Light Mini Pizzas

Al and I have been in a weight loss contest for the last 4 weeks and have had successful weight loss every week. I think one reason is that we never deprive ourselves of anything. Let me also add that I had a lot of chocolate pie last week (father-in-law's birthday) and lots of my infamous chocolate cupcake icing (again for father-in-law's birthday) and I still lost 1.8 last week! You cannot deprive yourself while losing weight - you'll just sabotage yourself later on...and I am a chocoholic...MUST. HAVE. CHOCOLATE. EVERYDAY!!!! Anyway, Al and I also love pizza and started creating these mini pizzas some time ago. They are delish when you're watching what you are eating!

Start with Thomas' Light Multi-Grain English Muffins - only 100 calories! Top with your favorite spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce - just a few calories there. Add your toppings...we like to use red and green bell peppers:


We add a little Garli Ghetti to our pizzas. Found this stuff at the O.C. Fair and LOVE it!!


Stick them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes and then take them out and add some fat free cheese. I think it's about 25 calories a slice and we use the sharp cheddar for more flavor. Stick them in the oven for another couple of minutes:


Take them out...ta da...light mini pizzas! :)

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...and baby makes three!

Another session from last year! This was a easy, relaxed session. Krystl and I met at my old job and had lots of fun times together. We've seen each other through a few boys before we both found "the one". :) It's been so nice to see her in this new happy place with her new little family!

Her little boy is adorable!! He was also the toughest cookie I've ever photographed! It makes me smile looking at these images. I could say the silliest things or make the stupidest noise and nothing! I can see the possibility of a career with the Secret Service in his future. ;)













I love this one. :)

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Seal Beach Sunset...in January

Riley's New York grandpa is out here visiting and it's been a whirlwind of adventures. I told him that he needed to see a California sunset in January before he left and God did not disappoint. It was a beautiful day today...70 something in Southern California - he said it was about 10 degrees in New York!

Seal Beach:

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Brenda - Anytime Session

I met Brenda via the internet and the story is too long to try write at this late hour, but I'm glad I reached out and I'm glad she was game. I also had to postpone this session a few times and she was so understanding each time. I think it was meant to be when it finally happened because this was the first time where I think I found my "sweet spot" in regards to light. I wish every session had light like this to work with. Oh, it was heavenly!

One of my favorite images that I've ever shot.




Another favorite. I know I'm biased because I took it, but I feel I could see this photo set in the middle of a "feel good about yourself" article in a women's magazine.

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Little Miss "G"

My little blog has been neglected - this session is from before Christmas!!

Remember this little cutie?


She's growin' up!!


My heart is happy that I was able to make friends with this family and have been able to see this little one grow so far! She's just the sweetest and it's nice to have a friend like Mom that knows life gets in the way and is understanding when you have to put off play dates...and yet, when you see each other again, it's like no time has passed at all! Love this little family...but it's not going to be little much longer...baby #2 is on the way!! Sooooo happy for them!! But until then, this little love bug is the star of the show. Love, love, love her!











...and Riley loves her too! :)

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Happy 2nd Birthday, Riley Grace!!!!

Dear Riley Grace,

Wow, wow, wow!!!! Today you are going to be 2! On 1/11/11! ;) I cannot believe it!! Where did the time go?! Everyone used to tell me, "It goes so fast!" and you think, yeah, yeah, yeah...but it really does!!

I won't go into the monthly update stats because everything is basically the same. The only things I want to make sure to document this time is that we made it to almost 2 years without any ear infections! I know that's a big problem in some little ones and you just had your first one this last month and you were a trooper! You told Daddy that your ear itched but you never really cried or fussed or anything. When your cold kept lingering, we decided to call the doctor. Poor girl, you had an ear infection. :( You would have never known it - you were pretty much your normal self throughout it - which is usually pretty happy! You were also a trooper about taking your medicine. I cringed the first time I saw it because it was milky white and I didn't even think to ask if we could have it flavored but you took each teaspoon filled syringe (two doses twice a day) each time without grimacing. You were amazing! Every time you took your medicine you'd pull on your ear and say, "Make ear better." and I'd say, "Yes, it's going to make your ear feel better!" OMG, it was the cutest thing. :)

I forgot to mention last month that you know your last name although you leave out one of the syllables. :) Today someone asked you your name and you told them our last name! Ha!!

I know every parent says this about their child, but you are seriously so smart!! You can recognize all your letters and numbers and colors and most shapes which I think I mentioned before but you surprise me with new things. Today after we went grocery shopping, I promised you that you could ride the horses out in front of the grocery store if you were a good girl (which you usually are!). I put you on the horse and I said, "Ready?" before I put the quarters in and you said, "Ready!" and then you said, "Hold tight!" Ha!! It cracked me up - I didn't know where you heard that but Daddy said he said that to you at Disneyland when you were on the carousel there! When were in the store you said, "Mommy! Mommy!" and I asked you "What?" You then said, "Parade! Parade!" You were looking at the ceiling and I couldn't figure out what you were talking about until I heard the song. "I love rock and roll" was playing and that was your FAVORITE song in the Disneyland "Celebrate" parade! I could not believe it!! I told you that were so smart. I seriously cannot get over that moment!

Tonight we're having a little get together with Grammy and Papa to have the official cake (and maybe ice cream!) but we took you to Disneyland on Sunday to celebrate your birthday with Minnie and Friends at the Character Breakfast! What a fun memory that was. You were a little overwhelmed at first because there were so many characters that just wanted to spend time with you (and the other families that were there). Instead of waiting in line to meet a character, it was like the characters were waiting in line to meet you! It was wonderful! There were so many characters coming over and so many opportunities to talk with them, hug and kiss them that our breakfast kept getting cold! I think you'll really "get it" if we do it again next year, but you did enjoy it and it was just a nice, sweet time with just the three of us. We then rode the carousel, Dumbo, passed Jessie and Woody which you loved and rode the big pirate ship. We then headed over to California Adventure to see the Muppet 3D show and then went home and napped! It's one of my favorite memories so far.





Telling Minnie that you are "almost two". You use both fingers to show the number 2. :)


Dancing with Minnie:


Kisses from Minnie:


Fairy Godmother telling you she helped make your Cinderella dress. :)


Minnie wiping your face. She even pretended to wet the napkin in her mouth before wiping!


White Rabbit catching your kisses:


Taking a balloon to go:




It was a great day!


Looking forward to celebrating the day with you, baby girl! You are such a blessing and we love you so much and hope for the very best for your life. I hope to do right by you and I hope you look back and are happy with your childhood. I hope that you grow to love Jesus. I hope that you are close with us when you grow up. I have so many hopes for you. Most of all, I hope that life is good to you. Dream big, little girl...and may all your dreams come true!

Love, love, love you, baby girl!
Mommy

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Fairytales, Princesses and Fireflies

Last week we went to look for paint for Riley's room. We never found out what we were having while I was pregnant (we figured life only gives you so many GREAT surprises and that is one of the few) so we registered for everything gender neutral and we painted her room a neutral color. Kinda yellowish, kinda creamish, kinda yuck-ish. Our baby girl is going to be 2 next week and we felt like she deserved a little girl's room.

It was pretty instant. We skimmed the paint color selections and hubby said it was my decision. We picked up a few colors. One was too dark. One too pale. The next, just right. I looked at the color and kinda laughed. Fairytale Pink. But of course.


Before I had a baby girl I used to cringe at little girls wearing princess dresses and watching princess movies and reading knight-in-shining-armor-on-his-white-horse stories. I thought it created an unrealistic reality (and sometimes still do). I feel that if you don't have parents who help you understand that real life isn't like that usually, it could make for some unsatisfied women later in life - and some miserable men.

I also used to cringe when people would call a little girl "Princess". Al and I cringed a bunch when she was just months old. Family, friends- and especially - strangers love to call a little girl "Princess". I really think that I've only begun to accept the 'princess' nickname in the last year. Something in me started to change. Why shouldn't she be called princess? Why shouldn't she dress in the same outfits she sees some of the pretty girls in the movies wear? Why shouldn't she believe in good overcoming evil and falling in love and never looking in the rear view mirror? This is the time to believe in fairy tales and princesses. This is the time where her mommy should go along with those things whether mommy believes in them or not. We're coming up on 2 years and this is a magical time. Christmas lights are exciting, flowers need to be smelled and the stray cat that daddy feeds is funny.

I now embrace the short time where one can believe in fairytales and princesses...and my princess deserves a Fairytale Pink room.


And if "life" starts to get in my way of remembering to believe in fairytales and princesses and the cow jumping over the moon, I'll sing this, the perfect anthem for remembering to believe and to dream:

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A new year brings renewed hope.

My 2011 has started out with lots of Oprah on the DVR. I am in HEAVEN with a whole channel devoted to Oprah-approved shows. I just feel like I can be a better person or do better things or have learned something or heard something a different way after I watch one of her shows. I usually come away feeling inspired and/or hopeful about what my life is/can become. I loved her little new year quote:

“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.”

Images taken at El Dorado Nature Center on New Year's Eve 2010.

A few hopes for this upcoming year:

• Spend more time with my family away from the computer, Blackberry, etc. It's getting a little crazy with the technology, don'tcha think?
• Train for and complete a half marathon. Yikes. Yikes. Yikes. Wasn't I the one who said "Never again!" after my first 10K in 2009? Yes, but then I did another 10K in 2010 and it wasn't so bad. If I train, I believe I can add a half marathon to my list of "things I achieved after the age of 35". Not sure that I WANT to, but I'm pretty certain I am capable. (Thanks Scotty. :))
  
• Read at LEAST one book a month.
• Choose two people each month to send a card to - just an out-of-the-blue "thinking about you" card. Write meaningful words in it. Things I can say now instead of things I would have wished I would have told the person if they were no longer in my life. Life needs more of this. In fact, I know the first two people that I'm going to write to for the month of January.
  

Thankful to the Lord for another birthday at the very end of 2010 and waking up to another new year a few days later. Thankful for life.

I wish a great 2011 for us all!

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