My nephew is going to the Presidential Inauguration!

My nephew Jesse will be going to the presidential inauguration with a large group of boys from the ranch where he works, what an honor! Jesse is a supervisor on a ranch that is dedicated to helping troubled boys. Kids at the ranch work with teams of horses, cattle, one bison and many other animals. They care for the animals and equipment while living at the ranch. Some of the older boys get to participate in rodeos, others drive and ride on hitches in parades. The ranch boys were selected to represent the State of South Dakota in the presidential inauguration parade!

Jesse married Christy this summer in a park at Spearfish, South Dakota. Christy counsels inmates in the state penitentiary to help them to conquer their addictions and return to public life as better people.

My SIL Josie and my niece Angela took the wedding pictures, I assisted by staging the shots and posing our subjects, I also edited some of the pictures using Photo Shop. The neat way to publish and group the shots comes from Jodi over at MCPActions. They are called “Magic Blog It Board” actions. She has a very informative blog. Her tutorials about Photo Shop are easy to follow and are packed with good info. I recently purchased her Portrait Actions and I love them!

Shiloh

My boys have a new best friend. We adopted a three year old boy named Shiloh last Wednesday. We have been visiting the Humane Society, walking dogs and searching for the perfect companion for our family. I finally found Shiloh last week and he is nearly perfect. The people who had him before were forced to give him up by their landlord. They did an awesome job training him. He doesn't jump up, doesn't lick us unless we ask for kisses. He follows commands like a dream. Finally someone in this house obeys!
He is so calm, but loves to play. He gets his baseball and drops it at our feet, if we move away, he picks the ball up and drops it loudly at our feet again and again. I need to get my hands on a video camera. We throw the ball and Shiloh catches it in the air and puts it back in our lap.

He is a sweetheart and a gentleman. We are all in love with our new dog.

These are my great nephews. Baby Dawson brings the number of living family members on my side to 73. That includes my parents, their 8 children and spouses, their children and spouses and their children. Does that make sense at all?

I have been madly cranking out picture Holiday greeting cards for the last week for both sides of my family.

I made this card for my MIL. That's me and my immediate family on the right. I may have removed a chin or two from my face and inches from other areas. I love Photo Shop.

These are my husbands paternal grandparents. This is their first ever photo greeting card. Grandpa and Grandma didn't have a portrait made this year so I made them one out of the photo below which was taken at my SIL's fall wedding.

I ditched the bride, no offence Dawn, and put Grandma and Grandpa side by side. Then I did a little work on Grandmas age lines. She loved the portrait and wanted cards made!

Can you tell I like black backgrounds?

This lady appears on The Tonite Show. Please be aware that the content and language of this video is not appropriate for children. Play it at your own risk.

Incredible animal footage!

Wow!

Pioneer Woman Contest!

Go here to leave a comment and get registered to win a $250 gift cert. over at Pioneer Woman.

Today I got some new toys to use in PhotoShop. Below are some before and after shots of Tielyr.

Can you see the difference?