oh, thank heaven…
– hannah’s image
Tag Archives | eian
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 farm…with the biggest prop yet!
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 say…thank you!
very sincerely,
me
– colleen’s images of our little farmer on his one-year birthday (august 22, 2012)…post sneak peak!
dear little people,
since this new year dawned, i’ve been spending bits of time flipping through our life…the “2012” edition…
all of the moments made memories…captured by all of you…
imagine my surprise…
that out of all of those moments you all captured…it was eian you were most focused on…
that little one daddy and i didn’t even know was missing…
that little one you all asked for…
that little one we all love just so very much!
thank you for capturing so much of him…
i know it’s getting harder and harder to do!
how very thankful daddy and i are that you all asked!
how very thankful we are that He answered “yes”!
how so very…absolutely…thankful we are…for all of you!
and for all of the moments…captured and not…we were all blessed to share in 2012…
very sincerely,
me (your excited-to-see-what-moments-you-capture-of-2013 mama)
dear b’eian,
you have the deardorff stance…
all you need, now…is the bull!
goodness, but i miss that man…our grampa bert…
you share his stance…and his chin…and his ruthy’s eyes…
it’s truly wonderful, really…
when i spot your daddy in jack…and gramma mary in claire…and grampa bert and gramma ruth…and their boy…your papa…in you!
great-grands and grands…uncles and aunties…
this whole wonderful family…all swirled up together…
and always peeking out at me…through all of you!
how i wish so many hadn’t already left before getting to kiss on you…
how grateful i am for these pictures…so you can “know” them too…
my heart aches sometimes…they’re missed so much…
but how it smiles…when i spot grampa standing out in the yard…all shrunked down in little you!
very sincerely,
me (your kinda-hopeful-you-don’t-have-the-deardorff-teeth-too mama)
– hannah’s image…and grampa with one of his “blacks”
dear emmie,
wasn’t that just so fun?
you staying up into the wee hours on christmas morning…knitting away on that sweet little cap for eian…
him tearing open the wrap…and just loving it right away!
him wanting so badly to just put it right on!
him just begging, “please, mama, please…may i wear my new cap!?!”
him wanting to just wear it and wear it all the rest of that day!
him just positively loving that sweet little cap you made for him!
that truly was just the very most fun!
very sincerely,
me (your always-so-grateful-you-gift-with-your-gifting mama)
baby’s blues
– alex’s image
practice…
…makes…
…perfect!
dear little man,
this afternoon, i went looking for you with the video camera…outside…
hoping to catch you in the act…
i watched you through the camera’s eye as you pushed yourself up off the ground and started to teeter across the yard…
your little arms thrown wide…your little hands grasping at the air…your little feet stomp, stomp, stomping with every step…
i smiled and suppressed my giggle, trying to hold that camera still…
and i watched as you finally plopped to the ground…pausing reflective for a moment…
and i watched as thomas lumbered over to you…the two of you leaning in close…nose to nose…for ever so long…
and i watched as you suddenly pushed yourself back up…tottling towards me…smiling proud right into that camera…
swaying…step, step…leaning…step…teetering…step, step, step…catching yourself…just…before…falling…
and it was truly just a very…indescribably…once in a never-again moment…
just too wonderful…
until hannah whispered regretful into my ear, “mom…it’s not on.”
very sincerely,
me
:: i’m a monday-naughty mama…
i set all the “we have nothing better to do but mischief” littles down around a tricky puzzle…and left them there with the toddler circling like a lil’ shark…