Another Birthday Girl!!

This time it's Happy Birthday to the little Bean!!

2 years ago, I got to experience the joy of another little bundle of love. GraceE joined our family today & we're so blessed. She is a ball of fire & keeps everyone on their toes (literally, because you never know when you'll be run over, ran into or otherwise beat up, yup, she's the middle child & exhibits every characteristic you've ever read of middle children). She's got a soft side though, under her Wild Women, Evil Kanevil exterior. Sweet as sugar, which just happens to be her favorite side dish (if only we indulged her every wish). 

Here's a look back at the last couple of years:

Happy Birth Day Baby Girl:

 First Mommy Portraits:

 A drama queen from the start:

Happy 1st birthday, celebrated with piggie tails & pretty cake:

 (are you seeing a trend yet?!? Notice the unruley hair & wild eyes, haha)

And more recently, through year 2:

 See, still into the over reactive drama:

Yes, that's an I'm pretending to pout & trying super hard not to smile face.

 Happy Birthday, Crazy GraceE Bean!!  We Love you!!
 

Thursdays Top 10

It's been a while since I've done a T's 10.
Today I'm linking you up to 10 websites &/or blogs you should check out.

1. Facebook--become a fan here.  It's a great social networking tool. I look forward to 'seeing' you all there.

2. Sweet Shoppe Designs -- some of THE best digital scrapbooking designers make this their home, an amazing communtiy & inspiring gallery.

3. Pinterest -- a gigantic melting pot of inspiration & ideas, this will suck you in.
 You can follow or repin gorgeous photos like this, think of it as a huge 'clipboard for magazine clippings & inspiration you'd find IRL.

This is NOT my photo, I am not taking credit, nor claiming it in any way. It is very beautiful & inspiring though. Original photo was pinned from: 

http://curbly.com/diy-maven/posts/4901-easy-citus-slices-flower-arrangement and it appears to originally be from BHG.

4. Pandora -- nothing like customized 'radio' stations to make the hours tick off a little sweeter.

5. A Bowl Full of Lemons -- this blog makes you want to clean something out & make it look pretty.

6. Make It & Love it -- I'm currently in love with crafty blogs, they go right along with my brainstorm.

7. Sweetest Kitchen -- another favorite thing to search, recipes. I love trying new recipes. This one has some goodies.

8. Etsy -- all the handmade, vintage goodness you could lay eyes on. Oh. my. Goodness. I could spend a lot of money here.

9. Blogger -- I check in here several times a day, following other bloggers. I also run both my Photo Blog (you're already here)  & Scrap blog from here.

10. Amanda Pratt Photography -- of course, how could I run a Top 10 websites & not send you on over there.  I'll be updating the Portfolio pages in the next couple of days, this will be one of the new additions there.

Happy Birthday to my Little Bug

I can not believe how fast the last 4 years have gone.

Today, my little Anna Bugs, turns 4 years old. It can't be, it just can't be!?! Not only is she having a birthday, but she's also growing into quite the little sassy lady. Goodness, teenage years are going to be... a trial for sure.
 She is changing & becoming more of a 'kid' and out of the toddler/little kid stage. It's a happy & sad time. She's a great helper & when she's not throwing her attitude around she's so much fun.
Here's a little look through the years:

Little Miss'  BirthDay:

 And her first 'portrait':

 

For her first birthday:

 Every princess must enjoy pink & purple cake on their birthday:

And at 2 years old:

 then there was 3, with a special lunch date & very first flowers from daddy:

 

& now she's growing up...4 (going on 19):

Happy Birthday my little Cowgirl!!!  We love you.
 

Just a Minute Monday

I thought this would be a fun little post to have once a month or so, we'll see how it works out. Writing a post in less than 1 minute.

I'm excited to see what the rest of this month has in store for me. So far there's been some growth!! Yay, for focus!

Here is a photo that I took in-between moving locations on Saturday afternoon. On our way from lakeside to the entrance we came across a herd of deer, not just any herd though...it was 6 bucks. 

This was my favorite capture. Enjoy!

{Sneak Peek} Scharer Family, Montague, Portrait Photographer

I'm back tonight with a sneak peek !!
I've been super busy this weekend working on several different projects, I was hoping to get this up earlier today, but time escaped me & it's a little bit later than I had hoped.

I am so excited to show off this session. This session was beautiful, I know, it's winter & everything is drab, but that didn't stop us from getting some amazing images.

Nadia won a session over on my Facebook Fan page, celebrating the New Year. If you're not a fan already, I highly recommend it, you never know when a special or session opportunity will arise.

 

Isn't this the cutest.thing. ever!?!  I love this!

 Finally captured that sweet & shy smile. Sometimes it takes a little silly stuff & lots of playing (& work), but its so worth it. I just love capturing the little people (and their parents too). They are precious.

 

Thank you guys for a wonderful session. I'll be seeing you soon, can't wait to show you your entire proof set.

February Specials

Here are your February Specials (but you can always find them on the left-sidebar):

 

Full sessions in February are only $100. 

Book a Valentine Mini-Session, which includes 25 custom Valentines for just $40.

Reserve your session today by calling or dropping me an email.

Tasty Tuesday-Balsamic Chicken & Whole Wheat Bread

I haven't posted a recipe in a while, so instead of Food Friday this week (not that I keep anything real regular around here, but hey I'm working on it) I'm going to give you a little Tasty Tuesday! 
Previewing a couple of recent recipes I tried out on the family & we loved!

1st on the yummy schedule (aka: we'll be making this one again & again) is this delicious roasted whole chicken. It was easy, delicious, moist & smelled wonderful while it was cooking; most of all healthy. A 3oz serving with sauce, comes to 182 calories.

The recipe comes from Taste of Home Healthy Cooking (which I LOVE getting), Aug/Sept '10, I didn't have everything on hand when I did it so I'll mark my adaptations with an * .

Balsamic Roast Chicken
1 roasting chicken (6 to 7 lbs)
2 Tbls minced fresh rosemary or 2 tsp dried, crushed*
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 medium red onions, chopped*
1/2 cup dry red wine or reduced-sodium chicken broth*
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

Pat chicken dry. In a small bowl combine rosemary, garlic, salt & pepper; rub under the skin of the chicken. Place onions in a shallow roasting pan; top with chicken. Combine wine & balsamic; pour over chicken.
Bake, uncovered, at 350* for 2 1/4 - 2 3/4 hours. Basting occasionally with juices, I set the timer to baste about ever 25 minutes. If chicken starts to brown too quickly, loosly tent with foil. Let stand for 15 minutes before carving. Remove & disgard skin before serving. Pour onion sauce into small bowl, skim fat & serve with chicken.


Thoughts, adaptations & notes:
*Fresh rosemary, I never use an entire container of fresh when I buy it, & I don't have an herb garden yet, maybe someday, so I keep stems in the freezer, they keep pretty well & work just the same.  So yes, I used 'fresh'.
*Onion, I didn't have 2 red onions, in fact I didn't have 2 of any kind of onion. I managed to find about 1/4 of a yellow onion in the bottom of the crisper, so that's all I used, but we really like caramelized onions here, so when I make this again, I'll probably try it with a red/yellow mix.
*Chicken broth/wine, I didn't have either. Seriously when I made this my pantry was slacking seriously. I just threw in 1/2 cup water & 2 bouillon cubes.
*If you know me well, you'll know that I'm NOT a fan of poultry on the bone, for strange odd reasons I'm sure, but this was good & it practically fell off the bones (yay!).
This recipe would work with boneless, skinless breasts too, I'm sure of it, in fact I'll probably be trying it sometime soon.

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Next, I'm going to share a Whole Wheat Bread recipe, again from a Taste of Home Healthy Cooking magazine. This time it's the June/July '10 issue. Throughout this fall & so far mild winter I've been making bread a couple times per month, sometimes a couple times a week. Trying different recipes & styles. This one was YUM-MY!

Whole Wheat Bread
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/4 cups warm water (110*-115*)
1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 Tbls reduced-fat butter, melted
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 to 2 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water*. Add brown sugar, butter, salt, whole wheat flour and 1 cup all-purpose flour. Beat until smooth; stir in enough remaining flour to form a firm dough (will be sticky).  Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a bowl coated with cooking spray, turn once to coat. Cover & let rise for 1 hour. Punch dough down & turn onto floured surface; shape into loaf. Place in a 9x5 inch loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Cover & let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Bake at 375* for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to wire rack for cooling.

Thoughts, adaptations & notes:
*Make sure the water isn't too hot, it will kill the yeast.
*SO yummy. Slightly sweet & just really yummy. I'm pretty sure we ate the entire loaf at one sitting.

Give these a try & then come back to tell me what you think. We're off for a little sunshine therapy with friends this afternoon. Who knows I may even be back later with some new images from our adventures today.

Have a great day.

A Sunshiney January Monday

Does that sound as odd to you as it does me?!  Goodness this weather is so lovely & more than welcome to stay, but alas, I know it won't. I'm pretty sure that every winter we get this tiny glimmer of spring, and it comes crashing down accompanied by snow & rain & wind. Ekkk, the wind & cold.

But in the mean time, I'm just going to pretend like it's here to stay & enjoy every degree and ray of sunshine.

On to a little miscellaneous Monday rambling.

We picked up the girls' birthday present yesterday and they are already smitten with him.

 

I've got to pick up a few things for him while I'm in town today, after my proofing session.  He's a sweet old guy for sure. 

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Speaking of the proofing session, isn't this such a great photo of these two?! 

Can't wait to see which ones they choose. 

And with that I'm off to get things accomplished today.

A Little Adventure

Hey!! I'm back..did you miss me?  Did you even know I was away?!?

We spent this past week on a little family adventure. We left Tuesday morning & drove, for about 7 hours, well not all driving time, but total travel time with stops & all. We went to visit my hubs Gramma, whom we hadn't seen since last December when she moved.

It was a great adventure, full of fun, laughs, too much fast food & all the imaginable stress traveling with 2 toddlers (one who is more like a hurricane) & a baby, packed like sardines into a tiny Ford Focus.

We followed & crossed a couple rivers, drove through huge Redwood trees & visited the ocean.

Klamath River, along HWY 96

 Smith River, along HWY 199

(yes it's actually THAT blue & clear & so gorgeous, someday I will photograph it better, this was just on a quick, grab the kids something to snack on stop)

 A scenic side route through the Redwoods along HWY 101

 A stop in Klamath, to drive through a tree.

 Pacific Ocean at Crescent City

We had absolutely gorgeous weather. Mostly sunny, some light morning fog, slight northern breeze that had a wintry bite, but just perfect otherwise.

We spent a little bit of time playing at parks, walked on the beach looking for shells (we actually found 5 WHOLE sand dollars) & just enjoying our time together. It was a rare treat for us to be able to take off in the middle of the week for several days together.

Miss Anna K -- almost 4

My Little Crazy Grace -- almost 2

Mr Sweet & Handsome, Brody J -- almost 1

We're glad to be home, except for the mountain of laundry that exploded into the laundry room. Thankful for our little adventure & even more thankful that we're back. Top that with the oh so beautiful un-January like weather & I'm a happy, mostly productive momma.

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**Speaking of un-January like weather, according to Mr. Weatherman, it's supposed to be sunny & decent for the rest of the week. Seeing so much sunshine the past few days has made me extra cheery, so for this week only, if you book your $75 January portrait special, you'll also receive a $15 print credit.**