gosh, i have so much to tell you!

do you have any idea how hard it is to blog for an entire week pimping out scrapbook layouts (most of which had stock photos on them of people/animals i've never even met)----and not talk about anything else!?

it's hard, people! just so you know.

because while i was posting those, i was also out playing in the snow with these two ornery fools. and the photos i captured make my heart sing. :)

on Monday, doug had mandatory overtime in the evening, so i worked an early shift and came home with an impromptu announcement that we were going to bundle up and go sledding. it was hovering around 34 degrees---the warmest day in months--with the promise of even higher temps and rain the next day. which meant the snow would be melting.



so with borrowed sleds, three layers of clothes, and four extra pair of gloves we headed out to find a hill. it took driving to 3 different hills i used to sled on as a kid before we found one with enough snow cover to get some speed. but it was SO worth it.

it's the first time i've had my camera out for photos (other than scrapbook assignments) since Christmas. collecting smiles makes me giddy.....so i was feeling a bit bummed with the lack of camera action.

for the first time in a really, really long time, i saw my girl let go of everything that normally sends her through the roof and just enjoy everything about the activity she was doing.....wet gloves, cold hands and all. :) now, mind you, we still had to change gloves 4 times because they just didn't 'feel' right. but, that's minor stuff we're talking about there.

not many people get to witness seeing her laugh the way she did that night. it's laughs like these that make me forget all the struggles we have with her.

the light was changing so fast since we went just before evening rush hour. it's dark here around 530pm now. so, i was having a hard time compensating with the settings on my camera to get the results i wanted. at one point i turned the iso up to 1600 and left it there resulting in most of my photos being dark and grainy with a very purple-y blue hue to them.

like this one....

but i recently re-discovered a super fun, and addicting photo editing site called Picnik and i'm in LOVE. i took that photo above and turned it into this one....


and it makes me want to cry!

i'll forever and ever remember the fun and laughter that was had on that sledding hill.....and it didn't cost me a single penny. don't you just love those kind of memories?

in Picnik, i opened the photo and first changed the exposure and contrast. then tweaked the color and saturation. then tinkered with the effects adding a vingette and a seasonal/breast cancer color wash---thus the pink hue. and it all took less than 2 minutes...........and it was FREE. :)

i love free.

that photo of ashlyn up there with the biggest smile ever? it started out like this:

here's the comparision...

she liked the brighter one above---she's obsessed with color just like me, but i couldn't resist going one step further and adding the vingette, shown below.

oh.my.gosh, how i SO badly want to put this on a big canvas! i just might have to place an order. speaking of photo canvas'.........i got one just before Christmas from Photo-Canvas that i can't wait to show you. it's GORGEOUS. soon. soon. gotta take a photo of it first.

bunny trail there.

do you have any clue how hard it is to photograph a kid sledding down a hill? i took about 100 pictures of nothing but snow or nothing but a little piece of them in the corner of the photo because my finger just wasn't fast enough clicking. i need to learn so much more about my camera.

most of them where shots i was trying to take of spidergirl. she's a fast little thing. here's one of those shots where the top of her head was cut off, but i couldn't stand to delete it.


oh, how that smile melts me.

in just over and hour, they must have gone down that hill nearly 100 times.

wore.them.out. :)


this one especially. it was a double dose chemo day for her, so she was extra tired afterward.

i loaded them back into the car, dropped off the borrowed sleds, and drove home feeling like the luckiest mom in the world!