Pumpkin Carving

Here are some shots of the kids first year of carving their own pumpkins. We even made them pull the "guts" out themselves.... hehehe.... jp

Wednesday Morning Jocie

Jocie and Mommy

Reading Jocie's favorite book together...

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Jay Pike's Adobe Lightroom 2 Presets (FREE)

For those Adobe LR2 users out there thay may (or may not) have enjoyed the treatments I've used both here and on the 365 blog, I'm giving my set of presets away that I developed for creating all of these feels.

You can download the presets here.

Enjoy, jp.

Jessamyn Loses Her First Tooth

Yesterday was a rather eventful day in the Pike household: the first tooth was lost. Ailing from an early childhood injury (a fall and chipped tooth at pre-school several years ago), one of Jessamyn's front teeth had developed and abscess on the gum line above it. The dentist found it during her routine dental visit and suggested that it be removed. Normally a surgical procedure, he felt that it could be done in his office since Jess had been such a good patient during the exam.

JL introduced the subject in a very delicate manner by talking about how our "baby teeth" fall out and how the"tooth fairy" comes to collect them and also by gifting to Jess a tooth fairy friendly teddy bear complete with a tooth pouch in front and money pouch in the back. Jess was very excited to be the first to loose a tooth and get to experience the tooth fairy (as some of her friends already have).

The entire family attended the dentoral ceremony in support of the endearing Jessamyn. When the nurse asked if she was ready, she replied with a very enthusiastic "yes" and marched right up to the dentist's chair, climbed up into it, and laid down like the good little trooper that she is. When asked later about what she remembers, she replied that she went in there, got a Tinker Bell blanket, pillow under her legs, and breathed some "happy gas", and then came out to mommy and daddy.

A vacant space will now dominate the real estate of her smile probably for the next two years.... :(

Jessamyn just moments after emerging from the procedure...

Holding her tooth fairy teddy just after putting her tooth inside it for the "Tooth Fairy"

A stunned face as Jess realized that the money she is to receive from the Tooth Fairy will most likely depreciate 7/8's of it's value due to the current economic crisis unless her parent's and grandparent's generation can turn the economy around in short order....

A stunning little lady will now hide previous tooth filled smiles behind pursed lips for fear of enhancing a self- image of a more rurual heritage

Cute Face #1

Cute Explanation Face #2

Just Plain Cute Face #3

Joey and Jocie at play

Joey dons a "cute" face while explaining to me the massive structure he is building in the waiting room at the dentist's office

Jocie explaining to me the complex relationships and underlying messages within the book "The Hungry Caterpillar"


Not having seen "Indiana Jones", Joey does his best interpretation of what the hero SHOULD look like...

Having failed to fully persuade her audience during the first seminar about her favorite book "The Hungry Caterpillar", Jocie attempts to rebuff her hypothesis with further research...

Jocie tests out some new insight about the current state of the economy through the use of a cash register...

Some thoughtful reflection