Cancer

Many of you know that nearly two weeks ago now I sent out a request over social media for prayers and happy thoughts to be sent out way, not sharing exactly what had happened with us. The words to write this post have been forming ever since as we've been updating family and friends, though I was hoping I'd never have to write it here. Now that it's clear I can't move forward without publishing, my heart is pounding and I can't quite form proper sentences in my head, but I'll do my best. 

Last weekend on Friday, Martin my sweetheart was diagnosed with aggressive Stage 4 Melanoma Cancer. 

On Friday the 17th he was pre-diagnosed with Metastatic Melanoma, from the results of a few different tests and scans that'd been done on a large lump under his arm in his lymph-nodes, which had appeared and grown very quickly. We had about a week to wait for definitive results, but the doctors that'd reviewed his scans felt quiet certain.

Knowing of the friendship and love I have in so many of you, I decided to reach out and ask for your support while we waited for the results to come in, not sharing the suspicions in hopes that they would be prove to be false. SO many of you replied with such sweet comments and messages of strength and encouragement, sharing my request with your friends and families, and the emails started coming in. I was instantly overwhelmed by all the compassionate thoughts of so many who I've never even met, and right away I knew that my tribe was behind us and that we didn't have to move forward alone.

After a long weekend of research and phone calls, messages with family, etc, we decided to try to get an appointment with some very acclaimed doctors in the Melanoma field to find out more. On Martin and Sophie's birthday we packed all four kiddies and my 8 month bump in the car and drove out of state with not much more than the clothes on our backs for Martin's first appointment, not knowing how long we'd be gone or what we were going to find out exactly.

Day after day, we kept finding out they were going to do more tests, another scan, more blood-work, another biopsy, more needles. We weren't very hopeful for good news since none of the Doctors were very optimistic. They found multiple spots on his liver, his brain and other organs, though without any melanoma spots on his skin he is part of a low statistic that didn't get it from UV rays. We ended up staying there for five exhausting days, leaving with his final diagnoses, a binder with his treatment options, and the opinion of many that he'd be lucky to even have five years left.

(photos by Ashlee Brooke Photography, hairstyle by Emma's parlour, makeup by Jessica Marie)

Having been home for a few days now, we've been overwhelmed again by all the sweet friends and family reaching out to help in so many ways, and I can't thank everyone enough! We have another week or so to make up our minds about what direction of treatment we want to go in since Marty's case is quite time sensitive, and we're up to our ears in decisions.

More than anything right now I just want our life to feel normal again, and have been fighting for any sliver of our daily routine before this all happened. I've found myself craving to get my fingers on the keyboard again too, but I knew as I said before that until I shared the news that I couldn't move forward with any other type of posts. Once I find the courage to post this it'll feel the best to move on with my regular blogging as much as possible, though I fully plan on sharing many more 'journaling' type posts with updates and such as things happen.

If you have any questions or comments you can feel free to share them, and since we're having a big week with big decisions, I have to ask again that if you and your people can spare any prayers for us, they would be most welcome. I hope that sharing the details of our journey will not only help me but help others, just as the goal of this blog has always been.

Much love, 

Hair Tutorial | The Rockabilly Double-roll

Happy Friday Eve guys! Is that a thing? a few of you sweet people wished that to me last week and I realized it made me excited, because it made the weekend feel like it was already happening! haha Alright I need to get back on track:) Today's hair tutorial was shot like a month ago almost and I posted it on Instagram, so I'm very excited to finally be sharing it with you, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

As per usual with my photo tutorials I go into very descriptive detailing so you'll be sure and get it right the first time (vague tutorials are the worst don't you think?), so don't be intimidated by all the text and photos! This was a style that'd been in my head for a while, but this tutorial was my first time doing it and it only took me about 15 minutes! Also you can probably pull this off if your hair is at least to your shoulders, so if you love it I hope you give it a try!

and the winner is... (drum roll please:)

The long awaited announcement is finally here! It has been a crazy busy couple of weeks full of good things (new studio space! some exciting news! new blog design launch!!) and not so great things (flooded basement, no internet, stolen packages?!) so thank you all so much for your super-hero patience! Once the entry was verified, Colleen was contacted and her new camera is on it's way to her house!!

A big, fat, humongously massive THANK YOU to all of you sweet and amazing people for entering the giveaway and supporting my sponsors and myself, and I hope you keep your eyes peeled for the next one!!

The Freckled Fox will keep having monthly group giveaways where my sponsors can collaborate to bring you an amazing prize, while at the same time being introduced to all of you sweet readers! So if you're one of the many people who love the prize of a Canon camera every month please let me know in the comments, or if there's another grand prize that you'd like to see given away, please let us know as well!! Tech, gift cards, beauty, etc:) Leave it down below!

Thanks so much for reading my loves,

What We Wore // Happy Anniversary honey-buns :)

Hello again friends! We've not had internet this whole week, but it's back just in time for our special day! 

Every year when April 11th comes around we love reminiscing over how we first met, our courtship, our engagement, our wedding, our honeymoon (take me back to Maui!), and of course over the years the brought us to today. We end up staying up late nearly every night of the week leading up to it talking about the births of our children, our moves, family vacations, struggles and triumphs we've faced together, but it always comes back to this day. April 11th. The day we became husband and wife and started our life together hand in hand.

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photos by Ashlee Brooke Photography, hairstyle by Emma's parlour, makeup by Jessica Marie!!

All these amazing photos were taken by the lovely Ashlee Brooke Photography, My hairstyle was created and maintained by the super talented Emma's parlour,  and my flawless makeup was done by Jessica Marie!!

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It's cliche to say of course, but sometimes it seems like the years have just flown by way too quickly, and yet because we've fit so much family and so much life into our marriage, it's also as if our wedding day was an entire lifetime ago. We've grown so much together, and we have so many big marvelous plans. Building a life with him has made me happier every single day that goes by, and I can't wait to see where the future takes us!

Thank you for choosing me Martin, I love you to pieces:)

Happy Anniversary love.

P.S. as a side-note, I just want to say that we had the best time working with these ladies! I love that everything from the dress that Jessica lent me to the buildings around us makes the shoot feel like wedding photos! Our actual wedding day was very different of course, but these ladies did such an amazing job of helping me feel like a princess, and Ashlee captured our interactions and special moments in such a real way. Thank you thank you ladies!!

Easter '15

Saturday we had a bit of a family reunion/Easter party complete with a family-wide egg hunt and several tables of delicious food. The girls were so excited to get dolled up in their 'Cinderella dresses' as they called them, and each of them (especially miss Lydia) sat very still as I put a few curls in their hair. Then came the flower crowns, and they couldn't contain their excitement as they gazed at their reflections in the full-length mirror and twirled around. Even John was hopping up and down as we told him how handsome he looked in his suit:)

What a fun day it was to spend time together as a family and with the ones we love. I'm so lucky to have this bunch of precious little people to call me mom, and that handsome guy who lets them all tackle him to the ground on a daily basis

I hope your Easter was full of love and happy moments, and also yummy food!
Have a great week ahead:)

P.S. That Face!! she gets me every time:) 

14 day Relationship Challenge

Happy April guys and dolls! This is a fun month for us for many reasons, but most importantly it's the month of Martin's and my wedding anniversary! For the next week and a half I'll be sharing lots of fun posts with tips and ideas regarding relationships, a couple videos, Q&A's with both of us, stuff like that! To start it off though, I'm sharing this little couples challenge, and I hope you decide to give it a go!

Two weeks is totally doable right? haha I tried to think of things that can apply to all types of relationships, things that are simple and definitely do-able (even with lots of kids and full-time jobs!), and also things that both parties can either work on individually or with each-other! Too often I think we see ideas for how we as girlfriends or wives, etc can work on our relationships, but it's definitely up to both parties to work together at growing closer and keeping the romance strong:)

Anyways, stepping off the soap box.haha Thanks so much for visiting today, and if there's something special that you make a point of doing in your own relationship that you'd like to share, please do! Have a great rest of your week!

photo by Ashlee Brooke Photography  |  hairstyle by Emma's parlour  |  makeup by Jessica Marie