standing and a little bit of walking

Aiyden has gotten very good at cleaning out the cabinets for me.  Don't worry, there are safety things on most of them but he's allowed to get into this one.  It's the only thing that amuses him while I cook.

The next few pics are of Aiyden standing up and taking a few steps.  I had it on video but the batteries dies and erased the video so this is the next best thing.

first photo shoot, success

i had my first professional photo shoot on saturday and it was a huge success!  we got over 100 images, the mom was beautiful and dad wasn't so keen on having his picture taken but he did awesome in his shots.  i can't wait to photograph their baby girl in a month!  here's a little sneak peak of what we got.

standing up

aiyden has been walking on furniture and walls for a while now but he's really started to try standing up on his own. yesterday he did it while he was playing in his pool and today i built a little obstacle course in the living room and was able to get him on video trying to stand up over and over.

postcards for advertising

instead of making business cards, i have designed business postcards.  they will be at Jullian's, a shop in downtown concord and i was thinking about going around to local doula and midwife office's (very popular here) to see if they will hand out as well.  the back of the card is also the feel of the website that is soon to come.

front of card

back of card

new discoveries

this week was a good week in my photography world.  i booked my first professional gig for next weekend (maternity shoot.) josh is designing a webpage for me, a local kids store agreed to display my postcards and have a display table at kidsfest in may (big festival on the square), and i learned about a whole part of photoshop i never knew about.  i can't believe i thought of myself as a photoshop wiz before! so here are some of the effects i've discovered...

original

old timey look

the next two aren't so great for printing but they are just so cool!!

one picture on 20 pages

aiyden the puzzle!

dancing boy

this boy is going to be a lady killer with these sweet moves! sorry about my finger in part of the shot but i have to hide the camera or else he stops dancing.

chicken noodle soup

the other night i decided to try my hand at homemade soup.  i've never had much luck with soup, it's always been ok but nothing special.  well, this soup was by far the best non creamy soup we have ever had.  I think all three of us had seconds!  (the picture is of what was left. i didn't think of taking a picture while it was still pretty) so, if your interested, it's really easy to make. you basically throw a whole bunch of stuff in and let it cook.  

in crock pot:

5 cups chicken broth

fresh basil to taste

2 cloves garlic

oregano, salt, pepper to taste

3 shakes of paprika

half a diced onion

2 stalks chopped celery

2 large carrots, chopped

2 handfuls, fozen peas

4 sliced mushrooms

let this cook in crockpot for a couple of hours til carrots start to soften

in the meantime:

marinade chicken breasts and thighs (no skin or bones) however you like.  i always use injected soy sauce and toss with basil and garlic ( love the basil and garlic!)

cook chicken and some noodles right before you're ready to serve.  throw it all in together and get ready for some goodness!

next time we will have it with mom's homemade english muffin recipe.

13 month photo shoot

It has been raining the past couple of days so i tried to set up a little photo studio in the house.  I used a white background and couldn't get the lighting quite right but we got a few shots.  it is definitely a lot harder to get aiyden to sit still for a picture than it used to be!

experiments with photoshop

i was playing around with photoshop and have decided that putting words over images is my new thing right now.  these are two experiments.

where we live

Last week Aiyden and I went for a walk.  Anyone who has been here knows that there is a huge hill behind our house.  At the top is a POW/MIA memorial.  From there, you have an awesome view of the northern california landscape, so i tried to take a panoramic picture in 5 shots so that everyone can see where we live.  It really is a beautiful place.  On a side note, thousands of painted lady butterflies are migrating north for the summer and we are right in their flight path.  We saw hundreds of butterflies around us and we waited patiently for just one to land so that I could get a picture.  Unfortunately, that never happened, they just flew around us and that doesn't translate very well in a photo.  But I'm sure you can google it.

gone fishing

yesterday the three of us went fishing.  riv's friend lent us some poles and told us the best place to go is in Tracy (about an hour away.) so we packed a cooler, chairs, and the pack'n'play and headed out.  of course in my head we would be coming home with no less than two fish to eat for dinner.  as it turns out, fishing can be a little more difficult than that... we ended up having pizza for dinner.