Saturday, March 29, 2008

Dreaming of Disney

A friend online is planning her trip, we got to talking, and now I'm dreaming of Disney. Thrill rides, food, characters, hot humid weather, monorail rides, and way too expensive park food. Ah....the stuff of dreams.

Photos from our last trip:








You know, the kids always seem to behave better, we seem to laugh more, play more, and enjoy each other more while at Disney. At least that is what I remember...until I see the photos of the tantrums.

and for those that know about this ride...further proof we're not competitive or anything...

Dh's score:

My score:


I think we need a rematch! LOL Those scores are the result of having ridden this ride about a total of 40 times now. Or are we closer to 100 times than I realize?

Friday, March 28, 2008

A few portraits to share...






my cousin's had me take a few portraits of their kids when we were together recently, and wanted to show them a few.



oh look...another one of Katie! LOL

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Thankful Thursday

Because we are commanded to be thankful in all things...

I'm thankful for our snotty nosed household, making this the 7th week of "pestilence" in our home. We have had days of being healthy, but I believe we've yet to go a full 7 days. I believe this is some sort of record. Yes I do. 3 are "down" with 2 to go...will they succumb? Will we make it to 8 weeks?

It's a mild cold, caught from cousins over Easter I'm sure. I'll take the cold since I loved seeing everyone.

Of course, with spring arriving and everything "pollinating" it could easily be allergies.

Wow....what memories

Samuel is roughly the same age as Katie in these photos, and JM is roughly Samuel's age now...wow.







I'm looking for older ones of JM...I know I have a few scanned in of him from early on, but it's tough...oh wait I have ONE from when he was 12 months. However, it's not wanting to upload at the moment.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

New skill!

Do you notice what is not in the background? What is not up? What is causing me much stress? A few heart stopping moments?





The gate! Katie can navigate stairs now. Our lives will never be the same.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Photoshop Magic

This is the difference between my batch post-processing and my normal post-processing!

Batch: Not bad, pretty much straight out of the camera with slight adjustments to the RAW image, then sharpened slightly, colors popped, and that's it.


This one has my normal post-processing to ready for printing.


I do the normal stuff, then I vingette the image (darken the outer edges). I ran an action that sort of makes the color vivid. It's one of my favorites...on certain images. Sometimes it doesn't look really good, others it looks great.

I'll show you others at a later date!

for now though, direct your thoughts to "Loving Lia" blog to the right. She's being seen by the neurosurgeon on Wednesday. I'm hoping that her parents get lots of answers.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Just a few from Great Grandma's house








These are NOT post-processed/edited how I plan on finishing them, but I had a few requests to see Katie in her Easter dress. :) Okay, ONE of the dresses!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

A little bit of Easter in our life...

Just a little bit of Easter fun from our family...

First up, Friday night. We got to Grandma's house late, about 9pm, and she had it all set up to actually dye Easter eggs. I was going to just go with the plastic eggs, but traditions held strong!

Katie was amazed at the magically changing color eggs.




But I think she liked "marking" them up more, but only with the pink marker. I tried to give her the yellow one, but she handed it back. I tried the blue and she shook her head.



John Mark (needing another fingernail trim) showing off his GREEN egg. Notice his carton in the background? It's, well, a little monochromatic don't you think?!


close up of his "egg carton" Gosh I love that kid! He's just so much fun, and he definitely knows what he likes!



Katie and her cousin "Dee-uhhhhn" while we finished up the big kids eggs. Dylan (or oh my gosh is it Dillon? I'm having a "mom-nesia" moment and can not remember...I think it's Dylan though) told Katie to share that tea set! It was quite the non-verbal discussion between the two of them.




Grandma bought all her grandkids an Easter surprise! Samuel happily showed us the chocolate bunny and candy filled eggs. Mitchell (Dylan's older brother and yes I know how to spell his name) could not wait to eat that candy. Supposedly they did not, but I'm thinking those 3 bigger boys conspired to eat some of it that night. Spending the night with your cousins is the best thing I believe. Especially at holidays. I'm so excited that my boys get to experience that fun.



Saturday we got up and went to visit MY grandmother, the kids' Great Grandmother. Those photos...well, I didn't take them with the point and shoot, so they'll have to be uploaded later. Suffice it to say, lots of people, great fun, so happy to see everyone...Katie was overwhelmed.

Sunday! :) We sadly have no photos from earlier than the egg hunt. We didn't put the kids in Easter clothes either...it was COLD!

Katie never did get the full hang of "egg hunting" as she would look at the eggs and point. She thought it was great fun when the neighbor's dog grabbed the pink real egg and took off with it.


One of our best hidden eggs! That yellow blended perfectly with the yellow of the forsythia bush!


Look at Samuel finding eggs! He finally was able to compete with JM this year in finding eggs. In fact, he saw (with a tiny bit of help of me picking him up to LOOK for the yellow egg) one hard to find egg, grabbed another when JM went to get it (ooh that was close), and managed to find other "hard to find" eggs this year. :)


A snapshot during the egg hunt...Samuel running off, and while it may look like JM and Mitchell posed...I promise, they were not. Probably not even aware I was taking the photo!


The big kids are looking for the $5 prize egg...skillfully hidden in an adult's pocket. The game of "hot or cold" was quite interesting with a egg that moved.

BTW - that's me (far left), my Mom (back to us...boy is she going to kill me for that), and my sister (right)

and then, one TIRED little girl who slept over half of the way home today.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Thankful Thursday!




I've been wanting to participate for so long! While I'm thankful for all of my kids, and for their health. Today, I'm thankful for that SMILE from Katie. That smile she gives us now, almost constantly. I'm thankful for her playfulness. I'm thankful that she's a little imp sometimes and loves to play hide and seek and peek-a-boo.