Tag Archives: Gus

Forced Creativity

One of the best parts about doing a Photo 365 so far is the forced creativity. There are so many days when I would not pick up my camera, out of laziness, lack of time, lack of inspiration or lack of light. But, committing to do it reminds me that I must find a few minutes every day to shoot something.

I’ve been hanging out by my back window, hoping to catch some cardinals. Today, I saw several!
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Female on the left, male on the right. Someone, my mom I think, told me when I was very young that the male birds are almost always the more colorful, interesting ones.

I made two different kinds of soup for dinner. Ham and Potato Soup and Creamy Broccoli Chowder. I can’t give you a personal review of the Ham and Potato, but the Broccoli is so, so good. Andrei told me that it was new to him and very good. Lena, Gus and I all had seconds. Aaron told me he liked it better than the Ham and Potato. Oh, but it looks unpleasantly greenish brown when done, so Reed won’t touch it.

Back to the subject of photography, I had a huge pot of soup on the table and Gus discovered his reflection. He was very entertained.
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Now. Star trails. I posted about my star fails a few weeks ago, and I’ve been meaning to try it ever since. But, the truth is that I have to be feeling pretty dedicated to want to spend AT LEAST a half hour out in the dark to take these. So, I copped out. I mean, I decided to see what I could come up with in my backyard, where I could retreat to the warmth of the house.
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I’m pretty pleased.

The Dino Fortress and More

I took photos of EACH of my kids today. That never happens.

Reed built this dinosaur fortress out of jenga blocks today.
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Gus is becoming much, much better at expressing his desires. When I got him up from a nap and took him to change his diaper, he told me “I want bubbles”. Meaning a bubble bath. Sure, it was late afternoon, but why not? After playing for quite awhile, he told me that he wanted to get out. Again, just before dinner, he said “I want bubbles.” I told him not right then, but he insisted.
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And of course, he sat in there for quite awhile and poor Andrei walked into the bathroom not knowing he was in there!

And this girl. Oh boy. She had a serious case of the giggles at dinner. For no apparent reason.
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New Year, New Hair

Two little boys got haircuts today.
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And here’s December’s 365 calendar…
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I think I did pretty well with December’s Must Capture list.

  • Aaron’s birthday
  • Lena’s birthday
  • Advent Calendar activities
  • Getting and putting up Christmas tree
  • Kids with Christmas tree
  • Opening gifts
  • Winter weather

We “got” our tree from the basement this yet, after realizing how little time we had to go cut one down ourselves. I crossed off winter weather, although I didn’t shoot a ton of that, just snow after it fell. Oh well, I think I did okay!

2013: Month by Month

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I wanted to take a post to reflect on 2013. It’s been an interesting year. 2012 was truly a roller coaster– the highest highs, and some pretty low lows. 2013 has been like it’s lamer roller coaster neighbor. The one with all the hype, but really kind of a let down. Not to say that we had an awful year, but we certainly had a transitional year. There was much that we hoped would happen that did not happen yet. I will be relieved to move on to a new year and I have much hope for 2014!  [I apologize for the vagueness there. It does NOT relate to adding to our family.]

Some highlights of 2013 include:

  • Celebrating Gus’s first birthday home!
  • Our short trip to Pennsylvania in March
  • Celebrating Aaron’s sister’s new marriage and Reed and Lena being a part of the ceremony
  • My new job
  • Spending 6 weeks with my family in Pennsylvania over the summer
  • Lena starting school (and Reed going to 1st grade)
  • Our trip to Colorado

Like last year, I am sharing one picture for each month. 

January: 3 little goofballs. Don’t they look so little here?
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February: Gus’s first birthday at home.
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March: Visiting cousins in PA. This trip was the first time that all 9 had been together and our first time meeting baby Hugh.
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April: Climbing trees. As it gets warmer, they’d always seem to be outside.
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May: I just love this one. Do I need to say more?
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June: This is a hard one for me to choose, because a lot happened in this month. But, this sums up a good portion of our summer at my parents’ house. I’d finish working and find them outside, having fun (under the supervision of my wonderful mom). I love their bikes thrown down in the alley behind them, because that, too, was a huge part of our summer.
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July: Their first trip to our big family reunion.
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August: This image is what opened up the door for me to start exploring night photography, and I love it because of that. I also enjoyed this brief camping trip with Aaron, Gus and the dogs.
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September: Our Colorado camping trip, I have many fond memories of this trip. Some not so fond, but I’m glad we got this time together!
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October: Halloween cuties.
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November: Thanksgiving Day, spending time with family. I think this captures a little bit of that.
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December: My littlest man in front of the tree.
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You can see 2012’s month by month review here. 

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sunday

We spent the day celebrating Christmas with Aaron’s family. Unfortunately, we missed last week when all of his siblings were there, so it was just his parents and brother.

It’s a long drive to their house. Which apparently means I take selfies with Reed and my dogs.
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I’m super cool.

Lena and Gus have bucket seats next to each other. I tickled Gus’s feet for awhile, but he wanted more, more, more and I quit. Someone else took over.
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And this adorable thing happened.
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This makes me happy. In the midst of people and many toys, I found her with her nose in a book. I can’t imagine how much more she’ll enjoy books when she can read all of the words.
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Lena just adores her Uncle Micah.
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Presents were opened. Lots of presents. Including envelopes which probably seems odd, but I promise you, Reed and Lena will use them up fast. And maybe we can even use some of them to write thank you notes!
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I went out for a brief walk with my dogs, and saw several cardinals. I love their bold color against the starkness of winter.
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And my dogs are ridiculous. Ridiculous.
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