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.

Early Morning Thoughts

I went to sleep thinking about something.  I woke up thinking about the same thing.

Someone read my blog!

OH.  MY.  GOD.

I know it sounds a bit weird but I didn't really expect anyone to ever read my ramblings.  Or look at my pictures.  Well, other than my family.  And I haven't told them about it yet.  Why haven't I?  Ummm... well.... I don't know.  Probably because I don't think it's good enough yet?  I'm sure I'll get better at it.  I figure blogging is like learning PSE.  You read a little, play a little, get frustrated, learn some more ~ and then have something that you feel you can call your husband over to the computer to see.  But you still have so much more to learn.

Right?

Someone read my blog.  wow.

Trendy Treehouse fix-myphoto Friday

This is the first time I've participated in Trendy Treehouse's fix-myphoto Friday.  I didn't have a ton of time to play with this last night but I did a little bit.  And I forgot to link the SOOC shot (and can't link it from work!).  But here's the two I came up with....

Here's the original:

Here's my first fix:

And here's what I did using PSE 8...
Crop
Auto Smart Fix
Rita's Perfect Portrait
 *Sharpen 35%
 *Brighten 70%
 *Color Pop 60%
 *Urban grit off
 * Teeth whiten 35%
 *Bright eyes 51%
 *Soft Skin 100% on the shiny spots on her face
  *Dodge/Burn on all of the water to darken it 100%
 *Vignette 100%
Flatten
PW's Boost
 *Turn crispness off
 *Turn zip off
 *Zing 32%
Flatten

Here's my second try:

Again using PSE 8...
Auto smart fix
PW's slight light 100%
Flatten
DPM's Oh The Drama 15%
Flatten
Rita's Perfect Portrait
 *Sharpen off
 *Bright 23%
 *Color Pop 22%
 *Soft Skin on shiny spots 100%
 *Dodge/Burn Water 100%
 *Vignette 55%
 *Brighten eyes 38%
Flatten

And that's it.  I think I will probably do more tonight.  I had a couple of more vintage looks that I liked but hubby talked me out of them...

Update... one more.  And I didn't write down the steps to edit (sigh).  I was in a hurry to finish before the Stars game started.  Missed that as we are about 10 minutes into the game.  Go Stars!!

Let me know what you think :)

Wordless Wednesday

I've seen this on another blog.  Maybe my sister's?  But I'm going to continue this in the weeks to come.  Every Wednesday, I'll post a favorite picture.  New or old.  Kids or not.  And just because.  :)

Sick-o

It's that time again. Cold and flu season. Matt came home sick from school last Thursday and again on Monday. Kat came home sick from school yesterday and stayed home today. So much snot...so few Kleenex.

And whining. I don't want to hear it but can't help but give each kid long hugs and snuggle time. I cherish my snuggle time and don't look forward to the day that they decide they are too old to snuggle.