Dear Murphy: Mackenzie's Visit

Hey there, little buddy. Well, our winter adventures are going strong, and your cousin Mackenzie came up north for a quick visit to enjoy some snowy fun with us. She was visiting for "Christmas 2," and while she was here, we couldn't help but snap some pictures of the two of you.

We started with a little portrait session of Mackenzie, who was clearly bribed with candy to participate. She's four now, so she really doesn't sit still for much, but chasing her around the house was worth it because she's gorgeous and photographs so well.

You both had a great time riding this pony -- she looks like she was being still and cooperating, but I assure you, she would look at your mom for one second, then jump off and run to another room and hide from me. I love her, but she had me tired at the end of the shoot!

Since she's no dummy, and the minute the candy bribery stopped, so did her interest in getting her photo taken, we resorted to the old hang-your-kid-upside-down-and-tickle-them approach. She was still for a minute, before she was off again.

So, the candy bribery started again... I think she had more sugar in that hour than she did all week!

Then she decided to do some stickering with her dad...

Then, she decided the portrait shoot was over.

So, she's a Florida baby. When you were born, she was in town waiting to meet you, and there's this classic video of her then 2 1/2 self saying, "Mommy, I want to go home. I miss the sun!" She has more pigment in her sking than your mother and father combined, but she really took to the snow. If she wasn't building a snowman or throwing snowballs or making snow angles, she was asking when she'd get the opportunity to again. So, her dad took her out for a snowball fight. She absolutely loved throwing her snowballs, and she had quite the aim. Her first ball hit your mom right in the face! She was having a blast...

then your uncle's aim went all to hell...

and ruined all the fun...

but she came right back with her killer aim.

Meanwhile, your non-appreciative-of-the-snow behind was inside.

When your cousin came back in, the two of you got down to some serious playing. I think you like each other.

And then you decided blinding me would be a good time. Not so much for Mommy, but you two were adorable, so no grudge.

It was great to see your cousin -- I wish we could see her all the time, but we'll see her again soon enough. And we'll write you again soon, little man. We've got some more great favorites posts from our weddings this year, and another great kid's shoot coming up. Talk to you soon!

Dear Murphy: Snowman!

Hello little buddy, and hello 2009 - now with more promises of "Dear Murphy" posts. You mom and I have been getting an earful that we've been done with wedding season for, like, a whole week and there has been no sign of you on the blog. Well, we promised each other that we'd fix that today after our meetings were over.

We've had some beautiful snow the past couple of days, so we bundled up and hit the backyard for serious business: snowman building.

Please note that in the next two shots you are being adorable and catching snowflakes on your tongue...and our idiot dog, Ansel, is barking...at what you ask? The frickin' snow. That's what happens when you move a dog born on Oahu to Buffalo, NY. 

You mom, being a little more used to the principles of snow-engineering, took the lead on project snowman.

You helped a ton, actually...

...and your dad couldn't make a snowball for crap. This is what happens when you grow up in Tennessee and get like two snow days a year, and one of those is just because it's icy outside and people can't drive.

You've just discovered this week how delicious snowflakes are - just try and keep a two-year-old from eating fresh snow...not gonna happen.

And the snowman's nose wasn't going to last either...any way you eat vegetables is cool with us.

Snow angels!!!

And then, after the two of us basically watched your mom finish building the murphy-sized snowman, we added the final touches...

After a few more minutes we headed back inside for some hot cocoa. I made about a gallon by using too much cocoa and sugar and needing to dilute...which is comical because of the tiny, tiny mug you insist we use for your cocoa.

I'm so excited you're old enough now to play outside in the snow - and love it. I think we'll do it all over again tomorrow :). 

Dear Murphy: Building a delicious house

Dear Murphy,

Believe it or not, this is your third crack at Christmas in your just-over-two-years on the planet. For the first yule, you weren't doing a whole heck of a lot except adorably staring at lights and making gurgling noises - mostly because you were three months old, but probably also partly because you share my DNA. Let's take a look at that shall we? This is your life, Murphy.

Last year was a little more exciting for you (and us) because you seemed to understand that the mountain of colorfully-wrapped boxes under the tree was full of toys for you. And I think you vaguely understood the concept of Santa.

This year we KNOW you know who Santa is, and you expect him to show up any day now. We're using an advent calendar to try and teach you about the concept of days, while counting down till Christmas...but mostly it's just about the candy.

Your mom, being a Christmas lunatic (I use the word lovingly), has made about six dozen different cookie recipes already this month and if you know anything, it's that your mom+food+fire=delicious. So, in addition to the annual cookie-a-thon, we decided we'd take a crack at having you make a gingerbread house with us...but you saw bags of candy and things went south for a few minutes until we could restore order.

I love these looks you give us - like, "No, for real, somebody better open these damned sprinkles."

Your mom did the heavy lifting for the build, but you made sure you let us know that the house needed a doorbell....immediately.

The best thing about having a kid is seeing them get excited about the little things in life. "Childlike wonder" is a special thing, even for little stuff. Seriously, Murph, you applaud when candy gets opened. That's awesome. If I could get back to a place in my life where I felt sugar-coated gum drops deserved oratorical acclaim, I'd probably be the happiest, wisest man alive.

Doorbell: check.

Of course you tried out some of your building materials...I love the next two shots together.

We probably decorated for a good hour until the directions caught up with us. Apparently, the royal icing needs to set overnight for the house to be structurally sound...but the gingerbread house was more about the fun of the activity than having one of the dogs eat it while we weren't looking anyway.

I'll write again soon little buddy...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy turkey day, everybody. Alyssa is absolutely rocking the kitchen right now - we are going to eat very well tonight! I'll probably take some pictures, too, because it is going to be epic.

So, in light of it being Thanksgiving, I think it's best to post some photos of the thing that I know we're both most thankful for: our son Murphy. The past two  years have been an absolute blur with moving here to Buffalo from Hawaii, having the boy and starting the business as our full-time gig. We never could have done it without a lot of luck, all of our great clients and a ton of love - which is were Murphy comes in.

Having a kid makes you work harder, care more and laugh longer about every part of your life. It's been a blessing, and we're incredibly thankful parents. 

So, we just got a hold of Alyssa's father's old camera collection and there's this one little Kodak Brownie that Murphy immediately took to...

I hope some day we'll have him in the darkroom with us, pushing 1600-rated tri-x and tweaking the neg carrier enlarger...you know, if film even still exists! Case in point: Murphy was definitely wondering where the LCD screen is on this particular model:

Alyssa and I (and Murphy) hope everyone reading this is having or had a wonderful day with their families and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

Alyssa edit: I just also wanted to share a pretty rad Thanksgiving story -- something I'm also greatly thankful for. My dad died a few years back, and his camera collection has been at my sister's house since. I was in the Navy, and when you're living on a boat, it makes life difficult to have a camera collection. So, we're unpacking the cameras, and Rich comes across a binder that was tucked away with the cameras. As it turns out, it was my dad's negatives. I thought they were lost, but here we found his most precious shots. We immediately pulled out our lightbox and lupe and went to town seeing some of my dad's shots that we'd never seen before -- all circa 1970. I'm so greatful to have these negatives, and it's kind of amazing when you open an old banana box, and find your dad's life in pictures, sitting there, unnoticed. It was an absolutely amazing Thanksgiving surprise and something I'm truly grateful to have today -- just a little slice of my dad back with us.

Happy Halloween!

It's late and we just got back in - but we had to post some costume and pumpkin pics!

Alyssa made this completely awesome Thomas the Tank Engine costume for Murphy to wear. We made it through about 5-6 houses with it on, but we didn't carry a camera at all while we were trick-or-treating (typical - this is what happens when you're photographers for a living - we've really slacked on taking pics of Murph the past couple months). We dropped it on the boy for a quick snap in his jammies so everyone could get the idea:

And just for fun, I found some pics I snapped the other night while we were carving and painting our pumpkin family...babies and carving knives, not a good combo Alyssa tells me...so we decorated with acrylic.

...and that led to maybe some paint going places other than the pumpkin. I'll spare everyone the photo I took with a LOT of paint around the boy's mouth...

We hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween and got to eat a TON of these, my favorite roasted snack this time of year!

Happy Halloween, and we'll be posting a TON next week with new weddings, family shots and engagements!

Dear Murphy: Brown's Berry Patch

Hey there, kiddo. We've been slacking on updating your blog these days and no small amount of people have reminded us about it. So, since we had a break today, we have some photos from this summer for your friends and family to see. These photos are actually a couple months old (as you can tell from the scorching sun). Your Nanny was in town for a visit, so we decided to go berry picking. We headed up to Brown's Berry Patch for a fun day in the sun. I absolutely love these kitchy photo-op boards, as your Dad unfortunately knows.

So, the first thing we saw when we got there were two goats running around on top of the barn. They built this cool walkway up for the goats to wander around on and have some feeding stations. You're supposed to put your feed into the cup and pull the strap so it heads up to the goat, but apparently the goats wised up after waiting twenty minutes for a two year old to pull on the belt, and they just pull it up with their teeth.

Then we headed into the berry patch!

We had a wagon to carry our berries, and you insisted on pulling it yourself. We went on a very indirect path, and it took a lot longer than we'd anticipated, but you did it!

We started with blueberries, and you were a machine. Daddy didn't have to show you at all -- you just knew to grab the blue ones, and you rocked it. Seriously, you had your game face on and went to town. I don't think you picked one unripe one. We didn't have as much luck with blind Nanny's basket. Her method was that if it came off the bush, it must be ripe! Needless to say, I spent more time picking out branches from her basket than picking myself. :)

This is you and I waving to Daddy!

After we finished picking berries, we played for a while before heading off. They had a tractor half-buried in the ground, and you loved driving it.

Actually, you really just like anything with a wheel -- they also had a sweet pirate ship!

We had a blast. I hope we'll go apple picking soon, but knowing your Mom and Dad, that post won't be up until it's snowing. That's it for today -- I'll leave you with one shot inside the ship.

Dear Murphy - $2.01

Hey Buddy,

So, dear old Dad just had to spend about an hour ripping the dashboard off of the family car and exposing the insides of the head unit to retrieve a small deposit you made a few months ago. At first we just let it go that you had jammed a few (well, we thought it was only a few) coins in the CD slot during one of your many jaunts pretending to drive, but lately it's just been brutal. With no games that actually matter in Buffalo, sports talk radio is horrible and your mother can't handle some days without her Pure Moods cd (yeah, I'll pay for that crack). Also, about two weeks ago the radio started turning itself off when we took hard lefts...

Anyway, just for posterity's stake - here's your deposit:

Maybe we'll stick that in a piggy bank and, barring further economic collapse, you can by a tootsie roll with it in a few years.

It's a good thing you're cute...and the CD player works again.

Dear Murphy - African Lion Safari

Hey there kiddo -- it's me, Mom. So, when I moved back to Buffalo a few years ago, with your Dad in tow, one of the first things he saw a commercial for was African Lion Safari. He couldn't wait to take you. Seeing as you still lived in my belly, it wouldn't have been all that exciting for you. So, fast forward two years, and one night, while watching t.v., your father suddenly yells, "I am so fed up with not being there!" So, we made plans and finally headed into the great, white north to visit the African planes. When we arrived, the drive-through reserve wasn't open, so we headed over to the petting zoo and got a little time in with the goats.

At our last zoo visit, you were rammed by a petting-zoo goat. That, in addition to the goat poop you tried to hand me convinced me to usher you on to the next animal. A camel!

We played with the camel until he got a little too close for you, and you told him, "No!"

A flamingo was kind of just walking around, and your dad snapped this neat photo of him taking a drink of rainwater.

The bats were settling in for the night as the sun started to come up.

So, it was just about time to head into the reserve.

The first animals we saw were lions, and boy did this lioness think you looked tasty!

Your dad really just wanted some animals to sit on the car, so we headed into the baboons and immediately saw this baboon pulling the weather stripping off this minivan and going all Tarzan on the car.

Your daddy laughed until the monkey jumped on our car.

Okay, so let me explain this next bit. No, actually, I'm just going to post these photos because I think everyone can figure out this narrative.

Yeah, so basically you decided that the windshield was looking a little dirty with a baboon's ass on it. Yeah. Notice your mom's expression in that last photo. I was convinced we were about to be rushed out the side door. Thanks, kiddo -- you keep us on our toes. So, after we laughed, a lot, we made some monkey faces for daddy.

We finished up our drive and headed into the rest of the park. You immediately took us on the train, twice, before we got to head over to mommy's favorite, the elephants. It was a special day, because we got to see a month-old elephant.

It's really hard to get across how tiny he was. Especially since he weighed 235 lbs. at birth. Then we walked past some flamingos and snapped a picture for your Nana because she loves her flamingos.

Then you got to ride an elephant. Seriously.

The park was really a great place for you -- aside from the animals, they had some seriously well-designed kid's areas, including a giant ball pit.

And a waterpark. Your daddy took you down the waterslides and after a few runs, you got the idea to go on your tummy.

You had a blast. That was about the point you stopped being able to walk in straight lines, so we called it a day and headed out. You were knocked out about 15 seconds into the car ride back to Buffalo.

Dear Murphy - Strong Museum of Play

Hey little buddy, since this is our first "Dear Murphy" post over on this blog, we'll have to catch some people up to date. Basically, we've been keeping a running blog of your life since you were born almost two years ago and now we want to consolidate it with our "work blog."

Without further adieu, here's your latest exploits from when we rounded up the crew and headed to Rochester last week to hang out at the Strong Museum of Play

You are so into "GOOOOOOing" that we pull out your car seat - and well, you get impatient:

First things first, we couldn't start the journey with your Cousin Mackenzie and Aunt Kyle without the requisite Super Mighty Combo.

You had about two bites of your "Buffito" and then it was pass-out time. I wish I could be 22 months old and just go to sleep in random places - and wake up in randomly awesome new places.

The sky was gorgeous on the way over - since it's been raining like crazy here in Buffalo the past few days I thought I'd hook this photo up:

Your cousin Mackenzie was enjoying the ride over with her mom:

We have to give some love to the old Kodak building - driving over to Rochester is like a little pilgrimage each time. I still use Tri-x obsessively when I feel like shooting film.

The first thing we saw when we went into the Strong Museum was a Berenstain Bear.

We also saw Clifford the Big Red Dog, but your cousin wasn't so sure about him (see foreground). Mackenzie is awesome - she basically accused Clifford of fraud, saying, "You're look like you're stuffed and not real." Good call, kiddo.

The next photos are from the Butterfly Garden exhibit at the museum - it was really cool and had hundreds and hundreds of butterflies.

And, for some reason, a turtle that Mackenzie was really into:

So, we learned a lot at the Strong Museum - but I'm not entirely sure the knowledge of how to use a chop saw is something your mom and dad need for you right now...

Then we played some giant chess...well, relative to you the pieces were pretty big:

Sand pit time:

Okay, so I'm slacking on the narrative - I get that. They have a pretty sweet Clifford exhibit that we really enjoyed - and by "we", I mean you drove the boat to Birdwell Island for about 20 minutes while I made "toot toot" noises.

Before we took off for the day we all did some posing at the Sesame Street exhibit - first with Mackenzie:

Then with your aunt Kyle, Mackenzie, Mommy and you!

That's all for this post - so wave to all your fans from the carousel.

Well done, buddy.

Either later tonight or tomorrow first thing we'll have photos from this week's wedding up. Thanks for stopping by the blog :)