Fall Family Session

Funny how God provides. Well not really funny, because he does it all the time, but I often forget…and doubt…and worry…and get super anxious.

When we decided last month that I would stay home a little while longer to take care of our baby girl, the scariest thing was coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be receiving a regular paycheck for several months. But I just truly, truly felt that this is what I was supposed to do, and have hoped and prayed that the details would fall into place as the months progress.

I still don't quite know what that means yet, but I do know that it sure was a confidence booster and an answer to prayer when some fellow Texan cousins wrote me asking me to take their family pictures. Not only do I adore this family, but they also offered to drive to me, versus me having to leave the baby all day. So I got to do their session, and then got to enjoy their company for a little while longer at dinner!

Sidenote…there was us and our two kids (one of whom is a really loud, boisterous five-year old, and one who is mostly calm but can wake up hungry and squealing sometimes), and my cousin and his wife and their two kids (a two year old and a four year old), and my dad. Poor guy. So you can imagine...we're "that table." My cousin and his wife were probably exhausted from trying to corral the kids for a successful family photo session (always more stressful for the parents than the photographer), and I was rocking the carseat with one hand and eating with the other, hoping the baby didn't wake up. But, during the middle of our meal, a nice older couple stopped at our table on the way out and said they just wanted to commend us on our parenting, and tell us that we had wonderful kids. Who does that?? We all already knew that of course, but sometimes you wonder if other people see it amidst the hyperactivity and dirt and chaos that is kids. :)

Was so sweet, and just another little bit of encouragement for this tired, anxiety-prone mom.

Here are the pics…I think they turned out beautifully. We seemed to really catch the best of fall in Texas!

This set makes me laugh…I read somewhere that the best philosophy for parents during family pictures is similar to that old saying for kids: "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit." Meaning, if your kids are being silly, or won't smile, or are making goofy faces…whatever…it's ok. Sometimes you get the pictures that you most love, or that most remind you of that stage in your kids'  lives. And that's a win.Now to relax and let off steam at the playground. :)

I LOVED getting to see you guys, and am so appreciative that you thought of me and entrusted me with your pictures! I hope you love them!

Fall Family Session

Funny how God provides. Well not really funny, because he does it all the time, but I often forget…and doubt…and worry…and get super anxious.

When we decided last month that I would stay home a little while longer to take care of our baby girl, the scariest thing was coming to terms with the fact that I wouldn't be receiving a regular paycheck for several months. But I just truly, truly felt that this is what I was supposed to do, and have hoped and prayed that the details would fall into place as the months progress.

I still don't quite know what that means yet, but I do know that it sure was a confidence booster and an answer to prayer when some fellow Texan cousins wrote me asking me to take their family pictures. Not only do I adore this family, but they also offered to drive to me, versus me having to leave the baby all day. So I got to do their session, and then got to enjoy their company for a little while longer at dinner!

Sidenote…there was us and our two kids (one of whom is a really loud, boisterous five-year old, and one who is mostly calm but can wake up hungry and squealing sometimes), and my cousin and his wife and their two kids (a two year old and a four year old), and my dad. Poor guy. So you can imagine...we're "that table." My cousin and his wife were probably exhausted from trying to corral the kids for a successful family photo session (always more stressful for the parents than the photographer), and I was rocking the carseat with one hand and eating with the other, hoping the baby didn't wake up. But, during the middle of our meal, a nice older couple stopped at our table on the way out and said they just wanted to commend us on our parenting, and tell us that we had wonderful kids. Who does that?? We all already knew that of course, but sometimes you wonder if other people see it amidst the hyperactivity and dirt and chaos that is kids. :)

Was so sweet, and just another little bit of encouragement for this tired, anxiety-prone mom.

Here are the pics…I think they turned out beautifully. We seemed to really catch the best of fall in Texas!

This set makes me laugh…I read somewhere that the best philosophy for parents during family pictures is similar to that old saying for kids: "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit." Meaning, if your kids are being silly, or won't smile, or are making goofy faces…whatever…it's ok. Sometimes you get the pictures that you most love, or that most remind you of that stage in your kids'  lives. And that's a win.Now to relax and let off steam at the playground. :)

I LOVED getting to see you guys, and am so appreciative that you thought of me and entrusted me with your pictures! I hope you love them!

Grinch Kabobs, and Postpartum Reflections on Blogging

Running with the theme from my last rambling here, I am going to try and not send a post out to never never land just so I can say I've done x-number of posts a week.  I promise (to myself, mostly) to only post things that are important to me, things that we as a family enjoyed, things that I want to share because I think YOU will like them. I also might post my thoughts, and pretty pictures. :) Deal? So here is the last post I did on my other blog, and I wanted to share it here, because I know so many of you reading this are my family and friends, and you are like-minded in your love for the holidays and your love for kids!

I might periodically continue to share things on this site that are from Sugar and Grace. The posts will simply be pulled from there as is. I do this so that I can transfer my favorite recipes/kid ideas/etc. onto this site.

Well hey. I am still not quite sure what to do with this little site here. A lot has happened since I last shared anything!

We found out we were expecting in January, and it just completely threw me for a loop. And not in a bad way! We had been hoping to add to our family for the longest time, but this was my first pregnancy and I just didn't expect all the mental and emotional stuff that came with it.  I pretty much lost all desire to blog…I didn't even hardly pick up my camera for 9 months.  I had zero motivation to write about food; heck, for the first trimester I couldn't even look at my blog. Anything that I had made in recent days completely turned my stomach. I still to this day can't really stomach smoothies.

And it was the greatest 9 months ever! I didn't do ANYTHING at home except spend time with my family and read books. It was pretty fabulous. I just didn't care! I didn't care how many page views I got; I didn't stress about trying to cook and photograph meals all before my son's bedtime;  I didn't worry about having the "suggested" number of posts for the week/month/etc. And the world kept spinning. It was eye-opening, and refreshing, and utter bliss.

This is not to say I don't enjoy it, or try really hard at this blogging stuff. It doesn't mean I don't appreciate SO much anyone that actually takes the time to read what I babble about. But I realized that this blog was not my life (it's not even my job, unfortunately), and I got to enjoy this time with my family as a lazy pregnant lady. Well I still got up and went to work every day, but the evenings were the best. No muss, no fuss; no stress, no rushing around. Just dinner and hanging out. And reading. I read a TON of books while pregnant.

So our baby girl is two months now, and I am definitely still not not cooking or photographing anything new…and can't say that I've developed the desire to do so yet. I'm just trying to keep my head above water with two kiddos. But my mom mentioned this super cute Christmas gift, and when she showed it to me I told her we were wayyy ahead of her. We had done it last year; I just never got around to sharing it! So I thought maybe I could at least do that…share some of the stuff we did last Christmas. Because we did a bunch! Don't know if I'll ever have that much energy again! But I've got two precious, healthy kids and I'll take that any day. :)

Grinch Kabobs

INGREDIENTS:

Strawberries

Green grapes

Mini marshmallows

Bananas

Skewers

DIRECTIONS:

Really not much too this. Slice bananas into semi-thick slices (if they're too thin they will break when you try to skewer them), then start assembling.

First a grape, then a banana slice, then a strawberry, then a marshmallow.

This is so easy for kids, and a healthy snack. And kids love to eat anything off a stick!