welcome

My favorite definition of whimsy is “excessively playful expression.” And that is totally Sherice, a little fairy of a mother. Her kids have some serious fun. Sherice will never disregard a request to play. I’ve seen her do mundane things over and over and over for her kids, simply because they thought it was fun. She delights so deeply in seeing them laugh and play—she’s a sucker for those little kid giggles.

I picked this photo because it tells you a lot about Katie’s life right now. She will probably be embarrassed that I used it because she will say it’s too messy. But she has two small children and her life is full of a lot of messes. She patiently picks up toys no less than two times each day to reveal a very clean kitchen, dining room, and living room. And then the kids wake up and make it look like that photo. 

Max is my adorable nephew back in the high chair who will only eat everything bagels (which make his breath smell terrible), berries, yogurt, granola bars, cookies and sometimes french fries and carrots. He is basically just a hungry trail hiker. 

Joyful may seem like a small word, one that is overused or thrown in to a list of adjectives to make a sentence sound a little fuller. But please don’t underestimate its presence (or power) in my friend Sara’s life.

I met Sara before I even moved to Colorado. She was one of my “inherited” friends. I have a whole group of these: people who knew Travis long before they knew me and who graciously adopted me into their crew when I moved here. Let me just say—I got so lucky with this group. I would have chosen them with or without Travis.

Samantha is my sister-in-law—the poor soul who married my brother, the man with four sisters. We like to think we prepped him for marriage. I mean, how can you grow up with five women and not pick up a thing or two? 

Samantha may have been the last gal to join the Horning crew, but she was the first of us kids to become a mother. The day Bella was born, everything changed. I wasn’t even there and I could feel the palpable shift in my family. We watched our brother become a father and there was this little piece of each of us that breathed and cried (and puked up absolutely everything she ate).

Holly and I became friends because of marshmallows. We went to the same church and I had been trying to figure out how to be friends with her for a while. It’s weird to make friends as an adult. It feels an awful lot like dating. You don’t want to come on too strong in case you weird a girl out, but you also don’t get to hang out with people unless you just kind of insert yourself into their circle.

A little more than two years ago, Holly had her youngest son Bryce (he was napping when we took the photo above). I saw it as my chance to buffalo my way into Holly’s life.

I’m really excited to kick off my month for mothers with a shoot I did last month. Whitney is a mom, a wife, a business woman, an athlete, an encourager, and just an all around rockstar. Her business and lifestyle are both things I find so valuable and I’m so excited to share them with you.

I met Whitney last fall when I joined my CrossFit gym. She had just had a baby a few months before and was waaaay more fit than I was. That sounds like it might be demoralizing, but it was actually really inspiring. She talked with me about how CrossFit changed her life and how it improved her body image and made her feel capable of doing so much outside the gym.