Budding photographer

Seriously, how adorable is this kid?!

The first one is my old Rebel XT but the 2nd is my 5D MkII ... LOL. I took the lens hood off to make it a littler easier for her. It's such a heavy camera that unless I'm helping her hold it, it's just too tough for her to do. So the floor worked well :-) The quality is not great from the 2nd shot because I took it with the Rebel and used the pop-up flash ... but it works :-)

Happy Halloween!

We can't take credit for this idea ... it came from Angel's teacher. But the execution was ALL DH's :-) Of course then I took the picture. The original had stickers all over it, so I cloned them out because I felt it made the shot a lot stronger. I think it's cool to take a very NON-faith-based holiday and try to work Jesus into it. We got several compliments on Halloween night :-)

Pumpkin Carving!

The Nomex

This is my Dad's old fire suit back from when he used to race. Pretty cool, huh?

Celebration

It's hard to believe, but his birthday is here and gone ... again. Ugh. My "baby boy" is now 3 years old. THREE. Hardly a baby anymore. But such a delight ... an absolute light of passion. So fun, so dramatic, so loving, so full of life. Being a mom totally rocks.

Birthday Breakfast!

My Lovebug enjoying breakfast on his birthday.

Three years ago, I gave birth to the most amazing little guy. I was induced at 9am and he was born at 12pm ... 3 hours of labor, 5 minutes of pushing. Amazing. Too bad it hasn't been that easy since then ... LOL, just kidding!! I just ADORE this little guy to pieces. He has his moments, but don't we all (I know DH will tell you that I definitely do!). He is such a loving, caring, passionate, funny little person ... so full of life. When he is happy, he is so unbelievable ... really just a spectacular kid. Oh I could go on and on. Feeling blessed. God is so good!

Happy Birthday to my little lovebug!

TRAINS!!!! Lovebug L-O-V-E-S them! He has a smaller toddler-sized train table from his 1st birthday but he has outgrown it. Although he plays with it every day, I knew it was time for a trade-up :-) This was a joint effort between us and my parents. As you can see, Lovebug was pretty darn excited.

DH put the table together last night (with Angel's help) so that it was ready for him when he got up. I positioned myself and let DH know when it was ok to send him down. I was waiting with my camera to catch his first reactions ... lighting/color balance are off, but at least I captured the moment!!

ADDICTS!!

Yes, you are seeing this right. That is DH on his Droid and Angel on my iPhone battling each other at Angry Birds. LOL.

Aquarium!

We kept going after our visit to the Zoo and hit the Aquarium too! Of course, this was after a stop for lunch :-) I didn't have a flash with me, so I was pretty limited here, it's crazy dark! Even with my ISO all the way bumped up ... well, my camera can't perform miracles. LOL. So here's one shot of the kids checking out the sting rays. And then we move to the rainforest ... let there be light!

He is so edible! Gosh, I LOVE HIM!!!!

Hahaha ... and then there's my pretty Angel ... even when she's trying to avoid the camera, she's still beautiful :-) She has recently been rolling her pants up because she is "too hot" ... it's pretty funny but she looks a bit ridiculous. I don't usually let her do it much in public but it really is hot in the rainforest, so it seemed warranted!

Hehe ... self-portrait on the escalator with a VERY slow shutter speed because of the lack of light. It's kind of fun though. You can see Lovebug and DH too :-)

I have to let you know that I did NOT edit Lovebug in this next shot in any way ... his eyes are seriously this stunning.

I think this next one is kind of cool ... again the lack of light made things kind of interesting so I went for a silhouette shot. We didn't stick around for our dolphin show, so the kids watched them swimming from the bottom - you can even see them in the pool :-)

The Aquarium isn't nearly as interesting as I remember as a child. We breezed through and then didn't even make it to 2 of the exhibits ... it could have been that it was a terribly long day but IDK ... I'll take the Zoo any day over the Aquarium!

All in all, we had a really amazing family day ... the kids were so awesome even though they ate late AND didn't have naps. It was a good day.

Impromptu "Session" with Angel

This amazingly gorgeous pavilion sits outside of the Zoo's entrance. When we walked passed it on the way in, I just KNEW I wanted to grab some shots of one of the kids there! Angel was the most cooperative, so she got the lucky job of being my model :-) LOL.

Unfortunately it didn't go exactly as I had mapped out in my head, but things never go as planned with my kids (don't know why I haven't figured this out yet). I was *trying* to get shots like #5 with all of the cool arches and beams in the background. I didn't really have the right lens and Angel wasn't as cooperative as I would've hoped. BUT, I still got a couple from her that are super cute and absolutely scream "her" ... so I guess I succeeded :-) I love, love, love everything about #5 except for that goofy face ... LOL ... but that's my girl, so I suppose I should just go with it!! :-) :-) :-)

The Zoo and I-800 Fingerprinting!

We started out today with our I-800 fingerprints bright and early! Wahoo!!!

Because Angel actually had no school today, DH also took off and we went to the zoo! Sadly, I hate to even admit this, this was our first visit as a family. LOL. We had so much fun though - we will definitely be going back! We only did the Africa and polar bear area so that we could go out to lunch - it was just enough and now we can't wait to go back again!