I heart u.

I really had this grand plan of making the cutest Valentine's day cards ever. Really. And coupled with these awesome cards, were going to be these cute shots of the boys, doing something cutesy and lovey. Neither turned out nearly as grand as I had imagined. Instead, I bought pre-made cards and some stickers as my way of personalizing the cards. And the pictures, eh, i'll post those later but why had I imagined that my 10 month old [whom by the way is officially taking steps all by himself] would care to sit still for even 30 seconds?!? Anyway, I do enjoy doing artsy projects and although these were neither very creative or much of a project (since it took all of 3.5 seconds per card) I hope that my family enjoys recieving them. Because afterall, they were put together with much love!

365{13}

So here's the story with this. I was cleaning the bathroom when I glanced out the window and caught this beautiful sun setting sky with hues of purple all around. By the time I grabbed my camera and stuck my head out of my two story bedroom window- the view wasn't quite the same. But, here's a slim glimpse of what is looked like- doesn't it give it justice at all..but still.

By the way, this was taken yesterday but I didn't have a chance to post.

365{12}

Self Portrait

Ok, so let me just tell you. I had like 45 minutes to myself this morning and a really long list of things I wanted to accomplish during that time (95% of those things did not happen). I thought i'd give this a shot. I need to be better about this. I am totally not comfortable in front of the camera. But I am on this journey of sorts- this is the year to really learn about me- amongst other things. I figure if I want to photograph others and want them to feel comfortable in front of the camera, I probably should too huh?

Absolutely Everything.

And I mean EVERYTHING that this little boy finds goes straight into his mouth. I don't remember it being this bad with Braden. He routinely finds something, puts it into his mouth and if he wants to hold on to it but keep on moving, he keeps it in his mouth while he crawls or cruises around. Sometimes funny. Definitely keeping me on my toes and ensuring that the floor is free of choke hazards!

365{11}

He woke up talking about wearing this sweat shirt. And was singing Itsy Bitsy Spider while he was playing blocks. And is potty training. And has insisted on wearing no pants which I guess works fine with the potty training.

365{10}

365{9}

J & B.

Best Cousins.

4 months apart.

So glad we live close again so they can see each other every day.

365{8}

It rained all day. But because it was 50 degrees out, we went and jumped in puddles for awhile and then came back in to watch Finding Nemo. Love the expression in his eyes and the hot chocolate still on his face ;)

365{7}

Have you ever had something old, worn, or even ugly that you can't [or shouldn't- for one reason or another] use anymore but don't want to get rid of? You know in your head that it's time but you reason with yourself about why you'll wear it or use it one last time.

Yea..

365{6}

Braden is so funny. Sometimes I wonder where he comes up with things. This morning he told me we should play air hockey. I said ok. He went to the kitchen got some paper plates, told me to have a seat, and we played air hockey on the coffee table. It was so fun.

365{5}

365{4}

Thankful my boy still takes naps.

365{3}

My stubborn little boy. See the tear? He was very upset when I tried taking the water bottle away.

Apparently it feels pretty good on his teeth.

365{2}

We had a blast sledding today. This is my niece, Jocelyn. Love all the layers of pink against the white snow and of course absolutely love her!

365{1}

One of my goals for this year was to take a photo every day. I've done pretty good so far [i've missed some days but the hardest part has been getting to the computer, actually uploading the photos, and that sort of thing]. And I never did anything to make it 'official' per say. Several of the different blogs I read are doing some form of taking a photo every day, 365 day photo deal so I decided to commit and make it official. I am not promising that I will lose sleep over posting but I'll try my darndest ;) Anywho, enough excuses.

Day 1

Inspiration: Brown

{I don't plan on having a long drawn out explanation every day but I really enjoyed this. Once I picked something I wanted to focus on it was like whoa. Super fun and all of a sudden I found myself checking everything out and noticing things I hadn't noticed before}. So this is what I came up with.

10months.

10 months: This is how you felt about my index card idea.

*Words he says: ma-ma, da-da, pa-pa, up

*Really, really does not like getting dressed or anything involving sitting semi still against his will

*Is finally successfully napping twice a day on his own ie. not being held or rocked to sleep

*Has two botton teeth and two top teeth that are almost completely out

*Puts absolutely everything in his mouth (I don't remember this being so bad with Braden)

*Is very observant, watches everything; especially his big brother

*Has chewed the rim of his wood crib- it looks like scratches but they are teeth marks, seriously its crazy

*Mimics sounds he hears- like throat clearing, laughter- super cute

*Is SO close to taking steps alone/walking

*Is so darn cute and sweet, love him

Heatwave.

There was a heat wave today, it got up to a whopping 40 degrees (it's supposed to sleet tomorrow evening). But it was the perfect day to play outside and apparently sip Mommy's coffee. I believe that my love for coffee began around the age of 3...hm, I turned out ok ;)

Silly boy.

Ok, for starters i'm not sure why my pictures look so grainy when I upload them to the blog. They don't look like this on the computer before I post them. Ugh. Ok.

This morning I was trying to get some pictures of the boys for Valentine's day and Braden needed some breaks in between to get some energy out so we decided to make some goofy faces. He just cracks me up. I can't quite remember or figure out what face he was making in the first picture- I think it was his angry face, haha. Then his fishy face and his surprise face. I love this boy.

Breaks and all, pictures for Valentines day was not a success. Particulary with Carter whom has absolutely no interest in sitting still for any amount of time and puts everything in his mouth.

There's always tomorrow.

DVDs.

So, i'm pretty excited. For Christmas Rob got me these dvd's that I saw on one of the photography blogs that I have been following [http://www.merakoh.com/]. I've been messing around with my camera for a little while now and wanted something that would teach me some new things and help me think outside of this little box of knowledge that I have about what I'm doing. Also, sometimes I get some cool photos but alot of times could not even tell you what I did to get that particular shot. At first I just considered myself lucky to be able to get that shot but these days, while its still exciting to get a cool shot, I wanted to be able to know how I got it so that I could practice it and do it again. This year I really want to work on my skills and make some improvements. So anyway, the other night I was listening to the dvd and then decided to practice a couple of the tips I learned and it was great! Me Roh does a great job of explaining some of the basic terms that you really need to understand in order to get the pictures that you want to get (or that I want to get). So i'm looking forward to doing some of the other excercises on the dvd and see where I can go from here.

While this is by no means a "great" shot, I love it because I can tell you exactly how I got it! Can you tell how happy he is to be posing for me?

He's learned how to play games on the computer. It's pretty cute. There's a website with some preschool games and its fun to see how he's able to follow the directions and use the mouse to move around.

It was just me and the little guys last night. B and I made some pizzas for dinner. So fun and very yummy. This is Braden's pizza ;)

The boys

A typical day around here. The boys wrestling and messing around. It's great to hear them laughing and giggling. Yes, even Carter gets in on the action!

Here the three (Rob and the boys) of them are hiding under a blanket

Both of them getting daddy at the same time.

ShoeBox.

I was very tired yesterday. Sleep deprivation is definitely a form of torture. Carter, sigh. So yesterday morning I wanted to do something with Braden that required little energy on my part. I spotted an empty shoe box and decided it would make a great box for Braden's painting stuff- either the supplies or all of his pictures and other little projects that we do. Otherwise they end up all over the house and on days when I go organizing happy I toss half of them and then feel guilty. So we sat down at the table for awhile and painted and decorated it. It was fun and kept Braden busy AND didn't deplete me of the only energy I had going for me at that point. Daddy even joined in on some painting. Good times.

This is the top of the box.

Slow start

So I've had a slow start in 2010. At least when it comes to getting my goals on paper and such. I've been thinking them through but I haven't made it "final" by actually getting them down and telling the hubby so I have some form of accountability. But, I know that one of the things that I am looking to do is try and take at least one photo every day. Does that sound like too much? It might be but I thought it would be awesome to be able to look back next January and be able to physically see [not just remember] all of the changes and different events that happen on a regular basis. Because really, the boys do change every day. There's something different or new that they learn. Plus so far I have realized that since I'm thinking about needing to take a photo every day it really gets me to consider the little things or details that I might otherwise dismiss. By this I mean that it might seem like I would run out of 'ideas' of things to photograph but instead of having every picture be of some sort of big event or something posed or done on purpose, I'll have to consider things like how messy Carter is when he eats and how he's in the [awful- well annoying to clean up] stage where he likes to drop food off of his highchair and try to capture that. And those will be the things that will be nice to remember because they are overlooked as just something that happens every single day. On somewhat of a random note, I wish that someone could get a picture of me trying to dress Carter. Geez Louise- at just 9 months the little boy battles with me. He simply does not like it, fights me with every ounce of strength he has- every single morning, its exhausting. But ok. Let's see if I can hunker down, stop being a wussy girl and get my goals down so I can get to work. In the meantime...

Braden and I painted last night- I was thinking about a rug in Joce's room, thus the flowers. It was pretty much relaxing to do this and I was inspired to tap into some other creative realms this year- such as painting.

Below is my photo for today 1/6. Every morning after Braden gets up we get some milk [I of course delight in my cup of coffee] and cozy up on the couch for some cartoons before we venture into breakfast and the activities of the day. We've done this for forever. Don't judge me for letting my boy watch tv first thing in the morning! Who doesn't need time to wake up and enjoy some lovely java??

This particular one cracks me up. This is typical, Braden with his paci and blue. We were watching Curious George, love the look on his face.