Last year when we moved to Bellingham we had just missed tulip season and I couldn’t wait for it to come again! Here are some of my littles enjoying some family time walking around the tulips!
Two twin posts back to back! Also on my trip to Ashland from Bellingham, I photographed Andrea and her 4 little lovelies. I had the joy of photographing baby Brian’s birth a couple years ago and have been blessed to call Andrea a friend since then. Andrea is one of the few people who is more of a get things done type of woman than myself! She is an inspiration of a woman and mother and I feel like a big sister I could call upon anytime I needed her! I hope you enjoy some of my favorites form their family session. 
I love the look on Baby Brian’s face here!
I had not lived in Ashland long when I met Julie for coffee one afternoon. We talked about her Etsy store and my photography business and motherhood. Julie was one of the women who helped me connect after my cross country move to Oregon. I later photographed her daughter for the cover of a local publication and when then when Julie became pregnant with twins I was lucky enough to photograph the beauty of her pregnant self and her baby boys as newborns (you can view them here.) Julie and her husband own the lovely) Julie and her husband own the lovely Tudor House Vacation rentals in Ashland and one of their suites has become my family’s home away from him when we make the drive form our home in Bellingham down to Ashland. The suite is perfect and fit my whole family, is right near everything and easy to check in and out of at whatever odd hour we come and go at. Thanks Julie and Raleigh for giving us a home where our heart is!
Here are some pictures of the twins (big sister was at school) doing their thing in their him and around their yard.
This past fall was a whirlwind in my life. We moved to Bellingham in June, Silas was born in August and then in September Josiah and Autumn started two new schools on two different schedules. Every morning we all got up with Silas who was just weeks old and Brian helped get the kids dressed and fed and then I would drive Josiah to school at 8:20am, drop Brian off at work at 8:30 and then go sit in carline with Autumn for her 8:45am drop off at Montessori. All the while Silas screamed because he hated the car, especially when we sat not moving at red lights and preschool carline. Then I would get home around 9am, go back out at 11:15am to sit in preschool pick up carline to pick up Autumn, then we went him and had to get back out at 2:50pm to park at Josiah’s school, unload us all, rain or shine and go up to the school building to pick up Josiah.
It was a mommy nightmare of driving, screaming infants, rain, ceaseless anxiety that I would forget someone in my newborn induced sleep deprivation..and lets not forget Silas could not establish a nap schedule.
One day I was looking down Autumn’s class list of contact info and noticed that a boy in her class lived close by us. I thought about calling the family right then and asking them if they were interested in carpooling, but my social anxiety had gotten worse the more tired I got and the longer I was isolated by the move and postpartum stage. So I didn’t. Then one day Autumn told me she saw a boy from her class at Josiah’s school at pick up time. It occurred to me that maybe this family from her school also had a sibling at Josiah’s school and I asked her preschool teacher that week. Finally I sent Amanda an email and she was so sweet to schedule a playdate right away and invite us to join the carpool they already had going. Turns out her older daughter is in the same grade as Josiah at Columbia Elementary!
Since then Autumn and her friend Elli have become best of friends with weekly playdates, Amanda has taught me to coupon and Josiah and Grace even enjoy getting all together with Autumn and Elli after school. There are no words to describe knowing another mama has your back and can pick up your child in an emergency or having a mom friend with a child that your child loves so much its almost easier to have them together than separate. It’s just pure sweetness.
Last week we hung out and walked all over the Columbia Neighborhood for some photography. It was so much fun and here are my favorites! Enjoy!
Saturday I officially left my long maternity leave to photograph my first birth in Bellingham at the Bellingham Birth Center! It was wonderful to be back in my zone and the birth was beautiful and the mama so strong! Congratulations family! To sign up for the family’s meal train click here!  
