Some Photoshop Fun

About a month or so ago Jason did his November post with his "Christmas Card" photo. After several concerned texts about Lorelei's dangerous perch we mentioned in the next post that we would show you all what the photos really looked like pre-photoshop. Of course, things got busy and I forgot all about it until now. I was hoping to do a different post but I don't have time so for now this will have to do. We go home safe and sound yesterday afternoon but it has been quite crazy trying to get unpacked and organized. I forgot how disastrous the house can get when trying to unpack, especially when you have two little helpers.  Fortunately we are just about done and so hopefully by tonight life can resume back to at least somewhat normal.

So, in the meantime, here is the original shot of Lola balanced on top of Jason's Jeep. As you can see, he is holding her nice and securely. It wasn't the best shot of her. It would have been a little easier to work with if her arms had been positioned a bit differently but it was all I had so we made it work.

I removed Jason's hands and the repositioned her arms and cloned in some areas on her shirt. To be honest, that part did take quite a bit of time to get it to look somewhat natural. Then once she was done we found a few pictures that Jason liked and just plopped her in them. After that I just added Florabella's Tea Time action (and a lens flare to the last two), and that was it!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve!

Our Christmas Adventure

 

Wow! We had quite the Christmas adventure! Just like last Thursday (when I did the post on our back porch decorated for Christmas), I am writing from a hotel room so this will be brief, but I wanted to pop in and share a few photos from our Christmas in Indiana. We had an absolutely wonderful time with Jon's family and I have to say I think it might have been one of my favorite trips I have ever taken to Indiana despite the fact that it turned out to be a bit more interesting than planned. We had a wonderful time visiting with all of Jon's relatives, ate tons of delicious food, including some divine hot cocoa that Jon's mom made which I am going to try to make at home sometime and if I do I will share with some links to the recipe, and oh yeah, spent some time at the hospital. There were 11 people that we celebrated Christmas with (Jon's mom and dad; his sister, Meredith; her husband, Matt; Matt's sister, Helen; Matt and Helen's parents, Al and Anita; and then of course, Jon, myself, Lillie and Lorelei) and everyone but me got the flu! 

Yup, all of the other 10 got hit HARD. So hard in fact, that Matt and Lola ended up in the hospital. Needless to say that was a wee bit scary. So, although that probably seems like an awful Christmas I have to say I think we all still somehow managed to have a wonderful time. It was quite the bonding experience - haha! I think if anyone had walked into the house on one of the nights they might have passed out at just the sight of everyone. There were people sleeping on bathroom floors, living room floors and my poor mother-in-law was washing sheets and towels at 3 and 4 am just trying to keep up with everything, despite the fact that she herself was sick! And my poor father-in-law was stuck driving back and forth to the E.R. all night and morning. I am so grateful that I somehow escaped it because I don't know how else I would have been able to take care of poor Lillie and Lola.

Anyway, needless to say, I didn't take a whole lot of photos and most of the ones I did get were taken at night so they are pretty grainy. Here are a few:

 Lorelei and Grammy after the Christmas Eve service:

Grammy and Lillie looking at the nativity scene on Christmas Eve before Lillie headed to bed:

"Coachy Coach" (as she called him this trip) and Lillie on Christmas morning:

Lillie and Aunt Meredith playing with a new toy on Christmas night:

Helen and Lillie reading:

Uncle "Matty Matt" (another new nickname by Lillie) and Aunt Meredith Christmas morning:

Poor Lola snuggling with her Daddy on Christmas morning right after getting sick all over her new Christmas jammies:

 Lola out on a walk with her Daddy Christmas afternoon.

Our little Lola Wren:

We still have one more day left on our adventure. We made a short trip from Indiana to Ohio yesterday. We stopped at a high school game to watch a recruit on our way to the hotel. Then Jon dropped us off at the hotel and he traveled to Kentucky to watch another recruit. And then tonight, after William and Mary's game we will begin our journey back to Williamsburg. We have so much to get working on when we get back - ahhhhh!  And I have some exciting news to share in a few days.

I also want to wish my beautiful Mom a very happy birthday today! I love you!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

What You Really Wanted (Jason's December Post)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a blessed Christmas Eve and woke up to a beautiful Christmas morning. I don't have any photos to share yet of our morning but I do have a few from last week when Jon and I did our little Christmas with the girls before heading to Indiana. Both girls were wide-eyed with excitement and it was so much fun watching them. Lillie was so thrilled to open her gifts and Lola was in heaven trying to eat all the wrapping paper. We did our Christmas with them at night so these pictures are pretty grainy but I was happy to get one of each of them actually looking in the general direction of the camera and a couple of them together.

And here is our Christmas card. I was so behind this year. 

I got most of them out last week but still have a few left to send when we get back to Virginia!

This is the front:

And when you open it here is the inside:

And then here is the back:

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; 

He is the Messiah, the Lord."

 - Luke 2:11

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our Christmas Porch

Here are tons and tons of photos of our porch! I was planning on writing about it but we are on the road headed to Indiana for Christmas so I don't have time to write. When I have time I will try to come back in and add some text to this post. But for now here are all of the pictures:

 

 

Can you believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve? Ahhhh!!!