Family Photos in Sedona

After Emily Snitzer took some 2-year photos of Henry and our little family, I couldn't resist booking her one more time to capture some of Sedona's beauty in the Fall. I'm kind of obsessed with family photos, but they're not always the easiest thing with Henry being almost two, and always moving and playing. Trying to wrangle him enough to sit down for a shot can be close to impossible but yet again Emily managed to really capture him and us, and I will forever and ever cherish these photos.

Emily is based in Phoenix but will travel anywhere, so if you're interested in booking her for a session, a wedding, an event, whatever, be sure to get in contact with her. She is a truly talented photographer and I can't express enough how blown away we are with her beautiful work.

She still has some spots left in November for her mini-sessions (perfect for holiday cards and family gifts!), so if you're in Arizona or surrounding areas, contact her and treat you and your family to some amazing photographs. Be sure to tell her I sent you, and be sure to send me the link to your photos in her blog once they're up- I would love to see them!

Thank you so much again Emily, you are a magician! If you're interested you can see the rest of the photos here, and thank you to LuLu*s for sending me this adorable sweater- I love it.

Our Halloween

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." -L.M. Montgomery

October is one of my favorite months, and Halloween in our town is always a big affair. We have events leading up to the big day all month, which I love. And this year was the best yet! It was Henry's 2nd Halloween and it was awesome to watch him get so excited over just about everything. I think my heart melted into a big puddle about a million times watching him say "trick or treat!" while he held out that orange pumpkin.

Henry and I went to CrossFit in the morning, then came home so he could take a long afternoon nap to gear up for our evening. We headed out around 4pm to beat the rush of older kids and I'm glad, because as we finished up around 5:30 it got insanely crowded. Afterward we stopped by both sets of local grandparents and then headed home to put a super sleepy little guy to bed.

I absolutely loved Hank and Henry's costumes! Silly me planned on being a waitress of some sort to go along with the guys but I didn't get a good costume together so instead I was a last-minute sailor. Mark my words, next year we will have a much better 3-person get up! We trick-or-treated with Veronica and her family and little Max was a Grill Master and Trevor wore Hank's hot dog costume from last year to go along with our Dad/son food/chef theme. Veronica was a last-minute devil, so we were both the odd ones out but didn't mind too much! 

We walked up and down the streets, which are closed off from 4pm until the evening, trick-or-treating and running into tons of friends. It was really a wonderful night and reminded me yet again how much I love living in a small town...and more specifically, this one. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by so much beauty, and so much excitement over holidays. It's pretty awesome.

I hope all of you had a happy, happy Halloween too. It's hard to believe it's November!


 

Hello, I'm an Adult.

It's pretty amazing, isn't it? This whole growing up thing, even when you're already grown. It's weird to me to be 30. And a wife. And a mother. And to be walking around this little town with my friends and our strollers and our hot drinks in our hands and I think holy, holy, holy shit. How did I get here? It's a question I wonder about a lot. Lately I've been having all of these moments where I'm smacked right in the face with YOU'RE AN ADULT, DANIELLE! And it's weird because it's not like I don't know this and it's not like these moments are really monumental. It's the simple, everyday things that floor me, and really, I've been living on my own since I went away to college. This age didn't just sneak up on me. Hello, I'm closer to 40 than I am to being a kid- I've had some time to think about it.

But sometimes, like this morning, I'll be doing something, like ordering a bagel and cream cheese to split with Henry. And we'll go sit and I'll break it into two and I'll have that same odd realization that I'm doing the same things my mother did. Like somehow buying that bagel and splitting that bagel is so bizarrely parental and adult it is mind blowing. It's the simple things, grocery shopping and looking at the labels on this or that, sticking stamps on bills, or talking to a friend on the phone, Henry balanced on my hip as I glide around the kitchen multi-tasking. Or this past weekend when Hank and I went on a date. We had a babysitter come over to be there while Henry was asleep, and to me, THAT is adult. That's what my parents would do. They would call Karen Kowalski and she would come over, we'd get our snacks and open her backpack of crafts, and that was just how some of our Friday nights were. But now we're doing that? What?

I wonder then if this is just how it feels for some people. If maybe this is a part of growing up, the disbelief that we are in fact growing up. I think ahead to 40 and 50, wondering if I'll still feel the same way I did at 20 and 30, "how did this all happen so quickly?" in the front of my mind as I look back and all around at my life. Will I be sitting at the table on my 80th birthday, eyes crinkling into a deep smile, feeling 30 still and thinking about how fast the time went and how on earth is it even possible that I'm 80?! I wonder...

As we drove home from our date that night we cracked the windows just a bit to let in some of the cool Fall air. We turned up the stereo and sang along to Broadway Calls as we drove, the moon lit up like a Chinese lantern bobbing among the stars as we dipped up and down through the hills. We talked about all of it; about being parents and about having babies, about how weird it is to be talking about being parents and how weird it is to be talking about having more babies. We were 16, we were 25, we were just what we are, a Mom and a Dad driving home to tuck their little one back into bed at the end of the night. It all goes by so quickly doesn't it? I think the key is to just try and grab hold of anything you can, and tuck it away in a safe place, to pull out and remember when you need it. And I think it's okay to wonder where the time went, to feel strange at how you were there and now you're suddenly here, and to think holy, holy, holy shit- how did this happen? And I think if we still feel this way when we're 80, still feeling like we're so young and wondering how this wonderful life happened to us, I will look back on all of it and feel like we did it just right.

Pumpkin Festival 2012

Another year, another pumpkin festival! One of the things I really love about our town is the constant stream of things to do with little ones, especially during the holidays. Every year we have a Halloween Festival downtown, the weekend before Halloween. There's trick-or-treating, games, a costume contest, and tons of activities for kids. Last year we kept talking about how excited we were for the next year, when Henry was sure to enjoy it a lot more. And he definitely did! His favorite part were probably either the bounce houses or the pumpkin patch. He was also really excited to meet Darth Vader and practiced saying "Hi, Vaaader!" a million times...but then got scared when it was his turn. It was a wonderful afternoon though and I'm so happy my parents and Lauren could come up for the day. Henry dressed up like a shark, although his actual Halloween costume is something totally different.

Do you have any fun traditions in your town? Where we live now is super similar to the town I grew up in on the East Coast so it's fun that we're able to keep some of my childhood traditions going here, even though we're across the country! I'm looking forward to making this Festival a yearly event for us.