Love It!

Saw this video in Relief Society...SO POWERFUL! Enjoy!

Warning...Nude Face-Not for the Weak Stomaches

Like mother like daughter

A few days after my tennis-induced facial trauma, K decided to face dive into a box. Now we have matching bruised eyes...AWESOME!

Sorry for the lack of makeup...I decided to really embrace the classiness of the black eye. Why dress up, shower or apply makeup when your eye looks like that ^ ?

Go ahead, call me a hypocrite...

Before I was a mom, I had a huge long lists of things I would NEVER do as a mother.

I would never sleep with my baby (lasted a few weeks before I caved).

I would never "bribe" my child in a store to get them to stop crying (yep, she can't cry if she is eating : )

I would never be one of those moms who buys something for their child every time they leave the house (one look in her closet would show how good I am at that one).

And above all, I would NEVER NEVER NEVER post a gazillion pictures of my child just being cute.

Well folks, I made that rule before I knew how wicked cute my child would be when she rocked out the most adorable outfit I have ever seen. Just be glad I am not posting literally a gazillion pictures.

This whole mobile thing is really cramping my photography style. I guess it is good to practice on a moving person, but it was so much easier when she was stationary.

Most of the pictures were a variation of this:

or this:

One thing I love about photography is how hard it can be. I love the challenge of taking picture after picture, and most of them turn out goofy (cute, in this instance, but goofy)....


...but then every once in awhile, you get a picture so beautiful it makes you want to cry!

(ok this one below probably goes in the goofy category due to the facial expression, but you can see how cute her shirt is in it!)
(love the dirt on her lips, alot of foliage was consumed during this adventure)

Now if only I make a high resolution 8x10 picture of one of these : ) Thanks for the tips Ami and Lesley, I checked those settings and I had already set them to the highest quality...the quest continues!

Attention all photography lovers...

I need some help. There is probably a basic answer to this, but I don't know what it is. My understanding of photography is pretty basic.

I have a Canon PowerShot S5 IS. It has 8 megapixels, so I should be able to get good pictures up to 11x14.

However, every time I go to order a picture bigger than 8x10 the site I am ordering from says the resolution is low. I have never felt like they look bad, but I assume they would look better if the resolution wasn't low. What the heck am I doing wrong?

I know if my ISO is higher than 400 that can make it grainy, so that isn't the problem. I have the file size on my camera set to large.

I am not sure if it is what I am using to import them from my camera to computer- I just use my camera cord and Camera Wizard is what pops up (I did read online to increase the resolution or quality when you are importing, but I couldn't find it anywhere on Camera Wizard).

I also edit my pictures with Picasa, photobucket and picnik (someday Photoshop...someday). Maybe there is something in there that would help.

Any tips would be amazing! Even if it is basic and EVERYONE who has ever picked up a camera should know it, tell me- the odds are good I don't know : )

I Forgot One..

This was the first outfit I put on Kerrigan when we brought her home exactly nine months ago from yesterday. This was the tiniest outfit we had, and it was HUGE on her little 5 lb 2 oz frame- and now look at it! This picture is even a little deceptive because I have the pants low riding so they look longer than they were on her, and the hat is sitting really high, but you get the idea!



In other news, don't you hate how pictures of a wound never look as disgusting as they do in real life! Take this for instance, doesn't look too terrible, right? Well this was taken Monday night and by Tuesday morning I couldn't get my contact in because my eye was so swollen.

This one is a little better (by better, I mean graphically representing the injury more appropriately).

How did this occur, you ask? We are still looking into some of the details. All that is being released at this time is it was a tennis game gone bad, very bad.
I dove for a ball and my face to the brunt of the fall. Normally, I am neither competitive nor athletic. So what possessed me to dive for a ball is a little unclear at this time (like I said, we are looking into it).
On a positive note, I was able to hit the ball over the net and considering she had just witnessed the dive bomb of the century, Cynda was not in the frame of mind to hit the ball back to me.
GAME, SET, MATCH!!!!
Actually, we weren't even keeping score (which brings back into question, what the heck was I thinking?!?!?!)
Jared and my dad are surprisingly proud of my injuries. In fact, to quote my dad, "Good job, way to sacrifice your body for the sport!"
I will admit I am pretty proud of my multicolored, swollen eye and the chunk missing from my shoulder!
*for those concerned by the fact I am in a dress, never fear...I was wearing a swimsuit underneath!*

In Less Than 3 Months...

....I will have a 1 year old- UNBELIEVABLE!!!

At 9 months Kerrigan...

...weighs 18 lbs, approximately 15 of those lbs I swear are in her thighs.

...is becoming an expert crawler and getting braver/more curious about exploring the world around her. She has also FINALLY discovered she can follow me from one room to another, instead of just sitting there and crying if I leave.

...can pull herself up on just about anything and walk holding onto objects. One way we keep her busy is to line up Cheerios along the ottoman, and she walks around it and snacks as she goes. Love it!

...can occasionally stand when leaning on objects, without holding on with her hands.

...is eating more and more table foods and baby solids. If I am eating, so is she. She is also getting really good at picking up tiny foods (and other objects, I hope to someday have a completely baby proof house!) with her pointer finger and thumb and putting them in her mouth.

...has 6 teeth, and 2 more trying to come in.

...is doing better with napping. She still sleeps 10-12 hrs a night, and now take a 1 1/2-2 hr morning nap and USUALLY a 1 hr afternoon nap. Ahhhhhh!

...is becoming more of a daddy's girl every day. They had their first full day alone on Saturday, and rumor has it that had a blast! She has started getting very excited and crawling to the door when I say "Daddy's home!"

....is still the happiest baby I have ever known.

Our Rosebud is the pride and joy of our home. We are so grateful for our sweet angel. We are so blessed and could not love her more!