Farewell 2023

We took our last date night of the year a couple weeks ago.

I surprised Brad with reservations at our favorite Lebanese restaurant in Nashville and began our evening reflecting on everything that happened over the last year.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like my brain and heart are still trying to figure out how time works after 2020. 2023 moved both fast and slow and we’re finding ourselves looking at another year remembering that no matter how hard we try, life doesn’t seem to slow down.

Before we enter another year let’s jump into a mix of business and personal happenings that went on in 2023!

JANUARY

• We opened & sold out our first Mastermind group
• Watched a rocket launch at midnight from Cocoa Beach with friends
• Our oldest son turned 6, and a week prior was rushed to the ER with a serious eye infection – LOTS of answered prayers with early intervention, a past groom on call that night to prevent a second MRI, no surgery, and no scary outcomes. Still so grateful.

FEBRUARY

• Jen celebrated her 36th birthday 🎈
• Spent time in Florida with some of our closest friends and our oldest lost his first tooth!

MARCH

• Hosted our first in person retreat for photographers and were reminded at how incredible it is to be in a room full of inspiring, creative, heartfelt photographers. 
• Hosting the 10th anniversary of photographer friends and their kiddos at our house – watching and reflecting on the story the Lord started 10 years ago continue to unfold.
• Saw John Mayer in concert in Nashville

APRIL

• Our middle turned 4!
• Brad got to photograph an elopement for an incredible couple who gave him full trust and permission to exercise his heart and creativity on film cameras! (Thank you, Harry & Niloo!)
• Family visits, gaga ball tournaments and lotssssss of allergies

MAY

• Brad celebrated his 36th birthday documenting Meredith & David’s wedding – they even got him a birthday cake at THEIR wedding 🎈
• Our whole family got some kind of sickness and we were in and out of it for 6+ weeks 
• We took the whole family to Connecticut to stay in an incredible Airbnb and attend a 5 day conference for the Mastermind we’re in
• Had huge revelations around building value and diversifying offerings
• Got to play at the beach & eat seafood with our kids
• Experienced a beautiful taste of what we want our home to feel like and came home so inspired for home projects

JUNE

• Watched our oldest fall in love with basketball + sent our boys to summer camp in the woods
• Launched second round of Mastermind
• Celebrated 12 YEARS of marriage
• Photographed Noah & Bree’s wedding with some of the Redtree Album crew in attendance
• Brad and I worked SO hard and prepped for a 5 week summer sabbatical in Michigan

JULY

• Took 5 weeks off of work
• Spent time as a family in Michigan visiting friends, pretzel bread sandwiches on the beach, picking blueberries, sunset bonfires with friends & family, bike rides, and plenty of coffee from Mundos, and celebrating Brad’s mom’s 60th!
• Learned some hard lessons about the idols in our lives, but thankful how clear the revelation came to both of us

AUGUST

• Flew to Colorado for a wedding that we got to see some of our dearest friends from Nashville at!
• Brought the brothers with us Colorado to hike, play and spend time with my sister
• I finished nursing our youngest (bittersweet… but also, hallelujah!)

SEPTEMBER

• Baseball begins for our boys! Learned to love nights at the ball field!
• Brad took a solo trip to NYC to lean into time alone and exercising his creativity on the streets!

OCTOBER

• Took a trip to Blue Ridge, GA to celebrate my Dad’s 60th!
• I took a solo trip and went to the mountains of TN to paint and read in a quiet house 🎨
• We were able to take on NO weddings in October — this has never happened, but we LOVED having the best month of fall completely open
• Carved pumpkins with our kids 
• Hosted a FUN weekend with Brad’s sister and husband!
• Made a HUGE decision to pull our kids out of their hybrid program to go full time as homeschooling family (an answered prayer in a long dry season)
• Brad joined Clark Brewer’s team for a day to shoot a WILD wedding alongside some of our favorite friends and creatives in Nashville – A Little Long Distance, Darius Fitzgerald DeDe Scheibe, Mary Love Richardson, Lacy Events, and more! 
• Spent lots of evenings under the lights at Cheekwood with our kids

NOVEMBER

• Brad and I spent 5 days in California together capturing our last wedding of the year eating seafood and watching the sunrise
• Our daughter turned 2, saw Frozen once and became obsessed with Elsa 🫠
• Gave thanks for 2 years since a very big prayer was answered with one of our kiddos

DECEMBER

• Had the gift of hearing life & words of Truth spoken over our our boys as they received character awards from their last week at their hybrid school
• Hosted our 4th annual “Kid Christmas” – a Christmas party for a collective group of our friends’ kids!
• Sold out the first round of our 2024 Mastermind group!
• Stayed HOME and enjoyed a slow Christmas with zero travels 🙏

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• 52+ date nights
• Bi-Weekly Hangs with people who share similar values and push us towards truth, family, and friendship
• Found local chiropractic care helping us identify scoliosis in our oldest before it progressed
• Continued care with holistic healthcare team that has been such a gift to our family
• Had the gift of serving 30+ photographers in 1:1 coaching through our Mastermind and got a front row seat at massive wins in their lives (huge gains in time freedom, increased prices, increased conversions in discovery calls, big projects marked off lists, getting to work with more couples that light them up, and literally seeing businesses and home lives transformed).
• Got to serve even more photographers through Purpose & Profit and are continuing to hear the ways that course is impacting people weekly (allowing them to charge more, feel confident in their pricing, have a solid workflow in place, finally understand how to market easier and reach those unicorn clients, and leaning into their work with more passion, heart & excitement)
• Leaned into marriage coaching with Ray & Kelly to continue deepening our marriage
• Found a church home with some of our favorite people
• Learning more about our strengths as coaches
• And finally hopped on the Peloton trend (we love it)

A FEW THINGS WE TOOK AWAY AS WE LOOKED BACK

One of the biggest things we’re continually reminded of is that – yes – the years have big highlight moments and adventures and things we put on a calendar. And we love remembering those and reflecting and taking time to be grateful for those things.

But also, some of the most meaningful things are things that can’t necessary be stamped with a date.

It’s learning and growing in our marriage. It’s watching our children run out to get the mail and fight over who gets to cut the coupons out of the junk mail. It’s late night laughter with friends. It’s seeing our toddling baby turn into a precious, smart little girl in what felt like overnight and have opinions and thoughts all her own. It’s the conversations that took place on many of those date nights surrounding hopes for our family, our children, our schedule, our business. Conversations around unearthing fears and overcoming those things that felt impossible. It’s being there for the people you love when they’re walking through the hard, scary, and unknowns of a looming diagnosis and hospital stays. It’s eating that favorite family meal on repeat, turning on a jazz record, and sitting in the candlelight with 3 precious faces who are all waiting in anticipation to the be one who gets to blow the candles out. It’s watching our kids find “treasure rocks” for hours at the river and seeing the ways they are at peace in the outdoors. It’s solo time journaling in a coffee shop, driving down a windy country road as the leaves change, and feeling the sunshine on your face in the middle of winter. It’s your 6 year old asking why it the sun doesn’t shine while it’s raining, only to drive around a bend and see the clouds part and the sun shine down while a song about sunshine comes on the radio.

It’s the big and the small things. The glaringly obvious and the quiet whispers.

It’s the awareness and the recognition of this fleeting life and the many treasures there are to uncover in each year… if we’re only quiet and still long enough to let it move us, let it impact us.

Cheers to all that 2023 was and all 2024 will bring. 

Wishing peace & joy to each of you in the new year!

Thanks for being in our corner <3