Like Father Like Son

Here is a picture that doesn't really need an explanation.
Try and tell me Kenny isn't Mark's son after seeing this. Can't do it can ya?

Mommy and Daddy's bed

The other day Mark and I's bedroom was clean and the bed was made. I figured that was a good time to take a picture of the bedroom for the eventual post of our really awesome house...

Anyway, the boys were playing on the bed. (ok, I give I put Kenny on the bed and Braxton was the one playing.)

Well, my boys are adorable and since my camera was on the ready I caught a few shots that I thought were pretty cool.

In case you can't figure it out, Braxton loves, loves his little brother. Kieran isn't always so sure.

Here is one where Braxton isn't giving his little brother a wet willie. Its pictures like this that make him look like less of a terror. I say that with the utmost love. Really.

My hero for the day!

Alright, so if you've read the blog you know I've been having problems with uploading some of my edited stuff to blogger. I put a shout out in there and the answer I got was from Jill, a cousin of mine. She helped me figure out what I was doing wrong. (Turns out I needed to flatten the image...) Anyway, she's my hero for the day. Big thumbs up for Jill.
Oh, and if you want to check out what a real photographer can do - you should totally check out her photo blog! Its http://kjandj.blogspot.com . She's fabulous. Really.

Not so dumb...

Alright. A couple of posts ago I put up a picture of Braxton chewing on a stick. Or at least what looked like he was chewing on a stick. It was brought to my attention that this picture made my son look slightly differently-abled. Here's a story board explaining how things really went. See, not dumb! Just very imaginative. I think that's a sign of intelligence........

Attention people savvier than I!

Ok, for all those who are familiar with Adobe photoshop and/or Adobe photoshop elements, can you please help me figure out why blogger won't publish any of my photos that I've edited? I've been having this problem since I got the software and for the life of me cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm a novice and apparently slightly retarded in the world of Adobe. I would still appreciate any hints you might have!

Favorites

In case you haven't noticed - there is a trend in my blog to post mainly about Braxton. I thought I would devote one entirely to Kieran to show everybody I don't favor one son over the other. One just happens to be a more blog worthy subject. Have no fear though, Kieran is quickly moving out of the "un-interesting to anybody but his parents" phase and will begin to have more and more blogs about him the more he learns to explore his world. GO BEAVERS!!!!!! Kieran has bucked the pasi (much to my chagrin) and is now a thumb-sucker. I see cayenne pepper in his future.

This is what I call contemplation. He was trying to decide wether or not he like the swing.

Apparently he did.

He fell asleep. Nice place for a nap I say.

And just to prove that we do indeed love him. I thought I would post this pic. (yes braxton is licking him, and no Kieran didn't care much for it.)

Sticks and Stones

The other day Braxton found some "friends" on our walk. Some sticks and some stones. He loves rocks. I think they are the only thing harder than his head. This was the stick part of the afternoon. I actually created a funny story board of this, but haven't figured out how to publish it to blogger. If any of you adobe photoshop pros out there can offer some advice I'd really appreciate it!

In Your Face!

I've been trying to get some videos of the boys uploaded, but blogger is PMSing so that will have to wait 'til another day. For now I'll leave you with some very in your face photos of the boys I got. I'm not sure why I like these two pictures so much - but I do.

Kenny actually grabbed my hand and moved the camera to right over his face. He had apparently decided that it was his turn for a close up.
Yes, I see this face alot. It is usually accompanied by a very loud shriek followed by some whining. Especially lately. Braxton is going through a needy phase. In this particular moment he's asking for help, though I never did figure out what he needed help with.

Braxton - The abominable soap man

Yes, our jacuzzi tub is an endless source of entertainment for Braxton, and by extension me because I love to take pictures of my kids having fun. I thought I would post a few pictures from the last few days. These are the moments that make me all warm and fuzzy like. Yes, he is licking the soap off of his chin. NO he didn't think it tasted good. Made a pretty good picture though. Braxton is practicing to be a good dad. This is my old cabbage patch doll Barkley. (pronounced barky). Braxton spent quite a bit of time swinging him in the swing singing "itsy bitsy spider" and "hush little baby" the two songs I've been singing to him since he was born. Braxton snagged this purse away from me about a year ago. ( I don't mind - teeny bags don't fit my lifestyle anymore) He has been using it ever since. He loads it up with an old checkbook cover, keys and one or two of his many cast-off phones. Of course I get funny looks from people when they realize he's a boy with a purse...

This morning I started my laundry routine, so I put Kieran in his walker to play while I headed downstairs. When I left he was playing. Three minutes later when I came upstairs he was dead to the world. Honestly when I first saw him I was afraid Braxton had knocked him over the head.

Apparently he needed to hydrate.

Sleeping so peacefully. He looks like he's praying. Mark's decided he's going to be an altar boy. This was taken down in the play room. Which is where all of Braxton's noisy toys go. How he sleeps through all of them going at once I'll never figure out.

Toddler, a language few speak.

I thought I would give a little "Braxton" vocabulary lesson and give some updates on the boys.

What you need to know to speak Braxton:
Our outside deck = "The bench" (it actually sounds like something else when he says it...)
Any bed = "The nap"
Upstairs = "upstairs"
Downstairs = "upstairs" (this one is endlessly confusing...)
Playground = "the toys"
Any male between the ages of 45 and dead = "grampa" (which is interesting because neither mark or I's dad is called grampa... its Pa Hat and Poppy... go figure)
Any Female between the ages of 45 and dead = "gramma" Some ladies who aren't don't particularly care for this moniker. Go figure again...
In case you were wondering, Truck still comes out in a way that makes little old ladies glare and comment. As does gray.... especially when its a gray truck. OI.

Braxton is always surprising me. He does something everyday that makes me laugh. Lately its that he's figured out he's more apt to get what he wants if he tells me he "needs it". "Mom, I need some ice cream". Ha sure ya do magoo....

Yesterday my laugh episode came when he started imitating a blind person. I know this isn't PC but he's two... Anyway, he took one of our tension curtain rods and started using it like a cane with his eyes squinched shut. He was walking around our living room saying "help me I'm walking and I can't see" "I'm blind" "I'm crashing cuz I can't see". Where does he get this stuff????????

Kieran isn't speaking yet. Thank goodness. If his amount of baby babble is any indication my house is going to be more full of talk than talk radio. He has however gotten his first two teeth and his second two are days away from poking through. This doesn't make feeding him so happy, but I dealt with feeding Braxton for a whole whopping 11 months. (yes, he started teething at 3 mos) So, I figure I can do it for Kieran since he's about a month and a half behind his big brother - in teething. Growing standards however, is another story. Kieran weighs almost 17 lbs now, a mere 8 less than Braxton. That really fancy-schmancy car seat we bought figuring it would last the first year is about toast. Its about time to saddle up the barka-lounger.
He also sleeps almost through the night, which is so beautiful to me I feel like building a shrine to this kid. One wake up a night at five months. Its wonderful. God is taking mercy on me apparently.

Love these boys!

Birthday Party

Yesterday we went to a friends 1st birthday party. Mike and Amy (the birthday boy's parents) intelligently held it at a park so all the kids could just run and play, not be bored or get into trouble. It was brilliant and we loved it. We had an absolute blast. I took about 650 pictures the few hours that we were there. (I know its a lot, but the kids were all so cute just playing, and you can get some great shots when they're not looking.)

Anyway, here are some of my favorites from the day.

It rained at the very beginning so we ducked under the covered picnic tables. Mike and Amy brought sidewalk chalk so Braxton drew "raindrops" while we were undercover. He's so good at it he doesn' t even have to look at what he's drawing! No, his hair isn't messy, its being blown about by the wind.

Just in case you can't read the bib, he's the birthday boy. His name is Brendan and he's an absolute doll!

This little boy's name is Eyal. He was absolutely adorable. The whole family was. I loved it - three whole families for me to take pictures of all day.

There are my other handsome boys! Of course they're making silly faces... Kieran's is the one we call "bitter beer face" Where he sucks his lower lip under, I know, its goofy.

This guy is Eyal's big brother. Adin. He was an absolute ham the whole time. He had the best facial expressions.

This is Eyal's big sister Noa. I love that name. She was super adorable and all girl. You can tell she's going to be a heartbreaker. Super big time.

This is what I mean by heart breaker. How could you resist this smile?

Aha, there are my boys. Mark was doing his "little boy wrangling". His face was in fine form for pictures yesterday as I'm sure you can tell.

Sitting on this cement ledge and drinking juice boxes was about the only time any of the kids sat still.

See what I mean?

I swear he looks guilty... He wasn't, but that was the face he was making.

Yes, Barkdust is that great. Entertainment for hours. Brendan loved it. He even showed his mom how much he loved it by shoving it down her shirt a little after this picture was taken.

From what I saw at the party, I'm pretty sure Brendan would live in a swing if he could. With the exception of the barkdust, it was the single best entertainment for him.

This was fun to watch. Mark was pushing this impressionistic piece of playground equipment around, which was no easy feat in itself - but was pushing it with three kids and an infant in his arms. So manly. Brook and I decided that this is a crossover between a sailboat, big rig and a space ship.

Captain of the big rig-spaceship-sailboat.

This was at the end of our adventure. When Mark and I saw Braxton just sitting there we decided it was probably best to head home.

Yep, he's a little tired. Love the red red lips though. That was thanks to the frosting on the birthday cake.

Okay, I know this was a really long post. But I took soooooooo many pictures that I had a really hard time narrowing it down.

P.s. This is a squirrel.

My addiction.

Alright, I'll admit it. I have an addiction. I blame it on my mother. My addiction is shoes. Little ones, big ones, red ones, blue ones, fat ones and skinny ones. I love them ALL. I get just as much of a thrill shoe shopping for my sons and husband as I do for myself. Yesterday we took Braxton to get new shoes for the summer. (He seems to outgrow them on a seasonal basis - which I like cuz then he's all set up fashion wise for the season to come). Well we also got Kieran a pair of shoes for the summer. Since I love shoes so much, and I think the shoes we got them were absolutely adorable, I had to take some pictures.

These are Braxton's new kicks for the summer. (don't worry he also has a pair of sandals, but those aren't "cute")

These are Kierans. Love that they're orange. Ok, and blue but thats not as cool as the orange on them.

And here's a shot of them together. Yes, Kieran's shoes are almost as big as Braxton's. Its scary, I know.

So, this was probably the least interesting post I've ever done. But seriously, I love shoes that much that I had to devote an entire post to them. Stay tuned, tomorrow will be a very cool post.

Yes, thats my son...

If you've ever spent five minutes with Braxton you would know that in those five minutes he can thoroughly exhaust you. Seriously. He is constantly on the go and into EVERYTHING. Taking him new places is an adventure that requires a good nights sleep, and then another good nights sleep to recover. It's not because he's a bad kid, he's just smart (too smart for his own good) and curious about everything around him. I love this about him. He loves to learn. I pray that he keeps this up throughout his entire life. However, his love of learning doesn't keep him still for very long. These are the pictures I took of our "walk" this afternoon. When I say walk I mean Mark and I walked behind Braxton while he did his own version of the funkadilly. Does this strike you as a calm, quiet child? There is a doggie behind the fence and while Braxton says he was dancing - I believe he secretly loved taunting it and making it bark. He was "skoppin" (skipping) "to my lou".

Don't let the halo effect in his hair fool you. When I see this look I put on my running shoes. This is the look that says "oooh, I see trouble and I'm gonna head straight for it!"

He's exhausting, but what would I do without him???? (the answer is not burn as many calories!)

My home, the nudist colony

Ok, so most mothers write, talk and brag about every developmental milestone their child reaches. Usually I'm on board with that. I mean, who doesn't want to talk about how special they think they're kids are? (some moms take that a little far, but I won't name names.) However, the latest of Braxton's milestones is making me feel more like pulling my hair out. (It also makes me laugh, but that doesn't make for as good of a story.)
So Braxton has figured out how to undress himself. This is good right? NO. He feels the need to be naked all the time. I mean ALL the time. Mark has come home every night to his son in only a diaper. He's lucky he even gets that. Because you see, I've tried redressing Braxton in his clothes, only to have uber rebel against me and take them back off, along with the diaper. When I ask him why he takes his clothes off he tells me "i'm itchy", or "i'm running" or "i need to be naked" the latter most is the one that worries me... Anyway, to save myself from the mess that could be had from him running diaperless I let him run around the house without clothes on. Every time we leave the house I'm half afraid he's going to strip in the middle of the grocery store or starbucks. Oi. That kid is crazy.

Shutter Speed

The latest of my photography lessons have been on messing with shutter speed. The boys took a bath in the Jacuzzi tub last night and I thought this might be a good opportunity to practice a bit. I don't have photo editing software - yet, though I will soon. So there are a few things like the razor on the side of the tub that should be cropped out, but until then I thought I would post the raw pictures. With lengthing the time the shutter is open (ok, its a digital, so it technically only has a light sensor... you get the drift though) I got a shot that preserved everybody's modesty. This is how I obtained permission to post a picture of my hubband in the tub. (he's not often willing to be a model.) I do love this shot though, and once I edit out the Venus, I'll be printing it out and framing it for our bathroom.

Ok, so only one in the tub. That was the only one I deemed appropriate to post publicly. Here is one where the boys are playing around on the futon. Notice how there seems to be six of Braxton???? Yes, that is how he ALWAYS is!

Thanks for putting up with my experimentations!

Goin' a Little Artsy!

On our walk I decided to experiment with my camera a bit. (Its pretty heavy duty, and I thought I would flex its muscles.) I know next to nothing about photography and am trying to learn via books and watching actual photographers. I love taking pictures. SUPER love taking pictures. Here are some of my attempts at being a little more creative. I thought these flowers were absolutely gorgeous. Daffodils are my absolute favorite. I don't think Mark knows this. I'll have to have him read this post!
I was trying to zoom in on the hands a little more, but I'm actually pretty pleased with the way this turned out. (in case you don't know what you're looking at, Mark is helping Braxton down the slide)
I love this picture. I think its sweet. I was trying to make it soft and fuzzy. I didn't get quite the result I was looking for but owell. I'm an amateur!