It's a brand new week!

Well it's another week back to work before DERBY WEEK! This week is long then I have two 4 day work weeks so that's going to be nice! I have tons to do on those two off days though so it's not really too much of a break.

Yesterday was Easter and we had a great day spending time with 2 parts of our family circle. This year we went to the Cecil side and the Ranalli side. It's so hard running around with a baby, I don't know how we did 3/4 stops per holiday before Charlie came. That's no fun. I still felt pretty rushed yesterday but I'm glad we got to spend time with our family.

Charlie's first Easter was magical, as is every first holiday with her. She's so funny and loves everything at this age. I can't get enough. The Easter bunny brought her some really cool stuff and then she got some treats from some of our family members too. She did get some chocolate covered peeps but mommy made sure those were gone when we got home from all of our running! I probably shouldn't have ate those or the THREE Reese eggs I ate yesterday but oh well, YOLO. Yuck. I felt gross after. Plus our final weigh in for the diet competition is this Saturday. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to win but I'm super proud of myself for losing 21 lbs in 4 months. I feel good and things just keep getting better. I also received several compliments yesterday regarding my weight and my hair loss. Ha. Those always make me feel good! That's how I know that what I'm doing is working. When you don't see someone for several months and they can tell you've lost weight, that's a great feeling.

So, anyway this weekend was  a lot of fun. Charlie stayed at my dad and Jeannine's on Friday so Courtney and I went to Oiishi and ate way too much sushi. It was delicious. I love that place. Saturday after I picked up the bug we went to the park and she got to swing for the first time. She LOVED it. I was actually going to take her today when I got off work but I forgot Ashlee was coming to get Jamie's thumb drive so maybe we will go Wednesday if the weather is still nice.

SO! Here is my updated 365. I actually cheated on day 111 because I took that picture on Easter which was day 110 but I liked it and wanted it to be a part of the project. So oh well. It's my project, I'll do what I want! ;-)

Day 107

Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to my in-laws for dinner since Ryan works nights. (I know you've heard this before) Well, this is pretty much what Charlie looks like when we get home on those nights. :-)

 Day 108

Had to "BEE" careful not to get to close to this little guy. ;-)

 Day 109. 

This nest is right outside our front door. Since I've taken this photo the bird has laid 2 more eggs. So now we have 5! I cannot wait for these little guys to hatch. We're going to have to re-route traffic to our backdoor.

 Day 110.

Charlie made some friends.

Day 111.

 Cheating. Easter Sunday. Love my family. 

 

Well guys, there is my update. I'm going to download the mobile blog app for my phone so I can try to keep up more. I feel like I should be posting more than once a week but really my life isn't that interesting!

Hope everyone has a GREAT week.

Happy Derby Festivities to all my fellow Kentuckians!

xxx

Ryan

Jamie's Senior Session!

The weather is finally nice so you know what that means....time for some outdoor fun!

Last Sunday I had the pleasure of shooting my best friend Ashlee's sister Jamie's senior portraits. (Whew, that was a mouth full) It was SUPER windy out and the sun didn't always work in our favor but we had fun and took downtown Louisville by storm!

Here are some of my favorites from the session.

One of my favorite favorites. 

She has such beautiful eyes!

Thanks for stopping by visit! Congrats to all the class of 2014 graduates!

Don't forget to follow my blog and "Like" my Facebook page. You can do so HERE!

xxx

Ryan

Just need to POST THESE! Whew. That's better.

I'm seriously slacking in the blog department! I promise I'll get caught up eventually but things have been so busy with little bug I haven't had time to think! First things first. In order to get back on track I need to post my recent 365 images. I know some of them are posted in previous blogs here and there but I need to get them all on one blog to focus. Ha!

So, here they are:

Day 93.

Day 94. Just a reminder.

 

 Day 95. Chopped off my hair. 

Day 96. Sweet girls birthday party.

Day 97. Recipe Here

Day 98. April Showers

Day 99. Macro love.

Day 100! Isn't it obvious?

Day 101. Sleeping love.

Day 102. Backyard play time. (This photo scored me another feature on my 365 group!)

Day 103. Senior session stopping traffic!

Day 104. Happy birthday to this sweet girl. 

Day 105. New shoes for the big girl.

Day 106. Frosty macro morning. I laid a blanket out in my backyard and shot for about 20 minutes this morning. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy. :-)

Whew! Now that that's over I can breathe! I'm currently working on editing a senior session which will hopefully be on the blog by the end of the weekend and of course I'm still shooting my 365. The weather is getting warmer so I'm trying to spend more time outdoors with the little one. She loves being outside.

Last Saturday we had a photoshoot scheduled for Miss Charlie's cake smash session with my friend Carla over at Carla Thompson Photography. I'm not going to post all the pictures here because her blog showcases them so beautifully, so I'll just post the link if you want to check them out. It's HERE and I'm totally in love with it and all the images she captured. Those are amazing memories that I will have forever!

I went back and forth about doing Charlie's cake smash myself but I don't have much to work with in that department and I really wanted to be able to watch little bug have fun with the cake instead of worrying about my settings and exposure and composition and all those fun photographer things. Carla did amazing and I got to get in some of the shots too! Yay!

Ok friends, that's all for today until later! Hope everyone is having a great day!!

xxx

Ryan

It's my party & I'll NAP if I want to!

This past Sunday we had a birthday party for our special little girl who is turning 1 on the 14th. I seriously cannot believe a year has gone by. She has filled our lives with so much joy and laughter and I couldn't imagine life without her.

We ended had a small party after much debate and I'm SO glad we went that route. I originally planned on inviting our WHOLE family which was close to 50 people and a few close friends too. That would have put us at about 65-70 people. For a ONE year old's birthday party. That's just a little too crazy for us AND for her. Instead we invited Charlie's aunts & uncles, her grandparents and our grandparents and we had such a great time. I'm not really into big birthday productions for kids. I never had that when I was growing up and I turned out just fine. I don't judge people that spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on their kids birthday parties but that will never happen with us or our kids. It's just not my thing. Plus, there is no way she needs hundreds of presents. She's one and we just don't have the room for tons of toys!

So back to little bugs party. It was at 2 on Sunday and the weather was beautiful. I spent the night before getting most things ready. Including this cute little chalkboard. I found the idea from Pinterest and added Charlie's details.

That morning I got up early and made sandwiches and got the kitchen together for the party.

The Menu included:

• Different kinds of sandwiches
• Chips
• Pasta Salad
• Veggies
• Fruit
• Cake
• Ice Cream

 I then went to pickup her cake which I ordered from the same lady that did our wedding cake. Her name is June and she's with JuLi's Creations and she's awesome and very reasonably priced. Check her out if you need some cakes or catering in the future! So, after I picked up the cake I took a trip to party city and picked up the balloons I had ordered the day before. They were SO cute and I was worried they weren't going to fit in the SUV but luckily they did :-)

Once I had the goods it was time to go home and wait for everyone to arrive. Charlie ended up taking a nap in the morning which kind of messed up her schedule a little bit for the party. She slept from about 9-1030 and wouldn't take another nap.........until her party. Ha!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day. Most of them are her playing with her cake and not eating it. My kid loves vegetables. Put a cake in front of her and she doesn't know what to do with it!

The cake and Charlie's mini cake.

Playing with a cup.

Getting ready!

This candle was used by my husband, his brother and his sister on all of their first birthdays. :-)

"I don't like this"

Just eating my puffs.

Get me outta here!

Just eating the yogurt puffs out of the cake and not touching the cake.

 

 

Mid party nap!!

 

So tired.

Can we go outside?

Oooooooo!

She didn't like it. Nope.

Enjoying the day outside!

Giving grandma some love. 

Our girl had such a great party and we are so glad that most of the family could make it!

365 update is coming up!


xxx

Ryan

Dreary weather equals recipe blog!

I've had this recipe since last week and I've been trying to make it for a few days now but we've had so many events that I haven't had the time!

Tonight I was finally able to get home from work and get this going and boy was it delicious! This recipe is called Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls. Growing up my Grandma and my mom always made regular cabbage rolls and they are so delicious. This recipe cuts down the carbs and is a new way to make an old favorite.

Day 97/365

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of lean ground beef. (I used Venison)
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of garlic, minced. (I buy the jars of pre minced garlic, so much easier)
• 1 small cabbage
• 2 cans (14.5 ounces each) of diced tomatoes
• 1 can (8oz) of tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt

Directions:

• In a large pot or deep skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat
• Add the ground beef/venison/turkey and onion and cook, stirring, until ground meat is no longer pink and onion is tender.
• Add the garlic and continue cooking for one minute
• Add the chopped cabbage, tomatoes, tomato sauce, pepper, salt & water
• Bring to a boil
• Cover and simmer until cabbage is tender. It took mine about 40 minutes

This recipe is SUPER easy and super delicious and it basically has half the calories of a traditional cabbage roll because you don't have all that rice. I think you could probably add some brown rice to this to make it more hearty but I prefer this version. 

Hope you have a chance to try this some time!

I'll catch up on the 365 tomorrow and update you all with our busy weekend!

xxx

Ryan