before and after

First I open photo in ACR and adjusted white balance. Then I ran Ashley Sisk's nice and easy action (which I am totally loving!) and painted off her skin on the soft light layer with a soft black brush at 72%. Then I ran sparkle eyes from PTM and lowered the opacity to 65%. Then I ran Coffee Shop Baby Powder Room. I lighted it a little bit and ran a warm layer at 28%. Added a milky overlay at 21% and finally sharpened the whole image.

Check out more amazing before and after's at Pixel Perfect!

Quarterly Top 5

The wonderful ladies at Amber's Articles, Naptime Momtog, and Click it up a Notch are hosting the quarterly top 5 photos of your children and I decided to join in on the fun!

You pick your favorite 5 photos of your children from Jan-March of 2011

It was really hard to just pick five, but here they are!

I love her big brown eyes and that big, big smile of hers!


This is my favorite of him! Finally outside enjoying the nice weather, getting dirty and having fun!


Getting him to look at the camera and smile! He is so big now and so handsome! My big and sweet boy!


Loving this smile! So happy!


Such a cute and sweet little boy! So fun to just watch and grow!

What a great and fun idea! I love this!

five months

Baby girl is five months today. She is a laughing, cuddly, growing little girl who just loves attention and smiles from everyone. She is taking after her oldest brother and is growing like a weed! She is so long and tall and can I just tell you, I am so loving these rolls of her!

Her favorites things right now are bath time, tummy time and just talking with her mom and dad. She loves to be held outward not so much inward and if she is sitting up, she is one happy girl! She also just loves laying on the ground and watching everyone else. She kicks and rolls and ends up in many different positions and places. Almost every morning she has one leg sticking out of her crib... it's too funny!

So far Miss Bre does not enjoy solids of any kind. Once in awhile she will eat some cereal and a little bit of sweet potatoes but most of the time she isn't a big fan and quickly learns to keep her tongue out so no spoon can get in. She only likes a bottle if anyone but mom gives it to her and that is if she is really hungry. But from the look of it, she doesn't look like she is starving yet, so we are okay for now.

But I am so loving my sweet and smiley little girl. I love the moments where she laughs and talks and coos. I am loving her big brown eyes and those yummy chunky legs of her.


She is so sweet and I am just loving my little girl!

day 43 - a little boys dream

Right outside our front lawn is a little boy's dream. It's filled with dump trucks and diggers and tractors and dirt! And you can see all of this right out of our big front window. This has kept my little boys entertained and excited for hours. We have even ventured out closer and got to actually sit in the digger! 

Needless to say... my boys are happy. Thanks Bob the Builder!

shutter love tuesday: hands

This weeks theme at the Trendy Treehouse is hands. I love this theme and right now Miss Bre is just loving her hands. She is noticing them more and more everyday and I love the intense look and coos she gives them as she discovers more things they can do!

To check out more amazing photos go visit the Trendy Treehouse!

sweet

Lately I have been having major sweet cravings. I am loving everything sweet... and lets face it, my boys are loving this craving too!

Linking up at Simplicity. Come check out some more sweet things!

day 41 - bath time fun

Are you tired of bath photos yet?

Sorry, we like bath time around here. It's fun, it's wet and it has some of the best and softest lighting!

Baby girl just loves being in the water. She talks and coos and kicks and splashes. Plus, once she is clean and lotion-ed up, I could just breath her in all day.

the paper mama photo challenge :: sweet

The theme for the Paper Mama photo challenge is "sweet". I thought that this picture captured a sweet moment between a big brother and his little sister. They are so cute together and you can tell just how much they absolutely adore each other.

I love these sweet kids of mine!

i heart faces - slice of life

This weeks challenge at I heart faces is "Slice of Life". I immediately thought of this picture of Chase and our daily routine of getting ready. I love that I was able to capture a memory that I am going to love looking back at. This picture just says so much to me.

day 40 - busy day

Daddy's out of town this weekend, so we have a busy day full of activities and friends to help pass the time. It's nice catching my little ones finding simple ways to keep themselves entertained.

my everything

Life has been a little crazy around here.

This week has been a long one. And I am thankful that it is Friday.

A weekend to enjoy these guys and just soak them up. 

They are my everythings.

day 39 - little toes

Just loving everything about her...



I took this photo first thing in the morning... with the light just coming in. I sat my little girl on my lap and took the picture from behind her.

before and after

I just love this picture of my little girl all wrapped up. I just lightened the original photo, added some warmth and softness to it and I just loved it! Not too much but just enough to make it pop!

To learn more and check out other before and afters... head on over to Pixel Perfect!

day 38 - passed out

We have a busy morning with lots to do... but I wish I was still in bed cuddling with her.

you capture :: youth

I am really enjoying watching my little ones grow up. It seems like every morning my Chase man is getting bigger and looking lot less baby-like and more and more like a big boy.

He is so funny and is definitely the 'ham' in our family. He makes the funniest facial expressions and has the craziest and smartest replies to things. He is a hilarious little boy, who absolutely loves his older brother and adores his little sister, who is simply named, 'sister' to him.

We aren't too sure about this solid food thing yet. Although we have been at it for over a week, she is not impressed and much rather have milk. We have quickly learned that she despises green peas and thinks that sweet potatoes and rice cereal are just okay.

I love watching Fisher with his little sister. He is so amazingly sweet with her and just loves to be around her. He is always willing to help keep her motivated come tummy time! He is just so sweet and so cute!

day 37 - lazy morning

Today we woke up kind of lazy. Just lounging on our couch, eating dry cereal and watching Cat in the Hat. I am loving this morning... too bad there is still so much to do!

shutter love tuesday: hearts

This weeks theme at the Trendy Treehouse is hearts. What a fun and challenging theme! When I thinking about this one I thought maybe recreating my kids Valentine pictures for this. Only baby girl was willing to get her picture taken this time, but we had so much fun playing with all of the colored hearts!

You should definitely head over to the Trendy Treehouse to check out some very talented and amazing pictures on hearts!

day 36 - baby clean

I just had to capture a picture of her all clean and warm and wrapped up in her big towel. We love bath time in our house... we like to be really clean!

I am linking up here... come check it out!

day 35 - silly

He was being extra silly today. It's funny how he wouldn't wear these antlers when we first got them at the ISE Show, but today he came over to me, put them on and just started laughing. he sure did make my morning today!

Hope your day is full of silly and happy moments!

day 34 - day dreamer

Not so many words today... just loving this picture, loving her, feeling so blessed.

before and after

This is my first time ever posting a before and after... but I am still learning as I go and I want to share with you my learning experiences too!

This is another favorite shot of my of my oldest actually looking at the camera. I am loving that this whole counting thing is working right now! I am trying to get better at just taking photos without editing them too much. This photo I took of him after school and it was a pretty cloudy day, so the natural light was hard to find.

But we still had a ton of fun counting!

SOOC: (shot out of camera)


Edited:

The first thing I did was crop and photoshop the filing cabinet out of the background. Then I used levels to correct my white balance. My favorite action right now is sparkle eyes from Paint The Moon and I also used AMP Day Dream and erased it off his face a little so it wasn't so hazy. I am still new to this whole applying texture thing, but I added a light texture to the background of the image on the walls and erased it of my little boy. Then I decided to add a yellow gradient layer at 15% to warm it up a little and I finished by slightly sharpening the whole image.  

I am so loving how it turned out and that he seems to pop a little from the background. Like I said before, I am still learning but I am having so much fun and learning so much as I continue to grow!