Another One

Here's a pic taken back in October when Rob's parents came down for a visit. Not the best picture in the world, it was an overcast day. But I love seeing the difference.

Before (SOOC):

After:

I think I'm in love :)

We've been staying busy lately trying to get Carson's room painted & crown molding installed. Now the tricky part - trying to convince Brady to start sleeping in his "big boy bed" (twin bed) so that we can kidnap the crib!

We're looking forward to a fun weekend coming up - my parents are coming to visit! I told Brady a few days ago and he keeps looking out to the front porch thinking they're going to be out there already. Today he told me that "Pa" and "Big George" - the dog were coming :) He also referred to "grandma" as "Ma". I don't think he likes the "grand" prefix :)

Clean Color

One thing I am trying to work on before the baby arrives is improving my photography skills. I want to have great family photo albums with beautiful pictures of our kids and daily lives. I am becoming way too aware of how quickly time is slipping away and I want to preserve our memories before it becomes too late.

I am a member of clickinmoms.com. And when I say "member" what I really mean is I like to stalk to the boards, but have never posted:) Anyway there has recently been a bunch of hype about another photographer, Erin Cobb, and a new video tutorial she has made to teach her workflow and how she achieves her beautiful photographs. Photoshop (I use Elements) and post processing in general has been something I have been struggling with ever since I got my camera (over 2 years ago). So I couldn't resist the urge and decided to splurge.....and boy am I glad I did. Here are two examples that I snapped of Brady this afternoon when we got home from church:

Before (SOOC - straight out of the camera):

After:

Before (SOOC):

After:

Can you tell the difference? I sure can. It is subtle, but the finished images look so much more vibrant and polished. Some of the things I've been learning about are levels, saturation, brightness/contrast, curves, vignettes, skin softening, making the eyes pop, and sharpening. I am super excited. I think I'm going to be much happier with the candids I snap everyday!

If you're interested here's Erin's info:

personal blog (and link to Clean Color tutorial on sidebar)
professional blog
professional site

Art With Mama

A very unwelcome sickness has been lingering around our house for weeks now. Really ever since Christmas. Brady and Rob have almost completely recovered. But since I can't take many medications right now I'm the unfortunate one that can't quite kick this ugly congestion/sinus bug. Our Mom's Bible Study class at church was supposed to start back today and I was so excited to go, but just wasn't feeling up to it. So instead we stayed home and did watercolor paintings to send to some family members back in Ohio. Then I cut a bunch of hearts out of some old scrapbook paper and let Brady have some fun with a glue stick. He's been begging to paint again all afternoon. 

Dirty old white t-shirt courtesy of Rob. 

After we were done with our art we had snacks.

The masterpieces....

What our kitchen looked like after a morning of crafting/playing. Thankfully it didn't take me long to clean it all up. 

December 2010

This month.......

We had breakfast with Santa at our church (and Brady was surprisingly well-behaved).

Rob bought a new (to us) truck. And I have completely neglected to take any pictures of it yet, except for this one of Brady in the backseat and becoming more and more frustrated by all my picture taking.

We went in search of the perfect Christmas tree...

and found it.

Brady supervised....

and threw around old tree stumps.

Carson and I took absolutely no part in any type of manual labor except for picture taking....

which Brady was totally annoyed by.

Until he saw the "train" go by and thought he was being left behind.

We're not that mean though. He was in heaven, although I'm sure the passengers that sat around us could have done without the train noise "sound effects" Brady was screaming while we waited to depart. 

Brady's Mom's Day Out class had their Christmas party.

And they all wore their reindeer t-shirts (made out of their hand and foot prints).

Which I neglected to get a clear picture of.

But take my word for it, they were the cutest t-shirts I've ever seen. I actually got tears in my eyes when he brought it home in his bag a few days before the party. 

And then Christmas morning came. And we were completely spoiled by our families...

What do you mean I have to write Thank You notes???

Then our friends Justin, Britni and Noah came over for dinner Christmas evening.

Brady and Noah exchanged gifts....

and of course Brady had to "help" Noah unwrap his (Brady was an expert at unwrapping by this point in the day).

We had a yummy dinner prepared by the fabulous Honeybaked Ham Company :)

Some of my goodies I received from Rob and my mom.

Overall, we had a great Christmas! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to spend it with family....we missed you! 

And one last picture of me. I had to ask Rob to take a picture of me pregnant (29 weeks).  I have so many pics of me pregnant with Brady, but hardly any this time around. 

We are leaving for a short trip to Atlanta this afternoon. I'm really looking forward to it. The last time we took a trip there was when we decided to start "trying" for a baby. Three months later I got pregnant with Brady. We are planning on doing some shopping at my favorite mall - Lenox Mall - shopping at Ikea, and taking Brady to the Georgia Aquarium and possibly the children's museum as well. We are staying at a really nice place too with a large indoor pool which I'm sure Brady will love :) 

Happy New Year!

Etsy Love

I can't seem to stop buying stuff for Carson! Check out these adorable items I have recently purchased from different sellers on Etsy. Note: I haven't received any of them yet, but I have high hopes that all will be just as cute in real life :)

Bib - Sparkle Power

Fabric Banner - Sparkle Power

ABC Print - Sweet William

 

And my favorite....Beautiful "play" quilt - Lemon Tree Lane Quilts

I absolutely cannot wait to start putting this sweet baby's nursery together. I am waiting on the bedding I ordered for Brady's room to arrive so we can get his "big boy room" together first, then I can move all the nursery furniture to our other bedroom and start working on Carson's room. 

I had a doctor's appointment last week and another ultrasound. I am so happy that my placenta has moved to where it's supposed to be, so placenta previa is no longer an issue! The bad news is that they still could not find Carson's left kidney. So I have an appointment scheduled in January with a high-risk OB for another ultrasound to look for it closer. Sounds scarier than it is though. I'm really not concerned about him only having one - as long as that one is functioning well. What I am more concerned about is knowing that if they have detected this problem that there may be another more serious problem elsewhere that either isn't detectable or hasn't been detected yet. Hopefully though the other doctor I'm going to see will do a more thorough scan and reassure me. Another possibility is that the kidney isn't at all missing, just "misplaced". He will be evaluated by a urologist and have an ultrasound performed after birth to find out. Another mom in our Mom's Bible Study at church told me a few weeks ago this is the case with her son - his kidneys are fully functioning, just not in the exact spot they should be in.