Liam's 2 Year Photos



At two years old, Liam is a bundle of energy. I love his happy personality, his thirst for learning, and all that he adds to our family by just being here.

• Liam loves his Daddy so much. Whenever Daddy comes home, he runs toward the door screaming "Dada, Dada!" He also screams for "Dada" whenever he sees a Jeep. Morgan drives a green four-door Jeep Wrangler. The car on the road doesn't have to be green or a Wrangler, but he recognizes it as a Jeep and assumes that his "Dada" is driving it.


• Liam loves cars. He is constantly playing with toy cars, and whenever we are driving anywhere he goes crazy yelling "car! car!" the whole time. He even sleeps with a toy Mini Cooper that Braden gave to him sometimes.


• His language is exploding. Every day he learns new words.
• Okay, don't judge me, but I have let the kids watch Sponge Bob Squarepants several times this summer (I really don't like it, but they love it!) Now, whenever Liam sees a picture of Sponge Bob, he sings the theme song. It is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. The other night, while we were camping with the Cub Scouts, he saw a Sponge Bob camp chair. Morgan had to physically remove him from the campfire program because he gasped out loud, and then started singing the song at the top of his lungs. When he sings it it sounds like "Bob bob bob bob etc." I really have to try and catch it on video because it is just too cute.
• I have tried to capture some of his personality through the pictures I took (above), but I wish that there were some way to capture the feeling of his damp warm head on my shoulder as I rock him to sleep each evening after his bath. Those moments each evening when it is just the two of us are some of the most precious moments of my life.
• Liam generally needs two or more baths a day. Definitely at least one each evening after dinner. Sometimes two if he decides to rub apple sauce or oatmeal in his hair during breakfast. Occassionally three if he jumps in a mud puddle or finds a marker.

When he is awake, I rarely get to sit down. When he is asleep I miss him. I can't believe he is already two. Happy birthday, Little Man! I love you!

Happy Birthday Sweet Liam!

Liam turned two on July 28th, and we celebrated with a Car Party last Saturday. For Braden's 2nd birthday we did the same theme, so it was fun to repeat it for Liam's 2nd birthday. And he has just started to really love cars. He has always got a car or truck of some sort in his hands, running it up and down walls, chairs, his legs.

We invited two families from church with children the same ages as our children. So everyone had a great time.

Everyone got one of these hats and a checkered bandana. I love dressing up the kids at our birthday parties in whatever theme we are doing. Liam sampling the cupcakes before the party:
Our backyard decked out in pennants, license plates, orange cones, even a hub cap the kids found outside on our road:

Our "car" fare -- apple "wheels," Bugles (cones), and Liam's favorite, pizza:The birthday boy:
"Blowing out" the candles. I try to be so prepared, but how could I have guessed that our candle lighter would be non-functional at the party. We really tried to come up with a way to light the candles (and gave the kids some interesting ideas on how to create fires) but ended up using two battery operated votives left over from on of my Girl Scout ceremonies. It's probably just as well. Liam is a very curious boy, and I don't know what he would have done with two drippy real candles set within blowing reach . . .
Miss Lydia:
Brady-o:Our gift to Liam was a big wheel and a bike helmet. He just looked so cute riding his new bike with his fishy helmet on.

I can't tell you how much we all love this little guy. He just makes everyone around him so happy. I will write more about Liam at two years of age once I get his two year portraits done.

Photography Lessons

I have always been interested in photography. Recently Morgan encouraged me to take a correspondence course in professional photography that had been recommended to me by some local photographers. It is a great course from the New York Institute of Photography (NYIP), which has been in existence since 1910. I am really enjoying the course. Interestingly, one day as I was doing my reading assignment, I felt a connection to my Grandpa who passed away several years ago. He was very interested in photography, and I remembered my Mom telling me that he had even studied it for a while. When I was talking with my Mom later that week, I told her about NYIP, and she said, "That's where Grandpa studied!" My Grandpa was from New York City, and he actually studied at the Institute when he was a young man!


My brother, Nick, has a natural talent for photography. I am amazed by the beautiful photographs he takes. I, on the other hand, don't come by it as naturally, which is why this course is so great for me. (In all fairness to myself, my interest is portraiture, and my subjects are pretty squirmy).

NYIP sends me books, CDs and DVDs and when I finish an entire unit I take a test and do a photo project. I have learned so much just from Unit One. So I thought I would post my photo project for you to see what I have been learning. They aren't the greatest photos, but I learned so much doing them.


This is the walking path near my house where we go on family walks and bike rides. The purpose of this picture was to have everything in focus. I achieved that by using a smaller aperture (larger f-number) for a greater depth of field.

Another part of my project was to show motion in different ways. This picture of Braden is an example of panning. I used a slow shutter speed and moved the camera with him as he passed, resulting in him being in relatively sharp focus, and the background being streaked. Because the shutter was open for a longer amount of time, I needed to use a smaller aperture so too much light wouldn't enter at once. It also helped that we took the picture in a shady area.

This picture shows motion in a different way. I used a really fast shutter speed (which worked fine because it was a really bright day) to freeze the motion of the ball being pitched to Braden.
Finally, in this picture of Lydia, I focused just on her face, and the background is blurry. I achieved this by using a larger aperture (smaller f-number). It is the opposite of the first picture, in which I wanted great depth of field.
It's actually amazing what the average digital camera can do. I did this project with a regular camera that allows me to use manual overrides. I look forward to doing my next project.

3 Month Portrait My sweet boy is now 3 months old. This month's portrait features Grayson wearing our little white tuxedo. All three of our boys have now been blessed in this tux. It was made for Braden by our dear friend, Amy Nichols. She used remnants of satin from my wedding dress to make the bow tie, lapels, and cummerbund.

At three months old, he is smiling a lot and cooing. He loves his Daddy, and always has a ready smile for him. In fact, he is smiling at Morgan in this picture (Morgan is my photography assistant, and can usually get a good smile out of the kids). Grayson is a good sleeper, and usually sleeps from about 10 or 11 p.m. until about 3 or 4 a.m. before he is ready for another nursing.

He is such a blessing to our family, and we all love him so much.