yesterday • today • tomorrow

c is for carrot fries

While sorting through some stuff in my office, I found a few old Martha Stewart Kids magazines, which I don't think they even make any more. It was a great little magazine, though, with tons of cute ideas for kids parties, crafts and food. I came across this fun recipe for carrot fries:

from the magazine:
Kids will eat their veggies when you make delicious carrot fries. Cut 2 pounds of carrots into sticks; toss with 2 teaspoons olive oil. Spread on parchment-lined baking sheet; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

I made these today and they are very tasty. I used tin foil on a baking sheet because I didn't have any parchment and it worked fine. The only thing I would have changed was the amount of time I baked them for. At about 17 minutes, several of the thinner sliced carrots started getting a little burned. In my oven at least, they probably would have been done at about 13-15 minutes. Zach loved these. He likes carrots anyway so I thought this would be a fun way to add some variety. Chloe wouldn't touch them. She isn't a huge fan of us making her "hot food" as she calls it, though she will eat a cheeseburger from McDonald's anytime. ;) Go figure.

wedding pictures

Added a bunch of pictures from Janna and Dan's wedding over on the photo blog. This wedding's just so bright and fun, I had to post about it again. CLICK HERE to see the post.

off to bed now .... at 3 a.m. :P

happy monday

Had a really good day with the kids yesterday. We took off after breakfast for a few errands I had to run, then we drove to one of the local parks, Tangle Town, for a little playtime before lunch. The kids had so much fun running around, all the while yelling "mom take my picture on the balance beam", "mom take my picture on the swings", "mom you stand here and take a picture of me all the way over there on the bridge". It was annoyingly cute. ;)

I took a bunch of pictures during our hour there, but I only had time tonight to grab a favorite of them posing for me. :) I'll try to put some more up in the next day or two. No promises, though. Wedding editing is consuming me right now, but I'm accomplishing a lot. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning, so exhausted after only 4 hours of sleep last night that every time I blink my eyes they decide that they would rather stay closed and I have to beg them to open up for me for a little while longer. But it's worth it if I can get the work done sooner and enjoy my July.

healthy living update: Continuing to eat healthy and enjoying it. I'm really starting to crave those salads daily. Had a salad at the wedding this weekend that was iceberg lettuce with cheese on it and it just did not taste good to me. It's gotta be romaine! Plus, I couldn't stand the cheese on top. I used to always have cheese on salads. It's the way my mom always prepared them. But now I like carrots instead and it just tasted strange the other way. Total weight lost so far: 13 pounds. It's coming off a little at a time, which makes me happy. And my mom and I have started walking a few times a week for a half hour or so, which I know will help even more.

Having another yard sale this weekend. The weather is supposed to be perfect for it! Then my mom and I are off for our annual girls getaway with Aunt Pat and Tonya. Can't wait!!! We always have such fun together. Lots of pictures to come!

In case I don't get on here again before Friday ... HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!!

last wedding of the summer

That sounds really weird, but it's true. This year all my summer weddings were in May and June. The rest will come in the fall. Very strange to be done for a while (except for editing), but I'm so excited to have the next couple months off (except for photo sessions) to spend with family and take a few trips with friends. I'm so in need of a break.

This weekend's wedding was so beautiful. I met Janna through Lindsey, a past bride and one of my wonderful assistants. Janna did the flowers for Lindsey's wedding and I was so excited when she wanted me to be her wedding photographer. Janna and her florist friends put together some beautiful details for this wedding. (Kelley, you will LOVE the details -- lots of bright pink and orange, your favorite!!)

This was also my last wedding working with Heidi for a while since she will be having a sweet little baby in the fall when my wedding season kicks in again. I'm so excited to meet her little one and take lots of pictures, of course. :)

We had a fun time. Janna and Dan's families are both so nice and they had a huge bridal party - 9 people on each side along with two flower girls and a ring bearer. They were a very fun group! A great wedding to end my summer wedding season.

Check the photo blog in a few days for some sneak peek pics.

new Heather Ann kit

Heather just released a fun new kit called Watch Me Grow - introductory sale through Thursday 6.26 - so go pick it up now! Here's the layout I put together using the kit:


CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW LARGER

jake's first day of work in a really long time

It's a strange day around here. Jake got up bright and early and rode to the office with a guy from our church, who we found out also works there. So convenient that they can carpool together. And Dave (the guy) will also be helping to train Jake, so it's such a blessing all around. :) But it feels a little weird here without Jake. It's been two years since he lost his job so we've gotten used to him being around all the time. It's time for a change, though. I'm anxious for him to get home so I can hear how his first day went.

We've kept busy today. Got up early, went to the park with my mom and walked. That was nice. I actually ran with the kids. We raced to the end of the sidewalk a couple times. They were so excited to see mommy running because I never do that. Definitely need to invest in a sports bra if I'm going to give running a try. haha! :D After our walk/run, we stopped at State Grounds and mom and the kids got smoothies while I had a Diet Coke.



After lunch, I let the kids play on the porch. I've been sorting all their toys (so many toys!) and put a bunch in these great little plastic storage tubs with handles (pictured above). I love these things. Everything is sorted into its own tub (for the time being) and we have a rule that you have to put everything back in one before you get out another tub. We'll see if that rule sticks.

I made myself get out the camera today and take a few shots of the kids on the porch. I felt so bad that I hadn't taken a single picture of them all month. So now I don't have to say that any more. Here are a few from this afternoon:

Zach loves creating with Legos. We are totally taking him to Chicago to the Lego store sometime. Take note of the little tubs of Legos on the table - sorted by color. I actually sat down for several hours at a time sorting through these giant buckets of Legos all jumbled together and organized them. We'll see how long this lasts, too.

workaholic

Here I am. Working hard. Staying up way too late every night to get as much done as I can. Looking forward to taking time off in July. Is it July yet?

healthy living • a reformed salad eater

I am a boring salad person. Well, I used to be anyway. I've always been an iceberg lettuce, shredded cheese, croutons and french dressing salad eater. Obviously there is no value health-wise in eating that. Now I'm a romaine lettuce, cabbage, carrots, broccoli, almond slivers, raisins (yum!), tiniest bit of creamy caesar dressing salad eater. I am so craving salads all the time now!! Adding the almonds and especially the raisins makes it so tasty and sweet. I'm trying to slowly phase out the caesar dressing. It's got so much fat in it. ugh. I probably used a Tbsp. today. Still too much. Eventually I hope to just toss all my ingredients in the bowl without the dressing and munch away. Or maybe find a more healthy alternative to put on top to give it a little extra flavor. Suggestions anyone?

he did it!

Jake passed his state insurance exam today so he can officially get to work now! Yay! (This picture was taken at his graduation in May but I couldn't post without a picture again.) ;) He had to learn so much in the last few weeks. I'm sure his brain hurts at this point. But he did it and we are so proud of him!

no pictures today

I really hate posting without a picture, but sadly the only ones I've taken lately have been for other people. I do tend to get a little burned out on picture taking in June especially when I'm working every weekend taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures. The in-between times I'm editing and my poor camera sits so lonely on the corner of my desk. There really hasn't been much to photograph in my little family the last couple weeks, though. :(

our week

Went to see a couple movies this week. My mom and I saw "Made of Honor". Very cute. Loving Patrick Dempsey. ;) Then Jake, my brothers and I went to see "The Happening" on Friday. We are huge M. Night Shyamalan fans and will see any movie he makes. We liked it. I could have done without some of the gore, but it was pretty good. Afterwards, my brothers started walking out into the parking lot and they suddenly stopped in their tracks and then Jake started repeating what he was saying over and over. If you saw the movie you will understand that. We were cracking ourselves up. We like getting together and making fun of movies. Doesn't take much to amuse us. :)

father's day

We took Jake to Bob Evans for "breakfast for lunch" today and then on our way home we stopped for some miniature golf, which I wish I'd had my camera along for. It was the first time doing anything like this as a family. We had good and bad moments. It was very hot and muggy and we were all a little cranky and the kids (especially the girly) weren't listening to us worth a crap. But the other moments like Chloe and Jake both getting a hole-in-one on the same hole made up for the rest of it.

the job

Jake has his state insurance testing this week so please say a little prayer for him on Tuesday. Once he is licensed, he can get to work and then hopefully I won't have to freak out over how we'll pay the bills ever again. It's been a loooong two years. Praise God for getting us this far.

healthy living

Still doing well with my healthy eating. I'm down 11 pounds, but I feel like I need to kick it into high gear and really get out and exercise. At least start out with some more walking. Once I get into wedding season, I tend to spend most of my time in my chair sitting in front of my computer, which only leads to a larger back side. Plus, as I'm starting to lose inches, I really need to tone things up. So I gotta get on it!

healthy kids

I'm always inspired by Tara, but having read her latest post, I feel like we are on the exact same wavelength. I have really been trying to incorporate more healthy foods into the kids mealtimes. I'm so tired of them eating fast food all the time and being so picky about food. I really like what she's doing with her kids and I hope to follow suit. I'm at least starting out by giving them cut up fruit to munch on and telling them to have an apple when they are begging me for a snack. And I've had a large bowl of fruit on our counter for about a month now - ever since I started eating better. :)

the week ahead

work. work. more work. that pretty much sums it up. and looking forward to next weekend off. yay!!!