Just Photos

Just thought I'd post a few photos that made me laugh or smile recently.  Bryce walking around in his Darth Maul mask.  Kid cracks me up the way he loves his Star Wars costumes.  

Caroline at the community gazebo.  She loves our new neighborhood so much!  She has started running a little bit and will take jogs around sometimes.  She gets into wearing sporty clothes now which I think is so cute.

Piper the Cat during our Friday night dinner show.  If you had seen her dancing around like a cat, you would have loved it.  I didn't want to video and miss the moment though.

My parents in their matching Special Olympics volunteer shirts.  My mom looks so happy and I love that my dad made this face.  The consensus seems to be that this is a "Bryce Face" although maybe Bryce has been making the "Gene Face" all this time and we didn't realize it.  Lots of my parents' friends have commented over the years that Bryce looks like my dad.  I love this photo....I'm going to have to frame it.  (I am planning a big wall of my favorite photos!)

3 Kid Photos = Disaster

Trying to get a photo of all 3 of my kids is a debacle waiting to happen.  There is probably only one that is usable and still not one I love.  Sigh.  Typical kids.

Oh Caroline...this one was ALMOST it!!!

Squeeze her too tight....

get hit by the butterfly net!!!!

And it has degraded to tears....

Photo Brag

On Monday, I took the day off to stay home with Piper and run the kids to and from school.  My mom and dad are in New Orleans this week and I didn't want to ask my MIL to come down an extra day since I knew that she might want to spend the day with Kelly and the babies.

On the day we met the twins for the first time, I mentioned to Kelly that I was off and would she want me to come and take some photos of the girls.  While I do NOT consider myself to be any kind of seasoned photographer, I know a little bit about exposure, f-stops, and lighting and that if you take enough photos you'll get a few good ones.

Well, I feel like I hit pay dirt on Monday!  I took individual shots of both babies and while several of them turned out really good, the ones of them together turned out fantastic!  I gave all the originals to Jesse and Kelly and they are going to use them for a few things but they have shared this one a few places so I thought I'd share it with you too.

And here is one of my favorites:

Instagram

Is anyone else out there on Instagram?  (K, I know you are!)  Anyone else?  Instagram has been a free app on the iPhone for a few years now but it just became available on Android phones about a month ago.  I've been waiting for it for it since my sister had it at the beach last year and blew me away with her simple, awesome photos.  Instagram takes regular phone camera pictures and the adds filters and frames to them to make them look really cool.  I'm totally in love with it.  Here's a photo I took last night of Piper in the tub.  I will admit, the pose with the mermaid and the way she moved her eyes was allllll her.  In fact, she had been looking at the camera until I thought I pressed the shutter button and then she quickly looked to the side.  I applied a cool filter and got this.  I posted it on Facebook and was surprised at all the responses to it.  You just never know when you're going to get a really special photo.

Here's my favorite photo that my sister took of the girls last year at the beach with Instagram:

If you're on Instagram, you can find me - my username is huckabear.  My photos are private so just request me and I'll okay you...if you're not some crazy stalker.  And if you're not on Instagram, why not????  You can make it totally anonymous and private - it's so fun!

School Photos 2011

I posted these on FB the other day so I'm finally getting around to posting them here too. Caroline's hair saga turned out great without any tears or argument and Bryce has that "I'm cool with kindergarten look" even if it's not his normal, photogenic grin that I'm used to seeing in photos.

Here are last year's and kindergarten of Caroline.

And here are last year's of Bryce.

My 3 Valentines

All ready to go out on their Valentine's Date with Bertie and Pop Pop - spaghetti dinner and then Disney on Ice! My MIL made the matching jumpers, don't they look great? And both girls let me dry their hair - I can't get over how amazing C's hair looks when she lets me dry it. Don't you love the flip?

Flora's Visit Photos

Well, I never got back to updating that post with photos of my little cousin's visit, so I just thought I'd start a new entry for the photos:

My grandmother loves babies!

This is all Piper wanted to do.

Piper's favorite part of the day

Caroline's turn

Flora was done with being held by the time Bryce held her.

This photo is really interesting to me and I will have to go to my mom's house and look for the evidence. When I was about Piper's age or a little older, there is a photo of me holding my new baby cousin and I was clearly a little anxious about it because, just like Piper is doing here, I kept scratching my temple.  My mom said I did it all the time when I was flustered and Piper does it too.  It was the cutest thing that as Flora wiggled or fussed, Piper got this look on her face like "oh no, what do I do?" and would scratch her temple.  It's really uncanny the resemblance to me as a kid although she's certainly more rambunctious than I was.

10 Year Commemoration

Remember when I did this 3 years ago????  I clearly didn't get to do it in 2008 because, well, I had just given birth.  And then I just never got around to it last year, but this year, well, I did it again and this time with Piper too.

Caroline was totally game as soon as I mentioned it to her and as Piper sat on Caroline's bed watching, as soon as she took it off, Piper came running because she wanted to wear it too!  I was so excited - I was worried she wouldn't want to do it.

So without further adieu, my beautiful beautiful girls:

I haven't really Photoshopped them yet, but when I have time I will.  I made one that I took of Caroline 3 years ago all dreamy looking and it turned out so well my mom and MIL wanted 8x10s of it.  Caroline said we should get Bryce to wear the suit Jason wore in our wedding, but alas, I had to tell her it was rented.  Not that it wouldn't be fun to put him in one of Jason's other suits and take some photos.

Few More Spring Photos

Piper loves the monkey bars all of a sudden and Jason is the best for helping them since he's so tall. Piper, being part monkey, is very intrigued by them and wants to do them often. Here's a little father/daughter moment on the monkey bars.

She was having so much fun outside that night just watching Jason throw a ball high up into the air and catching it. I felt like I caught some real joy in this shot.

And my Brycey - his face and eyes look so much better here, only 24 hours after seeing the doctor and starting his new treatments. It's so hard keeping him inside when it's beautiful or that he wants to stay inside because he feels so lousy. He wears that O's hat all the time now and constantly asks if the Orioles are winning. Can't sugar coat that answer....

Fav Photos of the Day

She thought she was tough:

Dress Compare

I finally found the photo of Bryce in the dress, so for a laugh, here are my 3 kids in the dress:

Caroline in June 2005 (a little over 2 months before Bryce was born) - she was 18 months old:



And here is Mr. Bryce in the dress in April 2007 (he was 19 months old) - I put it on him as a joke and we all had a good laugh because he is so obviously a boy!:




And lastly, Ms. Piper - August 2009 - 13 months old. It will be a bit chilly for her to wear this when she's 18/19 months old: