Monday came, we had the whole day planned out. We would hop in the car, drive to my shoot and then off to spend the afternoon together. Brianna picked out outfits, got her hair cut and looked ready to wow the world. But things never turn out the way you plan them. My shoot ran long, traffic was horrible and before we knew it we had to get home to the kids. My romantic day of photographing Brianna for her birthday post disappeared before my eyes, and I was crushed. I couldn’t save it, the clock rang five and the kids were waiting to be hugged and kissed hello.
My million ideas and locations for Brianna turned into one. One spot, a couple of shots and a stressful afternoon of hating the traffic in London. But not all was lost. Here are a few of the photos from part one of Brianna’s birthday shoot. More to come at a later date. And now we have an excuse for Brianna to get all dolled up again and have all of my attention pointed directly at her….
Brianna,
I know that you hate your birthday. That you want me to forget it every year. You have even booked a wedding on your birthday so that I couldn’t throw you a party (Happy Anniversary Dawid and Marcie!). You hate anyone knowing your age, so that is why I have written you 20-something reasons and ways that I love you, instead of 2? reasons why. I hope you enjoy them. I loved writing every one.
20 something reasons and ways that I love you…
1 – I love you in ways that are only imagined, portrayed in the silly movies that I rent for you, even though I would rather do anything than watch them. But I watch them so that I can be there when you cry and laugh and grab my arm pulling me closer into you.
2 – I love you because books are one of your most treasured things in the world. You wear them out each time you read them, telling your own story: I was here, I read you book and I leave my mark on you so that you will forever know that you were loved.
3 – I love you because songs remind me of you and all of the times in our life…
“Without you
All my teeth fall out
I’m decapitated
So the phone seems useless too
Without you
I’m wondering who to give my heart to?
Cos it’s alone and it’s not beatingâ€
4 – I love you because for Rachel and Sarah Elizabeth, the sun rises and sets around you.
5 – I love the way that every morning when I wake up, I roll over, give you a little nudge and even half asleep you know to roll over and back into me. This is our time, so that we can spoon before the alarm goes off and the world interrupts our love.
6 – I love the way you have mastered potatoes. Your potato soup, (I know Derek will kill me for saying this) is the best soup I have ever eaten. And don’t even get me started on your mashed potatoes. I have tried, put all of the same ingredients in, but yours, yours are why mouths were created.
7 – I love you because you protect me from myself. You never complain that I talk to you all night in my sleep. That you have to go and find me in the middle of the night standing in the middle of the living room or in the fridge trying to find my shoes. You save me from my sleep walking.
8 – I love you because without you there is no Last Forty Percent.
9 – I love you because you are scared of the dark. You make me turn on the lights anywhere that we are walking in the house and get really, really quiet, letting out the softest little “no†whenever I turn those lights off and leave you standing there in the middle of the stairs.
10 – I love the way you are a good woman. A good woman in every way. Every man needs a good woman and without you, I would be nothing.
11- I love you because you stood behind me when no one else would. You “forced†me to start the business and told me that we could do it. You believed when I didn’t. You saw what I couldn’t. You knew what I didn’t. You are why we are where we are today.
12 – I love the way you are so easy to love. I am hard to love, I know this about me, but you make it so easy to love you. Everyone that meets you loves you right away. They gravitate to you and you love them back just the same.
13 – I love you because you are smarter than me. No explanation needed, you already understand.
14 – I love you because you love me. A friend once asked you what you saw in me to fall in love with me (maybe not such a friend, haha). You answered that you could see through the gruffness. Thank you for seeing past the rough and making me smooth.
15 – I love the way that small things make you so happy. New bed sheets right out of the dryer, an afternoon cuddle when the rain is falling, hundreds of candles giving the only light in the house, falling asleep in Rachel’s bed with her in your arms. You never ask for anything. Your love for everything in our life is effortless.
16 – I love you because you never say no to slow dancing with me in the kitchen when our song comes on.
17 – I love the way you can never pop the micro-waved popcorn right. That it always gets burned and you always have to ask me to do it over for you.
18 – I love that you love my family just as much as I do. That they are not your “in-lawsâ€, they are your family too. That you wear my grandfather’s old house coat because it reminds you of him.
19 – I love you the way the flower loves the sun and rain. I love you the way the polar bear loves the snow. I love you the way Rachel loves the swings. I love you the way that no one else can. With quiet devotion to all of your perfections and imperfections.
20 – I love you because you are you. Never anyone else, never trying, just you, Brianna. I love you, forever. Until we are 90 and 92 and for all of our lives to come.
Happy Birthday Brianna! Love Ewan, Rachel and Sarah Elizabeth
by Brianna
17 comments