Not too long ago I met up with the Balieys down in Highland Park for a session to capture a few images of Sam & Julia.  Mom Melissa and dad Clayton came along for the ride, and they are seriously some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.  Knock on wood, I have yet to miss a session this season due to weather, but if I was a bettin' man, I woulda put $3 (big money, I know) on the square that said "rain!" on the day of this session.  And it did rain, but we moved our start time up to early afternoon to beat the inclement weather, and instead of getting rained out, we got some great images of the kids.  It was close, though, and If you look hard enough in a couple images, you might see a few streaking rain drops flying by. Both Sam and Julia were so well-mannered and polite and a pleasure to hang out with.  Kudos to mom and dad for bringing up such great kids!  Here's a few of my favorites from the park that day.

Julia seriously coulda posed for the camera all day.  She was having a ball.

Love the connection in this image.

Maybe my favorite of all the images... real, authentic expressions.

Just gettin' some practice in photographing little bodies before the baby arrives in a few months.  Mia unwillingly took a time out from playin' fetch-the-rope-but-don't-give-it-back to stand-in as a model.

Fall photography season is in full swing, but it wouldn't be complete without a session with the Chambers family.  As I've mentioned before, Andy & Laura were naive brave enough to be the very first family I ever photographed back in December of 2004.  At that time it was just them and little Emma.  Well, little Emma has since become big Emma and brother John has been added to round out the family.  I've photographed this bunch several times now, and I'm always surprised/excited to see how much the kids have grown.  I guess I have this mental time warp issue sometimes where I expect everyone to look the same every time I see them.  [grin]

Love this image.

I don't understand how both kids ended up with red hair... That's a joke, people.

Kylie and I thought it would be fun to make a bit of a surprise out of finding out whether we were gonna have a boy or girl, so several weeks back we talked about doing a dinner where we'd cut cake at dessert to find out the news.  As a bonus, it just happened that we were supposed to find out close to my birthday.  Ahhh... everything was working out nicely for a birthday/baby sex dinner.  For the record, let me take a second to say that this dinner was initially couched as a "sex party" because, well, I guess that's what a lot of people call it when they're revealing the sex of the baby.  I, on the other hand, found this a little misleading.  Now I'm left to wonder if this was an innocent misnomer or a shady ploy by women/wives to get guys/husbands to come to something they might not otherwise ever commit to coming to.  Anywho... As I was saying, everything was going according to plan before baby Nicolosi decided to be a bit to modest during the sonogram last Wednesday by crossing it's legs in a "cross cross apple sauce" sitting position during the procedure.  BTW, I was educated that "criss cross apple sauce" is the new PC term for the now defunct "sitting Indian style" phrase.  Seriously?  Is that phrase really that offensive??  It's simply describing a sitting position people!  Anywho... again. Our sonogram tech was nice enough to try again with a second sonogram after we finished up the rest of our doctor's appointment.  And again, no dice.  While the baby had moved after Kylie drank some apple juice, the legs were still covering the private parts.  We were bummed thinking we now would have to wait another 5-6 weeks until our next sonogram to find out what we were having, but our doctor and sonogram technician saved the day by offering to let Kylie come back in Thursday afternoon to squeeze in a 3rd sonogram to try and make sure we could do a cake-cutting reveal at dinner Saturday night.  AND, they didn't charge us for the 3rd sonogram.  Our. Doctor. Rocks. Turns out the 3rd time was a charm, so the doctor and technician wrote the sex of the baby on a piece of paper and put it (and accompanying sonogram proof photos) into a sealed envelope.  Without knowing the results, we gave the envelope to our trusty friend Kandis who took said envelope to the bakery and instructed them to bake a cake with either a pink or blue layer of icing on the inside based on the contents of the envelope. Soooo... Saturday night we got together with a group of wonderful friends for dinner at Urban Crust, followed by a loooong build up to the cake cutting, and the results were.....

PINK!!! I can't tell you how excited I am to be having a "daddy's little girl".  I'm already wrapped around her finger.

Birthdays have kinda been just 'happening' for me the last few years.  While generally they've been good days, there's been no real milestones or life changing epiphanies.  This year's a bit different for me, though, as it's my last birthday B.C. (before children).  It's kind of an odd feeling really.  I'm completely consumed with anticipation and excitement and yet utterly terrified and even numb in thinking about how my life and Kylie's life is about to change in just over 5 months from now.  Most days I have visions of the awesome dad I hope to be and how much fun I'm going to have as well as delusions about how easy I hope it will be, but I'd be kidding myself if I didn't admit there are just as many days I worry about all the things I feel unprepared and unqualified for... all the things I could fail at as a dad.  The good news (sort of) is that, for better or worse, fear of failure is often the most powerful motivator for me.  I realize that's not always healthy, and there is no way to avoid failure except to avoid taking any chances at all which, in the end, is arguably avoiding living at all.  However, there's no denying that fear of failure that resides within is me has without question been the catalyst that has pushed me in the important moments in my life to be better than I thought I could.  And now I only hope the same is true of becoming a father.  Today has been a great birthday.  Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by, called, emailed, Facebooked, etc. on this day.  I can't express how thankful I am to be so fortunate. And to my wife, I love you today. And tomorrow.  And every day after that.  You are more than I deserve, and I'm blessed beyond measure to call you my wife. And to my unborn child, I can only imagine the day next April we finally get to meet you.