birthday bananza

sandra turned 14 yesterday! we had a really good time at her party. it was at a&w/long john silvers. we had rootbeer floats and everything. the kids had a blast. hunter and brandon were kind of annoying. so was bradley, even though he wasn't anywhere near me. he got into trouble though, so you know he was doing something obnoxious. hunter and brandon don't listen. when you tell hunter to do something he just stares at you with this look and he knows it's going to piss you off, but then he tries to cover himself up when he's getting into trouble. sorry buddy, that's just the way it goes. brandon will do everything in his power to bug the shit out of you. he kept coming over to the table for the older kids (me, jenna, tyler, sandra and emily) and everytime i said "brandon, go back to where you're supposed to be" he'd shake his head and say "nope". i haven't had so much hatred for a child's attitude in ages. well, hunter... but i HAVE to deal with him every damn weekend. anyways, besides the trouble making brats, everyone else had a good time.

the pretty birthday girl and her pretty birthday tiara

the pretty birthday girl and he gorgeous cousin (aka, ME)

this is tyler. tyler is a tiara stealing tiara wearer

aunt shawnna in her pirate hat

me in my embarrassing pirate hat

aunt cindy in her pirate hat

willow in her pirate hat

lexie, tiffany and ashlynn playing around

the prettyful jenna

brandon saying "arghh". he really did say it

the kids playing

new baby! unfortunately, not our baby

so, since i'm the official ashley tisdale stalker (that's humor, you should laugh about that...) i found out something very exciting! her older sister, jennifer mcchesnie had her baby this morning at around 4! she named her mikayla dawn. i'm excited for jennifer for being a first time mommy and ashley for being a first time auntie! i figured it was okay for me to share this bit of exciting information, since ashley herself announced it on twitter around 6 hours ago! haha.

oh yeah, my cousin ashley is coming over again today with her son nathaniel and her husband max. i'm pretty sure there will be more pictures. so stay tuned. hell, i may even post again before then. or maybe i won't. who knows. i made some new graphics so maybe i'll post those!

color splash

i've discovered quite a few new photographer blogs that i'm in love with. the images i edited were taken by Jessica Kettle and they are absolutely beautiful and amazing. with me wanting to be a photographer, i really admire jessica's work. most of the things i've seen are of weddings, couples, and her adorably beautiful son. there are quite a few pictures of children and babies as well, which is what i'm most interested in. i love photographing children. the only kids i've really put on a photo shoot with is with sandra, willow, lexie, and brandi. sandra is usually photographed by herself because i'm always at her house when we take the pictures. lexie and willow are photographed mostly together, but sometimes on their own. brandi only has one session and i lost it because circuit city decided to wipe out my computer without informing me first. some pictures come out really, really good and all i use is a sanyo xacti. it has all sorts of different modes i can shoot in like sports, snow, the beach, greenery, man/woman focus, and others. it's pretty neat. the man/woman focus does the effect of keeping the main subject clear while blurring out the background. i love it, but i don't use it very often. i usually keep my camera on the original setting, but i don't remember what it's called. anyways, here are the pictures i edited.

this picture was originally in color, but i desaturated everything except her eyes. yeah, that's right; her eyes are naturally that color. they're beautiful. i did color her lips though, just to give her that 'feminine' look. i hope it looks natural and not overdone.

this picture was already in black and white. i just colored his eyes.

this picture was already in black and white. i colored her eyes and lips.

this picture was in color. i desaturated everything around her eyes, but since her eyes looked like they were desaturated as well, i colored them over her natural color, which is a strikingly beautiful blue, and i colored her lips.

ashley and nathaniel's visit

my cousin ashley came over with her two-week-old son nathaniel bryce. he's so adorable and he looks JUST like ashley when she was a baby. hell, he looks just like her now. maybe it's not very noticeable in these pictures, but when my aunt carrie sent me a picture of nathaniel right after he was born, he sure looked like her. he had really chubby cheeks in the picture, but he's a lot tinier in person. he's such a beautiful baby, i'm so jealous! i can't wait until the newest edition to our family is here. here are some pictures i took earlier today, and some of ashley and nathaniel from last night.

for some reason, i just LOVE this picture

i like how this one came out too but i hate how dirty our mirror is

this is me and baby nathaniel. he's such an adorable baby

isn't this just adorable?! you can really tell in this picture that he looks just like ashley.

this picture was just too sweet to pass up

its pretty blurry, but he looks like he's smiling!

momma is so in love with her baby boy.

CONGRATULATIONS ASHLEY!!!

a safe return, part 2

good news! jenna was found this morning at 5 (8 in florida). i'm not sure her whereabouts, but the point is she's safe at home. i know nobody commented, but whoever read the post and actually cared, prayed, and kept a lookout, thank you so, so, so, so much. she's fine, but she's probably in a lot of trouble. if my kid ran away like that, i'd shove them down the garbage disposal! i'm totally kidding. i love kids, i'd never do that. anyways, thank you for taking your time to read the post; it means a lot.

missing 13 year old

my cousin is missing. this isn't the same girl that ran away before, this little girl is thirteen. her name is jenna abney, she has brown hair and hazel eyes. she went missing on february 1 2010. she lives in lehihg acres, florida and she's believed to be headed to fort collins, colorado. she's around 4'11". this is the facebook post my aunt posted, and there are pictures of jenna. the first one is the most recent, she should look the same. if anyone sees her, contact me at yikezitzkaitlyn@aol.com or comment on my post, or even call the police to notify them. keep a good lookout, she's only thirteen.

EDIT: PICS TAKEN DOWN, SHE'S BEEN FOUND