Choo-Choo's and Fun in the Leaves

It's no surprise to anyone who knows me, that I love pictures.  I love taking them mostly...but it's hard to take a "family" photo of yourself.  So, after lots of searching I finally found the perfect photographer for our family.  This lady is awesome.  Beyond her great photography skills, she believes that the images should belong to those who she photographed!  This was a great plus for me, as I was hoping to use one many of the images from our session for our Christmas card.  I was kind of fearful as to how the session would really go, since my boys no longer seem to enjoy being photographed.  Well, not that they don't like it...they are just SO busy, that the thought of having to sit still, look at a camera and smile doesn't really seem to intrigue them much.  But Carla was so fantastically patient with them.  She really made our day fun and it totally reflects that in the pictures.  She chose some great locations and really took time to get great images for us.  Here's a peak at a few...I will share ALL of my favorites AFTER I send my Christmas cards out.

Happy Halloween from our Disney Kids

We had a great Halloween with the boys.  It was such a good time to carve the pumpkins with them and to take them both trick-or-treating. 

Tyler dressed up as Lightning McQueen, surprise surprise!  He had wanted Lucas to be a little Chick Hicks, but since we couldn't find a costume that would fit Luke, he was Tigger instead.  He was so cute.  The first time we tried the costume on him, he loved it.  He did fuss a little when we put it on him to go out for trick-or-treating, but he got used to it and was just fine.

Tyler did so well, considering that his costume was a bit heavy.  He walked up to all (except for the two with scary monsters handing out the candy) the house all by himself and said "trick-or-treat".  By the time we were about back to our house, he was ready to ride in the wagon.  Lucas did walk for a little while, and he walked up to several houses, holding his bag out and mumbling what I'm sure he thought was "trick-or-treat".

Tyler had such a good time helping us carve the pumpkins.  Lucas wanted to help, too.

 

 

Our thematic jack-o-lanterns!

 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame...

In previous summers we have visited the local minor league ball park with the boys...each summer they have been around, in fact.  Both boys attended their first professional baseball game at just months old.  But...this summer we sprang for a trip to the Big League ball park.  The Washington Nationals built and opened a new ball park a couple of summers ago (this is their third season in their new home, I believe).  Les and my father have been to a game there at least once each summer, but this was my first time, too.  I LOVE baseball games.  Not that the action of the baseball game is all that exciting, but I really love the atmosphere.  And, it reminds me a lot of my own childhood, when we would take several mini-vacations to nearby ball parks throughout the summer.  My dad was (still is) a HUGE Atlanta Braves fan, so we would travel to Pittsburgh or Baltimore (before the Nationals came to Washington) to watch a series.  OK, enough reminiscing...hmm, wish I could find a picture from one of those trips.  I just may have to do some digging.  :)

Anyway, so this year we decided it was time to take the boys to their first "Big League" game.  We knew that Tyler was definitely ready for the experience, but were a little unsure of what Lucas' interest level would be.  He very much surprised us!

 We were fully prepared to make it just a few short innings and say "we tried".  Being a little shy of 17 months old, we figured this might be a stretch for Luke.  Especially being an evening game, not starting until 7:30 pm (and bedtime is normally a little after 8).  But, we don't want to not try these fun experiences with Tyler simply because it might become a disaster, with Lucas.  That is not fair to Tyler.  We ended up nearly making it through the entire game, leaving just after the 7th inning stretch.  Now, this is not to say that it was an EASY time.  It definitely was NOT.  Having recently become very mobile (walking), Lucas really wanted to be down exploring, so we spent LOTS of time passing him between Mom, Dad and Aunt Jenn (who came with us, and who's extra two arms, and purse, came in very handy)...but unfortunately for Les (as it was very hot and humid), Lucas seemed to want to be a Daddy's boy, again! 

Actually, I would have to say that the train ride was the worst part of the evening.  It was nice to not have to worry about parking or to fight all of the traffic, but it was SO VERY hard to keep Lucas entertained on our laps for the almost one hour train ride into town and out!  Tyler on the other hand, LOVED it...he's been asking to do this all summer long.  Maybe we will drive next time...or maybe we will try the stroller. 

Luke may not have had much understanding of the baseball that was being played, but he was working hard on becoming an expert on ball park food, sampling everything from chicken fingers and fries, to M&Ms, cotton candy and lemonade (and probably a few other things that I've forgotten about)!  :)  Keeping his snack cup filled seems to be the key to keeping this little guy happy.  Come on though...shouldn't he be growing...he out eats his brother, for goodness sake. 

 

 

I decided not to take my purse to the game, since we were riding the metro in and I knew I'd be carrying one of two boys (as we opted to leave the stroller in the car).  Well, thank goodness Jenn took hers, because I ran out of room in the camera bag quickly.  Her purse became the "mommy purse", I'm not sure we could have fit one more item in it!!  Oh look, I guess he had some Cracker Jacks, too.  

I think Tyler really enjoyed the experience and atmosphere of the big ball park.  The one thing he was very confused about was why he didn't get to go play on the big field, too.  We told him to keep practicing and that we'd love to be coming back here in 20 years, to watch him play on the big field.

All-in-all, it was a really good time and even though we were completely exhausted upon getting back to our car, I am so glad that were brave enough to attempt it.  And it must not have been all that bad, because we have now decided to take Tyler and maybe Lucas to a WVU football game this year.

Thanks to the fact that my sister was along (who is also just as photo obsessed as I am....must be a family thing) I actually have some pictures with me in them!  They aren't the greatest shots of the boys, in fact I am the only one looking at the camera in the first shot.  But, these days I just accept that fact that I've got two little boys with minds of their own, so being in a shot with them is good enough for me.  :)

 

 

And here's a self-taken portrait of Jenn and I.

The hard work of it all was so worth it in the end, as we now have a great memory of the boys being at their first big league game together.

A Fun Comparison of Ages: 1 Year

I love to compare pictures of the boys at the same ages, to see how much (or how little) they really look alike.

I can't believe how similar all of these poses turned out. I remembered some from Tyler's first birthday pictures (and we totally planned the football pose, so Daddy can have pictures of Lucas with a football in his office too), but most of these were pure luck!

Tyler will always be on the left in these series:

Birthday Pictures

OK...so you know from my last post that I've been a tiny bit stressed out about getting pictures of the boys. I've tried several times and have had little success with getting a shot of them both. Finally...a decent one! But not taken by me. :(

I had hoped to be able to become victorious in the battle of the wills, but after many unsuccessful attempts, I broke down, took them out and let someone else take the pictures.

While I really liked some of the shots that I took of Lucas for his birthday (at the Cherry Blossom Trees and the ones of took of him in his diaper and birthday hat), I really wanted some more traditional ones (like we had done with Tyler and the #1 block). We also have a cute set of Tyler playing with a football from his one-year shots, and Daddy wanted Lucas to have a matching set, so that he could put them in his office. Instead of trying another harrowing shoot myself, I decided to have someone else to do the shooting this time.

It wasn't an easy time getting the pictures, but we got some decent ones. The hardest to get (as always), were the ones of both of them together and believe it or not, we ended up with only two choices!!! We just couldn't get Lucas to sit still even long enough to shoot the pictures. :-) He's a fast little bugger!

And, there some other cute ones:

Just to show you how he LOVES to make funny faces!

Picture Perfect

...or almost. I have been trying SO hard to get a good picture of both the boys together. This is the best luck I have had so far. I really want to get to the point someday that I NEVER have to pay someone else to take pictures of the boys. It is a dream of mine to be a professional photographer someday. Even if I don't actually own my own studio, I'd like to be able to take professional quality pictures of our families and friends. Although, Lucas is becoming tough! It's not that he doesn't give up the smiles, because really, this kid is ALL smiles, almost all of the time. But, he is just SO on the move these days that I pose him and by the time I get set back up behind the camera and ready to snap the picture, here is no Lucas to even take a picture of. He is so stinkin' fast. And Tyler...well, I can normally bribe him easily enough to at least allow me to snap a few pictures...I just have to be ready and on my game, because he doesn't give up the smiles forever! Well, the smiles aren't really the problem as much as keeping him contained and giving me genuine smiles. They have been making silly faces in the mirrors at school lately and this is Tyler's new favorite game. I get a couple of good smiles and then he is on to making faces at me!

Lately my photo shoots have been really stressing me out, because I REALLY want a good picture of both of them to frame and hang in the house somewhere. We have finally gotten around to hanging some photos and I have been reminded of the fact that we missed out on the opportunity to have newborn pictures of Lucas taken. With him being born so early, we were a little hesistant to take him out to have these done early on, and then ended up waiting too long to have them done. This makes me sad not only because we don't have them for Lucas, but also because I DO have beautiful ones done for Tyler, but looking at them reminds me of the fact that I don't have them for Luke. So, I was hoping that having a really good picture of both of them would make me feel a little better about this. I am also hoping that during our beach trip this summer we can have some nice family beach photos taken.

Here are a few of the other photos taken during my little shoot. Tyler actually cooperated a little, and I did get a few cute ones of him by himself. Lucas, you ask?? Nope...he was too interested in trying to sneak down the hill to check out the pond. :)

Tyler found a caterpillar and let him crawl up on his hand.
But then, he got kind of freaked out by it!

He threw it and it landed on his shorts...if you look closely,
you can see it hanging from his left leg!

And, I just thought this was a sweet picture of them both.

OK, so that great elusive shot of the two of them is still out there...guess I'll just keep trying!