2nd Try......

and i am actually pleased with the bluebonnet pictures that we got! we went back to the same spot on Monday evening to see if we could get better results. i was praying to the weather gods the whole way because there were some pretty nasty rain clouds, but the sun peeked out right after we got there and gave us a few beautiful sunset pictures! So lucky!

The not so lucky part, i am embarrassed to admit, is that we had to drive another 10 miles to the next town because about 5 minutes before we got to the destination, i remembered that the memory card was sitting by the computer at home!! you would seriously think i would learn. this time it cost me $36.00. At least wal-mart carries a compact flash card!

L, K and C came along this time, got some super cute ones of them also!

All at once....

Just all of a sudden my little T isn't such an infant anymore. just in the last few days he has learned so much!
for starters, on saturday he learned how to go from his tummy to sitting up with out hitting the floor with his forehead. he is still up on all 4's trying SO hard to crawl, but he just can' t figure out how to get going forward.
Just yesterday his first tooth finally popped through, we didn't think that was ever gonna happen. we are lucky that so far it hasn't been as terrible experience as it was for Kyle! YIPPEE!
And for the best news, well for me anyways, is that finally after about 2 months of trying, just over night he decided to willingly open his mouth and eat big boy food!!!! I did wait to long to start trying to feed him solid food, but i just kept forgetting, our nights are so hectic. of course i am not starving my boy, he eats plenty of formula, it just sounds bad that i forgot to feed him, right? So for about 1 1/2 months or so i have been trying( forcing) him to eat. cereal at first and now cereal and carrots. poor baby would gag and throw up every time i actually got it in his mouth. that started to get better, then he got smart and just stopped opening his mouth and turning his head. i would squeeze his cheeks(not hard) to get his mouth open, but now, tonight, he decided to like it! What a relief, now we will see what happens when i try green beans!
I know i need to stop being so shocked when this stuff happens, i know he is growing up, but it just seems to be going so much faster the second time around!






Just a little something about K....
The first time i feed T cereal, K insisted on having a bite, so i scooped a big 'ol spoon full in his mouth and he threw up EVERYWHERE! he did not just spit it out, he threw up all his food!
SO a few nights after that he smartened up and knew he didn't want to eat it, but he wanted to help me feed T, so i let him hold the bowl. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME i got the spoon in the vicinity of Ty's mouth, Kyle would gag. big gags, tears in his eyes, like i was afraid he was gonna throw up! i know it is mean, but s and i laughed SO hard! he has gotten better now! i don't know what it is about my kids and their gag reflex?!

Easter Picture

here are the boys on Easter Sunday at S's grandparents.

i have never wanted to dress the boys the same, but Debra bought these shirts and i have to admit they look very handsome!

don't they look sweet?

this is an example of 2 of my biggest hang-ups when taking pictures; facing the subjects the incorrect way in consideration of the light and cutting off hands/feet. i guess the best thing for me is that i can recognize these mistakes and hopefully one day it will sink in and i can remember how to avoid it!

Our first attempt...

at bluebonnets. not so good. very frustrating.








I don't know why it is so hard to get through to my husband that the WORST time to take outside pictures is in the middle of the day, but i can't.


So once again we headed out to get pictures in the bluebonnets in the middle of the day. now a veteran photographer would have been able to get amazing

pictures in the conditions we were in(bright, overcast), but all i got were mediocre shots at best, with uncooperative

kids, A LOT of squinting eyes, and crooked horizons lines.


this is where i get so frustrated because i don't catch these things while i am shooting(i tend to go brain dead as soon as the camera turns on) and fix them. i am always in the car, on the way home and realize that i am not happy with any of my results. but i guess this is how i am going to eventually learn.


So with that, hopefully we will head back to the same spot this evening and i can correct some of my technical mistakes, because i fear the the uncooperative kids will never change!

a boy thing?

I don't know if this is a boy thing or what, but K has become obsessed with dog poop. yes- i know has gross that sounds, how do you think i feel?
We have lucy, who for 5 years has been the queen of our back yard, and we have never had to worry about the mess. but with L's dog coming over during the week and since K has gotten big enough to play in the back yard, it is a big mess indeed. it gets pretty overwhelming at times when the kids want to go out to play, and it is EVERWHERE!
So, the other day, S was on poop patrol because we all wanted to go out in the back yard to play. he told K he needed to go get the poop scooping shovel from the garage to clean up the mess before we could play.
we though nothing about it until we got back to the back yard with the shovel and K was standing there with a piece of poop in his hand, saying,"poop,daddy,poop!"
Luckily(if this is actually something you could call lucky), it was hard and not soft! sorry for the details, but he was SO proud of himself.
he had no idea how totally gross this was and could not figure out why we completely flipped out. he just thought he was helping out daddy! now he combes through the yard, front and back, letting us know where all the dog poop is!
K: 'poop, mommy, poop!'
me: 'okay Kyle, thats great, just DON'T touch it!'

Krestyn O.

These are a few shots i was able to snap of my niece awhile back. love her to pieces, but dang it is hard to get pictures of her and Kyle! i have a bad habit of cropping in camera and wishing i had a little wiggle room after the

fact. i need to learn to step back and crop later, i would be much happier!

I post-processed these, playing with color and re-sized for the web.

Some are over-exposed, but i kind of like it.

A shoulder to...um...well...

I have recently discovered that the saying, a shoulder to cry on, brings on a whole new meaning with a two year old.
In most instances, my left shoulder bares the tears of an overly emotional little guy, i love that, and think one of the best parts about being a mom is being the comforter.
The other, not so glamorous, duty of my left shoulder is the softest, most obvious snot wiping surface.
My little guys have been plagued with constant runny noses for a month. Poor little T's nose hurt him so bad the other day, he screamed when i attempted to wipe it. i luckily found that aquaphor works wonders for that!
i guess K seems to think my shoulder is more fit to handle his runny nose than a tissue and i caught him rubbing his nose all over my shirt. i was holding him for whatever reason(i think he wanted me to pick him up just for that purpose!) and he started rooting his face in my shoulder, i couldn't believe it when i realized what he was doing! i looked down and there it was, snot all over me! i know that boy knows what a tissue is and how to use, because i have shown him where to wipe his buggers(that a whole other can of worms!)
i think back about it, and he has done that exact same thing so many times, like when he has been crying, he rubs his tears and his nose, i have just not been paying much attention to what exactly he is wiping. I so i guess i now have 'the shoulder to snot on.........'
I just wonder how many times I have been walking around a store with snot shining on my shirt?

Past the point of frustration

Okay- i am seriously about to throw away all my stupid camera equipment and find a different hobby. i have about decided that i just don't have it when it comes to photography. something is just not getting threw my thick head. ARGH!

I know it takes A LONG time to really understand and be able to produce consistently proper images, but all i am asking for is one every now and then. i am not wanting to be some sort-of professional right now, just someone who can produce something better than the average 'snap-shot'.

poop.

yes, you just read a pity-me post. sorry.

sorry they are all so pixilated, i uploaded from photobucket?

the first one and the last one are very unevenly exposed and not very creative composition.

the middle on is very back-lite, which i love sun flare, but i can't seem to get it with out blowing the exposure of the subject!?!?

i just can't seem to figure out what to do with light.

What goes around comes around........

and so on. you know all that stuff people say when you were growing up, about what life will bring you when you have your own children, pay back or something like that, right?
For several years i have been keep quite a long mental note of all the things my mom was right about.....smoking, drinking, sex(well i guess we are a little beyond that now!), grades, friends, gossip. all the stuff that ultimatly just effected me, that i wasn't willing to listen to, that i wish i would have.
Well i am passed that point of high school regret and am learning a whole new world of mom's right-ism's.
Because i swear, if i pull another one of K's 'brown-bottomed' white socks out of the dryer i might just blow up right there. Socks have become like gold around here(when i can actually find a matching pair), for the simple fact that i have the hardest time finding the kind of socks that i like for K in the right size, they are always sold out! So when i pull out clean, stained socks, worrying whether he will be taking his shoes off where we are going, i can hear my mom in the back of my mind yelling to get back into the house with socks on. i really never could figure out the big deal, now Mom you can do your happy dance, your work is done, because i
know now.
The unfortunate thing about all of this is all of the other things i am realizing she was right about. Things that effect S and I as parents as well as them, for instance; me and S having to meet K and T's friends and their parents, and teaching them to obey curfew. i HATED this, how embarrassing that i had to introduce my parents to my friends parents. I understand now, they just wanted to be sure I was safe with the people I would be staying with, and the curfew thing, well DUH!
Hopefully K and T will not be as hard headed as i was.....i think i am dreaming!

Beauty

These are beautiful pictures, i just wish someone else would have had the camera. i managed to underexpose all of them, these are just the best i got out of about 30 different shots. In defense of the rainbow image, i was completly caught off guard, how many times do you see a double rainbow driving down a back country road? I had my fisheye hangin' out the window trying really hard not to get soaked(it was a nice rain storm!), i forget to reset my custom white balance. oh well, they may not be technically perfect, but they are neat.




Scott's Family owns land in Hempstead, Texas along the Brazos River. we brought Kyle out there to run around and see the cows(moo's), and i finally got some camera time, though short lived with an infant, toddler and the sun going down!


These pictures where taken there and on the way there.

It's been awhile...

Computer time and photo-op time is hard to come by these days. we moved the computer out of the kitchen and into the scrapbook/hunting/storage/office room, so we would be less tempted to stare off into cyber-space while the kids are awake. it has worked well and i can tell a difference in the kids during the evening since they have all of our attention now.

So what this really means is that i get to stay up even later than normal to get any photo work done or computer time(ME time, that sounds so selfish). of course that is after i spend time with S, watching TV( he gets really erked when i get on the computer) i can't for the life of me figure out why sitting in front of the TV is better than me sitting in front of the computer, its not like we carry on some sort of, oh i don't know, conversation? Yeah right, conversation.

Anyways, anyways, anyways.....

T is trying SO hard to crawl, just like i have said before, he is growing up TO fast. i keep telling him to stop, but he is bound and determined to grow up so he can chase his brother. he loves to watch K and will absolutely twist himself into knots while i am holding him so he can catch a glimpse of what his big brother is doing, its really cute!

K is just such a crazy character, always doing some sort of trick or acting silly. definitely a constant source of entertainment that boy! He is gaining such an amazing vocabulary everyday, it just amazes me how quick he is learning and picking stuff up. we have had to change ours ways real quick lately because of that!

all iknow is that it is 1 in the morning i am going to be a bear in the morning(Well, this is technically the morning, right?) if i don't get in bed! hope to update some more soon.

All of these shots were taken with my sony P&S, the reason is a long story worthy of it's own post!

The Price of Photography

Came across this website posting by way of Twopeasinabucket.com, and thought is was a good explantaion of why Pro.'s charge so much and are deserving! ....take a look at the gallery also, great pictures!
Article Written by Shawn Richter of Caught on Film Photograghy
http://www.caughtonfilmphoto.com/costofphotography.html

In daddy's hat

Can you get any cuter? This kid is gonna look so good in red with that dark complexion!

T

Info:

1/30 sec

f/1.4

iso800

Custom WB

PP:

slight curve adjustment

Resize for the web

info: PP:

1/45 sec color desaturation

f/1.4 Resize for the web

iso1600

Custom WB

K

Info:1/60

F/3.5

iso1600

custom WB

PP:

B&W conversion

Facial touch up

Resize for web

these pictures had such potential if the camera would have been in the right hands, unfortunatly i can't seem to focus my camera anymore and these are all soft(its me not the camera!). i know the shutter speed is slow, but we were inside at night. i don't have an external flash and don' t like to use the onboard flash, i guess i need to anyway. (the flash did fire in the picture of K)

*this is the best cheesy smile from K yet!*

Unpleasant experiences

Okay, so i know everyone has to poop. it is nature, sometimes nature stinks, and all the potpourri and flower smelling lysol in the world won't cover it up as much as we try. This is where a nice thought out and placed restroom comes in handy, especially in a public place.

I finally, after a few months of a much needed hair cut, went to the hair salon. I have been waiting for the money and the time without kids, to treat myself to a nice head massage and hair cut. i really consider it a treat. so when i was told to walk to the back to get my hair washed, i was waiting to sit back and relax. well i sat in the funky(not exactly comfortable) hair washing chair and waited and waited. the shampoo girl finally walked out of the door directly in front of me(i could probably have touched the door with my foot) and boy was i meet with an unpleasant smell, mixed with the latest fragrance by glade (or lysol or whoever) designed to cover up this bit of nature we all like to pretend doesn't happen. i know she had to have been embarrassed, i know i was for her! so i just grinned and tried not to breath to deep and reminded myself that it happens to EVERYONE!
unfortunatly the shampooing experience was not what i had been waiting for, eventually it was over, i got my hair cut and went on about my life, probably to never even think of it again, of course that was before i had a blog!
The point of sharing the experience was not to complain about the fact that natured called at an unfortunate time for me, but to stress how important it is to plan out the placement of restrooms in public places and to remind myself that things in life never goes as you expect:) !

T Monster

just wanted to show off the most recent picture i was able to catch of my little T monster. this is sooc(though it could use some some color pop) taken in the evening light, and unfortunatly the focus fell on his chest, i really need to work on that!
we brought the boys to the park several times this weekend because of the awesome weather! T and I just hang out on a blanket, he plays with his toys and mom plays with that stupid black box that flashes every now and then, while K and daddy play on the playground!
We did go to a local park with nice (short) hiking trail, threw T in the back-pack carrier(which he really enjoyed) and just let K run where ever he wanted to go. it was nice that the underbrush was cleaned out so he could go off the trails and explore, which he did most of the time! it was neat to see him being so curious! i will post some of the pictures later this week.