First Year Photos

My big, big boy is turning one. In just over a week.

It is so hard to believe.

The time really does fly by.

The party planning has taken place, and now it is time to think about the photography. That's right. Kid is going to have a first birthday photo shoot with his mama.

Sorry, kid, we won't be paying for some fancy-schancy photographer. Mama's gonna do it.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I have made a board on pinterest, dedicate to the pictures I will be taking with Kid. My only job now is to start looking for the props.

Besides sales at Joann, Michael's, and the Hobby Lobby, do any of you have thoughts on where I can find some cheap props for the photos?

photo credits:

first birthday cheer

mirrors & cake*

balloons in the crib

the ultrasound**

happy birthday to me!

*Help! I could not find the source for this picture. I found it on Pinterest, but the pin doesn't go anywhere. If you know the source, please let me know so I can update and give proper credit!

**This picture is actually of a boy holding the ultrasound picture of his little brother. My thought is to have Kid hold his own ultrasound picture. Then, when he turns 2, we will take a picture of him holding this picture form his first birthday. Doesn't that sound fun!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

I'm kind of a last minute person. A procrastinator, if you will. In my college days, I'd start papers the night before they were due. Projects, too. I could stay up for hours, work on said paper or project, get an hour or two of sleep and be up for class at 8am.

Who am I kidding? I never took a class that started at 8 in the morning!

Let's get to the point.

This year, I did the same thing with Christmas cards. Luckily, I order my cards through Target or Costco. Next day service. I don't have time to wait around for other companies to send me my cards a week later. Not how I work.

This year, Costco was my place of choice. I just needed to have some pictures to use.

Before Kid joined us, the hubs and I would pose for pictures, and would include a snapshot of the pup. This year, though, I no longer have to be in the card (woo hoo!). We had a photo session set up with a professional photographer (okay, the JCPenny studio...through Groupon), but the husband was extremely sick and we had to cancel. With no time to reschedule, I had to take the pictures myself (gasp!).

Have no fear. We have since rescheduled our Groupon photo shoot.

Check. It. Out.

Do you see what I see?

That's right. A camera battery that is being charged! I found one of two missing battery chargers. This one was at my place of employment, hiding under a stack of papers that was covering a stack of books. Whoops.

I'm SO relieved that I found it for two reasons.

1. iPhone pictures are only so good.

2. My best buddy is getting married in a couple of weeks, and her bachelorette party is tonight.

Can we say "perfect timing?"

Camera Problem

I have a major camera dilemma. You see, I have two cameras. One is a point-and-shoot, the other is a DSLR. I love them both. My problem is not that I have two cameras.

My problem, my friends, is that their batteries are dead. And I have no idea where either charger is... uh oh!

I probably need to clean, huh?

Culinary (?) Creations

I'm not positive that these creations can truly be called culinary. Especially since I threw one out after one bite (it was gross!).

The first creation was Stone Soup. This is something we make in Kindergarten the week of Thanksgiving every year. I thought the Stone Soup tasted horrible, so I worked on it a little bit at home. It didn't get much better, and I'll have to give it another go shortly. It looked decent enough, the taste just wasn't up to par.

I made two batches, one with gluten-free vegetable stock (top), the other with chicken stock. Both looked pretty, but landed in the trash can mere minutes after being done.  Oh well!

The next creation was one of my all time favorite, super easy dinners. Hobo dinners!  I LOVE them, and they are SO simple to make. I involved Mr. Husband in this dinner, since I felt overwhelmed with life that day. He was a gem and chopped all of the vegetables while I mixed Lawry's super yummy seasoned salt into the ground beef.  He did a fantastic job.

 As you can see, I also use my cooking time as an "experiment with photography" time. Look how quickly his hand is moving while chopping the mushrooms!

Anyway, a hobo dinner (well, our hobo dinners this time) included mushrooms, carrots, green pepper and onion for the vegetables. I don't care for the texture of having an onion in my mouth, but they definitely need to be included in the cooking process to bring out all of the delightful flavors... So, if you're like me and despise onion, include them anyway and pick around them while eating.

We also boiled potatoes as a yummy way to serve the meal.  It was delicious!!

And to the right is the product before being wrapped up and heading into the oven. The ground beef is hiding under all of the vegetable goodness! We double wrap them in tin foil and place them on a cookie sheet.  I stick them in the oven at 350, then check them after 25 minutes to see how the beef is holding up.  YUMMY!