-cracking chrysalis

shhhh.

heather's learning how to be quiet.

it's been an interesting process- this whole idea of learning to keep it in, with hold, listen.

but guess what i'm starting to hear?

my heart, my breath and the wheels in my head turning.

and i can feel the love that surrounds me that's been drowned out by the noise of my previous existence.

an excerpt from my favorite story- "the whispering rabbit":

"come here, little rabbit," said the wise old groundhog, "and i will whisper to you how to wake up the bumblebee [you swallowed]".

"you have to make the littlest noise that you can possibly make because a bumblebee doesn't bother about big noises. he is a very little bee and he is only interested in little noises"

"like a loud whisper?" asked the rabbit.

"too loud," said the groundhog, and popped back into his hole.

"a little noise," whispered the rabbit, and he started making little rabbit noises- he made a noise as quiet as the sound of a bird's wing cutting the air, but the bee didn't wake up. so the little rabbit made the sound of snow falling, but the bee didn't wake up.

so the little rabbit made the sound of a bug breathing and a fly sneezing and grass rustling and a fireman thinking. still the bee didn't wake up. so the rabbit sat and thought of all the little sounds he could think of- what could they be?

a sound quiet as snow melting, quiet as a flower growing, quiet as an egg, quiet as- and suddenly he knew the little noise that he would make- and he made it.

it was like a little click made hundreds of miles away by a bumblebee in an apple tree in full bloom on a mountaintop. it was the very small click of a bee swallowing some honey from an apple blossom.

and at that the bee woke up.

this lewis home sounds like 2 silly little boys.

and there's nothing i love more than listening to every second of it.

swing, swing, swing

we're home from our long stay in kennewick.
:(
i don't know what i loved most about our trip this year.
was it the family style raviolis at carmine's or the late nights experiencing "glee"?
how about the baby pig on a leash and strawberry lemonade at the fair or maybe the pink sprinkled sugar cookies at lonardo's?
possibly the open fire pit with loaded marshmallow roasting sticks in the backyard or the 24 hour access to phoebe the cute and indestructible guinea pig?
not sure i could nail down a favorite.
but the breezy cooler weather and all of the tall shady trees are definitely near the top of the list.

keewaydin park from heather Lewis on Vimeo.

time to get back to the grind of preschool, working out, maintaining our home and figuring out how i'm going to survive through the holiday photography demands.
at least my body's recharged from breathing all of that sweet washington air, being slathered with love from my parents and indulging on fresh nectarines daily.
here we gooooooooooooooooooooo......

to the point

dear mariah,

i finished the book.

and now i would like to go sit and stare into a corner.

wow.

love,

heather

ps- thanks for being hot and full of opinions. you're so major.

-dos

at my son's 2 year old birthday bash i asked my mom:

"what's wrong? is it too boring, too hot, too loud?"

she said without a blink of an eye:

"it's not too hot".

and that was when i realized everyone hated me for dragging them into the mouse's anus where the bad pizza tasted like an autopsy glove and the lighting made even the most flawless skin take on a meth addict glow.

but there was a mediocre store bought red velvet cake.

and a super delicious 2 year old.

happy birthday ader nugget.

we owe you one.

brooks and tayson:

fern and fri:

ade and kamri:

ps- the morning after, we went to the fair parade in downtown kennewick.

we all nursed our charles e chez hangovers by waving to princesses on floats, scrambling for street candy, cheering for the pooper scoopers, laughing at the shriners on their mini motorcycles and..............

watching this fine beauty school demonstration of a lady getting an up-do in the back of a moving pick up truck.

i feel better, don't you?

-rah rah siss boom bah

(i'm the tallest and brooke is in the middle on my right)

brooke and i were high school cheerleaders together.

i haven't seen her in 14 years and it was so awesome to see her again but this time as a mom and wife.

we talked about how we'd never realized how pretty kennewick was when we lived here.

and we also talked about how bushy our eyebrows were.

literally.

neither of us needed pom poms as we each had our own homegrown set resting atop the brow.

they were that amazing.

here's to tweezing and super cute families.

-home

as we were boarding the plane the flight attendant asked me:

"are you going home or leaving for vacation".

i looked at her for a couple of seconds and replied:

"both".

i live in and love arizona.

but kennewick, washington will always be home.

3 days in and we've done so much:

took the guinea pig to the groomer

ate my weight in pastries from lonardo's

strolled down to the llamas to say hello

held kittens

watched a street ball 3 on 3 tournament

farmers marketed

grabbed my first nap in a year

stared at mariah's face for 4 hours

and

scouted out spots for this week's photo shoots

mean kitty:

toe curling:

my brain is too relaxed to even know what i'm writing.

but not too relaxed to report that i found my twin soul standing on a mound of corn in the back of a pick up truck with her fly down at the farmer's market.

-double your pleasure

welcome to the awesomest, sweatiest, craziest, funniest, cutest photo shoot of my life.

6 year old toothless twins have the energy of squirrels soaked in mountain dew.

thank you chase and gavin for making me feel like one of your crew.

and no thanks for all of the little farts and spit bubbles when you talk.

-left brain deficient

so it's been brought to my attention that my official photography website sucks.

like- it's really bad, amateurish and confusing.

so i'd like to apologize for sending you there for no reason.

the only reason i really wanted it was to post prices but

a) those are changing again and

b) people just email me about pricing anyways.

so i've gotta clean it up or start over again.

i'm so bad at the business side of life it's embarrassing.

i need a super hot gay assistant to manage my career, dress me and slap my hand when i cut myself another cheesecake brownie. anyone? anyone?

here's some of my favorite photos from the week.

not sure where else to put them. (sad two note trumpet sound)

-balls

how's this for real?

this week was super sucky.

here's the short list:

1. grandma had a heart attack

2. hit the house while pulling into the garage

3. ripped the bumper off while failing to avoid hitting the house

4. this saturday's photo shoot called from the ER because she'd wrecked her car- and face

5. flushed my blackberry down the toilet

6. my first home studio photo shoot was way harder than it should have been

7. my 3 year old told me- as i was getting out of the tub- that my vagina was ugly

and you know when you start to notice the bad things, the list grows faster than usual.

so i'm going to find a silver lining in all of this week's grossness:

1. grandma's home from the hospital, my mom and dad live close enough to be there for her and grandpa and i get to go give her love in less than a week!

2. the damage to the house was minimal. not much more than some touch up paint.

3. the damage to the car was minimal. not much more than some how bending the bumper into place, touching up the paint and hopefully driving it off a cliff. i'm ready for a new car anyways.

4. saturday's photo shoot decided she still wanted to go through with it because she has crazy confidence in my photoshopping skills. she said "i look fine, except for my chin. i have a huge gash on my chin". just writing this makes me laugh. this girl's determined to get engagement pictures done even if it means i make her pose for every picture by peeking over a fence.

5. damn it. i was time for a social purge anyways.

6. the 6 month old sugar baby was wiggly and fussy and acted like a typical 6 month old. however, i did manage to take one picture that melted me. georgia is the cutest little girl and i'd do it all over again for this image:
7. there's really no silver lining to having an ugly vagina. i'd sacrifice it's aesthetics for my 3 roommates any day.

if i don't reply to your texts or phone calls it's because the universe wanted me to learn something about patience, simplifying and prioritizing this week.

the end.

-"cause without you things get hazy"

look who's gearing up for phoenix fashion week:

it's little brother's girlfriend KYM!!

she was chosen the be the face of 2 emerging designers this year and asked me to do her make up for the promotion campaign.

kinda fun to still be involved in a photo shoot but not have to stress about lighting or timelines.

i love this picture of my brother watching his lady:

and after the make up adventure, i walked down the street to meet audrey for dessert:

an extra helping of william fitzsimmons

with a side dish of rosy galon.

it was perfect.

actually the whole day was.

i text audrey the next morning and said i think i had a happiness hangover.

ps- this was kym's 2nd look.

i guess 2011 is all about dallas hair, 2lbs of purple eye shadow and dancing on a table without pants.

cause THAT happened.

-ade. as in lemonade.

i've been sitting here for 20 minutes trying to think of something to say about this soon to be 2 year old ruling my household.

i've been laughing and sighing and then laughing again.

what was life like before baby ade?

quieter.

cleaner.

easier.

lamer.

i love this nug.