Riding a Trike along the Greenbelt

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a walk along the greenbelt yesterday. Gavin decided he wanted to ride his trike, so here's a video of him doing so.

Logan took a bath in the big boy bath tub for the first time today! Not only did he get to take a bath in the big boy tub, but he got to take it with Gavin! Of course, Gavin thought this was SO fun to be able to take a bath with his little brother. In typical big brother style, he even managed to pour a cup full of water on Logan's head and make him cry. Poor Logan...he puts up with so much! Here's a video of them in the bath (I still don't know why it appears as a black box, but if you click the play button, the video should load)

Logan has been developing like crazy lately! He is rolling from his back to his belly all the time...too bad his favorite time to do this is in the middle of the night. He likes to roll over, which wouldn't normally be a problem, but then he gets stuck against his crib and cries for help so either Brandon or I have to go into his room and flip him back over. This still wouldn't be too problematic except for the fact that he does this about what seems like 80 bajillion times a night. It also looks like we may have a crawler sooner than I expected. He scootched himself on his belly last night for the first time in an effort to reach a toy I had placed in front of him. I guess my little guy is growing up. He'll be walking around before I even know it!

Happy Easter!

Playing the Piano

Shake It Up

Chatting with Aunt Tina

Don't Like Owls!

We saw an owl being bullied by a bunch of crows in the neighborhood today. Of course, that's all that Gavin can talk about now. Here's a video of him telling us that he doesn't like the owls. He tells us that they're too scary! That seems to be his go-to answer for why he doesn't like anything. I'm not sure if things are really scary to him or if he doesn't have a large enough vocabulary to express why he doesn't like things. Logan was getting upset that I had turned my attention away from him while shooting this video, so you may not be able to hear Gavin over Logan's shouts for attention. Logan is FINALLY starting to demand some attention...I'm glad that he's learning to speak up for himself, but it sure is a lot tougher (and noisier) to divide my attention between two boys who want it! Sorry about how dark the video is...I swear I had the lights turned up!

Sitting up!

Logan is starting to sit for longer periods of time. I was able to leave him sitting with his toys while I went to get the video camera, and he was still sitting up when I got back! (Gavin was with Brandon so I didn't have to worry about him knocking Logan down!) He's growing up too quickly!

Don't Take a Picture of Logan

Here's a little video of Logan sitting up. Watch the end...you'll see how it's your classic home movie. I'm not sure why it looks like a black box, but if you click the play button, a video should load.

Jingle Bells in March

Gavin really loves Logan, and Logan adores Gavin! Whenever Logan sees Gavin, his face lights up and he gets the biggest smile on his face. It's such a wonderful thing to see. Being the ham that Gavin is, he loves it too! Here's a video of Gavin making Logan laugh. I'm not sure why it looks like a black box, but if you click the play button, a video should load.

Growing Up So Quickly

Ok. So I'm a slacker and I haven't posted a picture a day. So much for resolutions :) I'm still not going to post any new pics today, but I wanted to post a couple of updates on Logan before I forgot.

He is FINALLY rolling over! He has been rolling over consistently since 1/25, and now he won't stay on his tummy...not even for a second! As soon as you place him on his tummy, he is rolling over!

He is also growing some teeth! Brandon discovered his bottom tooth poking through earlier today. This explains his fussiness the past couple of days, and hopefully it's also the reason behind his early rising. We gave him some teething tablets, along with some Infant's Tylenol. I hope this relieves some of the discomfort enough to let him (and me) sleep a little more soundly tonight.

I promise I will post some new pics and videos really soon!

Ginger

I tried using Ginger as a subject to practice my photography today. Unfortunately, she's not as good a model as Molly was. Poor, neglected Ginger was SO excited that I was even looking at her that she had a REALLY hard time sitting still enough for me to take her picture. I felt like I was trying to take Gavin's picture! These are a bit underexposed, but I'm just too lazy to go back and fix them in Photoshop tonight. Maybe I'll fix them tomorrow :) The first one is my favorite. What do you think...leave a comment and let me know!

Molly!!

Ever since Gavin's birth, poor Molly has been pushed to the side. She's taken it in stride, though, and she'll take whatever attention she can get whenever she can get it! That makes for the PERFECT photography practice subject if the kiddos have already gone to bed :) Molly was more than willing to pose for my camera since that meant that I was actually paying attention to her. I know...that's really sad that we've let it get this far. Poor Molly...and Ginger too! Maybe I'll use Ginger as my practice subject tomorrow. Hmmm....I wonder if that crazy dog would actually stay still long enough to have her picture taken. She's a bit spastic, kind of like Gavin :)

Anyway, here's my favorite shot of Molly that I took today. I think I got the focus right, but I still managed to crop one of her limbs. I guess that'll be the next thing I work on!

No Nap

We tried napping Logan in his crib today, and we ended up with a mini photoshoot instead of a nap. Rather than napping his usual 2-3 hours that he does in his swing, he napped for about 45 minutes in his crib. As a result, I was able to practice my photography in natural light, and as an added bonus, I learned NOT to try to get him to nap in his crib. If he's napping fine in his swing, I guess I'll continue to let him do that. I'll figure out what I'm going to do with him when he finally outgrows the swing, but I won't worry about that until then.

Here's one of the pics that I got today. I think I got the focus correct. Now I need to work on not cutting off parts of his body!

And just for fun...here's a pic of just how chunky our little monkey is.

Loves his Ramen!

Anytime there's Ramen, you can be sure that Gavin will be there! These pictures were taken just after he finished his lunch of a babyfood container of green beans (yes, I still feed him baby food, but I don't worry about him not getting his veggies!), a container of yogurt, and half of a chicken breast. Brandon sat down at the table with a bowl of Ramen for lunch, and Gavin was not going to be left out! What can I say except THAT BOY CAN EAT!

**All of these pictures have NOT been edited. They are all straight out of the camera! I was working on focusing on the inner corner of his eye. Did I get it? What do you think???**

He continues to amaze us every day! We went to Chili's for dinner tonight, and when we were leaving, Gavin said something that sounded like chee-dee. Obviously, I didn't know what he said, so I asked him to repeat himself. He said the same thing again. Then I asked him to tell me what that was. So he answered, "Big pepper name chee-dee" He has always referred to Chili's as the Big Pepper because of the big pepper that hangs outside of the restaurant. A few weeks ago, we had told him that it was called Chili's, not Big Pepper. It just amazes Brandon and I how he's making all sorts of connections with things! I guess he's not such a baby anymore!

New Year's Resolution already broken!

It has only been a week into 2010, and I've already broken my new year's resolution to take at least one picture every day so that I can improve my photography skills. In my defense, however, Brandon was out of town on business, and I was extremely busy yesterday (not that I'm making any excuses or anything!). So, I'm just going to pretend like yesterday never happened (play along with me, ok???)

I tried photographing Gavin again today, and it was a complete bust! He would NOT cooperate at all. I know I could always use the whole "I'll give you a piece of candy" bribe, but I just didn't feel like dealing with a kid on a sugar high right before nap time. After all, Brandon was still away on business, and I NEEDED Gavin to take a nap! I did manage to get 3 pictures taken, of which, 2 are complete trash, and the third one isn't even good! The first one was completely over-exposed, and entirely unfixable in Photoshop. The second one, was the only useable one, and even in that one, the focus isn't even on Gavin. The third one didn't even show any details of Gavin's face because all of the focus fell on the sofa that was behind him. Oh well :( Now you see why I made my resolution to try and improve! Ha! I'll be interested to see what my photos look like by the end of the year!

Two year-old's are hard to photograph!

Gavin is CONSTANTLY on the go! He is just about impossible to get a picture of, especially when I'm trying to make sure the focus, exposure, etc. are correct. On top of that, I've got to keep one eye on Logan to be sure that Gavin's monkey-like self isn't about to fall on him or run over him! I find myself just haphazardly clicking away in hopes that I can get just one decent picture of him. Maybe I should just focus my photography improving efforts on Logan, at least the majority of them, anyway. He can't move, so it's almost like I've got him captive!

Here's one of the only pictures that I was able to get of Gavin. He's practicing his mad face in the mirror! Ha! The kid just loves looking at his own reflection!

Logan

I realized that Logan will be four months old tomorrow, and I still hadn't taken his "3 month" pictures yet. So poor Logan had to be my subject today while I practiced my photography. By the end of this photo shoot, he was NOT a happy camper! It was definitely worth making him mad, though. I was able to get a few shots that I am really happy with. I don't know how good they are to the trained eye, but with my mommy goggles on, I absolutely love them! I promised pictures with kids in them, so here are some of Logan. (Gavin was taking a nap, so I didn't get any of him)

See how mad he was by the end of the photo shoot??? He was THAT red!

Newest listing in my Etsy shop!

I was on a MAJOR organization kick today, so I didn't even remember to take any pictures until the boys had already gone to bed :( But to keep with my new year's resolution, I took some pictures of my newest listing for my Etsy shop. Since it was late, the lighting was AWFUL, but I did the best that I could. What do you think of these yummy looking felt heart frosted cookies?

I PROMISE, I'm going to take some pictures of the boys tomorrow! After all, they're my most favorite subjects to photograph! But just to satisfy your urge to see the boys, here's a pic of Gavin pretending to eat the cookies. (I took this one last week, so it doesn't count for my picture every day this year. Maybe my resolution should've been to just post a picture every day. That would probably have been a much easier one to keep! Ha!)

Happy Birthday, Abby!

We celebrated Gavin's friend, Abby's birthday today. She turned 6 years old! Gavin had fun playing in Abby's toy house. He just loves those things! Once he was inside, all he wanted to do was dump all of her play pots and pans out on the floor! What a mess! He and Abby's brother Will were even able to play nicely together! That is, of course, after Gavin threw a play pot at Will's head! Oh, the joys of teaching a two year-old how to get along with everyone! I mean, why shouldn't we be able to throw pots at people who are bothering us?!?!?

As part of my picture a day for each day of 2010, I thought I'd post a picture of Abby instead of Gavin or Logan. I rarely get to photograph other children, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to do so today! Hopefully, as the year progresses, so will my photography skills!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It's been quite awhile since my last post, but that is about to change! One of my resolutions for 2010 is to improve on my photography. To do that, I need to practice, so I'll be trying to take at least one picture every day this year and post it here. By the end of the year, I'll be able to look back and see if I've gotten any better. To start it all off, here are some pictures that I took of Logan today.

Here's a picture of Gavin that I took while we were playing in the snow on New Year's Eve. We had so much fun tossing snow balls at each other! It was the first time that I've ever really played in the snow, and I am so glad that I got to do it with Gavin! We tried to build a snowman, but every time I tried to stack a snowball on top of the largest snowball, Gavin would knock it over and laugh hysterically!

We had a wonderful start to 2010! We had a relaxing morning at home and took Gavin to McDonald's for lunch (one of his favorite places!). He is an absolute monkey in the play place! He climbs up so quickly and then slides down the twisty slide without any fear! He even came down on his head one time, and he wasn't even scared! He had the biggest smile on his face, and all the while, I had my heart in my throat! After nap, we headed over to Damon and Melissa's for a delicious Peruvian dinner! We had LOTS of fun! What a great way to start the new year!

Happy New Year to everyone! I hope your 2010 is filled with nothing but love and happiness!