1 Thessalonians 5

16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

                        

    As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
    Psalm 42:1

So lately I have been working on new actions and also adding texture. I love photos with a little texture to them, it makes them look so unique. I have also been working on Valentine's cards for family, of course it is a picture of my beautiful daughter. They all need updated pictures of her so I figured that Valentine's Day would be a great time to send them out.

Here are a few samples of my textured photos:
Before Texture

After Texture


Before Texture


After Texture

Jeremiah 29:10-12 (New International Version)

 ¹⁰ This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

So I am playing around with some new actions on photoshop and can not wait to show off the end results. I will post some as soon as I can, I know that I keep saying that I am going to post pictures and seeing that this is a photography blog I really should be posting pictures on here and I will.

Here is a sample of one photo, thanks to my pumpkin

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He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

We have welcomed 2010 with open arms, hoping and searching for new beginnings. Our little girl is 15 months going on 3, she is growing up so fast on us. We are looking to start new traditions with our still "new" family. One tradition that I started this past holiday season and hopefully will continue through the years, is celebrating Advent. This is something very new to us and thanks to a friend this will be the first of many years that we will celebrate Advent and learn more about it.

We spent our very first Christmas Eve night at our house, this was actually the first Christmas morning EVER that I have not woke up in my parents house. It was good for Alaina, to get to spend the day at home, but I really missed the normal traditions.

So with this being a New Year, I have decided to start doing my devotionals again. It has been a while since I have read my devotionals and this time I would like to share a weekly devotional on my blog. I hope that one may inspire any of you and bring you closer to God. So on that I note I will end this blog with a late weekly devotional for this week.



    

My pumpkin has turned One, and it is still hard for me to believe. I took her for her 1 year shots on Oct. 30^th and in the waiting room with us was a 4^th month little girl to get her shots.Sitting there looking at that precious little baby, it hit me, my baby is 1. I could remember her 4 month appointment like it was yesterday and there we were sitting for her 1 year appointment. Where did the time go? The time went to her growing up, trying to be a big girl more and more everyday.

 

Her birthday was spent with us taking her to Build A Bear at the Mall of Georgia and riding the carousel. At first when we got to Build a Bear she was more interested in the little boy that was in there, and would not pay us any attention trying to pick out an animal. We ended up building a polar bear and named her Cupcake.

Alaina was not much on the carousel this year and neither was mommy. I should have sat on the side taking pictures, b/c the motion  sickness was killing me. We had lunch at Red Lobster and my dad met us therefor a bite to eat. Alaina had her first Red Lobster biscuit and loved it, I knew eating those when I was pregnant would give her a good taste for food. J

 

We had a really good time at her birthday party and are very blessed with family & friends. Alaina wasn’t really acting 100% like herself and after hearing her sneezing a few different times, I started thinking she may be getting sick. Well that night she proved me right, and we stayed up most of the night b/c she could not breathe.

So for Halloween we took Alaina to the in-laws to show her off and then headed down to Winder, GA to visit my family & friends. She had her first trick-or-treating at my friend Natalie’s subdivision. Alaina was a ladybug minus the wings; she had enough of putting on the wings. It was a cold and raining night, but we still had a good time, although our Bulldogs did  not win.

Fall is finally here and my pumpkin is 11 months old. I have been working on her first birthday party and it has been bitter sweet. I can not believe how fast this year as gone. Watching her grow has been truly amazing and I can not imagine how we lived without her now. She honestly has brought more joy and bliss in our lives than I could have ever imagined. Having a child is a gift from God and nothing else can explain it.
Well I have finally bit the bullet and got her ears pierced. She did really well with it and only cried for a few minutes and for being such a good baby, mommy bought her a toy. The funny thing about it was, getting some evil looks from an old lady as she was mumbling something across from us. Well little did she know that I have already heard an earful from my own dad about getting them pierced and if that didn't stop me, she sure as heck is not going to stop me.
This baby is walking from one end of the house to the other and nothing is stopping her; well the occasional bump and fall will stop her for a few seconds. She now has 4 teeth and ready to use them.
I will post recent pictures soon.