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Our New Home

Our New Home

Recent Family Photo Session

Same deal here:

View the slide show or click this link to go to the photos in picasa.

Big thanks to my super friend and photographer for these awesome photos.

Random Iphone Pictures

This is for the family or anyone else who wants to wade through 10 weeks of pictures from my Iphone.

You may watch the slideshow here in the blog or you can click this link to view the photos in the picasa album.

Just Us

We're plugging along just dandy. Ending one crazy ministry season and rolling right into starting the crazy camp/mission trip summer season. Buying a house. Moving out of the baby blob stage with one child and into the two-year old independence stage with the other child. Life is wonderful and besides the incredibly long arduous short sell house buying process (I know why they call it a short sell, but really WHY do that call it a SHORT sell, it takes FOREVER) I don't have a complaint in the world.

Titus is still a skinny white man and did great at his two year old check despite getting THREE shots.

He knows all his colors and shapes and is a talking fool. He didn't really start talking till he was 19 months old, we even had his hearing tested to make sure everything was ok (and it was) so it absolutely amazes me how well he talks now. Pretend world is in full effect. We're often feeding all the animals, trucks and even Handy Manny. And he's starting to count. It goes like this right now. "1, 2, 3, 5, 15, 5, 5, 5, 13, 2, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1" He is so much fun and I am really enjoy this age right. He's definitely asserting his independence more but is still a really well behaved boy. He can often be heard tell himself "No touching. No touching." and his newest thing is wandering around the house saying "Oh dear. Oh dear." This after I corrected him from copying Momma saying "Oh Jeez". Now I hear "Oh dear" all the time.

Recently we were on our way home from the church. And here's how our conversation went:

Me: "Titus, do you know why we go to church? It's not just where Momma and Daddy work."

Titus: "God"

Me: "Yea, that's right buddy, we go to church to learn about God and to share him with others."

Titus: "Jesus"

Me: "And Jesus too, great job buddy."

Titus: "Pray... Bible... God... Jesus..."

Me: "Yes, those are all reasons why we go to church."

Titus: "God. Big."

Not only is our kiddo totally prepared to shell out all the appropraite Sunday School answer when the time comes. He's actually been soaking up what we've been teaching him!

He absolutely adores his baby brother and often asks for him just after waking. He like to hold him for about 2.5 seconds and does just great next to him as long as JJ is not "touching" or "kicking" him because he says it "hurts". Silly kiddo.

long time no update...

What happens is I don't update for awhile. And then I feel like I have to explain everything that happened since I last updated and well the I get all kinds of overwhelmed.

So this time I am not going to do that.

We did go on vacation since the last update but believe it or not I was so busy enjoying my husband, entertaining a little one and being on vacation that I managed to not take a whole lot of pictures. But someday I will post about that little adventure. 2 weeks. 5,000 + miles. A 16 month old. It was awesome.

The other day we went out to the beach because there were crazy waves. We missed the super crazy waves but still enjoyed the remnants of a storm in Alaska that brought some amazing waves to our coast.

Here some pics from our adventure. I love life on the coast.

15 Months

Mr. Titus celebrated his 15 month birthday earlier this month on August 11.

It is hard to believe that our little man has been in our hands for 15 months and even harder to believe that he has been in our life for almost two years.

We've been doing great as a little family. He's still a fantastic little kid developing his own little personality every minute of the day. As soon as I make the prognosis that he's a "strong willed child" he becomes a mommy please quick obeying kid. (although as I typed that paragraph he managed to get the DVD player open.) He's not talking yet but is so busy in so many other areas that we are not concerned.

I've been enjoying my photography hobby immensely. I've been plugging along part time at work and Brion has been BUSY working full time.

I enjoyed a 50mm 1.4 lens I had rented and recently been borrowing a 50mm 1.8 lens to try and purchase from a friend. I wasn't sold on the 1.8 probably just because I was so in love with the 1.4 but know the $250 price difference between the two means the 1.8 is much more likely to be in my bag well before the 1.4.

So like I said I wasn't sold on the 1.8 till I snapped these of my little model. He is truly my inspiration.

Sights of the Fair

I truly had a good time snapping some pics of the fair sights. Eventually I will get up a seperate blog for pics but in the mean time enjoy.

Award Winners

Our Favorite People that we got to spend quality time with at the fair. Well they are pretty handy in the quiliting deparment among other things. Among three of the family members they had nine entries in the fair. They were all winners. Each one had a pretty blue or red ribbon attached to it.

To The Fair

The Spores visited the Coos County Fair this week! Much to our surprise it was not super hot and we had an incredible time. We watched one of our lovely young ladies from our youth group sing in the local Teen Idol competetion, she did an incredible job and it was such a joy to watch her. We also had an awesome visiting with my most favorite people in all our dear town, the Adams family. John, Candy, Callie and David are four very dear people to our family and it was awesome to share some time with them. We will definitely be back next year!

And this is my super hero. This is an amazing young lady, who babysits Titus in such a way that I wish she could do it year round. She comes to my house and takes such good care of him and the house. She remembers to do things I don't. Like put sunscreen on the poor kid.

This is Titus super hero. He might not know it yet - but soon Titus will follow this young man around every where he goes.

This ice cream cone - not a good idea.

Brion found plenty of students to torture.

And this what our tired little man looked like after a whole afternoon at the fair. Dazed.

More practice... Chloe

Chloe so graciously let my dear friend and superb photog Ashley drag her out the beach so Ash could get in some scouting for an upcoming wedding this Saturday. And I got to play with Mr. 50mm 1.4 who will be in my possesion until Tuesday, July 28th unless I decided to extend since Mr. Brother is coming to town on the 29th.

Here's my shots. Shooting with the 1.4 takes some practice. And I still need the practice that's for sure. My pics were not as sharp as I wanted them to be and mostly because I wanted to shoot at 1.4 the whole time. The depth of field is so shallow that you must know exactly where your focus point is at and be exactly in that range. At least I think that was my problem. Some of the sharpest pictures I took were at 3.2 and 2.8. It is such a fun process to learn. I desire to be so good so quick, but I do so know that I will enjoy looking back and seeing my improvement.

Camp and Sand or Camp Sand or Sand Camp

We went to see Dad at camp today.
There was sand.
After a half attempt to keep Titus controlled.
He found the volleyball court.
Or giant sandbox.He plopped down and played.
This meant that he was still for a moment.
A HA! He is happy & entertained!
And then he promptly ate a handful.
It is like he forgets that it doesn't taste good.
Later, he sat down and bent over putting his face in the sand as if to lap it up.
Remember the story from the Bible about the people who chose to lap up the water like dogs vs cupping it and bringing it thier mouths.

Well my dear child, tried both with sand.

Edit: GOT THE PICS TO POST!

In the end he had a snack. A dirty snack. He met a cute little 3 year old girl who told her dad that "the baby was yucky" which I quickly agreed! And then found this group of junior high boys that were digging a hole "to china" and my little man tried to fill it back in and was quick to try to get in on the action.

We love going to camp on Thursday's and look forward to the year that we'll be out their with Daddy for the week. Maybe next year! But now it is time for Dad to come home!

Practice - Chloe

There is a certain something special about working in Children's Ministry. You fall in love with the kids around you. Deeply. See when I moved from Bellingham down here, I wasn't convinced that I could love kids the same here as I did there. I still remember the names of a lot of kids from Bellingham but the memories are distant and I don't imagine they remember much about me and that is ok. But here on the coast there are some kids whose memory of them will be burned in my soul forever. Certain PK's among a few and then there is Chloe. My dear sweet Chloe stole my heart from the beginning. I love her. And I most certainly can count on this fantastic 10 year old for so much. She is a fantastic dancer and I look forward to following her dance career for years - her contemporary solo of I Can Only Imagine moved me to tears earlier this year. It was special to me in so many ways. Tonight she let me practice portrait photography! Oh bless her! She has the most incredible blue eyes and was such a trooper. I am sure you will see her again in my practice and she was a fantastic little model for me and my friend Amey as we practiced our photography skills. Thank you Amey for a wonderful evening!

This was my first "practice shoot" and at some point in the shoot I put my ISO on 400 and never changed it back. It is a shame the light was lovely and I did not need it, so pay no attention to the obvious grain. I am learning. AND how I have come to despise my little 1gb CF card - it is a little pathetic all 116 raw photos it can handle and it is a slow little bugger. I see a 4gb in my future! Oh, but how I enjoyed learning by doing, where should the light be and where should the subject be and what is good light and what is a good backdrop - I have so much to learn. Changing my focus point, metering, shooting in actual manual not just aperture priority. Finding my personal exposure preference. I'm loving it! & I am incredibly thankful for my photoshop CS4 and raw shots! So much fun.

I made a big step today - I rented a 50mm 1.4 lens it will be here on Friday and oh how I will wait with baited breath till it comes that day. And off shooting again I will be. I must find more practice subjects! Any takers?

This is my absolute favorite picture of the day and one of the first ones I took. I fell in love with this blue wall and Chloe's sparkling blues are just wonderful!

And a little dancer she is! She loved jumping for us. Again - I love this blue wall!

And the many faces of Chloe. Thanks again girl! Love ya!

97 Years

Today is my Great-Grandmother's ninety seventh birthday!

I believe if you live to be 97 you should get to eat cupcakes instead of boring cake. Not all cakes are boring, but the kind I make are. So Titus and I started the afternoon by making cupcakes and since Titus is in super clingy mode he stayed right by my side through the whole thing. And he loved sitting on the counter. I managed to not leave him to unattended. If he hadn't fallen off a chair last Friday and given me a near heart attack I would have let him stand on a chair in the kitchen. But nope, with that reasoning I sat my child on a much higher counter.

And here is the star of the show. My 97 year old Great-Grandmother. I will be 29 this year. For 29 years I have been blessed with a great-grandmother in my life. This one was just like a grandma to me growing up, we went to the beach, we played card games, I had sleepovers at her house. I have wonderful memories of her and her house in California and the dear town of Cayucos will always hold an incredibly special place in my heart. You know the smell of wet on warm asphalt. That smell takes me directly back to 5 years old and Cayucos. My great-great grandmother passed away when I was about 7 years old. I don't remember her much and I don't expect Titus to remember his great-great grandma like I will but I am so thankful that his great-great grandma will remember him. Dottie - thanks for kicking it with us for so long - wishing to spend another birthday with you in another 52 weeks

Blueberries

We spent most of the day inside today, this was not my little man's choice although it did not clear up until the afternoon somtime. Not sure exactly, I gave up looking outside pretty early in the day. The day was much wasted with nothing done - nothing accomplished. Would have to say the Monday #2 with out Mr. Husband was not very exciting and kind of sad. Titus spent, what felt like, 75% of the day on my lap. This is not like him and I would have to say the he was not very excited about another day with just this Mom person. When he napped I napped, since I still refuse to sleep more than 5-6 hours a night. Come about 5:30 this evening - I gave in to my true desires (get out of the hosue) and Titus and I went outside to the backyard.

The blueberries are ripe. Well some of them. I am not a blueberry fan nor am I a professional blueberry picker. Not for any particular reason. And hopefully I learn to love them. BUT I do know it is my duty to pick them and to share them with my child. Titus has liked pretty much everything we've given him to eat and hasn't been to picky. There is some stuff that he likes more than others but he'll eat pretty much anything.

And blueberries are no exception. He couldn't get enough.

(BTW - I think this might be my absolutely favorite picture I have snagged so far)

Here is my harvest. And he just kept going in handful after handful.

I was waiting for BLUE mess everywhere but it never showed up. I was so impressed with his eagernees to keep eating them. He even started to pick them off the bush. I am so looking forward to out evening blueberry picking sessions. Can't wait to share them with Dad.

This is my little man, when I took the blueberries in to the house (I wasn't sure how many he should eat the first time around) he followed me. I could tell he had a tough choice to make when he almost followed me into the house thus giving up his outside time. He chose to just shut the screen door on me and stay outside and I snapped this picture through the screen. I love those little eyes looking up to me.