Outnumbered by testosterone

I heart faces - orchards

2010-10-18T16:57:00.003-04:00

This shot was taken in May earlier this year in the apple orchard of a local farm. This was my first ever paid photoshoot, but the second time I had shot this family. The little girl has the most wonderful red hair, but she is VERY attached to her hats. I say they reflect who she is just now.

Have fun entering your orchard shots in the I love faces contest.

Love that shot - entry

2010-10-06T10:50:00.002-04:00

This is my entry for "Love that Shot" contest.

This shot was taken at the NH Highland Games September 18th. (I have to set my camera's date and time apparently, because it thinks it was taken in January 2008 - before my youngest son was born - ha ha!)

I cropped this shot in nice and close and had to do a little clean up cloning on my yougnest son's face which was covered in chocolate and also to remove some distracting items from the background. I converted to B&W in Lightroom, added blacks and contrast and that was pretty much all the processing that was done on this one.

Hope you like it!

Win a copy of Lightroom and help a wonderful cause

2010-10-05T19:20:00.003-04:00

My heart is just breaking learning about little Sam and the many other children just like him whose future is to be committed to an institution where the likelihood is that he could die within 6 months to his first year there. Sam has down syndrome and in the area where he lives, routinely children with this condition are taken from their families and placed in orphanages. When they reach around 5 to 6 years old, these small angels are then committed to institutions where it is not possible for them to be adopted.

There is a wonderful organization called Reece's Rainbow that help raise both awareness about these children, but also raise funds for their adoption funds so that money does not stand between loving families who could welcome these children into their homes and care for them.

MckMama is running a fundraiser/giveaway right now - enter to win a copy of Adobe Lightroom 3 with $1. You get one entry for each $1 you donate to Sam's adoption fund. The giveaway runs till this Friday, but Sam's fundraiser will be running until the end of this year.

Let's get little Sam a hope anda full adoption grant. You can either hop over to MckMama's post, or click on the Chip In on the top right hand of my blog to donate and enter.

It's a giveaway!

2010-09-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

Crave Photography mentoring giveaway - details are here!

boys in skirts

2010-09-23T16:38:00.003-04:00

Last weekend we headed to the local highland games. All my boys wore kilts and they looked fantastic, if I do say so myself!

Someone else turned 5

2010-09-16T12:25:00.002-04:00

L-Dog has started Kindergarten, though is still at the same school he has been attending since he was an infant. We're prolonging the time until we need to send him to a 'big' school for 1st Grade. I already am having stresses over how all that will work out. Needless to say though, he won't be riding the school bus for the 500 yard trip from our home to the school.

Work has been incredibly busy which has been good - I've not had any time to devote to the foundation, which consequently is in a bit of a holding pattern until the financial hostage of Hip Monkey is released. It's very disheartening to know there are so many families desperately awaiting our help and there is literally nothing we can do about it right now.

I am continuing to practice my photography skills - I just upgraded my camera body to something that is WAY beyond my current needs, but that hopefully will be a sound investment. I hope to focus on that a little more over the winter to be ready in Spring to expand my little business and see if there is a money making opportunity for me there.

That pretty much brings you up to date with things in my world. I have terribly neglected this blog and my friends in blog land, but I am hoping to be able to spend a little more time both keeping you up to date and myself.

Someone turned 2

2010-06-21T17:52:00.001-04:00

L-Dog-isms

2010-04-28T12:30:00.004-04:00

L-Dog: Mama! I just saw a digger! Did you know there is another word for digger?
Mama: Really? What is that?
L-Dog: Excavator, but I don't like the word excavator.
Mama: It can be a difficult word to say.
L-Dog: If I met anyone called 'Excavator', I wouldn't be their friend, because I don't like that word.
Mama: Well, I think you are safe enough there, L-Dog. I don't think you are going to meet many people in this world called 'Excavator'!

Win a car seat!!!

2010-04-14T14:55:00.003-04:00

I KNOW you want to win it!!! Want to find out how? Head on over here!

Easter

2010-04-08T14:56:00.004-04:00

Surveying the loot

Sampling said loot

If you looked this cool with bunny ears, you totally would too!
Not so sure about Mummy's cooking

Egg colouring time!

Fashion show time!

Why yes, I am rock star, why do you ask?

These eggs are so bright....I gotta wear shades...well, kind of wear 'em!

Yes Mummy, I am adorable, why do you ask?

Maybe these look better on top of my head

And a one, a two, all together now!

stickers are fun!

...for everyone!

Butter wouldn't melt!

He was so pleased with his Easter outfit! He kept asking if he looked really handsome. Yes you did L-Dog!

Yes - I do dress my boys alike? Don't you?

Brotherly love!

Fix it Friday #49

2010-04-02T11:26:00.003-04:00

I adored this picture of this cutie - make my desire to even the testosterone score up a bit more even stronger!!!

Here is the original shot:
I felt like going for something quite strong on this one to pull out the muted colors. I ran Noiseware and Portraiture first to get a nice base and then I ran a free action from Coffee Shop, called Perfect Portrait. It has a vivid color layer that helped bring out just the color I was looking for.

The I went back to my base fixed photo and ran Florabella's Soft Urban action and added a texture overlay which I masked off the face at 100% and 50% from the body.

It's been a busy week (what's new?) Last night was Open Mic at the local music hall. Lots of younger talent there this week which gave the evening a different feel. I had to leave early as T-boz was getting ansy and then decided that THEN was the good time to have a poopy diaper. We live 5 minutes away so I just bundled him in the car and deal with it at home. Was time for bed anyway. L-Dog and daddy were not far behind me either which was surprising. Usually L-Dog likes to stay there as long as he can keep his eyes open.

Tomorrow we have a sitter for the boys and are going to a swanky steak house with some friends and Sunday is Easter at hubby's aunt's house. We'll be going after nap....oh reminds me I need to go buys some veggies that we are to cook and bring with us.

Speaking of veggies- great breakthrough on that front this week - both boys are loving cooked frozen green beans. As in, can't get enough of them!!! This is extremely exciting as it relates to L-Dog as he is the worst veggie eater I know! Not sure if they will like green bean casserole, though T-boz will likely eat it - he eats most things, thankfully.

Have a ton of car seats arriving at the house today to get shipped out on Monday. Been waiting on these to arrive for months, so will be good to get them out to all the foundation's waiting recipients.

Hubby is away for work all next week to Portland, OR. It's going to be a long and tiring week without his help. He does so much for the kids (pick up, dinner, pack lunches, help get us all out in the morning etc.). There are going to be a number of late nights and very early mornings in store for me, just so I can keep up with home and work.

Hope everyone has a great Easter!

I heart faces - dramatic B&W

2010-03-29T15:33:00.001-04:00

This is my entry to the I heart faces challenge this week for dramatic black and white photos:

My son's passion is music and specifically playing his guitar. There is not a day that goes by when he doesn't play (not tunefully yet, but hopefully in the future one day). This picture just captures his passion for playing....and I love his "My Mom Rocks" t-shirt too!

Fix it Friday #48

2010-03-26T16:13:00.003-04:00

It's been a few weeks since I've played. Here is the original shot:

I adored the angle and composition of the shot, it just needed a little brightening up.

And her is a Florabella action, Milk and honey, which I thought suited the shot.

Spring cleaning!

2010-03-26T13:21:00.000-04:00

Well - how do you like it? Jennisa from Once Upon a Blog just spruced me all up! I am loving everything about the new look. Thanks Jennisa - you do wonderful work!

Spring has sprung!

2010-03-22T17:30:00.002-04:00

The thermometer hit 70 degrees on Saturday and it was glorious! We took advantage and discovered some welcome flowers....

Played outside for a bit

Went to the park

And the next day we were back to this atire....

boys will be boys

2010-03-18T17:45:00.000-04:00

Remember the joy

2010-03-17T16:34:00.002-04:00

This little joy brings us so much joy every day. I wish I could freeze time, or bottle him. He's got a bit of a cough right now and was home yesterday with a slight fever. Seems to be on the mend today though and bouncing back.

Both boys were so cute this morning with their St. Patrick's Day T-Shirts - they say "Sham - Rocker" on them and have a picture of a guitar. Very appropriate for our boys!

Have a great St. Patrick's Day everyone! Maybe we can get some people to celebrate St. Andrew's Day this year (November 30th) - haggis anyone? ;)

Another little warrier needs our prayers

2010-03-12T15:33:00.002-05:00

Please be in prayer for little Jack Morton who has just been diagnosed with neuroblastoma (the horrid cancer that took little Layla Grace to play with the angels this week. Jack is just beginning his fight, but I hope and pray that he will over come this disease. One day, hopefully there will be no more cancer.

birthday party fun

2010-03-10T17:32:00.002-05:00

....or an excuse for an updated photo dump.....

Yes, there are more pictures of T-boz than L-Dog - that's coz T-Boz doesn't move quite as fast as his brother and Mummy's photography skills have yet to speed up to match L-Dog. ;) The boys had a blast at this place and T-boz was particularly attached to that red ball you see in the above photo.

We're all doing well. Life has been insanely busy as of late, but we're all relatively healthy, minus the odd sniffle here and there. Hope everyone out there is doing well also!

curls

2010-02-25T15:00:00.000-05:00

How I miss those baby curls!

To Sleep....perchance to dream???

2010-02-23T17:29:00.005-05:00

T-Boz will turn 21 months on March 1st. In his 21 months, I would make a rough estimate that he has slept through the night (and I am being generous and calling 4am-ish as through the night) maybe 10 times in his life.

I haven't had the heart, nor the conscience, to do any sleep training with him. I did with L-Dog when he was 8 months old, and whilst it did work after only three days, having read many articles after the fact about the trauma and psychologicaldamage that sleep training, or more specifically, Cry It Out, can do, I vowed never to do it again.

T-Boz has had a hard time with sleep. Well, let me back way up there; initially, he was a great sleeper for an infant. He would routinely go through from 8pm to 2am before he was up for his first nursing session.. WooHoo!! I thought, I'm going to have a champion sleeper on my hands here! Then 4 months hit and so did the 4 month sleep regression, but we never got the sleep reprieve promised after the new skill was learned, or the growth spurt was over.

Add to this the fact that T-Boz is the slowest teether I have ever seen! Seriously - his first tooth was at 8 months and they have all come in one at a time, taking weeks to fully come through. He is just about done with his first round of teeth at the moment, but of course, we have the two year molars still to come (I remember them with L-Dog - he was up 5-8 times a night with those!)

This winter, there have been the pre-requisit snuffles and ear infections, all adding into the no sleeping mix.

Then finally, this past weekend, we had two nights in a row where he slept through till 5:30am. Could this finally be the light at the end of the long tunnel his sleep deprived parents have been hoping for? Well, no - he was up three times last night.

I am not going to complain, because in the grand scale of things, what's a few nights now with a little interrupted sleep? There are parents out there that would give anything to be woken up by their child complaining of a stuffy nose, or some aching gums. And so, I will chose instead to cherish those moments as I rock my son back to sleep, my cheek placed on his head of baby fine brown hair. And I will thank my lucky stars for his health and these moments that I will one day wonder how they passed by so quickly.

Fix It Friday #44

2010-02-19T16:41:00.005-05:00

Wow - another week flew by and I didn't take any pictures myself! I did however, install over 10 car seats this week between a car seat clinic on Saturday and various local/work colleague installations. As a result, I am sporting some nice black and blue legs - yes, I get bruised when I install car seats. I bruise easily as it is, so the combination doesn't make for skirts or shorts to be on the cards....oh if only in February in New England. That's not a problem right now!

ANYWAY, I digress......

Here's this week's Fix It Friday! Here is the original picture from Kelli Hoskins

And here is my fix:

Here's what I did:

Opened in Adobe Camera Raw

adjusted white balance
adjusted exposure on the little girl only

Opened into Photoshop

Cropped and rotated
Adjusted midtones
Ran Florabella Cosmopolitan action and adjusted levels to taste
Added Florabella Mai Tei texture in Normal mode at 21% opacity

Fix It Friday #43

2010-02-12T13:38:00.003-05:00

This week's photo came from Jessica at Pics 'n Giggles. She wrote: This is a photo of my daughter and I just love the expression on her face! I was so lucky to catch this shot. The background clutter probably bothers me the most. Also, her face is washed out on one side while the other is in the shadow. The colors are also very gray and cool.

Here is the original shot:
And here are my fixes:
For the above, I first lightened the right side of the face using Camera Raw. Then, I got rid of the staircase in the background first by using cloning, then I used an action from MCP Bag of Tricks to make the background black to replicate a studio shot. I worked on the eyes using Sesame Ellis' action and corrected the skin tone CMYK reference to get rid of that blue.

With that basic fix, I just had a play around - here is Lily Blue's Berry action:
And here is some texture from Florabella's set:
And here is a cool damask texture:

Beautiful Blogger Award

2010-02-12T10:10:00.006-05:00

Thank you so much Melissa at Home Grown Families for giving me the Beautiful Blogger Award! What an unexpected and thrilling kindness!

The rules for this award are as followed:

Thank the person who kindly passed this to you, and link your award back to them.
Pass it on to 15 blogs that deserve a Beautiful Blogger Award. Let them know they earned this award.

List 7 things about yourself.

Let's see - 7 things about me....

When I was a teenager, I wanted to be a test pilot.

I could fly a plane before I could drive a car.

I've nearly died twice - once when I was 7 months old, and the second time when I was 7 years old. I am hoping 70 isn't holding anything sinister in store for me! ;)

I love Indian food - I could eat it every day without getting bored of it. Bring on the spice!

My boys were/are both breastfed beyond 1 year - T-Boz is still going strong at 20 months. I mentor new breastfeeding mothers and have donated over a thousand ounces of breastmilk.

I have a really hard time getting out of bed in the morning. I love to sleep and I love to be cozy under the duvet.

I have always been really independent - I moved away to go to university and then again to a different country shortly after beginning my working career. I love that type of adventure and my feet get itchy to move. If we didn't have ties in our current area, I would have no problem moving somewhere completely new, like Austrailia, for example.

Okay, so the blogs that I am passing this Beautiful Blogger award on to are:

Mommy9Times
Adventures of an American Mum
Sarah's Dandelions
My Kids Eat Kale
The Nut House

The Miller Family

One of Those Women
The Monkeys and Me

Parker People
Noah Stevens "Crowned in Peace"

My Three Ring Circus

Profoundly Seth

The Animator's Wife
Fresh Fibers

Thank you again, Home Grown Families for the opportunity to pass this along to 15 great blogs!

revisiting

2010-02-11T14:22:00.006-05:00

I've had my DLSR now for about a year and I've enjoyed learning more and more about both taking pictures and post-processing. I thought it would be fun to revisit some of my old favorite shots and edit them now with some of the things I have learned in the past year.

So here's a little before and after.....

It's fun both to revisit these to see how I can improve on the finished product, but also to take a trip done memory lane to see my boys younger.....and check out those curls that T-Boz used to sport at the back of his hair....I miss those!

Silent Auction launched

2010-02-01T12:14:00.001-05:00

I am very excited to announce that the foundation has launched its very first silent auction - go here to check out all the cool items that are up for grabs!

Thank you very much to all the wonderful people who so generously donated items to this auction. Please spread the word!!!

Fix It Friday - #42

2010-01-29T15:35:00.002-05:00

I've had a crazy crazy week at work, so I haven't had any time to update my blog this week, but I had to play along with this fix challenge. Here is the original photo:

And here is my fix - hope you like it!

I heart faces - Texture

2010-01-25T12:53:00.003-05:00

The photo challenge this week at is texture. I took one of my favourite photos of T-Boz and applied a couple of textures, including one freebie from MCP Actions - "sweet light". I reduced the opacity of the stucco like texture and masked it off his face. Hope you like my entry!

Fix It Friday #41

2010-01-22T15:06:00.003-05:00

My very best wishes to the family featured in this photograph. The father has been battling cancer for a few years with recent news that it is now terminal. They are doing everyting they can to cherish the moments they have together. You can drop by Adrienne's blog and leave her some love and comfort.

Here is the original photo:

And here are my fixes....

patience

2010-01-19T08:16:00.000-05:00

Missing my baby

2010-01-18T09:32:00.001-05:00

Missing your cute little toes
and your baby innoncence

bed head

2010-01-15T15:23:00.002-05:00

This new hairstyle of L-Dog's certainly makes for interesting hairstyles in the morning! I'm off to somewhere even colder than here next week - I'm going to Montreal for work. I will miss my family like crazy!! I have to pack a ton of warm clothes and those hand and toe warmer thingymebobs. I will be going dog-sledding for the first time ever on Sunday - wish me toasty hands and feet!!

Shave and a haircut 2 bits

2010-01-13T17:46:00.003-05:00

Someone desperately needed a haircut as you can see....he got it, but I haven't taken a post-snip picture yet. The kids have been sick on and off for the past week - a double ear infection for T-Boz, and unexplained high fever for a few days for L-Dog and then a tummy bug on Tuesday for L-Dog. The winter illnesses have hit our household this year - you know, for breastfed kids, they certainly get more bugs than I would have expected!

Favourite Face

2010-01-11T16:37:00.002-05:00

I heart faces is celebrating its first birthay and asking for submissions of favourite recent face photos. This one is from December and it's not one of my own kids! ;) This is our cousin's little one who has the most wonderful deep brown eyes.

I've learned at lot at I heart Faces from various tutorials to the fun Fix It Fridays.

Fix It Friday - I Heart Faces

2010-01-08T16:52:00.003-05:00

Time for another fun Fit It Friday. Here is the original picture:

I didn't do much to this picture except correct white balance, run it through Noiseware, Portraiture (my new toy!), and a crop.

The boys are thrilled!

2010-01-06T18:04:00.002-05:00

Thanks very much Miller family! You are too kind!

Cruising in my 5 point harness

2010-01-05T17:59:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a safe and happy time! Have lots of photos from Christmas to upload and of course, everyone will be so over Christmas photos by then, that you won't really much care to see them....but such is life for me - always at the coo's tail, as they say where I come from!

Is that a plastic Santa or the real thing?

2009-12-24T09:26:00.000-05:00

T-Boz was not fooled one bit! Merry Christmas!

He sees you when you're sleeping

2009-12-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas from my candy cane mouthed family to yours!

She's a sweet sixteen

2009-12-22T17:34:00.002-05:00

Our little cousin turns sixteen tomorrow. On a snowy New England day, the family threw her a surprise party. There was lots of lovely, yummy food, music and dancing, visiting with family and even a visit from Santa (about which T-Boz was not amused - he is just at that age where they get really suspicious of men dressed up in red suits!)

I promised to do a photoshoot with her after the holidays and I am really looking forward to it - she is a beautiful subject.

Happy Birthday R!!! You are gorgeous and your parents are going to have a run for their money! ;)

climbing

2009-12-18T08:09:00.001-05:00

O Tannenbaum

2009-12-17T15:47:00.006-05:00

Here's our family room tree. We have switched over to the LED lights which makes the white look really blue. I prefer the warmness of the old lights, but you can't beat the savings in energy and lifespan of these.

Yes - we do put up more than one tree in our house. I LOVE Christmas! When we moved to this house, I had the builders put in an electrical outlet in the foyer where I envisioned a tree going. We put a real tree in the family room and an artificial 10 footer in the foyer. The foyer tree is up and lit, but not yet decorated. You can probably see a little of my control issues in this tree....it is the red and gold tree. The foyer tree is blue/silver/clear glass. Yes....moving on....

This is T-Boz's Santa picture from last year. I had one of him, one of L-Dog and one with both of them framed in these ornament frames last year. He was a really great looking Santa!!

This is an ornament we received in 2005 - L-Dog's first Christmas. It is Winne the Pooh by Lennox.

Here is another L-Dog themed ornament - a guitar of course!

I broke out the tripod to take these pictures. The ISO is set to 400, the apeture to f22 and I used the remote timer to fire the pictures. The shutter was open for a full 30 seconds. It was fun to play around.

What does your tree look like?

car seat donations

2009-12-14T17:15:00.001-05:00

I've been busy shipping car seats and working on the foundation blog today. Check it out over the course of the next few days to see some families featured to whom the foundation has donated seats.

As always, we have a huge list of children waiting to receive their seat from the foundation. Each day, they are at risk riding in either seats they are too young for, too big for, or no car seat at all. Can you spare the price of your daily coffee today to donate to the foundation and make a difference in the safety of these children's lives? I, and their families, would be forever grateful!

silhouette

2009-12-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

T-Boz is getting so big!

a winner

2009-12-12T09:00:00.001-05:00

I won my first ever blog giveaway on Thursday! Another set of Patti Brown's Kaleidescope overlays! I opted for the Light Set and had a little play!

Here is L-Dog in Scotland at the New Lanark Mills museum. There was a room dedicated to music and light. Both boys enjoyed it very much!

Here is my original photo of L-Dog:

And here is the addition of Bokeh Touch:

Interesting to see the combination of a black and white photo with a color overlay.

And just so he is not left out, here is T-Boz in that same location:

I heart faces - Fix It Friday

2009-12-11T11:14:00.003-05:00

Jenna entered this photo originally for the Constructive Feedback spot at I heart faces. She wrote that she thought the photo was a little bright and needed to be toned down a bit and she wished that the colors were more vibrant. She also felt like the photo might have been overexposed.

Here is her original photo:

Here is my first fix - a color:

Here's what I did:

- I ran it through the community edition of Noiseware to reduce some of the grainyness/noise that came with the original photo as it was shot with a high ISO setting of 800.
- I opened it in Adobe Camera Raw and adjusted some of the exposure, recovery and blacks. I also bumped the clarity a little.
- In PSE4, I did a curves bump by pulling the center straight up. I then did a layer mask and only applied it to the man on the ground.
- I then did a levels and squeezed the sliders in on both ends and then moved the center slider over to the left till I got the contrast and look I wanted.
- I then did a Hue/Saturation layer and bumped up th blues and the yellows individually.
- I did a futher Hue/Saturdation layer and reduced the red and only applied it to his face using a layer mask.
- I then did a edge sharpening using an action that I got on Clickin Moms.
- Finally I added a vignette using an MCP action (a freebie!)

Here are a couple more plays with this picture. The first is running PW's Old West:

and lastly PW's seventies (which I adore!):

Check out what others did with this photo at I Heart Faces.

congratulations my friend

2009-12-11T10:42:00.000-05:00

May you have a very long and happy marriage - love you!

Do the bump

2009-12-10T17:02:00.001-05:00

The following is what happens when two old friends get up on the dance floor.....

did you hear?

2009-12-07T16:05:00.002-05:00

It's almost Christmas!!!

we all have our fascinations

2009-12-06T09:52:00.000-05:00

Focus

2009-12-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

I Heart Faces - Fix It Friday

2009-12-04T11:17:00.003-05:00

This photo was submitted by Lindsey from Getting Wild In The West. She wrote: "The baby in the picture is my son, Bennett. He is about 71/2 months in the picture. The thing bothering me most about the SOOC shot is the coloring. My camera seems to take really cool pictures!"

Lindsey - you need to play with your white balance setting!

Here is Lindsey's original picture:

And here are my fixes:

Happy Friday

2009-12-04T09:49:00.002-05:00

We will be decorating our tree and house this weekend and really getting into the holiday spirit. Christmas cards are making their way out - you may have already received one from us. If you have, hope you liked it!

Kaleidoscope Textures by Patti Smith

2009-12-03T15:52:00.003-05:00

I've been playing about this afternoon with Kaleidoscope collection from Patti Smith. Here is my before picture which has some pretty nice bokeh in the background to begin with (I love me some bokeh!)
On this image, I have applied Smoke, Watercolor Vingnette and Impressionism 2.
There are endless variations to try out and I can easily see me being sucked into trying loads of combinations. There is a 30% off sale going on right now, so if you fancy using these textures, which can be used in softlight or overlay blending mode in Photoshop, check them out! I also got the Light Flare set which gives me even MORE ways to play around with images. Oh my! I can see endless hours disappearing right now!

Maya Papaya Hair Clips

2009-12-02T11:37:00.002-05:00

A shout out for my friend Kami who owns the Etsy shop Maya Papaya. I adore her clips that are made with real wool and no glue - everything is hand stiched and wonderful quality. If you are looking for hairclips that don't fall out, look no further.

Check out this lovely seasonal clip!

It's a good thing I don't have a girl otherwise I would have a hair clip problem!!!

Eighteen months old today

2009-12-01T18:22:00.003-05:00

It's crazy to realize that today T-Boz is 18 months old. The past year and a half have gone at warp speed for us! Today he is a fully fledged toddler, running around, chatting away and having interactive conversations (mostly baby talk, but surprisingly less and less), throwing the odd tantrum in there for good measure, and giving lovely hugs and kisses.

He is still on breastmilk; nursing when we are together and in a sippy when not.

He is approximately 24 lbs at the moment - that Swine Flu knocked some weight off him and he has slimmed considerably.

He knows a number of signs and will do them if you ask, but only does milk, more, please and all done without prompting. He also knows red, cow, thank you, orange, yellow and green.

His eating habits are great and he tries most things. He has been on table foods since about 9 months - we followed 'Baby Led Weaning' and skipped purees completely. He has his picky moments about food, but for the most part is an excellent eater.

He says 'no' with an English accent - it is the cutest thing. The answer to all questions is, of course, 'no.'

He runs around and has a cute little penguin run where he has his arms straight and his hands stuck out just back from his sides. I must catch it on video before he stops doing that.

He is still rear-facing in his car seat - naturally! ;)

He is teething like crazy all the time. Right now he has his top and bottom four front teeth and one molar in. The other three molars are on their way as are his eye teeth.

Sleeping through the night has not happened in a very long time (see above and the Swine Flu).

He likes to wake up and then come into our bed for his morning nursing session. If it is early enough, he may fall back asleep for a little bit.

He is a hitter. We are working on this with him and he is slowly getting better, but it is what it is at the moment.

He is such a darling baby boy though and I adore him so much!

I heart faces tooshies

2009-11-30T15:46:00.002-05:00

The theme this week at I heart faces for the photo challenge is tooshies - this is my first time entering and I seem to have quite a number of photos to choose from.....I guess because my kids see my camera coming and run away! ;)

Hope you like this photo of my youngest son taken towards the end of this summer. This was at my husband's family's property which is for sale now. I am sure these pictures of our last summer visiting there will be treasured in years to come for the memories they bring.

Sisters

2009-11-29T21:28:00.000-05:00

Sisters, sisters, never were there such devoted sisters

Introducing my aunt and her sister (my Mum). There are nine years between them and they've been through a lot in 81 and 72 years (respectively). My aunt is a bunch of fun! She did the Vaudville/Cabaret circuit since she was a teenager as a singer and entertainer. The stories she can tell and the people she has met! Of course, most people who live outside of Scotland wouldn't recognize the names.

I don't get to see her very often, but it's always a great time when we get together!

Cute little streets

2009-11-28T21:25:00.000-05:00

Don't you just want to live here???

Greyfriar's Bobby

2009-11-27T21:08:00.001-05:00

While we were in Edinburgh, top of the list to visit, apart from the castle, was Greyfriar's Bobby momument. L-Dog had received a couple of books about Bobby and had loved the stories. We promised we would visit there when we were in the city.

Depsite photographic evidence below to the contrary, he was very excited about this. Moments before this picture was taken, a couple of men had a bit of a confrontation nearby and it had upset L-Dog a little.

Once we got into the actual graveyard where Bobby and his master are buried, all was again well in the land of L-Dog.
If you don't know the tale of Greyfriar's Bobby, check it out - it is decidedly heartwarming!

Tagged

2009-11-26T21:00:00.001-05:00

I was tagged by my friend, and fellow foundation runner, Marie and I keep meaning to do the post.

Here's the deal with the TAG ~ share five things you are obsessed with and then pass the award on to five of the most fabulous blogs you know!

1) Car Seats is always my #1! I cannot pass a car seat or a vehicle with a car seat installed to check to ensure that all is good. Unfortunately, that usually leads me to the quandry of whether to butt my nose in to tell the parent what needs correcting. I got both ways on this - sometimes I do and generally the message is received in a positive light. It takes one time for the reception to be a bit hostile and I back off for a while on butting in. However, I ALWAYS check and I ALWAYS get into that quandry.

2) Photography - you may have noticed that I am a bit obsessed with photography recently! ;) I would like to take a class sometime soon (though when this will actually be is a bit beyond me at the moment).

3) My family - of course! T-Boz and L-Dog are at such fun ages right now. So different in personalities, but tons of fun. If I could just freeze them at this age, that would be perfect!!!

4) Pumping enough breastmilk to last T-Boz through till he is two years old. While I am with him, I nurse him, but while at work, I pump. Recently, it's been tough to match what I send to school and I've had to dip into the freezer stash a lot, but things are getting back on track for the moment, so that is good. This is a just a personal goal I set myself and of course, because I did that, I've GOT to see it through.

5) Ridding the house of clutter! I think that is pretty impossible with kids, but there is so much stuff that is not kid related in our home that needs to GO! I have a few things listed with Freecycle and I don't seem to be getting any bites - I mean, c'mon - this stuff is FREE! Someone must need a vacuum and a drawing desk! Anyone???

Vote for the Kyle David Miller Foundation

2009-11-25T14:32:00.001-05:00

A trip down Memory Ramsay Lane

2009-11-25T11:47:00.005-05:00

It was a almost a different life, way back when I nearly uprooted myself from my job and rented abode in England to move back to Scotland. I was going to live in Edinburgh, work at a new company and (gulp!) marry a different man. On this trip back to Scotland, I thought about how different my life would be and I took a trip down Memory Lane....or, in this case, it was Ramsay Lane....but, whatever! ;)

I have always loved Edinburgh - it has such a stark contrast between old and new, exisiting in harmony, each enriching the other. I adore history and know quite a bit about Edinburgh's past, so this location suits me very well. I love the buzz of city life; to have that mixed with wonderful history and beautiful architecture is the perfect mix for me.

Here is the view from Edinburgh Old Town across to New Town. Edinburgh is split in the center between Old and New Town - they date from different eras and they both have distinct feels to them. New Town is a relative term as it was built in the 18th century! ;)

And here is looking back up at Old Town and the castle on the right.

Ah, that could have be such a different life for me if I had not taken a trip to Boston *just* before I was due to leave for Edinburgh. It is fun to imagine what life could have been like, but even more fun to think of how life is and how I wouldn't change that for the world!

Black & White Beauties

2009-11-24T18:16:00.003-05:00

Just ordered our Christmas cards - hope they turn out good - excited to see them. Here's a sneak peak of two images I used.

Is it surreal to everyone that Thanksgiving is two days away and Christmas is hot on its heels? I swore I was going to be very organized this year and have my shopping done early. Oh well, I'll play catch-up on Friday and maybe score some deals!

For those of you who do shopping online, I would be forever grateful if you would consider going through Goodshop.com or iGive.com and chose the Kyle David Miller Foundation as the beneficiary. A percentage of your purchase will go to the foundation. There are loads of participating stores on these two sites - e.g. Gap, Amazon.com etc. Thanks so much!!

Hanging tough

2009-11-23T13:30:00.003-05:00

L-Dog is of the age now where he gets invited to 'school' friends' parties. We've had lots of fun recently at gym-themed parties...

...and T-Boz gets to tag along and roll around having fun too

Both boys seem to be fully recovered now, with the occasional cough from T-Boz. The weekend was its usual whirlwind of classes, both dancing and swimming. The adults had a great evening out in the city with some friends - dinner and theatre - we went to see Avenue Q. I'd never heard about this show before and I kept it that way so I would be completely surprised. What a great show! It was so funny and not like anything I was expecting at all! If you get the opportunity, grabs some tickets and see this!

We were late home and of course, T-Boz decided that immediately it was time for him to start waking up repeatedly. As such, Sunday was a tough day for the adults, but we had fun again after nap at our friends' who invited us over for a BBQ and the kids played on the various power wheels they had recently bought from Craiglist. Sounds like we now have at least one in our future too! ;)

Fall fun and my first ever photo shoot

2009-11-19T14:46:00.005-05:00

A couple of weekends ago (before the boys in my family all came down with the flu - more on that later) a friend asked me to take some pictures of her kids. I was very honored and a little nervous as I haven't really done much more than take pictues of my own kids and try to learn a little from online courses, reading some books and tutorials over at Clickin Moms

I was really surprised to find that a few pictures turned out quite nicely and I am in process of editing them. I think there will be over 200 of them for her to chose from in the end. I have a hard time whitling them down (how do you professionals out there do that?)

Here is a quick peek at a few of my favorites...

We've been sick for about a week and a half. First T-Boz came down with a fever a week past Monday night, so we kept him home from daycare on Tuesday, but took L-Dog in. By mid-day, we'd received a call to pick up him from school too - a fever also. We called the pediatrician on Wednesday and they said to treat the fever wth Tylenol and if they weren't better by Thursday, to bring them both in. On Thursday, we received the diagnosis of suspected Swine Flu and T-Boz had mild pnuemonia. We got T-Boz onto anitbiotics straight away for the pnuemonia and hoped L-Dog would perk up soon. Hubby then became ill on Friday and I was tending to three sick men in my house.

We've only just today all returned to work/school. L-Dog developed an ear infection and T-Boz had a bit of a relapse on Monday again after having a good weekend. Everyone seems to be in fine fettle today though and I have a slight sniffle. Touch wood - I appear to have missed this flu.

Hope everyone else is doing well!

I heart faces #35

2009-11-06T13:45:00.006-05:00

Here is the original

And here are my fixes:

Pride and Joy

2009-11-06T13:04:00.004-05:00

T-Boz was the back-up guitar......
....and L-Dog was who? Any guesses?

Edinburgh Castle - Part II

2009-11-05T09:44:00.013-05:00

No Paparazzi!

Bye bye castle! See you next time!

Happy 1st Birthday Stellan! Praying for you!

2009-10-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

Stellan needs our prayers right now. He is not where we would all want him to be on any day, least of all his birthday. He is back in hospital again, fighting a particularly bad round of SVT. Please, if you are compelled, pray for Stellan's quick healing.

Editing, editing, editing

2009-10-22T17:28:00.002-04:00

The problem with going on vacation after having recently taken up photography is......all the wonderful photos you have waiting to be edited.

I am slowly making my way through the shots from my oldest friend's wedding. Here is a little taster

Reminder of giveaway

2009-10-16T12:20:00.003-04:00

Just a reminder that I have a giveaway running right now on my new Review blog and there is a new review posted there today. The giveaway is running for another week and I will announce the winner next Friday, October 23rd.

Please vote - only two days left

2009-10-13T17:01:00.002-04:00

Would you please lend a moment of your time to vote for the foundation? We are currently in 6th place. If we win, the prize is $10,000! That would help a LOT of children get safe car seats! You can vote once per email address here: http://www.ilovechristiecookies.com/contest/form.asp Select the Kyle David Miller Foundation from the drop down list.

Thank you so much!

Tot Talk Tuesday

2009-10-13T16:34:00.004-04:00

I can actually participate in Niecey's fun Tot Talk Tuesday this week as I actually made a mental note to remember this conversation with L-Dog this morning:

L-Dog: Is that a house there, Mama? (as we pass this delapidated building that is now up for Commercial sale)

Me: Yes, I think it used to be a house where people lived.

L-Dog: Maybe they are still living there.

Me: Maybe, but I don't think so.

L-Dog: I think it is a house because there is a garage.

Me: Yes, there is a garage there.

L-Dog: But maybe a policeman came and took their car away.

Me: Do you think that is what happened?

L-Dog: Yes, but maybe they can use their Dad's car instead.

Don't even ask me where all THAT came from! ;)

Review Blog and a giveaway

2009-10-13T16:25:00.002-04:00

I've been approached recently by a few vendors to review their products, so I've begun a separate review blog and for my inaugural post, I am running a giveaway. Head on over and try to win a years subscription to Clickin' Moms

Fix It Friday

2009-10-09T14:41:00.009-04:00

This week's FIF picture comes from Kim from My Family's Circus for sharing this cutie-pie photo with us this week.Kim wrote: "This picture of my nephew was the first picture I took with my brand new Canon 2.8 17-55 mm lens. I had been watching him for 5 days while his mom and dad searched for a new home. My sister missed him terribly, and this picture was taken minutes before she came to pick him up. She will LOVE to put this picture up in her new home."

The original:

My fixes:

Scotland - Edinburgh Castle part I

2009-10-08T11:22:00.022-04:00

About a year ago, L-Dog received a couple of books as gifts for his birthday from a relavtive who lives in Scotland. One was about Edinburgh Castle. He has enjoyed reading this book at bedtime and mentioned to us that during our trip to Scotland, he would like to go and see the castle, and specifically the 1 o'clock gun that gets fired at, you guessed it, 1 o'clock every day.

We set off early with hopes of taking a leisurely stroll up to the castle, however road works and a huge queue at the castle ticket counter meant that as we ran up the hill to the gun, it fired.
This actually worked out for the best (despite our very fast walk from the car park to the castle and susequent run from the ticket counter to the gun) as we heard the gun, but didn't get engulfed with smoke. Also, little ears didn't get blasted right next to the firing gun.

We had a good walked around the castle, and took in the scenery of Edinburgh from the castle.

We climbed on a gun to pose for a photo

And we took in the sights around the castle

We rocked our kilt

And some of us refused to nap ALLLLLLLL day....

More sights from the castle to come....

Scotland - New Lanark

2009-10-05T17:57:00.016-04:00

Been busying uploading and editing photos today. In this first installment, you can see our base for our week in Scotland - New Lanark. This was a perfect location for us. We rented a 'water cottage' which was a two bedroom apartment with kitchen, full bathroom, living and dining area. My brother and his wife had the one next door to us and my Mum stayed with them (even though she only lives about 20 minutes up the road from there).

The mills are beautiful - renovated and house both a hotel and a museum. Robert Owen was quite an amazing man - did you know the world's first ever nursery was at New Lanark? I didn't till we visited there. We studied New Lanark at my school as it was really a progressive place - compulsary education from children, education for adults, sick pay, etc.

late for International Baby Wearing week...but I couldn't resist

2009-10-02T11:09:00.004-04:00

These were from February this year - it was a cold day on the beach!!!

Yes, we're back! I have about 700 pictures to sort through, but a few good shots I think, so once I can get my act in gear, I will get editing and posting. We had a fabulous trip to the UK. We spent time with friends and family and I miss them so much. I have some fabulous friends state-side, don't get me wrong....but there is something special about 'old' friends - especially the ones where even though you haven't seen them in a long long time, you can pick up immediately as though it was only last week that you were all together.

We had fun introducing our family to some friends I haven't seen in 10 years! gulp! We visited the city in which I went to university and I drove around a few of my old haunts.

We had many a culinary indulgence both of my mother's cooking (her specialities are steak pie and beef italienne) and of the carry-out variety (can't beat an Indian take-away or fish and chips in a poke [paper bag] in Scotland!). I did not have haggis this trip however, much to my disappointment. I rediscovered my love of pickled onion crisps and of course lots and lots of UK chocolate bars!

I'd better get on, but I promise to be back with many shots of the UK flavour next week! It's good to be back (now if T-Boz would only get back onto US time.)

Thirsty Thursday

2009-09-10T13:17:00.002-04:00

Stay away from the bubbly, T-Boz! Bubbly - get it?? Get it? Oh, I crack myself up!

Things have been crazy busy for me lately and blogging has definitely taken a back seat - sorry to my followers....I appreciate you a lot and am sorry that I have been so silent recently. We're off on a trip soon, so there will be a bit of a silence for a while unless I can work out how to schedule posts. I'll work on that a bit tomorrow.

The boys are well and L-Dog is exicted to be going on a plane ride next week. I'll be excited if they sleep on the plane! L-Dog's Pre-K session began on Tuesday - he loves his new teacher - she sings and plays the guitar, so she is right up his alley. We actually donated a guitar to the school for his classroom to ensure that music was a center part of the curriculum. T-Boz moved up to the Young Toddlers room and they are talking about transitioning him to napping on a mat when we come back from our vacation. Yikes! I don't think I can take my baby growing up so quickly!

There is something very big about the move to napping on a mat that means they are just no longer a baby - even more so than the transition from bottle to sippy cup. T-Boz still get's breastmilk, though keeping up with pumping enough for him has been a challenge recently. As soon as he hit 14 months, Aunt Flo returned and my supply always takes a dive when that happens. I love the long break I get from my monthly visitor after having a child. With L-Dog, she returned 4 days after he turned 1 year old.....this extra 2 months with T-Boz was an added bonus. So, I've been drinking my Mother's Milk Tea and popping my Fenugreek pills (I smell like Maple Syrup now!). That has helped. I wanted to pump till T-Boz is 2 years old, but I am not sure if I will make it at this point. Of course, I'll still nurse him when we are together, but providing milk for his sippys at school could get challenging.

I'm looking forward to our trip for another reason - I get to play with a Radian XT! I bought this for traveling for L-Dog. This seat rear-faces to 40lbs and forward-faces to 80lbs. We will use it forward-facing on the plane as it sits low enough for the tray table to be used. T-Boz will sit rear-facing in his Boulevard on the plane behing L-Dog - this way we won't be preventing anyone from reclining their seat on the plane. L-Dog will rear-face in the vehicles though in the Radian. I'll need to get the seat out this weekend and introduce it to L-Dog so we don't spring this surprise on him and have an adverse reaction to the new seat. Four year olds (well, at least mine) can be so unpredicable.

Party like you're 4!

2009-09-03T16:46:00.005-04:00

L-Dog's party was at the 'glow bowling' place near where we live. I think it was a success. This was the first time inviting friends from school, so it was a larger crowd and we didn't really know many of the parents....however, we've been invited to their kids' upcoming parties too, so I guess we will get to know each other a bit better.

L-Dog had a blast and we did a 'guitar' theme, appropriately enough.

Please help the foundation win $10,000!

2009-09-03T13:34:00.000-04:00

Would you please lend a moment of your time to vote for the Kyle David Miller Foundation which is the charity I help run? We are currently in 8th place. If we win, the prize is $10,000! That would help a LOT of children get safe car seats! You can vote once per email address here: http://www.ilovechristiecookies.com/contest/form.asp Select the Kyle David Miller Foundation from the drop down list.

Thank you so much!

Scenes of Summer

2009-08-26T18:15:00.002-04:00

Fix it Friday

2009-08-21T18:12:00.007-04:00

Today's photo was submitted by Alesha from "Snapshots of Us." Isn't he a handsome young man?! Here is the original:

And here are my fixes - first the color fix:
Then the sepia:

Then Black and White:

Happy 4th Birthday L-Dog!

2009-08-18T18:28:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow my oldest turns 4 years old! Crazy how time has flown! He's still rear-facing in his Marathon, but creeping close to the weight limit on that. He loves music and 'playing' the guitar, keyboard and drums. Not much of a singing voice yet, but maybe that will develop...;)

His favorite bands/artiste are Stevie Ray Vaughn, Foo Fighter, Queen and The Police at the moment, though the Kids Rock CD is also a fav!

Food wise, we still battle getting him to eat vegetables, though recently he has started eating raw carrot. Favs are still pizza, chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, spaghetti O's, Cashew Butter & Jelly sandwiches, onion rings and calamari!?!?!

He's a great big brother and really loves T-Boz - I am loving watching the bond between them grow.

Happy birthday 'big' boy! Mummy loves you so much!

Fix it Friday - I heart faces

2009-08-14T12:59:00.005-04:00

This week's photo (which seems to be just about perfect SOOC) was submitted by Amy from Muddy Boots. Her sweet little guy suffers from a skin condition that makes editing photos a very difficult task for her. She was interested in learning some tricks and tips for editing problem skin.
Here is her original shot

And here are my fixes.....

I first ran the community version of Noiseware on this. Then I opened in Photoshop in the RAW editor and corrected for color, exposure and added a little blacks. I then opened in Photoshop and made a duplicate layer to do my editing on. I used the clone tool on Lighten at 50% to get rid of the dry skin and red areas. Next up was a Hue/Saturation later in which I reduced the saturation of the reds in her skin. I used a layer mask and only applied this to the affected areas. I did a crop and tilt to the image. Then I flattened the image and ran a Defog action, then Coffee Shop Perfect Portrait to do the rest.

Here are the rest of my edits - Sepia...

Antique...

Antique with texture later and frame...

Hope you like my work!

Car seat recommendations - infant and convertible

2009-08-13T17:57:00.009-04:00

How not to keep your kid safe in a vehicle:

Hee Hee! I couldn't resist! This is T-Boz with one of his 'aunties'.

I've been asked to list my car seat recommendations from infant stage upwards, so here goes.....

Infant

Graco Snugride 32/SafeSeat - the Snugride 32 replaces the SafeSeat, but looks exactly the same to me - the difference is the increased weight limit to 32lbs rear-facing. This seat is great, but it is big and bulky. Once the combination of seat and child gets too heavy, you can always leave the seat in the vehicle and just put your child in and out of the seat. With your newborn, until they grow bigger, you are more than likely going to have to place a rolled up cloth diaper/spit cloth in the crotch area to take up space between the crotch of the baby and the buckle, like so:

The base has a nice and easy recline adjuster and the built-in lock-off avoids the need to lock your seat belt and hence get tippy car seat syndrome.
Chicco Keyfit 30 - I LOVE this seat! Weight limit - 30lbs. The newborn insert, which can be used till the child is 11lbs, really snugs the infant in the seat. The base has a spirit level to get recline angle correct and the built-in seat belt lock-off is great! I think this is my favorite infant seat to install as a tech!
Britax Chaperone - Weight limit 32lbs, anti-rebound bar (functions like a rear-facing tether) and side impact head cushioning - this will be available soon, but I am very excited about it!

Note - infant seats can be used until either the child reaches the max weight or there is 1 inch of shell above the top of the child's head. Harness should always be in slots at or BELOW the child's shoulders. I don't generally recommend a convertible seat for a newborn, with just one or two exceptions to that rule (Sunshine Kids Radian line).

Convertible (rear-face then forward-face)

Britax Marathon/Boulevard - these seats rock my world....or my vehicle ;). They rear-face to 35lbs and then forward-face to 65lbs. The Marathon will last you a bit longer forward-facing as the top harness slot height is 0.5 inch taller than the Boulevard. The Boulevard has the true side impact head wings and you don't have to rethread the harness to adjust it. There are no side impact crash testing standards in the US at this time, so there is no US data to determine if this is a nice marketing feature or a increased safety feature. The Boulevard is in the foreground and the Marathon is in the rear.
The tall seat back allows rear-facing to the full 35lbs and that's my almost 4 year old in the background there. ;) Britax seats are incredibly easy to install and use, which should translate into reduced incidences of misuse and therefore, safer kids. ;) Check out the new Roundabout 50 - rear-facing to 35lbs, forward-facing to 50lbs - same top harness slot height as the Marathon (17.5 inches). Great seat for ~$200. All Britax convertibles can be tethered rear-facing.
Sunshine Kids Radian 65/80/XLT - love these seats! Recently upped the rear-facing weight limit on these to 40lbs. Depending on the model you buy, these harness to 65 or 80lbs, but with the same top harness slot/shell height. The XLT has the side impact wings similar to the Britax Boulevard above. All Radians can be tethered rear-facing. Top harness slot height 18 inches, but child's shoulders can go above the top harness slot ON THIS LINE OF SEATS ONLY until the top of the child's ears are level with top of the shell of the seat. The Radian line is the slimmest harnessing seat on the market - perfect for 3 across situations!
Graco My Ride 65 - rear-facing to 40lbs, forward-facing to 65lbs. Top harness slot height 17 inches. Very easy to install. Built in ball leveler to give correct recline angle.
Recaro Como/Signo - rear-facing to 35lbs, foward-facing to 70lbs. Top harness slot height on the Como is 19 inches - Signo is 18 inches. Main difference between these seats is you don't have to adjust the harness or that convenience.
Evenflo Triumph Advance - rear-facing to 35lbs, forward-facing to 50lbs with 15.5 inches top harness slot height. You don't need to rethread the harness to adjust on this seat. This seat is generally well liked, and at the price point of ~$130, very attractive. If you have the extra $20 though, I would spring for a Graco My Ride 65 instead.
First Years True Fit - there are two flavors of this available - the original and the premier. The premier adds a new anti-rebound bar which takes the place of a rear-facing tether that is available on Britax and Sunshine Kids convertible seats. The main complaint I hear about this seat is that rear-facing the harness adjuster button is so low that it is sometimes inaccessible or difficult to use when the seat is rear-facing. You can remove the headrest on this seat until the child reaches 22lbs which can help with tighter spaces.

For a list of forward-facing only harnessing seats, please see our recommendations on the foundation website here. Don't hesitate to ask me any questions at all!

my advice to the ladies

2009-08-12T14:52:00.002-04:00

Marry a man that cooks!

Looking at this photograph, I think it is quite the commentary on our lives. In the background you will see children's sippy cups, a breastpump attachment, a bottle of Fenugreek (currently battling a little supply issue), an electric kettle (a Brit HAS to have an electric kettle) and my beloved pottery jars - also from the UK. More often than not, my husband does the cooking in our home....mainly because he is home first with the kids and done first with putting our older son to bed.....T-Boz usually takes longer to settle what with reading a book and nursing.

Dinner this evening was a tasty little number in the latest Rachel Ray magazine - it had sardines (skin/boneless), olives, parsely, garlic, anchovy paste and olive oil. It was relatively easy to whip up (from my vantage point - ha ha!) and very tasty. I think it is in the 'meals under $10' section and was called something like Pasta Salsa Verde.

Not Me! Monday

2009-08-10T17:29:00.011-04:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not wonder this weekend if in fact I had given birth to the start of another Hanson group, or alternatively the Jonas Brothers when I snapped these pictures:

But then if you notice....the lure of the toys is still strong for T-Boz, as he abandons his post at the keyboard in favor of GeoTrax. I was not blown away when L-Dog mounted his new bike that was bought for his upcoming birthday and cycled away like a pro....
I did not then think the perfect complementary present he could open on his actual birthday was a set of elbow and knee pads. This was definitely not confirmed the next day whilst putting a band-aid on a new boo-boo on his elbow!

I did not contemplate NOT sharing these pictures I took yesterday when I noticed just how dirty our family room picture window is....YIKES! Then I did not think, oh what the heck and share them anyway because the human subject was just too cute and would distract from my dirty window! ;)

Fix it Friday - Sweet Boy

2009-08-07T15:59:00.005-04:00

I am running out the door, but here is this week's original submitted by EL from Through My Own Lens.

My color fix:
My sepia fix:
My Through the Viewfinder overlay:

king of the swingers

2009-08-05T16:06:00.004-04:00

We like to swing in our family, yes we do! There are few things more fun than swinging around.

I took the boys to the park at the weekend for some fun. T-Boz is really liking the swing now and I am amazed at how independent L-Dog is on all the park equipment. He really shows lots of agility with little fear. The only piece of equipment he asked for help with was the rip chord slide thing (what is that called anyway?). Back in May, he asked for support the whole time on it. This past weekend, he just wanted help lifted up so he would reach to grab on. My boys are getting big!

Fix-it-Friday - I Heart Faces, cake face & Glencoe

2009-07-31T11:00:00.009-04:00

Here is today's FIF project. What a lovely vintage dress - I went with that theme and did an antique and sepia conversion on this original photo:

Hope you like my conversions!

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My favorite place in the world is Glencoe in Scotland. It is a hauntingly beautiful place. If you ever get to visit Scotland in your life, trust me that you want to make the trip to the Highlands to breath in the clean air and feel the history of the ages surround you. To me, this is the real Scotland! If you are of the persuasion, the Three Sisters (which is the collective name given to the three hills in Glencoe) are a moderate to easy hike. I've climbed to the top only once and to the Lost Valley twice. Halfway up the hill you come to this valley which is not visible from the road (hence the name, the Lost Valley). You can even see the ruins of the houses that were once occupied by the MacDonald clan than lived in Glencoe.

The history of Glencoe is fascinating and, sadly tragic. You can read here about the massacre of Glencoe, when the Campbell clan tricked the chief of the MacDonald clan and then basically killed the MacDonalds in their sleep while the cheif was on his way to sign his support for the crown.

My hubby sent me this link to a webcam in Glencoe today - looks like a dreer and windy day in Glencoe - the perfect weather to visit to get the full experience. Makes me hanker to return!
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Here's a picture my friend took of T-Boz that I post-processed. This was taken on 4th July and T-Boz had just enjoyed some cake. He's so scrumptious, I could eat him myself.

Speaking of T-Boz - he took his first steps two weeks ago and can now stand unassisted for a good time and is taking about four of five steps in a row. Won't be long before he is running around.

backwards orange

2009-07-28T14:58:00.006-04:00

Today, in honor of Stellan, I am wearing my orange T-Shirt today and my new bracelet that MckMama gave me last week. It's great to hear that Stellan's heart rate has slowed and he is getting a bit of a break while the arrangements are being made to fly him here to Boston for surgery.Those that allow me to dictate their wardrobe choice in my family, are also wearing orange today. Let's not talk about the yellow T-shirt in the background, okay? It is clearly not orange and sometimes you just have to choose your battles.
Yes folks, it is very comfortable to be a hair's breath away from turning four years old and still be rear-facing.Here is the basket of goodies I put together for MckMama to make her Boston stay a little more comfortable, coz that's just how I roll.

I am currently reading the latest Dean Koontz - Odd Hours. In there was a passage on grief that I thought was beautiful and that really moved me. I wanted to reproduce it here.

"Grief can destroy you - or focus you. You can decide a relationship was all for nothing if it had to end in death, and you alone. Or you can realize that every moment of it had more meaning that you dared to recognize at the time, so much meaning it scared you, so you just lived, just took for granted the love and laughter of each day, and didn't allow yourself to consider the sacredness of it. But when it's over and you're alone, you begin to see it wasn't just a movie and a dinner together, not just watching sunsets together, not just scrubbing a floor or washing dishes together or worrying over a high electric bill. It was everything, it was the why of life, every event and precious moment of it. The answer to the mystery of existence is the love you shared sometimes so imperfectly, and when the loss wakes you to the deeper beauty of it, to the sanctity of it, you can't get off your knees for a long time, you're driven to your knees not by the weight of the loss but by the gratitude for what preceded the loss. And the ache is always there, but one day not the emptiness, because to nurture the emptiness, to take solace in it, is to disrespect the gift of life"

Please! Please! Please

2009-07-27T10:32:00.005-04:00

Pray for Stellan

I had the great fortune to meet MckMama this time last week. Whilst little Stellan was taking his nap, his heart in perfect sinus rhythm, we had a lovely chat, I was serenaded by Big Mac with the Land before Time song, received lots of hugs from McNugget and kissed Small Fry's owie all better. Never for a moment that day did I think I would be hitting my knees in prayer one week later for the Lord to intervene on Stellan's behalf to save him. Never did I imagine that that bouncing cherub who had just gone 15 days without SVT would be battling for his life. Never when I spoke with MckMama on Thursday and we talked about the possiblity of Stellan having to come to Boston soon for another surgery, never did I think that today, things would be so dire.

Please, hit your knees as I have in prayer for Stellan. Please save this little one!

Fix-it-Friday - I Heart Faces

2009-07-24T16:43:00.008-04:00

Here are my fixes from this week's Fix It Friday.

Here is the original:
And here are my fixes:

home

2009-07-24T15:31:00.004-04:00

I took a trip this week - five days away from my family...and the five longest days of my life to date. For my 'paying work', I was in MN at a conference. They weren't longer than 24 hours, but being away from my family was tough. I new, or could imagine the juggling and the lack of sleep my hubby was suffering without me to share the load. I knew that he didn't have the accoutrements (ahem) I did to get this guy quickly back to sleep in the middle of the night.

We all survived, and we are all happy to be reunited.

I did get the chance to see some of the MN countryside whilst driving to visit my friend, and even got lost when the navigation device kicked the proverbial bucket. I was on dirt roads (well, OK, only one, but it still counts) and drove past lots of farms - there are a lot of corn fields and horse farms there, but I had a great visit that day.

Word to the wise though - DON'T wear heels (even if they are super low) when you are air traveling. If you do, you are guaranteed to have to run for both you flights that day!! Just saying.....

cursed!!

2009-07-16T16:25:00.004-04:00

The past couple of weeks have not gone so well in our household and family. Here are the list of casualties:

Lost due to nearby lightening strike:

two garage door openers
one baby montior
one sound system amplifier

Lost due to fatigue:

one washing machine
one halogen bulb in kitchen
one Medela Pump In Style Advanced breast pump

Hospital stays/visits:

Hubby's aunt admitted for Gall Stones
Logan last night....

....he tripped at school and split open his lower lip. Four hours later he had one dissolving stitch, a prescription for antibiotics and instructions to take him to the dentist for an X-ray. Dentist happily reported that there is only the very remotest chance that he will get slight graying of a tooth, but they are fairly confident even that won't happen.

But seriously?!?! I'd like to call a time-out please!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-07-15T16:07:00.000-04:00

Blog Hop - 3 things you don't know about me

2009-07-14T16:33:00.002-04:00

This week's blog hop is to divulge three things you may not know about me. Here's my list that comes to mind....

1) I am a pilot of private airplanes, sometimes known as general aviation aircraft. I have not flown though for over 10 years now. I wanted to be an airline pilot when I grew up.
2) When I first met my husband, I thought he was annoying. I was teaching an internal class at work and he was sitting in the back row of the room with his friend and I though he was the class clown. Little did I know that 12 years later, we would be married for 6 years and have two sons.
3) I am fascinated by the super-natural. I watch "Most Haunted" which is a British ghost hunting program. After watching the show, I get spooked going upstairs to bed in the dark.

he's alive

2009-07-13T18:20:00.012-04:00

Sunday was the perfect day to jump out of a plane. Very light wind, if any, blue skies, and nice and warm. While we waited on Daddy being called to get suited up, we played a little with their very thoughtful play area, and watched others arrive to the drop zone.

We ate some snacks, astounding Mummy about our careful and tidy eating from a bag skills.

Then we watched Daddy get on an airplane....

....and take off into the blue yonder.

Whilst hastily changing a diaper, we almost missed the shot of Daddy arriving back on the ground...

..but we captured his smooth landing nonetheless.

We think he had a good time, what do you think?