Self portrait, Kim and I, outside Churrascos in Sugar Land

Annette, Mac, Kathy and William. Aunt Mac made the red velvet cake and let us keep a good quarter of it.

Grandpa Steve and William, who is three months.

See more photos in the Picasa album, Annette Kovar’s Birthday 2012. There’s a video, too.

So, I took the photo, imported it into Sketchbook Mobile for Android, and boom!: I had something to do while I waited for the Mazda to get an oil change and a new motor mount this morning. Uh. I guess that’s what was causing the rattling noise that shook the whole dashboard and sometimes caused the CD player to skip. Who knew? I hate cars.

Yes, we all got presents!

Also, see Early Christmas 2011.

B O Y ! ! !

Kim readied this shirt to wear to work in an attempt to not have to talk to everyone and their annoying questions.

You know how when, before you know, people are all up in you business like,

“So, what do you want it to be …”

And then you’re all like …

“I don’t care, man – as long as it’s healthy … “

And it wouldn’t be that bad to have these words come out of your own mouth if you didn’t have to keep repeating them. I mean, everyone asks this question. You can not escape the stereotypical questions that people ask when you are anticipating a birth of a child; the only thing you can do is limit the number of people you tell by only posting about it online where surely no one will go and read about it.

Oh, you have a website? That’s nice … hey, you should friend me on Facebook.

I’m lucky; I’m not showing. If these types of conversations start, they’re typically my fault.

Our baby boy, Dec. 20, 2011

Anyway, back to how they always ask that question and how you’re always supposed to pretend that you don’t have a preference so as to not offend anyone who may have a differing preference or to let on that you may be disappointed if it turns out your baby is not the sex you were hoping it would be.

Well, here, today, on this very blog, I will summon up the courage to say, I did have a preference, and I’m glad that it is a boy.

Because, with a boy, I can …

• Go fishing (and by fishing, I mean visit aquariums and pet stores to stock our own)
• Take apart electronics and try to put them back together again
• Work out in the garden
• Ride bikes and play sports
• Grill meat and otherwise make messes in kitchen areas
• Find new and exciting ways to irritate mom

Our baby boy, Dec. 20, 2011

I’m also pretty sure that if it turned out to be a girl that I would have written this blog the exact same way, except I would have just replaced the word “boy” with the word “girl.”

See more photos:
Polar Express Train 2011

See more photos here:
Thanksgiving 2011

Kim and I are expecting our first child! We’re really excited and we can’t keep the news to ourselves any longer! This is big — we’re even using exclamation points, people!

Update Dec. 23, 2011

See photos from Kim’s second ultrasound appointment from October 26.

Fried oreos and twinkie on a stick!

They had a new, smaller ferris wheel this year.

Kim entered some cookies this year and they won a blue ribbon. Her prize: One dollar.

See more photos from our trip to the Fort Bend County Fair 2011.

Corina shows off her missing teeth

Left over flowers from Virginia's baby shower last week

Since then, we’ve been a great team, as she would say, and I’ve never been happier.

So in my continuing effort to embarrass her, here’s some more photos.

Aug. 19, 2011 - my last day at UH

Aug. 9, 2011 - At Brennan's for her birthday

Location: Dallas, Texas
Date: Jun 10-11, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 385

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/10/dallas-fort-worth-vacation/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=surfside-2011 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/#comments Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:46:04 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2415 The beach trip.

Location: Surfside, Texas
Date: Jun 6, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 14

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/09/surfside-2011/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/07/cat-win/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=cat-win http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/06/07/cat-win/#comments Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:05:38 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2306 Our cat, Daphne, winks just about all the time. It’s a nervous twitch or something. True story.]]>

Our cat, Daphne, winks just about all the time. It’s a nervous twitch or something. True story.

Location: New Braunfels, Texas
Date: May 27-29, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 23

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/27/summer-vacation-2011/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/20/sleep-now-slash-later/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=sleep-now-slash-later http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/05/20/sleep-now-slash-later/#comments Sat, 21 May 2011 00:00:08 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=2445

Location: Rosenberg, Texas
Date: Mar 19, 2011
Number of Photos in Album: 36

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/03/19/corinas-birthday-party-2011-2/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/03/06/visiting-grandma/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=visiting-grandma http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2011/03/06/visiting-grandma/#comments Sun, 06 Mar 2011 23:51:15 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://brandonmoeller.com/?p=3341 Corina and I visited mom and dad today.

My Uncle John passed away a month ago.

I learned a lot from him and this was the last photo I took of him.

My twin brother Adam, in the background, shares the frame with him in this photo.

One of Corina's favorite Christmas presents is this Barbie pool, that came with a few "pups."

I got her The Beatles and John Lennon albums she didn’t have, and now our Beatles collection is complete.

A day at the beach.

Location: Freeport, Texas
Date: Jul 24, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 26

View Album

Location: Katy, Texas
Date: Jul 4, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 12

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/07/04/fourth-of-july/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/11/new-kitteh/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=new-kitteh http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/11/new-kitteh/#comments Tue, 11 May 2010 23:21:57 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/?p=802 So we got this cat. Well, Kim got the cat. Well, I was with her. It’s a nice cat. Sleepy. Crazy. But nice. So, of course, there’s a photo album of photos of the cat. Her name is Daphne.

One of the first shots I took of Daphne.

This is her normal spot. She's a consistent cat.

Location: Rosenberg, Texas
Date: Jul 11, 2010
Number of Photos in Album: 67

View Album ]]> http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/08/kitteh/feed/ 0 http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/06/omelets-and-news-writing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=omelets-and-news-writing http://brandonmoeller.com/blog/2010/05/06/omelets-and-news-writing/#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 03:31:44 +0000 Brandon Moeller http://www.brandonmoeller.com/blog/?p=774

I made omelets Sunday morning and they turned out really good and so I just want to brag about it.

Another omelet from the master

Speaking of bragging about things, I wrote an article about CLASS staff members who won UH Staff Excellence Awards today.

Speaking of orange babies, over the weekend – when I finally got around to cleaning Corina’s fish tank – I discovered that the fish I just knew was pregenant when I bought it, must have been, because I found its small orange offspring.

Check out these photos:

He likes to hide under the large decoration in the tank.

Here's a shot of the baby with its orange mother. I wonder what happened to all his brothers and sisters? Did the filter get them? Did the other fish eat them? Did mom eat them?

Can you see him?

The Space City Chapter of the American Hibiscus Society had its first show in Pasadena this past weekend, so Kim and Corina and I braved the torrential storm to travel 45+ miles across the metropolis to see purty flowers and have a chance at grabbing some exotic specimens ourselves.

We didn’t stay that long. We got there three minutes late, and at that time – all the really exotic offerings from the local growers had been snagged – some people had whole shopping carts full. I was only allowed what I could carry, so I picked up an Indian Princess and a Seminole and then I got in the very, very long line to wait to purchase them ($8 a pop).

I’d have a photo of the two shaped bushes/trees I bought, but it’s dark now and I don’t feel like taking photos now, so just settle for this one, which links to a photo gallery of shots taken by my wife, while I was in line waiting to fork over more money for my obsession.

Corina looks at hibiscus flowers ready to be judged.

Corina's Barbie Fairy birthday cake.

Great friends and family came over, ate some barbecue and showered her with gifts. A great time was had by all, best I know.

Corina opens presents.We evenÂ

For the second year in a row, we splurged on a bouncy castle. Why not?

We even got a bouncy castle.

The day before Easter, we dyed eggs.

Corina helps dye eggs.

Corina said she had never dyed them before – maybe that’s my fault. To me, it’s always been about the candy, and you can’t stuff it into a hard-boiled egg.

But you can do plenty of other fun things with hardboiled eggs, like throw them at each other. And then, when they crack, you can ask if you can take the photo.

Corina holds a cracked polka-dotted egg.

Easter means a lot of traveling. We went to church, Kim’s aunt’s house and my aunt’s house. Our day started early so we could make 7 a.m. mass.

Some of us were awake for this pre-mass portrait with the camera timer.

Aside from seeing so many great people, Easter is about new awakening – and traditions.

We started a new tradition this year of building a nest for the Easter bunny. The nest is made out of wildflowers and rose petals. The bunny delivered!

We used the font Brioso Pro throughout the program.

Here's the main graphic for the cover of the wedding program that I designed.

Here's the graphic I created for our name. Note the interlocking ampersand.

Here's the front and back covers of the wedding program.

Here is the PDF of the wedding program I designed for our wedding.

I designed them using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator CS4.

Here they are:

The blue "formal" coozie.

Photos taken for the blue coozie were shot by Pin Lim, from our engagement photo shoot. The background of this coozie will be blue, so the ink needs to be white, and so the white ink is black above – which means it’s kind of hard to tell what this one will look like. I’m confident it will be awesome.

The white "fun" coozie.

One of the photos taken for the white coozie was shot by Pin Lim (see the one on the far right). The others were shot myself, holding the camera out at a decent distance. This coozie was white with blue ink, so it’s not hard to see what it will look like, since the black ink above will be blue.

UPDATE: See a photo of the finished coozie, printed by Kustom Koozies, from Pin Lim’s wedding photo shoot:

The coozies came out great. Our guests loved them!

Summer is nearing its end, and I know this because 1.) Hurricane season is here and 2.) School starts back up everywhere next week.

Corina went to the beach this summer, her last summer before starting regular school: She’ll be entering kindergarten next week.

Good weather back on July 31 when we made our annual pilgrimage to the beach. (photo by Kim Kovar)

So mischievous ... she's clutching a water gun in this shot. (photo by Kim Kovar)

Kim was at the beach, too - and I'm really glad about that. (photo by Corina Moeller)

… or something.

Here's my toe all wrapped up later that day. Now, more than two weeks later, I can say I'm getting back to normal ... which means it looks like I'll be mowing the lawn this weekend. Hoo-rah. (Photo by Kim Kovar)

Five. Could have been more if more people showed up. Those people will remain nameless, but they know who they are.

Two of the five people were Donna Novak and Melissa Jones. Donna is my cousin Steve’s wife. Melissa is her oldest daughter.

In February, Donna’s mother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I never got to know her very well, but I did know she was a great cook and a longtime busdriver for the Magnolia Independent School District.

A scholarship was created in her honor after her passing, and word is a Magnolia student’s college burden was gratefully lighter.

Anyway, so, for their birthday gift, Donna and Melissa received a 5×7 frame with a print of some photo art I worked up for them. From recent photos I had taken at Melissa’s November wedding.

Mike and Judy Chaney pose for a photo during Melissa's wedding. This was the photo I gave Donna. I took out the red eye, made the background grayscale and blurred it a bit to bring out the brightness of Judy's smile.

Mike and Judy Chaney join the newly weds Melissa and Tim Jones for a wedding portrait. This is the photo I gave Melissa for her birthday. I combined two photos in order to capture the whole arch, took out the red eye and gently blurred the background to emphasize the happiness in these couples.

I share these photos here not only to show off my skills in Photoshop, but also as a way to honor the Chaneys who mean so much to people who mean so much to me.

Check out more photos on my Web site, here.

Corina visits with Bibleman at The Crossing Church in The Woodlands.

On Saturday, Corina won a reading trophy for her participation in the Summer Reading Program in the Fort Bend County library system. She's "read" 22 books so far.

Then, we went to the pool. The rain made us leave early. I'll take the rain when I can get it.

The biker took our photo, though I'm pretty sure his bike stole the frame.

Then, Kim took my picture outside of the historic building.

Some guy in front of Gruene Hall.

Then, I took her photo.

Kim at Gruene Hall.

And later, using Adobe Photoshop, I combined the two individual photos to create an image of us together, in front of a full view of Gruene Hall.

Grune Hall: We were there, together.

Then, later the combined photo was printed in a Shutterfly book I made for Kim.

The Shutterfly book I made for Kim to remember our 2009 summer vacation across central Texas.

Here is the adjusted photo as published in the Shutterfly book.

Of course, the gallery of the photos I took during our Summer 2009 vacation can be seen here: day one and day two.

www.brandonandkimberly.com

Kim and Brandon's engagement photo

I’ve just uploaded all the vacation photos, from the first day, here.

Aren't we cute?

On another note, the world cried today because there was some kind of celebratory event at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. *Shrugs*

“Whatever, Al Sharpton – and stop hollering. There’s plenty strange about your daddy, and he ain’t even your daddy.” -Kim

Right?

Correct?

Uh huh?

What?

I’ll bide most of my time at home, doing nothing in particular but I’ll also be going to San Antonio and maybe other scenic places in the lone star state.

Leah + Josh – the newly weds – were in New Braunfels yesterday (we got out that way last year), I gave ‘em a ring to check in. She said she saw some of the photos posted here on BrandonMoeller.com, and since she didn’t say otherwise, I’m gonna have to assume she liked them.

A random photo of me drinking a Maibock in New Braunfels. Ahhh ... vacation.

Nope. Still not gonna write about the transmission fail. Not today. Not yet.

I got published yesterday. Yeah, it’s still exciting.

Maybe I’ll buy / plant some flowers on my vacation next week. The Lazy Gardener suggests these sun-resistant favorites.

LOW GROWERS: Blue daze, bulbine, Mexican zinnias (already have ‘em), purslane, scaola
MEDIUM GROWERS: ‘Martha Gonzales’ antique rose, black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckias), bush daisy (Euryops), coneflowers (also tall), Copper Canyon daisies, cosmos, cuphea, daylilies, lantana, fernleaf lavender, pavonia (rock rose), coral fountain plant, mid-size perennial salvias, pentas,
TALL GROWERS: Althaea, cestrum, duranta, hamelia (hummingbird bush), pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia), ‘Red Rocket’ russelia, tall perennial salvias, esperanza (Tecoma stans), vitex.

Guess I better do my research before heading over to Houston Garden Centers, where someone got me a gift card.

Brandon and his (working) Cut and Shoot vacation

As her uncle, it was my duty obligation pleasure to be her official wedding photographer and in the next week I’ll be mailing her four CDs with the photos I took so that she may do what she will with them.

See the wedding photos and the rehearsal photos in my online gallery.

I suggest wedding photo albums from Walmart.com or Shutterfly.com – both stores frequently have sales around the holidays (like, Father’s Day) to watch for, and one could sign themselves up to their mailing list to know when those sales are happening. I can’t attest to the quality of WalMart’s photobooks, but I am pleased with a little glossy photobook I ordered for Kim for Christmas, to celebrate our engagement. I stuffed the book with my favorite self-portrait shots from the past two years we’ve been together. This was a great idea, because about a month later, my laptop was stolen and I lost a lot of the original photos. If I hadn’t backed up my favorites on Web sites, it would have been a total loss.

The photos can also be downloaded – as a large Windows/Mac-friendly zip file – here. Slap ‘em on a CD and take ‘em to your favorite print shop to get ‘em printed. I like WalMart – they always print my prints for my annual Christmas cards and I can upload them to the web site, get them ordered for an hour later, then mosey on up there later in the day.

Though I am not a professional photographer with professional photography equipment (hint, hint: gift ideas for Christmas/my own wedding on Jan. 9), I am pretty good at making a photo better with Photoshop. I did this for two of the photos that are currently on the homepage of BrandonMoeller.com.

Here they are again:

Original photo

Improved photo: Josh and Leah on the eve of their wedding. The happy couple makes an entrance into the reception.

Original photo

Improved photo: The happy couple makes an entrance into the reception.

If the bride and groom or family would like any additional retouching of the photos taken by me, I can offer my services for $25 an hour, a bargain rate in the biddness.

Lean and Josh: I wish the two of you the best as you begin your life together and if you ever need anything, please don’t hesitate to holler.

Well, don’t be a stranger. Comment below and congratulate us.

See A Lot of photos of Kim and I here.

Or, see other photos used in this year’s Christmas cards here.

By working for free. Go figure.

www.melissaandtim.com … tell me what you think.

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

It was a blast.

On the road again with Kim and Brandon

So … much … outlet … shopping …

San Marcos River gawking

Check out 95 more photos of our trip here or see my 8 favorites – among other great photos of the two of us – here.

For Kim, the trip was a vacation from planning. Which meant there was no itenerary. So a day or so before the trip, the idea pops in my head that we should see my cousin Michelle and her husband Dan. So I e-mail her and plans are thrown together … but they were in no mood for pictures, because the day was also the first day they biked home from work in downtown Austin. They estimated the trek at 15 miles, mostly on a bike trail through Austin’s green belt … but Michelle said it was more brown than green.

Here’s an old picture of them anyway.

Michelle and Dan Bost, Thanksgiving 2006

Anyway, so we were going to see the Bosts, and their new house in Austin. OK, it’s three years old. But I don’t get out much.

Since it was a vacation without planning, we had planned to not plan dinner, and Michelle was going to treat us to her famous shrimp and grits. But as we were driving, Kim mentioned that Texas Monthly mentioned that Luling, Texas (pronounced “Lull-ing” … just kidding, Kim!) was home to two of the top 50 barbecue joints in Texas. So, we stopped and I bought dinner at what Texas Monthly said was one of the 5 best “Smokin’ Joints” in Texas:

City Market in downtown Luling

It turns out that when buying barbecue, you don’t need a pound per person. I know this because I bought four pounds of this stuff, and as a result, was eating it all week. What a tragedy! Nah, it was really good barbecue, perhaps the best I’ve ever tasted from an eatery. And, the smoke is still on my clothes from stepping into the smoke room at City Market. Yum.

Almost a week later: The last of the barbecue, shot at Kim’s house.

Also during our trip, we went to the outlet mall in San Marcos and the San Marcos River. I took lots of photos of everything I saw. Oh, and there was a wedding. So go check out the photos already.

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