Hello!

Hello friends!

The littlest Cecil decided to pass out at 630 this evening so I decided I better take the time to get caught up on the good old bloggy blog. One of two things is going to happen tonight. Either Charlie is going to sleep until 7 am tomorrow and make mommy very happy or she is going to get up around 3 or 4 and decide to party since she crashed so early tonight. I'm hoping obviously for the first.

I'm several days behind on posting my images for the 365, at least on the blog. So I guess I'll do that first.

Day 25.

Friday night it decided to snow about 2.5/3 inches and I had a date with my amazing cousin to get my hair done Saturday morning at 830. I was praying she wanted to travel to the salon that morning because my hair was in serious need of some help. I was a little sick of the red, my roots were showing and my ends were SPLIT! Anywho, after several text messages in the weeeee early morning we both decided to take our chances with the snow and meet at her shop. I snapped this shot when I parked my car. I love this mural and the snow falling and on the ground made it that much more awesome.  So here is day 25 and here is The Highlands mural! Also, any of my Louisville ladies, if you need your hair done, my cousin is a genius and totally talented. Check her out!  Looks by Lauren

Day 26.
Week 4.

"Black as night, black as coal."

The Rolling Stones

Ok, first of all, my hair is not black. It's more of a chocolate brown. And yeah, I got bangs. I seem to go through a bangs phase every couple of years. I like them.  For now. This image is part of my 52 week project over at The Photographer Within. I'm not really sure what look I was trying to pull off here. I don't really do serious much because I don't think I have a "serious" face. I would rather be smiling. So yeah, there's that.

Day 27.

This was my Monday night. Jealous? Yeah, didn't think so. Charlie cried from the time I brought her home from daycare until she finally went to bed. She was SO tired and nothing I could do would make her happy. She just wanted to play, cry and play, just cry or cling to me and cry. These nights are no fun. I'm glad there aren't many of them. This image may look a little "flashy" because I'm currently doing a On Camera Flash workshop and we're in the process of shooting with direct flash which is something I never do. The results are never really that great unless you know what you're doing. I'm trying to learn what I'm doing instead of using my flash as a paperweight.

Day 28.

This will probably sound crazy, but this is probably one of my favorite images. I'm not sure why. I really like the colors, the eggs look so soft and my cutting board flows nicely with the setup. This was taken at about 5:10pm with a big window directly to the left of the bowl of eggs. I like the way the light is soft and I like that one little spotted egg. Sorry for rambling about eggs. 

Day 29. (I need to stop waiting so long to post these!)

Early morning decisions. Enough said.

Hope everyone is having a great night. I'm about to go curl up under a heated blanket and read a book. I'm on the third book of the Divergent series. I'm trying to read all these books before the movies come out. I think I'm going to read The fault in our stars next. I saw the trailer and it looks like I'll probably cry during that one. Man, I love a good book. I saw online that 33% of people don't read a book after they graduate from high school. This is BAFFLING! I love reading! I hope Charlie picks up on mine and Ryan's love for reading. 

Ok, I'll go now. I hear my Kindle calling my name from the charger. 

Goodnight friends.

xxx

Ryan

xxx

Ryan

Getting caught up on the 365 post.

Hey friends!

My kiddo is knocked out so I figured this was a good time to post a few pictures I'm behind on.

Day 22.

In memory of a fellow Sailor and one of the funniest, nicest, and greatest men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I'm so blessed that he was in my life for 4 short years.  My husbands grandfather, Grant. aka. Paps.

Day 23.

I was feeling rather un-inspired on Thursday night, plus I was SUPER tired. Ryan came into the living room and said that I should take a picture of his cool vintage Miller Lite can. Bam. There's day 23.

Day 24.

Hubs got his deer back from mounting today. Another one added to the wall. Glad we have a deer room now so these aren't hanging in my living room!

Not too much to say tonight. Have to get up early tomorrow to go get my hair done! This mop is a mess! I'll post pictures after. We're also going to the boat show and then to Mike Linnigs since it opened back up yesterday.

Hope everyone has a great night!


xxx

Ryan

It's just one of those days...

Sitting here listening to Lana Del Rey Radio on Pandora, playing around with photos and hacking the husbands Facebook account. It's a lot of fun. :-)

Yesterday was Charlie's 9 month doctors appointment and of course Dr. Hubbs didn't tell us anything we didn't already know. Our little bug is perfect :-) She weighs a whopping 22 lbs and is 27.4 inches long. Last Friday she started crawling and then out of no where yesterday she started pulling up to her knees on her toy box. I guess this means she's going to be pulling up to standing position and walking before I know it. I can't believe how fast this is all happening! Make it stop! Just kidding, I enjoy watching her grow, learn and discover things.

She only had to get one shot yesterday so she was pretty happy about that. Here is day 20.

Today is the last day to post my week 3 image for the lyric "It's like you're my mirror, my mirror staring back at me" for The Photographer Within's P52. I had this whole idea planned out in my head that incorporated Charlie but she just didn't want to cooperate with me this week. So instead of Charlie, I completed another selfie.

Day 21. Week 3.

I feel like it was kind of cliche to take a picture of myself in the mirror. I guess I was a little uninspired this week. Hopefully I can have some fun with next week's lyric.

I haven't really talked much about my weightless journey recently. I weigh in again Saturday but I'm currently down 7 lbs. Hopefully I'll be down another 2 by the time I weigh in again. I've really been doing great running and eating right. I feel so much better than I did 20 days ago. I'm not really trying to diet, I'm just trying to focus on making lifestyle changes and not eating crap that I was before. Luckily for me I've got a lot of motivation $$$ and some good friends along for the ride. :-)

Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts just came on. Wow. I love this song, it reminds me of a million different things.  I think I'll go ahead and sign off for tonight and sing this song at the top of my lungs. (Hope my neighbors can't hear me.)

xxx

Ryan

xxx

Ryan

Sunday Fun-day!

Today was a great day!

First, Charlie slept until 730. I actually woke up before her and I was soooo glad. Hopefully she keeps that up so I can get my runs in during the time she sleeps in the morning. This morning I did sprints for 3 miles and felt GREAT afterwards. I need to start building my endurance back up if I'm going to do some races this spring.

After I ran, I cooked breakfast which consisted of eggs and toast for Ryan and an egg white omelet for me. Charlie refused to eat her fruit and insisted that she get yogurt bits and puffs instead. How could I say no to that cute little face?! When we wrapped up breakfast I got ready and went to the grocery store to get supplies for the week.

When I got home, Charlie took a nap and I was able to read some of the new book I'm into right now. It's called Divergent. I really like it! There is a movie coming out about it this year and it's part of a series like the Hunger Games.

When Charlie woke up we went to dads house to hang out, watch the game and eat some dinner. Jeannine (my awesome step mom) made some delicious potato soup, a salad and some chicken salad. It was awesome and diet friendly :-) Jeannine texted me last night and asked if I had any recent pictures of me, Ryan and Charlie and honestly I don't. I have one from Thanksgiving of all of us and a few from Christmas but none that I really loved. Today I decided to take one of us three for my 365 project. (And for Jeannine of course).

I set the camera up on my tripod and had Ryan sit with Charlie while I focused. When I was good to go I went and sat down and snapped the shots with my remote control. Here is what we got.

Day 19.

This was my favorite. I really cannot wait to get my hair done this weekend. My mop is a mess these days! I loved the red while it lasted but I'm ready for my brown hair back! Thank goodness I go see my cousin this weekend to get fixed up and beautified. She is seriously a hair genius so if any of you in Louisville need some hair love look her up.  Looks by Lauren

Here are some other fun shots that I took with my remote today.

Charlie is such a trip. She's the happiest baby ever and we are so blessed. I thank God everyday for giving me the chance to be a mommy to this awesome little girl. Things aren't always easy but I wouldn't change my life for anything.

I hope everyone had a great Sunday. I'm rooting for the Bronco's to win the Super Bowl. I don't really have a team in this fight but I like Peyton Manning and I'm glad they beat the Patriots. (Haha Papa)

xxx

Ryan

Our girl is 9 months old!

Ah well, I'm a few days behind. If I could get some energy together I would be able to post consistently but since my kid wants to keep me sick all the time I do what I can :-)

I am finally feeling much better and was able to squeeze in a two mile run after getting back from Molly's slumber party princess birthday party thingy. I glimpsed into my future tonight and it was filled with little girls, screaming, tiaras, pink, giggling & fun. I'm cool with that. I do wish I could have stayed and helped my sister a little longer but as we all know, Charlie has a pretty strict bedtime and if she's not in her crib by 8pm she's not a happy little camper.

I'm a few days behind on posting my 365 on the blog.

Here is day 17.

This was yesterday morning. Little bug decided to sleep until 8:20. Yeah, she never does that on the weekend. I was just going to wake her up so we could get ready for daycare because I have to be at work at 9 and she was just sitting there waiting on me. Not even making a peep. She's so silly.

Today I decided to take her 9 month pics. The week is so busy so I don't really have a lot of time to do things then and also, the light isn't very good in the house when we get home at 5 so I knew that I was going to snap a few photos today.

Here is day 18 and Charlie's 9 month picture.

Those blue eyes kill me. I just love this little bug so much! I cannot believe it's been 9 months since she was born. It seems like just yesterday we were going through those rough first few weeks, the jaundice, the colic and the growing pains. I'm so glad we have such a great routine now and our girl is happy all of the time.

Louisville is about to play some ball so I'm not going to write much more. Gotta cheer on my CARDS! Here are a few more pics from today. :-)

xxx

Ryan

Facebook - RC2

Sweet sleeper.

These are some of the best times.


Day 16.

xxx

Ryan

Day 14 & 15 plus a big Happy Birthday shout out to my favorite niece!

Day 14.

Charlie was enchanted by the morning news. Silly girl. Day 14 also happens to be the day our girl turned 9 months old. So big!!! Her head looks so huge here. It makes me laugh. It's ok to laugh at your kid, right? I hope so. :-)

Day 15.

I love reading and I'm currently in the middle of a great book called Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I saw this book was recommended on Buzzfeed as a book to read before the movie comes out later this year. I've already read one Gillian Flynn book, Gone Girl, and it was one of the greatest books. I loved all the twists and turns in that book. Very very good. So anyway, I knew I had to slap this book on my Kindle and get to reading. Day 15 is a selfie. :-)

Today also happens to be my sweet niece's 5th birthday! I cannot believe Molly is 5. I face timed her earlier on her iPad and she was really excited. I love that she showed me all her presents and what was left of her princess cake. This weekend her mom is hosting a slumber party so Charlie and I are going to go help out with that for a little bit. Molly is such a good big cousin. She's always asking to see baby Charlie when we FaceTime, it's the cutest. I just know they are going to be best friends.

Well, I'm exhausted as usual so I think I'm going to go crawl into my heated sheets and finish this book. I've got a list I want to finish up and most of the books have movies coming out this year! Yay!

Anyone have any good book recommendations?

xxx

Ryan

Outdoor running essentials, a story & my playlist.

Good Monday morning!

This morning Charlie decided to wake up at 430 hungry and of course after I fed her I couldn't go back to sleep so I decided to get up and go for a run. I turned on the news around 5am and saw that it was 52 degrees outside so I knew that I was going to take this mornings run outdoors. Normally in the summer/spring/fall I always run outdoors but this winter has been icky so I've been taking full advantage of my treadmill.

I geared up with my essentials: Day 13.

1. Brooks Trance 12 Running Shoes
2. Belkin Arm Band
3. Iphone with the Nike running app (758.1 miles, whew!)
4. Cinnamon gum
5. Earphones
6. Mace

I really need to get a reflective vest for when I run outdoors, or a little flashing light thingy because it's freakin' dark out and I really don't want to get hit by a car!

This mornings run was great but when I was rounding my neighborhood for my second lap I saw two big males walking in the middle of the road so I diverted through a side street and looped around the "big" block on the other side of Johnsontown Rd. As I was running down Lower River almost towards the end of my run I saw a guy dressed all in black wheeling two bikes down the road. This freaked me out. I'm pretty sure those bikes were stolen and I believe that this was one of the guys that I saw walking in my neighborhood earlier. It's dark as can be at 530am so I was a little freaked out when I saw this guy. I had my mace but when I passed him I just ran faster because I didn't want him to drop one of those bikes and hop on the other to come after me. I should have called the cops and reported the suspicious activity but honestly I was more concerned with getting home safely.

I never really feel scared or concerned about running in my neighborhood when it's dark because I live in a pretty good neighborhood and we've never had any issues but I was a little creeped out this morning. I think I'll try to keep my outdoor runs closer to 6am when the kids are at the bus stops and more people are leaving for work.

This mornings playlist was from Songza's Cardio Hip Hop Mix. This app is the best.


1. Kanye West - The New Workout Plan
2. Eminem - Sing for the Moment
3. Salt N Pepa - Push it
4. Lil Wayne - 6 Foot 7 Foot
5.Ludacris & Nicki - My Chick Bad
6. Missy Elliot - Get Ur Freak On
7.House of Pain- Jump Around
8. T.I- Bring em out
9. Missy Elliot - Work it

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

xxx

Ryan

"And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while."

Oh Bruno, Bruno, Bruno. You make my heart melt. Seriously, Bruno Mars is amazing. This is day 12 of my 365 project and week 2 of my 52 week project and the lyric for the week from The Photographer Within comes from Bruno Mars song "Just the way you are." The lyric is as stated in the title,

"And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while."

Kind of like this....

I love when my girl smiles and is happy. We are so lucky that she is such a happy go lucky babe. It doesn't take much to get her giggling, laughing and rolling around on the floor and I cannot believe she is going to be 9 months old tomorrow. Time really does go by too fast. Ryan said to her tonight that she needs to get to crawling and I said no! Haha. Then we would never be able to stop her.

Charlie and I had fun goofing around today when we got home from lunch with Aunt Theresa, Aunt Courtney & Cousin Molly. Here are some pictures from our play time.

Happy Sunday! Hope everyone has a great week! :-)

xxx

Ryan

Crockpot Pot Potato Soup Deliciousness!

Ok. This is hands down one of the easiest and most delicious crock pot recipes I've ever found. Of course I got it off of Pinterest but I've added my own little special touches to it to perfect the recipe.

 Here is what you need: 

1 (30 oz.) bag frozen hash-brown potatoes (I used the shredded but you can also use the squared cut) 2 (14 oz.) cans chicken broth 
1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of chicken soup 
1/2c chopped onion 
1/3 tsp. ground black pepper 
Pinch of salt
1 (8oz) package cream cheese (room temp) 
2 stalks of celery chopped 

 Garnish: minced green onion, cheese and bacon if you have it handy. Bacon bits work too!

(PS. This is day 11 photo) :-)

How to prepare:

In a slow cooker, combine potatoes, broth, soup, onion, celery and pepper. 

Cover, and cook on low for 6 hours.(DO NOT PUT IN CREAM CHEESE YET!)

Stir in cream cheese, cook on high for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until combined. 

Garnish with green onion, cheese and bacon bits if you wish. :-)

Tada!

Deliciousness in a bowl!

Let me know if you try it and add anything super awesome in it to spice it up. Definitely a good meal for a cold Saturday or Sunday while you're watching football!

Enjoy!

xxx

Ryan

Days 9 & 10

I've been under the weather the past few days. I feel like I'm sick all the time. Once Charlie gets all these daycare bugs out of her system we are going to have some pretty healthy immune systems! I look forward to those days.

Day 9.

We have a lot of military books in our house. My husband was a sniper in the Marines and I was an ABH in the Navy. With that being said, we really wanted to get out this weekend and see Lone Survivor but he's had the flu and like I said earlier, I haven't been feeling so great myself so it looks like we're going to spend the weekend home relaxing and trying to get well.

Day 10.

Friday morning I woke up and felt like there was a fire in my throat. Seriously, I never get sore throats but on Friday I felt like I was going to die. Since I couldn't really eat much I decided to juice myself some breakfast. I LOVE juicing. This recipe is really simple and one that I use a lot.

Handful of spinach
3 small Gala Apples
1/2 lemon (peel and all)
1 whole cucumber
Kale
3 celery stalks
5 baby carrots

It really takes a ton of fruits and veggies to juice. All of that made this one glass of juice. Crazy. But it's so good. Especially if you're not feeling good and you drink some fruits and veggies the nutrients and vitamins make you feel better instantly.

I have something delicious cooking in the crockpot for today (Day 11) so I'm saving that photo for a recipe blog later. Have a great Saturday friends!

xxx

Ryan

A grapefruit a day keeps the doctor away!

Day 8.

An apple? How about a grapefruit a day keeps the doctor away! Not really sure if that's true but it sounded good to me!

This morning I figured I'd shoot early because there is a good chance when I get home tonight I'm either going to run and then crash or just crash. Deer chili is already cooking in the crockpot so I don't have to worry about dinner when I get home. Winning!

I woke up today (late) and didn't get to run but I also realized my throat was so sore! I never get sore throats and I think I jinxed myself because I was just telling my in-laws that I never get sore throats because I had my tonsils out when I was a kid. Welp, today I have a sore throat. Yay.

Since my throat is sore I didn't want to eat much for breakfast so a grapefruit and cottage cheese was on the menu. I took a picture of my grapefruit for my photo today.

Tada!

This photo really makes me wish I had white dishes. I love white dishes. White everything! Whenever we build our next house and get new stuff, I'm going with white. White white white! White is so clean and pretty and it photographs so well!

So there is my photo. Day 8. Kind of boring, but I wasn't very motivated this morning. Maybe my mood and throat will get better as the day progresses.

 TPW just posted their new lyric for the week and I'm really excited about it.

“And when you smile the whole world stops and stares for awhile.”  

I pretty much know what I'm going to do and I have the image I want in my head. Hopefully I can execute it tonight or tomorrow. I really love this project. It's so fun!

Welp, that's all I've got for right now. Hope you like my grapefruit. :-)

 xxx

 

Ryan

Short and sweet

Ok. I just want to post the photos I chose for today's 365 project. They will probably look familiar because I posted similar ones earlier but today I'm just too tired to write anything too long.

Day 7.

Day 7. #2

Pretty sure I had fun during this polar vortex! :-)

I'll be so glad when it warms up later this week.

Goodnight!

xxx

Ryan

Frozen bubbles and steamy rivers.

When I said it was cold yesterday I was lying. It's colder today. Holy CRAP it's cold. It's so cold this morning I froze bubbles. No kidding. Froze. Bubbles.

Proof.

I saw some of my photog friends doing this yesterday so I knew I wanted to try it today. And it worked! I did have to thicken up the bubble solution with some dish soap but once I did I managed to get a few to stick to the table outside. I'm going to try this again later with a little more light. I actually edited this on my iPhone. My 6D has wifi so I transferred the image to my phone from my camera and then put a fun little filter on it in Instagram and posted it that way. I plan on using a bubble image from this morning for my 365 project but I don't think this is the one I'm going to use. I just wanted to post this because it's so cool!

Another fun thing about it being so stupid cold outside is the Ohio River. Currently the water is warmer than the air so this creates a foggy steam that floats above the river. I drove down to the Greenwood Boat Docks this morning before work to check it out and captured this.

Pretty cool! And very pretty. Again, I took this with my 6D and sent it to my phone via wifi. Jeez I love technology.

Hope you guys have been enjoying your morning and this Polar Vortex as much as I have! My shooting finger may fall off but it was worth it!

I'll be back later for more fun!

xxx

Ryan

Baby, it's COLD outside.

Hey y'all! Hope everyone is having a great Monday. It is SOOOO cold outside! -2 is way too cold for me. I think I need a vacation somewhere warm very soon!

Today is day 6. And today happens to be a selfie day. I took about two dozen photos today of random things, including what I was cooking for dinner for a recipe blog but I didn't like any of them once I started processing.

Day 6.

I actually have a ton to write about but honestly I'm wore out today. I've started running again so this morning I was up and on the treadmill at 530. Tomorrow I will post a little bit of a mixed blog about running, our weight loss competitions and the whole Louisville Football coaching mess and my thoughts about it.

Hope everyone likes day 6, especially because it's of my face! haha :-)

Don't forget to like my FB page and my blog! I seriously need more followers. I know you guys come check this out from Facebook so just FOLLOW it! Spanks!

Here is another selfie from today. Just for fun.

(I don't do serious well. I prefer to smile :-)

Have a good night! Stay warm!

xxx

Ryan

Sunday Funday!

Hi again!

Today was day 5! Woo.

Today I attempted to shoot some indoor portraits which most of you know is totally not my thing. In fact, the photos from today that I love the most are outdoors. Luckily we caught the weather at just the right time and we were able to get some fun stuff outside. I've got some indoor shots as well but the photo I chose for the 365 project was taken outside.

This is my Aunt Theresa. She's fun, spunky and has tons of personality. I frequently shoot portraits for her and she is so willing to do whatever! I really liked her expression in the picture below. I labeled it "Waiting" on  my project. It looks like she's waiting on something. Either for me to leave her alone, the snow to come or for me to let her go back inside. Haha. Anywho, her expression really made this photo for me. So this is our day 5!

I did a lot of post processing to this photo. Mainly the grass, background and coloring. The grass this time of year is not really what you would call pretty so I added some color, some texture and a little dodging and burning. I love this photo. Hopefully my Aunt does too!

Second topic of the day. TWINS! I've never got to photograph twins before so I was really excited when I met Sean and Alex. They were so fun and I'm glad their mom, Pam, contacted me to shoot some photos of them and discuss possibly shooting her daughter's wedding in the summer. Alex and Sean were cracking me up through their whole shoot. They are quite comical and were willing to do whatever I asked which was awesome! I hope to see them again maybe in the summer/fall to shoot some senior portraits! Fun Fun! Anywho, here is a shot from their informal pics today.

Again with the processing. I brightened things up a bit.

Well, that's about it for today. The weather is about to turn freezing so me and Charlie are in our jammies staying cozy watching some football. Our Eagles lost yesterday so we're pretty bummed about that. Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!!

xxx

Ryan

Hello Teddy.

Good morning friends! Today I had this whole selfie planned outside with my new 85mm and then my crappy camera remote decided to die. I've got wifi on my 6D and the app on my phone but I still haven't figured that whole mess out yet. I guess I better because my remote is a pain in the butt!

So, since I didn't get to do my fun selfie, I decided to take Teddy out to play. My sister in law, Shawn,  is currently in Africa on a Peace Corps mission until 2015 and she is who got Teddy for Charlie for Christmas. Probably because Charlie kept trying to steal her childhood bear, Norton. Also, Teddy is named Teddy for now because Charlie can't talk to name him, and I like the name Teddy, mainly because of our amazing few years with Teddy B. Teddy and Charlie. Good fit. (More on that later). One day, when she's old enough, she'll probably rename him. But for now, he's Teddy.

So anyway I wanted to capture an image that showed awesome bokeh and this does that. I seriously cannot wait until outdoor portrait session weather. This lens is a gem!

Here is Teddy.

Obviously my backyard isn't awesome for portraits but I love this shot and Teddy was a willing participant.

Well, I guess I better go for now. I have to go pick up my little bug from her grandparents house!

xxx

Don't forget to "Like" my Facebook page and follow my blog!

Ryan

"Turn the clock to zero, honey. We're starting up a brand new day."

Good Morning! "Turn the clock to zero, honey. We're starting up a brand new day."

I know, I know, you're probably like huh? Well as a part of this photography journey I'm on, I'm also doing a 52 week photo challenge with some of the ladies over at The Photographer Within that incorporates song lyrics in photographs. This week was Sting's Brand New Day lyric. So, this is day 3 of my 365 project and week 1 of the 52 week challenge. Whew. This year is gonna be fun!

This morning Charlie was a little fussy because she's had a cold. (She always has a cold. Daycare is building up that immune system!) So around 5am she wouldn't go back to sleep in her crib so I brought her into bed with me. Crazy husband was up at 130am to go duck hunting so he was already gone. Well anywho, I was hoping she would sleep a little longer this morning so I could get some daylight into our room because the lighting in my house SUCKS! (I can't wait to take Sarah's On Camera Flash workshop on the 20th) I managed to get this image about a minute after she woke up at 8am. FYI, she never sleeps this late on the weekends. She must get that from her momma.

Charlie wasn't really ready to start a brand new day this morning but momma has to work so we had to get rolling!

Well there you have it. Week 1 of the P52 and day 3 of the 365. Hope everyone has a great day!

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xxx

Ryan