Quarterly Top 5 Photos

 

I’m linking up the following 5 pictures (from April, May, and June) to the Quarterly Top 5 Photos photo challenge.  If you’d like to join in, feel free to read the rules and link up over at one of the following blogs:

 

- Sarah Halstead

- Ramblings and Photos

- Click.Pray.Love.

 

• Linky begins Wednesday, June 20th and ends Tuesday, June 26th
• Go through the photos from April, May, and June 2012
• Choose 5 and post them on your blog or Flickr account beginning March 28th
• PLEASE only use photos that include your CHILDREN and/or PETS
• Accompany each photo with a short explanation of why you chose it
• Be sure to include the Quarterly Top 5 banner or button in your post and you will be entered to win one of the prizes

Monday already?

Can’t believe it’s already Monday?  Yeah, me neither!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Alivia’s cousin, Esterina, turned the BIG 2 in June and we celebrated on Saturday with family!  It was a gorgeous day (a little chilly for June but still gorgeous)!  I snapped some pictures of course only I haven’t processed them with the exception of a few of Alivia which I’ve attached below.  Hopefully I’ll share the rest of Esterina’s birthday party tomorrow (Tuesday).

Web hosting + blog registration = confusion

I have a question today.  Does anyone out there use web hosting for their website?  Also, do you register your blog?  I’ve been doing research on these two topics and I’m still not understanding them completely.  Apparently a web host makes your website accessible on the world wide web.  This is strange.  The minute I created a domain name, I was accessible to everyone on the internet.  I’m not sure I get it.  Among providing accessibility though, hosting sites will provide you with various amounts of disk space to back up your content to.  Some hosting sites also provide security monitoring and advertising credits (which I’m still not quite sure what that is).  I don’t know about you but the back up services alone are enough reason for me to purchase services.  Does anyone know if Blogger does this already?  Back up your content? 

New Pics… Home from vacation

Well, the family and I are home from vacation.  I usually get home sick and miss home, but this vacation was so different.  I felt so relaxed and at home in Sarasota that I just didn’t want to leave.  I think I speak for the rest of my family when I say that too!  We definitely weren’t ready to go home this time.  We could have used another week in Florida.  I guess that is a good indicator that we had a fabulous vacation.  We made some memories that will last us a lifetime!

New Pics… My future’s so bright that I gotta wear shades

How was everyone’s weekend?  We lucked out over here in New Hampshire!  Saturday and Sunday were both 80 degree days with completely clear skies.  Seriously, I don’t think I saw one cloud the entire weekend.

Alivia and I spent our days outdoors!  Awhile back a neighbor had told my mom about a pond in our town but I never got the chance to see it.  On Sunday, however, we decided to go just to check things out.  Well I’ll tell you, boy have we been missing out.  I’ve only been living here for about six years and this is the first I’m hearing of this?  It’s crazy!  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was clean, water was warm, and it even allowed for kayaking, canoeing, fishing, etc.  How nice is that?

New Pics… A Pigtail or Two

Guess what?  I finally made a button for this little ol’ blog o’ mine!  If you are interested in buttoning up, feel free to steal it!  You will see it in my sidebar.  The reason it took me so long to create one is because I wasn’t sure how to do it.  I finally had some time to do some research online and found a tutorial.  I would have attached the link to the site, but the code provided was incorrect.  After many tweaks, I finally fixed it.  I’ll try to do a future post about creating buttons incase you do not know how to create one yourself. 

 

On a different note, I just tried the patch on Alivia’s eye yesterday.  It didn’t go as badly as I had pictured it in my mind.  I had this idea that if she saw mommy wearing it, she may want to wear it too!  I actually saw a hint of a smile when I first put it on.  She thought we were being pirates together.  I ran around the house saying “Ahoy mates!”  Yes, it was quite the sight!  She quickly realized it wasn’t that fun after all.  I struggled with her a bit to keep it on, but in the end she won.  She finally ripped it off.  I don’t want to force it too much.  I don’t want her relating the patch to fighting with mama.  I will introduce it slowly but persistently in hopes that she, at some point, will be a little more cooperative.  I’m supposed to be patching her eye for about 20 – 30 minutes a day.  Even if I can get it on for 5 minutes at a time, I will be happy.  In case you are a little lost, I wrote about Alivia’s Intermittent Exotropia in some previous posts which you can find HERE and HERE.

New Pics… Mother’s Day

So, how was everyone’s Mother’s Day?  I got some beautiful flowers from Alivia and the hubby!  They must love me bunches!  Thought you’d like to see just how beautiful the bouquet was.  Gorgeous colors right?  And who doesn’t love roses?  Especially white ones!

Almost truly wordless and another Freebie

I can’t do it.  I can never publish a post with no words at all.  Seriously, though, this post is going to be a lot less wordier than any of my previous Wednesday posts.   I usually draft my posts the night before but I will not be home on Tuesday night so if you can believe it I am drafting this on a Monday night.  For Tuesday,  I have planned a girls night out with my sister and mom for an early Mother’s Day celebration.  My sister and I bought her tickets to Burn the Floor.  I can’t wait to see the show.  I’ve seen it once before, but many many years ago.  It was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. 

Anyhow, I can’t let a Wednesday pass without linking up to all the Wordless Wednesdays out there.

Just a few photo challenges

I hope everyone had a splendid weekend!  Our weather wasn’t too bad this past weekend.  It was about 62 degrees on Saturday but overcast and around 65 degrees on Sunday with partial sun.  Hey I’ll take what I can get. 

I had a very busy weekend.  It was sort of non-stop from Saturday morning right up until 8:00 pm on Sunday when I placed Alivia in her crib for the night.  I went clothes shopping for myself on both mornings, then a little walk around the neighborhood to get Alivia some fresh air, some chores around the house, and a visit to my sister’s.  I’ve been trying to get Alivia outside every chance I get since I’m pretty sure we are supposed to get rain after Monday for three days straight.  

Baby ESP

Have you tried the Baby ESP application?

When Alivia was born, I found it difficult to keep track of, well, everything.  Most importantly, though, the number of bottles and ounces she would drink and the number of pee and poop diapers she would have in a day.  I knew this was important information that her pediatrician would inquire about at her appointments.  I've never been good at guessing, so I knew that I would have to track these things somehow if I wanted to give the pediatrician accurate information.  At the time, while I was in the hospital, the easiest way to keep track of everything was to write it down.  So on that first day, when Alivia was born, so wasn't a journal.  I'm really pushing it when I say journal.  I kept all of my notes on a small pad of paper and tore off pieces as they were used. 

New Pics... Happy Monday!

First, I had to attach an animated GIF of Livvy walking around outside.  I was super excited to see a post written on how to create your own animated GIF in PSE over at Finding my Creativity.  I used Gickr in the past and although it was easy to create, the quality of your picture was affected in the conversion which was, let's face it, a little disappointing.  Creating an animated GIF in PSE keeps the quality of the photo in tact even if you opt to make it a large file!  My example is actually a bad one only because I started off with horrible pictures.  Horrible in that they were super blurry and underexposed to begin with but I couldn't resist animating them to see my little one in action.  The only thing that I did not how to do in the tutorial was to copy and paste a picture onto another picture.  So instead, I wanted to share the alternative that I used.  With your original picture opened, go to File / Place.  PSE automatically converts your picture to a new layer that is placed on top of your original.  It's that simple!

Showing off my Shot!

I haven't participated in this photo challenge in awhile.  I've been a little MIA.  So today, I'm excited to be linking up to SHOW of my SHOT over at And then she snapped.  These are my absolute favorite pictures!  I've been dying to, well, show them off!  I didn't have to do much processing.  I boosted the contrast a bit and had to remove some debris from the screen.  I added a subtle vignette and VOILA!  The second one is a riot with her nose and mouth smashed up against the screen as she was trying to kiss me.  At the time, I wasn't sure whether to melt or to take a picture.  So I took a picture and melted later.  She is such a little love bug!  I'm so lucky!