Over the Christmas holidays we were thrilled to get to spend some time with Daniel, who is my sister's fiance and soon to be the coolest member of our family, since he knows more about Mac computers, music and photography than all the rest of us put together. We love hanging out with Daniel and we were sad when we thought we wouldn't get to see him during Christmas. But then a photo shoot he was supposed to do in Nashville fell through, and he came on down to Hattiesburg for a few days, and there was much rejoicing. While he was there, he was kind enough to take some photos of Kate for us. She rewarded him by inventing a grumpy face that she made just for him pretty much every time he got the camera out, which was very frustrating. But Daniel is a pro, and he managed to get some great pictures of her in spite of her total lack of cooperation. And now we get to share them with you! It's so interesting to look at these pictures that were taken just a few weeks ago really and realize how much she's changed just since then. That's why I am so happy to have such a beautiful record of how she looked at three months.

This is my favorite picture, not just of these pictures, but maybe ever in my life. I think one of the powerful things about really excellent photography is that it allows you to see the beauty of something, even something you look at every day, and feel how amazing it really is. As a writer, I am jealous that photographers can do that without words, and can, in fact, make words seem so completely inadequate to describe the glory of the things God has made. This picture does that for me about Kate. I look at her every day, and I always think she's beautiful. She's my baby. But, like everything in my life, I also take for granted how incredibly blessed I am to see this every single day. This picture makes me feel the way I do when I actually take time to think about the beauty that God has poured into our lives by giving us this child. It makes me thankful, and I should be thankful.

I love this little face.

And little feet.

Here I am trying to convince Kate to smile. She wasn't listening.

Later we went outside, and Kate's Aunt Hannah was able to coax some smiles out of Kate. Hannah can usually coax a smile out of me too, even when I am being grumpy.

Kate was totally not cooperating for these last two pictures of the three of us together on the pier, but I love them anyway because I think they make a nice conclusion to these photos, some of which were taken on the pier when we were waiting for Kate. We had a lot to laugh about then, and we have even more to laugh about now.

And, a close second favorite picture, this shot of our little family.

As always, you should stop by and check out more of Daniel's work here.