Too cute

I wanted to get a picture of Lily in her poodle skirt costume during the day because she just looked so cute, and I know she will grow out of it too soon for me. So we took some photos in the backyard the other day. There were so many cute ones. We walked out to the shady corner of the yard and when she turned around I said "Smile!" Lily said "Cheese!" - and made faces at me! Love my girl. She definitely has a sense of humor and a lot of personality. I'd think she could make a good actress - if she weren't so firmly grounded in her sense of self. Whenever you try to pretend she's someone else it's always "No! I'm Lily...!" Her imagination is growing. She has an imaginary friend named Bunna now. He's a boy, and Lily loves him! She says he's her boyfriend!

And she's getting better at following directions. I just have to be quick with the camera and try to keep her entertained.

Close-up of the poodle I made for her skirt.

Sometimes Lily looks so grown-up to me, and then sometimes she'll get an expression on her face that makes me think of a baby. You know how babies faces are... they are still totally oblivious to any kind of self-consciousness - and can't even quite control their own muscles yet, so their facial expressions seem exaggerated but they are really just pure emotion. (See baby smile above)

Lily loves picking flowers!

Love that cheesy grin!

Oh, how I love this girl!

Tricks and Treats

This year we decided to go to the trunk or treat at Andrew and Rebecca's ward again on Saturday so Lily could go with her cousins. Lily calls them her friends, her best friends - and they are! It rained Saturday morning, but cleared up pretty early so it was just a little bit chilly. We only had to add stockings, an extra undershirt and a little white sweater to Lily's costume to keep her warm which went with her costume just fine. I remember how sad I was to have to put a coat over my costume whenever it snowed on Halloween. Lily probably wouldn't even notice at this age - all she cares about is the candy!

Every year our church holds Trunk-or-Treat parties so the kids have a safe place to trick or treat and can see their church friends in a more casual setting. I think it's an especially great idea for toddlers with little short legs - they can get just as much candy without as much walking. I was especially glad for that this year too with my back still hurting pretty bad. So everyone parks their cars in an area of the church parking lot - people decorate their trunks and the kids go to town! They had games and a spook alley inside, and a chili cook-off before. We just came for the trunk-or-treating.

This year Lily was a 50's girl. We were going to go all out with saddle shoes and cat's eye glasses, but it turned out pretty cute even without them. How could it not be cute on my little 2-year old? Can I just say how much fun it was when my little shy girl finally started piping up with a "Trick or Treat!" So cute.

All my photos of Lily's little girl cousins turned out blurry, but I thought Isaac made such a cute Handy Manny with his over-sized hat, and Rebecca and I got some adorable ones of Lily and Queen Evie.

My favorite quotes from Halloween:

Mike: "We're not stealing her candy, we're editing it."

Lily in the car after trunk-or-treating "Candy is good for your body." Sometimes the hilarity of my Lily-quotes just don't translate in writing, it is the tone and the circumstance that makes it so funny. You just don't expect to hear some of those things coming out of the mouth of a petite 2-year old.

Sunday we were going to go out trick or treating a little more with Lily's cousins and to our friend's houses in the neighborhood, but our plans went awry. We ended up making a tough parenting decision and staying home. I think it was more of a disappointment to us than to our stubborn little girl - I don't think Lily even minded, but I'm still glad we followed though - at least we didn't send Lily the wrong message. It was nice that she'd already gotten a chance to trick-or-treat the night before so I didn't feel like I was being too harsh. It doesn't seem quite right to celebrate Halloween on a Sunday anyway. Everywhere else I've ever lived the town announced trick or treating for Saturday when that happened, and I'm not just talking Utah. Lily still had fun handing out some candy to the trick-or-treaters (though she didn't get any that night), and we enjoyed relaxing at home with a movie.

  

I thought the red-eye in this candy picture was too befitting to fix :)

 

Do you think Lily had fun with her Grandpa? - oh yeah!

Just had to throw in this awesome sideways glance. Attitude. She may be shy to strangers, but when she opens up she's all personality!

I was totally bummed on Saturday when we went out to breakfast and shopping and lost this adorable pumpkin hat Lily is wearing in Walmart. Mike and I both searched and asked, but it was nowhere to be found. I figured - Walmart - somebody probably pocketed it or took it up to a cashier to try and buy it. I actually heard a cashier I had asked about it joking about that very possibility with a fellow employee as I walked away to check at another register. Bye bye cute hat that Lily could have worn for several more years and of which these were the only pictures. 

On a side note: Lily has a little mannerism I think is so funny- Whenever her hands get the least bit dirty she'll hold her cup like this with her knuckles instead of her fingers all clumsily and won't be persuaded to open her fingers to get a better grip. You can never let her go up and down the stairs with sticky fingers!

Well, I went back to Walmart yesterday and asked about the hat again (with little hope) at the customer service desk. A lady went to check, and as she was looking I said a little silent prayer. My prayer was answered! We got back the hat! Well, I was excited! :) Heavenly Father really does listen to the little things! If only some of my bigger prayers could be answered soon! :)

Hope you all had a fun Halloween too!

Red Eye Solution

I love Photoshop, and am always learning new and better ways to do things in it. For years I've fixed red eye in photos in dozens of different ways. Sometimes I've even chosen to leave it because I thought the photo looked cute enough with it, and it was so bad I didn't think it would look natural if I messed with it. So not too long ago I just happened to do it in a way that worked so well, looked so natural, and seemed super easy compared to some other methods I've used in the past. So I thought I'd record it for myself and share it for other Photoshop users who may not have a red-eye technique.

(Click to view larger)

1. Select the red area with your circle selector right around the pupil (Cut off part of the circle with your polygonal lasso tool if your eyelid intersects the pupil.)
2. Go to Image > Adjustments > Replace Color
3. Sample select the red area and adjust the hue: down to the left until it's the darkest blue verging on purple for blue eyes*
4. Bring down the saturation a little bit - like about -50
5. Bring down the lightness a little bit like -50 or a little more until it's just starting to look black with a red ring around it. Those are not exact numbers - you should eyeball it to match the eyes and not be too dark black, but so far it's always pretty close to that for me.
6. Select > Modify and Expand your circle selection areas 1 to 2 pixels to include any red that may have extended beyond the pupil.
7. Image > Adjustments > Selective Color
8. Reduce magenta all the way (-100)
9. Reduce yellow almost all the way - eyeball it for how much yellow is in your photo.
10. Then pump up the Cyan and Black until it looks more like your little blue eyes.
11. Repeat last 4 steps if there is still a lot of red.

Deselect and check it out. Adjust if needed, but otherwise you're done! You can throw a photo filter over the entire image if the colors didn't quite harmonize.

*I tried the same technique for brown eyes - on step 3 adjust the hue up to the right to the best brown likeness you can get (it may be sort of mustardy yellow just as close to brown as you can get) then if you need to extend your circle and use Selective Color play with it until the glaring red tones down to match your brown.

Here's another sample (that was originally just as bad as the photo above) after the red-eye is fixed.

Much cuter. Let me know if you need clarification. Hope that is helpful to somebody!

Ha ha - I'm a Smartie!

So Mike and I had a debate. Smarties are one of his favorite Halloween candies. They are not on the top of my list, but I'll eat one now and again. So Mike thinks all the colors taste the same. I think there isn't much difference in the different colors, but I've never liked white smarties - they taste like medicine to me (chewable children's Tylenol or something). Yuck! He thought it was all in my head and challenged me to a blind test. Well I won! Ha ha. I always suspected I had better taste! (Just kidding. I can't joke like that, because after all he does like me. But then again - I do like him!)

On the subject of candy this seems like an appropriate time of year to write a whole post about it. I don't eat much candy these days, but I used to spend my allowance on it. I definitely have a sweet tooth, which I try not to overindulge, but oh for the days when I didn't have to worry about it! Candy and books were the things I purchased with my fun money growing up. I even had to balance it out with the candy food groups, the chocolate group, the fruity group..you get the idea. So here's my list...

My favorite candies include, but are not limited to:

Chocolate Caramels - Milk Duds, Rolos, and boxed chocolate caramels, (just not runny caramellos)
Gummi Peaches
Chewy Mini SweetTarts
Mamba
Junior Mints
Peanut butter M&Ms
Lindt chocolate bars -especially the filled wafer bar you can never find in stores anymore with the smooth hazelnut cream -Yum! The Lindor truffles are really good too.

-Hey if you're going to eat something that isn't good for you might as well do it right! I'd rather have a little good chocolate than a bunch of the cheap 'eh' kind. I do crave other kinds of candy at different times of year, like a little ration of candy corn around Halloween, and sometimes I just really want some Starburst, Tootsie Rolls, Twix or Nerds. But I have never liked and doubt I ever will like licorice, gum drops, jelly beans or peeps.

What are your favorite types of candy or treats?

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