dear colleen,

it’s hard to believe

but it’d been just shy of two decades when you pulled up to the farm last summer…

almost 20 years since that very first time we lugged us…and him…and all those props…up all those flights of stairs to your old warehouse loft down town…

him in his little uniform…with his daddy’s equipment…the little bench he’d built…and that chain link fence you just happened to have lying around!

alex…the little baseballer…

then 4 years later…up we trudged again…with her…and all of that frippery…and my poor honey loaded down with that enormous mirror!

emma…and the “dress ups”…

and again…after 3 years…my poor honey and those stairs!  with the bandana her nana brought special from europe…the white picket fence her daddy constructed…the tools…the old wooden crate branded “challenge”…and the wheelbarrow!

hannah…the little gardener…

then 2 years…and the easiest trek of all…with just her…in her birthday suit…with only the little wings i’d fashioned…and the little copper halo her daddy’d pounded…

claire…the little christmas angel

and then…20 months…and out to your garden full blooming…with its bees full buzzing…and your dear daddy helping us tote.  with a handful of lemons…a juice-filled pitcher…that same crate…and the “lemonade 5¢” i’d scribbled with their crayon…

elisabeth…and the little lemonade stand…

and after 2¼ years…we came to you…from idaho!  into the old cedar school-house…with that beautifully worn wood floor…his oshkosh railroad cap and overalls…the “crossing” sign…and that wonderfully well-used lantern…

jack…the little engineer…

and back again…in just 17 months…with a little slingshot i’d crafted from the willow in our idaho backyard…his daddy’s baseball…a nest from our beloved property…grampa calvin’s pocket knife…gramma mary’s blue ball jar with a “bug” in it…and gramma florence’s marbles…

william…and “boyhood” treasures…

and then…4 years and a bit…

and then…those almost 20 had passed…

and then…we found ourselves out on the farmwith the biggest prop yet!

3-8-2013

gramma ruth’s favorite tractor…grampa bert’s work boots…that fancy new hat…and those same well-worn overalls that all of his siblings had donned for grubbies…that two of them had worn in their one-year-birthday picture…

eian…the little farmer…

and those two…always peaking out at me when i look at him…

her eyes…and his chin…

and you…always gracious…always accommodating!

always letting me…but mostly him…lug those props!

always letting me create

always simply asking, “what would you like me to capture?”

and you did!

and it’s amazing, really…because we couldn’t have possibly known then…

they were all still so little!

but some truly did grow into their picture as their personalities took shape!

emma…our little girlie girl…

hannah…our little lover of flora and fauna

jack…our little in-so-many-ways miniature of his train-loving papa…

and now eian…the truest little deardorff-hubbard of them all!

what a treasure these images are to us!

what a special…unique…place you’ve settled into in our lives…

just a truly special place!

for nearly as long as i’ve been a mama…you’ve been capturing their growing up

helping us tell our story

through all those one-year pictures…those family pictures…

and remember?

those “just for fun” ones!  with just us two…bathed in light from those massive loft windows…four-year-little alex in his flannel plaid pajama bottoms…and me in that little white cotton nightgown…all full round with emma!

oh, colleen…how grateful we are for you!

how very much i just wanted to saythank you!

very sincerely,
me

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colleen’s images of our little farmer on his one-year birthday (august 22, 2012)…post sneak peak!

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2 Responses to

  1. Colleen Cahill March 12, 2013 at 1:15 pm #

    I was the one who was blessed the first day you walked through my studio door with Alex. It has been such a privileged to watch your family grow and such an honor that you intrusted your memories with me to document. These are the moments in life when you realize why God blessed you with your gift. Thank you for your sweet post the pleasure has been all mine!

    Colleen

    • darcie March 12, 2013 at 3:09 pm #

      oh, colleen…you’re just too wonderful!

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