Day 55: Jumping

Charlotte is learning how to jump so she loves practicing on the couches and on the bed.  This also means that she falls off.  She’s had a couple fat lips and some bruises on her head.  Today she climbed on the end table and told daddy she ‘beh dow’, or ‘feel down’.  This is amazing progress for her speech!!

I got a photo of her in mid air today.  What I don’t like:  Her face is blown out slightly.  I cut off her feet.  She’s a bit out of focus, plus there’s some motion blur.  The picture isn’t quite straight.  What I love:  My husband smiling in the background.  The pure joy on Charlotte’s face.  Her hair flying up.  The position of her arms and legs.  The photo captures some action.

Cooper noticed daddy laying down to rest.  I love the devious look on his face here.

Daddy pretending to sleep and Cooper waking him up.  You can almost hear my husband pretending to snore and Cooper going ‘rawr’ to wake him up.

(Have you noticed the Halloween themed shirts in the last couple days.  My husband thinks they are cute and doesn’t care that it’s February.)

First Blog Award

I received my first blog award!  I want to thank Wendy, from Our Story:  Our Journey to Adoption, for  awarding me the Beautiful Blogger Award!

Here's how it works if you receive the award:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Post this award to 15 other bloggers that you like to follow.  (You can do way less than this, or none at all.  This was seriously a lot of blogs.)
3. Leave them a message on their blog so they know they received the award.
4. Post 7 things about yourself (again, or none at all…your preference).

In no particular order, some of my favorite blogs:

1. Stephanie Cooks for giving me tons of delicious recipes that are simple, quick, and easy.
2. Life in the Fun Lane for inspiring me to decorate with colors and furnishings that I love
3. A Penny Saved for sharing tons of beautiful decorating ideas that look expensive but cost next to nothing.
4. Knock Off Wood for being a new favorite on how to save money by building furniture
5. Maybe If You Just Relax for making me laugh out loud
6. Niffer for reminding me to enjoy motherhood and frequent blog comments to let me know someone is reading and enjoying my blog.
7. 525,600 Minutes for the beautiful photos of Jaelyn
8. Our Family Unplugged for London’s sassy personality captured in all the great photos
9. Pixel 365 for the simplicity and beauty of the photos
10.  Through the Looking Glass for inspiring me to find an editing style all my own
11.  threeSIXfive – A Picture a Day from Keiki Photos for the amazing crafts, sewing projects and fantastic photos
12.  House of Turquoise for inspiring me to see color in a different way
13.  Stinard Family for the fun blog, beautiful photos, and sweet baby boy with kissable cheeks
14. Ramblings and Photos for the inspiration to try new things while editing photos
15. No Time For Flash Cards for giving me tons and tons of craft ideas and new songs to share with my toddlers

And 7 things about me:

1. I must have a creative outlet.  I’ve done scrapbooking, creating artwork for the house, designing wedding invitations and baby announcements, and now photography!
2. I am an avid reader and I have an obsession with owning books.  I refuse to get rid of books, even if I’ve never read them or if I think they’re terrible.  I prefer paying for my books over borrowing them from the library.  Although I love my Kindle, nothing compares to the smell of a book.
3. I was born and raised in Colorado and still refer to it as home, despite living in Southern California for almost 8 years.
4. I love that my family is unique.  My children are 4 months apart.  My husband and I have untraditional roles with him a stay at home dad and me supervising engineers and geologists at an oil company.
5. I have a passion for learning and miss being in school.
6. When I grow up I want to be a:  teacher, social worker, stay at home mom, high level executive, lawyer, and a business owner.
7. Photography has given me a new perspective on being a mom and helped me appreciate all the amazing, wonderful, surprising, fun things my children  do, even on the tough days where I’m tired and stressed.

Day 54: Lots of random

Cooper is still under the weather and wasn’t in the mood for pictures.  Charlotte seemed to be showing off tonight…guess she wants some extra attention since Cooper is getting some from being sick.

I realized tonight that my editing from one photo to the next is inconsistent.  My white balance especially is different in every photo.  I really need to learn manual white balance.

Fake sleeping

Cooper waking her up

Taking her temperature in her arm pit.

 

Taking the temperature of her foot.  I’m not sure about this composition.  I kind of like it because it’s so different from what I do, but I almost don’t like how it feels like she is falling out of the photo.

So what’s it say?

After telling him to use two hands.

I love the look on his face.  They both really love Elmo, particularly the lost little puppy books.  We’ve hidden most of the books because neither my husband or I can stand reading them for awhile.

Fun Edits – Swirling

Fun edits in Photoshop.  I used flowers and a butterfly, but you could probably use anything.  I love the first two, but thought I would show the rest.  I haven’t figured out which types of photos make really great swirls.

Here are the originals that I cropped to 4 x 4.  Then I did:  Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates > Polar to Rectangular.  Then Image > Rotate > 180.  Then Filter > Distort > Polar Coordinates > Rectantular to Polar.   You don’t have to crop to a square…the oval from a rectangular crop also looks really great.