The Moore Boys

As promised, I am posting some recent photos of the boys. I have been playing around quite a bit with my camera, using the manual settings and working with my lenses to practice achieving various effects. It is definitely a work in process and when I just *have* to get the shot, I sill put the camera in Program Mode (the camera does the thinking for you but you can still customize some of the settings, including the ISO) or fully automatic. I am trying to practice as much as I can with the camera, taking note of the settings that I use in a given sitting so that I can begin to have an appreciation for “this combination of settings = that result”. I have finished reading the photography books that I bought so I am looking for more now. I might actually go to the library (gasp!) to see what they available before I buy my next book. That way I can make sure I like the book before adding it to my quickly growing collection.

I have been toying around with the idea of securing a domain name and uploading a gallery of sorts and trying to start photographing clients on location in the September time frame (taking holiday pictures of children and / or families). Now if I could figure out a name for this potential business and how I am going to actually get clients …

Enough about me … I know that you really want to know about the boys. They are doing great – no, better than great – and they are getting bigger and smarter every day! Andrew’s vocabulary seems to grow exponentially each week and he is getting taller again so he is starting to thin out. He can get fully dressed by himself (when he wants) and he knows all of his shapes. He has probably known these for a while, but we just discovered this information. We are still working on potty training, but we are making S L O W and steady progress. Andrew is so very excited about his birthday – he talks about it all of the time. He talks about the candles on his cake and his birthday party. He has gotten very good at riding his tricycle – in fact, he pedaled all around the block yesterday afternoon! At Christmas he could barely reach the pedals and when he could he wasn’t quite coordinated enough to make them go very fast. It is amazing how much children develop in a short span of 5 months! We are going to start looking for a big boy bicycle for him soon! At his last doctor’s visit he weighed in at 37 pounds!

Tyler has discovered his feet and he tried (unsuccessfully) to roll over this weekend. He just loves putting his pointer and middle fingers in his mouth. He will spit out his pacifier and suck on his fingers instead! He is going in for his 4 month well baby check-up later this month and to get his next round of shots. I took him last week to be treated for thrush and he weighed in at 12 pounds, 5 ounces. It looks like he is on track to be gaining about a pound a month so far.

We took our first trip to the pool this weekend and the boys loved it. Andrew was a little nervous, but he did well and I know that in a couple of weeks when he turns into Mr. Confidence we are going to wish that he was still nervous. We are planning on enrolling him in swim lessons in July. This was Tyler first trip ever to the pool and he was a champ. The cold water didn’t bother him at all and he just took in his surroundings. Every once in a while someone would inadvertently splash us and he would get surprised, but he didn’t get upset at all.

Memorial Day weekend we went to drive-in theatre to see Shrek 3 and Spider Man and that was a lot of fun, although Andrew got bitten up by mosquitoes so next time we will have to bring super duper protection. Douglas and I went to our friend Petro’s wedding this weekend and got to see a lot of old friends. It was fun to talk and reminisce. It was a Greek wedding, which was a first for us, so it was really neat to see another culture’s traditions. The reception was beautiful and a lot of fun to boot. I have to say though, I was most impressed with the flower girl at the wedding who had to be about 4 years old and who didn’t make a sound during the hour long wedding! I am not sure Andrew would have been able to do it. It made me realize that the ring bearers at our wedding were very young too and they were very well behaved during our service too … so how is a wedding different from regular ol’ church on Sunday? Andrew is not the only 3ish year old that gets antsy in church! It will be interesting to see how Andrew does at the end of this month for Tyler’s baptism and the convalidation of our marriage. The boys stayed with my parents and were on their best behavior. This was the third wedding of the year for us and we have two more weddings coming up in July (Mandy and Paul) and November (Kimberly and Wes) … fun, fun, fun!

At Petro and Christina's Wedding Reception



Check out Tyler's dimples! (Note - this photograph was taken using a wide open aperture which is why the background is blurry - it is for effect. However, silly me forgot to adjust the ISO down from 1000 from the wedding (high ISO for low light) back to 100 for regular daylight. Rookie mistake!)



Andrew playing ball

Andrew at a recent birthday party (which is where the obsession with birthday parties was born):

Playing in the backyard

Grandpa Craig's Visit ... I meant to blog about this weeks ago, but it was the week I went back to work and I fell so behind! It was wonderful to have Craig visit us from Atlanta and the boys really loved spending time with him. Andrew slept in Tyler's nursery on his inflatable Thomas the Tank Engine bed inside on of our camping tents (good idea, Daddy!) so that Grandpa Craig could have his bed. It was a great visit!

Mother's Day with my boys

My last attempt to photograph the boys together