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How in the world can she be 3? I mean…she was just born! It was just yesterday that I was absolutely exhausted/drained/had nothing left (after a failed epidural, 30 hours of labor and 2 1/2 hours of pushing…that I will never ever let anyone forget )…but I had everything in the world to give our new baby girl. It was a day that changed our lives beyond belief.

And, of course, now we could not ever imagine our lives without her. She is the light of our lives. She’s our little punko and our little princess.

She loves all things pink, glitterly and girly. She’s started saying “I love you” just because. She and her pink nigh-nigh are still inseparable.

And while we’re taking the trip down memory lane…I can’t help but miss our old house. And our old yard…I mean, how great is this?!

We have so many great memories of this home, our back yard, our pool that was always open to the entire neighborhood. It’s very hard for me to be away from that. I miss it far more than I ever thought I would.

Our little goof ball. She is totally developing into her own little unique person and we couldn’t love her any more than we do. We are so greatful to get to watch this little one grow up. We are quite lucky. Happy birthday sweet girl.

We are making a serious habit out of spending our evenings on the lake lately. I’m not gonna lie…it’s pretty perfect.

PS…I know it’s rediculous, but I am slightly extremely terrified of actually being in the lake water. It has a lot to do with the slimy, creepy fish swimming around under there and everything I can’t see. I just can’t handle it. But I am oh so proud to say that this is one silly little fear I have not passed on to Hailey…she is loving the water and learning to swim like a champ! Yay Hailey!

What a weekend. We were very blessed to have our Memorial Day weekend full of friends, family, and great times. Hailey turns 3 next week (three?! un. real.). For the last 6 months the only thing she has talked about is her Halloween party. So when asked what she wanted to do for her birthday party, she insisted on a Halloween birthday party. Until about a week before-hand, when she insisted on a princess Halloween birthday party. I can work with that. When we sent out the invitations I thought the kids would have a blast dressing up, but I truly didn’t expect any adults to play along.  I can’t tell you how much it touched me when one by one people started calling excited about what they would be for the party. Everyone got into our Memorial Day Princess Halloween Birthday Bash. Our little girl is only (almost) 3 years old and she has so many people on her side. I’ll have to do another post with  more pictures from the party, but everyone had a great time. I even got a little trick-or-treating going.

Hailey dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast for the party, but when everyone had left and she was excitedly pouring through her new treasures, she just had to change into this adorable fairy dress. I kind of love these quiet snapshots of the calm after the storm. A very tired, content party girl. Love you, xoxo.

 

 

If you’re a fan of Anastasia Marie Photography over on Facebook, you’ve probably seen some of my ‘one a day’ series. Obviously documenting our lives is important to me. So this year, each day (or most of them anyway) I try to take a minute to view the world through Hailey’s eyes. I haven’t been posting them on the blog, but maybe I’ll start.

Hailey is super into lining things up…and lately, she’s been lining them up in curvey lines like this. Love her.

It’s been kind of quiet around here (the blog) lately. I guess I’ve been taking a little time to myself. Since I started this little business, it seems like I haven’t had a free second to myself. In the past almost 3 years I could probably count on my two hands the number of times I sat down with Justin at night to catch up on our DVR. Every night he would come home, I would hand Hailey off to him, and work my tushie off until the wee hours of the morning. Obviously…that’s not healthy for anyone. So with the move this past December, I was almost forced to take a break and focus on family. Let me tell you, it has been an eye opener to say the least. I cringe to think back on how many hours I missed out on because I was fiddling with my website, or facebook, or “researching”…things that aren’t terribly important in the end.

Now that spring is here, the phone is ringing…new clients are emailing almost daily, and it’s back to the same old routine. However, I am determined to set limits and make family my first priority. That’s why I chose to stop working after Hailey was born afterall. So bear with me if the emails take a bit longer to get answered, or if the blog posts aren’t coming at you in real time . I’m still here…still working…just have my priorities straight .

I can only imagine the irreparable damage I am causing to this sweet little girl by having a camera in my face half the time . I love these just as much as I love any other photo of her. Ah the life of a photographer’s child .

A few months back I posted our session with my favorite Michele Anderson during our vacation to Texas. Its been so long since our vacation, I almost don’t even want to post these photos out of embarassment. However, they are finally here on the blog…a nice view on this cold, stormy midwest morning. It is so very great to get to get away with my two favorite people in the entire world and just focus on us being a family for a week. This was our first real family vacation and I can’t wait for the next one.

 

You might have noticed there’s been a little more time than usual between blog posts. While I hate being “quiet” on here…I hate the current state of our kitchen even more. So…as soon as everything gets back as it should be, we’ll get back to more frequent updates. Thanks folks!

 Hailey has fallen in love with the iPod. To tell you we enjoy sitting around with her taking turns listening to music through the headphones would be a massive understatement. It is the most precious thing to watch her hold the headphones up to her ears and bop her head around to her favorite songs. And when she got up and started dancing around the house…well that was almost too much. We love you baby girl. xoxo

Cue the foreboding music…dun dun duuuuun. I’m going to write something here that is absolutely going to embarrass my daughter to no end in a few years. I’m sorry Hailey . So, let’s just say that jeans have become a big deal in our house. It’s to the point now where Justin can tell what kind of day we’ve had by whether Hailey is wearing a skirt or blue jeans. If you’ve spent any time at all with our daughter, you will be well aware of her obsession with skirts. She loves the colors, the twirliness, the comfy factor, and the girliness of skirts. I have to wrestle leggings on under the skirt when its 20 degrees outside an she just wants her skirt on. Blue jeans, on the other hand, are the devil’s clothes. I’ve never witnessed such an aversion to a single piece of clothing before in my life. It’s odd.

So. When our well potty-trained little girl started regressing and not doing so well, I implimented the worst consequence I could think of. Blue jeans. Have an accident? No more skirts. This worked like magic! We were consistent, no matter how much it broke our hearts to see her twirling spirit crushed when she put on the blue jeans. Who would have thought a simple pair of blue jeans could mean so much?!

The only downside? This child is learning reverse psychology. Seriously! Now when she has an oops, she says “nooooo skirts mommy, I like blue jeans!” with the sly-est little grin on her face. Little punk . Love you, H.

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