Family Christmas Photo Shoot

To save money and time this year, we opted to take our own family pics.  The tripod and remote were a new thing for us, plus we made the mistake of going for late afternoon sunlight (a good thing) which meant taking pics immediately after naps (apparently not a good thing).  Though the boys were rested, they were GRUMPY.  But since the sun was setting, we couldn't waste time... not the best combination.  Anyway, here's a collection of some of the pics we got - some good, some bad; some edited, some not.  Some funny, some sad, and some with my baby's face covered in snot. ;)

We started on our new front porch.  This one made the back of the Christmas card this year:

This one, however, did not:

A few more came out pretty good, I thought:

And awkward, though it may be, I love this progression:

How hilarious is Oli's face here?

We then headed over to Rice University (surprised?) to take a few more:

Melt your heart much?

Of course, there were plenty of times when only one kid cooperated... Love Elliot here:

And Oliver here:

We got a couple other decent ones, but I definitely think I need to learn more about self shooting before trying this again:

We finally landed on this one for the Christmas card this year...

And after about 15 minutes of shooting, the boys were, of course D-U-N done.  So we played a little:

Good, clean, family fun!

One Happy Christmas Baby

I really am planning to catch up on a long list of posts since late October, but I wanted to share the rest of our Christmas photo shoots with you first, while we're still in the Christmas season, so to speak.

Elliot was a great sport one morning when I got inspired while Oliver was still sleeping, and these were the results...

Merry Christmas!

Elliot: 6 Months

I will catch up.  I will catch up.  I will catch up.  At least I can now say that I have too many pics of my kid to sort through and post...  A much better problem than the first few months where I had few to none!  That said, many of the pics are from my phone and/or unedited, so just show me some grace.  I think he's gorgeous enough to dazzle anyway. ;)

I took advantage of some natural light in our living room a couple of months ago.  How can anyone resist those gray-blue eyes?


Love his little smiles:



I snagged these pictures on the floor of the kitchen while Oliver and Momma Joy made cookies.  The pout:

The query:

The smile:
And the laugh:

And, while Momma Joy was here (yes, she visited in September... no, I will not feel guilty about my tardiness), we bought a little bath seat for him.  He LOVED it:


I tried to get a picture of the boys together in the bath, but first one smiled:

Then the other.  Go figure.

We got a shot of his first meal of rice cereal:

And his little mustache while eating sweet potatoes at the park:

The most fun we've been having lately is "dancing in Mommy office" to "the Holy song" (which, by the way, is "The Earth is Yours" by Gungor - totally recommend it... until your two-year-old asks to play it on repeat for hours on end. literally.).  It is Oliver's favorite.  More pics from his dancing to come later... In the meantime, here's a taste of Elliot's entertainment during those sessions.  Watching Oliver:

Dancing himself:


And laughing with big brother:


Oh. my. heart.

Two more happy bath pics, just because I can't resist!


I'm telling you, happiest, sweetest, most precious baby EVER!!

Our Favorite Pastime...

Lately (in case you can't tell from the blog), our favorite place has been the zoo.  This time, though, we went first the first time alone.  Without any friends or dad.  It was... different.  Let's just say that Oliver got fixated on some strange things.

Like the elephant statue:

Where we stood for 20 minutes while he finished my bottle of water and asked me to take pictures:

Elliot, thankfully, stayed happy chewing on Sophie:

We also hung out in the huts of the African Forest exhibit.  Where they have no animals...

At least we enjoyed some quality time with the chimps:

The highlight, though, was brushing the dirt in the petting zoo.  Yes, the dirt.

Elliot wasn't quite sure what to make of the goats:

I did manage one little pic of me and the boys...  Some day I might actually get a quality picture of the three of us. ;)