Seven

My oldest child is turning seven.

7. Oh. My. Gosh.

Where has the time gone? I still remember the exact moment I first laid eyes on her. MY baby.

My red, hot, screaming bundle of joy.

The image is forever burned in my memory.

As it should be. And good thing too, since I don't have the digital copies to share with you ;)

I also remember 1. Those pink overalls, the gigantic lambie chair. She learned to walk a few days before and it was amazing!

2 was fun. So sweet and adventurous. She could make us laugh at the drop of a hat. All we wanted to do was squeeze her!

At 3 she really started to become her own little person. She knew what she wanted and she was going to get it !

And that mostly involved Dora the

Explorer anything and everything….

4 brought out the responsible qualities of a first child. The protective big sister, she fiercely defended her little brother at preschool and was sure to take good care of her baby sister at home. A nurturing little mother, she loved caring for her siblings.

And she still does.

Most of the time….

5 introduced us to the girly girl inside. She had ideas of how she wanted her hair cut and what kind of clothes she wanted. *Sigh*

6 was the year she seemed like a kid and not a baby anymore. It is going by fast and I just can't slow it down.

I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. I can't even begin to explain where the years have gone. I look at her now and

still can't believe she was that red, hot, screaming baby.

Happy, happy birthday baby girl! I can't wait to see what 7 brings us!

****And PS I've been doing my Project 365, just haven't blogged them yet. Hopefully I will get them up soon… I am a little behind :) ****

I ♥ Faces Fix it Friday #82

I haven't done a Fix It Friday from I Heart Faces in awhile, but I couldn't resist today! Such a darling picture of a little girl taken by Rachael Durik. Here is the original:And here is my edit:I loved the composition already, but I just punched it up a bit by cropping it in a little tighter around her face.

Then I ran Pioneer Woman's "Slight Sharpen" action. Why? It's what I do with all my pics. I am a creature of habit! Next I used the healing brush and patch tools to diminish the dark spots under her eyes.

Then I used the Hue/Saturation layer to get rid of the blue color cast and brighten up her skin. There is a fabulous tutorial at The CoffeeShop Blog that will show you how to do that! Finally I ran Coffeeshop's Perfect Portrait 2 and adjusted the layers: I brightened and defined the eyes. I also painted "eye define" on her lips to bring them out a bit. I painted "Urban Grit" on her hair to define it a little and I used the "Get the Red out" layer on her skin. And, Voila! There you have it. Whew! View all the other fabulous edits over at I ♥ Faces !

Project 365 # 4

While I was at the Cal Expo Bridal Show all day on Sunday, my husband took all three of our kids to the Jelly Belly Factory! They had a great time and ate their weight in jelly beans.

Project 365 # 5

Breakfast. Yum-o.

Project 365 # 3

My photo for today is of the glider I used to rock my babies in. I have spent many nights in this chair rocking, singing, and cuddling my children back to sleep. Lots of great memories, but now it is time to make space and move on. Posted it to Craigslist this weekend. Hopefully someone else will love it as much as I have!

Project 365 #2

Publish PostDay 2, so far, so good! It was super foggy this morning, so after dropping the big kids off at school, I bundled my 2 1/2 year old up in layers and trudged out through the fog. I had intended to take a picture of the oak trees, but this was the shot I ended up getting, and the one I liked the best! Just a simple water droplet on a chain link fence. Looking forward to tomorrow!

Why Not? All the cool photogs are doing it…. Project 365 #1

Ok, here it goes: I am going to start a project 365 (Ack!!). It seems simple enough: take a photo a day for a year (365 days to be exact). In reality, this is a huge commitment… there are days that just get so busy and out of control that pulling out my camera drops to the bottom of the list.

But, I have started to let things go and not get out my camera everyday. When I first got it I took it everywhere. I would always be on the look out for great photo ops. I would make my husband pull over and wait on the side of the road with our three kids just so I could get the perfect shot of the cherry blossoms in the spring. (Sorry guys!)

Hopefully by the end of the year, I will have a wonderful album of memories and I will have learned a few things to help me become a better photographer! I'm sure they won't all be canvas-quality masterpieces, but at least they will be moments of my life! Hey, an iPhone camera counts right? Wish me luck! Here goes nothing!

I thought I would start off with a pic of me and my camera! Not the best picture~ I can see a lot of things I don't like about it, but it's me and that is what I wanted a picture of!