A long road ahead

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I promise I will one day be back here. I just launched my photography business so I am taking some time to focus on this and my family. I love having this little outlet to express my thoughts and feelings but I feel like between taking care of my two boys, my new business and this blog something has got to give. I hope you will forgive me for my absence.  Hopefully very soon I will get organized and be able to tell you all about it. And since I can't ever have a blog post without a picture, take a look at what I woke up to this morning. I love hazy sun!!!!
This is the view from outside my front door at 6:45 this morning.

An hour later, it was pouring rain!!! Go figure!!!

Mr. G and his beautiful family

I love that I can share my love of photography with all of my friends. It makes me so happy to see that my little obsession (ok, big obsession) brings them so much joy when I get that "perfect" picture shot.  This past weekend I got to do it again with my oldest (and by oldest I don't mean age, I mean she has known me the longest) and dearest friend Tara. We have been best friends since we were in grade 6. I have written about her before. Anyhoo, 6 months ago she had a baby, I shot newborn pics for her. He was that cutie I featured a few weeks ago about comparing your middle to your beginning. Now that he is 6 months old T wanted some pics of her adorable Mr. G smiling that oh so adorable toothless smile. I was super excited to help out. I thought you might like to see what we came up with.

First we took some family shots.

I have known for years how incredibly beautiful Tara is.  As teens I always witnessed how the boys would just flock to her. Now she is a mamma to that beautiful little boy and she must have passed on the photogenic genes to him too because I could not take a bad picture of him if I tried.  And her hubby is not so bad either. Man this is one photogenic family!

After some family shots I took some of daddy with Mr. G! They were so cute with their matching (but not too matchy) outfits. Matchy is a word you know!

Then it was time for a little Mommy and Mr. G!

The day we shot these pictures it was very cloudy. I was worried about rain but we lucked out. Cloudy days are great for shooting outside because you don't have to worry about bad sun glare or squinty eyes. I wish that we had foliage on the trees, however, with the edits I made I think the trees look good. It makes those pictures with dad feel more masculine.

Mr. G was in such a good mood after this family shoot that I was able to take him up to my bedroom and do more awesome pictures of just him on my bed!!!! Check out these blue eyes!!!

Oh and one last picture because it just makes me giggle!

hehe I just love the expression on his face! What a cutie!

T I hope you love these pictures as much as I do!!!

xoxo Rie

Veggie Tales

 So it has been an on going battle to get my little Levi to eat his veggies. I would shred the veggies, he would pick out the little shreds. I would cut the pieces into teeny tiny pieces, he would spit those out. I would try to hold out on any other food until he ate them. Well this little boy is very stubborn and he would out last me usually. I was almost at the point where I was ready to throw up my hands and give up. Who needs veggies any ways???? Well we all do and what kind of mamma would I be if I just let the little squirt eat chicken, or in our house, boc boc? So I have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to get him to down his veggies. Today I am happy to share, I have a few tricks.

1. Stock up on Boathouse's carrot juice. Or if you have juicer, do it yourself. I add that stuff to his drinks everyday. 1/2 a cup is one serving of veggies.  I personally like to mix it with some OJ and water and he doesn't even notice it is in there. Every kid needs to drink so why not give him a little vitamin C mixed with Vitamin A, E & K!!!

2. Smoothies are the bomb!!! Levi is majorly teething right now so he is really enjoying cold drinks. I make him a green smoothie and put it in a green sippy cup so he doesn't know he is drinking green. I'm serious! He will not eat anything green. In my smoothie I add 1 cup of frozen Kale, 1/4 cup of OJ, 1/2 cup of carrot juice,  1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup of frozen peaches, 1/2 cup of frozen bananas. I usually add in a little splash of water to smooth it out and if the strawberries are tart I add 1 tbsp of honey. I blend this so there are absolutely no lumps! Levi hates lumps! This smoothie is great. It makes enough for me and Levi. I get my veggies and fruit and so does my little veggie hater. Muuuahhhhaaaaa (evil mommy voice) I WIN!!! Now that the weather is warming up I may try to make popsicles out of this as well, I'm not sure if it will be a success because I can't hide the green but it's worth a shot.

 3. Baked goods is my other secret weapon. Levi is a big carb lover. He loves his bread, cookies and muffins. So why not sneak some veggie goodness into it? I found a great recipe the other day for veggie loaded muffins. I made some adjustments and it was perfect. I wasn't sure if Levi would go for them because the veggies were very evident, remember, he usually picks the shreds of zucchini out of my pasta sauce.  But he loved them, so much so, he ate two in one sitting. WHOOOhoo, yippeeeee!!!! Hurrayyyyyyy! another sneaky way to get him to eat his veggies.!!!! 
I thought I would share the recipe with you. P.s these muffins were awesome! Not just for the veggie factor, they were moist and very flavourful!

I really enjoy the health benefits of coconut oil as well as the flavour. But if coconut is not your thing you can find the original recipe here.

Try these today! I promise you will not be disappointed!

Linking Up at:
Naptime Creations
Chef in Training
Mandy's Recipe Box