family time

So...you saw the winter wonderland that is my hometown right now, and you saw the new haircut I got while I was there, but you haven't seen our whole trip home yet! Monday was the 30th birthday of one of my hubby's brothers, so we went to visit him, his wife and our 2 adorable nieces! If you know anything about me, you know how much I love those little girls and that I, of course, brought my camera with me!

Athena, happy as always!

Aura, smiling at me!

So incredibly precious!

Sisters

Uncle M reading Athena a story...she loves books!

She has also discovered her belly button and had to keep checking
that it was still there.

Too many cute faces from Aura!

I told you they're adorable! We also saw my cousin and her daughter while we were home...and Natalie is just as cute!

i ♥ faces {best face photo}

Tomorrow, i ♥ faces celebrates their 1st birthday! Happy Birthday! To celebrate, they have a new logo and a fun theme this week. The theme is "Best Face Photo," which is fitting since we all ♥ faces! ;) The photo has to have been taken in December 2009 or January 2010, and must focus on a face!

I took this photo of our niece, when we were visiting with them the Sunday after Christmas. They have fantastic natural light in their living room, and Athena is always such a sweet, happy little girl! I love how her personality shines right through in this photo!

Taken December 27, 2009

our new niece!

After five very busy days in my hometown, I'm finally back to reality. I can't complain though, even though we were running around like crazy, our Christmas was amazing. Spending time with our family and friends is better to me than any present could be.

Sunday morning we visited with one of my hubby's brothers, his wife, and our beautiful niece, Athena!
My sister-in-law was also pregnant and though we asked her to have the baby before we left to come back home on Tuesday, she seemed convinced that baby was staying put until her due date, January 7th.

Luckily for us, our second niece, Aura Emma-Jean, had other things in mind and made her appearance at 8am Tuesday morning, exactly 11 months after her sister, and we got to meet her before we took off!




♥ And I instantly fell in love with her. ♥

I ♥ Faces {Sepia}

I can't think of a darn thing for Not Me! Monday this week, and since I love sepia toned photos, I decided to enter I ♥ Faces' Sepia themed contest instead.

I took this photo of my niece, Athena, a few days after she was born and I just love it! The light from the window just lit up the cute little features of her face!

Happy Fat Tuesday!

No Mardi Gras activities going on here, we're planning a pretty low key day. Sunday we came home to my parents' house. Yesterday, I posted my first "Not me!" Monday, but I was feeling pretty sick most of the day, so I spent the majority of it on the couch! This week we're busy helping my sister pack to move to Maryland with her new husband. We get the moving truck on Thursday to load it up and we're leaving bright and early Friday morning.

We'll be down there with them for about a week, so blogging may be sporatic. We do love the D.C. area though, so I'm hoping we'll do some of the touresty stuff! I'm planning on practicing some of my new photography skills and working on my first photo project for school, so keep an eye out for some photos while we're there.

That's about it for now. But we (of course!) went to see our niece as soon as we got home on Sunday, so I'll end this post with a couple photos of her! :)

She has the cutest little feet!

Sleepy during bath time!

In love

We went to see our niece again today and I am so completely in love. Just look at this precious angel:

As promised...

Welcome to the world little one!

Athena Rose-Marie was born at 2:35 am weighing 7 lbs and was 22 inches long! She is absolutely precious and her auntie and uncle are completely in love with her!