Sunday, October 30, 2011

Saraya is going to be a big sister!

We are officially expecting a new baby in April of 2012. Saraya will be just over 2 years if this baby stays put until my due date.

What is even more exciting...we are having a boy! This will be the first boy for my family and I already feel sorry for him when he has to deal with his older sister and two older girl cousins one day!

We are really excited and I hope to post more soon. Saraya has been doing amazing things lately and we are all anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new little brother!




Friday, July 22, 2011

Italy Summer 2011




Nana, Papaw, Saraya and I recently traveled to Italy for a wedding in Tuscany. I made a Mixbook photobook of the trip. We had an amazing time.

I will try and post some about our trip soon but for the meantime, enjoy the slideshow!

Mixbook - Create Beautiful Photo Books and Scrapbooks! | View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Final Jordan Photos

One of my favorite things to do in Jordan is to visit the local bakeries. They are pretty impressive with their assembly line processing of some pretty amazing bread. Saraya apparently was fascinated as well. One of the guys who worked at the store gave her this piece of bread after she smiled and laughed at him and his co-workers. She enjoyed it.


This picture shows one of my favorite times of this recent trip, actually of any trip I have taken to Jordan. Here is Saraya surrounded by 4 of her aunts (Abeer, Kowkip, Hanadi and Sawsan) and 3 of her cousins. What I loved about this lunch was that it was one of the few times I have had to spend with just the girls in Jordan. It was such a great lunch and Saraya loved all the attention from the ladies. What is even more inspiring is that at this table there is a school principal, a lawyer and a future lawyer, a civil engineer, a computer engineer and a musician. Now those are some great role models for Saraya!



While Saraya had a great time on our trip, she was ready to get home and see Daddy.


Here is one final shot of her. Even after 20 hours of traveling, she was still a trooper.


Monday, May 23, 2011

More Jordan Pictures

Here are some more photos from Jordan.


Aunt Sawsan and Saraya

Shopping for gold for Jiddeh (Grandma)

Playing with Uncle Mohammed

Saif and Saraya


Aunt Abeer and Saraya at the Citadel

Sunday, May 22, 2011

International Traveler

From the day she was born, Saraya has been a wonderful baby. She is generally happy, rarely upset and she never seems to meet a stranger. If I wasn't already convinced of that, our recent trip to Jordan certainly solidified her status as the "World's Best Baby Traveler."

She was such a pro. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive to tackle a 24 hour plane trip with a 14 month old all on my own. But it was necessary in order for Saraya to meet her Jordanian family and so off we went.

She was such a good girl. She flew well, even though we spent 9 hours in flight from Cincinnati to Paris and then 5 hours in layover in Paris and then another 5 hours from Paris to Amman. And even more miraculous, when we got there she immediately adjusted to Jordan time even though it was seven hours ahead of EST. I couldn't have asked for a better baby to travel with.

Here are a few snap shots. Try to check back and I hope to post some more pictures and perhaps a video or two soon.

Here she is in front of the Roman ampitheater ruins in downtown Amman.

This is the same hill as the previous picture, only from the other side. It is one of my favorite spots in the whole world. I am so glad I got to share it with Saraya.

Same spot. That large flag can be seen from much of Amman. Our apartment is just behind the flag.

Playing outside in our driveway. Notice the large lemon trees in the background.

Playing on the balcony. She LOVED Jordan!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

The Zoo

We recently visited the Louisville with Saraya. She has been once before but she really enjoyed looking at the animals this time. This time she was absolutely fearless when it came to the animals and she would have jumped into each enclosure to touch the animals if we would have let her!

She even got up and close with a silverback gorilla! Here are some shots from the zoo.







Thursday, February 10, 2011

Snow Time



Saraya has been a little under the weather with first the flu and now a wicked cold so she hasn't been able to get out and enjoy the snow. She does, however, enjoy looking at it and for some reason she laughs hysterically when we say the word "snow."

Needless to say, we are looking forward to spring. I can't wait until we can get outside and play again. It's been too long!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Fish!

One of Saraya's favortie things on vacation was looking at the fish. There were several aquariums and fish tanks and she loved watching the fish swim by.

Nurse sharks...look how close they are!


More fishes!


She loved looking at this big grouper.

How cute!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

If you're happy...



I apologize for the dreadful singing in this video but the cuteness hopefully will make up for it.

While we were in the Bahamas earlier this month, Saraya learned how to clap. She also learned how to crawl, how to feed herself and she said Mama for the first time. We decided she must be a warm weather baby.

More pictures from our vacation to follow. Stay tuned!


Sunday, December 26, 2010

Christmas Morning

Santa certainly visited Saraya on Christmas Eve! She had lots of new toys to play with on Christmas morning. Nana and Papaw came over to see what Santa brought and Saraya showed off her new toys and opened her gifts from us.

My very own name book!



She finally got the hang of opening the presents.


This paper is pretty...and it tastes good, too.


A new car!

More Christmas pictures to follow soon!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Christmas Card Outtakes

Outtakes from our Christmas card photo shoot:





These first two were almost good enough to make the cut. There were so many good shots to choose from. I love the second one!


This one was really good of Saraya, but Ahmad's hand replacing the ornament was not the look we were going for.


Ahmad was standing behind me singing and laughing and being really silly. In this one she just looks like she's thinking "Dad, what in the world are you doing?"



There were lots of shots of the back of her head. The tree was too tempting.


And so were the ornaments.

In the end, we had several fabulous shots and I couldn't narrow it down to just one so I put three on our card!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Sitting with Santa

Saraya's first visit with Santa. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it at first...


But then she decided Santa was fun. She particularly liked his beard!