I am still working on editing Valerie's pictures and I think I will be done in another day or two. This picture is one that my mom picked out as one of her favorites. She said she likes Valerie's face expression and how Kevin is slightly in the background holding her like he is there supporting her. I have to say Valerie does look confident, happy, and peaceful. Because this was not her wedding day, but her temple endowment sealing, it wasn't about all the fluff. I think the simplicity of no jewelry or veil adds to that feeling of focusing on what is most important. This day she was only focused on preparing for the temple, and wasn't focused on all the little things in life that don't matter.
I know both these pictures look the exact same, and it's hard to tell the difference, but if you look closely you can see that I added a linen texture to the background in the top picture. It was my first time trying it out. I layered a picture of linen fabric on top of this picture, under lay options, I selected overlay, and then I erased out Kevin and Valerie, leaving it on just the background. I want to play around with this technique some more.
She was the firstborn granchild in our family. She claims she must be grandma's favorite because there are more pictures of her around the house than any other grandchild. Yes, she was definitely doted on as a baby. I still remember seeing her for the first time. She was one month old. I was 11 years old and I had to fight with my little 4 year old sister for a turn to hold her. We were all surprised by her strawberry blonde hair. It has stayed a beautiful color, and paired with her blue eyes and long legs I'm sure she's breaking many hearts up in Idaho where she's attending college.
