Gone for a Good Reason...

We have a new baby girl!

Josie Sharon

born March 19, 2012

10 pounds 3 ounces

22 inches

We're all doing well and starting to settle into some sort of routine...or at least a new variety of chaos, hahaha!  Josie is a wonderful, easy baby, and the rest of the kids adore her.  It's hard to believe that she's two weeks old already!

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I Heart Faces: Autumn Splendor

I love it when I Heart Faces announces a photo challenge and I know immediately which picture I want to submit!  For "Autumn Splendor" this week, this shot was my clear choice.

Our old house was built in a subdivision that used to be someone's corn field...flat with no mature trees.  So naturally, the kids wanted the new house to have woods (or at least a tree they could climb).  They've waited since the move in August for the leaves to start falling...they wanted to rake...they wanted to jump in the piles!  And they finally got their wish!

I love this photo because it's pure spontaneity.  I suppose it could have been a posed thing, but it wasn't.  They literally landed in the leaves that way, all laughing, all (uncharacteristically) managing to look in my direction at the same time!  Splendid.

Leaves

Thanks for looking!  Don't forget to check out the other gorgeous entries at I Heart Faces!

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I Heart Faces: Fix It Friday

So, I've never participated in an I Heart Faces Fix It Friday before!  But, I've been playing more and more with photo editing, and this pictures was just too cute to pass up!  And since I'm determined to drink the entire pot from my new coffeemaker this morning, I decided to give it a whirl!

Here's the original shot, courtesy of photographer Adrienne Zwart...

And here's what I did, working in my trusty ol' Photoshop Elements 7...

1. Lighten Shadows (25%)

2. Pioneer Woman Fresh Color (no Hue/Saturation adjustment, Soft Light 30%)

3. PW Bring Out the Eyes (70%)

4. PW Sunshine (10%)

5. Flatten

6. Duplicate layer, Screen (25%)

7. PW Edge Burn (25%)

8. Flatten and crop to recompose

My final product...

  

Thanks for stopping by!

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I Heart Faces: Let Them Be Little

Four-year-old bliss.

In the Surf 

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I Heart Faces: Tickled Pink

It's Monday, which means photo challenge day at I Heart Faces!  Their theme this week is "Tickled Pink," in honor of breast cancer awareness.  I really struggled with whether to post something of my wonderful mother-in-law, whom we lost to cancer 19 months ago.  I looked at a hundred pictures of her and decided to keep them to myself for today :).  I think they're better suited to my own memories than today's competition...

So, here's a much lighter-hearted take on the color! Little daughter, perpetually dressed in pink, gettin' some love from Puppy.  Click to see larger and clearer, and as always, thanks for looking!

Kisses

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I Heart Faces: Raise Your Hands!

This week's challenge at I Heart Faces is a little different...they're featuring hands, and there doesn't actually have to be a face in the picture!

This spring picture of baby #4 came immediately to mind. The boy is obsessed with rocks (what preschool boy isn't, honestly?).  He's always "collecting" them, piling them, sorting them.  This photo is such a perfect little time capsule of who he is right now...those sweet toddler fingers, filled with the inexplicable treasures of boyhood...that pink smirk, so pleased with his find.

Treasures

As always, you can click the picture to see it larger, and don't forget to peek at the other gorgeous entries at I Heart Faces!  Thanks for stopping by!

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I Heart Faces: People's Choice, Summer 2011

It's People's Choice week at I Heart Faces, and they're choosing the "Best Face Photo of Summer 2011."  My summer was sheer craziness, and honestly, I didn't take many pictures (bad mommy-tog!).

But I managed to find this great shot of E during a festival... He had wanted one of these caramel apples when we were there last year, but a loose tooth prevented him.  As it drew closer this year, he actually pulled another loose one, just to make sure he'd be able to get that apple!  I think you can tell by the photo that he was enjoying it...

Caramel Apple

Thanks for looking, and vote vote vote!  :)

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Puppy Love

Quincy loves him some Auntie H... Seems the feeling is mutual!

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I Heart Faces: A Touch of Sun

For six months, I haven't been able to decide if this is a "good" picture.  Let's be honest: it's totally overexposed and the contrast is entirely too harsh.  One eye is practically lost to the shadows.

But there's still something I find captivating about it... the sparkle and intensity of his gaze; the way the light plays off those long eyelashes; how it highlights that fuzzy perfection of baby skin.  Melt.

So, while I might not consider it a technical success, I couldn't help but enter it in the I Heart Faces challenge this week: Touch of Sun.  Click the photo to see it in better resolution, and thanks for looking!

Captivating

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Back to School, Part Two

Monday I posted one pic of the older three's first day of school for the weekly contest at I Heart Faces.  Actually, it's not my favorite shot of the day, but it best fit their requirements (a face has to be showing in order to qualify).

So, I thought it might be nice to post a few more from that morning, along with a couple more from Pup's first morning of preschool today.  Enjoy!

 

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I Heart Faces: Back to School

So, yeah.  It seems that two whole months have passed since I've blogged last...for good reason, really.  If you only knew everything that's happened!

Here's the Cliff's Notes version: sold the house...bought a house...found out we're expecting baby number five...went on vacation...moved...started football season...started school...unpacked maybe half the house...had a birthday...gratefully outlasted the morning sickness...beginning a major renovation project.

I might actually be developing a little routine now, which seems like a miracle.  I have a nice sunny spot for my office (actually, the sun's totally in my eyes at the moment!), and I've started catching up on my blog reading.

Which is how I realized that this week's challenge at I Heart Faces is Back to School...perfect, because those are some of the FEW pictures I've managed to take over the last several weeks!  And, it's a lovely way to ease myself back into putting my thoughts in complete sentences like a sane person!

So, here's my entry.  We live so close to the kids' new elementary school in this house that they get to walk!  The first day was gorgeous, if a bit chilly, and the walk was lovely. The kids were a mixture of excitement and nervousness (since they didn't know a soul in their classes), and I think you can see both emotions on E's face as he looked back at me.

The New Commute

You can click to enlarge the picture (and view it more clearly).  BTW, they all had a great first day, made some new friends and adore their teachers!  Thanks for stopping by today!

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I Heart Faces: Let's Hear It For the Boys Challenge

The challenge of the week at I Heart Faces is Boys.  Yeah, I have three of those...so choosing just one photo was agonizing!  Don't even ask how many times I changed my mind over which to post...

In the end, I've decided on this shot of my youngest.  If I recall correctly, this was the only image from the whole shoot that turned out well at all...and it's a perfect glimpse into his personality.  The twinkle, the smirk, just daring you to ask what's going on inside that three-year-old imagination.  All boy, this child is, from his spikey cow-licked hair to his bare toes!

Mischievous

Thanks for looking (don't forget you can click the photo to enlarge it)!  And be sure to check out the other fab entries at I Heart Faces!

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Starting a Collection

I'm not much of a collector.  First, I have four children...and the quantity of "things" they treasure and insist on keeping is always growing.  I'm forever purging their belongings, and the thought of bringing more unnecessary things into our house (especially while we're trying to sell it) is really ridiculous.

Second, I'm incredibly cheap.  I mean thrifty.  No, I mean cheap.  I love shopping, but I hate spending more than a couple dollars on anything.  In fact, that's kind of how this new collection of mine has started...

I love the look of vintage cameras.  Can't shoot 'em, but I think they look cool.  Don't have a place to keep them, but something about them just speaks to me.  Maybe it's that I can imagine all the places they've been and things they've seen. 

Nonetheless, I've toyed with collecting them before and never started.  I found one a few months back at a Goodwill, but they were asking a whopping $5 for it, still in the case, and I couldn't pull the proverbial trigger.  But, I've thought about that camera a million times; I've checked back at that shelf in the store every time I've been there since.  So, when I ran across this Kodak Instamatic 314 at another thrift store this morning, I didn't hesitate.

Of course, it helped that it was only a dollar.  It doesn't have a case and it's definitely broken, but I bought it anyway.  Broke the ice, so to speak.  I've discovered that this particular model is older than me, selling for $38 between 1968 and 1971.  Something totally nonsensical about that makes my heart go pitter-pat...

So, I still have too many things in my house, and it's still silly of me to start collecting anything (let alone broken relics of cameras).  But I'm gonna do it anyway.  Because it brings me joy.

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I Heart Faces: From a Distance Challenge

Football is a huge part of our lives.  Hubs has coached on and off for years, and with three sons (and a daughter who adores poms), it's likely to stick around for a while.  Son #1 was finally old enough to play in the rocket program last fall, so I have about a million pictures of his six games. 

In the absence of a better zoom lens, the shots all look start to look alike...so I had to get more creative with the composition.  I liked the way this turned out: framed by his teammates and the crisp fall foliage, the opposition intensely waiting for the snap of the ball.

Seemed like a perfect choice for the From a Distance challenge this week at I Heart Faces.

Waiting for the Snap

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I Heart Faces: Yellow Challenge

The photo challenge theme this week at I Heart Faces is yellow...and it's made me realize that yellow isn't a prominent color in my life!  I already knew that I have a hard time scrapping in the shade, but apparently I don't photograph it often, either!  Who knew?

So, this really was a challenge for me.  I decided not to go the route of the sweet little dandelion in my daughter's hair or the warm, sunshine-yellow cast over the shot.  Instead, I wanted a really bold pop of the color, right in the center of it all where I can't ignore it...and then I found this:

Splash!

This doesn't read to me as a "yellow picture," but it's certainly there, so bright it borders on obnoxious.  And it totally makes me smile...

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I Heart Faces: Soft and Sweet Challenge

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is "Soft and Sweet."   I had actually picked out and edited a completely different picture to post today... but I've changed my mind.

You see, I have this little boy.  A rambunctious, precocious, bouncing-off-the-wall, always "hungry more" little three (and a half) year old.  A boy, who despite his inability to regulate his volume, is one of the sweetest things in my life.  A boy with the clearest of blue eyes, who gives me dozens of unsolicited kisses and tells me I'm pretty and that he"ll love me forever.  A boy who brought me a fistful of dandelions yesterday and crammed them into a waterglass so they'd live a little longer.

So, even though I had made other plans for this post, I simply couldn't resist.  Because, in my life, it doesn't get much sweeter than this...

For you, Mommy!

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I Heart Faces: Pet Faces Challenge

I Heart Faces is this fabulous site that hosts weekly photography challenges and great tutorials.  I've been lurking for several weeks now, and today I'm gonna break the seal and enter my first challenge! 

So, here is Quincy Gauge, our seven-month-old beagle/spaniel mix, in his favorite sunshiny spot by Dad's recliner... Thanks for looking!

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