few more from my last post

I've been trying to test my camera & lens over the last few days, because I feel my focus has been off (a lot). When I look back at pics it seems to be focusing behind my subject (back-focusing). And when I did a few test shots and consciously thought about where I was focusing, it was still off. So, I thought it was either my lens, camera, or both - all which are a pain in the butt, because both my camera and lens are fairly new! Ugh. So, I tested my lens on my old camera... sharp as a tack, focus perfect. So that's not it. Then, thinking my lens maybe just isn't calibrated to my new camera...I called the Canon camera support people & went through the test process & some test shots. Turns out, my lens is calibrated perfectly...apparently it's just me, sigh... just don't have a very steady hand which throws off focus in my pics. My camera is just too dang heavy! Well, something to work on now... Anyway, to make that extremely long story short... the pic below I took in the test process and cropped it. Love his cute face, gorgeous eyes and oh-so-porcelain skin.

and some more of the drew pics I meant to put up with my last post. my little walker is still around 5-6 steps at a time & could stand all day... but is now starting to stand up from sitting and walk away from the couch and take off on his own :)

Grady and Mac... one of his most treasured trucks.

We had our 1 yr Drew/family session with our lovely, talented photographer, Jocelyn Brown, at Golden Gardens in Ballard last night. Grady had sooooo much fun at the beach and would have stayed all night. Drew however, was miserable. And so was Jon, lol. Not his thing... it's always a little stressful. Probably won't have many pics of Drew since he was crying through the whole thing, but I'm excited to have a few of Grady. Wish I was talented enough to capture that fast-moving boy more! Excited to see them though. Will post in the next week or two I'm hoping :-)

perspectives

i haven't been taking as many pictures lately. i guess i've become bored with taking pictures of the same things, day after day, indoors. so i have really been looking forward to some nicer weather so i can get some outdoor pics (which i prefer). well, jon and i took drew outside for about five minutes last evening to see if he'd walk in the grassy field across the street from our house. i did get a lot of my usual, smily, happy boy...which i love, don't get me wrong. but, i've decided that a small change in perspective can make a picture much more interesting. so that's my new goal - if i can't change up the scenery, a change in perspective works just fine :-) the one below is only one shot, but it's my favorite. i will post more of the rest later.

just can't get enough of my boys chubby legs

and a few more I snapped right before bedtime... 

friday and mini pizzas

our lazy watchdog, kirbs

 watching little einsteins

oh, am I too close the the TV?

 had the fritts family over for dinner. the kids made mini pizzas - they did pretty darn good!

  

pepperoni please!

hard at work.

jacob loved the pepperoni's!

so did grady...

all done - thumbs up! grady's still working on it ;-)

love this pic of hanna

 little jacob (who's only around 20-21 months), pushing grady around in the 

nemo car. so funny! you can just see his little curls behind grady's head.

we had a fun time with alicia, jeremy & and their two kids last night. it's not always easy to get away for dinner without the kids...so when that doesn't happen, it's alway fun to play at the house where the kids can run around with each other. drew is still young and kinda in his own little world, but grady loves it for sure. hopefully next time it will be a little nicer out so we can spend some time outside! while the kids played and made mini pizzas, the adults got to enjoy their own dinner, drinks and conversation among the chaos :-)

then...after going to bed very late (9pm or so)...kristin came home shortly after and said the cows were by the fence down the street, so she wanted to take grady to see them. he still wasn't sleeping, so down the road they went to check out the cows. i think it was worth it (to grady). haha, not so easy getting him to bed after.

saturday morning snuggles

 after a couple hours of play time this morning, drewski started getting sleepy so we turned on mickey mouse. this boy will never turn down a snuggle session (or mickey mouse). it just may be our favorite part of the day.

it's hard work...

 ...just being a kid

brothers

took some pictures of the boys yesterday. fun to see them starting to play together more now. grady has become very good at sharing his toys and looking out for drew (most of the time). sometimes I will find drew on the floor, surrounded by toys that grady has brought to him. this all happens behind the scenes though, of course...if he doesn't think I'm watching. however, the minute I say "good job, grady. way to share with your brother".. or  something of that sort, he immediately starts acting like a little monster and stealing things from drew - just to get him to scream. I guess it's his way of getting our attention (not that he's lacking any). I guess sometimes, I just have to let them be. boys will be boys. and drew isn't the helpless baby anymore. he's learned how to fight back ;-)

favorite place to drive cars

peek-a-boo gee!

grady likes to jump up and down and play peek-a-boo with
 drew in his crib. and he has recently nicknamed drew "Gee"
...we are thinking short for drew-ski?

they also spend a lot of time at the train table. we rotate between 

cars geo-track and thomas the train wooden train track.

love the chubbiness

not great quality pic here, but I love his expression...and his little wisps of hair

love that grady loves books so much. hope drew will someday too.

  

bedtime story time. guess they don't need me :-)

grady reading drew "pig book"

you see why this is the best book ever now!?

my favorite. 

years from now when they are fighting like cats and dogs, I will pull out this picture as proof/reminder that they really do love each other :-) hope they will always have a special brotherly bond.

makes a mother's heart melt