The Countdown Begins....We're Headed to the Most Magical Place on Earth!!

Yep, one week from today we will be headed to DISNEYWORLD!! We are thrilled about our upcoming trip and will be busy this week packing, planning, and cleaning house (nothing worse than returning from vacay to a messy home!). The kids are soooo excited and I'm pretty sure that Todd and I are just as excited as they are! I haven't been to Disneyworld in almost 20 years (I was 10 and I'll be 30 in the fall). I can't wait to see everything again and to see the faces of my kids when they take it all in! Little Ella will be sitting this one out since she's too little to understand or enjoy what Disney has to offer. We will miss her but we know she will be well taken care of by some close friends while we are away (don't worry, she will get presents!). If any of you have any tips that would make our visit more enjoyable please feel free to share. We are planning to pick up a guide book or two to help us along the way. Any suggestions?

Here are a few of the attractions we are looking forward to visiting during our trip!!

It's A Small World

Peter Pan's Flight (I hope Tinkerbell is there because that's all Halle has been talking about!)

Mad Tea Party

Swiss Family Tree House (this is from one of my favorite movies ever!)

Pirates of the Caribbean (LOOK! It's Johnny Depp...I wonder if Orlando will be there too...and I'm not talking about the city!)

Mutsy Info and Reader Discount

Mutsy is a European line that was founded as Mutsaerts in 1935. They got their start building traditionally styled prams but today they have developed a distinctive new line of innovative baby transport products.

The Mutsy collection is expertly designed to meet parents’ every need with a unique modular system that is extremely flexible. The basis of the Mutsy range is three frames, each with its own specific features. Various components fit into the clean and modern Mutsy frames such as a travel cot (bassinet), a stroller seat, a car seat (with adaptor), and a fun seat for toddler. An intelligent click mechanism allows for components to be easily interchanged with a single movement. This click mechanism is found on the Babysitter chassis as well, so the stroller seat can be clicked in to make a baby rocker. The flexible system also allows for a child to grow with his/her Mutsy stroller for many years.

The Mutsy baby transport collection also features the Slider, a new baby mobility concept with a revolutionary design as well as the Easygrow High Chair and the Grow-Up! booster seat.


As a mother of 3 young children I would LOVE all of Mutsy's product line! They are innovative, functional, and stylish all at the same time!! You can purchase the frame only, or the frame and seat, or frame and bassinet! You truly get a unique stroller that exactly meets your needs!! What's even better is that every Mutsy stroller accomodates children up to 55lbs (bassinet 30lbs) so you know you will get years of use from a single stroller. Mutsy also has a long list of celebrity clientele including Christina Aguilera, Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, Naomi Watts and Heidi Klum!

The Discount:
Mutsy has kindly offered a 10% discount to my readers for any purchase made at Mutsy.com! Simply enter lmbb10 at checkout in order to recieve the discount. What are you waiting for?! Go shopping!!

Monte Cubino Chair

Visit Project Nursery for a chance to win one of these awesome chairs from Monte Design! I know my kids would love these!

My Very 1st Newborn Photoshoot: Sweet Little Luke

I am soooo excited to share with you my very first newborn session! Here is sweet little Luke! Thanks to D&S for inviting me into your home today to photograph your sweet baby boy! He is absolutely adorable and it was an honor to capture these precious memories for you! I hope you enjoy this "sneak peek" of my favorite images from today's session! I just couldn't wait to share them with you!

i ♥ faces: Let's Hear it for the Boys (kids entry)

This week the theme over at i ♥ faces is "BOYS"! That's right! Boys only this week, "NO GIRLS ALLOWED"! For this entry I wanted to recreate a photo I had done with my daughter and catch my silhouette in my son's eyes. I LOVE how it came out! Isn't he such a handsome little guy?! We've got a future heartbreaker on our hands with those big brown eyes, long lashes and gorgeous lips! And, to top it all off he has the sweetest, most tender heart. He is my firstborn, my only son, and he is the BEST big brother in the world! He adores his two little sisters and is always watching out for them! Those two girls are soooo lucky to have him!

If you want to see more great "boy" photos or you want to enter one of your own head on over to i ♥ faces!

Happy Monday

Hope you are all having a great start to your week! It's VBS week here so we'll be busy enjoying that! Here are a couple new photos that I wanted to share. No real story behind them. I just love being behind the lens capturing "regular,everday moments" and I enjoy sharing that love with all of you! Happy monday! Stop by and say "hello"!

How Sweet

They learn so young. Ella already loves her babydoll even at the tender age of 14 months. She carries it around, hugs & kisses it, and offers it up for me to kiss it. She's not always gentle, as she drags it behind her or tosses it on the floor after play, but she's already learned that babydolls are meant to be loved, cuddled, and kissed. She carries her doll around along with her teacup and spoon while she stirs her tea and then offers a sip. It's so amazing how much they take in and learn in such a short time. I love watching her play, discover, and learn. I'm amazed at all she can do already. I tried to capture a sweet moment with Ella and her babydoll today but she was not up for being photographed. She wanted me to pick her up and kept chasing me. Since I was using a prime lens I couldn't zoom out and my feet wouldn't back up fast enough. So this is what I got. I kinda like it anyway. Happy Friday everyone!

I was SPOTTED!!

Our local christian radio station, 103.5/89.3 WBFJ, is hosting a Miles of Smiles Giveaway during the summer. If they spot you sporting one of their magnets or stickers on your car they will stop and give you an entry into their giveaway for a $50 gas card and a family fun pass to Funigans Family Fun Center! Well, this past monday I was spotted sportin' my WBFJ magnet in the WalMart parking lot by Tami from the WBFJ Morning Show! I followed the instructions on the entry card she handed me and on Tuesday they drew my name as a winner of their Miles of Smiles Giveaway. My name was announced on the air while we were on our way to have dinner with friends!! Whoo Hoo! Go me!!

We recieved our prizes in the mail on wednesday afternoon and today we took the kids to Funigans for an afternoon of fun!! We had a wonderful time playing games, bowling, and eating. The kids LOVED the HUGE indoor soft play center! Funigans even has an indoor rock wall....but the kiddoes weren't up for that today! We'll be back to tackle that one! Thanks WBFJ for giving our family such a wonderful time together! We love your uplifting, encouraging, music and will continue to be loyal listeners!!

Oops

Well, I got sidetracked and completely forgot to get my i ♥ faces entry in this week. They took a week off from the contest last week and I guess it's just thrown me all off. Here is the photo I was going to enter had I realized in time. The theme was "sepia toned"! I posted this photo in an XL size b/c the smaller size just doesn't give you the full effect. Hopefully I'll get another chance to enter this one!

Ella's Nursery Featured on Spearmint Baby

The sweet owner of Spearmint Baby saw my previous post on Ella's nursery and asked if I'd like to be featured on her blog. Of course, I would....so I sent in a few more photos of the room and today Ella's nursery is being showcased! Check out Spearmint Baby to see the feature and while there browse through the rest of the blog to get beautiful inspiration for your baby's room or next baby shower. Be sure to check out her other blog, Spearmint Decor to get inspiration for the rest of your home!

Have a restful Sunday!!

Sweet Jerry: a photoshoot

My youngest sis is in town from Phoenix (soon to be from Houston) and what kind of sister would I be if I didn't capture some amazing photos of her sweet little boy for her to treasure forever?!! This afternoon we had a very casual photoshoot in my living room and these are some of my favorites! His eyes are simply stunning and look at that fiery red hair!! He was so much fun to photograph today and I love the results! Sis, I hope you like what you see!!

This first shot is my personal fave! He was coming after my camera!!

Hayden's Last Day of Kindergarten

Well, here it is...Hayden's final day of Kindergarten! I can't believe his first year of school has already come and gone. I can remember orientation like it was just yesterday. I was nervous for him but he was excited beyond belief! It has been a fantastic year and he has developed so much in his reading and writing and has made many new friends. I'm amazed at all he has accomplished in this one school year. He is really going to miss his teacher but plans to visit her often while in 1st grade! Hayden is finishing out the year with PERFECT attendance...he hasn't missed a single day all year. Not many kids can say that!! I'm so proud of him and am a bit sad to see this year end but excited to watch him grow in so many ways! Thank you Jesus for my precious son!!

Hopscotch Dress Giveaway Link

Wanna win a sweet little dress for your little sweetie? Mommy Works is hosting a great giveaway from Hopscotch Designs and you could win one of their Sophie dresses! I actually bought one of these for Ella earlier this year and they are adorable! Head on over to see how you can enter to win! Good luck!

Before & After: A Short Guide to Photo Editing

Today I am going to show you how I turn an ok picture into a frame-worthy photograph using a few steps in Photoshop. First off let me say that when I take photos I strive to get a fantastic shot SOOC (straight out of camera). However, there are times when the lighting is terrible or times when I'm just taking simple snapshots but find one that has the potential to be so much more. Today I am going to show you two such examples. Keep in mind that I am NO Photoshop expert...in fact, I don't really claim to know what I am doing at all. I simply read a lot of photography blogs and have picked up quite a few things on the internet to help me along the way. I realize that there are many tools in Photoshop that I could use to help me tweak my photos even more. However, in my 2 months of taking photos with a dSLR and my 1 month of Photoshop experimenting this is what I've learned.

Exhibit A: This is my we picture {this} entry!

Here is a photo I took a couple days ago. As you can see, the lighting is all wrong but I knew that when I took it. This photo was taken in my bedroom, in the evening when there wasn't much light. I had to bump up my ISO setting to 800 just to get a decent amount of light to get this shot. The high ISO gives it some added noise but in the final edit I think it works.

(SOOC)
Nikon d90
50mm f/1.8 lens
shutter speed 1/200
f/4
ISO 800
no flash
In hindsight I realize that some of these settings could have been adjusted instead of bumping up the ISO but sometimes children won't sit still long enough for all that. Next time I'll adjust my settings before positioning the baby!

~open the photo in Photoshop Cs3
~I liked the composition of this photo SOOC so no cropping was needed
~adjust the white balance using the white dropper in Levels
~run the Perfect Portrait action from CoffeeShop and then adjust the sliders w/in the action to my liking (don't remember the specific #s although I do know I put the vignette at 100% opacity)
~I used the paintbrush to brush over her eyes at 11% opacity just to brighten them up a bit
~run the Dreamy Soft Diffusion action from CoffeeShop and adjust the sliders again to my liking. Running both of these actions together can make your photo too bright so you need to lower the opacity of the Light levels so you don't have a blown out photo. The Dreamy Soft Diffusion action gives a nice softness that is perfect for the mood of this photo.
~lastly I clicked the filter tab, selected noise, and then clicked on despeckle to reduce the grain in the photo a bit. I will most likely print this photo as a 5x7 and place it on the very nightstand she is sitting on.

And WhaLaa! There you have it... a frame-worthy photograph!


Exhibit B:

Here is a photo I took over Memorial Day Weekend. It was taken around 2pm when the sun was high in the sky and there were shadows and blowouts galore...not ideal for picture taking. When I was looking through my photos later that day I saw some potential in this one.

(SOOC)
Nikon d90
18-105mm f/3.5-5.6G lens
shutter speed 1/200
f/5.6
ISO 100

~open photo in Photoshop
~crop photo to get desired composition
~run Fresh & Colorful action from Pioneer Woman
~adjust sliders to achieve desired look
~run Bright Eyes action from CoffeeShop
~brush over eyes at 11% opacity to brighten eyes
~run NW Retro action from Jean Photography. This action is what gives the red chair that great fire engine red color! I love this action! It fits this photo perfectly!

And there you have it! A beautiful representation of summer worthy of a spot on the wall!!



To see more great "Before & After" photos or to enter your own visit we picture {this}!

See Kai Run Winner!!

Drumroll please............and the WINNER is #91, Melissa of Purple Mommi! Congrats Melissa! You've just won a sweet pair of See Kai Run shoes for your little one!! Please email me the pair of your choice and I will have those on their way to you!

Thanks to all who entered and don't worry...I have more giveaways in the works!

Simple Fun

What do you get when you mix a couple sticks, a few rocks, and two buckets of soapy water?

Hours and hours of simple, wholesome entertainment!!

Seriously, my girls played in these buckets for hours! Halle was completely engrossed in washing the rocks and stones she collected and Ella was content splashing away! Who would have thought these few simple things could bring so much joy to two little girls?

i ♥ faces: Happy Birthday (kids entry)

Ok, so this week I had a hard time choosing a photo to enter at i ♥ faces since the theme is "Happy Birthday". This isn't something you can recreate (that would be CHEATING)so I had to pick from the birthday photos I already had. I had 3 that I wanted to post and since I just could NOT decide I picked from a hat and this one won. I think it's cute and is a perfect representation of a first birthday! See more birthday faces at i ♥ faces.