We are powerless and displaced at the In-Law's due to the ice storm. The power went out Tuesday and we are still waiting. My Father-in-law got his power back on this morning. We are thankful! But at least family has fireplaces - they kept us warm until today. THANKS FAMILY!!!

I'm happy that although we are powerless, our GOD is never powerless!!!

Okay, this is a terrible picture but it makes me laugh every time I look at it...


This is from last night when I was playing with the Canon 5D and checking out the difference it made with my lenses. The closer I got, the more it distorted it and Jeremiah leaned waaaay in to where he was too close to even get in focus and we giggled at the image after I took it. It looks like I did a terrible photoshop job of putting someone else's head on this body! lol

I'll resume normal posting next time. Whatever that means. ???

But just so you don't think this camera takes only funky images, here's a quick snap I took:


I didn't get to take many shots (for me - haha!). The first few shots revealed a short in the LCD screen so I played a little then decided to put it away until I could talk to the company about repairing it. I didn't want to get too attached... but it was already too late. *sniff* It's on it's way to Canon to get rejuvenated and thankfully I don't have to pay to fix it - yay! So we'll stick it out with my beloved trusty Canon XT again. I still love that camera too!

Mommy Moment:
Jeremiah and I were wrestling on the couch and I noticed a small hole in the seam of his pants right in his rear end...
Mommy: "There's a hole in your pants!"
Jeremiah: "Where?!"
M: "Right on your bottom."
Daddy happens to walk up and say jokingly:
D: "How did that get there?"
J: "Um... I was scratching."
*sigh* Boys.

This one is for me! I was finally able to push the buy button on a Canon 5D and ooooh, it's so fun! There is a big difference going to a full frame sensor but I think I'm going to love it! One thing is that my lenses work entirely differently with this camera so it will take some getting used to and probably make me want more glass so I better be careful... lol

Anyway, for fun I'll post a few snaps of my Baby J in the few moments I had time to play this afternoon. At the widest angle of this lens, there was quite a bit more distortion and J2 looked like a bobble head:

Nice hair, huh? lol

And here's another I snapped of him checking out my new camera. I just love his beautiful eyes. We call him the Korean baby...


Mommy Moment:
Jeremiah was sitting on my bed as I brushed my teeth and roamed around the room picking up clutter. He looked at me funny and asked what I was doing.
"Brushing my teeth."
"Brushing you teeth?"
*Mommy gives a tickle*
"Yes, you know what I'm doing, why did you ask me?"
*Jeremiah giggling*
"You not brushing you teeth! You need a mirror! You're silly!"
*rolls his eyes*
*Mommy wants this innocent wonder to last longer...sigh*

Technology is the theme for the POTD this week and I'm going to attempt to be on theme at least once a week. I got very bad about it last year... Sorry!

Last night I grabbed my camera and wandered around the house looking for something to shoot and found the speakers to a little CD player in the living room. We like to crank up some David Crowder Band then Jeremiah and I dance around the room like crazy people while Joshua laughs at us and wiggles along. Good times...


A little wide open aperture action going on...


Close up!

You can see in the reflection that when I bounce my flash behind me into the edge where the ceiling and wall meet, it really lights up the room nicely for me to get a good exposure. The first pic above I bounced it off toward the side (left). Gives you two different lighting options. I like options. It changes things up a bit.

And because my mother fusses at me when I post something without a grandkid involved (she never reads what I write. Pfft!), I am also posting some goofy shots of me and the boys. I attempted to get a shot of them together in their matching shirts (was I in goober mode to think they'd be cute to match? Well, they are cute, even if they match! haha!). The pics didn't turn out like the wonderful images I had planned in my head so I resorted to take some of all of us in the mirror. Jeremiah smiles much nicer and stands still when I do this so I guess I'll take some nice portrait pics of him in this mirror...


Cheesy Goobers:


Luv My Boys...


Yes, there is a green balloon back there.

Yes, Joshua is missing his pants and socks. After the chaotic attempt to shoot the two of them together, Joshua spit up all over his pants.

Yes, Jeremiah has a "cast" on. He had a scratch on the back of his hand and decided he needed a cast so we made him one from one of his beloved Ba-Ba's.

Yes, I will try to post the other pics from this Sunday morning one day.

The oddities displayed in these images is just us. Pure and comical but us nonetheless. And I love it.
=)

Mommy Moment: I told Jeremiah he had enough computer time and needed to come into the living room to play picnic with me. He didn't want to (of course) and I said "Well, then who is going to help me with the picnic?" He put his little finger to his lips and said "Hmmmm.... Joshie will play picnic!" "Who?" I asked. He giggled. "Joshua! Oh! I hear him..." *tries to change his voice* "Mommy, come play picnic with me!" *returns to Jeremiah voice* "See? He's calling for you. You need to go now."

Different processing for me. I wanted him captured with a strong backlight so I could play around with this "glow-y" type of image. Not sure I like what I've done but his face is just so sweet to me I love it anyway. I can stretch the POTD theme of "Technology" and say that I'm thankful for technology to capture precious images like this to remind me of his sweetness for a lifetime...

Boy, they sure grow up fast...

Mommy Moment: One night close to bedtime, Jeremiah decided he wanted some "chocolate sticks" (those asian Pocky things). He begged Daddy for three of them and since he only asked for three (compared to a whole package), Daddy obliged. When he got his little hands on them, he promptly handed one to Mommy and one to Daddy and said "There! We can all eat it together!" He's so sweet!

No, Joshua is not the only child. He's just the only one that has been non-mobile long enough for mommy to take pictures of. Here lately that is not the case as that little stinker speeds around the house. It didn't take him long to get moving and that boy zooms everywhere he goes. Our poor cat...

Anyways, we DO have another child. Jeremiah has been fast for years and somehow gets faster everyday. On day I was fiddling with the camera and he said I could take his picture. But he had to have this blanket on his head and stand super close to me. lol But at least I got a glimpse of his sweet little face. Hmmm..... I love him!



And I usually post everything in color so I thought I'd try a sepia tone on this one...


And because the theme for the Photo Of The Day (POTD) this week was texture, I played with Jess's textured tile...


Mommy Moment: Jeremiah wanted more "Red Juice" (V8 Fusion) and I told him he had to drink some milk first. He didn't want to so he chose water instead. Then later he finished his water and asked for juice. I told him again about the milk and he wasn't happy. I told him that milk made him grow up strong and he said, "No, no... water makes you grow and milk makes you grow and I took a bath and water makes me grow and if I keep growing... I'll be a giant!" I asked him if he wanted to be big like a giant and he said, "No! I need more RED JUICE. Not milk." lol

Presenting Miss Coco Channel...

Her "sissy" wanted some pics of her for a calendar she was making her mom so we whipped up a few shots for fun of this little furry diva! We did this before Christmas but as I was going through my files I ran across them again and decided to post them for fun!









Don't you love her name? The funny thing is, my brother and his wife have a dog with the same name! lol

Mommy Moment: I decided to post this little video of my silly boys:

I have so been needing a new challenge! Through some Facebook friends I found this page: Facebook Photo Shootout and it looked like fun!

It's kind of like the Iron Chef... we get a "secret ingredient" (theme) at the last moment and then have 24 hours to shoot an image representing the theme. At 7am this morning the "secret ingredient" was revealed to be "A Reflection". So in between our usual chaos I tried to think of something to shoot and get it posted. We are not allowed to photoshop anything other than cropping and sizing for web, I believe. So here you get some straight-out-of-the-camera shots from my humble home:

"First Glance":


"In His Father's Eyes":


And a reflection of me... the chores piling up as I take more pics!

This was taken in the handle of my kitchen faucet. =)

It was fun although I wish I could have been more creative. I need to get my creative juices flowing again. That and I know there are a billion pics of Joshua and hardly any of Jeremiah these days... but the boy will not stay still when he sees me with the camera. He runs or jumps in my face or hides behind something... I got a few random ordinary snapshots of him that I'll post soon just so you remember what he looks like! lol

Mommy Moment: We are so mean. Here Joshua starts crawling and climbing and we get him a thing to sit in and bounce around in and play in. It's either that or he has to take a timeout in the playpen just so mommy can go potty or wash some dishes. He takes his naps in the playpen in our room since he and Jeremiah share a room and Jeremiah is usually playing in there so he gets upset if he's in there too long when it's not naptime. Joshua is on the go and hard to keep still anymore. I went in the kitchen to get some meat to thaw for dinner thinking he was going to crawl over to the chair again. I was wrong, he was following me into the kitchen! His face was lit up like "Wow! I can even leave the room?!?!?!" It's fun and thankfully he likes his new "activity center". Uh-oh... I hear someone coming down the hall... Daddy must have let him loose from the evil confines of the living room to find Mommy! Thanks for visiting!!!

Sing along!!

Head...


and shoulders...


knees...


And toes (knees & toes)...


Eyes...


and ears...


and mouth...


and nose...


Head & Shoulders, Knees & Toes (Knees & Toes)!!!!

I really didn't have that in mind while I was shooting Joshua. I was just taking pics of him after taking a nap in his little bed. I love the sweet just-woke-up face! When I went through the pics later, this song kept going through my head!

Love this smooshy kid!


Mommy Moment: One morning after Jeremiah slept with us, he woke to find that Daddy was gone already. Daddy forgot something and happened to come home a few minutes later and Jeremiah let him know he was disappointed that he was not there when he woke up. He said, "Daddy, you disappeared when my eyes were closed!"

I suppose it's the 1/32th indian in him that causes this mohawk thing?


My little sweetie-peetie-pie!

Mommy Moment: My mom didn't believe me that he was doing this so I caught it on tape for her:



I told John I wanted a baby boy but got some little man instead so I think I should get another chance for a BABY. He didn't buy into it. lol

Joshua had his 6 month check-up today and he's in the 89th percentile for height (28in) but only the 50th percentile for weight (18pds, 14oz). We saw he was thinning out a bit. We are guessing he'll be tall and thin like Grandma. =) All is well, he's a healthy little booger and flying through his milestones. Praise God for a healthy blessing!

This guy was a lot of fun! He was up for anything and came with lots of ideas. Needless to say, we took WAAAAY too many pictures! N is a great guy with a lot of ambition. Lots of exciting things going on for him!

Thanks for a great session!

I couldn't wait until tomorrow to post this!!!



Wheeee!!!! And Whaaaaa!!!!! He's only 6 months and he's pulling up and crawling!?!?! YIKES. I thought I had a few more months left! Poor Jeremiah... nothing is safe anymore...

And it cracks me up that he was crawling around the living room before I got the camera out and then took a few videos and THEN Jane noticed: "Oh my goodness, he's crawling!" lol

So we played outside! For those of you that live here and am wondering where this post is coming from since we woke up this morning to snow... this was last week! Yeah, I'm a slacker, I know.

We played on the swingset and Jeremiah rode his tractor... good times! Then he found the incredibly old box of chalk (look how awful that is!) and drew all over the driveway. I grabbed my camera and mentioned to Jane what he was doing and her artsy side couldn't stand it. She grabbed her jacket and contributed to the art show. I didn't take many pics, mostly just enjoyed the fresh air and having some fun but here are a couple snaps I took of the two artists at work...


This one is not even very clear but I still love it...


Thanks for visiting!

Mommy Moment: I was snuggling with Jeremiah and hugging him tight and said "You make me so happy!" He replied sweetly with "Yeah, me too." lol

As promised (and threatened), here are the events of our family Christmas time! Actually, these are from the big family time, our little family one didn't produce quite so many captured memories as mommy was having too much fun enjoying the moment!

We packed up the presents and went to visit Grandma. Sleepy Head Joshua got a little reclining action with her before we opened presents:


Then we went into a small gathering room to let the paper fly. Here is Grandma with all three grandkids. Presents for her, presents for them:


Us with Grandma (Jane, Grandma, Joshua, Me, Jeremiah & John). It was the best we could do. lol I'll take what I can get!


Then we went to my Sis-in-law's house to eat some yummy food, spend time with family and open more presents!

She had Thomas the Train running in and out from under the tree and Joshua was mesmerized:


He was just so jolly to be around everyone, he didn't even care that Jeremiah was forcing him to play peek-a-boo:


Jeremiah played Santa's Elf and passed out all the presents:


Joshua was getting the hang of opening gifts and having a blast:


Jeremiah thanking Papaw for his Pirates that he couldn't wait to open:


Jeremiah loading up his loot in a safe place - Daddy's lap (there are 4 Potato Heads in that thing and the container fits the pieces too!!! Way cool):


Joshua was so excited and just bounced up and down with a big goofy grin staring at all his loot!


We attempted to get the three grandkids in a shot with Papaw:

Well, at least they are all in the shot! lol

And one from our little family time: Jeremiah giving Joshua a thank you hug for his gift.


Honestly, there were a TON more pics but I'll spare ya! lol I had so much fun helping the kids unwrap and taking pics that when all was said and done, I realized I hadn't opened any of my gifts! It was a fun time. I really enjoy just being around family. We just had our little family when I was growing up, we lived too far to celebrate with extended family. I think it makes it more fun. And it definitely gives me warm fuzzies. I like that my boys have family around, even if it's only half of their family.

Mommy Moment: Jeremiah was so sweet this year! It was the first year he really knew everything that was going on and participated and got excited about it all. He was looking so forward to Christmas and it was just so much more fun! He enjoyed giving presents as much as getting and that really makes a mommy proud. He opened EACH and EVERY gift exclaiming: "Oh! It's a ___! My favorite! I love ____'s!" lol He opened one of my presents (a sweater) and clutched it shouting his glee about clothes being his favorite. haha! And when he helped Joshua open his, he'd say "Oh look! For Joshua and ME!" At least he's sharing, right? lol