Big Boy Birthday Bedroom

Bye-Bye Baby Bedroom, Bonjour Bonafide Big Boy Bedroom!

Our little guy turned three around Christmas and we ditched the baby stuff and brought in a grand sense of adventure. I just wanted to share his new room! Purely personal and fun. I love his new space...

Elisha's namesake is his great-great grandfather Elisha. When Eli was as he calls it "a little bitty baby, a long-a time ago," we got a box of postcards from my uncle from Elisha's travels.  They show an incredibly large record of a man with a truly fascinating life. Few have writing with mid-century gas prices and tidbits of information, but most just show an amazing picture of traveling around North America and photographic record of the era. That was my inspiration.

 

Traveling is a fairly integral part of Eli's life right now, so it seemed really fitting.  Not only is he obsessed with vehicles, as many boys are (see his partial collection of trucks in their "garage"),

but we have family all over the place. London, Texas, Kansas, Florida, just to name immediate family... This quilt a dear friend made for Christmas (hanging on the wall) has a button to show where all his family lives. 

 We've got travel, adventure, and family themed objects collecting on his shelf.

 

 I used rubber stamps on his wall. Far more difficult than I had planned, but I have fallen in love with the natural, childlike, and vintage look of this simple decoration (there are little scenes hiding all over his walls).

We love to re-purpose old things, so his whole room is pretty much straight from somewhere else in our house, craigslist, or re-purposed- like his bedspread.  It was a plain black bedspread I had in college. A friend helped me sew these stripes on to make a road. How clever is she? And we got a little pillow shaped like a truck from London to drive him off to sleep at night.  His first night in his new bed, he claims to have dreamed sweet dreams of fire trucks.

Can you tell we like wood?

 My little brainiac, happy in his reading chair.

 

 I think he likes it.
He loves messages, so feel free to leave him a little comment, and I'll tell him you stopped by!

Jared & Kelly, an engagement experiment, of sorts...

I think I met Jared his first week of college. I might have even moved his stuff into his dorm room for him. It was about two weeks after I got married. And now he's getting married, to Kelly. 

Jared and Kelly both have a creative side with interests in writing, and Kelly with photography, so they were all for a little bit of something different for their engagement session. But with experiments that will last a lifetime, it is always a good idea to go with something safe first, right?

We started at the park where Jared literally (ah, writing pun!) pursued Kelly by running after her, and after her, and after her while he made laps around the park.

 

But then we did something a little more daring, a little more edgy. They went back to Kelly's apartment for a movie and some brownies.  Perhaps not the most unusual date, but when you throw in a few giggles, some food fights, and some un-typical dramatic lighting, it was a little daring.

This one strikes me as a moment when the popcorn is suspended perfectly in the air, just as if their life exists with these kernels just floating around them all the time since they are just sitting there looking perfectly calm watching Star Trek...

 Brownie phase: We turned food bloggers- gotta have the ingredients, right? I also find a way to highlight the ring in most engagement sessions, and Kelly made it easy for me by showcasing it and her perfectly manicured nails on the edge of the bowl (while Jared showed off the bracelet that I've never seen him without).

Check out that egg yoke!

 

 Watch out!

Jen & Lester's New Year's Eve Wedding

Jen & Lester got married on New Year's Eve- which gave me an awesome party to go to, rather than wondering what to do as a parent of a toddler on NYE. Thanks, guys!

This wedding had so many fun details, special moments, and hilarious expressions. Hold on tight, let's go!  We'll start with these awesome boots. Lester is a country boy, so Jen wore these boots as a surprise for him- and they are purple- which adds an extra dose of festivity! Jen symbolically had people walk her down the aisle by having people sign the soles of her special shoes. Isn't that awesome?

 

 

Jen and Lester were married at Webster University, where I was married- we're probably the only couples married there since film could be used to capture color.  It was special for me to be back in the same space where I said my vows five and half years ago. Anyhow, I saw this little patch of sunlight up in the balcony, so I grabbed this shot of Lester prior to the ceremony- I just love it!

Amazing firsts...
Dad seeing Jen.  (I also love that it says "financial aid" just behind his shoulder- little bit of wedding industry humor, I suppose)

Mom seeng Lester.
 Lester seeing Jen.

Jen coming down the aisle, perfectly bathed in sunlight.

 

This was awesome- Jen's grandmother sang the song that was sung at her mother's wedding.
 I got to see something I'd never seen at a ceremony before- before the ring ceremony, while Jen's brother Gabe sang well enough to make my heart almost stop, the rings were passed among the guests to pray for and think encouraging thoughts for the couple.

 

 

 She's going to steal your heart if you stare long enough...

Now things start to get a little more lively, the party starts here... I sometimes play this game with wedding parties, and it's hilarious.  I know you can't see all the little details of these, but I have zoomed in and studied them just because they are so funny!

The reception was located at Hendri's in South City- and let me say- it's one of my new favorite reception venues!

 Happy New Year!