jack

this little dog i've missed so much over the last year and a half we've been without him. what an awesome dog he is. but, he's in a great home though with people that give him lots of love...and he isn't getting attacked by kirby anymore ;)

and it's a bonus he is with family, and we now live in the same town so i can see him as much as i want :)

happy st. patty's day!

their great-aunt gets them matching st. patrick's day shirts each year - i love it! 

and perfect opportunity to get a picture of both of them together, which i don't often enough.

sweet dreams, sweet boy...

peaceful. innocent.

like father, like son

boys and their electronics. 

i'm guessing grady will be asking for an iPhone or iPad by the time he's in kindergarten.

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beautiful sunrise

i walked up the stairs this morning and the whole living room was glowing orange. i stood and stared at the sunrise for quite some time before i decided to run and grab my camera. beautiful. 

this is something i didn't get to see a whole lot from my house in washington... too many other houses blocking my view!

reunited with lambie

my sweet boy was reunited with his best friend, his bud, his lovie - lambie, today.

he accidentally got packed by the movers back in washington (EEEEEK), so it was a LONG six days/nights without him (for all of us!).

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welcome to SD!

we have lots of snow!

the snow comes with sun though - i'll take it!

driving around house hunting. 

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weather changes on a long drive

i really should have taken some pictures of the actual scenic part of our drive (washington, idaho, western montana)! but, i didn't... too busy staring out the window.

however, when we hit eastern montana, the land was flat and there were blue skies forever. there's really something beautiful about that as well. 

as you can see, the weather changed quickly from montana, north dakota, then south dakota. this was one 12 hour day in the car. and the kids actually did amazing!

blue skies for days - eastern montana

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snow flurries - north dakota

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 snow! - north dakota

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snow, snow, more snow, and ICE - south dakota

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nail biting drive the last two hours

yep, we actually voluntarily moved back to this ;)

simply, drew

all of drew's cute, goofy, happy, quirky personality wrapped up in one photo. my favorite to date.

it's just...drew

mall crusin'

well, the movers were back at home loading the truck. so it was about 40 degrees in our house with the doors open all day. no toys. no beds. no food. no help... it made for some pretty crazy, rambunctious, tired, and hungry kids (and one very stressed out mama). 

so, we headed to the mall - just to get out of the house and wear off some energy.

grady has always wanted to cruise around in one of these super cool cars, anyway ;-)

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box car ramp

this kid can seriously find way to make anything into a ramp, garage, bridge, racetrack, etc. for his cars

moving boxes ramp

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loading pads race track

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space needle

jon and i went out to dinner for his birthday, and we decided on the sky city restaurant in the seattle space needle. since we are moving soon, we knew we weren't going to have any more opportunities to do this. it was so worth it.

view from below.

my boys

jon turns the big 3-0!

i had to get a picture of my favorite boys together.

so happy! love them.

beauty

i was lucky enough to photograph this little beauty <3

a friend's little one-year-old

starburst

from a family session i did for a friend. this was my favorite!

cleaning buddy

fast forward another 10 years...

i doubt i will see that same happy smile on his face when he's standing behind the swiffer wet jet :)

too young for coffee?

this boy is always stealing sips of my coffee drink. doesn't matter what it is - iced coffee, latte's, or mocha milkshakes ;-)

this one was a mocha milkshake - yummy! so i don't blame him.

he would have drank the whole think if i let him.

you've got a few more years before you're allowed to like coffee buddy.

hmm...

beautiful light.

beautiful boy.

i wish i could see into his mind.

what are you thinking, love?

groomed

today was haircut day. everyone (except drew-still waiting on his first cut) got one, including kirby.

he's my "other" handsome boy!

corn dog

"how bout a corn dog mommy"!?

grady's request for lunch every. single. day.

down i go

well, i'm striking out on lighting this week, but trying not to miss important moments. i have missed too many special moments by taking the time to adjust the variables in my image - lighting, composition, etc. well, this is another moment i didn't want to miss. 

my little boy started crawling down the stairs on his own! 

this is huge for him - we've been practicing :)

growing up

this little boy is growing up on me way too fast!

did the fact that he has his hand down his undies tip you off it's a little boy?

typical.

couldn't decide what orientation i liked best ;)

pretty horrible nighttime bathroom lighting and angle, but i liked this moment ;)

wonder

drewski lovin his bath time. 

i love the look of wonder on his face, watching the water pour down on him.

looking down on little lashes

i'm not sure why i love this. but i do. 

i took a series of images today - most of them of him laughing. or of his smiling cute face. 

but this is the one that stole my heart.

a vision

my little love and his lovie

do you ever have a vision in your head, that just doesn't quite turn out the way you envisioned it?

please everyone say yes.

well this is one of those visions. i even moved the table and chairs to get a good view of the window and light... and then waited for him to step up to the window. unfortunately he didn't care about my vision. a half our later he decided to stride by, for ONE second. long enough to grab my camera. not long enough to change my settings for the ever-changing light. oh well. i photoshopped it to the best of my ability.

view through my sunroof

now THIS is what a sunroof is for!

iPhone

thank goodness for my iPhone. to catch beauty like this.

we don't get days like this nearly often enough... and it was so short-lived. 

but it was.

my mini model

future model? he's working on "the look". heheh

foggy beach

i was going to take family photos for a friend of mine at this location - a beach/landing/lighthouse/park in mukilteo. everyone wanted some sunny "beach" feel pictures. and who doesn't want a gorgeous sunset? however, the fog just wasn't going to lift. it's been thick for days. and although different, i thought it still might be pretty, so i decided to take my son there anyway and snap a few pics. 

i'm glad i did - this turned out to be one of my all time favorites.

green cereal bar

most people stop at the grocery store to pick up the necessary staples-bread, milk, etc. well, this is included in our daily staples. the "green cereal bar", as grady has called it for the last year or so. he has one to two of them a day. yes. it's a bit ridiculous. drew has joined him in the fetish. it's one of the few things i can get him to eat these day. it's both of their favorite by a long shot.

why green cereal bar you ask? well, besides the obvious, this is the only flavor grady liked. now, after a year of the same boring old flavor, i bought strawberry the other day (they were out of the green ones)! strawberry was a hit! and is now called "pink green cereal bar", lol.

nose to the wall

time out has been a big joke in our house. nothing really seems to work. the boy doesn't stop moving!

so, i'm trying a new "nose to the wall" technique. he has to sit or stand (for the whole two minutes) with his nose to the wall.

it's an improvement. at least a little. for now.

water bugs

how fun are new bath toys!?

joy

i loved this snapshot of drew and his auntie kristin. so much joy captured. it melts my heart a little.

they adore each other.

i haven't worked much with haze, sun flare, or backlighting, so it was fun to try something different and play with processing a little.

i love beautiful light.

and my beautiful boys.

grady and more sun flare

and a couple of my other favorites from tonight that i couldn't leave out...

my little sunshine. that's exactly what he is. 

that little smile brightens my day. every day.

tippy toes

if he was a ballerina, this little boy would need no point shoes. 

he has taken to walking around on his tip toes A LOT lately. and in effort to reach anything and everything, this is what works for him :)

pile-up

grady's new thing is making a tunnel/ramp with the magna-tiles. or as grady calls it - a "wamp". 

he then finds his bucket of cars and drives them down - one by one (all 200+) - until there is a major pile-up at the bottom and no more will go through. then he gets all emotional.

this is his look after the pile-up... followed by "ma - fix the wamp"!!!

big life problems of a 3-year-old...

this wasn't the best picture in the world. really nothing was working for me - crappy light, maxed ISO, open ap, low shutter speed. i tried to fix it a bit in post processing, but it still looked pretty flat and noisy. the color version works better (i think anyway), but i wanted to pull focus out of all the busyness of the image, to what i actually focused on - thus the b/w play with the one truck in color (grady's favorite truck). well, maybe not the best candidate for b/w, and pretty horrible conversion (no matter how many times i played with it, i couldn't quite get it to what i wanted), but it was fun to play and try new things!

play the song!

grady has moved on from "chicken fried" and found a new favorite song - "china grove" by the doobie brothers. 

he is either racing his police car around the kitchen or dancing to this song. and let me tell you - this boy has some interesting moves ;-)

never a dull moment.

he's starting to rub off on drew, too