Halloween 2011

Gabriella had a TOTAL blast on Halloween this year. We went trick or treating more out of formality, and I really didn't expect her to be that into it. Boy, was I wrong. She was grinning from ear to ear watching all the other kids in costumes and grabbing candy to add to her little pail. We made it to about a dozen houses before she started getting sluggish so we headed home to put her to bed (but not before examining our loot first!). She was the little lamb so we went as farmers :-)

That little smudge on her chin is her first taste of chocolate. She spit it right out. lol

All About Fall

We took a second trip to the farm near our house to grab some pumpkins... and uhh take a ton of pictures of my babe of course. ;-) I still haven't shared pictures from our first trip to the patch (and hubby and I are actually IN those too!) so it only makes sense that I start backwards, right? Errr...

Found it!

16 months

I know, I know, I'm SUPER behind on posting here. But guys, I'm *busy*. You only have yourselves to blame, really. Encouraging me to follow my dreams and all. ;-)

Anyhow our little bug is now 16 months old. Her favorite things ever are:

Daddy.

Daddy.

Oh yeah, and uhhh DADDY!

Seriously, I'm peanuts now. Ah well. It's so sweet how much she adores him. Even if I'm a little (ok a lot) jelly.

Those ASPCA animal cruelty commercials make her smile like mad and laugh. In all fairness, she just sees animals, which she loves... but it's still hysterical to see her crack up while the sad Sarah McLachlan song is playing and kitties are locked up behind bars. This kid's sense of humor is RIPE I tell you. She loves "sneaking" up behind us and us pretending we don't know where she is. Oh! And there's the incident of me leaving her in her room for literally 8 seconds while I went to wash my hands... and finding her stomping on poo from a disassembled diaper on the ground. She fished it right out of the diaper genie and saw fit to do a jig right on it, on the carpet. With her massive grin, I couldn't really be mad. But seriously, I can't leave her alone, period. This child must be watched like a hawk or she's liable to do all sorts of crazy things.

Speaking of watching like a hawk, she hit a kid at Gymboree. Not a kid, a baby smaller than her. With a pumpkin. Up until now she had been getting pushed around a bit, and she never really seemed to mind. It concerned Adam, who wanted her to "stand up for herself" (an idea I wasn't too fond of) but I just chalked it up to kids being kids. That's not to say we didn't spend our car ride home completely tearing apart the mother of the kid who pushed ours. Clearly she wasn't being vigilant enough with her kid. Yeahhh... it's really awful being on the other side of things. We don't know why she did it, but she just lashed out and started smacking this little girl on the head. Hopefully it's not a new habit, but she's feisty at times so I guess we really need to keep teaching her how to be gentle.

LOL between the laughing at animal cruelty, stomping on poo and pounding on other kids, it's sure sounding like my little girl is quite the bully! But I swear, she's still all lady (most of the time). She loves carrying her purses around the house with her, and brushes her hair whenever she gets her hands on a hair brush... or a tooth brush. :-) There really is no greater feeling than coming home and having her run up to me and giving me a huge thigh hug.

 ...and of course...

Oh! And my web site is live now! Please stop by :-) www.alexandrakellerphotography.com  (and you can still check out my facebook and "like" me at www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography). Thanks! xoxo

I'm TERRIBLE, I know!

I so suck at blogging lately, but I've just been super duper busy, I promise. Ya know, trying to start things and whatnot. :-)

In the meantime, if y'all are still out there, you can do me a solid and click "like" on www.facebook.com/alexandrakellerphotography
















And now you know ALL my secrets. Well, most of them. ;-)

Massive fun post to come soon involving a trip to the pumpkin patch, Disneyland, and other stuffs. xoxo

This is true.

I got two hits on my blog this week from someone googling "gross stuff".


Hope you found it.

A little blueprint...

So I mentioned in my last post that I've embarked on my photography adventure... and I'd love to share some of my little tricks along the way with y'all. One of my favorites involves editing. To me it's super important to get it right in camera, but editing can give pictures so much more... oomph! for lack of a better word haha. Here is a little blueprint that I'm actually submitting in MCP Actions' latest contest.

the before is on top, the after below - duh :-)

I used some fusion actions on this one: One click color at 50%, Urban at 20%, Rustic at 25%, dodgeball on eyes and selective sharpening on eyes and lips. I also touched up her skin with the powder your nose tool. 

What do you guys think? I love the warmth and liveliness of the after. Can you just tell that I am so loving what I'm doing? :-)

Check out www.mcpactions.com for sooo many tips on photoshop and incredible actions too!

15 Months Old

Oh hi! Yes I know this is my 2nd post this month, but I've been so busy working on... things. I do apologize if the 3 of you have missed me (is this thing on?!). Anyway, onwards!

• Gabby's new thing is pointing to everything and asking "this?" She wants to know what everything is/does.
• She barks like a dog whenever she sees one. But it sounds more like grunting, which is even cuter!
• She can point out her head, ears, nose, feet, belly and boobies. :-) Still giving the biggest cheeseball grin when we ask her to show us her teeth.
• She's started to not mind tooth brushing, which is great. It used to be a wrestling match just to get a quick brushing in but now she's ok with it.
• Her stats! I almost forgot... 27 lbs 11 oz (95th%) and 32" tall (90%). Noggin measuring in at 19.25" (97%). And I was going to say I thought she was really starting to lean out!
• She's loving her little wand that I got her, her little pink armchair (must share a pic of this soon, it's such a good buy!) and books. Girl loves books. But she's taken a liking to bending the binding back so we're really going to have to try to get her to not destroy them or get used to the idea of buying more than 1 of each book.
• There's this little cartoon that comes on in between real cartoons called So Smart. It's got a duck, a pig and a lion and is the most simple, basic little 5 minute animation... and she is just wildly enthralled by it. My dad turns the TV on at 8:50 every morning for her so she can catch her fave show. :-)

We had a dr's appointment on her exact 15 month birthday so she got to celebrate by getting 3 shots. She did not take this lightly, and now 2 days later she seems like she's sick. I don't know if it's just reaction from the shots or if she's sick from the flu shot (I always seem to get a mini flu when I get the shot). Poor girl. But on her monthday she was just fine after a nice long nap so we went to the park for her 15 month photo shoot.

Here's my little lady:

Oh yeah and with a little bit of courage (and lots of nerves!), I've started my photography business. More on that soon... Thank you all so much for the support!

Thinking ahead (per usual)...

The day after labor day signifies a year since I've returned to work from maternity leave. It also means it's time to decide on a Halloween costume! Because I am a total Type-A when it comes to my daughter, I have to figure these things out way in advance. Last year I just knew she had to be a duck. We called her duckie the whole time I was pregnant and there's something so adorable about a little baby in a fluffy costume. I'd like to keep her in a fluffy costume this year too, because before I know it, she'll be wanting to be a princess/batgirl/beer wench. I'd better hold onto her babyness this year too and go fluffy :-)

So here are the contenders so far:

Little Lamb

This is probably my front-runner. Cute, cuddly, and cute. And it's a very similar setup to the costume she wore last year. I'm making us all dress up this year, so we'd need to figure out what to be to match her. I'm thinking farm animals? I could be Mary but I'm not sure what that would entail. I'd be a much better pig/cat/cow.

Bat 

I know this one's not all cuddly, and it's all black which I'm not usually a fan of, but the expression on this kid's face was just too cute to not post.

Puffy Owl

How cute is this?! I have a feeling the wings would bug her though. And she'd probably pull the cape off altogether.

Watermelon or Strawberry

I love these but think she would yank the little hat off in no time. But a whole family dressed like fruits is appealing. Ahhh this is just making me more and more indecisive as I go along...

Chicken

I mean, why not continue in the duck vain by going poultry all the way? It's probably a boy's costume but I think it's so funnycute.

Horse Rider

OK this one's not really a contender, but it cracked me up. I'm still laughing. It's kind of amazing.