Awesome Tutorial

When I saw this tutorial over on TaylorMade's blog, I knew I wanted to try it "someday", but didn't have a picture that I thought would work. Well the carousel picture from last week works perfectly, so I got started. The action that creates this awesome look is from PanosFX. What is amazing is that they've also created an action that works in Photoshop Elements. However it is faster and easier if you have a full version of Photoshop (CS2-4). So if you have a version of Photoshop, give it a try. It was a really fun action to watch work! (boy does that sound "geeky")







Supplies are from Weeds & Wildflowers (paper, date strip, and hearts), OScraps (text overlays:TaylorMade)

Rascal Flatts Concert

Andrew surprised me with Rascal Flatts concert tickets for Valentine's Day. (he is getting better, isn't he?) We went to dinner over at the Gateway, to a place we'd never gone before called Taiphoon. The food was absolutely AMAZING! We ordered more than we normally would have but we brought most of it home. We just couldn't believe that everything could be so delicious, but it was. But if you go, remember to hit it either early or late. We got there around 5:45 and it was already packed! And it just got worse from there! They have a really great lunch special until 4:00, so that would be an option to avoid the crowd!

The concert started out with a bang! The guys made their entrance from above the stage, with this awesome "matrix" lighting! The stage was so very cool, and the lighting was extraordinary!

So here's my favorite shot of the whole concert (OK....ONE of them)

Check out the drummer in the background! LOVE it!

So here are the 3 guys.


They had these fabulous side screens that they did lots of pictures/videos with wicked lighting! Here is what the screen looked like while they were singing my very favorite song, "The broken Road".


Then the DEAFENING crowd for the curtain call!(good thing I'm an old fogie and wore ear plugs!) Then the guys came back out and rocked it out for another 20 minutes! Check out this duel going on!

And here it is after the confetti is shot out and these HUGE balloon things are dropped from the ceiling.

Man these guys know how to rock a concert!

And no, my seats weren't that close, just got lucky with my 300mm lens!

NOTE: I don't know why Blogger is cutting off half my pictures, but trust me, the other half are amazing too! Be patient, I'll figure it out somehow...anyone have any tips on HTML code?

Random Fun-Ness

Well we haven't been doing too much lately. My mom is here visiting for a week, and Carissa has been entertaining her. We've had plenty of tea parties, dressing up, and playing board games. She loves to dress up in her twirly-fluffy skirt and race across the kitchen floor riding her scooter!


This is one I snapped of her little tea party set up!


It made me smile, cause as she's gotten older and the imagination is starting to make a stronger presence in her play, to see her place her binky on the table gives me a small bit of hope that she is still just a little girl and not all grown up....yet!

We went to the zoo yesterday, taking full advantage of a warm-ish, almost spring day. There was still snow on the ground in places, but the animals were excited to be able to come outside and bask in the sunshine. But the highlight (as always) was the carousel.

This shot was my favorite. I realize that you can't see the animal she's riding, and I don't really care. She was floating along with the music, in her own little world! The magic of childhood!

Words of Wisdom.....from a 4 year old!

Tonight as Andrew was *attempting* to get Carissa ready for bed, they were playing a fun little game she likes to play called "Tigress". (That is the GIRL charachter from Kung-Fu Panda) Things were getting a little wild, and Andrew thought it would be best to reign it in for the night.

Andrew pulled her close and said to her, "Carissa, there comes a time in your life when you have to prepare yourself to relax and rest". Her response to that was, "DaAa-ddy, (kind of drawn out and a bit philosophical) there also comes a time when you NEED to finish what you started"!!

Gee.......um thanks honey! Needless to say, the game continued! Right after we laughed! This little one is way too smart, and wise beyond her years!

Temple Open House

On Saturday, we made the "trek" over to the other mountain to go through the Draper Temple. We were a bit nervous about going during dinner time, but Carissa ate lots of snacks on the "long drive" over! Once we got to the chapel we were waiting to be bussed up to the temple, the wait was a bit more difficult. Then when it was time to get on the bus, they soon discovered that someone had parked their car right in front of the bus route, to get in and out of the chapel parking lot. By the time they realized this, there were at least 4 busses stacked up, and no one was able to get on the bus. So after waiting about 10 minutes, Andrew decides that they need some "management"! The drivers were saying that they couldn't just back up, and they obviously couldn't go forward, so they were basically gonna sit there until the driver of the illegally parked car returned! Well Andrew made the suggestion that we stop the busses on the street, prior to pulling into the parking lot, and have the groups walk out that way. Yes, it was COLD, and icy, but after 3 busses were loaded within minutes, it was much better than standing around. Hooray for Andrew! Who says a government worker can't get things done! (well maybe when it affects them!)



So when we finally got on the bus, Carissa wasn't sure she wanted to do this new activity. She finally settled down and when we got our first glimpse of the temple, she started singing "I Love to see the Temple" while the nice host was trying to give his little schpeel. At least she wasn't screaming it, but he was having a hard time focusing on what he was reading. It was pretty comical.

Carissa wasn't so sure about the tunnels leading up to the temple, but she must have known how special it is to go to the temple. As we approached the door, she just looked up in awe. And was so reverent through the entire tour. We were so proud of her! We just didn't know how she would behave. Then once we got out in the tunnel to go to the stake center, she went right back to her normal volume level!

If you haven't had a chance to get over there, try and make it happen, it is truly beautiful!

Went private

I decided this morning after seeing activity from Japan that I needed to go private....immediately. If you haven't already put a traffic feed on your blog, please do it. You can grab it from the bottom of my right side bar. I watched the traffic for about couple of weeks and didn't notice anything unusual. Then this morning, something very unusual showed up. And I'm still shaking just thinking about it. Truly feel violated. VIOLATED!

If I missed anyone, please let me know that you would like to read my blog. Or if you hear that someone wants to read mine, please contact me. I really don't want to leave anyone out, but I just don't want the CRAZIES in! I love blogging, and love that I can keep up with other families as well, but I don't want to let strangers in with less than good intentions.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or as Donavan would like to have it called, "Singles Awareness Day"!

I wanted to get a cute picture of Carissa holding the Valentine she made for her Dad, but the crazy girl would NOT hold still, so this is the best of the bunch!

But I did go on to capture this lovely one!

She had her little valentine's day party at her preschool. And she just didn't understand the game. She didn't want to sit on the floor holding her box. She DIDN'T want kids to put their valentines in HER box. And especially if they were trying to give her a treat she didn't like.

But after all the kids had handed out their valentines, and she handed out hers as well, we were on our way home, she suddenly wanted to play the game, and then couldn't understand that it was OVER! So she has been re-inacting the "game" for the past 3 days! She just doesn't understand that sometimes something "new" can be fun too.

The other night Donavan had a "solo night" where he got to perform a trumpet solo with a piano accompaniment. Even though he found his music piece almost a month ago, he only rehearsed with his accompanist for about an hour and half, the night before the performance. (gee nothing like procrastinating!)

Each of the students performed their numbers in front of a couple of judges, and they will be rated, then the top rated students in each division will perform at the state level competition. The judges that he played for were very nice (one of them being his teacher at school, the other was the band director at Riverton High School.) and they had a lot of nice things to say about his performance. And I was very impressed with how well he did considering the lack of time to perfect it. Now he gets to audition for some scholarships in the next couple of weeks, so hopefully he can really shine on the next performance!

I'd love to say that there have been lots of fun things going on to keep me from posting, but really nothing fun has really happened the past few weeks, and I don't really feel like doing a post about Donavan's second car accident in 4 months. Yah, I won't even go there. Just if you see him driving......just steer clear!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!