Playing around with Picnik

I've really been thinking lately about buying Photoshop or Lightroom. Anybody have suggestions of which they like best? It will probably be a few months until I purchase either one, hopefully after we get settled in Sacramento. So until then, I am using http://www.picnik.com/. I really like it and it's free, though I'm wanting to do more now with my pictures. Of course, I really don't have a lot of time right now either. Maybe when the kids are ALL in school!!

Here is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago. In Picnik I boosted the color and saturation just a little.



This is the sketch feature


Cross process - faded some


Lomo-ish - faded some


Kendall did these two with the doodle action. She had a lot of fun with it!!



When I get an editing program, I will have to work on this picture again and see the difference it makes.

Bathtub bandit strikes again!!

Yep, I found Landon in the bathtub again this evening. I assumed he was upstairs playing in his room. He couldn't have been in there more than 5 minutes. This time he left a nice brown present behind - yah, gross!! I am scared of the fact that he is actually getting into the bathtub without me knowing it. I think I need video surveilance in my house!! Or maybe a hook and eye latch above the door to my bedroom. Gads!!!!!

Landon disappeared again

At least a few times a week I go looking for Landon. I always have to make sure I know where he is. Remember my post on him getting stuck in the garage? Well now that Phoenix has had 27 days this year of 110 degrees or more, I panic about him being outside. I am always wrangling him back inside. Tonight once again I went looking for Landon. I went upstairs and heard happy sounds coming from our bathroom. He had taken off his clothes and diaper, climbed into the tub, turned on the cold water (thankfully he knows which one is the cold), and was having a great time filling up the tub with water. GREAT!! One more dangerous place I have to look for him!

He also now is potty training himself. With his sensory issues and struggles with potty training Carson, I wasn't even going to TRY until he was at least 4. Well, now he takes off his clothes and diapers, sits on the potty chair, and tinkles a few drops. All good right? Well, then he decides to dump it into the potty. He loves to say "Bye Bye pee pee" and watch it go down the toilet. Good thing he is only "sprinkling" the potty chair. What about when he does more than a sprinkle and then tries to empty it by himself? I think I need a separate bathroom for the kids in training!!!

Presley says goodnight!!

Carson Quote

"I like Darth Vader because he is very powerful and he's a dad."

Last of the vacation pics

I don't have a lot of pics from our vacation. Landon had a tough trip this time (though he has done really well on all the other trips we took this past year). I spent most of the time battling him and trying to keep him as calm as possible, so I didn't get a chance to use my camera a lot. Of course we also really only had 2 full days on vacation, so not a lot of opportunity for photos!

Vacation pics - Bowling

After Kendall's baptism, we went bowling at BYU. Kendall had a great time with Sadie and her cousins!

Annie has great form!!

Kendall, not so much.

Did my daddy really just bowl a strike???

"What? I only bowled a 250?"

Oh puuuleeeez!!!!

Kendall planned ahead and color coordinated her undies with her bowling shoes.

Beautiful Sisters

The new third graders

Friends Forever!!

Cousins!!

Bento-style lunch!

I recently read a post at one of my favorite blogs: http://gesweinfamily.com/. They are a family with 2 young school-age children that are from Texas and have lived in China for 2 years. I love reading about all of their China adventures. Recently she posted on bento lunches that she was packing for her girls. I realized that that is the type of lunch that would be perfect for my kids. It is small portions of a lot of different things. I did it today and they loved it and ate really well. I don't have a bento lunchbox (yet!!), but I realized that I did have these baby food containers that I had saved. I use them to make individual portions of pudding and jello, but they are perfect for lunches! Especially for Carson since he has low muscle tone and these lids come off really easy. This is Kendall's lunch tomorrow. She is having grapes, pretzels, froot loops, and a boiled egg. She is also having some mini rice cakes that aren't in the picture. Once I get to Sacramento I want to try and find an Asian store with some bento lunchboxes. There are a ton on Ebay, but hopefully I can find one there or in San Francisco.

PS - Remember my gripe from yesterday about the lady that was parked at the kindergarten/first grade drop off? Well today as I was pulling up, she was just leaving. Yay!! I pulled right up in back of another car. The kids got out of that car and then the mom got out of the car and proceeded to walk her children inside!! I was stuck because I had pulled up close, there was a Suburban behind me that had pulled up right next to me, and there was another car behind the Suburban. I had to do the little back and forth going inches at a time until I got out. Oh well, it's not like I was in a hurry or anything!!

My Gripe!!

Okay - I have just one little gripe. Every morning I take the kids to school and there is the regular drop-off and then you go up a few yards and there is a seperate drop-off for kindergarteners and first graders (they have a separate playground). There is a mini van that is there EVERY morning parked in the drop-off area and just sitting in her car with her child. The other cars have to try and pull in front of her or they pull up right behind her, thinking she is just dropping off, and then cars get backed up behind her waiting for her to leave. The curb is RED!! It is a DROP-OFF area!! And there is a parking lot just 5 yards away if you want to park your car!!!! The first couple of days I gave her some slack - she has a New Jersey license plate so obviously is new here. But you would think after a couple of days of backing up traffic and people having to pull in front of you, that you would figure it out. I hate it when people are so self absorbed they don't recognize how what they are doing affects other people (like the parents in the first row of a school program that stand up to video blocking everyone behind them). On the bright side, that is really the only gripe I have today. Life is really good!!

Quick update and vacation pics

I'm back!! Things are starting to calm down a little here. Derek is in Sacramento and has been at his new job for 1 week. He really likes it and is happy to be back at work again. About 85% of the house is packed and the kids and I are still in Arizona sweating while he is enjoying the nice weather! He is house hunting and hopefully in the next month or two we will be joining him......right about the time the weather starts to be perfect here in Arizona.

A few weeks ago we went to Utah for a quick 3-day vacation. We celebrated Kendall's 8th birthday and then she was baptized there in Utah with most of Derek's family there with us. We stayed with our wonderful friends the Greenhalgh's and had a great time. It was a really good, but short, vacation!!

Landon likes the candles the best!

Nephew Jacob enjoying the candles too!!

Kendall and Sadie have been friends since they were babies! Even though we haven't lived close to them in 3 years, the girls always pick up right where they left off!!

I have a few more pictures to post of our trip coming soon!!

Carson Funnies

"When God built the earth, did he use a crane?"

The kids started school last week. Carson was a bit nervous about going back, even though he went there for kindergarten. The mascot is a hawk. He told Derek the week before school starts "It's a hawk school and I'm scared of hawks!"

I have lots to catch up on this blog and hopefully in the next week I will get a chance to update. Until then, it's back to packing boxes. I'm up to 150 so far!!