Minnie Mouse was in the house this weekend! We were honored to join in celebrating little Miss Kennedi’s 2nd birthday party!

All of the kiddies had a blast on the fun jump! It was definitely a gorgeous day for some outside party fun!

Another gorgeous birthday cake courtesy of Sweet Chic Cupcakes!

The gorgeous birthday girl loved her cake as much as her presents! We had a blast and appreciate the opportunity to capture special memories with all of our wonderful friends!

Ava is so excited to be a big sister! She wanted to do some research on what being a big sister is all about…so we picked up some reading material

It’s a………………………BOY!

Say hello to Roman Ciccotelli Tademy

Ava picked out a special gift for her baby brother – she is already giving it lots of hugs until he arrives

Well, another year has passed by too quickly! For Ava’s second birthday we decided we had to do it twice as big as last year! Our theme this year was Bubble Guppies (we might have been just as excited as she was to have a Bubble Guppies birthday party). The centerpiece of the party decor was definitely the beautiful and scrumptious Bubble Guppies birthday cake created by Roxie Boston of Sweet Chic Cupcakes! All we heard for weeks leading up to the party was “Mommy/Daddy Bubble Guppy cake please!” and once it arrived…all she wanted to do was dig in!

Lots of presents + lots of toys = one very happy Ava Madison!

Uncle Brandon got a special birthday cake from Sweet Chic as well Go Titans!

While presents and birthday cake were happening indoors…our Easter egg helpers were hiding eggs outside for the kids to have a Easter egg hunt! These are the fun things you get to do when your birthday happens to fall on Easter Sunday!

Leroy was right, it has officially become a tradition for us to get our daughter a yearly birthday canvas. Below are some shots of her 2nd Year gift as well as her birthday invitation

You can find out more about Sweet Chic Cupcakes here:
http://www.sweetchicbakeryboutique.com/

Like Sweet Chic Cupcakes on Facebook

Hello all!

We wanted to write a quick post to let you know what we’ve been up to since our BIG announcement Ava’s Exciting News! A few months back, we decided that we wanted to eat healthier. We just knew the food we were eating was bad for us, but we didn’t know why and we didn’t know how to fix it. We had grand ideas of growing our own garden in the backyard and eating fresh produce from it….instead we found out that neither of us have a green thumb :/

We instead made minor changes that we thought might help. I stopped eating sugar – cold turkey. We stopped eating red meat, opting instead to eat only chicken and ground meat maybe once a week if that (since some of our favorite recipes called for it). Like I said…we made minor changes that we thought would help, and I must admit – the sugar? THAT HELPED! I can’t begin to express how much better I felt after stopping eating sugar for 3 weeks – opting instead for fruit smoothies and fruits. I got tempted during the 4th week when we went on a family trip to Galveston, and just HAD to stop by The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory on the Strand and get one of their delicious caramel apples! Only problem was…it wasn’t delicious this time. My taste buds had changed and I no longer liked the taste of the sugar. I was kind of bummed but I then realized that we CAN change our diets and we CAN adapt to those changes. In other words, it can be done!

I know we aren’t the only ones who hopelessly thought that eating healthier could not be done.

Well, a few weeks ago we watch a documentary on Netflix called The Engine 2 Kitchen Rescue and immediately after we watched Forks Over Knives. After that, our illusions of being stuck in an unhealthy diet were evaporated. We were intrigued, excited and amazed at how unhealthy the food we eat really is for us. We had found out WHY what we ate was unhealthy…but not only that we had found out HOW to eat healthier!

So, as of two weeks ago, the Tademy household has began a new healthier chapter of our lives. Armed with an awesome book by Rip Esselstyn called “The Engine 2 Diet” and a long grocery list of healthier food (per recipes listed in the book), we began a 28 day challenge of eating better and becoming healthier!

What is a vegan? Is it the same as being a vegetarian?
In all honesty, I had no clue what the difference was until I started researching it to find out what we technically would be “called” so we would know what to look out for. So vegetarian means you don’t eat meat, but you are okay eating animal byproducts like dairy. Vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal or is made with it. No meat, no dairy (eggs, cheese, butter). Many people have asked us if we eat chicken – nope, it’s meat. Seafood? Nope, we don’t eat it. (We weren’t big seafood eaters anyway…except shrimp and crawfish for me.)  I assume the seafood question is because Catholics can eat seafood during Lent but can’t eat other meat. There also sub-groups which do eat seafood but no other meat products, etc. But basically if you are choosing what you want to eat and it is not because of allergies, then you are free to pick and choose what you want to eat and what you don’t. We are vegan and only eat a plant-based diet, but also during our Engine 2 Diet challenge, we eat low sodium, low salt, no sugar….it’s hardcore! (We also do our best to omit soy from our diet)

I’m sure you want to know how it is going right?
Well, Leroy has lost 15 lbs in 3 weeks (with no exercise) and I have lost about 5-6 lb (which I am happy with because I’m preggo and don’t want to drastically lose a ton of weight!). In those 3 weeks, Leroy has not eaten meat one time but did try some of our daughters birthday cake. I ate meat once because it was in the chili that I had on my chips at the birthday party. Our daughter loves fruit and salad, and is not a fan of meat anyway, so she hasn’t noticed too much change. (She still eats plenty of her favorite Goldfish snacks which makes her a happy camper!)

The hard part?
For me – it’s been the low sodium, low salt part. I have found out that I’m a bit addicted to over salting which is horrible and has been an adjustment for me. For Leroy? Nothing. He loves everything we cook and he loves feeling and being healthier! For our daughter – it’s been hard to find healthy snacks for her because she is hesitant to try new things. She loves fruit (eats it all day) and yogurt (which we can’t eat it anymore) – we have switched to soy yogurt but we would like to stop eating that as well.

We have discovered a bunch of new healthier meals, and have learned how to make better decisions when eating out. As of now we plan on continuing a vegan lifestyle and are very excited to know that we are making healthy habits for our growing family. We look forward to stopping by and sharing amazing healthy recipes with you all – so stay tuned! But meanwhile, watch the documentaries listed above for yourself so you can learn a little more about the WHY and the HOW.

We feel so blessed to spend days like this together! Our sweet little girl loves to color and draw (I have no idea where she gets it…cough cough) lol so we took the time to photograph her sweet excitement and concentration as she created her latest masterpiece…with a little help from mom

And Ava is so excited to share some wonderful news with you all!!

We are super excited to welcome a new baby Tademy to our sweet little family

We look forward to meeting you in September, sweet one!

Have you ever seen a cuter baby bump? I think not! It is always such a special opportunity for us to capture sweet little memories like this. Soon this new little family will have a beautiful baby girl to cuddle! The love and excitement that we can see in each image totally keeps us grinning from ear to ear !

Congratulations to you both and can’t wait to meet sweet baby Cecilia!

It’s a new year and we have A TON of fun things planned for 2013!

Today, we want to share a really fun design project that we just completed for Her Glory Magazine and Blog!

Her Glory is a magazine and blog “for the radically-in-love, consumed-with-Jesus young woman, with a heart on fire to tell the world of His love. She lives a set-apart life, all for the glory of her King. Her Glory is for the women who feel the weight of the world on their shoulders. For the women who rise early in the morning and are the last to fall asleep in the house. For the women who feel their whisper can’t be heard in the sea of loud voices. For the women who look in the mirror and see nothing but past mistakes. For the women who so desperately need to hear that they are loved. For the women who need just a teaspoon of grace.”

This fabulous project is led by the beautiful heart of Aysha Gerald, owner of Aysha Nicole Photography.

Step 1: Ideas

This logo design process started first and foremost with a Pinterest board. I can honestly say I will forever and always design logos with this step as Step 1! With the ideas and inspiration posted in Aysha’s Pinterest board, I was able to get a good idea of what she liked and what she was looking for. The fun had begun!

Step 2: Rough Drafts

With the ideas and inspiration given, I came up with about 5 options for Aysha and her team to take a look at. Below are three of the top choices. They all are similar in layout, but each had their own “feel” and only ONE was just right.

Step 3: Refine
Option one was agreed upon as the absolute perfect fit – so I began to refine and define the official “Her Glory” logo design. Minor tweaks were made to the spacing of some letters and some of the loops were made to be a bit more loopy. Aysha had this gorgeous gold color picked out, so with the addition of the “magazine and blog” text below, the creation of the Her Glory logo was complete!

Step 4: Display

Once the logo was completed, the super fun part of designing pieces began! We created a profile and cover image for Facebook as well as a profile and cover image for Twitter. Multiple variations were created including: a version with the tag, a version with just the main text, and transparent PNG files for overlaying.

I am super blessed to be able to be a part of this project and can’t wait to share more with you as we get more into the process of preparing for launch! Please feel free to stop by and “Like” the Her Glory Facebook Page and don’t miss the official launch of the magazine and blog on March 1!

We had a blast this weekend celebrating the birthday of our niece and nephew! Their joint birthday party had a carnival theme – how fun!!

The newest addition to the family – Roxie the puppy – had a pretty fun time at the party as well

Sweet Khloe loved her first birthday party cake and didn’t want to share it with brother! lol

Of course, a carnival HAS TO HAVE cotton candy!

And you just had to stop by the game booths to try and win some really fun prizes!

The kids had such a great time at the carnival and SO DID WE!!

Thank you Adams family, for allowing us to capture this special birthday event!

Would you like us to capture your next birthday party or event? Shoot us an e-mail at hello@tademydandp.com or via our contact page to find out more!

As portrait photographers, we rarely take a moment to enjoy the landscape around us since we are generally focused on the people in the photograph. But THIS sunset was too beautiful to pass up! Leroy grabbed his camera and got creative finding a level surface to capture the perfect image. Seriously, he was all over the dock and everything! lol And it definitely paid off!

It’s not very often that I am able to get all dressed up! Mix that random opportunity with a gorgeous day and we couldn’t resist stopping and capturing a few portraits! I love them ALL! I know I am probably the most difficult person for him to photograph but he did a fabulous job! Thanks babe!

Here is what Leroy had to say about this mini portrait session:
“Today was such a beautiful family day! I am so happy that I had the opportunity to take portraits of such a beautiful woman.”

—- trying to score brownie points much?? lol

Portraits taken by Leroy Tademy Jr. ©Tademy Design and Photography