Being a mother is at once humbling, empowering, overwhelming, and inspiring – it truly is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world.  Moms do so much, and moms need support.  In honor of Mother’s Day I want to recognize three strong, loving, and amazing mothers that I’m so lucky to have in my life.  These wonderful women are all in different stages of their journeys.  Jessica is about to be a mother for the second time, Ashley is experiencing the wonder of her first child, and Elizabeth is only a few weeks away from meeting her son.

Jessica married one of my best high school friends and we quickly became close ourselves.  We have lots of common, not limited to our attempts at veganism, our growing photography businesses, and our sweet little boys who are only two months apart.  We always have so much to talk about and I love having someone to turn to for an opinion or advice. Baby number two is due for her in July and I can’t wait to see her love multiply.

Ashley is one of my oldest friends, we’ve known each other for close to 30 years (eek!).  One of the many things we share is that we’re honest with each other about the fact that motherhood is wonderful but it can also be HARD!  You don’t sleep, babies cry and don’t stop, and some days its a struggle to even get out of the house.  Like with most things in her life, Ashley handled becoming a mother with humor and grace and she is fiercely devoted to her new family.  I’m so glad that I’ve been able to watch and photograph Ashley become a Mom.

Lastly, my dear Sweet Elizabeth.  There aren’t enough words to fully describe what she means to me.  She is loved by so many, and for good reason.  She is warm, talented, caring, giving, and an absolute blast to be around.  Together with her husband they made an unstoppable team and there is no question in my  mind that their son is going to be one of the coolest little dudes around. She’s wanted to be a mother for so long and I just couldn’t be happier for her.  If she looks familiar you may recognize her from the recent feature of her bakery on the Cooking Channel’s Unique Eats.  I told you she was special!

And finally, cuz I’m a mama too, I have to include a few new photos of my baby bear who as you can see is certainly no longer a baby.  We’ve been having so much fun lately and he’s simply everything to me.

I am so so lucky to be able to call these women my friends, and more importantly all their babies and babies-to-be are the luckiest in the world to have them.

I love you girls, Happy  Mother’s Day.

xoxo x 1000000

klc and tjc