Bree Hester

book worm.

Bree — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 04:57:03 +0000

A few days ago, we took a trip to the library. I saw my camera on the front seat, and grabbed it. Lately, I have not felt very creative or even like picking up my camera. It is a bad place for me to be. A lot has been going on in my world, the last few months have been really hard, and I have been in survival mode. I am starting to come out of the fog a bit, and picking up my camera to take pictures for the pure pleasure of it was good for me. I need to fall in love with my camera again. It has saved me before, and I know that she can again. I grabbed my camera as an afterthought, and I caught glimpses of my daughter that are so sweet and so very her. The librarian thought that I was nuts, but who cares what she thinks anyway?

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start as you mean to go on.

Bree — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 18:47:22 +0000

When William was a baby, he never slept. I am not exaggerating, up every 2 hours for the first year of his life. After months of being bleary eyed, we knew that we needed some help. Desperation brought us books. And a willingness to try just about anything. We knew that we created the no sleeping problem. We encouraged his waking by getting up every time he called to us. Granted, that is what we thought that you were supposed to do. It turns out that you are supposed to teach a baby to sleep. According to the Baby Whisperer, you need to put some practices into place. Ideally, you do this the day that the baby comes home from the hospital. In our case, we needed to just do it. Make a plan. Pick a day. And start as you are meant to go on.

Last weekend, I went to Nashville to go to the Blissdom Conference. I went and followed the writing track because I really miss writing. I feel like my writing can be so much better. Cleaner, crisper, more meaningful. I went. I listened. And I came home with the simple knowledge that all I have to do to become a better writer is to write. I need to make time to write, I need fall in love with writing again.

Jeff Goins told us to write the hard stuff. To be just a little bit afraid when you are about to hit publish. I am working on a piece for TCM that I have been trying tell for almost 4 years. I am scared to hit publish, but I know that I need to tell this story. I almost like being afraid. When I have been the most afraid to do something, I have always gotten the greatest reward. I look forward to this journey. I look forward to falling in love all over again.

I always feel weird saying that I am a writer. I spend a very large portion of my life writing, so why is it so hard for me to say that I am one? A powerful message that I got last weekend was that you are a writer when you say that you are. So here we go, my name is Bree and I am a writer.

And this is a random cute picture of Clay.

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bits of january.

Bree — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:29:49 +0000

I have thoroughly enjoyed my photo-a-day project so far this year. I love capturing little bits and pieces of our lives. Moments that I would not have thought twice about before, I snap. My phone is always with me, and it makes this so much more freeing than when I did it with my big camera. I also love seeing glimpses into the lives of my friends that are also instagrammers. I love seeing how other spend their days and the little traditions that they have. Here is a glimpse of our January. We had a birthday, a visit from Vivi, a surgery, a recovery, lots of sunny days, new books, sunflowers, new goals, and Tebow. Here is a glimpse of January.

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five people twelve times – December 2011

Bree — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 05:25:47 +0000

Well, I made it. I actually took a picture of my family (myself included), every month in 2011. Sometimes, my heart was not in it, but other times I loved every minute of it. Most months, we took a special adventure for our family picture. But my favorite picture of us is probably the one of us above, and the one of us in my bed cuddling on a typical weekend morning. Coincidentally, both were taken with my iPhone. Which just goes to show that it is about the image, not the equipment.

2011 was a good year. One of transitions, but at the end of the year, we only had good things to celebrate. What more can you ask? We are happy, healthy, and together.

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five people twelve times – november 2011

Bree — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:27:31 +0000

I know that that it is almost January and I am just posting my November picture. That should tell you how the last few months have been. Let’s just skip over to December, shall we?

Picture taken by my beautiful friend Alison.

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Shapes and colors.

Bree — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 21:59:30 +0000

The other day we were sitting at the kitchen table practicing our shapes and colors, he looked so sweet, and was trying so hard that I needed to capture this moment with him. I how his hands still look like little chubby baby hands.

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five people twelve times – october 2011

Bree — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 05:37:38 +0000

This poor blog has become so neglected. It is not intentional, but this time of year is so busy. Wes and I have been taking Financial Peace University, and I have been taking every freelance job that I can to help with our snowball. FPU has definitely been the best thing that Wes and I have ever done. It is a commitment, and not always easy, but we know that it will be so worth it in the end.

October was a great month. We enjoyed the fall weather and spent a lot of time outside. My best friend in the world and her husband came for a visit, along with my Nonnie. I love having people stay with us. It makes living so far away much more tolerable. I love having an audience to cook for, and making things that I know that they love and appreciate.

William got his first straight A report card. I am so proud of him, it may come as a surprise to you, but I have never gotten straight A’s in my life. He is getting so big and funny. He is heading into that really dorky phase and it is endearing. He was in a school play a few weeks ago, and I saw a side of him that I have never seen. He started off shy, but a song or two in, he was dancing, and shaking his little booty all over the place. Not shy that evening.

Ava is really into cutting out paper people and leaving them all over the house for us to find. Her artwork tells me so much about her. She reminds so me so much of myself at her age. All I wanted to do was read and color. I still do, if I am being honest with you. She still loves school, and is so happy for Monday.

Clay is a mess in the best possible way. He is rough and tumble, sweet and mean, but really funny. He keeps us on our toes, that is for sure. He is getting so big. I realized the other day, that we have gone from having babies to having kids. We were on our way somewhere, and we all just hopped into the car and went. No pre-planning, packing, we just went. We got into the car and headed out. In some ways, it is incredibly freeing.

Halloween was insane. I have never had so many kids come to my door in such a short amount of time. 400 kids, 25 bags of candy, less than an hour. I am really not into Halloween at all. I am not at all creative when it comes to making costumes, or even coming up with ideas. But the kids love it, so I do participate. People here on base get really into it. They decorate their houses like it is Christmas. I am just not into scary, I like cute Halloween.

Off to bed, but Happy November.

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five people twelve times – september 2011

Bree — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 05:12:18 +0000

Better late than never. I really had good intentions, I swear. In fact, I actually did my hair and left the house with my camera a few times, with the intentions of taking our monthly shot. But it never felt right. This exercise is not to force a family shot, but to celebrate my family. This morning, we were all piled into our bed cuddling, and it did feel right. I grabbed my camera from the kitchen and put it on the dresser. This is the shot that I was after.

September went by in a flash. Seriously, I am not sure where it went. Kansas is so gorgeous right now. All of the leaves on the trees are golden and red. The air is beginning to crisp, and it looks like a nursery threw up mums and pumpkins on my street. People really go to town decorating for Halloween around here. I cannot even imagine what Christmas is going to look like. Halloween is not my holiday. I like cute Halloween, but not scary, and I really do not do much for it. I decorate a little for fall, but I really see Halloween as the thing standing in my way of Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the holiday that I look forward to all year. I love everything about it. No pressure, no presents, just good friends and family, and a huge meal.

The kids are wonderful. They are doing so well in school. Ava in particular loves school. I work in her classroom on Tuesdays and it is so fun to see her in her element. She seems so big and sassy at home, but once you put her in a room of kids her own age, she looks so little. William is having a much better year this year. He is more responsible and seems to really like being at school. The homework here is much more manageable and I think that it makes a huge difference. They have a really long school day, and I am grateful that there are less fights once he gets home. Clay is no longer a baby. No more diapers, and finally, no more pacifier. I was scared to death to take it away from him, but it sort of happened organically. We lost a bunch and were down to 2. The dog chewed on one, and Clay threw it away. One night, he lost it and was sad, we did the middle of the night-half asleep-pappy search and we could not find it anywhere. He whined for about 2 minutes, and that was the end of it. Sometimes, I forget that they will be able to do things on their own, when they are ready. I really wanted to take it away earlier, but I am thankful that I did not push the issue. I know that if I didn’t wait until he was ready, it would have been drama filled and harder for all of us.

As for me, September was pretty good. I can’t really tell you what I did, but it seems like it was good. I have been working a lot, and love what I do. I am ready to make some changes though. I need to push myself more. Maybe change my look a bit. I am ready to move to the next step. Stay tuned.

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Bree — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 14:20:04 +0000

I am taking a workshop from my friend Stacey Woods, it is wonderful, just like her. I am channeling Stacey right now by sharing some black and whites. It feels weird to me. I am such a color person. But I guess that is a part of pushing yourself. Getting out of your comfort zone.

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ginnie.

Bree — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:31:52 +0000

This space has been ignored lately. It is partly because of this little love that we recently adopted. Her name is Ginnie. She is 10 months. She is the sweetest little thing and so good. I did not think that I wanted a dog until she came to live with us. More to come. Goodnight.

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