i was just fooling around with this photoshop action that highlights the eyes. and tried it out on a couple of my photos..

here's before... this is straight out of the camera and lovely in its own right, i think. :)


and then here is the after... i cropped in a little too.


here's another one that i did...

before... again, just straight out of the camera and untouched


after... cropped in again and played with the eyes a little


addison's eyes are so dang small and dark, that the change is not as obvious as on someone with larger and lighter eyes. but i do like the subtle difference! :) photoshop is pretty neat with all that it can do.. it's just figuring it all out that's the hard part! and i even just have elements.. the cheap version! i could play all day with this thing!

christmas is coming...

i got started early this year with decorating for christmas. maybe it was because of the snow this past week. or maybe it's because we are not having thanksgiving dinner here so i might as well put away my harvest-y decor. so, i got out last year's decorations from the basement and as i was setting it all up, i realized that we needed some new and improved decorative stuff. most of it was still okay, but i was feeling the urge to freshen things up. so, i went out and came back home with a hole in my wallet and some goodies from pottery barn. shoot, that store and target are like money pits for me!...always walking out of there with a bag in my hand!









we also made a stop at Michael's and picked up a holiday craft...



a christmas party hat??



must touch ornament!





ahhh, i love christmas... :)

aaaand here are some more!....

we just converted one of the rooms down in the basement into a "workout" room. now, jimmy's intentions are very good.. bbbbut we'll see if this room actually gets used! right now, there is only a bench, weights and our beloved "Bob", the punching dummy. we are waiting to get a treadmill and perhaps a small tv (because how can you run without watching tv, duh??!). addison was a little frightened by Bob (as was I!) when jimmy brought him in. i mean look at him! wouldn't want to be alone with him in a dark alley! but she quickly got used to his fierce face as we pumped up the song "eye of the tiger" on the iPod. she was having a blast!













and then after a few rounds with Bob, we worked our way over to the karaoke machine which is also in the basement. our house is filled with all kinds of activities, i tell ya!



addie wanted to make sure she got her usual song in... by Gloria Estefan.





full concentration as she reached the high notes.

and these are just from another day. this is a typical day off for jimmy. he's on the computer looking up fantasy football whatever? and addison and i doing all kinds of things to bother him...





and then another random day. i bought addison a kiddie version of the Bible. because you can never start 'em too early! she was enjoying it. the stories were a little different from what she was used to, but it's pretty good!

photo blog??

i started this blog with the intention of it being more of a "photo" blog since i had just started dabbling in photography. i was going to journal my progress and describe what i was doing and learning with my new camera and show examples of what i was shooting. welllll, that didn't really happen. yes, i have been practicing with my new camera, but i have been waaaay lazy about talking and writing about it. so now, i've decided that i am going to use this as more of my day-to-day, life as a mommy blog. :) i will just continue on from what i was doing on my xanga site. i've pretty much abandoned that site completely... for no real and apparent reason. i guess i just want to start fresh. here are just some photos of what we've been up to in the last couple of months...

hangin' out at the park...





picking out pumpkins at the farm...










just at home...









at the cider mill...






more hanging out at home...