Cars, Flashcards, and Chocolate

He likes to look out of the window.
Trying out my PSE skills--I am so lacking in this. It's just so complicated! I need to really just focus on taking pictures and getting the right exposure and composition

Playing with a car that he suckered Grandma Yang to buy for him at the Dollar Store.

I tried to make this look a little vintagy by making it a little grainy. I don't think it works.

I think they call this style, "Sunburst". Again, not quite sure it works.

Playing with his animal flashcards. He still doesn't really speak English so we are working with flashcards.

Look how successful we are at it. He basically pulls the cards out of the box and then puts them on the floor and sits or lays on them and messes them up. He does make all of the animal sounds though.

Well...sometimes he pays attention. Every number is "Eight" to him. Roan's counting, "...eight, eight, eight, eight..."

Weekend in Jackson...WI That Is...

Birthday Boy...AKA...Pirate

Taylor...all grown up! My youngest brother, Phil.

Ethan; playing Monopoly with Auntie Phoua and Ayden.

Ayden...waiting. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to turn the picture around)
Baby girl, Aleah.

Most of the cousins The missing cousin from above, Gabe.
Gabe and Mommy.

Sand and Sea and More!

First we had sea...

Then we had sand...

Then he learned that it was fun to put sand into sea and sand onto patio and everywhere else.

But the face was just too adorable so Momma forgave.

Until Momma was picking the weeds and turned around and found Roan climbing up the neighbor, Victoria's, little slide.

BUT...since Momma is an aspiring photographer, she had to get a picture, when she should have been scolding.

Sea Only

The Sand and Sea Table came yesterday, but I didn't really put it together until this evening. I actually have not really put it together as the legs are just propped there for now (you have to screw these very long nails into the table and I don't have anything to do that with) and there is no sand yet.

Roan was very excited to help me put it together. He was very helpful! A little too helpful.

He also very much liked the sea part of the toy. I didn't get a good picture of the umbrella, but it's adorable! I'll have to take better pictures this weekend.

I kept getting pictures of Choua's Jeep and the nasty garbage can in the shots so I had to delete those.

We were in the shade, on our patio and so I had the WB set to shade and the histogram looked good, but the pictures just don't look as bright as they did on my camera. I am so lost with this thing. I was sure that I was getting great shots!

I also need to remember to try to steady myself more. I wish the pictures were more clear. All of these are pretty much SOOC with only minor adjustments, if any, to the contrast.

Finally, my little kung fu master. He was not purposely posing, but I thought the picture was so cute. He is such a little boy!

If anyone knows how I can better fix the wording--I don't know why it spaces weirdly on different pictures. Please help!

Goodbye Beautiful Hair!

June 16th, 2007--It's getting too hot! I love checking up on him before I go to bed, but lately, even with the A/C on, he's been sweating so much that his hair is drenched. I felt like I was chopping off my own hair. To my surprise, he's still gorgeous!


June 17th, 2007--Now he looks like a big boy. It reminds me of his first real hair cut. So pretty! P.S. I did not PS this picture at all. For some reason, his lips are just that red!

This is the best he'll give me. At least he was looking in the direction of the camera. You don't know how many pictures I have of his back or of him running away from me.

We got there too late, but he still joined in the music and grabbed all of the hula hoops and beach balls and danced away! Later, we came to a booth where they were showcasing pole dancing (as an exercise) and he ran right up to the stage and bar and proceeded to climb up until he noticed all of the pretty girls eyeing him and awe-ing. He suddenly became shy and ran away.








Starbucks was giving out free frappachinos in these darling little cups. He couldn't resist the whip cream!

I was looking at him this morning and he looked taller. I don't know if he really grew or if it's his new haircut. I hope it's not just the latter. He was only in the 25th percentile for height at his 2 year check-up. I learned, though, that he was in the 50th percentile for weight though. I think he looks so thin and his pants are always falling off of him. Where do they get these charts from? I love that he still has his chubby thighs though. He still has the chub line in his inner thighs.

Playing with PS and PSE

Simply Vintage

Old Canvas

Barely Vintage

Black and Color

Original

Monitor Issues...

I'm testing different pictures. I hope these turn out better on "normal" monitors. We recently bought a new monitor and it's been a bit more dull than the one at work or the old one. I hope these look better than the ones I posted over the weekend.

We had a great weekend! Roan and I went swimming and he loved it so much! He was so careful in the beginning at the 0-depth pool, but eventually became more brave. He used to be fearless. I guess it just took one mishap into a random fountain to teach him fear. It's bittersweet for me.

Colors of the Farmers' Market

**EDITED**...I looked at these pictures from work and it seems that my home monitor is not as vivid as my work. Can someone give me feedback as to whether these pictures are too warm?

Today was the first day that I purposely set out to take pictures for the sake of learning. My friend, Christine and I, decided to head to the local Farmers' Market. It was such fun. We had a time frame of two hours. We had a few mishaps. By the time we finally started shooting, the market was bustling and we found two hours became more like 30 minutes. Maybe we shouldn't have spent so much time at the gourmet sauces booth? I do love my free samples!

Above is the antique lemon juicer, where we bought lemon shakers from. It was delish on a sunny, hot morning. We shared one. The picture is a bit overexposed because it was terribly sunny, but I really wanted to get a picture of it.

These two are of rolls in a box. I just thought they would make neat pictures. I think I might try to see what they look like in black and white.

I played a little with the coloring in this picture because I think the glass made the original picture too distracting. I don't think I did it any good. I wish I would have also gotten one facing the display so that I could have gotten the signs.

I just thought the fruit and veggies were so colorful and beautiful!

Misc.

This photo was taken in historic Elmhurst DT. They were having a car show and there must have been some artist thing going on because there were little turtles all painted up different colors on the sidewalks.

Choua stayed home with Roan today because Mary is off. We only work half days on Friday now that it is summer so he brought Roan into work before lunch and we went out to lunch. I hate to brag, but Roan was so good at lunch, which really surprised me. Usually, when he's tired, he gets antsy and cranky. I guess he was too tired because he was a perfect little boy.

Roan made this little plant for me for Valentine's Day. The colors of the picture are horrible, but it was dusk and I had the lights on. Maybe I should have used flash?

Just a shot of our neighbor's plants she is prepping for display. The fence is just for decorative display also. I don't know if it is ours or hers. It's been there since we moved in.

They say a picture adds 10 pounds...NOT! What a rude awakening?

I thought this picture was neat because he stands out so much in it.

Some days, I want to put him behind bars. I just think he looks so cute htis picture.