Happy Halloween

Dear friends,

The pretty pretty princess...

...and the grumpy evil witch...

...would like to wish you all...

...a very Happy Halloween!  

Hoping your evening is filled with costumes, candy and creepiness! 

Bwaaahaahaahahaahahaaha!!

Alex's Baptism

 You guys, I'm so excited to share these photos with you today.  A few weeks ago, Ryan and I headed up to Chicago for the baptism of this little lady, our niece and goddaughter, Alexandra.  Is she not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Being the photo snob that I am, I knew that my photos (and Ryan's iPhone pictures) were not going to cut it for such a special occasion, so we hired a real professional photographer for the task.  The adorable and talented Anni of Anni Cee Photographie did a fabulous job of capturing the spirit and love of the day. 

 Alex, of course, being the focus of everyone's attention completely stole the show.  I think Anni did a great job getting photos that really captured how much this little girl is loved and adored by her parents, her godparents and her grandparents.  

 Alex was dressed to the nines in a beautiful white baptismal gown, with a pink flower headband.

I could not get enough of this child.

I completely hogged her and wanted to take her home and keep her for myself.

Thank you Anni for getting these photos of me with Alex.  

The bad part about always being the one that takes pictures is that I never have any photos of myself.

These photos mean so much to me.

This one is my favorite.

Even though Alex looks supremely bored with me.

It only takes a bit of tossing her around to get a big smile.

Or just hand her off to Uncle Ryan, who she always smiles for.

Back to me, back to yawning.  

I have got to work on this.

We spent some time before the baptism getting photos of everyone with the baby.

This was really important to me because it was the first time both families were there with Alex together.

She spent some quality time bonding with Grandma Bonnie.

And took some adorable photos with Grandpa Louis and Grandma Rose. 

And we got some group photos.

Dad's side of the family.

And mom's side of the family.

And then it was time for the magic to happen.  

Absolution of original sin.

Alex was such a trooper through the whole ceremony.

She didn't cry or whine or anything.

She was actually making funny noises and faces and cracking us all up.

And then it was our turn.

Time to get serious.

Ryan lit the baptismal candle.

And I had the pleasure of holding Alex while the priest poured the water on her head.

Of course, I was terrified I was going to drop her in the pool.

But we both made it through unscathed.

She made the most hilarious horror-stricken face of panic when she felt the water.

But then she was totally fine.  Like nothing happened.

All smiles again.

We took a few more pictures with Alex in the church.

After the baptism, we all headed to one of Justin & Christine's favorite restaurants for lunch.

They had a great outdoor patio where we could all get a few more pictures with Alex.

You can never have too many pictures.

See, she loves Ryan!

One last photo of the whole gang.

Thank you Anni for capturing such a special day for our family.  The photos are fantastic!

And thank you Justin & Christine for giving us the incredible honor of being Alex's godparents.

This is one very loved little girl.

* All photos by Anni Cee Photographie

Italy in Instagram

Buon giorno!

How are you?!  I've missed you all so much!  I'm so sorry for my crazy long absence.  I had a busy week at work, followed by a week-long work retreat, followed by 10 days in beautiful Italia!  Busy busy!  I'm exhausted!  I had the best intentions to have at least a couple blog posts scheduled to publish while I was gone, but obviously that didn't happen - sorry.  Hope you all are having a wonderful fall so far.  It's going to take me a couple days weeks months years a while to get through all my photos, so for now, here are a couple Instragram iPhone pics to hold you over.  I can't wait to tell you all about it...hang in there with me.

Amalfi

More Amalfi

Ryan in Piazza Navona in Rome

Me in Sorrento

Pantheon in Rome 

Pasta 

Sistine Chapel (illegal photo) 

Me at the Colosseum in Rome 

Ryan in Sorrento

Me at the Vatican (St. Peter's Basilica)

Trevi in Rome

Me in Capri 

This makes me so excited to get through the rest of our photos!  

Mom, I promise I'll get them posted as soon as I can.  

In the meantime, I'm mourning the loss of daily homemade pasta, fresh seafood, decadent gelato and amazing wine.  Oh Italy, I miss you so much already!

Ciao for now!