Parks and Cars

The Smith family was in town as part of their vacation and yesterday we spent a couple of hours over at Waveland taking pictures. Amber decided to bring the boys over to play and run around. Time with the family is always limited and as such we lived it up.

Greg showing off his muscles.

Like usual, Greg always finds where the camera.

Nothing much to say besides like the shot.

Brighton is going through development stages pretty quickly now and we love taking pictures of his new "intense" stares.

Such a beautiful woman and baby...lucky to say I am married to one and father to another.

Love this sequence. Brighton loves sticking out his tongue and I was happy to take a series of it.

Took Greg to see his first movie, "Cars 2". We had a blast! Love the glasses.

What a couple of handsome fellows.

Brothers

Some of the greatest joy in my life comes from watching my sons interact with each other. I worried at first if they would be able to coexist peacefully. I don't have that worry anymore. For now. :) (We'll see about that again later when Brighton is more mobile and better at stealing Greg's toys.)

It's so sweet that Brighton laughs hardest for Greg. It's sweet how Greg wants to come with me to get Brighton out of his crib when he wakes up, then peeks over the bumper pad and says, "Hi Brighton!" It's sweet when Brighton tries to give Greg a hug. It looks a lot like grabbing his face, but I think it's a hug. It's sweet when Greg says, "Brighton is sad. I help him." It's sweet that they play peek-a-boo in the car. It's sweet when Greg wants to hold Brighton on his lap. It's a pretty awesome life I live.

I love these boys!

Brighton sure does love his elephant that Aunt Carrie gave him.

Brighton in his sleep sack. Noel said he looked like he was wearing a potato sack.

What a cute smile!

One day, I was fixing dinner and Brighton was in his high chair. I was almost finished when Brighton started crying. I kept telling him I was almost done and that he was okay. After a couple of minutes the crying died down and eventually stopped. Poor kid. I guess Greg and I wore him out that day.

Greg is constantly cracking me up. Why is it that toddlers like the baby toys more than the baby likes the baby toys? Funny kid.

Oh my. Serves me right for leaving my stuff out.

Fun in the Sun

Summer is in full swing, which means of course that the Dickens are at the pool or playing in the sprinkler. Noel has this theory that he sweats in inverse proportion to how much time he spends swimming or running around. Hence...we spend a lot of time wet! :)

Here are some pictures of the Dickens' summer fun. 

Greg in the backyard shouting for me to turn the sprinkler on.

Hulk aka Greg

Learning how to pick up chicks next to his ride :)

Bubba chubs enjoying his toy horse.

Yup...looks like Brighton.

Brighton at the pool. Love the new hat!

Awesome goggles!

Nothing says the pool like Cars fruit-snacks

Hard to Say Goodbye

After nearly 7 years of marriage, there is one absolute truth about us...Amber hates change. To which she says, "Yes!" In the last two months we have had to say goodbye to two families with which we have grown to love and appreciate as dear friends. The Birds left us at the beginning of May and now the Reynolds are picking up shop and moving to Kansas City for a couple of years. 

On Friday several families in the ward put together a potluck farewell at Hartland Park. Greg loved it, Brighton loved it, and of course the parents didn't...never fun to say goodbye. However, there was good food and although I said we didn't like it...it certainly was fun :)

Here is Brighton boy playing in the swing. It only took me twenty pictures with the point and shoot to get the one shot I wanted...yuck! Still worth the effort. Although the adage "the difference between a  professional photographer and an amateur is the number of pictures one takes" holds true for point-and-shoots, you still look like an idiot if you shoot too much with a DSLR. Thankfully mine was packed away for a wedding on Saturday :)

Ashley Ann and Greggors romping around. Both tried climbing the tree. Thankfully they never got more than a foot off the ground.

Jennilyn and Amber. What a great combo! Jennilyn and her husband are a pretty stellar couple and taught us many things while they were here.

No post would be complete without a picture of Greg. This is at the end of the evening when we told him he had to go home. Can you tell by the tears that he wasn't happy?! And how about the dirty face...someone likes cookies and running around.