I carved my pumpkin. Did you?

Here's my pregnant pumpkin.  I love it!  Don't you?

***This was not my original idea.  I downloaded the template from Stand and Deliver , I copied their idea and want to give credit to the artist.

Family pictures...

Aren't family pictures fun?  Spending weeks trying to decide what everyone is going to wear.  Do you go matchy-matchy, or coordinating, or give up and just let everyone wear their jammies?   Scheduling around school schedules, nap schedules and work schedules.  Trying to transport 3 children to the picture location without them wrinkling, ruining, or spilling on their picture clothes.  Really, really, really F*U*N!

BUT, despite all of that, I  do love pictures of our kids and family.  And while I am a photography enthusiast, and sometimes get "wall worthy" photos, I book a session with a professional at least once a year.  Then I get to sit back, relax, covet admire their camera and lenses, and let them do the work to capture great moments.  And double bonus, I actually appear in some of the pictures!  

Here are just some of my favorite shots from our session.

This year we hired the brilliant Alicen Lum to take our pictures.  As crazy as it may sound, I picked up her card at Baskin and Robbins after a T-ball game last spring.  Her card was gorgeous, and when I checked out her website, I was blown away.   She's fun, calm, and excellent with kids (she has two young ones herself).  On top of taking amazing photos, she also edits and then gives you a DVD with all of your pictures.  Can anyone say Christmas card photo?!?!   A few weeks after our photo shoot we realized that we have kids in the same preschool class.  What a small world.

For those of you that are wondering, NO I am not paid to advertise for Alicen.  But, she is excellent and worth every penny!  I like to give credit, where credit is due!  And, when I find someone/something that I like, then I want to share it!   If by chance you do book a session with her, let her know that I recommended you...maybe she'll give me a prize...kidding!

Jib Jab Fun...

because YES, we have too much time on our hands.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Keepin' It Real....

If you ever read my blog and think things around our house are always rosy, then I am failing.  We have a lot of great moments, and our blog tends to show the highlights of life.  But, anyone who spends 10 minutes with us knows that we are a real family, with "real" days, and real issues.    In fact just this morning I was called a "mean old mom" by the sweet 4 yr old pictured below.  Now, I can handle being called mean, but OLD....come on, that's just ridiculous.  Just look at the SOOC (straight out of the camera) picture below.  I'm a clear picture of youth!

In an effort to keep it real around here, I doing a "before and after" post.   I do not have time to edit all of my photos, and a good portion of what you see here on the blog is SOOC.  But, at times, I do love to edit photos.  It can be the difference between a photo that I will treasure, and one that would be forgettable.

So, in this case I had one picture of Peter and I on his field trip.  I treasure these pictures because it's rare that I'm actually IN a picture with my family.  I'm typically behind the camera.  

So, here we go....

SOCC...
I have several issues with this picture.  It's a little on the "cool" and dull side.   Also, I'm pregnant and have pressed my face against Peter's, and created wrinkles by my eye that even botox couldn't help.

So, I started by adding a warming filter.  Already much better.

Then I crop it to remove the random arm from the side of the picture.  I also use an adjustment layer to "soften" those horrific wrinkles by my eye.   I didn't make them disappear, because well, that would be impossible, or look very edited. (don't think I didn't try.)

I was pretty happy with how we looked, but felt like something was missing.  The picture could have been taken anywhere, and didn't say, "we're at the pumpkin patch."  So, I got super tricky and merged some pumpkins into the background from a similar picture I took that same day.  This worked because the pictures were very similar, taken in the same light, in the same field.  So, it didn't take much to "merge" the pictures.  I LOVE the pumpkins in the background, and the picture feels more complete to me.

Final products:

Then, just for fun, I ran a photoshop action (Pioneer Woman, Seventies Action) and adjusted the layers to get the photo to look like this.

So, at the end of the day, this is not a perfect picture of us. But, the last two shots are so much better than what came out of the camera.  Instead of a picture that makes me cringe when I see the blank field, dull colors, and wrinkles (I know, I'm shallow), I have edited it into a picture that is on our blog and will be part of Peter's birthday video next year.  Editing has a respected place in my world of photography!

For those who are curious, I edit in Photoshop CS3. 

Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater...

Or, Peter, Peter pumpkin picker.  We had a great trip to the pumpkin patch with Peter's 4 yr old preschool class.  This is always my favorite field trip.

A cute boy, with a cute pumpkin.

The tractor ride was Peter's favorite part.

Choosing apples.

Chasing chickens.

We ate these carrots for dinner.

The perfect place to carry his apples and carrots...in his hood! 

Our friends Lily and Dylan working hard to hold their pumpkins.

Saying prayer before snack time. 

Our beautiful friends, Lisa and Emma

Sweet Lily

Couldn't love this boy more!

the new baby...

Oh, did you think I was talking about the one that is due in January?  No, not that baby.

This new baby....

Are you weak in the knees? Cause I am!

After spending a lot of time researching what I wanted, and putting together a detailed plan of how I would save for this camera, my amazing husband surprised me with this beauty on my birthday!  He'd been selling stuff on ebay for months (very tricky) to buy it for me.  Is he AMAZING, or what?!?!  

So, I'm the proud new owner of a Canon 60D.  I get all giggly just talking writing about it.   It's a beast of a camera, and I'm positive it will be months/years before I even realize how much more it can do!  But, in the meantime I'm spending my spare time playing with the camera and cozied up to the owner's manual.

I can't wait to show off some of what it can do.  So, stay tuned as I get this baby up and running before the other-much-cuter baby arrives!

Blast from the past...

This week's I Heart Faces theme is "In the Orchard."  I immediately thought of this picture.  Look at my adorably chubby little Lukie-boy!  Where does the time go???

the PUMPED UP pumpkin patch....

One of my favorite things is going to the pumpkin patch.  I love the bright colors of Fall.  This year, I heard about a pumpkin patch that has a monster truck.  Anyone who knows Peter, knows that this would pretty much make him wet his pants in excitement (don't worry, he didn't)!  What I didn't know was that this pumpkin patch was actually a Pumpkin Patch on STEROIDS!  It was the Disneyland of pumpkin patches.  We spent 3 hours in beautiful 67 degree weather enjoying almost everything Maris Farms had to offer.

Too bad the adorable girl standing behind the sign is too small to peek through.
She stood behind the sign and said "CHEEEEEEESE!"

We played in the corn pit

We jumped...

and jumped...

and jumped....

and jumped even more.

and then we saw the MONSTER TRUCK...

So the boys went for a ride.

Luke was not too sure what he thought afterwards.

Peter's face says it all.  He LOVED it!

Love this picture in "vintage"

Finally, we got to the pumpkins.

The rule is...if you can carry it, you can have it.

Luke is so proud!  He GOT it!

Natalie had a hard time because she wouldn't
put down her pretend pink cell phone. Oh geez.

Peter went for the one-hand lift too!  But, he got it!

Beautiful view from Maris Farms.

How did I get so lucky?!?!
(Love this picture in "vintage" too.)

Lovin' Soccer...

Peter and Luke are playing indoor soccer.  They are loving it.  Here's a few pics of Peter's practice.

Learning to dribble.

Trying out some moves.

SCORE!!! 

Stewart Family Fun Day...

Today was Stewart family fun day...and boy was it F-U-N!!!

Here's how the day went...
We decided to go to the Children's Museum.  After a lot of fussing (by almost everyone) we finally got out the door at 11am.  As we turned on to the street to park near the museum, we saw that the whole block was closed, and was the finish line for a Breast Cancer Awareness walk.  This was actually highly entertaining because as we parked and walked we saw a bunch of guys in pink tutus...which was endlessly hilarious to the boys.

Did I mention that it was raining?

We arrived at the museum to find that it was CLOSED for renovations.   We hiked back to the car with the promise of finding something else "FUN" to do.  By this time it was 11:45am, so we headed to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch.  The kids surprised us by having excellent manners, and we all enjoyed the meal.

But, the most entertaining part of the day was when the following duo came in and sat down beside us.  The little boy (maybe 4-5 yrs old) came in carrying an iPad.  No case, no help, just him..and his $600 iPad.  Aaron's jaw dropped...if you know Aaron, you know he was HORRIFIED.   You would have thought he was witnessing a horrific crime in progress.   He said, "That's so irresponsible.  It's as bad as putting your kid in a car without a car seat."  Which made us both laugh out loud.  Then the dad pulled out his iPhone and the two happily ignored the world.  Aaron and I giggled like little girls as the boy got frustrated and beat on the iPad with his fist, smacked it a few times with a spoon, and drank his juice right over the top of it.  I don't know why we found this so funny, but we did.  I convinced Aaron to use his phone and take a picture, and it would have been convenient to know that his camera-phone has a flash.  The sudden burst of light made our undercover picture, not-so-undercover.  Which made us laugh even harder.

Just for the record, our kids were blissfully eating their spumoni and were completely oblivious to their parents horrible behavior.

Faces blurred, because, well this is the internet. 

We ended up going to a Lego exhibit, and then headed home for naps...for everyone.  It was a fun day.  Of course, any day that I'm with my kids and laughing with my husband is a GREAT day!

Samantha

This is Samantha (Sam).  She belongs to Aaron's parents, and she is a great dog.  She is 16 years old and was just recently diagnosed with cancer.  So, I went over today to take some pictures of Sam, and the man who loves her most...Aaron's dad, Jim!

Doesn't it look like Sam is laughing in this one...