San Diego Birth Photographer - Mother's Day Session

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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.

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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!

Playing

I love this spot.  The lighting is amazing. The lighting is amazing and did I mention... I love the lighting.  There is another thing there is ground squirrels or some adorable little creatures that live here.

This last photo is my favorite of the bunch.  Not edited in anyway other than re-sized for web.  I love their twin like behavior, their love for each other.

Don't forget to like Okidoki Photography on my Fan page HERE

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.  

My Little Learner

I needed a way to motivate my boys.  I took them to the store and let them pick out a toy around $20.  The idea was to get a $20 toy and make them do 50 or so learning worksheets.  In my mind this should have taken a month.  50 worksheets is a whole lot for a five and six year old... or so I thought.

Kennon fell in love with this idea and he wanted his toy!  He wanted it tonight and he was not going to play around.  Today he finished all but six papers.  He will have and enjoy his toy tomorrow. 

Moving on-ward.  Matthew and I are trying something new for our family.  Church!  We went last Sunday as a family for the first time.  My husband grew up in a great church and for me there was nothing.  I visited my mother's new church and it was actually nice.  The pastor was funny and the people were really great.  So when I approached the idea to my husband about going to church... he said yes!  Another motivator was my step-daughter.  I think she had mixed messages from her bio mom and then a completely different story at our house.  One day I caught her reading the bible and she looked guilty ;)  What! So I promised her we would try a new church when we moved.  Then that opportunity came at my mother's house and she fell in love with it too.  I do love the community, the love to help others, and love that my whole family is excited by it.  

So last Sunday we were starving after the service and as a result we spent about $60 bucks on food.  I just hate doing that!  We could have went to the movies, a museum, etc.. This time I wanted to be prepared and armed for that starvation.  I wanted to have something to be ready for us when we got home.  This took me two hours to cook all of this.  If you didn't have a child doing home work, a child helping you clean, and the whoops I have to run (really run) to the store.  It would have only taken a hour.  

For dinner I wanted something easy.  Meatball subs.  Bread, meatballs, marinara sauce and cheese.  Yum! 

For dinner tomorrow we are having Cheeseburger soup.  In the morning I know I will not have time to prepare the crock-pot meal.  So while the meatballs were cooking.  I browned the beef and cubed the cheese.  Stuck a little sticky to remind my sleepy self what to do.  

Braylen browned the beef ;)

Here is the link.

He was already sitting here for about an hour working for his toy.  Look at that adorable lip. Love him!

We ate dinner and he is still hard at work.

Then for desert we made a three ingredient cake.  Braylen cut all the apples.  This was really good.  Okay so cake mix.  Holy.. Oh.. MY.. Goodness.  Really $2.48 a box, since when.  Sooo being that I have to be a little frugal now (I am still not pushing OkiDoki yet)...but I am available if you want to book.  I chose to go with the on-sale $.99 lemon cake mix.  I actually think that it was tasty and added a little something extra.  

Here is the link to the cake link.

So in THIS post, I talked about our military food storage place.  I always get a french loaf if it isn't hard as a rock. The problem is what to do with four loaves a week.  Don't get me wrong... I L.O.V.E my carbs, but four loaves can be overkill.  So you can freeze it.  I slice it up and pull out what I need.  Then on google I found this recipe.

Still at it an hour later.

Peach french toast bake before putting it in the fridge.

Here is the link.

He got stuck on something and I just couldn't get to him.  Braylen volunteered to stop helping me, to start helping him.  Love her!

I will let you know how the cheeseburger soup is and the peach overnight casserole.

Yes! My kitchen is a mess... Don't judge, it isn't nice ;)

Freezer Potatoes

Here in San Diego active duty families have access to a food storage.  Basically it has free bread, eggs, fruits and vegetables.  I can go Monday-Thursday everyday.  In one word it is awesome.  Just yesterday I picked up 7 oranges, 14 cuties, 4 grape fruits, a loaf of french bread, raisin english muffins, and a loaf of wheat bread. It is different every time I go.  Last week they had potatoes, so now I am up to my eyeballs in potatoes.  I have to figure out how to use them all.  So I head over to pinterest and found a few things.  I found how to freeze potatoes on google. 

Now this is actually a re-make of a few recipes that I found.

Cut up potatoes into small bites

Soak in water for about 15 minutes

Dry them off

Brush with olive oil

Sprinkle with Garlic Pepper

Cook until tender

Let cool 

and freeze in a ziploc bag

When you use them for breakfast toss in the microwave for a few minutes to soften.

Fry them, add to burritos, etc... 

So easy my eight year old does this by herself now.  She LOVES to help in the kitchen.