The Kiddos...

Here are some CUTE pictures that I sent to Moms and Grandmas for mothers day this year. My friend Kim took them with her awesome studio lights and backdrop. I even got to play around with the set up which was so so so fun! Some of these photos were taken by Kim and some by myself... though I can't remember who took which ones :) All the credit goes to Kim who knows the lighting and all that went into it. We had a fun time! The kids are obviously used to the camera, they loved being in the center of attention... especially Kiah. Evan loved the lights and was more interested in the equipment then anything else. 

So, here is a little update on Kiah... 

She always insists on saying the prayer at meals and bedtime. The other morning she was saying the prayer at breakfast time. I was expecting her to say: Thank you for the oatmeal (she likes to be specific), but instead she said:

Heavenly Father,

Thank you for all the princesses

Jesus name... um...

Thank you for Sleeping Beauty

Jesus name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

It was pretty cute. Another time she was saying the prayer and instead of thanking Heavenly Father for one thing (as usual), she kept going and going and going. It was her longest prayer yet. It was cute. 

The other day Kiah was having a sad day. She cried over everything. At one point she said that she wanted to call Grandma. So I called my mom and my dad picked up. "Not Grandpa!" she said... but Grandma was busy, so we talked to Grandpa. Later Kiah cried for Grandma again, so we called again. This time Grandma was gone... Kiah wasn't happy. Later Kiah did the same thing so we called again.... this time (again) Grandpa picked up and Kiah started whining for Grandma again. Thank goodness Grandma was there and she loved talking to her. The best thing about phone calls like that is, the kids think that the person on the other line can see them too. They show things to the phone all the time. 

Evan is always asking questions as I said before. He talks all day long, and is constantly asking me things. He is smarter than I give him credit for. Today during church Dallas was writing things down and Evan was reading them! I know he knows the sounds of letters, but maybe I should be helping him more since he can really read. Of course there are the sounds that are too tricky for him like: TH, SH, OO, etc. But I think if I helped him he could get it down. He has a good memory and does well at memorizing things. 

He loves numbers and is pretty happy that he can count up to 49 (I was going to say 25 but I just asked him to count for me and he could do more!). He can do simple addition and is always asking me to help him with numbers.

Evan is obsessed with babies right now (go figure). He likes to pretend he is having a baby himself. He stuffs his "baby" up his shirt (which is actually his stuffed bear in the picture above). One day I caught him laying on the table with the bear in his shirt. He was pretending he was at the Doctor office and was listening to the baby's heart beat :) He also pretends he is the baby (yes this gets weird... beware. This was his idea, not mine), and hides under a blanket (which is the mom's belly) and "pops" out as he calls it... and then he acts like a baby. Sometimes he does this with Kiah and says: "Let's be twins Kiah!" And they do it together. Yes, weird... but they love it. 

Photography by Kim Davis

Now an update from Mom....

Sometimes when I blog I just focus on the good things... the things I want to remember. But today I guess I want to mention some of the harder things... just so I can remember how I handled it when I look back later in life. 

Lately being a mom has been harder (probably because of this little one inside of me). The kids still love to play together, but they fight often. Evan teases often, Kiah cries often, and I go crazy very often. Dallas and I don't feel like we have a good solid discipline plan that we follow. Time out fails every time. The kids manipulate Dallas and I... they know what mom will give to them, and what dad will give to them. They know how to work the system if you know what I mean. Dallas and I have to talk about this more often than usual.... things like when we will discipline or when we'll ignore the behavior. Or how we will discipline has been the biggest question lately. We decided last night that things need to change, so we can be happier. So for now we decided to use redirection rather than time out. Until we find a discipline plan that will work for us, this is what what we'll do (redirect their behavior). Time out is now a word that I hope I won't be using anymore... it is good for some parents, but it just isn't working for us. And so far? Today was the first day and we have been so much happier. I haven't had any power struggles with my kids to get them into their room or to share, etc. It has been a much better day. 

I really hope this helps us. I get so tired of my kids talking back to me, refusing to go to time out, or plugging their ears when I talk to them (yes, Evan does this ALL the time). Especially now that they are to an age where they will be remembering these things all their lives. I want my kids to remember the fun times... not the times I forced them into time out or so on. They really are great kids and I have so much fun being a mom! I hope things get into a happier routine soon :)

Wildcat Creek

On Friday night we went to Wildcat Creek Park and it was so much fun! It wasn't too far from the Clegg Botanical Gardens, which is another fun place to explore. Lucky for us it was a very warm day and so it was nice to get in the water. I think next time we go we'll bring swimming suits for the kids, they were so wet by the time we left! The water got pretty deep the farther you go out, but right by the shore it is shallow. The kids had fun in the sand... we should have brought some sand toys. But that's okay because I am sure we'll go back on another hot day this summer :) 

There were seashells everywhere :) 

We could've stayed all night, it was so nice outside! Finally another warm day after a week of cold ones, we are excited for summer! It is so nice to find new places to explore. We had such a good time :)

Blogger stuff ~ Uploading pictures

**Update July 2011: Blogger in Draft has changed recently, so it looks different from the images I have below. Everything should work the same, let me know if you have any problems.**

So I have had a few people ask about uploading pictures.... and how I get them to look clear on blogger. I am here to FINALLY answer your question :) When I started photography I spent a lot of time looking at my photos and editing. Then I would upload them to blogger and BLAH. They looked kinda pixelated and it bugged me. I asked my sister in-law what to do and she was able to fix my problem :) Now when I am looking around at blogs sometimes I notice the same problem. I don't know why it happens, but I can tell you what I do when I load my pictures and maybe it will help you too :)

First and foremost resize your photos. This will make loading time SO MUCH FASTER. It also helps protect your photos from people who steal images from the web. To make your pictures even safer you can watermark them or disable the right click button... which I still don't know how to do.


To resize your photos in Picasa (the easiest way for me):

• Click and highlight the pictures you want to resize.
• At the bottom of the Picasa screen there is a button that says Export with a file above it. Click it (this will export each photo you have selected into a new file).
• Then you can label the file where you want your photos saved (ex: Evan's Birthday (sized for web))
• Type in or use the slider to choose the size you want the photo to be (I resize mine to 800 pixels because it fits my blog screen perfectly). 
• Click Export.

Now when you load your picture to your blog post you can use the file you just created, and the pictures will be sized small and will load quickly :)

Now for loading pictures into blogger...

Option 1:

• Go here.
• Add Blogger in Draft to your personal blog dashboard (if you already have it then the link should take you to your dashboard).
• Then create a new post. 
• When you upload a picture things will be a little different from the regular blogger. You can choose a file and select as many photos as you like and add them all at the same time. It's wonderful!
• Now you can change the size of you picture (before you publish your post, but after you load your picture). Click on your picture and underneath it a bar will pop up with some options. Click on the size you want (I click on the Original size because I like my pictures to be BIG. My pictures are 800 pixels wide). You can also align your photo, and there are some other options you can play around with too. 

• If you choose the original size then you are done! The picture should look clear and not blurry.
• If you don't want to use the original size and choose one of the other size options then continue on and use Option 2 as well.

Option 2:

This option is for users who don't want their picture in the original size. It is also for users who don't have Blogger in Draft.

• Load your pictures and change the picture to the size that you want. Click on the Edit HTML tab above and to the right of your blog post (next to compose). You will see text like this for each individual picture:

• Change the 320 (or it may be 200, 400 or 640 depending on the size you chose) to 800 (leave the s), your picture should now look crisp and clear.
• If you want your picture to be the original size, just delete the text that I highlighted in blue. 

This can get confusing if you have a lot of text and a lot of pictures. When I used to use this option, I would load all my pictures first... before I added any text at all. I was sure to leave a space or two between each picture. Then I would go into the HTML window and change all the numbers. This made it all less confusing, and I could find each piece of code for each picture. Then I would go back to the Compose window and type in my text.

Here is a before and after for you... I left the size at Medium and simply changed the 320 to 800:

Before:

After:

To me it makes a world of difference! If you look at the faces in the top picture you can see how they look kinda blurry. In the picture below the faces look a lot clearer.

Try it all out, and let me know if it works for you. If there are anymore questions out there feel free to ask, I love to help. I don't know a ton though... I get a lot of help from youtube tutorials... and my sister in-law, Candi :)

Picture Uploading Update

I had a chance to play around with the picture uploading today. I noticed that even using Blogger in Draft my pictures still looked slightly blurry/pixelated, unless I used the original size. If you are not going to be able to use the original size on your blog or if you don't want to, then I'd recommend that you use the second option I listed in my blog post yesterday (Now updated and posted above this one). All you have to do is go into the HTML and change the number from 320 (or it may be 200, 400, or 640 depending on the size you changed it to) to 800.

Changing it to 800 will make the picture crisp and clear. Test this by uploading two photos and changing one and leave the other. Do you notice a difference?

Here is an example... I can see a difference, can you (or maybe I am just extremely picky)?

Before:

After:

If you select the original size (and if you resized your photo before loading) then there shouldn't be a problem and you won't have to change the HTML.

May... so far :)

I have been busy, busy, busy... I really should blog more often though. Here are the happenings from this month so far. I am sure you are sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting for this... or maybe not.

I had a birthday on May 5th :) It really is the best time of year for a birthday... though this year was a little bit chilly. We did get some sun that day though! We had a mini birthday party with the kiddos early in the day. They demanded cake and balloons :) And I don't see why not!

Then Dallas surprised me with a getaway to Indy without the kids... ahhhh... it was wonderful! We wandered the city, tried to go to a small museum but it was closed, shopped, ate, and went to see the movie Source Code. It was so nice to spend time with Dallas with no interruptions. The best part? We didn't have to be home in time to put the kids to bed :) We got to stay the night and not worry about our duty as parents for a whole day! Ahhhh, it was fabulous! 

Our drive home... notice the empty car seats...

I spent some of my birthday money on a very tiny garden. We planted peppers, green onions and carrots :) They are already popping up and it makes us so happy! 

We like to garden in our pajamas :) If you can tell, that is what they are wearing...

Finally, we got a swing set!!! Our friends, who got a new one, passed this one onto us. We LOVE having it, especially since we don't have a park nearby. It is so nice to have something to do outside everyday. 

The weather was strange this week. The forecast was rain and storms all week and it only rained once. It was incredibly hot and humid up until yesterday and then it cooled down a bit. Even though it was humid it was sure nice to have some warm weather! I hope this colder stuff doesn't last long.

I have also been busy taking lots of pictures :) I will have a preview up on my blog tomorrow of the sessions I had last week... and I will be posting more photos later this week. Fun stuff!