241/365: Birthday Party Break

If I knew how to use a reflector and had an assistant I could have made this work. We were out in the backyard at B's parents house. Isaac would have rather been sitting on the tractor (not looking at me) but I 'forced' him to take a walk with me. He had about 2 minutes worth of patience with me and then was ready to return to the action of the annual "5 boy birthday party!"

240/365: Patio Torch

We are visiting family right now and spent some time on my parents patio this evening. I have been watching the Jasmine Star Creative Live feed and have been inspired to take lots of detail shots :)

239/365: Another On the "Cropping Room Floor"

This one lost out for lack of eye contact. Oh well... I can like it as a Mama at least :)

238/365: Kinda an Outtake

I'm trying to find an effective way to bribe him for the remainder of the online photography class that I'm taking. Today I tried "make a silly face" in order to hopefully catch some genuine emotion after the silly face. It did work, but he still doesn't like the whole eye contact concept. Not that I love staring at a camera either...

237/365: LR and RAW

I shot in raw for the first time today and edited in Lightroom for the fist time as well. Lots to learn, but interesting and I think I might end up liking both a lot. I was able to pull up a bunch of detail in the background that would have been lost with a jpeg. Not that I really care about detail in the background, usually, but it's great to know that if the detail is missing on someone's face I'd be able to recover some/most of it.

236/365: Lens Cap Helper

"Mama? What's this?"

"That's my lens cap."

"Oh, let me put it on!"

"Hmm, why don't you put your hand on mine and I'll let you help me."

"No!! I want to do it myself!! (whiny voice)"

Sound familiar to anyone? Oh well :) It was a cute shot to capture at least.

On a photography note; I finally took the leap and figured out how to set a custom white balance in camera. Hmm... should have figured out how to do this sooner! Isn't that always how it is? :)

235/365: Squash Chew Toy

Grayden is really getting some good use out of the squash we grow in our garden. This time he was gnawing on it like a chew toy. It sounded like a dog with a rubber ball :)

234/365: Cupcake Naughtiness

Today is B's birthday. His request was a return trip to the cupcake shop. Isaac was totally excited and happily chose a cupcake with an orange sucker on the top. The girl behind the counter pulled it out and moved on to picking our other choices. Then Isaac decided he wanted "the red one" (red sucker on top). After his request was met with "no, sorry buddy" several times he decided to take matters into his own hands and scooted around behind the counter and opened the sliding case door before I could grab him. Thankfully I did make it over there before he pilfered any cupcakes.

Naughty (but resourceful and observant!) little one.

233/365: Toes- I can't get enough

I love how he uses his feet like a monkey. When he's trying really hard to manipulate something with his hands he'll pull his feet in towards his stomach and it looks like he's trying to use them as a second set of hands.

232/365: Steel Cut Oatmeal (that I can eat!)

After an unfortunate incident in 3rd grade when our teacher sent me to the bathroom to help my poor friend who had eaten oatmeal for breakfast and ended up with an upset stomach, I haven't been able to force myself to eat oatmeal. That doesn't mean I haven't tried.

I do try.

I know it's such a healthy breakfast... ugh, I just can't look at it! So, I'm excited to have found these muffins at Trader Joes. Now I just need to find a recipe to make some for myself!

231/365: Goofy

Aww, little man!

230/365: Guest Room

This house is going to be totally put together soon! That is huge because we were finishing renovations on the last house up until the day it went on the market to sell. We can't wait to just live here... and welcome guests to a comfortable room.

229/365: Zucchini Sticks

It is too fun watching Grayden figure out this food thing. This was his first "meal" in the highchair and it was a wonderful success. He happily chased the zucchini around his tray for the entire time we were eating dinner and even managed to get the pieces in his mouth a couple times.

228/365: Fountain Fun

Isn't this why you have a fountain in the backyard??

227/365: Craigslist Love

This house is about double the square footage of our last house which means we need some more furniture. Having an empty living room and dining room just isn't doing it for us :) B wanted a leather sofa. He found one at Costco that he loved (big and fluffy with two built in recliners) but I just couldn't agree to it. However, I was on board with the leather idea, and began the search to find an attractive loveseat. We checked around at the local consignment stores and online (I have expensive taste. I've known this for awhile. Too bad that the leather loveseats I liked upheld that knowledge!) I had been checking Craigslist and today this one popped up without a picture. I decided to take a chance and emailed about the availability of a picture. She had one and was a super easy Craigslist seller to deal with (they aren't always that way, you know...)

I love a good deal!

226/365: ABC's

This morning Isaac sang the ABC's to Grayden on our bed. Grayden loved it.

225/365: Robot Man

Isaac is in love with this robot that my aunt sent him. He loves that by pushing a button he can make it walk across the room.

224/365: What a Difference a Month Makes!

Lots going on in the garden. This was about a month and a half ago!

223/365: 5 Months

This little rolly-polly attempted to wiggle his way off the couch several times this morning. I'm probably going to need to find a new location for our monthly pics.

222/365: Home Goods

We did a little home dec shopping today. You can't beat Home Goods and such a pretty plate for 4 bucks!

221/365: Munchy

Grayden has been eyeing our food quite seriously lately. He was attempting to eat the paper wrapper from my Quiznos sandwich so I decided to give him something that he could actually eat if he managed to get that far. He didn't, but did seem to enjoy the experience.

220/365: Deep in Thought

219/365: Train Museum!

We went to the Train Museum in Old Sacramento today. Isaac loved it and was a fabulous little museum-goer. It was his first time going somewhere like that out of the stroller and he did a really good job of listening and following directions.

Some of the engines were huge! I had trouble portraying that with my 35mm.... hmm, the list of lenses I "need" keeps growing.

218/365: From Garden to Table

The first zuchinni was ready in the garden...

and combined with fresh mint and basil for the marinade on the lamb provided us with a delicious dinner!

217/365: Tassel

I really like tassels. I don't have many in the house, mostly because I can't find a place to put them, but this one that holds the curtain between the master bedroom and bathroom back makes me happy :)

216/365: Bad Habit

Isaac is a nail biter. His dada does it now and again and Isaac has picked up the habit big time. You can ask him and he'll tell you "only babies put their hands in their mouths", but that knowledge hasn't quite translated to a change in behavior yet.

On the positive side... I don't have to cut his nails quite as often anymore...

215/365: So Strong

This boy is serious about getting moving. In the past two weeks he has gone from a slouchy little monkey with very little core strength to a super strong dude who arches his back and slides out of bouncy chairs and carseats if he isn't buckled in. I'm probably not going to have 18 months to get ready for him to walk, like I did with Isaac!

214/365: New Park

Every time we drove to Target I saw a sign for a park. Being curious about good photo locations I have wanted to go check it out for a month now. Today I decided it was the day. Loaded the boys up in the car and headed to Jack in the Box to use a couple buy one get one coupons and then attempted to drive to the park for our picnic lunch. Only, all I found was houses. (And a good percentage had brown lawns and For Sale signs... but that isn't really relevant.) So we turned around and headed back to our tried and true park.

It has a playground anyway.

Later on we went to Home Depot to get a ceiling fan for Isaac's room. I was more prepared for this trip as I had Google mapped the park and found out that the sign I had been seeing was quite misleading. After we finished at the store the family drove over to the park. It's a fabulous place and we were having fun checking it out and taking a few pics.

Then Isaac fell on the paved walking path.

He got up and after a short cry about his new road rash we headed on.

5 minutes later...

Yep, on the ground again. Poor kid. This time blood was included so our park time was concluded.

What is it about California that has brought out the injury prone-ness in this child? :)

I only noticed the grass in front of his face in photoshop. Boo!

213/365: Really, it's Bedtime Guys.

We took a walk after dinner through the new development behind our house. Grayden was a good sport, but his expression here portrays his verbal attempts to get us to head home for bedtime. Those pitiful eyes... he went to sleep pretty quickly once given the chance.

212/365: Little Streaker

Isaac had just stripped down naked to enjoy a "shower" in the mister. His little friend had previously taken off his shirt... and Isaac decided to take it one step further. None of us were paying much attention to the kids, and I love the varied reactions on the faces of the guys.

211/365: Embrace the Grain?

Little Grayden is sleeping without a swaddle now. Currently he is asleep for a 2.5hr nap and going! The other night he was up every 2 hours though... I just keep reminding myself that he will eventually sleep through the night.

And when he does, I will feel like a normal person again :)