My first family photo shoot

Over the weekend I had the honor of shooting photos of my sister, her husband and their daughter. My sister is pregnant with daughter #2, due any day now and wanted some family pictures before the baby gets here. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Linking to iheartfaces "Hey Girl" photo challenge. Be sure to check out the others!

Back at it

I started the year off strong participating in Project 52 and Project 365. And then I got burnt out. Or more accurately, I struggled to keep everything going and something had to give. I've still been taking lots of pictures, just not participating in the blog links or being as diligent to take photos everyday. But I'm so thrilled that I've kept my resolution to keep my camera with me. Yes, it makes my purse heavy and I have to be more careful about keeping it with me but there have already been so many times that I know I would have missed a great shot if I hadn't had it handy.


After several busy weeks this past Sunday was finally back to the routine. Church, errrands, cleaning/laundry, homework, Sunday dinner with dessert and a little relaxation. I captured this photo in the garden center at Home Depot. 

I love it so much that I think I'll plan a time to actually go shoot there. The colors are fantastic, the natural lighting is great, and it's a free location. Win, win, win!


Linking up with:
 
Check out all the other great photos linked up there!

Happiness

I'm blessed to have a wonderful backyard with a great playset that the kids like to play on. I've recently realized that I'm super blessed that the sun sets in the backyard so I get awesome light in the late afternoon. The other day when the kids were playing I grabbed the camera to play around a little bit on my own.


My youngest, who never sits still long enough for a good photo and rarely ever has a natural smile when I do get him to sit still actually posed for this one:

I don't know who looked happier with this, him or me!

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

Cheesy Chicken Pinterest Pasta

Given how hectic and chaotic our family life is I make a point of going to Dinner Done once a month to stock up on freezer meals. I love that I can prep 12-15 meals in under 2 hours and not have to do any of the clean-up. But every now and then I run out of meals before the end of the month. That's exactly what happened this week.


I used to cook a lot. I had a pretty good rotation of meals and was able to try out a new recipe or two each week as well. But since I've started doing freezer meals I feel like I can't put something together on the fly like I used to be able to. Thankfully today was another day saved by Pinterest!

Source: skiptomylou.org via Aimee on Pinterest

I saw this recipe today and knew that with a few simple additions and modifications based on what I had on hand it would become a family favorite. And I was right!

I added some boneless, skinless chicken thighs for some extra protein.

 And ricotta cheese in place of the heavy cream since that's what I had.

I also put mine under the broiler to brown the cheese rather than just in the oven to melt.

It was super hot {I didn't love this picture but I captured the steam so I had to include it!} and super yummy. Definitely a hit.

So good that I wrote it all down so that we can have it again.


Enjoy!
 

Affirmation

Just a quick post to share one of my favorite scriptures. It's a passage that has come to mean a lot to me, so I made this little graphic and saved it to my iPhone as my lock screen wallpaper. Now every time I use my phone I'm reminded that...

Thank goodness for that New Year's resolution!

I got a digital SLR camera shortly before Christmas. I knew that if I was going to spend that much on a camera that I was going to need to learn how to really use it and also figure out a way to carry it with me often. I knew that I didn't want to miss out on opportunities to use this great camera just because I didn't have it with me. So for Christmas hubby bought me The Roma camera bag by Ona so that I could keep my camera in my purse.  

I saw this hot air balloon as we were leaving our neighborhood on the way to school this morning. I pulled over to take this picture. If I hadn't made the resolution to carry my camera with me everyday i would have missed it.

I took a few moments to get the shots of the red hot air balloon from the school parking lot after I had walked the kids into school. Yes, carrying my camera with me everywhere is a little like going back to the days of lugging around a diaper bag, but today's experience was such a great reminder of why it's probably the best photography tip I've learned.

View from the playset fort

Last summer we bought a huge playset for the kids. I love how much they play out there. I also love that I can sit in the fort and get a great view of the ranch behind our house. 

Yesterday the cows were out for the first time in a long time.

I think I could sit out there and watch them graze for hours. What a nice peaceful start to the weekend.

Valentine's Day

I think it was about a year ago that I first learned about Pinterest. Or maybe it was about a year ago that I first became obsessed with reading blogs. In any event, I remember being SO excited for Valentine's Day so that I could be one of those Mom's who had it together enough for cute custom Valentine's cards {not that there is anything wrong with standard store-bought Valentine's cards}. 

My daughter went with this design:

Source: images.search.yahoo.com via Michelle on Pinterest

The boys went with this design:

Source: designmom.com via Cassaundra on Pinterest

So with another year of Pinterest and blog obsession under my belt I was ready to do it again. Here are the boys' Valentine's cards this year:

 

My daughter is still on the fence but we'll make her cards this weekend. Paired with a little goodie bag and I've convinced myself I'm Super Mom once again!

Project 365 -- Week 5

I struggled this week, a lot. I'm cheating by posting a couple photos that I took today. Shoot me :)


I have a better game plan for this week. Let's see how that goes, shall we?

My daughter recently started playing volleyball. She loves it, and I love that she loves it. She's very athletic and as a former coach I'm happy that she can add volleyball to her sports rotation. 

My youngest always falls asleep downstairs. We tried bedtime routines but it's honestly easier on everyone to just let him fall asleep downstairs. This night Roxy shared the couch with him.

End of practice huddle for my daughter's softball team.

This beauty was showing off at my parents' house.  

Each year we make our own Valentine's Day cards for the kids to pass out. This has gotten so much easier thanks to Pinterest! This is a preview of the boys' cards. I'll post the finished product later this week. 

Saturday night our local Chick-fil-A hosted Mother Son Date Knight. I took my middle son and we had so much fun. It was a fun event that really was designed just to be an opportunity to spend a little one-on-one time with each other. A big thank you to Chick-fil-A.


As always, linking up with

January Calendar Page -- Hope in Action Album

In November I bought a new camera. A Canon EOS Rebel T3 DSLR. A real camera. A big girl photographer as my middle son likes to call it. I've been wanting to kick-up my photography for awhile and I knew that I wouldn't regret the purchase. But I also knew that I needed to commit to really learning how to use the camera and to use it A LOT. 


I've been working hard on sticking to Project 365 and Project 52. Truth be told, the last week has been rough and I haven't really been on the ball. Although it kind of defeats the purpose a little I do plan on catching up on my photography tomorrow. Hey, I have 3 young kids, work full-time, and have a 45 minute commute one way so sometimes something's gotta give. This week it was the photography.


I was able to finish up my January Hope in Action summary page. 

I'll post the weekly pages once I get this past week all filled in.


Hope your February is off to a great start!

Miscellaneous Printables

Thanks to all who might be visiting from my original blog, Fresh From the Backyard.

Since my focus for this blog is photography, scrapbooking, Creative Memories and graphic design I'm going to move some of my printables over in one big post!

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Subway Art

I love making seasonal artwork to use in my holiday decorating area. I created this printable last year using Creative Memories Storybook Creator. I love how easy this program is! Many people don't think about all the non-picture things they can do with scrapbooking software. This is just one example. I hope you enjoy!