Professional Photos - 1 year - Ethan's Series . . .

While Noel may have taken the spotlight for the overall shoot, I couldn't help sharing the best series of the day with the two of the most naturally photogenic members of the family . . . it was hard to choose which of these was our favorite, as Ethan showed so much personality.

Professional Photos - 12 months

Performing a little blog maintenance today . . . realized that we failed to upload the GREAT pictures from the 1 year session of the Brigade . . . maybe it was due to how hard it was to filter our selection down from what was a big population of great pics.

This was a fantastic day . . . a little windy, but Chad and Marci picked a great location surrounding the canals of Las Colinas. We dressed the boys in some cute sweater vests and their new topsiders and enjoyed the day . . . well, at least three of us did . . . the normally "easy to smile" Sweet Pea Ethan was having a rough day . . . or maybe he just decided to let Noel have most of the spotlight on this day.

Starting off with the very first picture of the day . . . comparing this to their 9 month photos, our first impression was how much Noel has really grown into a boy . . . he held onto the "baby phase" a little longer than Ethan and we're said to see it go . . .














Next up a couple of family shots . . . I tried to find matching stripes sweaters in our size, but Adam vetoed and even decided to abandon the sweater vest theme that the rest of us were carrying. Definitely the best overall family pictures that we've taken.































The wind really served as the third person in the shot below, which Chad did a great job of capturing this moment . . . you can see that the breeze definitely brought out a good giggle from the boys.

Next up, a couple of individual shots of the boys . . .

• Ethan showing off his gait, which just received an official upgrade from stumble to walk to trot.



• Noel doing his best over the shoulder, spontaneous and adorable grin . . .

Some of our favorite pics ever . . . each of us with one of the boys. Fantastic smiles from both of the boys . . .

Towards the end of the day, the boys were struggling to stay engaged, so Dad pulled his old "throw 'em up over your head" trick and that resulted in some great shots of each boy. More great camera work from Chad . . . really was a great day.

Our boys are growing up so quickly!

It's amazing - so many times we think the boys really aren't paying attention to the people around them and then all of a sudden, there is a slew of new tricks. Below are a couple of videos showing a few:

Ethanol Walking - While Ethan is a pro-walker, Noel still has amateur status and needs a bit of help. He really loves his walker and Ethan kinda follows him around:




Peek-A-Noel: The other day I was changing Noel's diaper and covered his eyes and played Peek-A-Boo much to his delight. The next day I casually said "Peek-A-Boo!!!" and he now does it on command. Also note the ever elusive camera-shy Fritoe:

Winter Snowstorm - Brudam Edition

As most of you know and have experienced firsthand, we've been bombarded by ice and snow this week. I was in NYC for a couple of days and Bruce had to take on Primary Caregiver duties. Chez Pai continues to experience good word of mouth and while I was gone, we had a table for two that shared a lovely cheese plate and a nice bottle of 2010 carrot/apple juice blend, courtesy of Chef Bruce:























After Day 4 of the ice and snow, we got a bit of cabin fever and decided to venture down the block for lunch. We bundled up and managed to arrive relatively in tact:






















And though we're really trying to wean the boys off the bottle, they were exhausted after walking to and from the restaurant, I made and exception and had a refreshing bottle on their new favorite toy, the PILLOW PET!!!! When you yell PILLOW "PET!!!" both boys go face first and snuggle with it.

























And to round out a nice snowstorm, even though we had faucets dripping everywhere, as things defrosted today, we had a pipe burst and water came pouring into our kitchen. As I type, we've got a plumber cutting out random pieces of drywall trying to locate the cracked pipe. Wish us luck...err...wish our landlord luck!!!!