i heart faces: oh so silly!

I. Will. Eat. The. Whole. Thing.

(chomp)

Check out more silly entries at I &hearts faces!

i heart faces: best face from 2011

 Buried in the leaves--in December! Mr. B had a blast!

Check out other entries here!

i heart faces: head, shoulders, knees, and toes!

This week's challenge at i ♥ faces is head, shoulders, knees, and toes (anything but a face)! We are in a hurry to leave the house at the moment, so pardon the lack of commentary :)

Check out all the other entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: cell phone

This week's challenge at i ♥ faces is cell phone photos. My phone does not have the greatest camera, but I do use it a lot and am so glad I have it to capture spontaneous moments, and more often, those important moments when I have, once again, forgotten my camera. I have the Vignette app for Android and love the cool vintage looks you can create...like my entry this week :)

Check out all the other entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: innocent wonder

The theme this week at i ♥ faces is innocent wonder. This picture was taken at the Wings Over Houston Air Show this fall. Lincoln was in awe of the planes, explosions, and action! It was all happening so fast and he just couldn't look away...but didn't want to admit he was a little scared ;) As you can see, Lucas was able to tell anyway!



Check out all the other entries over at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: winter wonderland!

I can't really remember the last time I entered an i ♥ faces contest...but it was some time ago! I also can't remember why I stopped entering. But, after seeing all the cute pictures being shared this week, I just had to include this one of Lincoln sledding. This was only his second time to see snow, and the first time he actually got to play in it vs. just being propped there for a picture :)

There are many more entries over at i ♥ faces! Check them out!

(missed) i heart faces entry: Shades

I actually went out and took new photos this week for the i ♥ faces contest. Then, Tuesday night rolled around and I forgot to publish them. The plus side for you is that I am going to share a bunch of pictures instead of just one, like I would normally get to do for the contest. I had already picked one out to enter...but just out of curiosity, what would have been your choice?

Also worth noting--these are all unedited. Saving time :)

A fun comparison:
Here is me wearing the same sunglasses. They are from the toddler selection at Target, but actually fit me better than my own sunglasses. Funny stuff.

i heart faces: surprised!

I am getting this in under the wire, so there won't be much commentary here....

SURPRISE! Mama caught you drinking water from a rain puddle. Little stinker :)

Check out the other entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: play!

It has been awhile (goodness! since April 26th!) since my last i ♥ faces entry. I kept losing track of days, forgetting the theme, and other general excuses. So, I am quite excited that I actually have my entry ready to post today, on the first day entries are open, even (a rare occasion, for sure!). This is a shot from today, so a fresh and new photo, not even one from the archives (I know! Another shocker!). We had a mini thunderstorm here this morning, leaving a nice array of puddles on the deck just right for splashin'. I love how hard Lincoln is concentrating on his splashing. That tongue hanging out is his hallmark for hard work :) Yay for water play!

Check out all the other great "Play" entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: smile!

Since I missed the deadline last week by forgetting what day it was, I am entering early this week so I don't somehow skip over Tuesday again! The theme this week is "smiles" : )

I, of course, am slightly biased, but I think Lincoln has the best smile:



Check out the other entries at i ♥ faces!

PS-I couldn't enter it, because I didn't take it, but my sister-in-law Breanne took my favorite picture of Lincoln smiling at his first birthday. You can see it here. : )

i heart faces: collages

This week is collage week at i ♥ faces. The rules state we can enter as many photos as we'd like, but they should fit some sort of theme. I had all these great pictures of Lincoln in the bluebonnet field (a rite of passage for children in Texas, so it seems...), so I decided to use them as my theme. I originally had 8 pictures in the collage, but some of them were so small that you couldn't really see any detail, so I changed to the 4 picture collage below. Thank you, Picnik :)

Check out the other fabulous collages at i ♥ faces!

edit: ARGHHH! Today is Wednesday, not Tuesday! Boooo. The entries for i ♥ faces close on Tuesday nights. Sad I just spend 45 minutes working on this post, but at least I ended up with a fun collage, right? : (

i heart faces: i heart desserts!

Following up lasts week dessert recipe edition, i ♥ faces is hosting a special dessert photo contest this week! I chose to go with my favorite dessert of the moment: strawberry rhubarb pie. This is the one I baked for the 4th of July last year using store bought strawberries and farmer's market rhubarb, but this year I have strawberries and rhubarb growing in the garden for an ALL homemade pie! I CAN'T WAIT! Also, please do note the butter in the background. I don't often attain the blurred background with my point and shoot camera, so this is an especially proud achievement of mine : )

(recipe here, if interested!)

Check out all the other mouth watering entries this week at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: dessert recipe!

This week the ladies at i ♥ faces are taking the week off, and instead we are all sharing a lovely dessert recipe, with pictures! Some of you may recognize the recipe below. I have shared it before, but it has been quite some time AND it is a perfect spring recipe. Plus, I am short on time and already had the pictures. Yep. This recipe is for a simple, easy, summery lemon icing. This is the kind of icing that is perfect on sugar cookies, or as a glaze on cupcakes, or drizzled over lemon poppyseed bread...and so on. It is so adaptable I bet you could come up with at least a dozen uses for this versatile treat.

First, I'll explain the basic recipe. Then I will share some easy adaptations with you.

Lemon Icing

Ingredients:

1 cup powdered sugar

1 small to medium lemon

Directions:

1. Place powdered sugar in a bowl.

2. Grate the zest from your lemon into the bowl with the sugar. I had a small lemon, so I used all the zest. Use less if your lemon is huge.

3. Cut your lemon in half and remove the seeds. Squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl and whisk. Better yet, use a lemon reamer to juice the lemon. The lemon reamer is my absolute favorite kitchen gadget. I can't imagine how I got by without it. You need to get one of these if you don't already have one--the amount of juice you can get using one is phenomenal!

4. If the icing is the consistency you want, then you are done. If not, add more juice from the other half of the lemon. Continue adding juice and whisking until it is how you want.

5. Use your delicious icing as you wish! I made tiny sugar cookies today, so that is where mine ended up (I mean besides the spoonfuls that ended up in my mouth, that is...).

Ways to modify this:

1. Whisk in your favorite berry jam--raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, all go great with lemon. Use about 2 teaspoons of jam to start--you can always add more if you want it to have a stronger berry flavor vs. the lemon.

2. Use less powdered sugar, more lemon juice. This will make a glaze instead of an icing--it should be pourable. This type works great for the lemon poppyseed bread.

3. Start with vanilla sugar (to make this, place a vanilla bean pod in a baggie with some sugar for a few days. The sugar will take on the vanilla flavor).

Enjoy! And, head over to i ♥ faces for TONS of fabulous dessert recipes!

i heart faces: dramatic black and white

This week the theme at i ♥ faces is dramatic black and white. I love this shot of Lincoln looking so pensive in my parent's tree. Lucas is holding him there, but since you can't see him in the picture, it looks like Lincoln somehow climbed up there himself, just for some quiet "thinking" time. I love it.




Check out the other entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: bundled up!

This week the theme at i ♥ faces is bundled up! Not a lot of that going on here in Texas....but, I do have this picture of Lincoln in his toasty snow suit. This was taken the day after Christmas 2008 (he was 1 week old). He received this snow suit from a (well-meaning) relative up in the snowy midwest. Despite the near 80 degree temps outside, we wanted to get a picture of him in the snow suit (because really, it was hilarious). You can see that he was thrilled.

A few months later, we actually did get to use the snow suit (briefly) when we went up to visit my family in Nebraska. We have pictures of that, too, but this just makes me laugh : )

That's one toasty baby!
(don't worry--he was only in the suit for about 3 minutes while we took the picture!!)

Check out the other entries at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: hilarious outtakes #2

Another round of funny outtake photos! (side note: check out the entry post on i ♥ faces...my friend Lara from Lara Hanlon Photography had her photo featured as the example!)

You could enter up to 5 photos, but I'm going with the following 2 this time around:

This was an attempt to capture our dog sleeping under the blanket my mom made, but he woke up and gave me this look instead--ha!

A self-portrait. Lucas sometimes suffers from a severe case of "Chandler Syndrome" when taking self portraits. This is one of those times...

Check out the rest of the entires this week at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: hands-on fun

This week's theme at i ♥ faces is Hands-on Fun! My entry is of Lincoln during warmer days having some summer fun playing frisbee with our dog, Wembley. And by playing frisbee, I mean hitting it like a drum and then squealing with delight when the dog comes and steals it away. That's how we roll. : )

Check out all the other entries over at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: dance!

This week's theme at i ♥ faces is DANCE! I got this picture of Lucas and Lincoln twirling at Discovery Green on Valentine's Day. The weather was gorgeous and we loved this colorful wall--perfect for a daddy/son twirl!

Check out all the other dancing pictures at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: kisses

This week's theme at i ♥ faces is....kisses! Just in time for Valentine's Day! My 2 Valentine's are my entry this week. Awwww.
Check out all the other entries this week at i ♥ faces!

i heart faces: Best Face Photo!

Happy Birthday to i ♥ faces!! This week they are celebrating the one year anniversary of the launch of their site. I didn't start participating until mid-year, but I'm so glad I did; it has been so fun taking new and different shots and learning new techniques. Also, they have launched a brand new logo and look for their site. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out! It looks great!

The theme this week is best face photo--with the twist that it had to be taken between December 2009 and January 2010. We had so much going on in that time span-Lincoln's first birthday, Lucas' birthday (age omitted to preserve the mystery of his youthful face...), Christmas, our anniversary, New Years, friends visiting, whew! The sad part? I have TONS of pictures; but approximately 5 of them were actually taken by me : ( Our camera is having shutter problems (it won't open all the way), so we relied on the photos taken by family during all our festivities this year. So, from my small selection, I did manage to find this adorable shot of Lincoln--all worn out from too much partying! I had to crop out the shutter on both sides of the picture, but overall, I'm happy with it. Such a sweet boy!

There are TONS of awesome entries this week! Check them out (and wish the ladies a Happy Birthday!) at i ♥ faces!