Halloween Printables

Need a cute Halloween printable to fill your frame?

I framed the second one a couple days ago and it is super cute!

Click here to download printables.
They are both sized to fit a 5x7 frame.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Ink

Our apartment walls are in bad shape. Bad, bad shape.

I don't know what it is about toddlers, but it seems their

dirty little hands naturally gravitate to clean walls.

Our toddler is no exception.

Last night I caught Noah using chocolate ink

to stamp his hand print on the wall. Yes, CHOCOLATE.

Josh and I were in the kitchen talking, and all of the sudden

my Mom-Alarm went off... Noah was up to something.

Noah was darting back and forth from his

little table in the living room to a nearby wall,

covering it with little chocolate hand prints.

His plate was covered in melted chocolate Popsicle, so

Noah thought he'd use it to paint the walls Curious George style.

I think I literally gasped out loud when I saw what Noah

had done. I called Josh into the living room and we both stood

there looking at each other trying to hold back our laughter.

More and more often, we find ourselves faced with situations that,

while hilarious and/or painfully cute, require a firm disciplinary response

so that Noah understands his behavior is not to be repeated.

As hard as it is, we just can't let Noah catch even a hint

of a smile, otherwise, he thinks it's all fun and games.

Toddlers! They're something else, aren't they?

Quote Love

via pinterest

Random Wednesday #2

So, it seems Wednesdays are now my day of random thoughts. Warning: overload of randomness today!

A week from today Josh will be leaving on a mission trip out of the country. For two weeks. I'm so excited for him! He has been telling me a lot about his trip recently as he prepares to go, and it is truly going to be an awesome trip. I mean, what a blessing to have the opportunity to visit the other side of the world to reach the Deaf. But I gotta be honest here. I'm dreading next week when he leaves us. I cannot even imagine having my other half gone for that long. And I'm pretty sure Noah will be asking about his Daddy on a daily basis. :( Thank goodness for Skype!

I got something fun in the mail last week! My new camera strap! I found it on Pinterest recently and totally fell in love with it. It is quite lovely. The owner of the shop is only selling this design until she runs out of the fabric. So if you can't live without it, you better grab one before they're gone!

Did you see the video I posted recently of Noah talking on the phone? It really is the cutest thing ever. Click here if you missed it.

We've had a taste of Fall around here the last week or two with high 80's and low 90's; I'm getting quite spoiled. It has been wonderful! Like I can't even begin to tell you tired I am of the heat we've had this Summer. Come on cooler temps!!! And rain, you may visit as well. :)

I was so excited when I saw this recipe on Pinterest yesterday. Low fat spinach and artichoke dip!? Yes, please!!

My whole family is coming to visit this weekend. I'm so happy! Can't wait to spend some time with them! And I know Noah will be glad to see all of them too.

We've been reading more of Dr. Suess to Noah lately and he loves the stories. Josh gets into character when he reads to Noah, and it's quite comical. Anytime Josh talks as the Cat in the Hat, Noah says over and over again, "Scary!" Ha. While we were at Barnes and Noble a few days ago, we decided to get Noah another Suess book, so we bought Horton Hears a Who. I loved it! It's a little long for Noah at this point, but it is a wonderful story with a great message.

I need to start running again. Anybody there with me? I love the way I feel when I'm exercising, but I cannot seem to get myself going again. Motivation, where art thou?

Okay, I saw the cutest Paul Frank boxer briefs at Target the other day. I resisted buying them because a. Noah is not potty trained yet and b. given a choice between briefs and diapers, Noah picks diapers every time. Bummmmer.

Heard an interesting piece of information yesterday from my mother-in-law about the television cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants. Apparently studies are showing that just watching nine minutes of the cartoon causes short-term attention and learning problems in young children. Thankfully Noah has never watched that show. Craziness! Here's the article if you're interested in reading more about it.

For those of you who wanted to know how to use digital tape in Photoshop, I posted a tutorial yesterday. Let me know if you have any questions and have fun!

And a picture or two of my favorite little boy playing with Buzz. "To infinity and beyyyyond!"

Happy Wednesday!

Photoshop Tutorial: Using Digital Tape

It's been a while since my last tutorial, so I thought I'd share with you how to use digital tape in Photoshop. It may seem like a lot of steps at first, but after playing around with the tape a few times, you will find that it's super easy. I use Photoshop CS4. If you have an older or newer version, you'll find some differences, but you should still be able to follow this tutorial.

Need some digital tape? Here ya go! Let's get started.

1. Open up Photoshop.

2. Click file > open, and locate the picture you want to use. When you find your picture, click on it and then click open. Note: I always save mine to the desktop so it's easy to find.

3. This is a screen shot of the picture that I opened up in Photoshop:

4. On the toolbar at the very top, click image and then click canvas size. A box will pop up like the one in the screenshot below:

5. For width and height put in 100. Make sure the canvas extension color at the bottom is white. Then click ok. Look at the screenshot below as an example:

6. After you click ok, you should see a white canvas behind your picture:

7. Before we go any further with the tutorial, make sure you know where your tape is saved. Saving the tape to the desktop is always an easy way to find it when you need it. I have a folder labeled "digital tape" on my desktop for easy access.

8. Okay, now that you have located your tape, click file > place, and then you'll see the box below:

Notice the two arrows, one labeled A and the other labeled B. I did this so you could see there are two different ways of doing storing your tape. If you have a whole bunch of digital tape, it's a good idea to place them in an organized folder like Example A. If you just have like one or two pieces of digital tape, then you might just save the tape on your desktop like Example B.

If you are using a folder, then click the folder and then click place. You will then be able to browse all your tape and decide which one you want to place on your picture. After you have decided which one you want, then click on the tape and then click place again.

If you just have one piece of tape like in example B, then just click the tape and then click place.

9. Almost done! Yay! After clicking place, a piece of tape will show up on or near your image like the example below. More than likely it will be small, so you will have to play around with it to make it bigger. To do that, hold down the shift key on your keyboard. As you are holding shift, move your mouse to the corners of your tape, and you will see an arrow. This arrow allows you to make the tape bigger or smaller. If you move the cursor slightly off of the corner, you will also see a curvy type arrow. This arrow allows you to rotate your tape. Just play around. Make sure you are holding shift down the entire time you are playing with the tape; this re-sizes the tape in the correct proportions.

Once you have the tape placed where you like it on the image, then click enter on your keyboard.

10. Now you just need to crop the picture and save it. The arrow below shows you where the crop button is located. Click it.

Then click and drag the crop-box to crop the picture {and tape} as shown below. Once you're finished, click enter on your keyboard.

Yay! You did it! Here is my example:

11. Now you just need to resize the picture so it fits nicely in your blog post. To do this, click image on the toolbar and then click image size. The box below will show up. Below you can see what I put in for width & height; these dimensions what I typically use for my posts. You might have to play around with different sizes though. Make sure all the boxes at the bottom are checked and also make sure the box at the very, very bottom says bicubic sharper (best for reduction). Then click ok.

12. Your picture is now re-sized and ready for your blog post. Just click file > save as, give your file a name (make sure it's saved as a .jpg file), and click save.

13. I use photobucket to host the images on my blogs. If you'd like to know how I do that, here is a tutorial for ya! Otherwise host your picture to your blog as you normally would.

If you'd like to see some examples where I have used digital tape, click here, here, and here.

Questions or concerns? Just email me. I'd be glad to help out! Also, leave me a link to your blog if you use this tutorial. I'd love to come visit and see how you used the digital tape.

Linking up:

Talking on the Phone

I was taking a shower the other morning and Noah came in and said, "Talking on the phone." When he said that I thought to myself, "Did he call somebody on my phone? Or did someone call me and he answered it?" He knows his way around our phones, so to find him having a conversation with somebody on it would not surprise me at all. I pulled the shower curtain back hoping my phone was sitting on the counter top, and thankfully, it was. By that time, Noah had already left the bathroom. So I got out, dried off, and I quietly peeked my head around the corner.

And this is what I saw:

Seriously, the cutest thing ever! My favorite part is when he hung the phone up and said, "Goodbye!" Oh, and of course when he discovered he was being spied on. :) Such a fun, fun age!

Remembering 9/11

"The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and

saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Psalm 34:18

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are

wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us

an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes

not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is

seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Praying for comfort and strength to those who lost love ones.

And for the brave heroes, thank you.

Oklahoma Family Reunion

one weekend in july

seven families

yummy food

water volleyball

swimming

lots of catching up

hammock swinging

laughter

fun in the sun

hula dancing

turtle discovery

picking mimi's flowers

total relaxation

=

one awesome oklahoma family reunion

First Day of "School"

Noah started back to Mother's Day Out yesterday and he had a great first day. The very first thing he told me and Josh when we picked him up was, "Have fun at school!" We were so happy to hear those words come out of his mouth. Sounds like it's going to be a great new year! Here's a picture of my little guy ready for his big day!

*I got the inspiration for adding Noah's "favorites'' to his school picture from here. I loved the idea of sharing a little bit of his personality with the first day of school picture. It will be lots of fun looking back at these someday.

One...Two...Three!

Last Saturday was Noah's 3rd birthday. *sigh* Our little guy is growing up! We celebrated Noah's special day together as a family. It was just the four of us, or as Noah always loves to say when we're all together, "Daddy... Mommy... Noah... and Einsteinnn!"

Our morning started early {as most of our mornings do} around 7:30. Chocolate chip pancakes {with whipped cream of course!} were on the menu for Noah's birthday breakfast. Yum! We all enjoyed our fair share of chocolate that morning. :)

Noah loves trains. Well really, he loves all things transportation, but trains are probably his favorite. So we decided it would be fun to take Mr. Noah to ride the miniature train in Trinity Park. He had ridden the train one other time before, so we knew he would be excited to have the chance to ride again. Of course, we were running late and the train almost left without us, but we made it just in time to buy our tickets and board.

Here is the only picture I was able to get of Noah riding the train. Yeah, not a happy camper.

About half way through the ride, the train made a stop, and we had the chance to buy drinks and popcorn. I thought I might be able to get a picture of Noah at that point, but my poor little guy took a hard fall when he got off the train and scraped his little knee up. As soon as the train started up again, Noah forgot all about his ouchie. He loved the train ride. We all did. It is such a fun experience.

After our fun adventure riding the train, we went to a nearby pond to feed the ducks.

This little duck was the smart one in the group. He decided to go directly to the food source instead of waiting for a piece of bread to be thrown to him. It wasn't long before he made his way out of the water and waddled right over to us. Noah loved feeding him.

We had another little friend hanging around too...

Sweet birthday boy feeding the ducks.

After we spent some time at the duck pond, we decided it was time to eat some lunch! Noah loves hamburgers, so we braved the crowd and took him to the newly opened In & Out Burger. It was yummmy!

We were so tired after lunch, so we decided to head on home and take a little nap {which ended up being a four hour nap!} :) While Noah was sleeping, Josh and I made the birthday boy a mayonnaise cake {a Bonjour family tradition!} so we could eat it later that evening after dinner.

Later that night, we ordered in a pizza {yum!} and then it was time for birthday cake! Here is a sweet video of Noah blowing out his three candles. I love how he sang along with us. :)

After we ate cake, we threw a bunch of pillows and blankets on the floor and snuggled together while we watched "Finding Nemo." We only got about half way through the movie, but it was fun while it lasted.

What a wonderful, fun-filled day we had together celebrating Noah turning three!