Sweet Freckles....

I can't forget my little Sam. He is so big now, but still so little. And he can be so angelic at times.

I love the kid to pieces.

Look, he's recently developed a very light sprinkling of freckles....

How sweet are they?!...

I told him that freckles are angel kisses. His response is "Well, those angels sure have been lovin' on me!"

Sam and Owen taking a break while riding scooters...

Owen's Birthday

Yes, I know his birthday was weeks ago, but, hey-I've been busy with Easter and all sorts of other stuff. (Like cleaning off my hard drive after I tried to download images off my CF card and my computer told me "NO". Yikes! That's been a big project and I'm still not done because I have to make sure everything is backed up and burned to CD before I remove it from my computer.) So anyways.....you get the idea.

So here's a random schmandom smorgasboard of birthday week festivities....

The yearly "hold-out-how-many-fingers-old-you-are" shot.

I had about two seconds to get this 'cause he wanted to be off riding his new scooter.

*Click on images to see them bigger*


He likes to do little "stunts" on his new scooter. Like putting his toes up on the front bar. Pretty smooth...

The super-fun birthday party at Pump It Up....

http://http//www.pumpitupparty.com/

The obstacle course is really fun to try to race your kids on. :) Even when you get owned. Not that I would know anything about that...haha

They had this AWESOME hallway.

Owen got to sit in a little throne.

"Hey Owen, look at Mommy real quick, so I can get a birthday picture!".....

"Owen, up here, honey! Look up here!"

"Hey now..."

Me: "Owen, pleeease? Look up here for just a second..."
Him:"Cheeessse..." (with a mouthful of pizza.)

Me: "Okay, I guess that will have to do."

Owen's best friend Ian wanted to sit with him. :) How sweet.

FYI: This Nerf dart tag set is SO FUN. We've spent many hours as a family having dart wars since his birthday. The kids like to set up ambushes and attack us parents. Good times, good times.

ANOTHER FYI: The set comes with safety glasses for a reason. Wear 'em. (SORRY MJ! Hope your eye is okay! I really was aiming for your stomach.)

Hey! There's the birthday boy! He's actually looking AT me! And smiling! And he doesn't have a mouthful of food! YES!

Oh, serious moment over....

Oh, wait a second....Could it be???

Photo magic....Isn't he a handsome little guy?

And now he's 5. And getting ready to go off to kindergarden. *Sniff* How can he be 5 already??!

Why I love Photoshop....

Photoshop is the most amazing program. Really. I'm not kidding. The people who created it are geniuses.

Look what it can do with a simple photo! This is from a senior session I did last week. Bakersfield alleyway. Pretty bricks and wildflowers, but also ugly garbage (and who knows what else) on the ground.

But with Photoshop....poof! Voila! The trash is magically gone and, oh!, where did those pretty leaves come from?! (They came from the ground in the before picture. I just cloned them and then added some color. Cool, huh?)

*click on the image to see it bigger*

The cloning isn't my greatest, but still, what an improvement! And look at all that beautiful rich color I was able to coax out! Scrumptious!

Anyway...THAT is why I *heart* photoshop. :)

Oh, and I still intend to post recent photos of the boys real soon....just have some business sessions I have to process first...
Good things come to those who wait. Where I am involved, good things come to those who wait....and wait.... ;)