This past Saturday [houston] and I drove across town to my parents' house for our family-style engagement party. Family members and guests-who-may-as-well-be-family from both sides came together to put on a fantastic celebratory feast for us, and we had such a great time. I brought home-made sangria and it proved to be a huge hit (that and my stuffed mushroom recipe).

But before we walked inside we snapped a few shots for the blog, and before I knew it I was being ambushed by my 3 year old niece (and light of my life), A. She looks exactly like I did when I was her age, so it's like looking at a walking baby photo every time I see her. Whenever there's a family get-together she attends, she not infrequently steals all of my attention.

Time with my niece comes before everything, so when she took over my outfit shoot before it could even begin, demanding to check out some rather interesting pumpkins on display outside of a neighbor's house, I willingly obliged. Fortunately, [houston] snapped away during the whole thing.