Happy Monday!

Found this new link.  Really like it...and I know I'll really like it when I'm off my cold meds too.  Anyway, here's a link for something that makes me happy... fire roasted marshmallows (or what was left of my first one).  :)

Happy Monday...I'm going to bed. 

I Heart Faces - Scenic Black and White

We escaped the city this last weekend.  (It's deer season in Texas!)  We camped near a beautiful lake and I was so glad that I remembered my camera in the rush to leave.  Here's one of the shots that I took Saturday morning...

I was very glad to see that I Heart Faces was featuring a B&W contest this time.  Not that my shots are all that good...but I really enjoy looking at all of the black and white shots.  Check them out...

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a happy and family filled Thanksgiving!
                      
                Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Wordless Wednesday

Shutter Love Tuesday

Today's theme is Fall .... I love fall!  Since my monsters haven't played in the leaves this year, I don't have any fun pictures from that.  But I do have this photo from this year's pumpkin patch.  I love this picture :)

Check out some of the other beautiful pictures here...

Paper Heart Camera's A View from Above

Here's a shot of Kat while she was cheering...taken from up in the stands.  :)

Check out some of the others over at Paper Heart Camera's...

I Heart Faces - Paper

Kat - as usual - with her nose buried in a book.  Probably one of the Twilight series...

OK ... why did I think it was still Monday???  I missed the deadline to link this by an hour.  Oh well...

Macro Monday

I was learning to use the Macro setting on my camera a couple of months ago.  My son was laying on the floor and I wanted to get a close up shot of his eyes.  Of course, he couldn't just LAY there and let me get a nice picture...no, he had to make a face.  <sigh>

Check out the other shots over at Lisa's Chaos...
 

I Heart Faces Fix It Friday #78

I'm a little late posting this but it was a really, really busy weekend.  But here's what I did:

Original Shot SOOC:

I really love this shot (and wish I could take pictures like this) but felt it needed to be a little brighter.  Expecially with that wonderful shirt!

I didn't think it needed to be cropped because I liked the composition as is.  So I ran PW's Boost and Perfect Portrait from Coffee Shop.  Adjusted everything until I liked it and got this:

I really like this look.  Added on more thing on the edit below (Oh the Drama from DPM) and it darked the backgound a little:

As usual, I don't know what I like better.  Check out the other edits over at IHF: 

Another 5K race for Kat

Kat ran another 5K this morning.  It's her third and her time keeps improving with every race.  There were over 1,000 runners this morning and Kat managed to finish in the top 500.  Not bad for a girl that decided to start running on a whim and doesn't even train!  Here are a few pictures:



Trying to stay warm



Matt keeping himself busy

Playing tag

When's it going to start??

She's off!

Almost there!

Finish line :)

{fix my-photo} friday #2

I know I'm a little early.  But I have time now.  It's after my monsters are in bed and before I make their lunches for tomorrow.  The Stars are playing in the background and are winning.  :)

Wait - stupid Sharks just scored.  We're tied.  <sigh>

Here's the original shot SOOC:

I tried something new with my edit this time.  I've never done this before but I think I did pretty well.  :)  Here you go... (Darn it, the Stars are loosing now...ugh!)



Let's see... I'm using PSE 8.  I flipped the image and cropped it.  Then hubby walked by and pointed out that the word on the shirt was backwards.  Darn.

So I ran PW's Boost.  Played with that a little.  Then ran Coffee Shop's Perfect Portrait and played with that a little.  Then...and here's the new part... I ran DP Mom's Reflections action.  Then applied a drop shadow frame.

I think it's kind of fun.  :)

And dang it - the Stars are down by two now.  Crud - I have to go yell at the TV!

**Just a side note.... my yelling at the TV helped.  Stars beat the Sharks in OT last night!!!!

Just one more...

It's a sickness.  But just one more photo.  The theme over at The Paper Mama is "Cozy".  Go back 6+ years (??) to my monster's first snow.  They had so much fun and were surprisingly cozy in the 16 or so layers they had on.  (Yes, snow is foreign to me too.)  They were so cute.  <sigh>

You know the deal.... head over to check out all the great pictures.  :)

 

Stubborn!

Stubborn ~ When you go to dictionary.com and look up "stubborn", the very first definition that you get is:
–adjective

1. unreasonably obstinate; obstinately unmoving: a stubborn child.

Really, they should simply have a reference that says "see my monsters."  They are continually argumentative, pig headed, willful, temperamental and just plain crazy!!!

Maybe it's the age?  But seriously, at 10?!?  I can't believe that I was this argumentative when I was their age.  No I wasn't!  They can't be normal.  If this is normal at 10, what in the world will the teenage years bring?

I'm frightened.
I'm frustrated.

Ok, yes, I'm tired.  Maybe I'll turn in early?

And yet more photo's!

It's not like I have a ton of extra time this week.  Our family's schedule is pure hell.  But I keep finding photo's to link and I can't seem to help myself.

Shades of Pink:  My niece Emma's first hair cut.  She wasn't really too sure about what that lady was doing.  But she did so well until the end ~ and THEN decided to cry. 

Here's another for The Long Road to China's B&W link.  It's from Kat's cheer this year (ok, I know I state the obvious!).  She had so much fun this year.  :)

Sweet Shot

One quick post before I hit the road to drop the monsters off at school so I can head to work.  My 3 Boybarians has a "sweet shot" posting and I just had to link this picture.  It's from this year's bluebonnets and I love how Kat just laid her head on Matt's shoulder.  When they aren't trying to kill each other, the monsters can be very loving.  :)

Check out some others over here....

Wordless Wednesday

Ok - wordless Tuesday night.  (Why am I still up?)

Trendy Treehouse - Birthday's

The theme today over at Trendy Treehouse:  Shutter Love is Birthday's.  They mean so many different things to so many people.  To me, it means a day of peace and quiet.  A few years ago, Kat and Matt simply wanted to spend the day fishing with Daddy on their birthday.  So that's what they got to do....

There are some adorable shots over at Trendy Treehouse - you should go check them out.  :)

Best shot ever?

Found a new contest.  And a great website.  With all the new sites I'm reading, I'll never see my husband again... ha!

Last week, Photo Freak was asking for our best photo ever.  Since I have 3 years worth of photos stuck on a hard drive, I don't know that this is my best photo EVER ~ but I think it's the best one on my current computer.  :) 

This is a picture of my beautiful niece Emma from this last summer.  I love how expressive her eyes are.  I love the implied elegance and movement in the shot.  I love that I actually captured this shot!  LOL

I love this photograph.  I know this is my absolute favorite picture of Em.  It's too late to enter mine - but let me know what you think.  And check out Photo Freak's website.  There are some absolutely fabulous photo's over there.

Photo Contests

Ok, I think I'm becoming addicted.  Seriously.  It's a problem.

From Lisa's Chaos is the Macro Monday picture... This is the first time I've linked to a photo contest there. 

This was a picture from this summer ~ I really only snapped the picture to make my son happy.  I like how the shell seems to glow.  Let me know what you think!

And for Paper Heart Camera (another new one for me).  Theme is "Show and Tell".  This is the reaction is get when I tell my son that his video game time is up.

Actually, this make me laugh everytime I look at it.  :)  Check out the other great pictures at:

My third try is Mellow Yellow Monday.  And yes, it's a new one for me too!  (Do you detect the theme??)

I had to search for this one.  I had no idea how few pictures I have with yellow in them.  I wonder if Matt's blond hair would count as yellow??  Check out the other great pictures here:

I think that's all for this evening.  Hubby has decided that I've ignored him enough.  Night!

Weekend Fun

We started our weekend with Emma.  I was so excited to be able to go watch her at The Little Gym. 



Matt - age 4

 It brought back so many memories of my monsters many years ago.  



Kat - age 4

 Kat and Matt went to The Little Gym for about 3 years when they were little. 

Emma was so cute and wanted to do everything with her Cousin Kat. 

Then we went with Em to her first hair cut.  She wasn't thrilled to be there - wasn't sure what was going on.  But she did really well.  I think being able to sit in an "airplane" really helped as they are one of Emma's favorite things right now.  She actually didn't cry until the end ~ I think she had just had enough.  :)

Now that tackle football is over, Matt is playing flag football through the Y.  Saturday was his first game.  No one "officially" keeps score for games through the Y.  However, most of the dad's can tell you what the score is at any given time.  :)  Matt's team won 42-0.  I think he enjoyed finally being on a team that actually won a game.  He caught the ball for a 2 point conversion (!!) and carried the ball 2 other times.  I have pictures (of course) but haven't downloaded them from the camera yet.

Sunday was brunch with Cousin Mark from Cali and his daughter that is going to TCU (go Frogs!).  Shopping with Auntie Kim to use our Groupon GC's, football practice, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking ~ and, well more boring stuff.

Overall a full, family filled weekend.