Some Family Pictures

We didn't get a chance to do family/brother photos at our newborn session so I took some last week before Hayes got too big to pass for an itty bitty newborn. He is ONE month old now. What? What a sweet month it has been.

Okay, there are a lot of photos, but I couldn't pick and these are really just a few of my favorites (I have a ton more that I didn't post). Sorry in advance. I know my grandma will appreciate these though and that's really all that counts. :)

We tried to be really casual with these….in our house, not dressed up, etc….still no luck with the eldest child, although he was super sweet to his brother, super crazy, but sweet. Wouldn't look at the camera, but sweet.

Ah! Tiny fingers. Why do they have to get bigger? WHY?

Bryan and I can argue with the best of them, and he drives me crazy on a near daily basis, but he is a good dad. Like a good one. Which is really the best thing he can be.

Little chubs! He has fattened up so much this month it's ridiculous.

He is a good big brother. 

…but not interested in photos at all. I can't blame him since he's two. Very two. I still love these photos though. :)

Don't you just want to eat him? I want to eat him. I'll just have a baby every year so we can snuggle and smell them. I'm kidding. Kind of. ;)

See? I've always been annoyed when people say "my people" but I'll say it…my people are so cute. We rewarded ourselves with a trip to IHOP because we super classy like that. (I love IHOP. And their white chocolate raspberry pancakes--limited time! Go now!)

On another note…well, I'm not sure I even want to share this, because I really hate to share bad things about my life, but since this is my blog and I'm trying to be better about that I think I will. I am bad with feelings. And my family is pretty hush hush with them too. My family has had a crappy year. Hayes was definitely the bright side to it all. I won't elaborate too much other than to say that there have been a lot of health problems for several people and my dad especially has been through the ringer….He has been going through chemo for cancer which thank the Lord he is now in remission for (that's a whole other story), but this past Thursday, my grandaddy, his dad, passed away. We are heading to the funeral on Sunday. He had Alzheimer's, so we haven't been able to "know" him for a really long time. I was trying to remember the last time I had a conversation with him where he was fully himself…able to speak normally, eat, take care of himself completely…it must have been 8 or 9 years ago….Anyways, he is healed now, and that is all that matters. I've been really removed from it all for so long, probably more than I should have been, but I am of course still sad.

So, really I guess I'm saying this because I feel like some transparency is needed on here. It's been a hard year for my family--and I truly suck at handling it/comforting people/knowing what to say, etc.

Anyways…I guess I'm asking for prayers for my dad, grand mommy, aunt…just everyone. 

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Okay. I'm done! 

Magic Pictures

I got a new lens for my birthday. A Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. It takes magic pictures.

I've done my research and decided that this was the best lens for what I wanted to spend...and I was right!

I'm still slowly figuring out how to use it, but so far I'm in love. My images are so much more clear, and I can take pictures of Louie running around without it getting too blurry.  This lens is great for portraits, and creates the perfect blurry background (or bokeh in photographer speak) that I'm obsessed with. In fact, I love it so much that I took 192 pictures in the first hour after I bought it. Yes. One hundred and ninety-two.

In other news, I also managed to get some new shoes with my leftover birthday money! I don't think I've mentioned it, but I've kinda of been on a working out/running kick lately, so a pair of fancy shoes quickly became a requirement (of course). I was so excited when I got home from the mall that I took a few pictures of them. With my work clothes still on. Yes, I'm cool like that.

They are Nike Free Run 2's. I'm still wearing them....without socks. I guess I should go put socks on!

Happy Monday!

Our Backyard And Some More

Happy Weekend!!

This week really flew by for both of us....don't you just love it when that happens? Bryan and I are about to head out for date night (we're seeing Limitless, so excited!), but I had to do a quick blog post before we left. Bryan has instructed me that I have 10 minutes to write this, so I'll make it quick.

We finally finished mulching the backyard....well, we're still short one bag of mulch, so I guess we didn't technically finish, but I wanted to post pictures so it's finished for now.

Here is the back corner of the yard when we started out (and a very candid moment of Bryan):

And here it is now. I love the little baby plants and I go outside everyday to look at them! Excuse all the willow branch twigs, I didn't feel like picking them up so this is what you get. I can't wait to document their growth!

Here is the front corner of the yard before:

And here it is now (still being mulched). Exuse the mulch bags in this picture. I suppose I could have waited for it to be done and cleaned up, but I'm just not a very patient person.

We actually still need to add several more plants to both beds....3 Hostas, 3 Snowball flower/bush things, and some more grasses. I know it's not very impressive or showstopping right now, but trust me, in a few months everything will be big and pretty! I plan to give you a garden update every 2 weeks or so.

You may also be wondering "Why the heck did they need HUGE beds in the yard, couldn't they have made them smaller?" Well, no, we couldn't have. Those willow trees make it almost impossible to grow grass back there, so our solution was lots and lots of flowers instead! Now we just need to make grass grow where it's sunny. As you can see, that's still mostly dirt and weeds as well. Unfortunately we have to wait until May to over seed....but the sprinklers are in and we will be good to go once the seed is on the ground.

I can't wait to see everything in the backyard transform to what I know it can be. I hope you are excited too!

And since I'm on a photo editing kick this week (I just learned how to use Photoshop actions), I'll leave you will a few more unedited/edited pictures.

Love them! I hope they don't look too edited. That's one of my pet peeves, so I tried not to do too much....

I have a really pretty picture of Bryan too (he's actually really mad at me in the picture, but he looks serious and very "model" like haha), but I was specifically told not to put it on the blog because he didn't want to be made fun of :).

And on a very random note, I wanted to say "hi and thank you" to all of the new followers I've gotten recently! I don't know any of you personally, but you seem so nice and I'm very flattered that you think my little blog is worth reading :). I always get SO excited when I see that I have a new follower, so thanks!

Have fun this weekend!

I Finally Learned

I think I'm finally beginning to understand how to edit photos in Photoshop! I watched a couple of YouTube videos on how to adjust curves and levels in my images, and ta-da! They look SO much better.

For example...

Before: (I loved this picture to begin with)

After: (but now I love it even more!)

Before:

After:

Yay...and so a new era begins on the blog....edited pictures :).