My sweet boy.

My first child.

My little warrior prince {we call him} who takes right after his Daddy.

I just adore everything about him. The blonde highlights in the cowlick of his hair. The one long eyelash that I see flutter when he climbs into bed with us every morning. The endless amounts of freckles that dust his nose and cheeks, evident that he worships being outside, playing in the sunshine. His skinned up knees and arms from all of his crazy stunts. The way he says “Thank you, Mommy,” when I least expect it. The care he takes after his little sister to teach her in all things {well, when he’s not WWF wrestling her}.

I still cannot believe five years have come and gone and I seriously cannot remember what my life was like without our Ben. And, I can’t believe he is starting Kindergarten this Fall! Makes me want to embrace this summer with them even more than I already do!

We celebrated Ben’s 5th birthday way back in late May and I finally got around to taking his 5 year portraits! How bad is that?! I don’t know what it is about this year, but I have seriously lacked in taking pictures of my own family lately. I tote around my phone and capture our day to days with that. It just feels a bit easier that way. For now.

But, taking his 5 year pics have been on my list of things to do for some time, so yesterday afternoon, I decided to just do it! I had visions of taking him somewhere fantastic with a super cute and CLEAN outfit on and shooting away… but, who am I kidding. After his rest time, I asked him if he wouldn’t mind me taking his pictures. He happily obliged and we hit up our ghetto backyard patio. Nothing spectacular, but what I captured was completely him.

Ben in all of his glory. Ben with his silly faces. His silly antics. Ben being Ben.

And, I couldn’t ask for anything better.

Dear God, help me to remember him. Years from now. Just like this…