Be sure to visit the Kids Were Here site to see all the other awesome images captured this month.

We are a group of passionate photographers who are setting out to document details of evidence that Kids Were Here. It is a fabulous idea introduced by the very talented and creative Ketti Photography.  To see the entries of everyone please visit our blog:

I always say you are the surprise I never knew I needed so badly.  KK was in school & Trey man was getting ready to start that next fall.  I worried b/c I just didnt know what I would do… I had been taking care of kids for so long that the thought of not having a little one at home with me during the day bothered me.  Then came you.  You loved me from the very first moments of your life.  Even as a baby you would look at me with this look… like I was the most amazing thing.  To this day you still make me feel like the most loved person alive.  The way you’ll stare at me… & take your hand and stroke my cheek.  How to tell me “I just love you too much mom”.  I really think you were sent just for me…. at a time in my life where I would have spent most of my days missing childhood… those days were now filled with the most joyous presence.  You.  I have found I’m more patient with you…….. I cherish things now I would have once overlooked.  I’ve soaked you in….. for I know now how fast childhood passes.  How tomorrow… you wont be just like you were today.  Tomorrow you might have a new favorite color… or a new favorite stuffed animal.  I watch you… I capture you.  My love for you is so strong that at times I feel my heart will burst out of my chest.  Thank you for loving me…. for letting me enjoy childhood again.  For making me feel like the most amazing person on earth.  The truth is… I just love you too much.  My sweet little red.

You will never have this day with your children again.
Tomorrow, they will be a little older then they were today.
This day is a gift, breathe and notice, smell and touch them;
study their face and little feet and pay attention.
RELISH THE CHARMS of THE PRESENT.
Enjoy today Momma, it will be over before you know it!
-Jen Hatmaker

Now… go check out the AMAZING Summer Murdocks letter to her children this month.

The moment you were born the dr immediately laid you on my chest & I started to cry….. there you were… my little boy looking up at me.   I wiped you clean while you let out your first cries….. with your arms flailing about.  I was now a mother of two….its amazing how you fall in love all over again.. time after time.  The next few days I spent with you in the hospital… taking you all in…..  putting your paci back in your mouth every time it fell out b/c you were instantly attached to it.  The day we brought you home I laid on the couch with you and a overwhelming sense of sadness came over me…. I wanted you to stay just like that.  I knew how fast time would go by….. how fast you would grow up.  How you’d soon let out your first laugh…. you’d learn to crawl way before I was ready……& how I’d be chasing you all over before long.  I smelled you…. consumed you… in all your newborness.   The sad thing is… I was right… you did.    The day you started kindergarten I stood in the hallway watching you take your place in that big classroom…. and I started to cry.   I didn’t want you to see me… but you turned around and saw me & came running back out of the class.  Oh how I didn’t want to let you go…..& oh how you longed to stay.  That seemed like yesterday…. and now you’re 9.5.  My little big boy….. with never ending energy.  You’re my defiant child.  When you run through the house I still see my little boy with his diaper sagging down…. dancing in front of the tv with the paci in your mouth.  Playing out back in the dirt with your tractors…. & standing at the patio doors crying the first time I ever left you with daddy alone.  No matter how big you get…. how much you change ….I’ll always see that little boy looking back at me.

Now go check out Carey Pace to see her letter this month.

You came into my life a little over 13 years ago.  I sat all alone in the health department at the age of 16….. when I heard a few words that would change my life forever “I ran the test twice sweety… its positive”.  I was overwhelmed & shocked…… you had made yourself a home inside of me.  When others told me I could never do it…. that I was too young & my only choice was to not keep you. … that I was giving up my life.   Something deep inside of me knew you were mine.  As months went by my waist line expanded & when other girls my age were shopping for the newest trends in clothing…. I was in search of clothing to fit my new belly.  With each new stretch mark & every kick you made yourself known in a deeper way to me.  I began a journal documenting how much my life was changing & I still have that for you to read someday.  Then on October 31st 1999, just three months after I turned 17 my water broke …..  you had decided that this day would be the day you completely changed my life.  You entered my life on this day….  no one can truly prepare you for that moment…. when you become a mother.  When the little being that’s been living inside of you for months suddenly is staring you in the face.  So perfect… so amazing it is.  Suddenly I didnt matter anymore & the most important part of my life at that very moment was YOU.  You instantly changed me….  I suddenly knew the real meaning of love… a deep…. overwhelming…. protective love.   You forced me to grow up in that very moment.   The truth is I did give up my life…..  I gave up my life so you could have yours…. & YOU were the best decision I ever made.

“The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.”-Rajneesh

I was asked by an amazing group of photographers to join this project.  Each month on the 15th we will post a letter…. written to our children.  Our words…. our style… our hearts.  Next in line is Hope Toliver, go check out her letter.

The first sickies

a little girl lives here

riding

reflection of a cracker

time to feed Dippy

our horse is a ham

my farm girl

bruised toddler shins

big girls take showers

all clean

Please go visit the talented Bethany to see her 10 on 10 this month.

Little red peeking

Ginger Ale thief

vroom vroom

little girl, little car

she climbs

going to hide

“I’m gonna squirt you mama”

chasing little red

family movie night

Please go check out Bethany Petrik to see her 10 on 10 this month.

“A teddy bear is your childhood wrapped up in faded pink fur, and as such, she commands affection long after she is out grown.” -Pam Brown