Good Looking Bunch

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of the kids in their Christmas outfits. Mycal's grandmother got these adorable ensembles.

Emmuska and Liberty call them their 'ladybug' dresses and both absolutely love them. Liberty was telling me yesterday that she couldn't wait to go to church so everybody could see her ballerina dance in her ladybug dress. Because having the right dress is the first step to spectacular dancing. (And yes I'm saying that in complete seriousness.)

And then you have Samuel in his little outfit. The vest and tie make totally make him absolutely irresistible. (Not that he needed any help with that...his dimples and blue eyes already affect most people's judgement when around him...)

In Love

I can't even begin to express how much this boy has managed to wrap me up and make me all his. He is such a handsome sweetheart that it's impossible for me not to be hopelessly in love with him. (Apparently he will be taking after his daddy.) This would be one (of the many) reasons why. A few weeks ago he started giving me this grin. One day he looked right at me and then burst into the most beaming-ly happy smile I've ever seen. It was as if he was saying 'You are my mommy and I think that you are the most amazing woman in the world - you make me so happy and I want you to know how much I love you.' If it hadn't happened to me I don't know if I'd believe that one brief smile could actually say all that yet his did. Everyday for one week he would flash exactly one of these at me. My heart would jump each time and I'd become euphoric. I would then do everything I could to coax another one out of him but to no avail - one a day was what I got. After that first week he became much more generous with these smiles to the point that I'm almost afraid I will start taking them for granted. (Hasn't happened yet - my heart still gets all warm and fuzzy when he grins.) Occasionally he will also laugh which is complete bliss.
Added to his killer smiles is his fuzzy hair. After every bath his hair is gloriously soft and fuzzy. It often sticks out at whatever angle it can manage (being so short and fine makes this a tricky task but it does the best it can...) I just can't help myself - I inevitably end up staring at it for a couple of minutes, soaking in all it's fuzzy glory. I don't know why it's so fascinating to me but it is.
And then you have how well he dresses up. I don't generally get over excited about baby things but seeing this outfit in the store was too much for me - I had to pick it up. Making it even more worth while was having the thing look better on him than the hanger. (Even better when he's sitting or being held rather than just lying down but this was what I had a chance to snap a picture of...hopefully better pictures will come at some point in the future). All through church I just reveled in how handsome he looked. Honestly I'm completely enamored by this boy.
And to top it off a little bit of an 'artsy shot'. Samuel was obviously sleeping and the girls were happily entertained doing something so I was able to take a couple of minutes to play with the depth of field in this shot. I've been wanting to practice this concept (sharp focus on foreground portion with blurred but still distinct background image) but have had a hard time finding time/subject to do so. The concept turned out really well in this picture (even if the composition could use a little work...) One small step closer to being as skilled as I'd really like to be right?

Some New York Pictures...

As promised here are some pictures from New York - I'll be doing a couple more posts later with a few more pictures in meantime I hope you enjoy these.



Here are a few of the kids at a park in Syracuse. The playground was insane - it looked like a wooden castle. It proved that it was built for kids only. While trying to follow Liberty and Kassel around (the structure also made it a little difficult to keep a visual path on the small ones) I got stuck a few times in the doorways and tunnels that the structure was made of. (Admittedly my belly didn't help...)


Here are a few pictures at the beach along one of the Finger Lakes in New York. The girls loved playing in the sand and water (what child doesn't?) A couple favorite points were Liberty getting sand on her tongue who then tried to wipe it off with her sandy hand - it was a vicious cycle until I was able to wipe it off for her. I also couldn't help laughing when Emmuska enlisted the help of some unknown adult to build her mud cakes (she prefers cake to pie apparently) somehow she managed to talk this nice lady into scooping up wet sand to pile up on the dryer parts of the beach. Leave it to Emmuska to talk a stranger into some random task.




Here are the pictures of Chuck's graduation. I couldn't help comparing it to the few military graduations I've been to. While I've never been to a basic training graduation I've been to a few for additional training as well as a commissioning and other military events each time they encouraged family to stand up and take pictures of their service member, moving around as necessary (there was one graduation where the commander waited to continue to ensure that one mother was able to get a good picture of her son). So it was quite a different experience to be told at the beginning of the ceremony that under no circumstances are you allowed to stand up and take a picture - if you want pictures you need to be in the designated picture area (which was not the best place to get a picture but at least there was that...) Here family members are receiving their doctorate, a once in a lifetime event, and the visibility of the audience (who in all likelihood are only there for one or two people themselves...) is more important than catching a picture of the moment. It just seemed like a reminder that the event was less about the graduate and their families who had worked hard for this moment than the 'pomp and circumstance' of the institution. But that could just be me...



And just a few more fun pictures...over all a great time had by all and a good chance for family to get together and get to know each other better.