Memories, Dreams, and Reflections 2012

Happy New Year!  I hope 2013 brings you an abundance of God's blessings!  That you don't keep all to yourself but pass along to others as well!

Before moving forward, it is often good to look back.  Ashley gives us that opportunity with her Memories, Dreams, and Reflections photo challenge.  It is always hard to narrow down just one photo to go with each category, but I finally managed it.

So without further ado, here's my look back at 2012 ... 

{me}

Yep, that's me getting crispy on a beach watching my babies play in the water.  :)

{i love you}

I had Keira take a photo of Doug and me on our 16th wedding anniversary in November.

{still laughing}

Our sweet Honey was entranced by an abandoned worm nest in the neighbor's tree.  She stared at it, growled at it, and jumped up at it for quite some time.  It still makes me chuckle to look at these pictures.

{winter wonderland}

This was actually just taken on Saturday.  Yep, we're in the middle of a winter wonderland right now.

{birthday}

We took pictures for Keira's 14th birthday a few weeks late.  But we had a lot of fun when we finally did.

{friends}

Parades are always more fun when shared with friends.

{i was inspired}

I can't name exactly who inspired this hazy photo, but I was excited to capture it (in camera, not in processing).

{spring fever}

The trees were absolutely gorgeous in the spring.

{travel or vacation}

We took a day - before school started back up - to have some fun at the beach.

{summer days}

Our summers are pretty laid back - swimming, playing at the park, or looking for crayfish in a local creek.

{a day in my life}

I actually did a blog post back in January on a typical day in my life.  Back when Alex was still in afternoon Kindergarten and was my buddy each morning.  This is one of the collages I made.

{all smiles}

Alex wanted a picture with his new Polar Express cargo car.  He was all smiles after getting it.

{autumn harvest}

We know it is fall when we get to attend our county's annual farm tour.

{family or home}

Taken on New Year's Eve ... me and the kiddos celebrating at home.  We couldn't talk Daddy into getting in the picture with us.

{celebrate!}

Alex and I celebrated Independence Day in Children's Hospital this year.  However, we had a really good view of the city's fireworks display.

{let's do it again}

This was a hard prompt because many of the things we did, photography wasn't allowed.  But we did squeeze in a show (How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular) this summer - between the hospital stay and school starting - and we look forward to going to another one.

{i miss you}

My nephew, Kyle, is a marine and is currently stationed in California.  We did get to see him for Christmas this year though.

{beautiful}

One of the senior photo shoots I did this fall was of Anna.  She is a beautiful girl, inside and out.

{dress up}

My friend, Laura, took this picture.  She had Keira and Nick over for a few hours during the time Alex and I were in Children's Hospital.  For some reason when our kids get together, they end up playing dress up.  :)

{macro}

For some reason this was the first time I took a macro shot of one of the Monarch butterflies we raise each summer.

{holidays}

We host the holidays at our house now.  Which means I do most of the work, although I don't mind.  My mom usually helps out a lot and this year at Thanksgiving I wanted to be sure to document that.  Thanks, Mom!

{my favorite}

Another tough one.  How do you pick ONE favorite photo from among thousands?!?!

I picked this one because it is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity - to see the Penguins on Parade at the zoo.

{don't ever change}

My baby girl is growing into a beautiful, smart young lady.

{just because ... so there!}

We had the privilege of seeing the sweet baby gorilla that was born at the zoo this past February.  Unfortunately he only lived about 3 months, which makes this photo even more precious to me.

{hopes and dreams}

I have so many hopes and dreams for my babies.  Too many to list here.  But one for certain ... that they continue to grow strong in the Lord.

Happy New Year!

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Week 37 in Photos

Another week done!  Another week full of painting my friend's house.  A week of vacation for my husband.  Another week filled with critters, busyness, and even some fun!

{Sunday}

Keira and I attended a butterfly release at a local conservancy that was pretty cool.  When we left, this adult swallowtail caterpillar came home with us.  A little girl had found him and gave him to us to raise.  Yay!  I'm so excited!

{Monday}

Monday evening rolled around (after a day full of painting) and I realized I hadn't photographed anything yet.  So I walked around outside and noticed the sunlight on our hibiscus bush.

{Tuesday}

Doug and I spent the day together.  We visited Living Treasures so I could finally see the baby leopards.  Then we went for a bike ride and out to lunch.  It was such a nice day.

{Wednesday}

Late Tuesday night I noticed our caterpillar making this harness.  His head was moving back and forth like he was sewing.  It was pretty cool.  I read up on it and this is his way of getting ready to pupate.  I was hoping to see him form his chrysalis but he was sneaky and did it while I was out of the house Thursday morning - after hanging like this for about 36 hours.

{Thursday}

My friend, Laura, who I've been helping paint, has two adorable kids, Jason and Liza.  I took them for a couple hours Thursday afternoon so the carpet cleaners could come to their new home.  Turns out they arrived early and were already done by the time I got there.  But I took the kids anyway.  We went to a park that was new to them and had a blast.  In these photos Jason is being a pirate and Liza is taking a break from playing.  When I dropped them off, both kids hugged me and Jason said, "Bye, Kim!  See you the next time you come get us to take us to the park!"  Oh boy, I think I'm in trouble.  :)

{Friday}

My husband knows how much I love critters, so when he saw this stick bug, he knew I'd want to take a picture or two (hundred) of it.  :)

{Saturday}

Nick and I went to a Monarch butterfly tagging program this afternoon and can you believe I didn't even take one picture?!  Instead I took this of one of our last sunflowers.

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 09.09.12

First of all, happy birthday to my father-in-law!  We love you, Pap!  Hope you had a wonderful day!

I almost didn't make this week's hunt.  Things have been incredibly busy around here!  I've been helping Laura paint her walls in her new house, I had to take my car to the garage for inspection and a minor repair (which we thought was going to be a bigger repair - praise God it wasn't!), I had several meetings, and our church had their Fall Kickoff this weekend.  And looking ahead to this week, it will be just as busy.  There's some fun stuff thrown in this week too, but still busy.

Anyway, the Scavenger Hunt items this week are: Monochromatic, Starts with the letter ..., Upside down, Hair, and Soft.  And here are my interpretations ...

{monochromatic}

While my car was in the garage, I took advantage of the park that is right along the river.  First I did some interval running, then walked back to the garage to get my camera to see what I could capture.  These hibiscus were HUGE!  And I love the mostly reddish-pink color!

{starts with the letter ...}

We had a busy butterfly week!  We had four emerge from their chrysalis (two females and two males) and we found a recently-emerged male while out gathering milkweed leaves for our hungry caterpillars.  Alex was hanging with the found butterfly while Liza and Jason, Laura's kids, got to enjoy two of the newly emerged ones.  I took the containers to their house since I knew the butterflies would emerge while I was there for the day and I don't like leaving them that long.  (Collage courtesy of Rebecca from Simple as That - I think.)  :)

{upside down}

Monarch caterpillars hang upside down in a J form before shedding their skin for the final time and forming their chrysalis.

{hair}

This photo is from last week.  An outtake from our little back-to-school photo shoot.  Keira's hair kept blowing in her face while attempting this shot.

{soft}

Doug and I went for a ride on the bike trail on Labor Day.  While he was putting the bikes back on the bike rack, I was exploring.  I came across this cat who was feeding her baby kittens.  I assume she was soft.  She wouldn't let me get close enough to find out - she was growling and hissing at me.  So I just snapped a couple pictures and left her be.

So that's it for me.  Next week's items are sponsored by ... ME!  WOOT!  I forgot all about sending this list to Ashley.  Thankfully she keeps pretty good track of this stuff.  :)  Here's what to hunt down this week ...

1) Kiss

2) Askew

3) Fragrant

4) Simple

5) Plant  

I hope you'll play along!  Have a wonderful week!

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Scavenger Hunt Sunday 11.27.11

Time once again for Scavenger Hunt Sunday!  This weeks items are Waiting, Foliage, Candid, Knife fork or spoon, and Rule of Thirds.

{waiting}

Waiting for the parade to start.

{foliage}

I resisted digging into the archives for this prompt, since this is what most of our trees look like now.  Bare and brown.

{candid}

Keira giving Alex a horsey ride.

{knife, fork, or spoon}

Um, fork.  :)

{rule of thirds}

Some cows we passed on our walk on Friday.

Next week's items to find are:

1. Portrait
2. Nostaglic (Ida's suggestion)
3. Time (Ida's suggestion)
4. Full of Light (Mikayla's suggestion)
5. Motion (Mikayla's suggestion)

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!

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Autumn Leaves

I don't know about you, but I think the leaves are absolutely gorgeous this fall.  I don't remember them being this beautiful last year.  Or perhaps I'm just more aware of them this year ... looking for photo opportunities.  :)

Did you know that the fall colors - yellows, oranges, and reds - come from sugars produced by the trees?  Each type of sugar has its own color ... carotenoids are yellow and orange, while anthocyanins are red.  The reason we don't see these colors during the rest of the year is because they are masked by the green chlorophyll, which converts light from the sun into food for the tree.

As the days grow shorter and darker, less light from the sun is available, so the tree stops producing chlorophyll.  This allows the brilliant colors of autumn to shine through.  Eventually, these chlorophyll-stripped leaves cost the tree more to keep than they give back to it in energy, so it protects itself by producing a substance to seal off the leaves from the rest of the tree.  Eventually the nutrient-starved leaves fall off and die.

So there's your science lesson for the day.  While I'd like to take credit for all that wonderful information, it was actually taken from The Farmer's Almanac website.  :)  Here's another good article with more details on how/why leaves change color.  The kids and I will be talking about this tonight after school.

Speaking of leaves ... here are my edits for Shoot & Edit/Good to WOW!

I just did the usual simple edits in ACR on all 4 of these.  The only "extra" thing I did was on the photo of Alex with his walking stick ... I did a little dodging/burning on his face to make it a little brighter.  It was a little too shadowy for me.  It is still a bit dark, but I didn't want to overdo the correction.



Again simple edits in ACR, then I added Kim Klassen's Yesteryear texture twice and lowered the opacity on each layer until I liked the result.  You can mouse over the photo to see the clean edit.









I have wanted to try The CoffeeShop Blog's color bar template for a while now and this seemed like the perfect photo.  Although Liza seems a little scrunched so I'm wondering if I did something wrong.  I'll just have to go back and play some more.  Anyway, I love how the color bar pulls out the colors in the photo that you may not have noticed.




Last, just some more simple tweaks in ACR.  And I adjusted the white balance.  Mouse over to see the SOOC version.
     

To see more great leaf edits and to find out what Misty from Through a Photographer's Eyes has to teach us this week, head over to Ashley's.

Next week's Shoot & Edit theme is pumpkins.  That should be an easy one for me ... we have 18 of them decorating my deck!  It's like we have our own personal pumpkin patch.  :)


Hope you are having a wonderful day!  After a cold, rainy day yesterday, the sun has decided to peek out from behind the clouds for a bit this afternoon.  So I'm headed outside to enjoy it.  Have a great Thursday!

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