Asher Daniel Chappell

10.4.T. { update on life here lately }

Well, I normally like saving these for fun random lists... but life is soooo random right now I thought it would be perfect! 

1. Zoe is pretty much potty trained. She just started coming to me and letting me know when she had to go and wa-la! the girl is going most all the time. If we don't check on her early enough in the morning then she might wet her diaper... but generally she's holding it even at night. funny though, #1 #2 and passing gas are all the same to her right now, so if she has some gas going on... it's A LOT of trips to the potty for us until she gets relief! :o) But I'm really proud of her. 

2. We had a wonderful time visiting family in Kalamazoo (yeah, I always thought it was a fiction Dr. Seuss place before I got married)  It's always a joy going up there for me because there is a laid back pace of life there that reminds me of Alaska and there are generations of family up there on Dan's side whom I always find fascinating to visit with. I made a slideshow of that visit you can see here  http://www.poiemaphotography.com/kalamazoo/

3. Dan started summer school. 3 one week intensives back to back!! whew! It's a good thing he's smart and enjoys the subject matter because it would be pretty rough otherwise.  

4. I really need to write to Jack's parents but it's really been hard for me to. I really don't know what to say except to update them on his development. I got a letter from his dad thanking us profusely for taking care of his son for him.... and I wish I could say your welcome, but I don't feel like I'm doing it for the dad... I'm doing it for Jack. Of course I know ultimately we're doing it so that God can touch lives in all this. But I guess I'm just telling you, it's hard sometimes. I want to tell his parents off sometimes because of their foolishness they are missing this wonderful boy's life. But then where is the grace?? I have to trust that this is all in God's All Capable Hands. Pray that I find the words to say in my letter.... I think about it several times a day, I just can't find the words yet.  

5. I really like staying on top of what's going on in our nation's government but lately I'm finding that it produces fear and stress and frustration in my heart. You don't hear the full story on any news station and there are soooo many different opinions on everything it's maddening. So, I'm having to step back from watching TV about that.  Two Christmases ago I got Dan the complete series of The West Wing TV show and we finally finished it all a few weeks ago. I love that show! It was really educational for me and having Dan being the ex-political science major that he is was very helpful!! I cried several times in the shows but for much deeper less outwardly sad reasons.  I will say it was nice to watch a show that you didn't have to worry that when people were talking in cars that another car was about to crash into the side of them or that a bomber was sneaking into the building. So... very relaxing to watch and had so many of my most favorite tv actors in it. 

6. I'm officially moving my 111 goal to November 11th 2011. Still keeps me accountable but is giving me the freedom to really try to figure out what's behind some other health issues I'm dealing with (hives!) Thanks to so many of you who have given me great suggestions and helpful tips and advice. I really appreciate it and take them to heart!   

7. Jack is crawling EVERYWHERE!!! It's like he has an inner magnet for trashcans, toilets, and anything paper he can rip up. Totally boy! He's growing so fast and really becoming fun to interact with. Although I can't seem to feed him enough. He's always hungry. Whereas skinny Zoe doesn't eat near as much and won't gain weight for anything. She loves her some avocado though!! :o) 

8. Zoe saw a bug the other day and now she's petrified to walk on the ground. She wants me to carry her everywhere. Any spot or hair or anything she believes to be a bug. Now, how she knows to be afraid of them already... I do not know. But how do you convince a toddler that bugs aren't on the floor? It's tough... I want to comfort but I also don't want to encourage this fear. Any help from you mom's out there is welcome!!!  

9. I'm taking a 6 month break from photography....till Jan 2011.  Yep. I just have come to a point that I need to step back and rethink, redesign, reimagine, recreate, and rest. I often tell people that I feel like I was dropped into the deep end of the pool when it came to wedding photography and somehow learned to swim because I had to. For the most part of my photography career I was working a thriving but very busy job as a hairdresser and didn't have the time to slowly build my style, workflow, business habits, and networks like so many are able to do nowdays.  And honestly, after losing Asher something in me changed. I want to get more out of my photography. I want to portray my heart. In the wedding business it's Very easy to get caught up in the must get check list and the craziness of the day that you forget what you love about what you do. I think I was starting to lose that. But I LOVE weddings and capturing them is very rewarding. So, That meant taking time off to really focus on the changes I needed to make personally, at home and in my business.  So, here I am just barely into my time off, and my mind is already benefiting from it. I think I have several months to go before things start shaping up and really displaying what I want from this job.... this side job! For so long home, family, my walk with God, other hobbies,  me.... have taken a back seat to the hecticness of 2 service based jobs that I juggled. I didn't have much to give those other aspects because I was giving it all to my clients..... Which I love!! But I have to find a way to make those other things a lot more predominent in my life and have shooting really just be an outpouring of the creativity that builds up in me over my days of taking care of my family and home.  Okay, this probably could be it's own post but oh well,  now you know! :O) 

10. In light of all that, I find myself wanting to learn so many things that I never have before. I want to learn to really decorate cakes well because I have MANY birthdays to come in my ever growing family. I want to cook with things like fennel, celery root, figs, spices I can't spell, and such!! I want to really celebrate things..... people... events... days... I want to create memories for my family.  I want to enjoy the simple things more. I want to go camping. I want to create flower arrangements that resemble art. I want to spray paint things and decorate my home with them. And while I have to keep a balance of not making those desires idols in my life that keep me not content in where I am right now, I really want to strive to challenge myself to do some of those things when playing it safe with what I know can be a lot easier.    

10.4.T. {short and sweet and all things cute : Link Love }

1. I love these camera straps and these. They are so chic! Thinking about switching out my beloved neoprene strap... which is a must for long wedding days... but for everyday shooting. I want some cuteness!!! 

2. If you have a SLR with an on camera flash. Run... don't walk to get one of these Lightscoop bouncers. 

3. I can't wait to display Zoe and Jack's artwork in some of these. I LOVE the concept! 

4. If you're planning a picnic, a summer bar-b-que, outdoor reception, reunion, anything really. Garnish is the way to go for a chic summer look. 

5. Do it Yourself Vintage Gift Wrap.  

6. I so want to do these for Zoe's next Birthday party 

7. And I've seen these used for table numbers but also as Wall decor in a kids room! 

8. Got extra scrap paper, ribbon, summer flowers, and bored kids around? This is a great project that would not only brighten up the house but also be fabulous gifts!! 

9. Please can someone with a little more time make me one of these adorable head bands. :o) I love all things cute+hair!!  

10. My Best Friend just launched her new Website and Blog. It's super Fabulous!!! I really loved this last post for photographers. It was so helpful and some things it reminded me of and some things I hadn't thought that way before. 

** Hope you enjoy my Glee music mix on here. I LOVE these songs and listen to them ALL the time these days!! **

Happy Mothers Day 2010

First and foremost I want to wish my mother a wonderful Mothers Day! I'm so blessed to be your daughter.

 I'm so glad you opened up your life to me at a time when life would totally change for you by having a baby. I'm so glad you decided after a day of preschool that you couldn't bear to be apart from me and you decided to take up the challenge to homeschool me. I'm so glad you gave me the gift of brothers and sisters.... and lots of them. I'm so glad you always were willing to let me follow my crazy ideas like painting the youth room or calling a piano teacher every day for weeks until she let me be her student or going to cosmetology school 4 thousand miles away from home. I"m so glad you lived a life of a pastors wife fairly open to us children...I learned so much from you that has been and will be invaluable as we prepare for ministry.  I'm so glad you sought out my heart and embraced my love for Dan and were very open and honest to be about the joys and struggles of marriage. I'm so glad you were so excited to share your wealth of knowledge about pregnancy and child bearing. I'm so glad you came and stayed with me those weeks after losing Asher. I'm so glad you've been my biggest fan in our adventure in adoption and fostering. I'm so glad you're my mother!!! 

 

uncanny how much I looked like Asher isn't it. (see pic of him on left side)

  

Many people ask me when I started to learn photography and I normally tell them that I can't remember it was so early. Because I was learning and watching my mom and her love for photography and her passion for documenting our lives. My mom LOVED to take our photos. She took tons of them. And one of my most favorites were ones she took in the bluebonnets. 

 

That, my friend, is a Texas tradition. Taking photos of your children in the fields of bluebonnets as they line the highways come springtime in Texas.  So, being the good Texan Mommy that I am. (I was born here so I can claim that) I took my children and took their photos in the bluebonnets!! 

  

 

 



 

 

I also have the wonderful blessing of having the most wonderful gift in my mother-in-law! I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have her in my life. I joke often that she fell in love with me even before my husband did. She is an amazing homemaker and a servant through and through. She too was by my side in some of the best weeks of my life and some of the darkest days of my life. I tell Dan all the time that I feel guilty for how much she serves me. But he laughs and says, Casey, she loves doing it and it brings her joy! I do believe him because it shows. She's not only the mother of my amazing husband but one of my closest friends.  I love you Judy! 

 
 

I adore young love!

I love shooting engagement sessions. They are so easy because you rarely have to pose them or try to create emotion...it's already there!! Young love is very photogenic. I had two awesome couples in the last week or so. Here are a few of my favorites! 

Blayne + Cari 

 



 


 
 

 



 

and Sam + Nick 

  
 

 

 



  

 
 

     
 

getting settled in....

....that's what I would call the past 8 months really. I'm coming to really love texas. I feel at home here. I do miss North Carolina but it's amazing how much a place can become home when your family is here.  And they do say once a texan, always a texan. So maybe it's just my good ol' texan blood in me. I was born in Houston and lived here till I was 10. (my dad was a Houston police officer before going to seminary and pastoring here)     

We moved into a bigger apartment last week. I was very grateful for the low cost of seminary housing and that served us well those first few months. However we found that with 2 small babies and me staying at home most days, we needed more space! And I really needed a dishwasher. (I will say that not having one has made me a more grateful person when it comes to loading and unloading now)  It's only about 5 miles away from my parents and Dan's parents are living in the same apartments just down the way. It also has 3 bedrooms which will really help as the kids grow... but right now that means we have a guest room. So come on and come see us, we'd love to have you in our home.  I got to paint some accent walls and let me just say I LOVE TO PAINT!! My brothers Joel and Mikey were super painters as well and will attest to my being a Nazi about how it's done. (I told them I'm preparing them to serve their future wives well :o) 

* I"ll post pics once I get all unpacked and stuff * 

Another change we are in the midst of is that Dan is taking classes this semester at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas. They have some stellar professors; this semester he's taking classes with Paul Tripp, an NYC intensive with Tim Keller, and Sinclair Ferguson, and they have a lot more classes that fit with his work schedule as a school teacher. He will probably still be taking some summer classes at SW and as needed. But he is very excited to be a part and learn from this small but well staffed seminary!  

It was a slow but busy January. I told Dan that I think the next time God gives us a baby I'd love to have or adopt a summer baby. This winter-cooped up-newborn stage-sunshine deprived stage is one that I'm ready to move on from. I really do think I suffered from some SAD this season. I grew up in Alaska and know how real that is, but I never thought I'd feel it living in Texas! But I sure am anxious for the sun to warm things up and bring out the flowers and warm air. I want to feel awake and alive!  ( I just started taking some B and D supplements and having more light in our new apt is bound to help as well!)  

We finally have a community group that we are a part of with our church!!! This week was our first week there and we left so encouraged and excited about all God is wanting to do with that group of people. It meets in the next apartment complex over from ours so it's really close by and already I feel a connection to people who before wednesday were total strangers to me because now, I have a bond and a responsibility to love and serve them. It's strange becoming a part of a group who knows nothing about us and hasn't walked the past few life changing years with us. However, I know that it's not always about the past and I can't wait to see the many ways God is going to use these individuals to walk with us in the future.  

Jack and Zoe are doing great! Zoe loves her brother but gets very territorial on him with things like the bum-bo and bottles. So those make for good teaching moments. We just bought The big picture story bible to start reading to her since she is really starting to love being read to. It's a must read for those of you with infants and toddlers. It really tells the stories of the Bible with the focus being on the greatness and bigness of God (i.e. instead of making the story of David and Goliath all about the braveness of little David it teaches of the power of God to use such an unlikely guy to defeat a man who hated God, and so on!)    

So, that's about all for now. I just wanted to take a minute and update on our life here. I have all sorts of ideas and desires to blog about lots of things but not the time or energy to make it happen right now.  

Sometimes though I read other blog posts and say... "exactly! that's what I am feeling, learning, growing, experiencing, and wanting to say."  So I'm just going to link some of those posts here and maybe they will help and challenge you this winter in whatever God is teaching you and growing inside you.  Now, some of these are not written with the perspective of living for eternity in mind and also many of them do not straight up state the hopeful everyday strength giving truth of the Gospel in times of difficulty or struggle in the mundane, but I do find that sometimes honest reflections and admissions of other mothers/photographers/writers/artists help me to see things in my own life that I may not be seeing or putting things into words that I may not be able to verbalize. So, these are just those types of posts. Nothing revolutionary or theologically deep, just echos of my heart the past few weeks put into words by other people. 

Reasons to Love February   (though I didn't lose Asher in February, sometimes I feel like this new year feels like the way she describes this month)  I do LOVE february though! 

Refining Moments   (I have so many days like this and wrestle with that tender balance )

Making the best use of your time  (I really liked her options and how she prioritized them ) 

Living in the Pre   ( I often think this. I do want to simplify life more so this coming year but I don't know yet what all that looks like for me, I"ll keep you posted ) 

There is no magic button   (I feel like I did work really hard the past 6-7 years but sometimes I wish there had been such a plethora of mature photographers/women in business willing to share their advice so openly, I think I wouldn't have had to learn so much the hard exhausting emotionally draining way and had more energy to enjoy the moment and the reward of my work) 

Everyday matters  ( I want to use my camera in this way... but haven't quite settled enough or make my personal photography work-flow simple enough to do it as often as I want to! But soon.)

Finding Self    (She often is able to put the human experience of grief into words that truly paint a picture of what it feels like) 

Joy in Sickness  (this one really helped when we were house hunting but ended up deciding not to buy this year) 

 And for the photo...which every post should have at least one! :o)

 Zoe LOVES being thrown or tossed around by her daddy! It's amazing to see the intense trust she has developed for her Daddy. I love watching her as she loves and trusts being with him anytime!! look at those eyes locked on him. 

 

** next week is completion of month 1 on the 111 challenge!! Lots to share. 

Jeremiah + Anna 12.18.09

Well, He did it. He's a husband now. 

It was a beautiful wedding and we had so much fun shooting it and being a part of that day. Anna was an amazing calm bride and she had a great group of gals as her bridesmaids. Jere was a stellar handsome groom and he had a smile NOBODY could wipe off his face all day long!!  And it was SO much fun to have all my brothers as groomsmen. :o) 

I can't wait to see God grow and mold these two into the man and wife He desires them to be. I'm so glad we get to be a part of their life during these early years of marriage. 

Love you both So SO much! 

     

    

   

make new friends... keep the old.

While I don't think I'm doing the former as much as I should since we moved here. I have reconnected with several old friends.   Tiffany is one of those friends. We figured it out that we met when we were both 14 at a conference in Indianapolis. Became pen pals (I'm so going to encourage my daughter to have pen pals) And Tiff was a letter writing machine... long beautiful letters. That's what teens did before facebook/email I guess.  Anyway, then I went and visited her in GA a few years later and then..... we basically didn't reconnect until a year or two ago. She really encouraged me as we lost our son and missed him greatly.  

So, when we found out they were coming to Fort Worth for Thanksgiving. We jumped at the opportunity to get together (they live in CO. right now) So I got to meet her 5 beautiful sons and I couldn't resist but to take some photos of them. Boys are so fun to photograph I think because they warm up so fast and then start showing off and that's FUN to photograph!  

Here is their slideshow: http://www.poiemaphotography.com/flammboyswinter09/

Tiff, You're an amazing mother and I loved meeting your sons and getting to know them. And getting to see you again after all these years. It was as if being 14 and pen pals was just yesterday! 

 

 

 

 
  
 
 

snips and snails

I love all his little newborn baby parts. :o) 

Jack is such a good baby...... he Sleeps ALL THE TIME! which is great seeing as how he wasn't supposed to be born for another two weeks. He's eating okay but still needs to develop more in that area, we do a lot of coaxing for most bottles.  And he LOVES to be held, it's almost like I can see him relaxing as soon as I put him in my arms, so in my arms he stays a lot of the time right now. :o)
Zoe's doing great with him. The only thing is, that we're reducing the number of bottles she has a day and when I feed him his "baba" she starts this whining sound and wants to get in my lap for a baba.... thank goodness for those baby puff cereal things, they often do the trick of diversion for now.  But we still make sure she gets lots of cuddle time and interaction with us. :o) 

Anyway, soak up some baby sweetness: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...............and her highness: 

 

wrapping up a great season

Poiema Photography had a great year this year. When I was looking at our summer and throwing in moving halfway across the country, I was wondering how it would all happen. But week by week and wedding by wedding it came together and we were able to be a part of so many beautiful family celebrations!! And I just wanted to give you some links of some of the weddings we've done and show you just a little of what we've been up to all summer. So you know what I'm talking about when I'm going on and on about having so much editing to catch up on.  These aren't all the weddings just a few to show you. You might want to pause the music player on the side of the blog before playing these slideshows. Enjoy! And if you know of anyone getting married in 2010... send them our way! 

Britney and Brennan's Wedding in Raleigh

 

 

 

 

Tina and Danny's Wedding in Florida

 

 

Ginny and Stephen's Wedding in Texas 

 

 

Heather and Brian's Wedding in Raleigh 

 

Genna and Clark's Wedding in Louisburg