2013 in Review | Announcement #1

Okay, I realize I’m a little behind. Usually people do a “year in review” in December or January, but cut me a little slack. I’m pregnant.Yep.

Announcement #1: I’M PREGNANT!!!

Our little bundle will make his or her debut on August 20, 2013 (give or take a few days)!  I have more announcements, but they will have to wait until after the review. First things first!

Over the past few weeks I have been walking through Lara Casey’s 2013 Goal Setting steps. In short – they have been amazing! In 2012, I realized that, like Lara, I do not do well with traditional goal setting. I think one of the reasons is that there are so many variables in my life that call for flexibility. I wanted to share my process and progress as I take these steps goal-setting for 2013. First, Lara challenged us look backwards, especially the “goods” and “bads” of 2012. I had a fun time doing this, so I thought I’d share. I definitely needed to include some visual aids so this is a pretty thick blog post, so to speak. These are mostly my goods, I’ll get to the bads, don’t worry. (Here is Lara’s post.)

So, 2012…

The snapshots above are from my Instagram feed at the beginning of 2012. We started 2012…very interestingly. Josiah (my husband) continued to recover after tearing his Achilles tendon – that was rough on all of us, our daughter was about to turn three and continued to amaze and baffle us on a daily basis, and our three-month old son, a complete delight was waking up at 4:30am everyday (Phew! Glad that’s over…until August).

Then, Branches and Light. Sigh…

How I miss those ladies. This was my favorite image from the styled shoot at this photography business workshop. My whole business and mindset about Photography as a business was challenged and changed. I began a process that makes my work more satisfying and stress-free. In fact, much of what I learned at B&L could easily be applied to my entire life.

30 in 30

One of my fellow attendees at Branches and Light, Kimberly inspired me to try this experiment – take one photo everyday and blog it everydayfor 30 days. I did pretty well. It was a lot of work, and so inspiring. Just practicing to be more creative with my camera everyday made me remember why I love the art of photography so much. She’s doing it again now. Check it out here.

 

My kids

One thing that changed this year is I began setting up specific office hours (thanks to B&L). Between 11am and 1:30pm, I am with my kids, being their mama. At 5 o’clock, no excuses, I am done with work. I also take Tuesdays off.  Just setting up those boundaries, helped me prioritize my most important roles right now – being a follower of Jesus, wife and mama. These kiddos bring me so much joy and being their mama has taught me so much about myself, and who I am in Christ.

Things get crackin’!

Spring is when the portrait and wedding business starts picking up. This year, I really limited the number of weddings I took and didn’t book any until the Fall, but I had a full schedule of families, children and seniors, oh my!

 

Run to Rescue!

At the end of May, our house church (our church small group), helped organize a 5k Trail Run/Walk to benefit the ministry, She is Safe. I’m not much of a runner myself, so I didn’t do much running. I just documented the day, except when I did have to sprint to the finish to beat the winner – he was super fast in his bare feet! We are starting to gear up for this year’s Run to Rescue, so look for info right here.

 

We sold our house!!!

In just under five years on the market, we finally sold our house in New Bern! Seriously, God did this and we will continually praise Him for freeing us from this burden. We count it a blessing – daily. We love Kinston and we are so joyful that we are here to stay (until He tells us otherwise – that’s not a hint or anything, we’ve just learned to keep an open mind).

 

Grad Model Day

7 high school sophomores, juniors and seniors + 2 stylists + 1 entire day styled shoot = AWESOME! We were indoors, in abandoned buildings, in fields, and in the middle of the street at night. There was some pizza with ranch dressing in there somewhere too. This event was even better than I expected and the models were terrific.

 

Family Portraits

We actually had a professional photographer, my best friend, Nicole from Simplytold Photography, take OUR family portraits. It’s always interesting being on the other side of the camera, but I completely LOVE how they turned out. Now, we just need to get some up on the wall!

 

Oh Fall!

It seems this is everyone’s favorite time of year for portraits and weddings. I admit… I overbooked myself this Fall. It was way too hard to choose between all these great clients. Just look at them! Next year, it will be a totally different story – the baby takes precedence, y’all. But I’ll see how I do with three. Oh my!

 

Heartbreak and Patience

This Fall was also the toughest time in my life. My best friend, college roommate and fellow photographer, Nicole (yep, same one I mentioned above) and her husband John went through one of the hardest things any parents could go through. Their three-week old son passed away after battling to live with a very rare heart condition. I had to include this because it marked my life. I will never be the same after meeting little Owen just a week before his funeral and hugging my friend while she wept over something I would give my arm for her not to have to go through.

These photos are from a girls trip we took with our other roomie, Lindsey. Linds is also on a difficult journey right now. She and her husband are awaiting to hear about their new baby who is waiting to come home from China. Oh what a difficult journey we must make for the most precious gift of these sweet little ones. Even if we only have them for a small time, as Nicole says, every child is to be celebrated. I will be blogging about all of this. I have actually tried a few times to blog about Owen and Nicole, but it has never been the right words or the right time. Nicole has graciously encouraged me to tell her story. She knows it needs to be heard. Love you girls so very much. You are my bosom buddies.

 

A Lesson

My most treasured lesson from 2012 is to hold what really matters as first in my life. Over the coming month, I will be sharing what that looks like in my life and I hope to challenge you to find out what that means to you. With that said, I thought it only fitting to end with my little boy’s one-year-old portraits and his big sister who is so tender with him. These special little people are two pieces of my heart that God gave to my true love and me. This year they helped me learn how important it is that my husband and I show them how much they are cherished by not only us, but the Creator of the Universe.

 

There is a lot I left out, but ummm….this blog post is HUGE, so I need to stop. November and December had some excitement. We put an offer on a house (more on that soon!)! I found out I was pregnant! We went on a cruise! Yeah, it was a whirlwind to end 2012.

Thank y’all for following my blog. I would love to hear how your year went in the comments. I know everyone has a story to tell. So come on, don’t be shy.

Also, I highly suggest you head to Lara’s blog and start mapping out your goals for 2013 if you haven’t yet. She gives some great practical steps to living with purpose and focusing on what really matters. Happy Goal setting!