Faith, Family, & Football

There are three things in my life that are a huge part of who I am: Faith, Family, & Football. Sometimes I don't always prioritize them in the order they should be. I recently made a difficult decision that shows I try to practice what I preach. Over the past few months, Charlie has been waking up and immediately asking Momma "Where's Papa at?" She gives the usual response of "Charlie, where's Papa?" And he responds back "At work with the kids."

During the day, I call home to catch up on their day and see how things are going. Libby is usually at school, AJ is usually being held for the 6th hour straight, and Charlie gets on the phone and asks "Papa, when are you going to be home?" This boy is starving for me! I feel such great love from my kids!

My typical work day in the fall would consist of teaching, then coaching football, coming home when it's dark out for a brief visit with my wife and kids before bed, and working on some photography business. Because I have some students multiple periods throughout their day, I spend more time with someone else's kids than I do my own! Something was wrong with that!

Following my priorities, I'm obeying my faith in what I believe God wants me to do as I spend more time with my family by resigning from coaching football for a few years. Instead of investing that time with someone else's kids, I'm going to go home and play catch with my own!

What priorities are you trying to keep straight in your life?

Cute Cheeks!

I was gone all day shooting a wedding and haven't seen my kids more than 5 minutes. I came home to download the pictures and opened up my program to this picture of AJ, cute cheeks and all!
AJ has been such a blessing in our lives. He brings such joy with his smiles and laughter. No kid smiles as much as him! He's catching on quickly that Papa is a photographer. He's got the smile down and is used to me holding this thing up to my face. My kids are pretty photogenic, so I like to take advantage of it!

Here's another picture that's a little more rated "G".

John Deere Date

My wife claims that every morning when Charlie wakes up he asks the same two questions: "Where's Papa?" and "Can I eat breakfast?"

Yesterday, he was pleasantly surprised to see that I was home when he woke up. I had the day off so and told him I was going to be home with him ALL DAY. His response...clapping and dancing! I am so loved!

So, we decided we needed to go on a play date. (My wife is great about making sure I get some date time with all my kids every month.) Charlie's favorite place...well, I think pictures explain it pretty well on it's own. He's a big fan of the John Deere store. Anytime we play "I Spy", no matter where we're at, he always spies "something green where Papa and Charlie go on a date." This boy is so darn cute!