Pictures in Front of the Tree

Aiden and My iPhone

Aiden loves my new phone! He plays with it every chance he gets....especially when I am not watching. He played with it last week and took about 100 pictures of himself. Here are a few of my favorites.....

Sophia's 6 Month Photos

A few of my favorites....

Fall Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago, we had some pictures made of the kids. We have never had their pictures taken professionally before (other than the ones that Jenny has made at school). I was very surprised at how well Aiden and Jenny (especially Aiden) behaved! There is no way I could have gotten Aiden to pose and do so well if I were the one taking the pictures.

Our photographer, Lizzie Lemoine Photography, was amazing! She was so patient with the kids, and really knew how to keep them interested in having their pictures made. I am really impressed with how well they turned out!

Watermarking

You may have noticed that I have started watermarking some of the pictures I put on my blog. I have seen a lot of other blogs doing this, and I think it is a great idea!

I hate that I have to put the watermark across the center of the picture, but if I put it on an edge, it could easily be cropped off.

No, I have not had a bad experience with anyone stealing my pictures, I just want to be on the safe side just in case. I also plan on adding watermarks to all of the pictures previously posted on here, but that may take me a while. It is easy to do, but it does take a few minutes for each picture, and I have over 500 pictures on here. Obviously I will have to do a little at a time. :)

I use Picnik to watermark my pictures. If you are interested in watermarking your pictures, here is how I do it:

Upload the picture onto Picnik, or if you've already done so, go to your library.

Next, click Edit Photo.

From this page you can crop, resize, or adjust colors.

Next, click Create and then Text.

Add your blog name or URL to the box and click Add.

After you have done this, you can change the way the text looks. I change mine from "Normal" to "Overlay" so that it is more transparent and the picture can still be seen pretty well.

When you're done, click Save and Share to save it to your computer. Then, upload it to your blog! It's that simple.

Picnik is free, but if you want a Premium Account you have to pay. I'm not sure how much it costs as I don't have one. There are tons of ways out there to watermark, this is just the way I do it. If you know of a way I can watermark lots of pictures all at once, please let me know! I'd love to be able to watermark faster and easier.

Also, look for the right-click function on my blog to be disabled soon as well. :)

I hope this helps some of you out there wanting to watermark! By the way, you can also watermark this way and upload your watermarked pictures to Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, etc.

Spring Pictures of Aiden

Over the weekend, my mom and I decided we were going to try and get a few good pictures of Aiden. I should probably tell you that Aiden was in a horrible mood, wasn't dressed for picture taking, and the whole thing was pretty much a last minute decision. Overall, I think some of the pictures turned out pretty good. We will try again soon!

He really enjoyed playing in the creek in my parents' front yard. I think for a minute he couldn't believe we were actually letting him play in it. Haha! Hopefully I will get some good pictures of him soon. Right now, since he is two, he is so hard to photograph. He doesn't always smile or look at the camera, and he definitely isn't going to be still any longer than a few seconds. Years from now when I am looking back at photos of Aiden, I will always know and remember what a joy he was at this age. Two is a hard age, but it is also a very fun age!

Phone Dump

I am pretty obsessed with taking pictures with my phone. It is much easier than having to carry a camera around with me everywhere I go, and since my phone has an 8 (or maybe it's 9) mega pixel camera, which is good for a phone, it takes fairly decent pictures.

Yesterday I downloaded a few photo/camera apps that I have been playing around with a little. They are pretty neat and they have a lot of cool photo effects and ways of editing photos. If you have a Droid, and use any cool photo apps, let me know. Right now I am using FxCamera and Camera360.

None of the pictures below are taken with any apps, they are just random pictures taken over the last week or so. I tried to use ones that I don't think I've already posted here. Once I get a few good pics taken with the photo apps, I will post those too.

This picture was taken two weeks ago. This was before she and I went to the Girl Scout Cookie Rally. Jenny is a Daisy Girl Scout, and from what I can tell, she loves being in Girl Scouts!

Another picture of Jenny, this time before going to Awana. She goes to Awana on Wednesday nights. I absolutely love Awana. I think it is a great, fun way to teach children about the Bible. Jenny has learned so much from it already, and she really enjoys going.

Using the new table that Aiden and Jenny got for Christmas, they played tea party. I'm sure it was Jenny's idea to play, but seeing as how Aiden is only two, he doesn't know yet that "tea parties are for girls". Haha!

Jenny got a new pair of iCarly sunglasses last week. She says they make her look like a Movie Star. :)

This is what Aiden (and Jaime) spend a lot of time doing together. Aiden loves his train set he got for Christmas from Santa Claus. He has played with it everyday since Christmas, and never gets bored with it. He gets so excited when Jaime comes home from work and almost immediately starts saying, "let's build my train". Haha.

This is Aiden after he got his hair cut. The lady who cut it said he did an awesome job for only being two. Aiden always does great when he gets his hair cut: he sits still, he doesn't cry, he's patient, etc. Although, he has also been getting hair cuts since he was 5 months old, and has had at least 10 hair cuts in his lifetime. I guess you could say that he's used to it. Haha!

Earlier this week, at my mom's, Aiden fell asleep like this after dinner. He didn't get a nap that day, and after he had a full tummy, he was very sleepy.

The last two pictures are from our trip to IHOP to get hot chocolate. Aiden and Jenny both love IHOP's hot chocolate.

Last night since Jaime wasn't home, I took the kids to eat dinner a Chickfila. After we ate, they played on the playground. I think we will start going to Chickfila more often to play in their playground. When we first got there, two ladies were inside the play area disinfecting the playground, shoe cubbies, bench, and really just the whole room. It was so nice to see someone cleaning and disinfecting an area that is probably very full of germs. Also, they provide sanitary wipes for you to use after you leave the play area. I love the idea of trying to make it as clean and sanitized as possible. I'm not saying that other places don't do that, but it was the first time that I've ever actually seen them cleaning it.

I hope you are all having a good week. TGIF! I hear that a lot of places got snow today. Thank God that we didn't! The snow/ice last week was enough to last me at least until next winter (or maybe until the one after that). Have a great weekend, stay warm!





Fall Pictures

A few weeks ago my mom and I decided to try and take a few fall pictures of the kids. Some of them turned out ok, others turned out pretty bad. Ha! Anyway, I thought I'd post them here for you all to see.

This one had a lot of potential. Thanks a lot Aiden! LOL.

Christmas Pictures!