Avery's Photoshoot

So.. I tried doing a "photoshoot" of Avery.. I wanted a white background, so that it was just him in the photos. To do this, I hung a white sheet. Unfortunately, the only one I could find was a wrinked fitted one. Had I of spent more time on this project, I would have put the sheet in the dryer on touch up or ironed out the creases.. but in true Sherri fashion, I just wanted to do it and not spend time on all these details..

I got the first picture of him on the sheet.. with a little editing of the sheet, this picture wouldn't be too bad. And of course he's with Cayman Carlos the Turtle (who he really does love). I do wish I had some different lights, so we wouldn't have such a distinct shadow.. then again, if I take the time to edit, I can fix this..

I got the one picture, and then.. he didn't like sitting there too much. So, he crawled off the "photo studio".

Of course I thought I could fix this problem and brought the coffee table over for him to stand with. He loves standing and his ability to walk around by grabbing one thing and then the next was not considered in this strategy, so he walked along the coffee table off of the "photo studio" and straight toward the camera.

And he was very interested in the tripod, which of course I was not using because he was moving around too fast. Holding the camera I was lucky that he was even in the frame.

Finally, I got a couple of decent picture of the man. They have to be close up in order to not show my make-shift "photo studio", but none the less, I think they turned out alright.

A little editing of the sheet in the background might just fix these up nicely.

Hey Chicago, What do you say?!?!?..

... Well, hopefully we'll be singing that this afternoon.

Last night was awesome at the Cubs game. Unfortunately, the Cubbies didn't win, but we did have awesome seats and get to the game completed with a cycle. Sitting behind home plate is pretty cool. Its an awesome view of the game! Here's a few shots:

Walking around the tunnels on the way to our seats, we got to see DeWitt's jersey that they were preparing to put in his locker, so it would be there if he showed up to the game. Its crazy how quickly they can get this stuff done!

Before going to the game, I made Avery laugh a little too much. He was in his crib and fell over laughing and bumped his lip on the edge of the crib. Poor little baby...

Mobile Avery

Avery has gone from being able to scoot on his belly to reach what he wants to racing from one room to the next. Every time I turn around he's in a different room or getting into something new. He's so much fun now and really interacting. The other day he crawled around the corner so we couldn't see him, then he started playing peek-a-boo around the corner and giggling.

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Not only does this young man race around the house, but he has 4 teeth, with two more looking like they'll come in any day! He has the bottom two front ones - which you can see in the picture. He also has two on the top, but they are the ones next to front. The two front top ones are about to come in any day. He pretends to have teeth in the back and chews everything which means he's started eating table food! He's eaten a hamburger, pork chop, hot dog, carrots, and pasta pick ups all by himself!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course he makes sounds of enjoyment with every bite. Not sure when I'm supposed to start teaching him that talking with his mouth full is unacceptable..

Spaghetti

Tonight we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner with sauce made by Dylan's Uncle Henry. It was so delicious that we decided to let Avery have a taste. He attacked the pot with determination. He even ended up getting some of the sauce on his feet (don't worry.. the sauce wasn't hot), but unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of his spaghetti feet.

Easter

This past weekend we celebrated Avery's first Easter. The Easter bunny came and filled his Easter basket. I guess the bunny remembered that Avery doesn't have any teeth, so filled it with a couple of toys instead of candy. It was so much fun seeing him play with his basket and his new toys. I tried doing some editing since I missed capturing him trying to eat his basket - he tries to eat everything these days.. but I struggled a lot with part of the basket. This was my first attempt of merging two photos.. If you have any suggestions on how I can fix the basket, please share them!

It's been a while..

I decided it is about time to do some blogging again..

Although this winter has been fun - I met my niece Fiona who was born Jan 20th, got some skiing in, chased coyotes in the truck with Dylan and everything else - I am ready for the spring and summer. The daffodils have sprouted (no flowers yet) in the back yard and the yesterday's 82F day teased me when I know we could still get another snow storm...

The family is all doing well. Dylan has gotten quite a bit of prairie dog hunting in this winter and is happy about that. Avery is almost sitting up completely independently - he doesn't know his tipping point, so will go from sitting up to making a face plant into the ground in one motion. He loves food (just like his mom) and screams when he's hungry (just like his mom :) ). Captain and Gauge are both good. Captain is still needy and Gauge is starting to show her age even though she is only 7 or so. She has an issue with her back near her tail and is sore to the point of not wanting to move in the mornings after having run the day before. She'll get up to go outside and will squeal with her butt down.. poor girl. Fortunately, we have some prescription pain medicine to help her out on the bad days. Its sad because she loves running out in the fields so much.... she a natural hunting dog.

I've started doing some more photo editing again. I've been working on some pictures of Dylan's family that I started a long time ago. Editing the pictures is very mind stimulating and therapeutic for me. Here are a couple of restorations I've done. In this one, I fixed the coloring, removed the strange glare that goes around the picture (predominately in the lower right corner) and done some minor touch ups.

In the second set of pictures, I fixed the coloring, repaired the crease and tear, recreated the bottom part of the girl on the left's dress, and did some minor touch ups to blemishes and stains on the photo.

That's about all I have for today... hopefully it won't be so many months until my next blog..

Avery now 4 weeks old!!

Everything has been going well with Avery since he's been home. I have no complaints. He seems to be a pretty good baby. We are starting to learn his cries - hungry, tired, need burped, etc. There always seems to be a reason for his cries - and he doesn't cry much at all!

He's starting to hold his head up better and better every day. He outgrew his newborn clothes at 2.5 weeks. Definitely a growing little boy.

Dylan has taking greatly to being a dad. He seems to love Dad-Avery time. Unfortunately, he doesn't get as much of that as he would like since he's back at work.