dear raney,

you turned 8 last month (april 16th). EIGHT!!!!!!  i don’t know why as a parent time must fly by soooo fast, you are growing too quickly in our eyes.  if i had any power over time itself, i’d keep you little forever!  but i don’t nor do i want to miss these amazing stages of your childhood.  you are so dang thoughtful, caring and funny…ohhhh are you funny!  you have such a silly side and i will never ever get tired of laughing at your jokes or watching your silly dancing grooves or now your newest thing, making those dang farting noises…..and you are very proud of those noises let me tell you…..you can do them with both hands clasped together, under your armpits and behind your knees.  why or why must boys learn such things???  i have no clue “how” you even learned such a talent but you sure are proud (and i do have to say, even though we laugh and it’s funny, you do know that it’s not a super polite thing at all so it’s to only be done at home not in public).  but with that being said, i love that you are all boy and i wouldn’t change one.thing.about.that!!!!!

you had such a fun time celebrating your birthday this year, a week long celebration with quit a few parties!  for your big party you were over the moon that we were able to rent an actual game truck (best invention ever!) which parked right in front of our house and you and about 11 of your friends got to play every video game imaginable for a full 2 hours, you did not come out of that truck until time was up!  then on your actual birthday you got to have a fun class celebration at school to come home to your favorite birthday brownies and super giant chocolate chip cookie….YUM!!!!!  unfortunately we didn’t get to go to your traditional birthday dinner that night as i caught the stomach flu that afternoon.  i could not believe it, i haven’t had the flu in years and all of a sudden BAM on your actual birthday, i felt sooooo awful, i wanted you to be spoiled and all of a sudden you  were having to take care of your mama on the night of your birthday (as dad had to be off at work that night also).  you were so caring and loving taking care of me, i couldn’t believe how grown-up you had to be right then and there.  thankfully i was better towards the end of the week and dad was off and we were able to get to that traditional birthday dinner of yours.  your choice, red robin of course!  

i love you for who you are and who your are becoming….my heart bursts for love for you my sweet, sweet boy!!!!!! ~ mommy

next check out amy hoogstad‘s letter to her daughter and then continue on to the other links to complete our circle.

xoxo

i say it all the time, i love taking senior pictures and i especially love to take pictures of the guy seniors, they are so laid back.  and jordan was no exception, he was super chill and so easy to work with!  congratulations jordan, you have a super bright future ahead of you!

xoxo

my sweet, adorable nephew turned 3 back in january and i had so much fun with him and his beautiful mama ( my sis-in-law) roaming around taking pictures, he was so such a little ham for me!  he is obsessed with anything to do with fire engines, maybe he’ll be a fireman just like his daddy!  love you ryder!

xoxo

the henderson’s were literally one of my very first paying clients three years ago!  it’s crazy to see how fast these girls have grown and how gorgeous they are, just like their mama!  i just adore this family and the realness of their love, laughter and interaction that they have for each other!  they are the “real deal”!

xoxo

my sweet raney,

wow, these past few weeks have been such a strong whirl wind!  you never cease to amaze me, you are such a strong, tough little boy!  in all your seven years, you’ve been a pretty healthy boy (which is amazing since you were a premie and born 5 weeks early, but super healthy!), up until the past year and a half when you have been getting a string of bad strep throat, 9 times to be exact!  sometimes we wouldn’t even know, as you would just continue along with your usual happy go lucky personality  until you were to the point of not  being able to swallow.  we had talked with your ent doctor and decided it was best to have your tonsils and adenoids removed and decided on the week of your spring break (i know you’ll be real happy about that one!) to have the surgery so you don’t miss a great amount of school.  

two weeks leading up to your surgery, you burned the palm of both hands on a hot iron i had plugged in, getting ready to iron your dress shirt for your 2nd grade class pictures the next morning.  it was already late, past your bedtime, daddy was at work and i had walked out of the room for a moment not even realizing i needed to warn you i had the iron plugged in as you were never a child we had to worry about things like that, especially now at this age.  then at “that” moment i turned around and you just looked at me with this smile on your face, holding your hands in the air as if  ”wow that hurt, did i just do that”, and i knew exactly what had just happened and then your smile turned immediately into sheer horror and screams that i had never heard come from you!  the hardest part was trying to keep you calm, after calling and talking to daddy, magna, your uncles and aunts to help me try and help you,  a couple hours had passed and i had wrapped both hands tightly, you cried yourself to sleep in my arms.  my heart was breaking for you, knowing how much pain you were in.

this is leading me up to your tonsil surgery.  the next event was having your two upper front teeth pulled just 3 days before your surgery.  your dad and i were very worried about a super, super loose tooth that you had (you would NOT pull it or allow anyone else to pull it anytime soon) going into surgery, we didn’t want you to end up swallowing it so i made an appointment with your dentist to get her opinion and after your cleaning she had convinced you that she needed to pull your tooth.  your dad and i were in the waiting room, we were amazed at how brave you were right at that moment as you had come miles and miles with being “ok” at the dentist office.  when we came back to check on you, you not only had your one tooth pulled but two were pulled!  the one next to it was loose as well so we got two for the price of one!  and so at age 7 you had now finally lost 4 teeth in all!

the morning came, we had to be at phoenix childrens hospital early and magna met us there, she is the best grandma a grandchild could ever have!  she wasn’t about to have her grandson go into surgery (your first ever) without being right by your side, even if she was feeling under the weather herself!  you seriously were so brave, our baby boy, more brave than we were, i hid it well but i was so scared for you and believe it or not you helped me and seemed to comfort your daddy and i more than you’ll ever know!  it was the quickest surgery ever, only about 15-20 minutes and once you woke we were able to take you home.  you did amazingly well that first two days, you slept most of it and loved the gifts, balloons and hand-made cards that were sent to you, they all sure made you smile!  on day 6, i was so relieved and happy to see you feeling so much better (still not eating much of anything at all except for milkshakes) and couldn’t wait to pull out my camera and get some pictures of that amazing new toothless grin you are now sporting.  day 7 seemed to be a huge set-back as you were in a lot of pain, but as i write this, day 8 post surgery, you really seemed to be yourself again and possibly even going to school tomorrow morning.  even though you are still my baby and always will be, these past two weeks have really shown me and reminded me that you are definitely growing up and becoming such a strong, brave, tough little man and i (and your father) could not be any more prouder than we are at this moment!

i love you beyond words can express ~ mommy

next in our circle is amy hoogstad, hamilton newborn photographer

xoxo