...yes, wood posts that have bird poop all over them:-)  When I do this it's generally a good time to just play with my camera and figure out what all the little buttons do!  I had fun taking pictures of those wood posts that day.  I've always been one to take pictures of very random things as well as people, animals, or landscapes.  My favorite thing to photograph is events like family get togethers, days at the lake, when I babysit, or celebrations of sorts, or even when I'm meeting up with friends who have kiddos i'll usually always end up with my camera in hand.  On rare occasions I have had people call or ask me to take pictures of them or their children or some event that they might be having.  Moral of the story is that I love taking pictures...and most of the time there are fun stories behind the pictures or meaning.  That being said, I thought it might be a good time to start putting some of my favorite pictures up for ya all to see.

Disclaimer:  I didn't go to a school for photography, nor did I take a class on "how to take pictures 101," or "photography for dummies," I simply learned myself...by doing exactly what I described above.  I love to play with my camera and it's always a bonus when I learn a thing or two each time I take it out:-) I don't pretend to know what i'm doing every time I go out and shoot.  In fact, more often then not I have to re-adjust settings, lighting, aperture and shutter speeds and so on just to create that 'perfect' image.  I'm no pro, just a girl with a camera capturing God's creations.

God gives us perfect moments all day and every day, but to the average eye it's hard to see those moments.  It's hard to recognize those moments when we are speeding through our days.  We forget to freeze time every once and a while and soak it all up, God's glory and grace that is.  We forget to remember the perfect moments when they fly by.  However, when looking through a lens things seem so much more clear and suddenly those moments, God's perfection and pure image, stand still for just that split second and with just one little click of a button that moment can be remembered forever.  Looking at pictures reminds me that God really does bless our lives all the time, the pictures won't let you forget.  It could be a smile, a flower, rolling tides, giggling faces, a warm hug, a colorful sunset, a football game, a birthday cake, holding hands, feet in a puddle, or somber look, or a panting dog that remind us that God's creations are everywhere and always perfect in His eyes.