For the past four years I have been photographing my nieces annually for their birthdays.  I started doing this with my daughters as a way to officially document their growth.  Now granted, I take photos of them almost weekly, but these once a year photos are a great idea for any parent to look back on and reminisce – and cry (*sniff sniff*).

Yesterday, in between the trickles of rain, I got to play in Downtown Annapolis with my youngest niece, Delaney.  She has recently reached the incredibly fun & energetic age of two!  I can not believe it’s passed so quickly!  She can run, jump, sing, dance, babble about everything, name colors she sees, & do just so many things!

When she wasn’t jumping like a crazy girl, I managed to get her to give me a few quick glances.

And I also talked her mommy into popping in to Nostalgia Cupcakes on Main Street for a celebratory birthday cupcake!  It looked yummy – I say “looked” because Delaney liked it so much that she would NOT share!

Since her mommy put her in the same outfit that her sister wore during her two year pics, I couldn’t resist putting together this little collage of the two of them.  Don’t cry too much, Laura, because I know I want to!

My youngest niece is about to turn one.  It’s mind-boggling to believe that she was so little just yesterday, right?  I mean she is walking now, and babbling, and having a whole incoherent conversation with me!  Crazy!

We had a little Easter get together with both families this past weekend, and Bert & Laura asked me snap a few photos of her for this momentous occasion.  Here they are!

This is one of my many sisters-in-law, Robin, displaying her winnings as the skee ball champ against Mom at Chuckie Cheese’s this afternoon.  Mom, or Gigi as the girls call her, invited us to come to a lunch date while she watched two of my lovely nieces, Mackinzie & Delaney.  They come down every Monday for some Gigi time & we like to get the cousins together for some cousin time too.  We all got a ton of tokens, thanks to Gigi, & it was personally my goal to acquire as many tickets as possible…cuz that’s how I roll.  Brooke kinda slowed me down, but I’d say we cleaned up pretty decently in the end.

Mom is a pretty darn good skee ball player and challenged Robin to beat her.  (My personal best score was 20,000)  Mom got 23,000 and was ecstatic….until…Robin came back with 25,000!  Ouch!  So, I made Robin climb up on the skee ball lanes & show me her victory face.  But wait!  That’s not all!  As we were turning in our tickets I found a stray coin in my pocket & gave it to mom, telling her she should redeem herself in skee ball.  She quickly ran over & smacked down Robin’s score with a new high of 28,000 – VICTORY!  I told her to get up on the lanes too, but she politely declined…I wonder why?

Thanks for the great lunch date girls.  We had a blast!

Photos I’m looking at:  Perfectly Posh Photography by Nicole Benitez.  Nicole was another participant in Justin & Mary‘s Spread the Love Tour in DC whose business card I snagged (super cute, BTW).  I’ve looked her up, followed her on Twitter & become her Facebook Fan so I could check out her work.  I totally love her fresh, colorful look.  Her style matches her personality – chic, urban, couture!  And, to boot, she’s a mom…of five!  Wow!  If she can do this photo biz thing with 5 kiddos, I think I can probably make mine work too!  Thanks for the inspiration, Nicole!  Hope we run in to one another sometime again.

A lot of you faithful readers have already met my newest niece, Delaney.  If you haven’t, though, click here to read her story…she’s quite a girl!  Delaney, or “Maeby” as her daddy calls her, made her first visit to our house last week for May Day.  After spending a rousing, and almost rainy, afternoon looking at the May Day Baskets in downtown Annapolis, Maeby came over for her newborn session.  She did fabulously, especially for being out most of the day and in a new place.  Since Maeby’s a little over the 2-week newborn period, it took a little work for her mommy and me to get her sleepy.  I mean, hey, she’s been couped up for 9 months – of course she wants to be up and playing!  Enjoy Bert & Laura‘s newest little addition…

Josh and I had the chance to go see Maeby again last night and she is doing so much better!  She’s out of her astronaut hood, breathing room air, and her Breaths per Minute are at a calm rate now.  Which meant she was able to try eating from a bottle last night!  According to her mommy, she sucked it down quick!  And I just saw today on her dad’s Facebook that they have removed all feeding tubes and extra IV’s from her!  Yeah!  They are still waiting for results from a blood test that showed something growning in her blood, so continue to keep that in your prayers.  Also, continue to pray for Bert & Laura as they were discharged yesterday from GBMC and now have to spend nights at home with out their darling little one.  You can keep up to date on all their happenings at the Rode Family Blog.  Here are some quick photos we got last night!  Enjoy!