Baby Bennett

This little guy is two weeks old! He was so good even though we were jostling him around during his nap time :)  Some day I'll figure out all the baby photography tricks, because believe me positioning them is tough!!!

If you're wondering what is on his finger, it's a blood blister. He made a habbit of sucking on his finger while in utero and came out with the blood blister when he was born!

Hehe Toes!

 This was the only picture he opened his eyes for!!

I love the little shoes and his scrunched up face!

I hope you enjoyed baby Bennett! He's a sweet baby.

Fun Stumbleupon Finds

Here is a fun link. You can draw pictures and it makes a spiderweb effect. Try it out.

This is a cool video of drawings of Parkour. According oto Wikipedia: Parkour (sometimes abbreviated PK) is a discipline that deals with ways to get from one place to another. Parkour is non competitive. Originating in France, its main purpose is to traverse mainly urban landscapes by running, climbing and jumping. Participants move along a route, attempting to navigate obstacles in the most efficient way possible, using only their bodies. Skills such as vaulting, rolling, swinging and wall scaling are employed. Parkour can be practiced anywhere, but areas dense with obstacles are preferable. 
If you saw Casino Royale, this amazing chase scene ws done Parkour style :)

This is a 4 and a half minute video of a guy painting a forest and it's pretty cool. At the end when everything came together I was like WOAH. Ya know if you like watching people paint.

These pictures Totally cracked me up! They took inanimate objects and made them look like they are doing funny things.

And here is a tutorial for you crafty people. These bookmarks are soo cute!! (And I don't usually like bookmarks. Maybe I would use one if I had made this.)


Hope you liked my stumbleupon finds :)

OKC Kid's Photo Shoot #3 of 3

Here is the last of the Oklahoma City Kid Photo Shoot! I hope you like them.

They were so fun to take and edit!

All of these babies are hilarious!

Toes!!!

I like this soft picture of Faith. She looks like an angel.

In this picture I wanted to wash out a lot of it to bring attention to those big beautiful eyes!!! I love it!

Ohhh, some photos just look better in black and white. This is one where you see it and your eyes pop out! Harper is beeeaaautiful!

I think Janice's expression here is priceless! She's been smiling so long it's turned into a grimace. Doesn't she remind you of Shirley Temple here?

Classic. I Love how all the kids are doing their own thing. There are so many  little things that makes this photo funny!

I look a bunch of shots of the kids sitting on the bricks and this was too funny! I love the little story tells! I crack up every time I look at it.

Mariah is just such a good subject!

This is Faith and her sister Mercedes' feet. I wanted to show the progression of a picture, not just as the photo itself fades through time but also that time of life and the memory of it.

This is Summer with her two girls. They did NOT want to sit still, but that just makes the photo more representative of real life!

Thank you to all the ladies and their kids for letting me take photos of all of you! I truly enjoyed it!

OKC Kid Pics #2

Here are a few more pics. I'm still not done with them all but hopefully you'll forgive me when you see what I've done.

Cute Emily! She liked the bubbles!

And so did Jovie!

Braylee is so funny!

I think Jovie was actually crying in this picture but it kind of looks like she's laughing!!

Oh Mariah, She always has the most expressive face. I love it!

Okie Dokie... This is the first collage of everyone.

And this is the second collage. I hope you like it. I took a long time! It was something new and interesting to try, so even if it is kind of strange it was worth it!

Phenergan and Tornadoes

Today has been pretty uneventful. I was in bed pretty much all day (except for going to the bathroom and warming some soup to eat).

Two days ago I got pretty sick and had to go to the emergency room. Yeah not fun! I'm grateful and all because it helped me to get better, kind of.  Just FYI if you Ever need to go to the ER don't forget thick socks, a sweater and a really warm blanket. It was Freezing!! We brought a blanket and I was still shivering. My poor husband didn't have anything to warm him!

Ok next thing, I have gotten sick like this a few times this summer and every time I've gotten  a shot of phenergan which is anti-nausea medication. I didn't know I had any other options, and after I got the medication in the ER this time I had my usual rection to it. Here's how it feels to me: I felt literally like I was going mad. Like millions of bugs were crawling inside of me and I couldn't sit still. I kept thrashing around, convulsing, trying to make it go away.

Here's what I found online:

Phenergan side effects

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat. Stop using Phenergan and call your doctor at once if you have any of these serious side effects:

• twitching, or uncontrollable movements of your eyes, lips, tongue, face, arms, or legs;
• tremor (uncontrolled shaking), drooling, trouble swallowing, problems with balance or walking;
• feeling restless, jittery, or agitated;
• high fever, stiff muscles, confusion, sweating, fast or uneven heartbeats, rapid breathing;
• feeling like you might pass out;
• seizure (convulsions);
• pale skin, easy bruising or bleeding, fever, sore throat, flu symptoms;
• decreased night vision, tunnel vision, watery eyes, increased sensitivity to light;
• hallucinations, agitation;
• nausea and stomach pain, skin rash, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes);
• urinating less than usual or not at all;
• joint pain or swelling with fever, swollen glands, muscle aches, chest pain, vomiting, unusual thoughts or behavior, and patchy skin color; or
• slow heart rate, weak pulse, fainting, slow breathing (breathing may stop).

Yeah, Sounds familiar right?

My nurse came in and I told her what was going on. She said that I was having a reaction, she told me the name of it but I can't remember now.  She said NEVER TAKE PHENERGAN AGAIN! She said it over and over again so it would stick I guess.   Then they gave me very nice nausea medication that taskes like candy and dissolves in my mouth. How blessed this new medication is!

(Don't let the pretty butterfly fool you!)



Anyways, I feel much better today. I've just been taking it easy.   A little while ago I was just on FB browsing around when all of a sudden this piercing beeping goes off and makes me almost have a heart attack! My husband is at work and since there was a tornado warning a little earlier in the summer I thought "I wonder if this is a tornado warning!"

I was only in my underwear so I scrambled to put on some clothes and I thought "What should I take? Where are my keys? I should take my camera. I don't want the tornado to take it!" Talk about an emergency situation. The beeping went off a minute after it started. I have No Idea why it went off. I actually think it was the fire alarm, because I called one of the girls in the apartment complex to see if her tornado alarm was going off too. I felt very silly when I called because my heart was hammering in my chest and I could barely talk rationally, plus she was as calm as could be so I knew right off that there was no tornado.

That about wraps up my fun day!  Hope yours was joyful as well.

OKC Kid's Photo Shoot

There are a bunch of wives out here and a lot of them have kids, so I did a group photo shoot with them today! It was pretty crazy with all the kids running around doing their own thing. This is the most people I've done at one time and I think it went well. I didn't get many group pictures with everyone together but that's okay. The compilation is great.

I love this photo. It shows the chaos in such a beautiful way. Mariah's expression is amazing!

Which is why I did this one too:

I love the colors and her face!  

 I like doing little collages because of the many cute photos that go together.

I can't pick, I like them all! These sweet girls just wanted their mommas!

Jovie was having a rough time this morning but I managed to snag a few good shots!

Poor Kaiden. There are about 15 kids here and he is the ONLY boy! He is sooo sweet though. He doesn't mind playing with the girls!

This is cute Emily. I like the composition of this picture.

Ohhh Mercedes... haha. She's great, she just doesn't like to stay still. That's okay though. 

Cute little Brailey (I hope that's how you spell it). Every time I see her I just want to squeeze her and kiss her cheeks. It's so chubby good!

McKenna and Harper. Harper didn't like sitting too much, so I'm glad I could get these shots of her and her mom together! 

 Oh my wow. Halle is one of the most gorgeous, photogenic children I know! She is so sweet!

Yay! Kaiden again, with his sister Kali! They are such good siblings. You know they love each other, they are adorable!

 Okay, some of my favorites! Janice and her little sister Emily. The expressions Janice makes are hilarious! I crack up every time I see them (esp the top left pic!)

 Mercedes again! I've gotten some great action shots from her.

I saved this one for the finally of this blog. I start laughing so hard every time I see this picture! You can just imagine the dialogue in your head. 

-Can I play with you?

Thanks for looking at my blog. It's been really fun for me. These are only a few of the photos I took. I'm actually only done editing half of them!  I'll post some more great ones when I'm done with them. Stay tuned!  I hope you have a fantastic day!

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons

I just read this book and LOVED it, so I thought I would share :)

It is based on a folktale in Iran about a girl whose family lives in poverty. She decides to do something to change that even though it was impropper for a woman to think about doing a "man's job."

PLUS there's a little romance. I don't want to give anything away, but it just makes my heart

pitter patter at how sweet it is!

Loved this book. If you want to read something new, pick it up.

FYI: It's only 215ish pages.

Summer Tan

Since I've been in Oklahoma and it's frequently been around 100 degrees outside, I've been getting this Awesome tan! Then today my husband says, "You're peeling a little on your back."

And what color is the skin underneath??!

WHITE.

it's so sad.

Plus I keep wearing different swimsuits out to the pool so I have some pretty funny tanlines! (But I won't show you those :)

Caramel and Filberts Anyone?

Did you know that Hazelnut is another name for Filbert? It's true. Have you ever gotten Hazelnuts? I haven't until recently. Before this all I knew about hazelnuts is that they taste Great with chocolate!
This is what Hazelnuts, or Filberts, look like:

I love making caramel. I eat WAY too much of this stuff. I make it a few times a week (shh don't tell!) Caramel is so ridiculously easy and fast to make, and it requires only a few ingredients! (at least the way I make it). I like putting nuts in because that makes it more exciting. For this batch I put in hazelnuts!

It is very impotant to prep everything Before you start making the caramel because it goes really quickly when you start and you won't have time to prep as you go.

Ingredients:
Butter
Salt
Honey
Nuts

1. Toast the hazelnuts on the stovetop. You could also do it in the oven but sometimes I forget them and they come out black and ruined. (*Sad Face) PS:You could use whatever nut you want. I love this with pecans also.

Toasting hazelnuts are very important because it brings out that decicious flavor that everyone loves. If you dont toast them they don't really take like "hazelnut."

2. Chop the nuts. I like doing it in my little food processor because it's fast! But by hand is good too.

3. Set out your Parchment paper. It MUST be parchment. NOT wax, NOT sandwich. Parchment. When the caramel cools it peels Right off the parchment paper- and just sticks to the others.

4. Now for actually making caramel: Stick some butter in a pot. I put about 2 Tablespoons.  Melt the butter completely. I also like putting some salt in because who doens't like sweet and salty? I would put a little in now.

5. Next pour in the honey. I don't measure, just eyeball it, but I would say 1/2 cup of honey sounds about right.

6. Stir the liquid continuously. It will bubble up and at first will be pale yellow. It will gradually get darker and darker as you keep it on the heat.

7. I put the nuts in when it's a nice golden color, just stir them around a few times to coat them with the caramel. Make sure you don't keep the caramel on the stove too long after this point because it can turn dark brown FAST, which means it's burning.

8. Right after I put the nuts in I take the pot off the stove and pour out the mixture on the parchment paper!

9. You could leave it on the counter to cool, but putting it in the refrigerator makes it harden a lot faster.

 10. When it's cooled all the way take it out and either break the pieces apart or cut them with kitchen scissors. The less time you keep the caramel on the stove, the softer it will be, and the longer the harder it will be. Play around with it to see what consistency you like. Oh, and this is great for caramel popcorn! Just omit the nuts.

Enjoy your caramel everyone!