RYANS CAKE IS FINALLY DONE!

This has been my work in progress for a couple of weeks now. This cake was quite the adventure for me. It seemed like everytime I turned around something went wrong with it.

1st- After I baked the cake I put it in the freezer in the garage (out of the way from kids...so I thought!). One of my kids pulled up a chair and opened up the wrapper around the cake and ate a chunk out of the side.

2nd- When the cake was found it was freezer burned.... thanks to one of the kids who couldn't resist eating my cake.

3rd- I didn't have time to rebake a cake so I am hoping it tastes good enough for kids to eat so I started decorating it. Thanks to a huge pile of frosting on one side of the cake I was able to get it to look good enough for the next step! But then after I started decorating it I put it int he fridge to take a break and one of the kids took a chunk out of the fondant after it was decorated... (Arrgh!!) I have my suspicions...but no proof as to which child got into it AGAIN! (4 year olds!)

4th- After fixing it with some more fondant to cover up the missing chunk I attempted to make the turtles and flowers that went around the cake... I gave up... I cannot figure out what the professionals do to make these things...

But after getting through all that and understanding that maybe my cake looked too good for a child to resist (I should be proud) then I was pleased with the result.

This is the cake I copied that I found on the internet.

Here is my version.

Fix-It Friday #22 - Hands-On Photo Editing! "Sourthern Belle"

This week I am going to do some quick and simple fixes. I love this photo. The girl, thedress, the old stone stairs, the red house in the background, the foilage. All of it just seems to go so wonderfully with this photo. I thought instead of doing editing this week I would apply some quick filters.

I have this amazing software called Nik Color Efex Complete. It comes with over 50 filters and it is absolutely incredible. I have talked about it before and it is worth the $350.00 it costs to buy it. BTW: I like it better then photoshop for quick edits!

So all I did on this photo was apply some filters that are built into this software. Nothing fancy, nothing hard... just quick and simple edits. I will list the filter I used but other then that I did nothing. '

Here is the original photo
Monday Morning (Sephia) Filter
Gold Reflector Filter

Viginette Blur Filter

Old Photo Filter

Midnight Filter

Glamour Glow Filter

Indian Summer Filter

Not EVER Letting Go...

In case you don't know, my daughter is a complete Daddy's Girl. If daddy is home she wants NOTHING to do with me. She is in his lap, by his side and following him around wherever he goes.

Well Daddy got home yesterday from out of town and Madison has been by his side from the moment he walked in the door. Check out these pictures. If daddy even tried to take his hand away from hers she would have a panic attack!

Goodwill Find...

I had a long couple of days with Madison being sick so yesterday when she was filling better I needed a shopping fix... I thought I would rumage the Goodwill across the street from my house. I wasn't looking for anything in particular but this is what I found! I have been wanting one of these. I actually bought one for my son about 2 years ago and it got ruined because it got left out during the winter. These things are heavy and I have to count on my husband to move them around. He never put it away even after many times asking... so it ruined the slide.

When I found this one at Goodwill it was missing the engine... but thankfully I am a horder and I saved my old engine from the old slide. So for $70.00 I got a screaming deal especially when I see them sellig on Amazon for $399! So I got my shopping fix taken care of and my kids had hours of fun last night... I had to peel them off the slide last night to get ready for bed!

Even Madison had fun going down the slide with her cousin.

Ryan loved this thing!
Here is our neighbor Madison face first!

My Sleeping Beauty

My poor baby... sick again. It always happens when dad leaves town. What is up with this year and being sick for my family. Somehow Josh and I have bypassed most of it but my kids pick up everything that comes around. Yesterday Madison kept going to the garage door and knocking on it asking for daddy. She kept bringing me my phone asking for daddy. It was so sad and so heartbreaking. She fussed all day. But fortunately she napped three times allowing me to get SOME things done around the house. I couldn't resist taking pictures of her sleeping yesterday. She looked so sweet and innocent laying there. If only she woke up that way!

Meet Taylor- The girl with lots of hats! :D

So I have met this incredibly adorable girl named Taylor on this blog site. And her mom and I share many of the same interests. We have daughters the same age, we love to take and edit pictures... and both our little girls are absolutely adorable!

Her mom recently took this adorable photo of Taylor and I had to edit it. Once I saw it I had so many ideas for it. I hope her mommy approves! Isn't she just too cute for words!

Here is my edit in black and white with a pop of color in the shirt and eyes. Isn't the natural lighting on this photo incredible!

Here is mommies photo which is absolutely adorable
and of course a frame since I can't seem to make it through a photo these days without adding one!

Let me know what you think!

Fix-It Friday #21 - Hands-On Photo Editing!

It is fix it Friday again at http://www.iheartfaces.com/! This was a challenging week. Why, you ask? Well because I felt like this week they had us edit a photo that I thought was perfectly fine just the way it was. The sharpness was great, the coloring looked fine, and the background was eye catching.... so I guess it is time to whip out some textures again through Photoshop. I know you have seen a lot of these edits but it is something new I learned and I am trying to master it! So deal with it! :D

Here were the steps that I took

1) Added a little sharpness

2) Added a little contrast and brightness

3) Did an adjustment layer and selected colorize and adj. the hue to 35

4) Did a 2nd adjustment layer and moved the saturation to 85

5) Did a levels adjustment layer and adjusted the color

6) Added 4 different textures to only the background of the photo

7) Used an overlay mask from www.jessicasprague.com class and typed in the font Mysterious and Compelling using Porcleain font.

That was it! Hope you enjoy and Happy Friday!

My edit

Original

Settlers Park in Meridian

So today before we went to help out my sisters with there sick ones we went to Settler's Park to play. It was supposed to be a scorching 104 degrees today but I think the high was only 97 (which was still hot). We played in the water mostly to cool ourselves off and then the boys begged me to let them get a snowcone. Being the pushover that I am I let them! :D

After the park I got to take Jacob school shopping for the first time! Call me lame but I was sooooo excited. I always thought getting school supplies when I was a kid was the coolest thing ever! They had crayola crayons for 20 cents at shopko and markers for 99 cents! Ryan even got to participate. I let him get whatver Jacob got. He was just so ecstatic! It was so fun coming home and organizing their little pencil boxes!

Just look at those gorgeous eye lashes!

My kids are always begging me to take pictures with my camera. And sometimes I let them (rarely)! But maybe I need to allow them to do it more often because this is the picture Ryan took of all of us. My head is cut off and so is Kylie's! Too funny! If he is going to be a child of mine he better learn how to take a picture!
And here is one of Jacob's photo... not sure what he was trying to do... maybe add a little creativity? But Ryan got cut off too?

Here is one Jacob took.... At least I was paying attention!

Here is Jacob slipping away on his slurpy. I love this photo in B&W!

My handsome little stud...

Madison was trying to give her hugs.... so sweet!

Jacob and Kylie at the fountain

Kylie was having a good time splashing away.

Okay so I bought this hat at Wal-Mart the other day because I know this adorable little girl named Taylor who wears a new hat every day. I love how much it enhances photos! So me being a copy cat decided to buy Madison one. I didn't realize until my husband pointed it out that it is a size 4T!!! Oooops! Yeah... total blonde moment.... or maybe total pregnant moment.... or maybe both! :D

My Poor Little Babies!

Here is another picture from today that I took. Isn't this so amazing! I love it!

Even when my kids are sick... they still look good! :D So glad that everyone in my family is feeling better. Just found out my two sisters and my two nieces are now sick with what we had.... It is soooo contagious... thank God it only lasts 8-10 hours... I went over to my sisters house today to help them out since they were sick too. I felt so bad for my nieces... I hate when kids are sick.

Even though my little man was sick... he saw me take a picture and smiled at me! He is so tough!

Here he is watching Little Joe on Veggie Tales! He loves that one. His favorite Veggie Tales Song is "I dont' have a Belly Button!" He knows all the words and usually will sing along and dance with them.


Sleeping like a baby with with her teddy.

Building cross from my Doctor's Office

My doctor's building is in downtown Boise and everytime I have an appointment I keep forgetting to bring my camera. I love the building across the street. It is an 80 year old building and it reminds me of an old university. It has these beautiful vines growing up the face of the building.

Isn't this building absolutely amazing!

This view was fromt he parking garage. You can see the mountains in the background. I wish the sky was a little bit prettier... but maybe next time.

Some flowers nearby

My digitally enhanced sky! :D Loving the sunflare and the silhouette

Swimming at Ivy Wild Pool

Wow! It has been awhile since I posted a family update. My photography class and other things have kept me busy. On Sunday we had a family day and took the kids to the water park. My two sisters met up there with there little ones.

So as I am going through pictures today I realized how much more attention to detail I need to focus on when taking a picture. I cannot tell you how many times I had butt shots of other women in the background of my photos. It was a little distracting when you see this adorable little child and then BAM! A butt right next to there head... LOL! I will yell at the women next time to move their behinds out of my picture! J/K!

Isn't this waterpark incredible! For an entire family of 5 it is only $9.00 all day during the weekends! It is such a great deal! And they let you bring in your own food and water.

Here is my sister Jenny and her abnormally HUGE legs! LOL!

Daddy and Madison

My little sister Melissa and her husband Nick

I'm not sure if Kylie was going to kiss her or bite her... we didn't wait to find out!

Best friends! Aren't they darling!

McKynlee loved the slide. she went down it a hundred times over and over and over

Even Ryan was having a blast!

Ryan found a friend! He is such a little social bug!

Daddy, Madi, and Jacob.

She was telling me to hurry up and take a picture so she could go in the water.

My little monkey!