The Ramsey Family (family photo session)

One of my good friends asked me to take some family photos for her and we worked hard to make it happen!  :)  The first attempt at these photos was rained out, so today we had better weather and were able to get some cute shots!  I hope that my friend loves these, she is a picture-lover like me!


Such a beautiful family!

Could they get any cuter?

What a little beauty!

Little heartbreaker!!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

The Collins Family (lifestyle photos)

My friend Allison asked me to take some lifestyle pictures of her and her family and I happily agreed!  I will admit that I am definitely out of my 'comfort zone' when people ask me to take posed pictures of their family.  I struggle to come up with ideas and it just feels somewhat un-natural to me. I so enjoy shooting people just being themselves.  It takes the pressure off both me and the people I am photographing and makes for some beautiful images!  Today I got to hang out with the Collins family and took some shots along the way.  We had a fun time, I hope they love the photos!  You can just feel the love in these images!

p.s. I kinda went overboard on the 'sneak peak' but there were so many that I loved!

What a little beauty

Color!  :)

Putting her "B" on the tree

Lastly, this one "just for fun"  :)

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

On a Rainy Day....

Today it rained, a lot.  I decided that instead of keeping Hayden cooped up in the house, I would let him go out and splash around in the puddles.

He had so much fun and I tried desperately to capture some of it (while at the same time trying to keep my precious camera dry with a grocery bag and umbrella.) Because of all my efforts trying to keep my camera from getting wet, I didn't get to concentrate much on composing cute shots, I just kinda shot blindly and hoped for the best :P  Anyway, Hayden loved it and was asking to go back out after lunch but mean old mommy made him take a nap instead...

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Our Shoebox Gift

I first heard of the ministry of Samaritan's Purse when I was a kid and my grandmother would make up a shoebox for a needy child every year.  I remember thinking it was so cool that a kid in a far away country was getting that box full of fun goodies!  Fast forward to when I was a college student.  I made up my first shoebox with my boyfriend (now hubby) and it was such a blessing that I decided I would do it every year.  Sending a shoebox gift has become a yearly tradition for my husband and I and this year we started teaching Hayden about it.  Though it is hard to explain to a 2 year old that we are buying gifts for a child that doesn't have many (if any) toys but he will understand it more each year.  It's never too early to teach our children to give to others! 
I am so glad that our church supports this ministry every year.  It is so fun to see so many getting involved and excited about sending the shoeboxes.  And we don't have to worry about finding a drop-off location, we just bring our box to church!
So Sunday, we picked up this pre-printed shoebox to fill with goodies!
(you can use any regular sized shoebox or the clear plastic ones with lids as well!)

And last night we took Hayden to shop for the 'boy.'  We chose to get gifts for a 2-4 year old boy since that is the age that Hayden is and that way he could help us choose the gifts.  Over the years, we have done different age groups for both genders.

Hayden was excited to 'go shopping for the boy' even though I know he didn't fully understand what we were doing.

(though I wasn't planning on it, we let him choose something for himself {the toy story doll, Jesse, that is in his other hand.} once we got there because I quickly realized he was not going to be able to pick things for the box until we let him get something...but after that, he was great at helping choose several gifts for the box and didn't try to keep them for himself or get upset when we told him that they were not his toys.)

It helps to take your shoebox into the store with you so that you can see exactly how much you can fit in the box!

We picked out toys, candy and other things until our box was full.

And this year, I paid the postage for our box online so that I could print a barcode and track our shoebox!  We will be able to see what country our box went to this year!

I encourage all of you that if you don't already, find a worthy charity to donate to this Christmas season.  No matter what budget you're on, we all have something we can give.  We are on a very tight, one-income budget but we don't ever go without and our son always has Christmas and birthday gifts (and plenty of them) so I don't let myself think that we can't afford to donate, even during the years when we don't have as much as previous years.  This donation is small for sure but it makes a big difference to a needy child and that warms my heart.  I hope that in years to come, we can afford to make a bigger difference in others' lives during the holidays.  It truly does the heart good :)

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

Santa Baby

Hello and happy Thursday!  Isn't he a cutie?  I babysit this lil guy and today I just could not resist getting the camera out and snapping a few photos of him for his mama :) 

  Go here to see a few more!


All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!

3 Ingredient Chocolate Muffins

Ever since I made these, I have wanted to try it with chocolate cake mix.  So when my mom came to visit this last time, she brought goodies (like she always does) which included a chocolate cake mix and a can of pumpkin.  I decided last night (when I was having sweet cravings) that today I was going to make muffins with it and add some white chocolate chips we had leftover from some cookies we made.  They turned out super yummy!  And, they are a healthier choice than regular cake since they have pumpkin in place of the oil and other ingredients.  (Pumpkin is a great superfood!)  Also, I should note that I couldn't actually taste the pumpkin in these muffins.  But, the pumpkin did give them a thicker, moist consistency perfect for muffins and also made them healthier :) 

Here's all you need....
(like my slightly damaged clearance cake mix box? ;)  My mom is a bargain hunter, that's where I got it from! 

Combine the pumpkin and cake mix, then add as many white choc. chips as you like!  The batter will be thick.  I actually added a little milk this time so that the batter would be a little easier to work with. 

Just ignore my ugly old muffin pan.  It's served me well ;)

Ahhh, yummy goodness :)  Great with a glass of milk!

All photos taken by Kristen (blog author) unless otherwise stated. Do not copy/save or print without permission. Thank you!