Sweet Baby {M}

Just a few of my fav's from a shoot I did of a friend's baby.  Boy did this sweet little girl have some hair.  I might have hair envy...  seriously.  She even has frosted tips- lucky thing.  People pay big money for that.

Anyway, I'm feeling more and more comfortable shooting newborns and I think they can sense that.  Enough of my ramblings, and on to the beautiful baby!

Ima BIG kid now

Just got Riley's Big Boy Bed!  It's the second night that he's slept in it and even though my paranoia causes me to sprint to his room with any peep that he makes, it's been a success.  Every time I check on him, he's in his bed. . I haven't heard any big thumps yet so he must not have fallen out yet.  Yay for big boy beds.  Now little sister can finally get out of the pack n play and have a crib of her own! 

4 months

This little girl of mine, boy does she make me smile.  Those chubby cheeks are so edible.  Scarlett is now 4 months old!  

• She absolutely thrives off attention.  The moment you make eye contact with her, she beams!
• She's been rolling for almost a month now and I think she actually prefers tummy time to laying on her back.
• She is a squealy baby.  I think mostly they are squeals of glee but none-the-less they still hurt my ears.
• She's very alert and is always checking out everything.  I love her little look of concentration.
• She's a great sleeper.  She takes 4 naps a day (1-2 hours) and still sleeps 10 hours at night! 
• Since dealing with Riley and dabbling in potty training, I'm pretty sure that Scarlett will be much easier to potty train since she hates having a dirty diaper on.  Riley could care less if he's sitting in his own fecal matter. 
• Riley is such a great big brother to her.  He will get down on the floor and just stare at her sometimes and of course she stares right back.

This mommy-hood adventure is really the best ever! 

Vroom Vroom

I wasn't going to do this, but I just couldn't resist when I thought of this picture.  I am part of a LifeGroup.  It's a small group derived from our church that meets once a week for a short Bible study but the focus is supposed to be fellowship.  Our lifegroup really has the fellowship down.  In fact, we are so good that we don't just meet once a week, but usually two and sometimes much more!  We decided to do a fun little scavenger hunt, boys vs girls before our super cool missionary friend, Emily left for Africa.  The girls totally rocked the competition, of course!  This photo just brings a smile to my heart because of the amazing friends I have!

There are many more VROOM themed photos at I heart faces.  Check em out by clicking the link below.

Loving CS3

I first got Corel Paint Shop Pro and that was good.  Just like Photoshop but just a fraction of the price.  The only real issue I had with that wasn't with the product at all but more with the lack of information and help.  I couldn't find that many good tutorials for using PSP.  Then when we got the Mac, I had to go Photoshop because Corel doesn't work with Mac's.  So I bought Elements 8 and basically had to relearn what I already knew to do on PSP.  I liked Elements.  I liked that I could find tons of tutorials and actions for Elements.  Then Travis offered me his version of CS3 and how could I resist.  I LOVE it.  There is so much I can do, and best of all I can do a little research via tutorials/books and get step-by-step instructions to do just about anything I can imagine!

These are older pictures (6-9 months ago) but I have been going through all my pictures and trying to get rid of the ones I won't do anything with.  I take tons and I'm trying to weed em out now.  It's so much easier when they're pictures of someone else's kid, but when it's mine I just can hardly bare to part with any of them...  So I found a pocket of old pics that I've never done anything with and perhaps didn't feel inspired by them at the time but learning more of the tricks and tips in PhotoShop and now having CS3 available, I've reopened some and I LOVE them.  Good thing I didn't get rid of them back when I should have.  Here are my before/afters.

For those just learning and maybe feeling helpless in Photoshop (ahh-hemm Malia), have you discovered "actions?"  There are tons of downloadable actions (some free and some for $$) that you can load into photoshop and it does effects for you.  You may want to do some minor tweaking but you don't have to mess around with all the steps!  Here are some free action downloads that I've found and like:

• The Pioneer Woman
• MCP Actions
• Stacey Bishop Photography
• CoffeeShop