Valentine's Day

We had a good Valentine's Day. Caleb and I got up in the morning and colored for a little while, making homemade envelopes. Then we woke up Daddy and gave out presents. Caleb got a heart shaped Toy Story tin that had candy inside. He absolutely loved it and asked if he could take it to church with him.

We came downstairs and made heart shaped pancakes. When Caleb saw that they were hearts, he was so super excited. I mean, he loves pancakes as it is, but heart pancakes were extra thrilling.

Before church, Caleb looked too cute not to take his picture. He was so good at letting me get him all dolled up, though he wasn't too interested in modeling once he was dressed.



He got a heart lollipop at church.




Naomi came over later with her parents. Here's Caleb giving her her card (wrapped in the paper we painted just that morning).


Liz and I took the kids outside for a photo shoot while our hubbies worked on dinner. Naomi is definitely a runner, so it was quite the task getting photos of the two kids together. Mostly we kept telling Caleb to chase after Naomi so he would be in the picture with her.

You can see in the first picture he's telling her to stop running.



This next photo is my absolute favorite of the whole day.





Feeding leaves to whatever it is that lives below the grate.



I'm trying to be better about taking pictures with Caleb, even though I hate being in pictures. But I love my kid, so I figure he needs some pictures with his mommy every now and again.



Loves for Naomi. I really like the second picture even though it's blurry. The reason it's blurry though is because they were just about to tackle each other to the floor. It's how a lot of their hugs end.



After that, we finally gave in and took the kids to the park, which is what they wanted from the very beginning.




A little bit of Harley love.



We saw a hot air balloon. It got pretty close to us. We tried to chase it down, but somehow, it was just too fast for us.


And a few last cute ones of Caleb.




We came back home and had dinner: a heart shaped meatloaf, baked potatoes, asparagus, and salad. Then trifle for dessert. Caleb and Naomi were in charge of stirring the pudding for the trifle, which is my least favorite part.


And because it's my favorite photo of them together, here it is again in black and white.

Plasma Car

Photos from 2/8/2010

Behind the Love

The week before Valentine's, Caleb and I had a little love shoot. I had these great intentions to make Valentine cards. Which didn't happen. Well, Naomi got a card, and Brandon, but that was about all.

The winning shot:


Love that photo. It was the sixth picture I took (out of 37). But since there are more, I thought you'd like to see a little behind the scenes into how we take pictures around here.

The first one here is my favorite of the rejected pictures. I just love how hard he's trying to get his fingers to do the right thing. For all these pictures, we're standing just outside our front door. The above picture I was in front of the house, with him looking out toward me, while all the pictures below, I was closer to the house and he was looking back in toward me. You can totally tell a difference in the light.






Love that boy.

Strong Man

Caleb found a curtain rod in the closet of the house we're currently renting. He knew just what it was for.


Strong man!

Getting Fit

I decided to buy Wii Fit, as it seemed a cheaper investment than joining a gym. And let's be realistic, how often would I ever even go to the gym?

Caleb loves our new purchase and tries his best to play the games. Since he's not yet three, he can't officially work out. Though I doubt he cares that he can't accumulate minutes spent working out. He can still play the games.

Here he is playing one of the games, trying to lean from side to side as needed:

Zoo Carousel

While at the zoo, we let the kids ride the carousel. Caleb choose a wolf, while Naomi picked a zebra.



Excited for it to start.


And we're off!





He loved it! I was really surprised when both kids willingly got down when it was over and left the carousel without begging to go again. But they sure did enjoy it while it was going.

At the Zoo

We went to the zoo with Liz and Naomi. (Some other friends came too but they left early once it started to rain on us -- about when we got to the baboons.)

Yesterday, we'd looked up the weather and of course, today was the only day this week that it was supposed to rain. Fortunately, it only rained on us for maybe fifteen minutes. Maybe less. And not too heavy either. So we stuck it out and spent about four hours at the zoo.

During the rainy part of the day though, we decided to stop and eat lunch and see if the rain was going to stop or not. Which it did. By then we had already seen a good number of animals, so I figured it was about time that I finally took a picture of the kids.


While we were eating lunch, there were several peacocks just roaming the lunch area looking for food.


Why is it that kids think it's funny to run away from you? Caleb's pretty good at stopping when I yell to him. He'll actually wait for me if I holler at him that I can't see him anymore.


Sitting on top of a statue of a komodo dragon.


Looking at the rhinoceros iguana.


Of course, there's always a point in the day where I say to my child go sit over there and look at me and smile.




Checking out the Andean condor.


Their favorite part of the zoo was definitely pushing the buttons.


I said something super witty like, "What's over there?" and both kids turned to look at me. I'm seriously brilliant behind a camera.


Caleb's showing me where the pronghorns are.


Looking for the Mexican Wolf, which we never found.


Tricking them to look at me yet again.


It was at this point that we figured out a trick to get Naomi to smile for the camera. More on that later...