I ♥ Faces ~ Kids ~ Pouting

You would think I’d have quite a few pouting pictures as I can attest my kids are no stranger to the poochie lip.  Despite that, it appears I must try to only take pictures of my kids when they’re happy.  Sad result?  Very few choices for this week’s theme. (Now I’m the one who is pouting…)  I also have to confess that I purposely kept from comforting my daughter tonight as I tried to catch her pouty expression.  My house, the cave that it is, was way too dark, though, so my pictures were yuck!  Serves me right!  :)

 

Ben’s face is so intense here because he was bound and determined not to go into the water.  His daddy is one persistent fellow and eventually got him into the pool.  All it took was getting Ben in there, and he became one happy water lovin’ boy.

 

I’m willing to bet that there are some awesome pouty pictures that will be added to Mr. Linky this week.  Head on over to I ♥ Faces to share a photo of your own.

 

Since I’m a weekly contributor, my photo is entered just for fun.

I Heart Faces ~ Kids ~ No Flash Week

   

 

 

This photo is a commemoration of sorts of my start into the world of no flash.  I tried over and over to get a good picture with my kit lens.  The problem was and is that my house has very little natural light.  I laid my camera on the floor trying to keep it as still as possible, all the while holding one of our table lamps up in the air to the left of Jordyn. This resulted in quite a yellow picture.   It was shortly after this that I gave in and got my 50mm 1.4 and eventually also bought Photoshop Elements.  Both great decisions that I absolutely don’t regret! 

 

I’m glad I got this shot of my little sweetie in her early baby stages.

 

There are over 200 other great kid’s entries over at  I ♥ Faces.  While you’re checking them out, add a picture of your own to the mix!

 

(Disclaimer:  Since I’m a Friday contributor, I’m not really entering the contest.  My entry is just for fun!)

 

Keeping up with the…

Nathan’s birthday is next Saturday. He will be the big FIVE! Now that we have been teased with slightly warm temperatures, I knew that we needed to look into getting Nathan a bike his size. His babysitter, Trinka, has a huge cement pad outside, and the kids can hardly wait to be out there any chance they get.

We went to Wal-Mart expecting to buy a 16” bike. Weston must be rubbing off on Nathan because Nathan even broke out in song on the way to Wally World about his new 16” bike. Mind you, it wasn’t near as heart-wrenching as Weston’s “Loving Song”, but I could definitely feel the passion Nathan felt for that bike waiting in the store just for him.

Nathan promptly fell in love with the only 16” bike in the store, a red beauty that Nathan declared “sparkled and shined”. It was then that we discovered 16” would last maybe the summer, and then we’d have to buy a new bike. A daunting task befell the very helpful Wal-Mart lady to convince Nathan that the 16” hero of his song was not “good enough” for a “5 year old” and really big-boy Nathan needed a bike “fit for a 6 year old”.

“Wouldn’t you just LOVE a bike that six-year olds ride?”

It took a little conniving, but Nathan eventually switched his affections over to a lime green 18” bike that he thought he’d be able to ride all around the store while we shopped. This was the same bike that Nathan very reluctantly left with his mom while he visited the little boy’s room. As he walked away glancing back at his precious bike, he informed me, “Now, mom, you need to watch that bike. If anyone tries to take it, you need to take it RIGHT BACK!” Nathan’s ornery daddy had planted the fear that maybe, just maybe, every customer in the store happened to want THAT bike.

On the way home, Nathan asked, “Is the day after tonight a Trinka day?”

“Tomorrow is a preschool AND a Trinka day.”

He went on very matter of factly: “Okay, guys, here’s what I need you to do. The day after tonight, I need you to take my bike to Trinka’s so that everyone there will see how much cooler my bike is than theirs.”

Who has raised this monster?

As soon as we got home, even though it was pitch-black outside, Nathan was begging to ride that bike. While Mark unloaded groceries, Nathan rode the bike up and down the sidewalk illuminated by the car headlights.

I’m willing to bet this gift will be a hit.

I ♥ Faces ~ Kids ~ Green

 

I’m such a cheater!  I didn’t have time to go through all my pictures (sleep is sounding great just about now), so I changed the color of Jordyn’s shirt.  The original color is more to my liking, but, for today, Jordyn will be wearing green. 

I always forget to put this statement in, so here it goes:  I am a weekly contributor to I ♥ Faces, so I’m just entering for fun. Hopefully, you’ll enter too…either for fun or as a fierce competitor!  :)

Happy Saint Patty’s Day!

IX Center Train Show

We had a rough start to today.  Jordyn was up and down many times throughout the night. Ben ended up sleeping on the couch with Mark after puking all over the kitchen floor.  Mark also was sick most of the day yesterday.  By around noon, though, everyone looked like they were back to normal.  We decided to take the opportunity to head off with Grandma Shari to visit the IX Center for the train show.  The boys had a great time seeing all the train displays.

After the show, we ate out at Red Lobster and then culminated the day with shopping at Sam’s Club for things like TP and diapers.  Yippee!  :)

Hints of spring

Nathan, Ben and I headed over to Creston Park the other day for an “adventure”.  Nathan gets very excited about the park.  He starts talking about pirates from “1450” and hidden treasure.    We didn’t necessarily find treasure, but the boys did have fun!  

 

First stop…the playground!

On to a tree uprooted by the most recent wind storm….

Walking paths that lead to the woods…

 

   

Creston park has TONS of birdhouses…

On this leg of our adventure, we were supposed to be exploring the bathrooms.  Unfortunately, they were locked, so Nathan got to “explore” between two trash bins while mommy blocked the view (and resisted the temptation to take a picture).  :)

Looks like the birds are ready for summer…

I’m ready for summer too!  Enough snow, cold and dull gray skies already!

The 80 year old living in my house…

We told the boys that they could watch a movie tonight before bed. It was Ben’s turn to pick the movie. Ben’s procedure is pretty simple…grab the first movie he sees and shove it into the VCR. Nathan who has been one emotional boy this evening after two days without naps quickly burst into tears at Ben’s choice of video.

“Mommy,” he wailed, “You and daddy need to take that movie awaaaaaay!”

“Why Nathan?”

“Because it’s scary, and it’s not appropriate for kids!”

For some reason, it makes me chuckle to hear the word 'appropriate' coming out of a 4-year old's mouth.

I ♥ Faces ~ Creative Cropping ~ Adults

 

 

 

Once again, I must ask, “Why don’t I take more pictures of adults?”  I never hesitate to follow kids around like a crazy stalker to get the perfect shot, but when it’s adults I’m trying to capture, I get so worried that I’m annoying them.  Note to self…must get over that fear!  :)

I don’t worry about bugging my husband, though.  Dealing with my picture taking is a cross he has to bear. 

This photo makes me smile for several reasons.  First, it’s a great father-son moment…Mark is giving Ben a summer buzz-cut out on the front porch.

 

Secondly, this little bugger actually had a mohawk for a day.  Mark found it extremely funny to have Ben walk into the house with his hair sticking straight up on the middle of his head.  It actually was quite adorable, and I almost let Ben go to church the next day like that. 

Almost…

If you’re wondering about my crop, I used a clip mask in Photoshop Elements. (designed by Anna Aspnes at designerdigitals.com)   I’m planning on writing a tutorial about it some time this week.  Super, super easy to do!

Now, head on over to I ♥ Faces and show us your creative crops.

Oh, almost forgot, here’s the original non-Photoshopped (SOOC) shot.

 

Have a great week!

Power of the Pen

Another POP tournament is done. At this level, the judges have to evaluate papers with another judge. This can be a difficult thing sometimes. In this case, the other judge and I were fairly close on most papers. There were a couple I felt bad about putting lower (or higher) than I thought they should be, but it’s all about compromise!

(John Lorson, the main presenter)

I was lucky enough to read one of the best of rounds. As soon as I read it, I knew it was “the one”. It was funny, though, because my partner judge had a different paper as number one. What a relief that since it was the first round, we could have different number one papers. (In the third round, we had to agree.) The irony of it all is that the paper he put as number one became the honorable mention paper, and the one I ranked as number one was the best of round. Which basically means they were the top two papers in that round! So cool! :)

At the awards ceremony, a call was put out to the audience for an “official” photographer. I very nervously volunteered. Talk about pressure! Most of the pictures turned out alright, but sometimes the kids just didn’t stop walking when receiving their award so their pictures turned out a bit blurry. Another discovery I made is that lots of red and lots of lime green in a picture really messes with your camera. Anybody out there know why? Time to do a Google search so I can avoid crummy red and lime green pictures in the future.

Our school did very well. The eighth graders ranked third out of all the schools. We also had two girls in the top 15! (They are the last 2 in the picture)

Another fun highlight of the day was that Trish Berg, one of the Master Readers (judges that read the top papers and then present awards), is a well-known blogger, twitterer and, best of all, a Christian! She read the top papers from each of the eighth grade rounds. One of the excerpts she read from a paper was about a girl praying with her dad and accepting Christ as her Savior. At the time she read it, I was surprised and thrilled that it was being read. I later checked out Trish’s website, realized she was a Christian! It was so neat that, first of all, the writer wrote such an outstanding paper, and, secondly, Trish highlighted the description of such an important moment from the paper.

Our school can no longer afford to support Power of the Pen. Since we have so few students, and the students already pay to participate, it is going to be a struggle to raise funds. I’m starting to get nervous as to whether we will get to participate next year. The fees are around $300 for the first two tournaments (plus bussing costs), and the state level is around $200 (plus bussing). I’m hoping to discover some grants out there that could help offset the fundraising we will have to do. The students have to fundraise for so many things, they are tapped out…

…and a little crazy too!

Back in time…

I’ve started looking at pictures on my back-up hard drive and thought I’d share some photos from “way back when”. The date of these pictures was Saturday, ‎June ‎15, ‎2002. Don’t they bring back memories? (at least for my family, that is)

I wrote this post using Windows Live Writer that Amanda suggested. Oh my word, it makes blogging so much easier, and there are way more options for pictures. Essentially, it's a program you download to your computer. The blog is written and pictures are added in this software , and then it uploads to blogger. This is how I'm blogging from now on! It was super easy.

I ♥ Faces ~ Messy Faces ~ Adult

Okay...it's almost 1 in the morning and I have to get up at 5:30. I can't find a messy adult face!!! I tried to talk my husband into changing oil, cleaning the basement, rolling around in the mud...something so that I could catch a messy picture! He would not oblige. I just don't know why!

After searching and searching, I finally found this one:

Can you believe that with all that mud, this guy doesn't appear to have any on his face? :) Technically, my husband is "entering" this week since he captured this picture of a friend of his while they were out 4-wheeling. Since I'm a Friday contributor, though, neither of us are eligible to win. It's just fun participating! Have a great week!

Go check out other great entries at I ♥ Faces. Be careful, though. Once you enter that site, you might never come out of it.