Life is messy.  As the mom of an 8-week-old and a three-and-a-half-year old, by this I can swear.  So if I care about documenting the little moments that really matter, I have to recognize that I can't always pick the perfect setting to make the memories in.

This week, we had a sweet moment on the office floor between sisters.  Stella was lying on her play mat and Sydney just COULD NOT keep her hands off of her.  Since we've spent our fair share of time in the hospital and doctors office with a sick wee one, usually I panic. But when I turned around to find Sydney lying inside the playgym with her sister, my heart melted.  After all, this was the very same playgym Sydney was kicking around on just three years ago.  (Someone get the tissues!)

But photographically speaking, there's a WHOLE lot going on visually inside that little mat of wonder. Wild animals, wild colors and the general awkwardness of both children being under something made it difficult to capture the intimate details of their sweet interaction.  This is one instance where a black and white conversion is particuarly useful!  If we can take away all of the color distraction, we can focus our eye on the real action!

Here's my first image straight out of the camera.  You can see it's sweet, but there's a whole lot of busy going on!  I want their hands to stand alone!

I could just crop them tighter, but I feel the arc of the playgym tells the story of where they are, so we're going to have to leave it as is.

Next I'm going to convert to black and white (I do this in Apples aperture, but any black and white conversion of your choice will work).  Normally I would adjust my exposure and contrast setting first, but I like to see the image in black and white before I start playing with those settings.

Okay, now that it's in black and white, I can see what needs adjusting.  This image is very grey to me as is - it needs more definition between black and white, otherwise known as higher contrast.  I'm going to address this two ways.

First, I'm going to adjust my black point. You can either do this in Aperture or Lightroom - or by adjusting the leftmost slider of the levels adjustment in photoshop.

See how much richer the darker tones are?  But I still want a little more definition, so now I'm going to adjust the contrast.

That feels better to me.  Finally, I want the attention on the center of the photo, so I'm going to add a vignette, darkening the edges so that your eye is naturally drawn to the bright hands in the middle.

And voila - the moment captured now focuses on what I was "seeing" when I took the photo!

So now I have this amazing memory of their precious time together...  when it's good ya'll, it's really good!!!

For more in-depth black and white tips - learn from the master... Marc Javier!  Check out his Lightroom tutorial.

A warm hello from that island somewhere in between Timbuktu and Antarctica known as post-partum.  We've had exactly one emergency a week in the first three weeks of our little one's life, and I gotta tell you, I'm ready for the new normal to emerge 'cause I'm not settling for this!

I won't get into the details of the first two, because nobody wants to read about a 30-something's trek to heal from childbirth, but I'll tell you, I'd have much preferred the third could be blamed on me as well.  Stella began to run a fever Sunday afternoon.  If you've ever had a newborn with anything over 100.4, you know what happens next.  Blood draws, spinal taps and a minimum 3 days in the hospital.  We couldn't kick the fever until day 4, so we're just getting home.

We're counting our blessings over and over, although I will turn into a primal club-weilding cave-mom should anyone try to touch her over the next five weeks.

So in celebration of her homecoming, and my first trip to my desk since her arrival, I want to post an unedited photo her Aunt 'Becca and I took when she was 4 days old.  Pullbacks, tutorials and more pictures to follow!

Dear Stella,

And so it begins. And so it continues.  It's the beginning for you, but to understand from where all this love comes, you'll have to understand about from where you come.

You came into the world at 11:12 A.M. the day after the 4th of July.  Your big sister will always remind you she came two days after Christmas, also just after 11:00 A.M.  Your mommy can remind you that her birthday always falls the week of Thanksgiving - you'll have to ask your grandmother at what time. Suffice to say, Gray girls have an inclination to attach ourselves to excitement.

It's almost time.  Really, any time now.  Seriously.  Baby, are you listening?  Mommy is ready.

I can only say this because I am finally ready.  The bassinet arrived - which is pretty important since we decided to forego the nursery renovation decisions in favor of something much more simple like buying a new house. Still no name, but I'm resolved that we'll choose one after we see her, hold her, kiss her, see her big sister hold her... oh can you tell I am really starting to wrap my arms around this whole thing?

It wasn't that way for a while... a good while, actually.  I think my list of to-do's was piled up between the sightline of my heart and the miracle of what's just around the corner. And, of course, the list of to-do's included having everything ready for newborn portraits.  So here's my list of preparations on that front!  Who knows, it may save you from doign something rash like, oh, hosting a real-estate open house while 38 weeks pregnant.

I'll spare you all the once upon a time drivel and get to the point.  Okay moms of girls, admit it.  We're all suckers for the tutu.  It's where the dreams of little girls and their mommies colide into magic, whimsy and living-room twirls.

On the other hand, you've gotta admit, the tutu photo card has been played! I've caught myself thinking 'If I see one more newborn in a shocking magenta tutu...' well, I'll let you fill in the blank.  That's why today I was so excited to see fellow Momtographer Megan's precious photos of baby "I".

Well y'all, the oil's here.  I haven't seen it first hand, mostly because I can't bear to, but also because I know the epic battle that would take place if I went to the beach but told Syd she couldn't touch anything.  Yes, I think anyone who's still letting their kids in the water needs a head check.  I've heard reports of 'Mommy - there's black stuff on my feet' answered with 'Well go back in the water and wash it off'.  Why don't you just offer them a towel dipped in dispersants, or better yet, just encourage them to slather the petrol like sunblock? SPF 150 with a side of carcinogen. (Forgive me, I'm a grossly uncomfortable pregnant woman taking my round ligament pain out on the internets.)

But that said, I promised I'd share the pictures that Sydney actually took herself of the beach. Rather than try to explain the gravity of what floated just offshore, I gave her a point-and-shoot camera with the instructions to take a picture of anything she thought was beautiful. What follows, to me, is equal parts amusing and beautiful... thanks for indulging me!

When I first gave her the camera inside, she said "I want to take a picture of the baby."  Nice.

It's offcial y'all, I've got baby fever. Which is probably a good thing since I'll have my own in my arms in just a few weeks!

But it was confirmed by self-diagnoses yesterday when, on Facebook, I saw my sweet friend/fellow momtographer Rachel and her newborn baby "A's" self-portraits.  And here's a fair warning, if you don't want baby fever... don't scroll down!!!

Okay Momtographers - school is out (or almost out) and it's time to put our snap in overdrive!  Our mission for the May/June challenge?  Capture those memories forever.  Sandy toes. Sprinkler romps. Water balloons. Rope swings... you get the idea.  The winner will receive a gift certificate to Amazon.com.

And since we missed the May challenge (thanks to a very pregnant Momtographer) I'm gonna sweeten the deal.  Here's a recipe Sydney and I made this morning for Fresh Strawberry Lemonade!  It's the perfect way to kick off the summer!

FRESH STRAWBERRY LEMONADE - Southern Style!

This makes a good sized batch, perfect for a self-serve spouted container.  If you're using 2-gallon pitchers, you may need to mix in a larger container first!

1 quart lemon juice (approx. 6 lbs large lemons - larger lemons tend to be sweeter!)
1 lb of strawberries
4 cups of sugar
5 quarts of water

Cut Lemons in half and juice (I use a citrus attachment on my food processor!)

Remove the hulls from the strawberries and puree (I used my food processor again to contain the mess, but a blender will work too.)

Add lemon juice and strawberry puree to large container.

Add sugar, stir.

Add water, stir.

Now sample!  Too thick?  Add more water.  To tart? Add more sugar.

I can't be 100% sure, but I THINK this is international toddler contrarian sign for "just right".

Oh Momtographers - I've missed you. Heck, I've missed me. I've been sequestered in my own head for the last few weeks - I wish I could tell you it's all been good, but it's been, well, interesting. Sometimes insanely busy checking things off the list before baby, sometimes tending to work, sometimes tending to my health (I earned myself a weekend in the hospital), a whole lot of napping, a few crises thrown in, and of course, through it all tending to my wonderfully-sweet-inquisitive-charming-mind-numbingly-active-3-year-old. I gotta tell you, the juggling act of being me in this season is not one you want tickets to unless you just want to laugh at me. And if that's the case, I'll pop you some pop-corn as long as you promise to save me some... 'cause I'm hungry.

About two weeks ago, I laid awake in bed, wrestling with whether or not to take Syd to the beach. We live just an hours drive from the white beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, so as you can imagine, the beach has been a huge part of our family life. I was a week shy of being 8 months pregnant, one week off of a hospital stay and tethered with a pile of things to do here at the house. We were smack in the middle my husband's busy season at work so I'd already decided not to go.  It was a move that would save me from packing up the house by myself and being the sole entertainer of Sydney in a tiny beach condo for 5 days. But with the oil spill looming off in the waters, we truly didn't (and still don't) know what to expect going forward.  I don't mean to be all doom and gloom (did I mention I'm 8-months pregnant? Yeah, that means my drama-filter is completely broken) but I knew our days there, at least for the short term, would likely be numbered. It's kind of like watching a disaster unfold in super slow motion. It may be a while before the crude washes up, but we're already getting tar balls, not to mention the who-knows-what they're spraying in the water.

I've always wished I lived in the kind of house where there would be a perfect door frame on which to etch the growth of my family from month to month, year to year.  The kind of door you'd find in a family farmhouse that's been around for generations - one that practically cue's Amy Grant's "If These Walls Could Speak". But alas, I'm one of the modern families of nomads who commit to address nor decorating long enough to make generational graffiti on my walls.

This past spring break, as my daughter was running down the boardwalk to the ocean ahead, I had a flashback to the year before and the year before that one.  As it turns out, I have roughly the same image of her, year upon year.  I have my own photo milestones...

Here she is at one - waiting for Daddy to come and take her hand and help her pull her wagon.

Again at two - skipping merrily towards the sand.