San Diego Birth Photographer - Halloween Video

 Click the black image to see the video!

 

Like OkiDoki HERE.

San Diego Birth Photographer - My Family {Part One}

So as a photographer I supposed to have amazing photos of my children.  Honestly I have to pretty much threaten abuse to get them to do anything.  Today I had a cooperative husband and gift cards to Yogurt Land on my side.  They were not to shabby for me.

Part Two tomorrow... unless my birth client has her sweet baby.

San Diego Birth Photographer - Free Summer Lunch Program

This is our first summer in San Diego and this summer we are not traveling.  We figure we are already in one of the top tourist destinations, plus we will explore our new city.   On the last day of school I got a flyer (which I normally ignore) from the school lunch program.  Apparently in San Diego they do free school lunch at select locations and free BBQ's.  So I typed in a few of the address for the BBQ and noticed they are scattered around San Diego.

Here are the details.  Kids 18 and younger are free (all kids), parents are $2.00.  At the BBQ's they have hamburgers, hotdogs, beans, and watermelon.  They have booths setup for activities, crafts, and vendors.  Two of the BBQ's had free books and all of them give free fruit.  We have gotten apples, oranges and plums.

Here is an example day of how we are spending our San Diego Staycation.

The other day we went to the Adams Location.  I went on Google maps and noticed the closet park was Old Trolley Park.  So our plan for the day was to venture to a new area and do some exploring.

If you have a GPS you could even just search the closest parks to you.  We just started park jumping.  That is another post for another day.

 A few photos of the day.

The last photo was not even all of the loot the kids got.  That was just what I could find.  I love this program, it is really fantastic.  We have met a ton of new people and it is a great way to spend the day with your children.  

Here are some links for you.

Click HERE for the list of dates for the BBQ's.

My Facebook Page

Beautification

This was a challenge that I came up with driving my kids to school.  I wanted to take something ugly and make it gorgeous.  Now I am a portrait photographer and seriously struggle with landscapes.  When I see a great landscape, I always think to myself this photo would be better with a person.  Now I am not saying I can't do it.  I am just saying I have zero interest in landscapes.  This thinking also spills over onto things... like a big electricity box.

So here is this metal box in a big ugly dirt field with the MCX gas station .  It is right outside the entrance to my neighborhood.  Pretty ugly.  I took these in about three minutes as I had to get back to the house to watch my children.  You know the whole I should be an awesome mom and actually take care of them.  

My friend Denise joined me on this challenge so when you are done looking at my photos make sure to skip on over to her blog.  A link will be posted in the morning or whenever she post to her blog. (I just learned from her no post, she is sick).

Make sure to click here to like my facebook fan page.

and I am now taking appointments in San Diego! 

If you would like to also network and do the next challenge for my little Beautification project let me know and I will link it up!

Spring Break or Bust!

For this little family it has been a bust! BUST is more like it.  You should see my list of places I wanted to take the kids.  To the park to get their national park badges, to the beach, to legoland (again), we were going to bake, and go to butterfly jungle.  It was going to awesome! Then I totally broke my glasses. Annihilated them.  Even though they were broken I could still wear them for driving, but then they just disappeared.  Gone! Gone! That means stuck at home until they come in.

So on to the whole point of this post.  About 4 years ago I met this awesome lady named Denise who was just starting her business.  We got along fabulously, our children are the same age, they love each other and in my typical fashion met her just before I was to move. Anyways we still chat and now we are both stateside again.  She is located in Las Vegas.  So if you are from there, going there.... get photos with her.  She is pretty awesome! I will link up later.

So both of us were chatting and needed some inspiration.  We came up with a few ideas and this post is one of them.  To make any cookie recipe and photograph it.  Easy right! Wrong... and here is how it went down.

Idea! Cookie Rainbows. Not original.... but each of my kids are color coded.  Since they were born so close it was easy for coding sippy cups, plates, etc... Braylen is pink, Jackson is blue, and Kennon is green.  So I was going to use only those three colors and had a great theme for it.  Posed photos for the cookies and the kids with their color cookie.

1. Go to the commissary
2. No food coloring
3. Kids act like maniacs, drive me crazy.
4. Get the rest of the stuff I need for dinner.
5. Go home.
6. Crap I forgot butter and eggs.
7. Well I saw you can substitute chia seeds and bananas for this.
8. Not sacrificing my chia seeds.
9. Used a banana
10. The cookie mix is like concrete.  Kids are bummed they can't help.
11.  I do all the work.
12. I did find those icing flavors enhancer. I think flavor creations.  Put that in the batter for color.
13. Burn a batch of cookies.
14. Bonus house smells like bananas bread.
15. Kids were outside for a long time.  Dirty and now it's dark.
16. No amazing pictures with them then.
17. Kids fight over.... he ate my color cookie.  Mooooom there are no pinks left.
18. I go make a whisky drink, pass out drunk on the couch!

Here are a few photos! What is a blog post without them.

#18 was for shock value... I don't like to drink.  Well okay... I drink coffee. Lots and Lots of coffee.

Click Here to become of fan of Denise.  <-------- click="" here="">

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One last thing about this whole Mama Drama of a post.  I was rushing it because it was late.  Denise is like where is your post woman?.  I am thinking I am a terrible friend.  Before having my cup of coffee I write this bad boy up.  Text her to let her know it is up and then she is like "mine is shot, but not blogged."  

Yes! That just happened.

Dr Suess Day in Lincoln Family Housing

Our family has been blessed to be stationed at MCAS Miramar.  After being in Japan for six years it is a nice change of pace (I say this as all we do is talk about going back).  The bigger blessing is our neighborhood.  I personally have zero complainants except for the fact that no one talks to each other. You wave hello and the lady pushing the stroller looks away grumbly.  Then eventually you stop saying hello and just assume things are bad for her.  Maybe this is a blessing.. no gossiping, and zero drama.  Although lately my husband and I who vowed to be friendlier this year (hence noticing grumbly hello's or lack of them).  We have been persistent and have made friends with the awesome family in our building.  The direct neighbors all around us.  If you know the family who does the movie on the lawns every week.... THAT US!!! Come on over... anyone can come.

So with that I love that our base housing host events.  The kids had a blast and drove me absolutely nuts. I have three kids and they all go in three separate directions.   I also learned that our next door neighbor from Okinawa lives right down the road. How awesome is that!! So tomorrow we will be heading over their house to celebrate their new kids one year old birthday.

All in all I guess what I was saying is why be so grumbly to each other.  We are our own families.  I have family on the East coast and I can say 100% no one will visit.  Not because they don't love us... just because times are tough.  So we make due with what we have and that is our neighbors.  So if you come across this... please say Hi! 

If you like to have your photos taken I have a plug at the end of this post.

Disclaimer I just ran a filter on these as they are my personal photos, my kids are super dirty, a few photos did not get re-sized and look funky.  Normally I'd fix.. but my kids are dying for my attention (clearly they are neglected).

Enjoy!

For the month of April.  Any military child can have their photo taken at my home studio or in a super secret squirrel location on base for no session fee.  Just email me for the details at OKIDOKIPHOTOGRAPHY@ME.COM  I only have a few slots open... so email me quick!

CLICK HERE FOR MY FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Thanks again to Lincoln Housing for hosting such a fun event.  We had a great time!

Studio

Starting to get the semi-perminate studio ready.  The children have been awesome at being my guinea pigs.  I am really lucky in this house to have a great space.  Now we just need to find the time to get it all complete.