What have we been up to?

Today, Cary asked me if I was going to do a blog about us any time soon. I guess I have been focusing on other things on here besides sharing our every day stuff. Sorry I've been neglecting "us." There's been good reason...but I'll get to that in a bit. :)

SO! What have we been up to??? Well, I thought I'd share lots and lots of pics and tell you that way. It's been lots of normal around here since Cary's been back. Somehow, I'm more tired since he's been home... I'm not sleeping well... and I don't mean I'm not sleeping because we're doing other things... I mean I'm just not sleeping well. I jokingly asked Cary if he could go away for a bit so I could sleep WELL. He tosses and turns and I'm a still sleeper. HA! If that isn't a tell-tale sign of our personality differences, I don't know what is! :) We've been having fun though...playing around here, and going to lacrosse games and such. Anyway, here are some pics to share our activities...

hide-and-seek


games


interrupted by "shows"


playdough...LOTS of playdough






Carson and Caden like to talk a lot about old injuries (aka scratches)


cuddle time (Caden got cropped out of this pic because he was throwing an ABSOLUTE FIT! He wanted the camera and didn't understand why Mommy could hold it but he couldn't


Carter is getting SO BIG! I don't know how big, but I do know he is bigger and longer than Carson or Caden were at this age. Here are some kitchen-counter-bathtime pics. Carson and Caden were taking a bath at the same time, so our tub was in use...






He's nearly blinking in this pic, but check out the teeth :)


Carter spends a lot of time in this position lately:


He seems to think it's even better when he can get his toes AND his thumb in his mouth.


When I grow up...I want to be a professional photographer. It looks like I may be growing up sooner than I thought! :) Instead of blogging our everyday-ness I've been working on the preparation for what will be known as "SugarBowl Photography!" I'm in the process of building my portfolio and website, and I found out today that I may already have potential paying customers! SO EXCITED!!! Anyway, if you think about it, be praying for my steps to be guided and doors to be opened! In my dreaming, I was sure this wouldn't happen until my children were all in school, but it looks like it may all come together much sooner than that! When I'm not doing things for the portfolio and all of that, and when the boys are occupied, I'm practicing doing things like this (I fully admit that I got this idea from another photographer...a photographer I dream of being like someday :)) :




OH! Before I forget! HUGE CONGRATS to our friends Roy & Debbie! They're baby boy was born this afternoon! We love you guys and are SO excited for you!!!

iHeartFaces Week 12: Pouting

Admittedly, this is not my best, but this week, this is what we get. Boy did we have a lot of this yesterday. As much as we need the moisture, I think my kids (and me too) are OVER the snow...more on that later today...

Anyway, here is my entry for this week's iHeartFaces competition. At least it was easy to find subjects. :) As pouting goes, Caden is king around here...at least lately. It's a good thing he's cute.


Come join in the fun and see the other entries over at iHeartFaces.blogspot.com

Fix It Friday #8

Each Friday, iHeartFaces hosts a Fix it Friday. They post a picture that's not so great, and ask whoever will to fix it and post their fix. I decided to participate this week, because I can use all of the photoshop practice I can get. :)

Before:


After:


Here's what I did...
I cropped the original closer to her face, then I ran "lights on" (about 80%), "Boutwell Magic Glasses" and "Warm It Up, Kris." I used "eye bump" (at 35%) to put some life back into her eyes, and "Green with Envy" (at 15%) on her lips to add some red hue.

I'm really amazed at what can be done with photoshop! I try to use it as little as possible on my photos and strive to improve my shots, but it's nice to know that you really can improve even a big mistake. :)

Head on over to iHeartFaces.com to see other people's fixes. Most of them have how to's also, which is so helpful when you're trying to learn. Thanks for letting me share!

A Giveaway

The super generous judge of this week's iHeartFaces competition, Teresa Norris has been doing a giveaway a day all week, and today's is especially sweet! She's giving away one copy of "The Big Book of Babies." It is a stinking adorable coffee table book full of baby photos that are tremendous! I really want to win it...so if any of you enter and end up the winner, will you let me peek? Thanks so much...I know you will! :)

Anyway, go enter here: www.artfromtheheartphotography.com/blog. Be sure to look around and check out her work! She's really good! :)

iHeartFaces: Week 11 (No Flash!)

My entry this week is a teaser for a post I hope to do later this week. Last weekend I had the priviledge of doing a photo session with our dear friends Dan & Stephenie and their sweet baby Samantha. It was the first of many I hope to be able to do. It was so much fun, and I feel like I'm learning more with every click.

The no flash part of this week's entry was easy because I prefer no flash when I'm taking pictures and the back side of our home is all windows, so even indoors, I tend to have a fair amount of light. Love that about our home. The hard part was picking a photo of sweet Samantha. I had so many that I loved, but this one cracks me up every time I see it. She did so good, but I think she was ready to tell me off by this point.



Come join in the fun and check out the other entries at
iHeartFaces.com

My Week as a Road Widow

Cary's been in Europe this week planning the church's summer missions trip to London/Berlin. I know...rough life. :) He's had a great time, and rumor has it he has a present for me. I'm excited. I'm more excited that he's coming home tomorrow night! Can't wait. I'm worn out from this week by my lonesome, but it's been fun for the most part. I can tell the kids are missing Cary though, their emotions seem to be a little high strung. We've tried to keep busy so the week would pass quickly. Tuesday we went to my brother's lacrosse game and to dinner with my dad, brother and sister afterwards. Wednesday I had my mom's Bible study and our youth internship. Thursday I had a girls night at my house with my sweet friends Stephenie and Brianna and my sis Kels. It was lots of fun! We've also been spending LOTS of time enjoying the sunny outdoors. Carter has learned to roll over, and is rolling, rolling, rolling everywhere! I'm glad because I was just noticing last week that he wasn't rolling and should be by now. They still take into account that he was early, so it wasn't to big of a concern, but I had noticed. Well, no need for any worry, because he rolled from his tummy to his back all day Monday, and started flipping back to tummy on Thursday. Now he's a rolling machine. It's funny how quickly babies master things when they wait to even try. Now the moment he wakes up, he rolls over and babbles to himself...love it. Silly boy.

Speaking of learning things... Caden has mastered dressing himself...and undressing for that matter. He's so funny and wants to do it all himself. He seems way to young to be doing that already, at least to me.

It's been a good week, but I sure am glad and excited for Cary's return! Love you babe, and can't wait to hear all of your stories!!!

i Heart Faces, Week 10: "Green"

The rules for this week's theme was that green had to be somewhere in the photo... This qualifies...right?? At any rate, I am such a sucker for this face. Love this kid. :)

Come join in the fun and see the other entries at iHeartFaces.com

New Rooms and more photo fun

Over this last week, I moved the boys rooms around. Caden is now in Carson's old room, and Carson has a new room in our basement. It sounds creepy, but it's not. He really likes having his room down there, and if we can just convince him that it doesn't mean he has extra freedom at bedtime we'll be good! Caden is in a big boy bed and he LOVES it. He's doing really well and I think the timing was perfect. We got them both new bedding and I used this fun guitar printd fabric to make them both pillow shams and I covered Caden's lamp shade. All I have left to do is make their curtains and order the rocker wall laminates for their walls. So fun.

During nap time today I took more pictures of Carter. I'm having lots of fun playing with my camera. I started learning some tricks with photoshop tonight, and that's been fun as well! It's not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. One thing I thought was cool was that after any effects I tried on Carter's pictures, I would have to use the eraser tool on his eyes, because his eyes were prettier without any effects than with! Go figure! :)

Carter is getting so big! He has his bottom 2 teeth now, and I'm thinking he might get his top incisors next like Caden did instead of his front teeth...so their may be some funny vampirish pics to come in the next month or so. :) He's also been practicing sitting up. He only lasts for a few moments before he dives in one direction or another. I had just enough time for one shutter click, but really liked the shot I got.


I caught this pic of Carson last week. Love his lashes and rosebud lips.


Here are some of my favorite shots from this afternoon (it's so much easier to take pictures of non-mobile children :) ):






Carson wanted to get in the action at the end and I caught this:


Just so he's not left out of this post...While I was taking pictures of Carter, Caden was doing this:


Oh! And don't be surprised if a few of these pop again in a few weeks or so for an iheartphoto contest entry! :) Thanks for letting me share...you know I would be printing these out and showing them to anyone who would look if blogs didn't exist! ;) Learning is so much fun!

I Heart Faces: Week 9, Creative Crop

Here's my entry for the week:


and the original:


My regulars have seen the original photo before, but I thought it would be fun to do a fun crop on such a silly face. Carson is a ham, and it was fun to capture it on film. I'm sure there are many more silly faces to come.

Come on!! Join in the fun and be sure to check out the other entries at iheartfaces.com

Mommy's Interview with Carson

What is something mom always says to you?
“Can I go peep.” (peepee)

2. What makes mom happy?
“Poopin’ in the potty”

3. What makes mom sad?
“Poopin in my pants.” We’re in a groove here…

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
“Do funny things…like this… Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Be a.” “Be a, who?” “Chocolate on a syrup!” Gotta love toddler jokes! :)

5. What was your mom like as a child?
“Caden…and Carter…and Carson”

6. How old is your mom?
“48” THANKS BUD!

7. How tall is your mom?
This…(arms extended like the deep in deep and wide)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
“Clean up and do laundry” Hmmm...I need to get out more.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
“Play with Caden”

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
“Playing a game…chuckers”

11. What is your mom really good at?
“Helping me…play a game”

12. What is your mom not very good at?
“Picking up poop…daddy’s very good at it” HA!!!

13. What does your mom do for her job?
“I don’t think anything”

14. What's your mom's favorite food?
“Vegetables… I love eating carrots”

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
“Driving fast! Cause you’re a race car driver!” (Just so you all know…if I pass a car…any car…even a parked car…Carson believes we’re winning…He’s not competitive at all! :) )