Cookbook - buns

I made my sister a cookbook for her wedding shower called "Secret Family Recipes" full of the classic recipes from our mom and grandma and just some of my own. This is from that. The picture of the buns actually looks a little funny, but the background is Mom's hands forming them. I know people have asked for the bun recipe before, so now I can just direct them to this page.

I'm actually hesitating to post this because it might just supposed to really be a secret recipe. Oh well, I don't have that many readers. And credit goes to Grandma Julie. She always had nice buns. :)

Is it bedtime yet??

You and me both little buddy!
It was a long day with the kiddos. After naps we went to my friend's house to take pictures for her new little man. Yeah, with my kids. And her kids. It could have been much worse, but it still wasn't relaxing! Then shopping with my sister and the "playground" in the mall.  Also, could have been worse, but not really the best way to shop!  Tom only slept in the car so no real naps, but he was sleeping for 20 minutes as we drove home at 8:00, so now he thinks it's playtime. So yeah, this is how I feel too!!

Cali

I cannot believe this is my niece. This makes me feel really old. She's a TEENAGER!

She doesn't get in as many pictures as the little kids, well at least not her face. Her hands and arms are often helping to hold them up, or she's behind the scenes getting them to smile. In fact, she is a tremendous help to all of us Aunties in helping look after and play with the kids. When it's too quiet from your kids for too long, it is so nice to be able to sit back down and relax when you hear "oh Cali's with them!" I guess it's handy having teenagers around.

Check out my mad skillz

I'm probably not supposed to show you this.  It's probably breaking some kind of photographer's code. But as my training was minimal, (and this editing was actually FOR that class) I'm doing it anyway. Rules don't apply to me baby!



Here's my little runaway - do  note this is Jack not Tom. First Tom's not walking, and second, if it was Tom it would be snowy.  We'll try this again in September or so with Tom.
Anyway, this is the before:

And after:

 See, our street is perfect!

Imagine the possibilities for a face full of wrinkles.  ;)

"I need to go play with my engines, mom."

"Do you remember what color James is? James is the Red Engine on Sodor."  Therefore, he is the best.

"Thomas and Percy are best, best friends."

 "Little Toby is going beside the Express." He ran out of room in front, so they're going beside now.

"Big James is pushing Little James's buffers." These guys are buffing gently, but sometimes they "crash and a-bang."

"Where's Bertie gonin? He's gonin to the Sodoh Such E Wes Q Sent Ah." [Sodor Search and Rescue Center] Other popular destinations - Farmer McCoal's Farm, the Water Tower, Knapford Station, Brendam Docks, the Quarry, the Coal Hopper, the Steam Works. But my favorite is the Sodoh Such E Wes Q Sent Ah.

Baby bump

I think maternity pictures are my favorite. Or maybe it's just easy to get a nice picture, the mom is glowing, there's such an interesting shape and they don't tend to run around as much as toddlers.  ;)  And I think this is the last of Kristelle's pictures (so far!).  I'll have to pick on another sister-in-law next...

Happy

Why can't it be summer yet?

This weather is nuts. I don't remember having this much snow at my birthday before. I remember one birthday where I got a new spring coat - blue fleece with florescent yellow and orange. I wanted the one that was mostly florescent yellow but Mom wanted the blue one because she thought I'd get the other too dirty. This is when florescent colors were THE best. Grade 5? I think it was from the SAAN store in Humboldt. I remember Dad flipping a coin to see if I could get the yellow one.  I won, then he said best of 3. I won again. I won like a million times in a row. So eventually they just said no, sorry.  Well the first time I wear this blue coat was my birthday, I go walking with some friends, breaking ice in our rubber boots. Then my feet get stuck, you know how they do sometimes in rubber boots? Both feet are stuck and I fall forward into the muddy water. I was planking before it was cool, up to my elbows in my new coat. Luckily it wasn't florescent yellow, because that mud came out no problem from the sensible blue fleece.

ANYWAY, that's the kind of weather it's supposed to be on my birthday. Rubber boots and fleece coats. Not wind and snow warnings. Maybe next year we can go the other extreme to make up for it?

It's my birthday!

Yes that should be hint to you to leave a comment to me saying happy birthday.  No excuses. ;)

Seth at 2

The update to that sweetie pie post from a little while ago. The only way this guy was smiling was if he was either running around, or getting sprayed with the water bottle, or both! So his hair might be a bit wetter than necessary!

Work it!

Volunteer model

Continuing the with the nephews...Nana and Papa requested a picture of all the grandkids one fall day so we grabbed this:

And it was just SOOOO stinking pretty out that I was desperate to take more pictures, but the little kids had had enough. So Ethan was my volunteer. I wish I could take credit for the poses but they were all him. I wonder if he'll want to recreate them for his high school grad or to give his girlfriend in a few years.  ;)

Baby Luke

Not a real photoshoot, just thought this guy needed his own post.

Attitude is everything

I just saw something really powerful. A photographer giving a lecture on fear. You can watch it too if you want here. It's long though.

She talked about how fear (as commonly used by everyone, but specifically photographers) doesn't really exist. There should be no fear about moving on to a new level, or speaking in front of somebody, or taking people's pictures. She said there are no snakes blocking your way to do it, or bombs going to go off if you don't do it right. There's no fight or flight reasons. So that fear is just self-hate and self-doubt and you can tell that to shut up.

She talked about how you attract what you put out.  Most people's lives are balanced, the same amount of good you get is how much bad you get. If you get very good, then you'll probably have very deep lows too. But it all comes down to your attitude, if you rehash and dwell on the negative, that's what you'll feel like is happening to you more. ("Bad stuff always happens to me") Or people who are "lucky" and always land on their feet, tend to just blow off the bad stuff and remember the good.

I already feel like I'm pretty good at that. I'm very blessed and happy, and bad things happen but I can't remember anything right now to tell you so that must be a good sign.

That really really rings true to me, I know it. And I get really mad when people purposely are making themselves miserable by re-energizing the bad stuff by never letting it go.  She said the most traumatic thing in your life should make you grateful (an earthquake should remind you to be grateful you have your family, even though your house is gone). Then instead of Poor Me-ing, you'll be Thank God-ing.  But I know that if you are a downer person, then reading this or even watching the video won't change that, you'll be thinking of excuses why your story is different, and that the universe really is out to get you. I can't change your tune, but watch the video anyway, maybe she can.

What hit me kinda hard and made me pause it (about 40 minutes in). She said "I don't care if you like my work". And I know it wasn't really the point of her speech. But just that really hit me. I take a lot of pictures, and they're not all great. But some of them I really like. And I really want other people to like them too. But how great would it be if I just took pictures I like and I think are good. I don't usually try and impress people or care what they think about my clothes or life. What if I just took pictures to please myself?

They don't need to win competitions or anything. People can now see what kind of pictures I take and I think are good. If they don't agree, they won't ask me to take pictures for them. And if that happens, I'll be able to take a hint!! But if I like them and am excited by them, that should bounce out into the universe and make other people excited too. And even if not, I'll forget that part, and just remember that I liked them.

Bergerman Family

I was a bit nervous to take pictures for my friend Jody's family as they were going to be indoors, with my flash. But Jody cleared furniture out of the way and took pictures off the wall so we could have the best light and background, and we ended up with some of my favorite shots!

Maternity - Kristelle

Here's that sister-in-law again, though I guess I've only shown you her kids so far. This was my first ever "photoshoot". She was so patient with me, standing in one spot while I fiddled with my camera for 10 minutes for one picture. If nothing else, hopefully I've gotten quicker! 

Fall Family (again)

This sweet family you might recognize from the fall pictures posted earlier. These friends of mine were sweet enough to get me to take pictures 2 years in a row. And now she`s just had her third baby last night so you can expect to see even more of them!