it's naptime! hallelujah!

Is there anything better than sleeping kiddos? The house is quiet, the music is off, the tea is on and I'm alone with my thoughts. I love naptime.

When Sarah was still a baby I made a huge change in my daily schedule. For the first few months of her life I thought that all housework and such had to be done while she was sleeping so as not to distract from her. I spent every waking moment of my day with her and then as soon as her head hit the crib I was off to wash dishes, sweep floors, throw in some diapers, and on and on, leaving no time for myself. Life changed on the day I realized what a ridiculous idea that was! Could I still spend time with her while I folded a load of clothes? For sure. What about washing dishes? Yep, here's the tupperware cupboard, kid...have at it. And sweeping and vaccuming? Hello baby gate! I realized that if I was still going to be me then I needed some time to keep in touch with myself. So naptime became precious time. Even Brent keeps his phone calls short during naptime, excusing himself with an opening line like, "I know this is your time but real quick..." And so often how much time I get to myself determines my mood. Brent always says he knows it's been a good day if he sees a new blog post! :)

Two years later with an extra baby in the house naptime is even more sacred. All the housework gets saved for when babies are awake and I can usually even find a way for Sarah to help out. In fact one of her favorite lines these days is "I'm helping mommy!"

So now here I sit. Blogging, answering emails, enjoying my tea, checking up on all of you. What happens during naptime at your house? I'd love to know!

this little stinker...

...adds an extraneous "n" to the beginning of "ing" making for fun little ditties like "it's raining it's porning"

...has been potty-training for two weeks now and spends a good hour before falling asleep crawling in and out of her bed alternating between "I gotta go potty!!!" and "yet's go potty yater" in half-second increments

...blessed the food this evening by thanking God for "all the things we need" and then six rounds of thankfulness for the ottoman. I never knew it was such an important piece of furniture to her. Go figure.

...has been waking daddy up every morning with the same request: "cuddle me up"

...when asked by mommy today why this was so, answered with, "because I love him soooo much"

...alternates between testing my patience to the max and making me melt into a heap of gooey love on the floor. Sometimes in half-second increments.

Let's try this again...

It's not secret that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to sharing actions with you guys but I'm certainly willing to try! It sounds like some people had trouble when the actions being unflattened so I'm flattening them and sharing them that way too. Here are all the links...choose the one that's right for you and let me know if it's working!

Color for full photoshop - unflattened (updated that with the right link!)

Color for full photoshop - flattened

Color for elements - unflattened

Color for elements - flattened

If you're an elements user there are some tips in the post below for how to load actions. Amy also had a good tidbit in the comments section about how to color balance in elements. Help each other out in this comments section too if need be!

Have a fantastic weekend!

just a little share...

* UPDATED * for elements users...

This morning I was gently reminded that a while back I had promised to look into sharing an action with you guys. Well since today is Thursday and that Pi'bears is in school and baby E is fast asleep in his crib I finally got my act in gear!

Several things to keep in mind:

1) I don't use any actions on my photos, including this one. (with the exception of a low saturation action and a resize/sharpen action)

2) I've never found one action that works perfectly on my photos. It's true that I keep the same workflow everytime but I've never standardized it into an action before because I really need to tweak every step to make that particular image look the way I want it to took.

3) I do know there are lots and lots and lots of amazing photographers who use other people's actions on every single one of their images so it certainly can be done...I just haven't figured out how to make that work for me.

4) One of the best ways I know of to learn how to do some cool things in PS is to deconstruct actions people have created so I purposefully didn't flatten this. Check out every layer and see what it does!

5) I added a color balance layer but didn't tweak anything in it. This is because every image will need to be tweaked differently based on the lighting situation you were working with. The actions looks SO much better if you adjust this layer though so if you're not sure how to color balance read and absorb this tutorial.

6) I'm working with CS2 so this action will only work with full versions of PS (I think...don't quote me).

7) I've never used gigasize before so let's hope this works! Find the action here.

8) Elements users download your action here. And then go here to figure out how to load it. You're kind of on your own for that part since I don't have elements and can't test out those directions. Maybe you guys can help each other out in the comments section though. The part you want to pay attention to begins with "...before a Photoshop action can be used in Elements, the following steps must be taken..."

before and after...with a little color balance adjustment like I mentioned above...

Have fun!

"don't park in the driveway!"

That was yesterday's message to Brent when he made his daily 4:30 phone call to tell me he was headed home from work. I had been eyeing the wet, overcast landscape all day hoping to get a chance to outfit Sarah in her boots, slicker, and umbrella for a quick photo shoot. And it was definitely quick since we only had about 5 minutes of sunlight left when he walked in the door.

Oh, and get this. When I decided at 4:00 to make this happen when Brent got home I walked into Sarah's room and say, "Hey Sarah, when Daddy getes home do you want to go outside with your umbrella and boots and let mommy take your picture?" She gave me a quick glance before returning to what she was doing and tossed one word over her shoulder in a combination question/demand: "marshmallows."

I've ruined her for sure.

the girly, girly girl kind and the studly, studly boy kind

We've got two kinds of Cobbs around this house - the girl kind and the boy kind in even numbers. Back in Colorado Samantha used to walk into our house, chit-chat for a bit and then say something like, "where's the boy kind?", referring to Brent. Now that our house is split down the middle we occasionally like to team up against each other for various activities. Ephraim, of course, isn't much help yet to Brent so it actually tends to be Sarah and I ganging up on Brent. And what's more fun than that? Check out the video proof...

The girly, girly girl kind in all her glory...

and the studly, studly boy kind doin' his thing...(and marking his 2 month birthday today!)

ugh...does anyone know why blogger insists on posting a still of the video footage when you upload? annoying.

smiles

Lots of reasons to smile around here today. First, my mom came to town for the day which is always a treat. Also, I got to wake up to my freshly painted kitchen and redecorated office area. Love it. And last night as we were headed out to dinner to celebrate Pi'bear's potty training successes we ran into the UPS man who delivered our blog book. And it's stunning. Wouldn't these things make you smile too?

First, the blog book. Seriously you guys, it's so awesome. If you're thinking about doing one definitely go for it. I ordered it from blurb.com and they make it so easy. They "slurp" the info from your blog for you (their word, not mine) as long as you're using one of the main blogging sites - blogger, typepad, wordpress, etc. They go ahead and format it for you but then you can tweak things to your liking which is what I ended up doing. Because all of my photos have been resized for the web I can't get any images printed off of the blog larger than about 4 by 6 inches. For this reason I chose the 7 inch square blog book and it worked perfectly. I was a little worried that the type would be super small and hard to read but it's really fine. I'll be honest that I spent about three days getting everything just the way I wanted it but in the grand scheme of things that's really not that long to get such a great hard copy of your memories. The hardcover version comes with a book jacket that you can design and you can even insert pictures and text into the flaps. So cool. My only complaint about the whole thing is that whenever you use italics or links (which you guys know I do a lot), blurb takes out the space between that word and the words on either size. It's a weird annoying quirk but you can go back and fix it manually after the blog is slurped if you want to. I was too lazy and now it kind of annoys me but oh well. My book containing the first year of Princess Pigbear (2006) ended up being 258 pages. And it's 258 pages of awesome.

eta: my book was around $60 with shipping. You can order multiple copies and share the link with other people who can order copies too. You can even hike the price up and sell your book to other people, netting the difference for yourself. :)

And now, a little look at my new favorite spot in the house. I fell in love with this little kitchen office area when we first bought this house but the cold grey-khaki walls, the clutter atop the desk, the mismatch of colors scattered about and the wires and cords coming out everywhere left much to be desired. As always Brent was a sport and spent the last three nights helping me paint the kitchen, move shelving and hang things just so. I'm excited to show off the rest of the kitchen too (especially the orange we used in the tray ceiling!) but it's still a few weeks or months from being how I want it. I'm lovin' our new little corner though...

Check out the chalkboards from the store closing I mentioned on Monday...

I love them even more because they're magnetic and I now have a place to play with my motherhood magnetic poetry. With words like "bootie", "burp", and "breast" in the mix you know it's never dull!

I also love that I think I've found the perfect space for my poetry word cubes that I found at the now defunct Santa Cruzy flea market several years back.

And as long as I'm living up to my reputation and getting all crazy with the hyperlinking I might as well mention that the purty turquoise chalice is only there temporarily since the color isn't quite right for the space but the sentiment behind it makes me smile everytime I see it. So for now it stays. It was a Christmas gift from my mom to go with a book she gave us called The Blessing Cup: Prayer Rituals for Families and Groups. If that piques your interest then you might also like The Family Cloister and The Christian Family Toolbox (both of which are books by David Robinson and previous gifts from my mom).

And the piece de resistance...the little half wall right inside the door that we painted with chalkboard paint for the kiddos!

confession time: "piece de resistance" is a phrase I've always wanted to use and was never quite sure what it meant. While typing this blog I thought it was the right thing to say if it meant what I thought it meant and after checking it out on wikipedia (don't kill me Dad) I found out that it did! Hooray for my usually pitiful foreign lexicon! "French Mom", I know you're proud. If there was ever any question about how hopelessly dorky I am I'm sure I've now laid it to rest.

things on my mind

Tons of stuff that I've wanted to share with you guys lately so I'm just throwing it all out there in one big random post. We'll pretend it's "Ten on Tuesday" except there's no guarantee that there will be ten and it's not Tuesday. So maybe we'll just call it "Not Ten on almost Tuesday".

1) I asked for two things for Christmas: a webcam and Wondertime magazine.

2) Got the webcam for the sole purpose of letting Sarah and Caroline talk to each other from Huntsville to Boston. Too bad somebody won't fix their darn webcam.

3) I didn't get Wondertime so I broke down and bought it for myself. Paid a whole $10.00 for a year subscription. Seriously, if you're a parent and you haven't done this yet, do it. It's such a cool magazine and the photography in it is inspiring. This month's issue had an awesome article by Catherine Newman (author of Waiting for Birdy) titled "Confessions of a Mommy Blogger." I thought of all of you. And of me.

4) I'm itching to decorate my kitchen and I have two quarts of paint sitting right here waiting to be tested tonight. Green and orange. Sounds hideous but I have high hopes for it being perfect!

5) I spent three full hours by myself yesterday. Let me just say that retail therapy feels gooooood. The two highlights of my shopping were a jogging stroller and four square framed chalkboards from a store that was going out of business and selling all their fixtures. I'll show them off once I've decided what to do with them!

6) I'm getting so excited about starting my business here in Huntsville this spring. I originally thought I'd be ready March 1st but I'm now planning to postpone that until April 1. I want everything to be perfect before I launch. Let me tell you though, I really, really have the itch to get started!

7) Yesterday I bought two plane tickets for Boston! Sarah, Ephraim, and I are headed there in March to help Samantha celebrate her birthday. Sarah threw a small hissy fit when I told her about the tickets because she couldn't understand why we weren't going right this very second. I really need to learn to keep my mouth shut.

8) I spent three days last week designing a blog book with Blurb of Princess Pigbear's first year. I'm hoping it will arrive sometime this week and I can barely contain myself! I'll be sure to share when it arrives. If I love it as much as I think I'm going to then I'll be spending three more days next week designing a book for year two. Hard to believe this blog is going on it's third year!

I swear I had more stuff that I wanted to talk about but it's all escaped me now. How much longer can I blame new mommy brain?

Speaking of mommyhood, Ephraim was less than a champion napper today so I figured as long as he was awake I might as well make him entertain me with a photoshoot.


(when I brought this hat home Brent looked right at me and asked, "what is it with you and ears?")

Man I love this little guy. He's just so darn sweet.

a funny fave.

Pigbear and Grandaddy were having a jolly old time together in "Sarah's room" at their house. From down the hall I heard lots of squeals and giggles and book-reading and then, silence. And more silence. And a little bit more. So I tip-toed down the hallway and found this.



Grandaddy fast asleep on the end of the bed, gifted with several dolls and bears and such, and an ornery little two-year old just jumping away. Thank God for cameras.

little backwards boy

Seems Ephraim has things a bit confused. Have you read that whole bit about babies becoming fussy in the evenings, particularly around the 6 week mark? Well, we've definitely hit a fussy patch but it has nothing to do with the evenings. He tends to fuss and complain for most of the day (nothing drastic but still a tad grating) and then perk right up around 5:30 or so in time to revel in his bath and bedtime routine. He even joins us for dinner on most nights, quietly cooing or sleeping in his bouncer chair atop the dinner table. It's a welcome change from the nightly wailing we sustained with Pi'bears when she was his age. Although I am ready for a cheerier baby during the day. And one who smiles. I'm still holding out for that big pay-off.




(above photos obviously snapped by Brent, not me, but I'm too lazy to make him his own watermark. As Caroline would say, "Maybe anudder day.")

take two.

For me, the whole photo-a day-thing is like exercise. When I do it, I really, really love it. But when I neglect it it just taunts me and I can come up with a zillion excuses not to get back into it again. Hence the lacks of posts in 2007 since, oh, October (!!).

But I'm getting back on the wagon. I swear. I'll be better this time. I won't get pregnant (let's hope) and have to go through that whole stinky first trimester thing again which was the beginning of the end. PLUS I have a whole new subject to capture everyday. And when I flip back through the photos I did manage to document it just makes me feel all gushy inside as I remember the day to day stuff. The things that seemed so mundane in the moment (snacktime, playdough, swinging) but are so heavy with meaning upon reflection. I love that.

So, here you go. The grand unveiling of Photo-A-Day, 2008. I'm calling it Take Two, both because I'm trying my hand at it again and because now I have TWO kiddos to TAKE photos of. (sitting here smugly thinking I'm all clever and stuff). And I took the liberty of changing the 2007 link so it takes you straight to the archives, beginning with January. Just in case you want to peruse the old stuff.

Oh, and will you forgive me for already missing a day??? January 2nd was just so, so busy... :)

hey look! it's after 7 and I'm awake!

Awwwww yeeeeah...I'm blogging after seven o'clock. Can you even believe it? Last week at this time I was sitting on the couch telling a friend that I was seriously concerned that Ephraim wasn't going to progress in the sleep department any time soon and that I was destined to be getting up every three hours for the next several months. What a difference a week makes! He had a few nights of 4 hour stretches and then a few five hour stretches and then last night he slept for 6 1/2 hours straight before waking up to eat at 1:30. What a way to ring in the new year! So now I'm getting all cocky and staying up until 9. Party!

I spent a lot of time today weeding through Christmas photos and proofing some of my favorites. There are still more to come but late this afternoon a very, very cool thing dawned on me - we have seen every one of Sarah and Ephraim's grandparents over the holiday. After six years of living out of state this is the first year that we've been able to celebrate with everyone and we loved every minute of it. Our kiddos are lucky to have three sets of grandparents that adore them - and Brent and I are lucky to have three sets of weekend sitters always on stand-by!

We kicked off our Christmas with JoJo and Papa. Sarah loves spending time at their riverhouse...

Then we headed home on Christmas Eve and Mom (Grama) and Tom (Grandad) spent the night with us and were there for present-opening on Christmas morning...

After a few days at home we loaded up and headed to South Carolina to spend a few days with Dad (Grandaddy) and Sue (Nana). Check out Grandaddy's new hot rod...

I didn't get a great shot of Nana but lucky for us a photographer for their local paper DID! What a surprise it was to see this in the paper on Sunday morning!

Nana had taken Sarah to the park while Brent and I were on an anniversary date. A local photographer happened to be driving by and snapped this photo. How cool is that?!

Happy 2008 everyone!