Hi friends!!

I am so so excited to tackle another 365 project, during which I will take AT LEAST one photo a day for the entire year! The last time I did this was in 2015 and I learned a lot.

First, I learned that I LOVE documenting real, every day moments. Details and emotions are my JAM. If you want a session like this for your family, contact me and I would love to make that happen for you!

Second, I learned that posting a photo every single day all year is very cumbersome. After a while, I started sifting through and posting my photos once a week. So I am starting out that way from the beginning this year. And I am adding a blog post to present each week's photos. Yay!

So here's week 1...

1/365:  Goodbye, Nana

Nana (my momma) was here for Aly's birthday and Christmas. We dropped her off at the airport on January 1st. A couple of nights before this, as Nana was tucking her in to bed, Aly told her, "You are not going home in a couple of days. You are staying here with me". They had a 10-minute long conversation about how Nana has to go home to go back to work to which Aly offered all the money in her piggy banks to keep her here. The bond these two have is something special.

2/365:  DogMan

Aly was introduced to the DogMan books by her older cousin, Caleb, when we went to Florida during Fall break. We have been thinking about getting them for her ever since but haven't been able to find them or justify buying them. On this day, I randomly checked a local Facebook buy/sell group and saw that a friend happened to be selling her son's collection of DogMan books for a great deal! I messaged her and picked them up while running errands that day and Aly obsessively read them, cover to cover, over and over again for the rest of the week.

3/365:  Chris' 40th Birthday

Aly wanted to do something special for her daddy's 40th birthday. So instead of baking a cake from a box or choosing one at the store, she picked a recipe from one of her Sesame Street cook books:  Big Bird's Orange Chiffon Cake. This was NOT a simple recipe, but SO worth it!! The birthday boy loved it and said he felt so special.

4/365:  Tropical Chillin'

Aly was feeling very tropical on this sunny winter day. She got herself a cup of water, made an umbrella out of a straw and paper, then garnished with an orange wedge. She donned her sunglasses, took her drink outside, and there I found her, watching the birds flit around the bushes.

5/365:  Spa Day

Aly requested a mother-daughter spa day. We went all out, making our own moisturizing face scrub, doing each other's hair, playing with makeup, and finally, pedicures.

6/365:  Sleepy Face

When Aly has a bad dream on nights that daddy is at work, she comes in to sleep with me. On this morning, the light coming in through my bedroom window was so pretty on her sweet, sleepy face and I realized that she wouldn't always want or need my snuggles in the middle of the night. I had to capture this memory to preserve the light, the softness of her loveys, her sleepy little smile, and tangled hair spilling over the pillow case. These nights are exhausting and make it hard to wake up the next morning (we skipped church on this day), but I will miss the snuggles in the future.

7/365:  Sea World

This year, we decided to forego our usual zoo passes in favor of Sea World annual passes. This image perfectly sums up our first visit of the year:  Hair pulled back in a messy bun because it kept falling into the touch pools, face full of wonder as she soaks in all the information around her, 48" wristband that she proudly showed off after FINALLY measuring tall enough to ride the Manta roller coaster, and new little sea turtle friend that she purchased with the last of her Christmas money because the sea turtle exhibit was her favorite from the day.