Photoshoppin

 My latest interest has been learning the ins and outs of Photoshop. I love to take continuing education classes to learn new hobbies, and this is one I've been wanting to take for a long time. We got Photoshop CS4 about 3 years ago right before I quit working for the University of Utah. By being an employee (or student) you are privileged to discounts on things like software so we bought photoshop on my discount for around $125, when it costs over $600 at retail price. At the time I remember thinking even that was pretty much a waste of money because we had NO CLUE how to use it. It is super, duper confusing if you've ever looked at it before. So, we went about 3 years with hardly touching the program until I just recently took this class. Its still really overwhelming, but I'm so glad I finally figured out how it works. With practice I hope to get better, so don't judge too harshly on my edits.

BEFORE SHOT. Claire as a newborn. She looks really red for some reason, bad lighting I guess.

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER. I softened the background as well as her skin. I took out the veins in her forehead and brightened up the picture.

BEFORE. Right after having Claire in the hospital. 

AFTER. I brightened and softened the picture. I also added some highlights to my face. And it just so happened we learned how to add "makeup" to faces. So I gave myself a little dab of lipstick and eyeliner and removed some blotchy-ness on my skin as well.

Self explanatory. Took 2 wedding pictures, cropped, added a background and text. Fun way to dress up your wedding photos.

BEFORE. Mikes eyes are looking upward.

AFTER. He's looking straight now.

BEFORE. Mike and Emmett's eyes are not looking at the camera. My hair has lots of flyaways.

AFTER

BEFORE.

AFTER. The center of her face was so dark I brightened that up a lot. I'm not super crazy about this edit, but I didn't feel like spending more time on it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Emmett's Birthday

Here's a few pictures from Emmett's 3rd birthday party!

Before guests arrived he started out the afternoon falling asleep in his room....standing up!

His lawn mower birthday cake I made. I love the way it turned out! I can't claim the design as I totally stole the idea off of someone on Google. Emmett loves mowing the lawn. And when I say "loves" I mean, LOOOOVVESSS. I don't think there was a single day this summer when Mike was out mowing the lawn, that Emmett wasn't out there with him with his toy lawn mower right along side him.







Even the two times I mowed the lawn this summer, I think it threw him off a little bit and Emmett's male ego kicked in and felt the need to instruct me how to mow "properly". "Mommeeee, you go dis way! Den DIS way!!!"

I had a lot of fun making this cake, Mike helped me with the grass as my arm cramps wouldn't let me keep up doing the whole thing by myself. It was my first time trying fondant on the fence and it was so easy. Don't let it intimidate you if you were like me!

 My birthday cakes are progressively getting better every year. But I have to thank my husband for signing me up for a cake decorating class as a Christmas present last year, that helped me TREMENDOUSLY in the decorating department!

Opening presents

His latest passion is guitars and rock n roll. Before he got this guitar as a birthday present he would use a shampoo bottle for his guitar. He loves rocking out to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Except not the old country version by Cash, the Social Distortion version that Mike had on the iPod. (Its much more hard rock if you've never heard it). He calls it the "down down song" because of the lyrics: 'I went down, down, down, and the flames went higher.....'

I have a vision someday when he's a teenager its going to drive me crrraaaazzzy...(I have lots of memories of the fighting that occurred with my brother Tyler and his guitar. "Go upstairs and play your guitar!!! I'm trying to watch a show!!!")

But right now I'll just think he's cute. 

This picture was from last year. He's grown up SO much!!

Halloween

Already thinking its funny to tease his sister.

Halloween was fun this year. We enjoyed festivities at my aunt's "Spooky Party", Mike's work party, and the traditional trick-or-treating. This was Emmett's first time really kindof understanding the concept of Halloween. All month long he's heard various stories and watched cartoons based on ghosts, pumpkins, bats, witches etc. At first he was really unsure about it, and would talk frequently about these "monsters", or he would even confuse things like bats and say they were "butterflies" (haha, that one made me laugh). But eventually as more people started asking him what he was going to be for Halloween, he knew quickly how to reply with "superman!" On Halloween night, Mike couldn't join us due to a class he is taking (the class just so happen to start on Halloween night...it was a bummer) so me and the kids went over to Mike's parents house, had dinner, and went trick or treating with Grandma Gleue. 

Emmett couldn't stop jabbering the whole time we were out. When he gets excited he talks non-stop about everything he sees and hears, and thats how he was. He was so excited about all the jack-o-laterns, candy, and kids that were out in the neighborhood. He loved to touch the "ding-dong" and say "chick-or-chweat!".

Funny side story:

Emmett barfs alot. He always has, since he turned 1 and started eating table foods. He's been tested for it, and medicated, and the only real conclusion we've come to is that he has a SUPER sensitive gag-reflex. So, as we were at the doorstep of one house, the woman bent over to let Emmett pick out his own candy, kindof like in the picture below:

Emmett was looking in the bowl seriously contemplating what piece to choose when he pointed at a particular candy and goes "I barf dat one!!" 

She didn't quite understand his 2 year old dialect and responded with "Oh? You like that one?!" hahaa..PS. If I were to guess right I think the one he was talking about was a package of peanut M&M's. I had just finished telling him not to eat that kind of candy a couple hours earlier at Mike's work party or he might barf. Glad he is old enough now to know what to eat!

Is she not the cutest little kitty in the whole world?