Rick & Kirsten Maternity {Littleton, CO}

A few weeks ago, I had the honor of taking some lovely maternity pictures of Rick and Kirsten. I know Rick from Denver Seminary and knew this session would be full of fun and personality! His wife Kirsten is super sweet and I know they both will make amazing parents very soon! This session was short, but we were able to get some really great shots with the GORGEOUS fall background...can't beat colorful Colorado! 

A special thanks to wonderful help of our second shooter, Schuyler Paxton!

Without further ado, here are my favorites from our session!

 

Bittersweet Beginnings

Today marks a month since Olive has been gone. We are still continuing our search for her and are praying God brings her back every day!

During this bitter time, we have felt a hole in our daily lives. We have missed having a dog excited to see us when we come home and to make us laugh when she is silly. Since we adopted Olive only a month after moving here, it has felt empty living here without her. While we hope each day will finally be the day that we find her, the reality is that it could take months or even years. We have heard tons of eventual reunion stories of pets with the microchip that Olive has. While that brings hope, it also means we will never have closure.

With all of that in mind, we have decided to adopt another dog this past week. We aren't trying to replace Olive and still miss her and cry over her. Matt and I have always wanted 2 dogs, but planned on waiting until we had a house. However, since our circumstances have changed, we decided to change our "plans." We decided that when Olive comes home, we will be happy to have 2 dogs now instead of later! 

Introducing the newest addition of our family: Mara

Mara is a 1 yr old Blue Heeler, Australian Shepherd. She was found as a stray and was begging to be pet when we passed by her kennel at the shelter. We couldn't resist her cry for love and attention. We played with her and asked tons of questions. We found out that she is very very smart and dog friendly. This was the most important thing since we picked her out with Olive in mind. We were able to watch her play with other dogs at the shelter and she was very sweet. 

We named her Mara, which means bitter. This name seemed fitting given season we are in and which brought her to us. Although, she is already making it bittersweet and has been nicknamed "love bug" since she LOVES to be cuddled and give kisses.

Sometimes having Mara is difficult as well. She does things that remind us of Olive and makes us miss her even more. We also have often slipped up and called her Olive, which is hard too. Regardless of those times, we know this was the right decision for us as she adds some joy to our lives with her own little personality!

We miss you, Olive and we have a new friend for you to play with when you finally come home! - Don't worry, we haven't let her sleep in your recliner! :) 

Kitchen & Bathroom - Fall Edition

Well Denver had it's first snow this past week! That means Fall is officially here. Still getting used to life in CO, but I am actually looking forward to the snow season. Crazy huh? 

So...Continuing our fall edition of the home tour, here is a look at our kitchen and bathroom! 

 This is our kitchen bar all decked out for fall! The runner was actually our table runner from last year...since our table was so tiny, the runner fit perfectly on the bar! Plus, it would have been way too small for our new dining table. :) The fruit basket was also a purchase from last year (Dollar Tree), which now replaced our silver fruit bowl for a touch of fall. 

 On the end of the bar, we have a simple white pitcher (Goodwill) with dried berries and pine cones from last year. I dressed it up a bit with some more scrap fabric from the new table runner. 

 To the right of our bar is my favorite fall edition! On our coffee bar, I made an Apple Cider bar! I used another one of our leaf place mats from last year with two "fall-looking" mugs. I also re-used a chalkboard we already had for the sign. The only thing new was the basket holding the mix, which I found in the dollar bins at Target. - I am currently looking for a homemade recipe for cider, but for now the quick stuff will do! -Let me know if you have a good recipe to share!

 I finished off the kitchen with a fall wreath on our coat closet (to the left of the bar). This was a new addition this year, so I stayed simple with the little "Happy Harvest" sign that I found on sale at Micheal's! Maybe I'll spice it up more next year. :)

 In the bathroom, I added some brown ribbon to the vase and mixed in more berries with the normal dried flowers. A few pine cones complete the look easily!

 I continued the decor on the other side of the counter with more berries and another "Autumn Day" candle that I love! (Bath & Body works).

So as you can see, we have been adding to our decorating stash and trying to enjoy the season frugally! I would love for you to share your ideas on how you re-purpose old decorations or decorate for holidays on a budget...I'm still figuring this out!

Also, please keep Olive in your prayers as this weather is getting pretty cold out there. Thanks!

Living Room & Balcony - Fall Edition

Welcome to Fall Y'all!

Although this fall hasn't been the same without Olive, we have been trying to enjoy the beautiful creation around us! Fall is my favorite time of year and I love how it welcomes in the holiday seasons. Growing up, my mom always decorated for the holiday season. We never did anything big for Halloween, but we always had such fun fall decor that I loved! Since we have been married, I am trying to slowly collect holiday decor within our budget and add to it over the years. 

Here is a glimpse of our living room and balcony with our fall decor!

 I love fall colors and mixing texture in decorations! 1 silver tray + 1 fall candle + mums + a mini pumpkin = perfect coffee table decor. I also saved all our pine cones from last fall and mixed them in with all our new decor this year. 

This type of set up works well for a coffee table because it is pretty to look whether you are facing the couch or sitting on it! 

This is on our end table/shelf in the corner by the couch. I simply filled a mason jar with mini pine cones and added dried berries to a vase...both which we used last year. I finished off the look with a larger fall candle (Bath & Body Works sale 2 for 20!).

This is our buffet looking into the living room from our dining room. I used a candle holder we already had and paired it with two pumpkins on a leaf place mat. The twig pumpkin came from the dollar bins at Target and the place mat is reused from last year (Bed Bath & Beyond). My big "splurge" here was the table runner from World Market...but it will be used often throughout the year!

The last touches in the living room were these three mini wreaths above our balcony door. These little squares window panes were just asking for something and the wreaths were the perfect size! I kept them simple by just hanging them with left over fabric from the table runner I made. 

Moving out to the balcony, I added a few pieces of fall to our table outside. The tray was from a thrift store that I spray painted and we already had the lantern. Adding a pumpkin and pine cones finished off the fall look!

Hope you enjoyed taking a peek at our cozy fall home! Can't wait to share more of our fall decor this year!

Rick & Kirsten - Maternity Preview

Here is a sneak peak of my first maternity shoot!

Rick and Kirsten were so fun to work with and I loved capturing their playful interactions! Plus, you can't find a better backdrop than fall in Colorado!

 

Stay tuned for the rest of this lovely maternity shoot!

Hoping for Homeward Bound

Most of you know our recent news of Olive being lost. However, somehow it feels wrong to continue posts as if everything is the same. She has now been missing for over a week and we are heartbroken.

Today would have marked a year since we adopted her. We were so excited and had planned to celebrate her "birthday." We know that God can work miracles and are praying that He brings her back to us. 

 

Even though she isn't with us, we still wanted to celebrate her and the time we spent loving on her! 

 Sept. 25, 2011 - Bringing her to home for the first time!

Her first trip with me to Wash Park! (Sept. 2011)

 This is one of my favorite pictures! Matt was taking a picture of my new snow boots and Olive just had to be in the picture as always! :) (Oct. 2011)

 Another favorite with Matt...If we were on the floor, that was always an invitation to her! (Oct. 2011)

 Olive's first camping trip!  (Mar. 2012)

 Olive's first friend, Duke! They loved playing in the river together. (Mar. 2012)

     Olive was always exhausted after our big adventures! (Aug. 2012)

 Our first camping adventure in the living room. Even at home she had to be right in the tent with us! :) (Sept 2012)

 This is Olive sitting on our balcony chair watching for Matt to come home from work! Once she would see him, she would run inside and down the stairs to greet him! Such a daddy's girl!

 This is where Olive and I would sit every day when Matt left after his lunch break. We would sit and watch him leave and then run up to the balcony to say goodbye and watch him drive away...every time.

For all those reasons and more, we love and miss our baby. Although, even though it hurts, we are trying to see God at work in the midst of this hard time. Over and over, we have been asking God to show us what He is trying to teach us. Through this, we are learning more about one another and growing closer together. We are learning how each other expresses sadness and grief....learning how to comfort each other and how to better respond when we are hurting. We also are experiencing closeness grow between Matt and I. As each of us have moments of weakness and breaking down, we rely on the other to encourage and pick us up. Finally, we have been claiming the truth that God works all things to the good of those who love the Lord.

So, Happy Birthday Olive! We love you and can't wait until you are home again!

If you have any suggestions on finding her, we are all ears! Here is what we have already done or been doing - We have checked shelters, petharbor.com, craiglist (checked ads and posted ad as lost), spread info on facebook, registered her lost with Home Again (microchip company) which sent alerts to shelters and vets of her missing, posted flyers all over the area, our apartment and old apartment, went door-to-door in neighborhood talking to people and leaving flyers 3 blocks long on 7 streets wide where she was lost, and passed out flyers in nearby parks. We have even looked up possibly hiring a bloodhound to track her, but CO doesn't have trained bloodhounds for tracking pets (some other states do). 

So please, let us know any other ideas! Also, please be in prayer for us and for Olive's return.

A View of Our Home - Favorites!

Hello Again!

This will be the last post of our home tour series...for now! Maybe sometime in the future y'all will get to see our bedroom, but for now, it is very much a work in progress! 

Anyways, here is a glimpse at the favorite spaces!

 This is our home! I love having an exterior door even though we are in an apartment! It just feels more like a real home. This wreath is our summer one, but will be switched out for our fall one very soon! So excited! 

 We also have a lovely door mat! This one is what we use throughout the year, but then we also have a Fall and Christmas one to come!

 Moving into our place, we come to my next favorite! This is our "entryway." It's only big enough for one small bench, but I think it's pretty great for an apartment...especially in Colorado. Now we have a place to store all those snowy boots without touching the carpet! :)

 The best part about our entryway is this little heater to the left! It helps dry wet boots and warm the tile floor when you come down in the morning. Yes, it's amazing! And so is our cute little Olive...she just had to be in the picture! :)

 Here we have a DIY shelf with knobs for hanging Olive's leash, harness and collar. On top, the basket holds keys so we don't loose them!

On the way up the stairs we have a little gallery wall of wedding photos. I hope to add more to this collection in the future! 

My next favorite is back upstairs and our wonderful, built-in buffet! I love this because it stores EVERYTHING! The drawers are filled with napkins, placemats, household tools, and small art supplies. In the lower cabinets I have everything from my sewing machine and stash of fabric to my paint bin and extra canvases! PLUS, this is the PERFECT place to set out finger foods and goodies when we host parties! LOVE IT!---Oh, and the runner is from our honeymoon in Belize. :)

The last unique feature of our place is this awesome built-in shelf and desk in our bedroom. This has been so wonderful since I'm in grad school! Now all my textbooks, binders, and printer can be stashed in the room instead of our living room. 

Also, this was the perfect place to display our beautifully framed diplomas (Thank you Matt and Julie Cavanaugh!) and our fun little trophies from college! 

Thanks for checking out our favorites. :) Can't wait to share our Fall decorations soon! The weather is already changing in Colorado and soon the leaves will be too...Another one of my favorites!