I heart Faces photo challenge: Innocent Wondering

I was excited for this challenge! Ashton is always off looking at something, wondering. It always makes me wonder what going on in his little head. I can just imagine! He doesn't give me big cheeses when I ask him, or pose for me. So, I get some of my best photos of him because of his innocent curiosity and his beautiful outlook on life. With hopes one day he's verbal enough to share his world with me! =)

While most of the country is cold or snowy ...

This is what we are doing today! =)

Happy Saturday

Simply beautiful

Amelia and our Maine Coon cat Cleopatra. Cleo for short. =)

My little worker

 Helping me water my plants and grass today. I'm so thankful for this beautiful weather we have been having!

Before and after

So I thought I'd share another one. This took me maybe 5 mins. First I opened in Lightroom 3. I used a preset called pretty girl ... it gives it a purple..ish retro look. Then I cropped. I sent it over to CS5 added a texture, masked back most the texture off the photo, gave it a slight "S" curve, resized, and sharpened for web!

There is SOOC (resized and sharpened only)

My edit

Such a beautiful day!

It was SO nice having the warm weather return. I really hope it's here to stay. If felt wonderful wearing shorts and a tank top, running around outside with the kids, and finally picking up my camera again! =)

I heart faces photo challenge: SMILE

I really had a hard time choosing one from this series. Some of them were funny. I don't know what it was about this one I decided to go with it. After the contest I'll post the others. This was thought up by my daughter! She's great when I need creative ideas! =)

One of my favorite places

Valley of Fire. For those of you that visit Las Vegas this is a MUST go place. Yeah, a little out the way (45 mins from the strip), but seriously breathtaking! When I lived there I took trips to TVF all the time. Mother Nature sure created something wonderful there! 

Letting go ....

Seems to be the title of the day. We say goodbye to Daddy for a year (less or longer). It also seems this is my biggest struggle with my son - the letting go. He'll be 8 in a few months, but he's so much like a toddler in many ways - mostly in the impulsive department (and language). He's been gaining my trust more and more by proving me wrong in certain situations .... recently. I've been allowing him to roam more without such a tight leash .... but believe me my hawk eyes are still on him at ALL the times. It's just a real hard thing for a mom that has dealt with SO much horror ... having to call the police a NUMBER of times, losing him in a dept store (he jumped out the cart and RAN .... found him chowing down hotdogs in the break room), the ups truck driving picking him up naked not knowing (little sneak), broken windows, all the fences he climbed ... all the many times I had that OMG I LOST MY KID feeling! And even worse knowing he couldn't tell you his name, who his mom was, and more than likely naked! LOL (I still can laugh over all this) Letting go and giving him some freedom can send me in panic mode, LOL! I have to do it though. I tell myself this a million times a day ....

Anyway this photo reminds me of letting him go ... but not too far, haha!

Before and after

This isn't a great before and after, but I wanted to start doing these more so you can see what I start off with and show you how I process. This was just a quick minute edit. I promise I'll get more creative =)

 Strait out the camera (SOOC) with the usual resize and sharpen -

The quick edit

I can't wait to share more before and afters with you!