the lip.

when zoe was brand new and she started to get upset, she did what we call the lip. it kind of disappeared for awhile but after waking up on the wrong side of the bed this morning... i was comforted to know it's here to stay.

i kind of love the lip.

but i love even more how she can't stay grumpy for long. and i'm really in love with her shy smile.




so in love with this girl.

welcome jackson!

my dear friend christy had her perfect baby boy, jackson clay, just the way she wanted on april 17th at 4:22 in the afternoon. i was so happy to meet him and see her and zac as a mom and dad. he is just so beautiful handsome and i couldn't be happier for them. i get to take many more pictures once they're settled at home but i took a few "hospital pictures" before they made their journey home...




so brand new.



love you little dude!

putting down roots.

the front of our house has been something that we haven't made "us" yet... we've lived here for almost two years and both springs that have passed we've neglected the front and planted veggies in the back. we've decorated the inside to make our house a home but this spring we decided it was finally time to make our entrance say welcome! 

we went to lowe's and picked up quite a few plants and shrubs and flowers. i didn't realize how fun this could be. figuring out which plants need what amount of light and envisioning our landscape plan in our head while we filled two big carts with beautiful things totally made my weekend. and we stayed under budget, so that's always a plus. 

our stairs decided to crack so first we had to fix that. (yawn) so while jesse did that, i took those two pots that are two different colors with dead flowers and spray painted them turquoise and planted some new flowers. spray painting is perfect for my immediate gratification fix. 10 minutes and those things looked amazing. so this is the before... zoe says: oh no! we have the worst yard on the street.

she was very serious about this job.

digging in the ground feels so good. bare feet in the earth.


jesse is a little landscape genius. he laid everything out and asked what i thought. i didn't want to change anything. so we started digging...

in our new "forest!"



everything in... steps still drying and need to be finished and repainted. more on that later. (ps i am not a landscape photographer, clearly)



yay! see the pots? and happy zoe? l.o.v.e. which leads me to the next day... when zoe realized that she needed to water her plants. this is my new favorite thing. she slowly fills up her watering can with a little bit of water and wants to do one plant at a time. she takes it seriously and is so satisfied when she's done.







there was something so meditative about feeling the cold soil on our hands and digging and brushing aside and planting and watering and positioning and digging some more. and i must mention, i didn't realize how much squatting i was doing until i woke up the next morning and felt like i ran a marathon. so it's also a work out. our vegetable garden is next and i think after this weekend, gardening has become a new love...

"everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. gardening is an instrument of grace."

circus freaks.

on friday, me & jesse and my mom & dad went to see cirque du soleil in baltimore. it was my third time going and it blew my mind... again.

it was about the evolution of mankind and i enjoyed every second of its abstract meaning and incredible art. the way they showed how we've evolved and ended with a guy in a suit with a briefcase obsessed with his cell phone was the perfect precursor to my cell phone breaking on the way home and me totally embracing being cell phone-less for about a week. i'm LOVING it.

here we all are being weirdos....

we got tickets for my parents as a birthday gift for my mom and it was their first time experiencing cirque du soleil. they had fun!

[mom & scott]


[me looking extra creepy. and after eating a soft pretzel, a hot dog, and half of a large popcorn... and a stella. sometimes i over-do it.]


[my lover]

happy birthday mom!!!


i might be trying to pick my nose through the mask. [mom & i]


good times!!

open heart. quiet mind.

taking some time to simplify. organize. think. not think. spring clean. make space for new: thoughts, energy, ideas, expansive love...

i love...

spending time with my family on a random wednesday morning. my cousins' babies and my baby and my sweet aunt and hot chocolate and raindrops and breakfast burritos and happy chaos.

three year olds in iron man costumes.

i fall more in love with her unabashed laughter every time i hear it. and the way her whole entire face glows with happy.

something new has happened. noah used to dart quickly out of my frame every time he spotted me with a camera. yesterday he walked right up to me and looked at me with this sweet face. i melted.

rainy days can be beautiful.

i love... the way she ever-so-gently leans over to love on babies. when the time comes, i know she's going to be a better big sister than i could ever dream of.

i love new teeth and drooly smiles and big brown eyes with lights behind them. i love harlow.

i love that new babies need so much to be nurtured. how they don't know what they want or why they want it or else they know exactly what they want and sometimes we don't... but they always look at you with a face that says just love me.

scrunchy nose laughing... favorite.


zoe's favorite game: [while being slung over her daddy's back & him pretending he can't find her until she "lets him know" where she is]... i love how happy this makes her. and hearing her say let's do where'd zoe go?!!


this morning i (read: eggo) made a particularly hilarious batch of waffles.

we slept in until NINE (this never happens, mark this day in history) and then spent a good hour in the bathtub. so the chocolate milk & syrup combo really did it for her. that and me deciding we could wait to brush her hair until after breakfast. i pick my battles. (hair brushing, by the way, may be the greatest battle of my day).

and then.... it happened for the first time. i was noticing the beauty in her dark lashes against her porcelain skin and i saw it there. that single lash waiting to be wished on.

she may have been a little confused but she did it:


make a wish...