No point in playing catch-up now

I bought a new camera last week and I've been playing with it a lot to figure out all its tricks. My kids are so annoyed with me and the constant picture-taking. I figure if I just keep it up long enough I'll eventually blend into their scenery. Here are some of my favorite shots from last week.

Making some big plans

Busting a move in his latest get-up, and ignore the laundry in the background. Our dryer was recently fixed and I had a ton of laundry to catch up on.

He was trying to explain evaporation to Will. He had to run inside to get a reference book. I love my little smarty pants.

Ahoy!

Polly Pocket was in distress. We were all a little worried.

Boys and cars.

serious art

So instead of junking up your facebook feed, I'm just going to brag about my kids here, where you can choose whether or not to stop by and see all the wonderful things my genius children are up to.

So the kids went back to school. . .

I just realized that while I was wiping up my own tears and snot over back to school, I never got around to sharing the boy's back to school fun. Here is a brief run-down:

 Luke started school a week before Will. He was really nervous to go to school with a dog bite on his nose (ouch!) because he didn't want anyone to ask about it. We practiced some responses and sent him on his way. We drove him there but he was going to ride the bus home.

 

When it was time for the bus to drop off, I dutifully went to the bus stop and waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, my cell phone rang and it was the principal of Luke's school. Apparently Luke was refusing to ride the bus because it did not have seat belts. He IS our HSO (House Safety Officer) so I would expect nothing less from the boy. I hop in the car to go pick him up and get the full story. I guess what happened is that he got on the bus and got in his seat and started looking for the seat belt. It seems that he started crying or stressing looking for it and the bus driver tried to explain to him that buses don't have seat belts. This surely sent him into tears at which point the bus driver alerted the school teacher monitoring the bus line. She couldn't convince him either so she got him off the bus and took him to the principal. The principal didn't have any luck convincing him either so that is when the phone call happened.  We talked about it and once he was reassured that it was safe and not against the rules to ride the bus without a seat belt he seemed okay with it. I'm not sure if he was more concerned for his safety or the fact that I would be upset if he was not wearing a seat belt. The next morning he climbed aboard the bus and hasn't looked back. I actually had to pick him up the other day because I was up at the school for a PTA meeting and he got mad that he didn't get to ride it home. So to that three year-old Luke who told me "When I am five I will go to Kindergarten and ride the bus without you," I say--"We did it kiddo!"

 

 

 

As for the youngster (sorry for the old fashioned word. Luke found it in a book and is a little fixated with it right now.) I never know what I am going to get with him. I mean, really, what two year-old is predictable? So I took his picture on meet the teacher day AND on the first day of school, hoping for a good one. He's fairly cooperative so I got cute ones both days.

 

Meet the teacher day, in an outfit he chose:

 

And on the first day:

 

Will with his best buddy.
These two are like peas in a pod and were so happy to see each other before class. They are just as excited to see each other every single day as they were on the first. It is really cute.

 

Luke turns 5!!

So I haven't posted in nearly three months, but I have a really good excuse this time.  I've been posting over on my new project www.lizspinspiration.blogspot.com and keeping myself really busy with that. But now that its up and running I am going to try to work on this one a bit. And of course I can't miss a birthday! First things first--the birthday photo shoot, which I did myself and I am surprisingly pleased with! I kinda wish I had some photo editing software to polish it up a little.

This is Luke's favorite shot. I told him he looked like a cranky pirate so he loved it even more. Boys.

Feeling alive at five!!

Gosh, with a kid that cute how could the pictures turn out awful?

Best of Fall

I think I crashed Blogger three times trying to upload all these pictures.

Since I was a big fat slacker and didn't post much this fall I thought I'd just lump 'em all together here in a greatest hits post. Otherwise, I'd never get around to posting about everything I want to share.

Fall school pictures:

 I love the hand-on-hand action in this one. They are going to love it when they are older. The photographer was probably just trying to pin Will down.

Peek-a-boo! The cutest bug I've ever found behind the blinds!

 Getting silly for Halloween

 Darth Vader had some work to catch up on before trick-or-treating.

My sweet little penguin and darth vader before the trick-or-treating begins. Will loved Halloween this year--except for wearing a piece of costume on his head--but loved everything else. The candy, the kids, going door-to-door. We weren't sure he would last long with the walking, but he proved us wrong (as always) and lasted as long as Luke.

 I guess he could have been a pirate but the costume looks a little painful. Gotta be tough to be a pirate.

 Will & I feeling green.

Cute little indian all ready for a Thanksgiving feast!

Thanksgiving we continued our annual tradition of doing the Fort Worth Turkey Trot. The weather was beautiful and all the hats and jackets had been shed by the end. Will was much happier this year--he cried the entire 5k last year. We declared this year the last for Luke to participate in the stroller. Against his will he will be walking it on his own two feet next year. When you add the boys weight and the weight of the stroller it is nearly 100 lbs. This summer we walked to the park a lot and I started having low back pain from it. Training starts Jan 1 for Luke. He's not pleased.

A big grin before he found out he is walking it next year.

We headed over to Grammy & Pops for Thanksgiving lunch. My cousin Sarah took some sweet pictures of the boys while we were there.

A moment of sweet brother-ness. Sitting close watching Toy Story. I assure you it was only a moment.

Luke striking a rock star pose before heading out to school one morning. Must have been a good day!



Catching-up: Easter

We hosted my family at our house for Easter this year. It was a lot of fun for the kids. My adorable angels sat for pictures for about 30 seconds--but that was all I needed because, as I said, they are adorable.

Easter egg hunting commenced while Will napped. It was probably better that way because we hid the eggs in the front yard and when we go out there Will only wants to run in the street anyway. Prior to Easter, Luke asked me who hides the Easter eggs. I told them that the Easter bunny hides the Easter eggs. He laughed at me and said, "No mommy, tell me who really does it." So we decided not to work hard to keep up that facade. It took no fun out of it for him. Luke and his cousins lined up for one last shot before chaos ensued.

On your mark. . .

get set. . .

GO!!!

Sweet Luke was very concerned that Wibby didn't get to participate in the egg hunt. We had some eggs set aside for Will and later that week Luke made sure he got a hunt. I gave Luke the set aside basket of eggs and sent him out in the back yard to hide them. I told him not to hide them in places that would be too hard for Will to find. Luke is pretty good at following directions.

We set Will free to hunt. He wasn't interested in more than one egg and didn't quite get the concept to put the egg in the basket. Big bro Luke decided to help out.

Helping out meant that he got to help eat the treats inside, too!

Our family pic with no one screaming and everyone looking in the general direction of the camera. AMAZING!

Outtakes of the year

Thank goodness for digital photography. I would have a lot of worthless pictures hanging around otherwise. Now I can just look at them and laugh. My strategy when taking picture (especially with the kids) is to just take a whole bunch, and maybe one or two will turn out great. So then I end up with the other 47 that weren't so great. And me, well, I end up falling in love with the shot of the kid screaming or picking their nose or something because I think it is funny.

All of us have had a bad picture taken. These are mine to share with you.

 No, I was not just snuggling close to my newborn baby. I was PASSED out from sheer exhaustion. This happened every time I sat still for more than five minutes for about the first month-six weeks of Will's life. No, I never dropped him, just woke up with a horrible crick in my neck. I never knew this picture was taken either, until I was going through the camera one day.  (The camera strap in the photo adds to the charm.)

 I wish I could rotate this. It is much funnier upright. 

 Will caught twice mid-sneeze.

I think this might be one that when Will looks back on in about 15 years he might be asking us, "Why are you letting him hold me like that?" and I don't think I have an answer for it.

Will was frequently caught with the "deer in the headlights" look also known as the "WTF??!!" look.

Funny little faces!

 I think Grammy was the only one prepared for this shot. 

 And a few closed-eyes pics.

 Oh the precidaments these boys get themselves, and each other, into. . .

My little cow! Those weren't spots on the camera--they were spots on his face. Chick-fil-a cow spots to be exact. Little stickers from his kid's meal that day. He fell asleep on them and somehow ended up on his face and when I tried to tell him, he wouldn't believe me and wouldn't let me take them off.

 Just looking so teenager-y and put out by this picture!

 I dunno. . . just something about this one.

Some of that raw emotion I love so much.

 Won't someone tell me what is going on?

Ear infection? Check

Snores? Check

Drool? Check

Yep, he's a Moore boy.

I seriously heart this picture. I love that Luke took a picture of his belly and toes. L-O-V-E it.

Totally relaxed.

 And for the Grande Finale!

There is an expression around this house know as the "Drunk Gene Face." Although its really, the drunk Gene eyes. But, anyway, it is the expression in which whe have caught all the boys at somepoint.

It originated here. . . with Gene.

And his sleepy, droopy, drinkin' eyes.

(He is going to KILL me when he sees that I have put this picture up. But I am going to remind him that he TOLD me to do an entire post on the drunk Gene face and I have to give you a reference point.)

I don't remember if he was really drunk here or if it was just a bad shot, but these are the eyes. . .

And here are the boys, emulating their father.

Luke's had wayyyy more than two Drunk Gene Face pictures in his lifetime, but for this post I just went back through this year.

Hope you enjoyed it!