I remember pushing through the tired-ness and the exhaustion to snap a few pictures here and there of Evy during those hard months. I think I knew deep down that if I didn’t take any, it would make that season even harder on me in the long run. One of the things I enjoy most right now in this season is documenting our life. I work really hard to make sure that I’m enjoying my time with Evy but also capturing the parts that I want to remember forever. If I missed 4 months of portraits of her because of our hard season with James, it would have been understandable but I would have been sad about that…. and we’ve had enough sadness around here!!! So, I snapped photos here and there and my “to edit” folders started piling up. Thankfully, I recently got completely caught up and I have some favorites to show you from February to June!!!

Ps. If you’re wondering about how I organize personal family photos from Evy’s first year, you can read about that HERE! 

For Evy’s monthly blog post I would share some memories that I didn’t want to forget. Oh my. I don’t really know how to go back and remember everything from the past four months!! To be honest, the past four months have seemed like a blur but I’m going to try!

Memories from February to June – 2018

• Once we found out about baby James, Michael and I went to NYC and saw some broadway shows. We took him to the lake in the dead of winter just so that we could be sure that he went there with us. We did what we could to feel like we were making the most out of our time with the baby we were going to lose and I’m so incredibly thankful that we did that… even though it felt so painful at the time.
• Once the weather started getting warmer, the babies became OBSESSED with going outside! Our front porch has been used practically every day for baby entertainment!! Mimi will take both Micah and Evy (My sister and her family still live with us!) to the front porch to play with the hose! She’ll strip them down to their diapers and let them run through the water. They love filling up buckets with water and then dumping it out. This never gets old to them!
• The babies LOVE the rocks that we have in our big vases on the front porch. We have large river rock in the vases to keep the bushes from falling over and the babies love grabbing them before we head out on walks! We have random river rocks all over our driveway because of this!
• In March and April, the babies were obsessed with going to walk to see the horses! Evy had a fit for a while about not wanting to walk on GRASS!!! What a little diva! She would stand there and wave her arms with frustration and whine. Thank goodness she has now gotten over that and LOVES walking BAREFOOT in the grass!
• Since the end of May, the babies have started going with one of us to water James’ weeping willow tree on the other side of our property. It’s a sweet walk and I hope we continue to walk them over there years from now and tell them about James’ life.
• Evy is becoming more and more of a character! She’s hilarious and has so many facial expressions!! My favorite is her surprised face! Her eyebrows go up and her eyes get huge!!!
• She loves pointing and saying “Oooooooooohh!!” to almost everything!
• She started saying a ton of words around 13-14 months. She has said a few words since before her first birthday but recently, she’s learning new words almost every day!
• Evy almost over-pronounciates her words and it’s so cute! She does that the most when she says “Bu-deeeeee” or “Miiiii-miii”
• Her words sound like she SINGS them!!! “BIii-biii”, “Moooommmmmmaaaa”, “Daaaadaaaaa”!!!
• She still loves to read and flip pages. Some times we go up to get her out of her crib and she just wants to sit there and have us hand her some books!
• After losing James, we had to catch up on a lot of work that had been put off for three months. I shot 6 engagement sessions and 2 weddings. Then we headed to CA to see friends while also getting our KJ All Access content together each month. After CA Michael and I went on a 7 day cruise just the two of us and it was really nice. We missed Evy because we had never left her longer than 3-4 days!!

Gosh there is so much to share. So much has changed and so much has happened to us the last four months. God has been faithful despite our pain and scrolling through these pictures is proof that you CAN live and thrive even in the midst of tragedy. I’m so thankful for my beautiful Evy Girl. She can’t take James’ place but she sure can make a sad day better with her silliness, big personality, open mouth kisses and big hugs. :) Enjoy seeing our life in pictures. To view images from our season with James and to read his story, click HERE. 

Why did we get them both a car when they both are obsessed with the truck?! Baby jail was great while it lasted! This indoor “fence” was enough to keep them confined until about May and then it was over when Micah became strong enough to MOVE it!  Great Aunt Susan came to visit!
Evy with her Grammie and Great Grandma and Great Aunts!  Her first guitar lesson! This beautiful girl… I just love her so much! Waiting for the summer!!!! Easter!!!  Mad little bunny!! Those faces! She had just learned how to “wink”!!! Learning how to clean and kick things. haha They look thrilled! oh my gosh… what a ham! This was the quick trip to the lake where she got her first busted lip! Whoa baby….  That lunch box…. they both LOVE wearing it around their necks!  Cleaning with Mimi! Taking portraits of her has become… interesting. Their first bubble experience! His back rolls!!!! Tea time with Grammie!  This was going so well…. Brian did such a good job! Unfortunately, she threw up right after this!! And it was intense.  So we spent the rest of the afternoon resting with daddy and watching movies.  The sweetest cousins…. The rainy day that my family worked tirelessly to make sure the house looked great for James’ memorial service.  Even Micah did his part! We are calling these our “we survived” portraits. These were take 4 weeks after losing James. Oh this picture cracks me up! It looks like Micah gets no love but that is NOT the case!!!  Twinning!!! Learning how to draw from Grammie!  Father’s day gifts!  Joe and Emy are moving out soon!!!Noooo!! We have loved having them live with us! I’m going to miss them!!! But their beautiful new home is right now the road from us!  Matching tshirts again! Buddy’s 30th birthday weekend at the beach!

We stayed at Corey and Mooga’s cute new house!!!!  That FACE! 

Celebrating baby Powers! 

Whew! Maybe next time I won’t skip 4 months of sharing personal pictures!!! That was an incredibly long post!!