It was just a little over a year ago when we did maternity shots of Lauren and Mark as they awaited the arrival of their sweet little girl.  It was surreal and wonderful seeing them for the first time in a year, now with their new little sidekick.  :)  What an absolute CUTIE they have!

This photo, to me,  just encapsulates the wonderful beauty of new parents. It is such a magnificent time.

One of the few smiles we got from her that day, was looking at her Daddy.

On the way to our second location she fell asleep.  :)

And she kept sleeping…..

Then she woke up and was thrilled to be at a bookstore that she loves and is familiar with.  She ran around looking through books, pulling them off the shelf, and plopped down to thumb through them.  It was adorable watching her!!

Lauren and Mark, thank you for letting us capture this precious time in your lives!  Your girl is just a sweetie pie….I could eat her up!  ;)

One of the reasons we went to New Mexico, was to hang with this beautiful family!  Mark and his wife Melanie went to college with Brett at UNM. We had so much fun with these guys on our trip!  The last time we were out there Priya was 20 months old, and Julia was 5.  They were inseparable.  :)  It was so cool after all these years (and adding 5 kids!) seeing them all play and get along so well.

Of course we had to do a mini-family session with them while visiting.  Here they are!  Melanie, Gracie-2, Mark, Alicia-9, Julia-14.

Gracie was just not feeling this picture thing….she was kinda done with it from the beginning to tell you the truth :-)  The ONLY thing that made her happy, was playing with rocks.  Sooooo, she played with rocks for a while!

Julia had grown up so much.  Last time we were here she was 5!!  Now she is a beautiful, sweet as could be, teenager.

Like I said, ROCKS were IT!  ;)

Daddy, trying to make Gracie laugh!

Alicia is a total sweetie pie.

Brett sneaking up on Gracie.  This photo is too cute.

A couple minutes later, this was the scene.  Mark and Mel weren’t laughing, but Brett loved this real-life action shot he got. I feel like I should put a disclaimer here: We are only posting this shot because they are our close friends- this type of thing actually happens from time-to-time on shoots , but you would never know from the blog ;-)    As it turned out Gracie wasn’t feeling very well…..but MAN they will have an awesome photo to show her someday!!!!

Mark, a great daddy, calms his girl down with some drawing.

Now she’s HAPPY!! (Alicia, you’re too cute.)

We headed out towards their house and saw this gorgeous  scene off the highway with the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the back.  We had to stop!!

Mark and Mel, I LOVE this one!!!

Brett was cracking me up.

This is their adobe home, THAT MARK BUILT!!  How amazing is that?

One of my favorite things is the kiva fireplace in the kitchen.  So awesome.

Brett took this shot without us knowing, as we were hanging out after dinner.  We LOVED their kitchen with the exposed vigas. That is Gabe in the lower left trying to find the cat I think.  ;)

Much love to the “H” family!  We miss you guys and hope to see you again soon!!!

The Z’s