Weekend Thoughts and Family Photos

All photographs in this post were taken by Kelli Nicole, who will receive a glowing recommendation at the end.

The editing was done by me.

This weekend we enjoyed watching General Conference (a semi-annual meeting of our church) as a family.  If you're interested, you can watch all the addresses by clicking here.  I came away feeling a renewed desire to develop greater charity and to try harder in all ways to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.  The two talks that engaged me the most were given by:

Elder Tad R. Callister - a bold talk about The Book of Mormon

Sister Elaine S. Dalton - a touching and timely address about how fathers can best raise their daughters

Perhaps Sister Dalton's talk touched me so much because we are expecting the arrival of our second daughter in a few short months.  Whatever the reason, I found myself pondering a lot about our little family and how quickly things change and what an exciting time Joe and I have found ourselves in.  General Conference happens every six months, and I remembered that last conference weekend Kelli was in town visiting and took some family photos of us.  I was probably, oh, 2 seconds pregnant at the time.  When I see these pictures now - I can't believe how much we have changed and grown in six short months.  

Prepare yourself for a Hardie Family Photography Session of such immensity that surely only the grandparents will stay tuned until the end.

Let's take a short break to admire the real star of these photographs.  Those BOOTS!  You thought I was going to say Ellie, huh?  Seriously, though, let me tell you about these boots.  If you'll remember, one of the items on our New York Bucket List was to buy something a fancy.  Something we wouldn't normally buy.  The boots are my contribution to crossing off that item.  How frivolous are they exactly?  Enough that I almost backed down and couldn't purchase them.  I kept thinking about widows in South America and wondering how many African children I could send to school with the money I was about to plunk down for some footwear.  I'm still not sure I made the right decision.  And years from now, when I look back on this little boot confession, I'll probably shake my head at the shallowness of my youth.  So there you have it, now the entire internet knows what a terrible person I am.  

Back to the photographs of my adorable family.

How did Ellie know we were awkwardly kissing behind her?

Somehow, she just knew.

The next two photos are included to show you just how talented Kelli really is at capturing great family photos.  You can see how Ellie really felt about having her picture taken.  She was screaming any time we didn't let her run around and explore and climb.  So you know what?  We went with it.  Kelli continued to snap away while Ellie did her own thing, and the results are some of my favorite pictures of the session.

I love my little family!  I'm so happy we're adding another and (as corny as it sounds) I look forward to watching our family grow in photos through the years.

I know some of you are reading from the Houston area.  If you live in Houston, or in any of the places to which Kelli travels frequently, you should definitely hire her to shoot your family pictures.  Check out her work here.