I was a blogger years before I was a photographer.  Writing used to be the only way I could process things.  I was the kid with the diaries and gel pens, too.  I had a random blog where I posted about anything and everything which I dismantled when I transitioned over to this platform that was more business and photography based.  I even had a secret blog that no one in the whole world knew about and to this day I don’t think anyone has ever read.  I honestly don’t even remember the name of it, but I needed a place to throw the hard stuff out there.  I needed to unburden my heart into the unknown world of the internet even when I had no followers.  It wasn’t about who read it.  It was about getting the words trapped inside of me out in order to free myself.

I don’t have the same emotional needs that I used to when it comes to writing.  I have learned to talk and share with people.  I have found my tribe, my safe people, and I have learned to be vulnerable in real life.  However, I still love to write.  I love to document.  Let’s be blunt – I love to talk.  So I have been toying with the idea of mixing in more personal posts again with my website.  I feel like it reflects the heart behind my business.  I don’t merely want to document people.  I want to give them the opportunity to know and be known.  I want to create a tribe for people who don’t even know they need it.  Both with my clients and with other photographers and moms who have gone from business partners to dearly loved friends over the years.

I feel like having 2.5 boys under 2.5 (or 3 under 3 once Benjamin is physically born) will give me sufficient blogging material – from the humorous to the heartfelt, from the every day mundane survival to learning to celebrate in the chaos.  I’m not really sure how I’m going to balance working, being a mom to 3 young boys, AND blogging, but I have some ideas and I think it’s worth taking a shot at.  So here we go.  First personal post in pretty much forever!  And it will be to introduce you to the fourth boy in my life.  Not the two that run me off my feet or the one that kicks me in the stomach at night.  But the one that makes it all possible.

The one that will be by my side long after the other 3 are gone.  The best husband I could ask for and the most remarkable father that I know.  The man who works TWO jobs and 60 hours a week so that I can work part time and stay home with the kids and NEVER complains about it.  The one that fetches me water in the night, runs to the store if I so much as express a hint of wanting something even when I’m not pregnant, and the one that patiently and sleepily listens to me when my heart needs to dump all its words out at 2am.  The one that came home from work early today (I wrote this post a couple days in advance), took the boys to Costco alone, and allowed me to have a leisurely walk to the river and come home and start this blog just because I asked him if he could.  The one who knows what I need and secretly prays it into my life for years when he knows I will scoff at the ideas in my ignorance.  The one that lights up my boys’ faces the minute they hear him come in the door.  And lest you think I’m married to someone that isn’t even human, he is still also the one that leaves a small hurricane of messes in his wake, often forgets what I ask him to do if he doesn’t write it down (which he rarely does) prompting me to remind him 8 billion times, and can’t multitask to save his or anyone else’s life.  But this post isn’t about that ;).  It’s about an awesome father on a special day.  Happy Father’s Day to a truly wonderful dad and husband!  I love you, Nick Froese!

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