A few important lessons I've learned from my parents.
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Family
Mud monsters, crawfish, soggy bottoms, and lots of love on the blog today.
Our holiday sessions are filling up quickly! I know its early to be thinking about the holidays, and you may not want to yet, but just think of already having your pictures done and getting your cards ordered before everyone else this year! What a load off to have one thing done and be ready to concentrate on fun stuff like, shopping! (Have I mentioned I'm a little bit of a shop-a-holic?) Our holiday session is filling up quickly, so contact me today to reserve your time slot!
Happy Monday all!
I had such a good time photographing this fun family! We had a perfect spring day (despite the rain the night before) and were able to get some photos in before it turned too hot.
It's really amazing when you can tell how close a family is and how much fun they have together. I love their color coordinated family groups or "teams!" I could call out, "Team blue! You're up!" And everyone knew exactly what I was talking about. In hindsight though, we should have had some games to see which family team came out on top.
Thank you so much to the Womble Family for letting me capture such a wonderful time in your lives and such a fun day! Check out more photos below in the gallery.
That's right, this little lady just turned one! Can you believe it? It's hard to believe that I've been photographing Lily for a year now. She has grown faster than I could have believed. It was so much fun to celebrate with this little girl and her family.
Lily's parents threw a Lady Bug themed party and it was ADORABLE. They had everything from Lady Bug cake to a color coordinated tutu for the birthday girl.
The party was an intimate gathering of family and close friends. You could just feel the love coming out of that room! Freddie, Lily's Dad, smoked the pork bbq himself and we had a small feast. Instead of cards for Lily, they had everyone sign one of her Cat in the Hat books so that as she grows up she will be able to know everyone who was at her first birthday party. So sweet! However my favorite moment had to be watching Lily discover her cake. I say "discover" because she didn't smash it, she just investigated it more and more.
Happy Birthday Lily! You are a beautiful and sweet little girl. I can't wait to see you grow more!
Last weekend was Speed Racer's birthday! The Padre, Mr and Mrs Hokie, and even Mrs Miami and Little Miss came down for the weekend. Our house was chock full of people but we wouldn't have had it any other way.
Everyone got in on Friday and we had a great time staying up late and catching up. Saturday the boys went off for a manly pancake breakfast, and we ladies slept in and started on cooking the desert for that evening...delicious delicious banana pudding! Mrs Hokie brought the double boiler and stand mixer (so jealous!) needed for the recipe, apparently it's a Paula Deane recipe and I highly recommend it.
Yum!
Little Miss helped out a lot and was a good sport because all the ladies did was talk, talk, and then talk a little more.
But we enjoyed catching up, it had been awhile since we had all been together.
Once we got all the cooking prepped and the pudding was in the fridge, we headed into town for a ladies lunch.
With all that girl time I think Little Miss was ready for the boys return. She hung out with them outside while they got the brats and hamburgers ready. She had them wrapped around her little finger though. These next pictures of Little Miss and The Padre were all taken by Speed Racer. I saw this out the window but was mashing up ALOT of potatoes for dinner, when Speed Racer walked by with his camera and starting shooting. Great minds think alike, huh?
They were feeding this stray that has been around our house a lot. She's suffered some abuse and we keep trying to get her to come to us. She only will if you have food, and even then very hesitantly. She's very sweet and I wish we could find her a good home.
Unfortunately, this is the last picture for the night though. I had my hands pretty full for the rest of it. So after this we dug in. Speed Racer's special hamburgers, brats with sauerkraut, creamy mashed potatoes, and of course...banana pudding. The girls and I put candles in the banana pudding and had Speed Racer blow them out. Classic. Soon after that Little Miss fell asleep on the couch, while the rest of us sat around the bonfire and enjoyed just being together. All in all I think it was a good birthday, I know I had fun, and hopefully there will be many more like that to come.
Friday night around midnight, I got in the mood to bake. This happens more often than you would think. So the only question was, what was I going to make? The answer was simple. My FAVORITE chocolate pie. My mother had made it at Christmas but due to my bout of cluster headaches I was unable to partake ( chocolate + cluster headaches = even more pain). It was terrible, no chocolate a christmas!! The horror. So, I made up for it this weekend. This recipe actually came from my Aunt which I'm sure she also got from somewhere. It's one of those recipes that's just been passed along. So I'm going to pass it on to you.
In mixing bowl, beat 3 eggs until light, beat in 3 T. white caro syrup, 1 1/2 c. sugar, 1/4 t vanilla. That right there is delicious.
Meanwhile, over low heat melt 1 stick of butter and 3 square of baking chocolate. NOTE: I do this in the microwave just because it's simpler, but you can do this in a saucepan if you wish. Also by "3 squares" it turns out that means 3 oz. Hershey now sells bakers chocolate in 1/2 ounce squares so that can be a little confusing. I also use unsweetened baker's chocolate.
Now at this point you may be tempted to lick this whole freakin' bowl, ahem, but remember this chocolate is unsweetened. It will not taste as yummy as it looks. Not yet. Add slightly cooked chocolate mixture into mixing bowl.
Stir until combined.
Pour into 9" pie pan and bake at 375 for 45-50 minutes. Remember this is a chess pie, so be careful not to over bake. When it is done it should still shake like a custard.
Mine was not very pretty but very very delicious. I think the reason it fell and cracked was because instead of stirring in the chocolate mixture I beat it in, thus adding more air, so it puffed up a lot. WARNING: This chocolate pie is so good you (and maybe your husband) might just eat the whole thing before the weekend is out...and gain 3 pounds...might happen. Just sayin'.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbke1GHsejQ] Alert! This video will make you want to have babies, lots of babies. Men, guard your loins.
The holidays have been fantastic. I really have enjoyed every minute, and I hate to say that I'm sad to see them go. They've also been a whirlwind of presents, paper, food, traveling, family, and friends. So as we head into the new year (can't believe it's going to be 2011) I'm going to try to do a little catching up.
The week before Christmas we had all of Speed Racer's side of the family over for dinner and presents. It was the first time since we really got a lot of work done on the house that everyone had been there at once.
So we pulled out my Grandmother's china, decorated with cheer, and cooked a ham.
The day of was a bit of fiasco until everyone got there. I had been having terrible headaches every night the week before that were keeping me up at night (more on that later). I was tired, moving slow, and just downright not thinking. I was feeling so bad at work that I knocked off a little early and came home to take a nap, knowing that I had plenty of time to put the ham in before people got there.
Oh what a lie that was. In my tiredness I had misread the cook times, and there was not enough time for ham. So, I ran back to the store...in the rain...and bought another, precooked, smaller ham. As I started cooking everything became a disaster, the potatoes, the ham still wasn't cooking fast enough, things still had to be done...I was on the verge of giving up and going back to bed. But who came to my rescue? None other than my Speed Racer.
He kissed me. Told me everything was going to work out, that the mash potatoes were bad but fixable...put on some Christmas music and got to work. He ironed the table cloth, started the fire, and then helped me in the kitchen. It was teamwork and just as people were arriving, we pulled a beautiful ham out of the oven.
Everyone started tearing into their presents, and the kitties were glad to play with all the paper.
It truly was a wonderful evening. I love having family and friends in this house, it brings me complete joy and reminded me that this is what Christmas is all about.
I woke up this morning to snow. I'm sure many of you did. Snow in Knoxville, Tennessee though is a big deal. People freak out a little bit about it, and not just like, "OOO snow!" more like, "We may get stuck in our houses forever." There was not even an inch this morning, and by this afternoon it had all melted. There were still hundreds of cars in the grocery store parking lot...no joke. However, it was very pretty this morning and put me in a great holiday mood.
This is what it looked like on my walk to work...
...I'm a very fast walker, but the guy in front of me was movin'. It was really cold.
And of course all the morning commuters.
This is one of my favorite statues. It's of a man rowing a boat, but the way the sculpture is done he is rowing it into pavement, and it looks almost like he is sinking. The irony of this is that he is right outside the building where I work, and sometimes when I walk by I feel like I'm sinking in there too. Ahem, in a non-emo way of course.
When it was snowing on Sunday, Speed Racer and I were tackling our Christmas decorations. It was pretty perfect, Christmas carols were playing, christmas lights were not working, and the fire was beautiful and warm.
Ah, perfection. I mean, the lights, not the handsome redheaded man right....there. But I'm getting distracted. It does puzzle me how every year you can buy new Christmas lights, when they are done put them into a safe, dry box, and then the next year half of them do not work. What is the deal?? I want answers Christmas light industry. In the end we went out and had to buy some more...these were gonners.
Now we just need the star!
These cute little owls are some of my favorite ornaments. I got them at Le Target when we first moved here and I just think they are adorable. They make me smile every time I see them.
Speed Racer on the other hand...
...thinks they are weird and creepy. It's Christmas by gosh and it's not Christmas without...Christmas owwwwwllls??? As I say with most things, "Whatevs, I do what I want." Le. End.