We are ‘the Daniels’

If you’re a parent, you understand the mix of emotions that comes with watching your child grow.  We have been so sad to watch Lucy Hayes come out of her newborn phase a little more each day.  We want so badly to hold onto her innocence and that sweet sleepiness.  But all at the same time, we couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come!  We’re excited to watch her grow.  We can’t wait to have her smile at us and see how she interacts with Eli.  Watching our children grow comes with growing pains, yet each new phase is just so darn exciting!  For Jenna, it always brings out the “happy cry.”  That’s where we find ourselves today with our business.  Doing the “happy cry.”

For the past few years we’ve been “matt daniel photography”.  Through MDP we could tell you story after story of the amazing folks we’ve met and the fun adventures we’ve had.  But throughout the past year or more, we’ve felt a shift coming … a shift away from MDP and towards something different, something more us.  As we started the journey of redefining who we are as photographers, we noticed that our clients were naturally doing the same thing.  After all, we put so much into what we do; we put ourselves.

We’re a family.  We’re photographers.  We are the Daniels.

So today is somewhat bittersweet.  Today is the day we transition from MDP to the Daniels and we’re so excited to start this journey as well as have you come along with us!

Come visit us at LovetheDaniels.com!

M + J

She’s here!

This morning at 2:13 AM, our little girl arrived!

More details and more great stuff later, but know everything went perfectly!  So let me introduce…

Dada, work.

A few weeks ago we bought an iPad2 and have loved it!  There have been so many things that we’ve enjoyed about it; so many unexpected things!

There are quite a few days that Eli runs into our office, jumps in my lap, and says “Dada, work.”  I often wonder if that’s a statement – him telling me or Jenna that I’m working.  Or if it’s a question – asking me if he can help work.  Regardless, I always want him there and would love for him to sit with me, but after he smashes the keyboard one time too many, he has to get down.  However, we might have found a solution!

I was working tonight when Eli came running in.  I had just added Toy Story to the iPad and asked him if he wanted to watch it.  We sat there until his bed time … me working, and E watching his movie.  Made my night!  :)

Much love to my beautiful wife for snapping these shots of her boys!

Strawberry Picking

Well, as you may have guessed, no baby yet.  Her due date was yesterday, but she’s hanging in there!  Both of us expected her to be here by now, but we’re finding the unanticipated downtime and family time to be so special and so peaceful.  Yesterday was Jenna’s birthday and Eli and I spent the day spoiling her and just had a blast being a family.  Today, we went strawberry picking at Ambrose Family Farms with some good friends and had a blast!  So while we’re so excited for her to come, we’re taking advantage of every last minute we have as a family of three!

We brought home about 6 pounds of strawberries today and they taste phenomenal!  Eli was more interested in playing in the dirt, but it was fine … it made for some fun pictures!  :)

Counting down!

Well, we’re just about at the two week mark before our little girl is due.  And as Eli says, we’re ‘cited!

We’ve been a little quiet on the blog recently – we’re working hard to get some things done before our girl gets here.  But stay tuned, as we have some amazing events to share soon!

It’s going to be an exciting next few weeks.  We’re looking forward to sharing!

M + J

PS – This shot of Eli was taken last weekend.  He’s growing up so fast and is going to be an awesome big brother!