Five minute Friday- Gather

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Gather, something I look forward to every night at dinner.  To have my little family, gathered for dinner to discuss our days is one of the best moments of the day.  This has been halted while living in an apartment.  Husband's new job keeps him at the office late, which means we do not eat dinner together with the girls.  The apartment is so small there is not enough room to have a gathering for dinner.  Gatherings are meant to be with the ones you love.  I can't wait to have this back when we find a house and get settled in.  I miss our daily gatherings.  To be with the ones you love and hear about each ones day is important.  Gathering at the table to pray and eat together with no work, no technology and nothing standing in our way of just being together as a family.  This is my favorite part of the day!

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Erin's Special Ceremony

I posted about Erin, this beautiful 8 year old girl who is fighting cancer for a third time on March 3rd.  You can read the post here.  Well, I had the honor and privelege of photographing her making the 3 sacraments: Reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation.

I have never met a more positive family than this one.  They remind me of my family and how close knit we are.  They are what every family needs to be like.  Even if Erin wasn't sick, they would still be this way.  I watched each family member come into the church, there were tears, hugs, and laughter.  They all came together for this little girl.  During the service, there was not a dry eye in the church.  Being there and watching this all, those tears were not tears of sorrow or remembering Erin has cancer but about celebrating life, the love for this little girl, how far she has come, and how strong she is.  She is my inspiration!

Please read this post by Erin's mom just to get an understanding of how strong and positive they are: Erin's story.  Scroll down to March 18th and read her post.  If you also want to understand how they had to tell Erin that she had cancer for the third time and had to let her decide what route she wanted to go on, scroll down to March 3rd.

this family is strong, I know they have weak moments, but they don't let thos moments bring them down.  This family as so much fight in them and they won't give up.  They have such a positive outlook on life and have helped me.  I truely wish each and everyone of you could meet them.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day.  It was so hard for me to choose which ones to put on here.

One of my favorites, Erin's mom kept scooting closer to her daughter, with tears streaming down her face.  A mother's love for her daughter is indescribable!  This picture says it all. This picture gets me every time I look at it.

Being confirmed



Erin's sister, Annie



First Communion

Erin's Aunt Lyndsey, she loves her nieces as if they were her own children!

 Erin helping her little sister, Mary, talk into the microphone.

Another favorite, Erin's expression, and Mary upset that her bottle was taken from her!

Another favorite, you can tell how much fun her daddy and Erin have!

I love this one, the soft effect on her is my fave!

Grandpa got a kiss in!



The three sisters!




This pic is not the best, but we were all trying to get Mary to sit still and look at the camera, her facial expression says it all, "Really, I just want to run around the altar, you have two seconds!"