It's All About Me

Week 7/Recipe 6- Joe's Peanut Butter Pie

Looks like I have already seemed to get behind and totally skipped on a recipe last week!  Luckily I think I have 2 this week so I should be good!  Before I get to the recipe though, I wanted to say thanks to those of you who had left me a comment and for the kind words about my new Project 365 kit.  I have decided to name the series "Celebrate Everyday"... seems so fitting since thats exactly how I like to live my life, appreciating all of the good I see everyday and how blessed I am!  I was originally going to do a drawing... which I actually did do and found a few winners:

 

But, I'm feeling good tonight and have decided to give everyone who left a comment on this post the starter kit!!! So all comments left BEFORE 11:00pm on 2-15-10 will get the goodies!  Go ahead and leave me a little note that has your correct email on it here or at cnielsen11 AT hotmail DOT com and I will get you a gift certificate to the store to grab it :)

Alright, baking time!!!  Well, after a brief little story....

So this past weekend was Valentine's Day.  Normally my husband and I don't celebrate it, he normally has some flowers sent or something small like that, but this year he decided to go way out!  He had an entire weekend getaway trip planned for the 2 of us, kids going to grandma's house :)  He booked a room at my favorite San Diego resort:

 

I adore this resort, but there spa is the bestest AND as it turns out, my husband also surprised me when he said he booked me a massage also!  Man he is a good boy!  Rose petals greeted me as soon as we arrived...

 

I actually didn't get a chance to shoot the pic right when I got there, so by the time I left the spa, all of the flowers were all pretty much squashed lol!  It was gorgeous though, I was totally not expecting any of this.  We drove out to Riverside to drop the kids off and then drove back to San Diego.  Keep in mind I still had no clue where we were going, what we were doing, nothing!  I was just along for the ride!  

My massage was fab, the facility... amazing as always!

 

 

and here he is waiting to pick me up...

 

Then when I was done, he said we had dinner reservations at one of the hotel restaurants.  My husband is NOT a fancy kind of guy, so he just changed his shirt and kept his jeans on.  I had intended on wearing a dress, but dulled it down a bit to match him better :)  Of course he wouldn't take a picture of me because he knew it would be posted here or on Facebook lol!  

 

We left Sunday afternoon, grabbed the kids some Valentine's gifts for them, and called it a day.  All in all, it was a GREAT weekend!  I love my hunny bear!  So considerate, so thoughtful!  So, what does a good wife do for her husband after a weekend like that?  Makes his favorite dessert ever:

Peanut Butter Pie

 

A few years ago, he told me that his grandmother used to make something similar to this and my husband just loved it.  I searched high and low and found a similar recipe with JIFFY peanut butter.  I made some minor changes and it seems to be a big hit around here!

INGREDIENTS:

- 2 sleeves graham crackers (they come in a 14.4 oz box and you use 2 of the 3 packages inside)

- 1 1/4 cup + 2 TBSP's granulated sugar

- 3/4 cup melted butter

- 1 cup creamy peanut butter

-8 oz of cream cheese (at room temperature)

- 1 8 oz tub of Cool Whip

- 1 cup heavy whipping cream

- 1 jar hot fudge (I like this one HERE)

RECIPE:

So easy..... melt butter in a microwave safe dish about 1 minute.  Stir and let stand for a couple of minutes to cool slightly.  Meanwhile, add all of the graham crackers to a food processor and pulse until completely crushed and smooth.  Add 3/4 cup sugar, pulse to combine.  Slowly add the melted butter until the crust begins to form a ball and pulls away from the sides.  Add all of the crust to the bottom of a greased plate.  Begin to press into bottom and up edges.

 

Once the crust is formed and in place, place it in the refrigerator for at least 1/2 hour to harden up.  In the meantime begin filling.

Place cream cheese, peanut butter, and 1/2 cup sugar into a mixing bowl.  Whip until light and fluffy.  Gently fold 3 cups of Cool Whip/whipped topping in until combined.  Spoon mixture into pie shell and smooth out to edges.

 

Place back in refrigerator for another 1/2 hour.  

Take the hot fudge topping and reserve approximately 2 tablespoons into a small bowl.  Put the remaining fudge in the microwave for 45 seconds to 1 minute.  Spoon hot fudge over the top of the peanut filling and out to the edges.

 

Put back in fridge... 

When you are ready to serve the pie, whip up the heavy cream for about 2 minutes until soft peaks form.  Slowly add last 2 tbsp's of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold in the last cup of Cool Whip/whipped topping.  add that on top of the hot fudge layer (which is now cooled and slightly hardened).  

Microwave the reserved 2 tbsp's of fudge for about 10 seconds or until smooth and loose enough to drizzle.  You can either add this to a small piping bag, zip lock, etc. to drizzle or you can just use a spoon to do it!  Cover the top in drizzles and voila :)

This is a super rich, creamy dessert!  Perfect with a glass of milk!

Until next time....

 

Week 5/Recipe 5- Cupcake & Mushroom Oreo Truffle's

I have made oreo truffles quite a few times in a the past couple of years and absolutely ADORE them. I'm not huge into chocolate, I don't crave it like a lot of people do, but for some reason, these sweet, rich, little bites are irresistible.  It's like taking a bite out of heaven each and every time!  I kind of got tired making the same old ones, dipped in semi sweet chocolate, then sprinkled with some more Oreo so went on a search for some other ideas.  Of course, I went to FLICKR to find some gorgeous pictures and found some cute ideas, the cupcake ones being my favorite.  So I decided to give those a try...  once I started shaping them, my son walked by and said "Why you you making mushroom's with this batch?"  I thought "What a GREAT idea :)  So thats where it started... thanks Blake lol!  

 

 

They take some work because of the melting, but are so adorable that you can't resist!  I thought I would show both the mushroom and cupcake idea since I was making both kinds with my kids... here we go, the base recipe is seriously too simple:

 Mushroom & Cupcake Oreo Truffles

Ingredients:

1- package of OREO's (I use the reduced fat ones because I like to pretend they are better for ya)

1- 8 oz package cream cheese (softened completely to room temperature)

1- 6-8 oz bar semi sweet chocolate (I like Ghirardelli)

1 to 2- packages candy melts (red & white for mushrooms and pink for cupcakes or whatever color you wanna make yours)- these can be purchased at JoAnne's, Michael's, or cake decorating stores.  HERE is a list of colors.

Additional things needed:  Multi colored sprinkles & mini M & M's (preferably the red ones)

Let's get started! 

  

um yeah... thats it, thats all ya need.  crazy right?  The first few steps here are the same if you want to make the "plain" old, super yummy oreo truffles...

You will also need a little cookie cutter shaped like a flower or even something fluted might work.  I can't remember where I got this one, but this is the shape you are lookin for:

1.  Ok first things first... pulverize all of your cookies EXCEPT about 7-10 of them (only if you are making the regular truffles otherwise you can crush all of them).  Set those aside for a bit.  Put them in a small zip lock bag and crush them down.  They don't have to be completely broken down, but crushed enough to sprinkle on top of the truffles later on!  

 

I use my food processor to do the big batch, but I suppose if you don't have one of those nifty machines, you can throw the cookies in a zip lock bag and use a rolling pin to crush them.  That would be a good opportunity for the kiddos to help too :)  Just make sure that the cookies are REALLY good and crushed. Not using the processor will probably make the crushed cookies pretty inconsistent, so just do your best! They should be ground pretty smooth.  Sorry for the crappy picture... hard getting it that close while trying to focus and hold the camera lol

 

2.  Next add the cream cheese right into the food processor or into your bowl and mix, mix, mix!  Slowly it will all come together into a big, fat, gooey lump of yummy!

 

3.  Next you need to roll them into balls.  I use a nifty, handy, dandy, scooper that gives me approximately 1 1/2 " balls :)  I swear, this tool is one of my favorites for baking!  I use it all of the time so if you don't have one and wanna get one... get a good, sturdy one!

 

I like to get them all scooped and then I go back and shape them... either into perfect little balls :)  or into mushrooms/cupcakes.  Place each one on a parchment lined baking sheet.

 

4.  Now you have to shape em'!  If you are doing the regular oreo truffles, just smooth them out and make them nice and rounded!  If you are doing the mushroom/cupcakes, then you keep up with me here! OK This is probably totally inappropriate, but I can't help it and have to address it before you see the first shape you roll them into.... each and every time I look at this picture or think about the day I was shaping these, ALL I could think of was 1 thing... actually when my husband walked by and saw them, he must have thought the same thing because he asked me "Um, why are you making little balls?"  Like literally... balls.

 

Inappropriate right?  I don't think I can even look at that picture anymore without laughing lol!  Alright, now that's off my chest I can continue :)

5.  After you get that shape out of the way, all you have to do is slip 1 end of it into the cookie cutter.  The dough is super soft and you can mold it pretty easy to fit.  You only put about 1/2 of the ball into the cutter though.  The rest are the tops of the mushrooms/cupcakes so you want to exaggerate it as best as you can to go over the edges to look mushroom-ey OR cupcake-ey.  After a few tries, it will get easy and you will move right along and zip through all of them!  Just takes a bit of practice!

 

Slip it out of the cookie cutter CAREFULLY... it should look similar to this:

 

You are going to want to put them back on the cookie sheet so they can harden a bit in the fridge.  Also, they aren't the "perfect" shape yet, so when you go to set them down on the parchment, just smush them down a LITTLE bit... start like this:

 

and end like this:

 

get them all on and then they go into the refrigerator until the get a bit more firm, at least 1 hour!

 

FOR REGULAR TRUFFLES & CUPCAKE TRUFFLES:

6.  Once they are nice and cold, chop up your semi sweet chocolate into small pieces for melting.  This is for the BOTTOM portion of the truffles.  Oh I wanted to mention also.. some people use chocolate chips to melt and while they can work perfectly fine, I don't ever like using chips for melting because they have stabilizers added and won't melt quite as smooth as the real bars of chocolate.  BUT if chips is all ya got, just add some CRISCO to them and they will be totally fine!  Chop em up!

 

 

FOR MUSHROOM TRUFFLES:

6.  you can shop up your white candy melts if you want to melt faster, but you can also just leave them as is and go to the next step.  This is for the BOTTOM portion of the truffles.

7.  You need to melt the chocolate/candy melts.  You can use the microwave, but I don't like using that method either.... I always feel like I have to watch it more close and it never comes out how I like it!  So I do the double boiler by just placing a glass bowl on top of a little pot half filled with water.

 

Stir occasionally over medium heat and once the chocolate is super smooth and silky, turn off the heat and you are ready to start making them come to life :) 

8.  Grab the truffles out of the fridge.  Grab one and dip the BOTTOM half into the chocolate... all the way up until the ridge.  NOTE: Don't discard any left over melted white candy melts!  You will need that for the mushroom dots!

 

Same goes for the regular semi sweet chocolate cupcakes!  If you are doing the regular truffles, roll the WHOLE ball in the chocolate!  Then just place them back onto the parchment paper.

MUSHROOMS:

 

CUPCAKES:

 

They should set pretty quick, especially the candy melt ones.  Semi sweet chocolate will take a bit longer and I actually always put them back in the fridge!  But I always put both back in the fridge!  To tell you the truth, I did the rest of the steps a couple of days after I coated the bottoms and they were all perfectly fine!  Instead of just putting the baking sheet back in the fridge, I put all of the truffles in air tight containers just to be safe :)  I will wanr you though, the only problem with waiting on doing the tops is you really can't resist eating them when they are right in front of you EVERY time you open the fridge!!!  This is what happened to the batch I made and what they looked like when I was ready to coat and decorate the tops...

 

 

3 truffles TOTALLY went missing... go figure huh? 

Alrighty, on to the super fun part!  You need to grab your "topping" goodies:

 

8.  Melt your other bag of candy melts either over the double boiler (preferred) or in the microwave and get ready to dip the tops! 

Since I did both kinds of truffles and Makena was dying to dip, I gave her the mushrooms to do :)  

 

 

not bad huh?  Pretty good for a 4 year old.... I think I have a future baker on my hands.  Beat still my heart :)

Once the coating has hardened, you can remelt the white chocolate melts until its nice and smooth. Grab some type of "tool" to make your mushroom dots.  I used the bottom tip of a chop stick.  And just placed random dots on the top!

 

As for the cupcakes, I did the pink ones of course!  Lemme note here that if you are doing the cupcake truffles, you have to work FAST with the dipping and topping!  Have the sprinkles and M & M's close by and ready to use!  Again, sorry, crappy, blurry picture lol!

 

Once you flip it right side up, immediately sprinkle!  Then top with the "cherry" M & M!

 

Those bad boys are all set to go!  Just pop them back in the fridge until you are ready to serve!  Because of the hard "shell", they will hold up at room temp, BUT the inside will get a bit mushy.  I like em super cold! 

 

 

They may seem like they are a lot of work, but I assure you they aren't!  If you haven't done the regular truffles, start with those.  You won't ever get over how darn easy they are!  The BEST little mini treat EVER!

Week 4/Recipe 4- Turkey Tamale Pie... in your Crock Pot :)

I thought I would take a bit of a break from the sweets and post one of my favorite slow cooker recipes this week. To tell you the complete truth, I have had my cooker for at least 3 years now and unfortunately I have only used it a handful of times!  I have tried to find recipes for it everywhere, I swear I have! Nothing I ever found really jumped out at me.  I see lots of stuff for roasts, but I'm completely happy using my Dutch oven to roast and love how they turn out in it.  This year, because of my goal for cooking more dinners at home, I swore I would dust off my slow cooker and get to cookin with it asap!  So, this is one of my favorite things to come from my fancy little machine sent from heaven that I rarely ever use...

 
This recipe kinda fell in my lap a couple of months ago when I was in L.A. and I was going through some cookbooks my mom had.  It was one of the only recipes in the book that sounded interesting enough to try.  I found it in the "Prevention Guide- Slow Cooker Meals" booklet so I thought I would give it a whirl...didn't think I would fall in love :)  so easy, so perfect, almost reminds me of a fresh tamale, definitely the next best thing!  I don't even know where they sell this little booklet, but it looks just like the ones they sell at the checkout in the grocery store... here is a link to their site!  And here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

- 1 lb ground turkey

- 1 minced onion

- 1 can (14 1/2 oz) diced tomatoes, drained

- 1 envelope (1 1/2 oz) taco seasoning mix (I use this because I like to pretend its better for us)

 

- 1 pkg (8 1/2 oz) corn muffin mix ( I use JIFFY and am perfectly happy with it)

 
 
 - 1 large egg

- 1/3 cup milk

-1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I try to find a "mexican blend", but cheddar will work fine)

- optional 1 can (15 1/2 oz) pinto beans, rinsed and drained (personally,I hate beans, but if ya like, throw those bad boys in)

DIRECTIONS:

Coat a non stick skillet with cooking spray.  Add onions and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened on medium high heat.  Add ground turkey and cook until browned.  Turn off heat.  Coat your slow cooker with non stick cooking spray and then add turkey mixture.  Add tomatoes,  seasoning mix, cheese, and beans (if using them).  In a separate bowl, mix together corn muffin mix, egg, and milk until combined. Batter will be a bit lumpy.  Spread mixture over your turkey mixture in the slow cooker.  Coverand cook on LOW for 4-6 hours or until a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean.

PDF Printable recipe can be found here!!!

Here is a little sneaky peek of what I have going on at the moment, was going to be for this week, but didn't finish them until today... wouldn't want to get behind with the blog after all, so I will wait until next week!  I totally and utterly have a fascination with mushrooms... after trying a recipe I found for cupcakes, I thought I would change it a bit and make these:

 

Oh and while I'm here, I also wanted to share these I made last week when So Cal was practically flooding because of all the rain we had!  It rained 5 days straight... may not be a concern for people who live in other states, but us folks that are used to sunny, 75 degree weather all year round, well we didn't quite know what to do with ourselves!  Being cooped up in the house all wekk, I dug up some crafty stuff and ended up with these IPOD covers:

 

 
How bad did I want to add a mushroom to this one... actually, I think I may have to find a mushroom button for it.  Yes, thats what I must do! Aahhh, that would make me smile :)  Anyways, I was hoping to do a little tut for this since they are so super simple and take almost no supplies, I'm pretty sure you can find what ya need in your immediate stash!  Hopefully, I will get to that tomorrow and post with the next recipe! 

I should have a picture share as well this week also... so much to do, so little time!

Muah XOXO

My "100 in 2010" & Coconut Lime Cupcake Recipe { take 2 that is }

Not bad, 2 for 2 now and I have the next 3 recipes/blogs all fresh and rarin' to go in my head!  Have I mentioned I love 2010?  So may hopes and dreams lol!  Actually, I attempted to come up with a list of 100 things I would like to accomplish this year.  I only came up with just over 50, but am hoping to add to my list as the weeks/months pass, things catch my attention in life, AND as I am able to cross other things off :)  I suppose that one could call that a list of "New Years Resolutions", but I don't like looking at them in that way.  In all honesty, I think people set themselves up for failure when they come up with a NY's resolution list...  typically they are the SAME goals every year so what fun is that?  I tried to pick things that I have always wanted to do, things that I know I am capable of, things that hopefully won't look like a "chore" to me, things that I needed a little push to do, but have been on the horizon already, and some just silly things I'd like to do!  So here it is, my incomplete list for 2010 (maybe I need to add that to my list... "finish my list" lol):

 

1.  complete Project 365
2.  plant an herb garden
3.  launch a new website
4.  buy an investment property
5.  complete my “at least a treat a week” blog project (2 down, 50 to go)
6.  run at least 3 miles without stopping
7.   sign up and run a 5K
8.   find a charity or good cause and donate my time and/or talents somehow
9.   send out Christmas cards NO later than December 10^th
10.   create 5 marketing sets for my photo site
11.    create at least 12 new digital kits (1 down, 11 to go)
12.    create 6 template sets for Polaroid
13.    book a session in another state
14.    make a set of handmade aprons for Makena and I
15.    surprise Joe with a weekend getaway, just the two of us
16.    surprise the kids with a trip to Disneyland when they are supposed to be at school
17.    complete my canvas wall for the hallway
18.    send out handwritten cards for no particular reason… just because
19.    book a family session for US with another photographer
20.    learn Illustrator enough to create a vector drawing from beginning to end
21.    get a short, cute (or maybe NOT so cute as it turns out) new hairdo (completed January 11, 2010)
22.    donate an entire photo session to a deserving family/person, maybe even twice
23.     read at least 1 book every 2 months
24.    double my blog traffic by updating regularly
25.    make a photo book of family pictures
26.    take a really good photog workshop with someone I admire
27.    try a new genre of photography
28.    buy a new lens, preferably the 50mm 1.2 OR the 35 mm 1.4
29.     enter a photo contest
30.    print our family, everyday pictures each and every month
31.    attempt to learn another language (preferably Spanish or Sign language)
32.    try learning an instrument
33.    join AND use Twitter
34.      listen to an audio book
35.    bake cupcakes for a friend for no reason and surprise them with a little gift package
36.     double the amount of weddings I shot in 2009
37.       host a real, grown up dinner party
38.    cook dinner 6 times a week for 2 months straight
39.    do something nice for someone without them knowing I did it
40.    go scuba diving
41.   WRITE in a personal journal at least once a week
42.   take a trip to Florida to visit Lizette
43.    scrapbook 1 page a month
44.   make a tiramisu (completed January 9, 2010)
45.   double my photography income, but only book ½ as many sessions as 2009 :)
46.   make 5 different tablescapes for our dining table (1 down, 4 more to go)
47.   try eating fish again.... gross, but I will try again
48.   babysit for a friend to let mommy and daddy have a romantic evening together
49.      scale my closet down by at least 50% and donate everything to my local women's shelter
50.   sign up and do the Susan G. Komen 3 day walk 
51.   take an entire month OFF from shooting and photography just to play  
52.   finally get the prints done for the playroom of the kids

I seem to be off to a hopping start so far... should be an interesting year to say the least!!!  Alrighty, onto the yummy's of the week!

So, last year I attempted a couple of recipes for these and while they were tasty and perfectly fine to eat, I have been on the lookout for an even better recipe.  After giving 2 or 3 more a try, I think I have the most perfect, scrumptious, super fabulous, and EXTRA yummy delicious coconut lime cupcake batter ever... I'm getting excited just thinking of how it tasted today when I made it :)

Alright, so here goes...

Coconut Lime Cupcake's

 

 

Ingredients:

cupcakes

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 egg

zest of 1 lime

juice of 1 lime (approximately 2 teaspoons)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 teaspoon coconut extract/flavoring

frosting

1 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons lime juice

2 teaspoons lime zest

3/4 cup shredded toasted coconut

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350° F

1. grease or line a 12 cup muffin tin with baking cups.  

 

2. Sift your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt) together in a small bowl.  Don't know if I will ever get tired of the flour in action shot...

 

 

3.  In a separate bowl or bowl of your stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until smooth & very pale in color, approximately 2-3 minutes.  

4.  Beat in egg and mix thoroughly until light and fluffy.

 

 

5. Add lime zest, lime juice, and coconut extract.  

 

 

 

  6. Scrape down sides of bowl. At low speed, add your dry ingredients AND coconut milk alternately starting with the dry and ending with the milk.

 

 

  

7.  Scrape down sides of bowl and give 1 final, quick mix.  Batter will be thick!  Begin to spoon your batter into the cupcake liners/pan.  Fill to 2/3 full.   I like over filling a 1/4 cup measuring cup! 

  

And seriously... before you go and clean the bowl, you HAVE to take a little lick (or 2 or lick the entire damn bowl, it's THAT good)!

Set timer for 24 minutes. I like to turn my pans around in the oven when I bake HALF way through the baking time just to make sure that everything has baked evenly! 

 

 

8.  Bake 24-28 minutes or until cupcakes have literally JUST started to turn ever so light golden on top.  Do NOT over bake, please, it will just make me sad!!!  

 

 

 
Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Meanwhile, begin to make your garnish and frosting.  Heat oven to 325° F. Put your

shredded coconut on a baking sheet in a single layer.  

 

 

9.  Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes OR until coconut is slightly toasted and golden brown.  Remove and let cool completely.

10.  In a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, beat heavy cream, until soft peaks begin

to form.  Slowly add sugar, then lime zest and lime juice.  Beat until stiff peaks form.  Do NOT

overbeat!!!  

 

 

When cupcakes have cooled, spread frosting using a knife or a pastry bag

fitted with a large, fun tip.  My favorite tip is this one.  I adore how big and fat the swirl is :)  

 

 

The easiest way I have found to fill the bag for piping is to put it in a large cup, tip down.  Then you fold the sides of the bag over the edges of the cup... use them to scrape off the sides of your spatula!  By the way, isn't my pink Valentine's cup from Target perfectly cute?

 

 

11.  Go ahead and pipe your frosting on... start on the outer edges of the cupcake and circle around towards the center.  

 

 

But really... in the grand scheme of things, just hurry and get the frosting on so you can EAT them lol!!!

12.  Sprinkle the tops of them with cooled toasted coconut.  I normally only sprinkle a little bit on and then add some more as they are ready to be eaten.  This way you still get a little texture and crunch from the fresh layer.

 

 

 Refrigerate... and thats if you don't manage to eat them on the way :)

Printable Recipe Found HERE... cheers!!!

 

A new recipe card and another shoot

a couple of days late, YES, but here nonetheless... just in time for Valentine's day!  Here is the new recipe:

RED VELVET CUPCAKES

 

 

High res files for printing can be found HERE!!!  Lemme just say though, about this recipe... I hadn't ever had red velvet cake so I didn't know what to expect.  The first time I tried 1 recipe and didn't like the texture at ALL, tried it again and really didn't like the taste too much, especially the cream cheese frosting part in it, so I combined some stuff in my brain with the other recipes and this is what I got!  Joe loved the cupcakes, but I had more fun decorating them when they were done!  Although not edible, I used some small Prima flowers, red hearts confetti candies, and pink and red sprinkles... that was the fun part!  So give them a try, if you are a fan of red velvet, you should enjoy these :)

Last weekend, I also had the pleasure of doing a newborn shoot in L.A.  I think band new, teeny tiny babies are my FAVORITE types of sessions!  Kinda makes me want another one, but if I have enough newborn shoots to keep me busy, then it's kind of like borrowing and giving back so I don't have to change a poopy right?  My sister is scheduled to have her "peanut" (and yes that has been his official name since we found out she was preggers) and I doubt it will change even after birth, but I can't wait to really borrow her little one and as soon as the screaming comes or its time for me to sleep, I can hand him right on over back to momma and papa... nice being aunty all of the time, not nice and not so fun being mommy sometimes!

Anyways, back to my shoot.  It was SO much fun!  I love parents that don't have a bunch of restrictions and are easy going with what I want to do... makes the shoot SO much easier!  Here are a few of my favorites:

   

finally had a chance to use my vintage scale I bought a couple of years ago...

 

 

 

 

 

and my ABSOLUTE favorite of the whole shoot.....

 

such a sweet, tender moment.... aahhhhhh.  I am happy.  Off to bed with me now!  Take care and have a very loved, sweet V-Day with your sweetie and your kids if ya got those running around!