This one is so cute! And it was definitely a surprise.

The jeweler used this one on their facebook page.

This year we headed to the Flowermound Pumpkin Patch again and Daddy came with us! It was a really nice day, cool and windy. Nadia ran all around and even jumped in the bounce house and did the hay maze. This is the most ambitious she has ever been at the pumpkin patch. She did have to find the “perfect pumpkin” again. Mike captured a lot of great shots and I am going to let them speak for me.

I know this blog post is very late, but I still want to share. My cousin Jennifer was married to Chris on New Years Day. Nadia was the flower girl and the ceremony was in Galveston, TX. It was the perfect wedding – everything from the colors to the food to the decorations were awesome. As a guest it seemed to me that everything went perfectly and I have never seen Jen look more beautiful. Her and I are the oldest of the cousins on my mom’s side and share a special bond.

When I saw Jen’s mom out of one eye and then her outside with her dad for the first time, the waterworks started.

Nadia and I waiting for her turn to go down the aisle.

I L-O-V-E this photo!

I love you Jen and thanks for letting us share in your day. And to Chris – welcome to the family!

Click on the photo below to see the entire album.

Nadia crossed two-and-a-half years old a couple of weeks ago, and we took her to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens to take some nice photos. It was an overcast day and getting late, but after a bit of color-correction and some prodigious post-processing, you’d never know it from the photos. I think they turned out wonderful. Turns out college actually IS good for something.

Nadia is a delight, and we still feel privileged daily that God saw fit to allow us to be her parents. She is indeed our great blessing. To watch her discoveries, her happiness, and her delight in almost everything around her is something that we could not have imagined, and it is beyond anything we hoped for. Not a day passes without us at some point wondering how we could be so blessed. She is truly loved and we are truly fortunate.

Here are a few of my favorites from the photo shoot; you can see the entire album on the Photos page. One last comment…I was thrilled that I was able to capture so many shots of her happy, playful smile and attitude. We see that joyful expression constantly, but because of her shyness at events and when around new people, many people don’t often get to see that side of her. That really is her demeanor most of the time, as anyone who gets to be around her for any extended period of time will tell you.

“Discovery in Solitude”

“Joyful Abandon”

“On Your Mark!”

“A Cartload of Fun”

“Double Blessing”