Phoenix & Scottsdale newborn, children, family and high school senior photographer
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I love photographing this family. Two children close in age….it reminds me of my days as a new mother. I love seeing how big sister loves both her mommy and her baby brother so much! I snapped a couple of shots of baby “C” at his sister’s 2 yr portrait session, but this was his first main session since we did his newborn portraits and boy, has he grown up!
It’s day four of my Vegan experiment and I’m still going strong! It’s been much easier than I thought…just takes some planning and a bit of will power (like when I want to do a quick drive through at Taco Bell!). I am proud to say that in the first four days, I haven’t cheated or messed up once!
Breakfast was my biggest worry but I’ve been able to come up with some good alternatives. Yesterday, I made up a quick batch of hummus with my Vita-Mix and topped an everything bagel with the hummus. Yum! This morning, I had to be out of the house so early that I wasn’t able to make anything so I had a late breakfast/early lunch of asian salad with edamame.
For dinner tonight, I made a delicious Veggie Couscous (basically a veggie stew served over couscous). I’ve been making a version of this dish since the early days of my marriage. It’s one of my mother-in-law’s staples and one of my favorites. She makes it with beef so of course, I omitted that and replaced the water with vegetable broth (to get more flavor since I wouldn’t be using the meat). For the stew part, I basically threw whatever veggies I had on hand (onions, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and red bell pepper). I added vegetable broth, two cans of garbanzo beans and spiced it up with allspice, tarragon, salt and pepper. In the couscous, I added toasted almonds and golden raisins. It was delicious!!
- Yes it was delicious!! And by the way, at Taco Bell the bns are made without lard so if you just forgo cheese and sour cream you can have the 7 layer burrito yum
- Yummy! Oh and your hummus was some of the best I've ever had!
- Good luck - hope it goes well and that you can fight off the Taco Bell :)
With the new year beginning, I’ve decided to try something new….veganism. Now, I was a vegetarian for years as a high school & college student but I always continued to eat eggs and dairy. I’ve been eating meat since my early 20’s but when I got an email about the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart, I started thinking about a change.
In true Jenifer fashion, I had to spend sometime thinking about it and researching it so I’m a few days late in starting the plan (I’m on day 1 but they are officially on day 4). When I mentioned this to a few friends, they were interested in how I’ll do (my husband doesn’t think I’ll stick to it…I love a challenge! lol) so I thought it might be fun to post about my Vegan Adventure on the blog.
Today was day one and the day started off with my keys locked in my car so I was unable to get to the grocery store but thanks to the BMW Assist guy, I was off and running by noon.
So, today’s meals were:
Breakfast - Banana and two cups of coffee (1.3 grams protein)
Lunch - Vegetarian Burrito from Chipotle (This is my usual but I had them hold the cheese and sour cream this time) (about 22 grams of protein)
Dinner - Penne w/ Marinara Sauce and Arabic Cabbage Salad (16 grams of protein)
One of my concerns with the Vegan diet is keeping up my protein and iron so I’ll be tracking my protein each day, too. I’m thinking that I need about 40 grams of protein a day so will be shooting for that as my goal.
Today I reached 39.3 grams of protein. Impressive, huh? I’d say that’s reaching my protein goal? One thing that helped is that for the last few years, I’ve been serving Barilla Plus Pasta so that my picky eating son would get some protein in his pasta w/ butter. Now, it serves me well as each serving has 17 grams of protein!
I’m excited about my plan and can’t wait to see how I feel differently in 21 days.
(oh and in case you’re interested the Arabic Cabbage Salad is basically shredded/sliced fresh cabbage tossed with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and some pressed garlic.)
- Hummmm... Good Luck... Im still stuck on the book challenge. As someone who usually won't touch red meat, most forms of dairy, citrus, and a whole slew of other foods I don't think I should limit my intake any more. But I wish you the best of luck. J/K but with years of therapy behind me, different food groups can be on the same plate now LOL.
What do you get when you combine two children, a Wizardology book, a dog, and a pair of nighttime goggles?
You get over an hour of fun. H is a wizard in training (aka a Junior Wizard). He’s read the Wizardology book backwards and forwards. His original copy fell apart awhile ago so he spent his allowance on a new copy yesterday. On the way home from the book store, they (H & O) chatted away on how they were going to convert a portion of the garage into a Wizard’s Workshop. You see, while H is a Junior Wizard, O is his apprentice.
So tonight, they spent some time pulling their little spot together and decided the first thing necessary was to create their magic wands. It was dark by this time and they needed to go into the backyard to find the perfect twig…the darkness caused a problem until they remembered the new Night Vision goggles they got for Christmas. So, goggles on, they headed outside and “found” a branch from my favorite tree then went back to the workshop to shape their twigs (aka wands) with a child’s butter knife. This took quite a bit of time but once each wand was shaped just perfectly, they were back in the house looking for a heat source (apparently necessary for wand making!). Luckily the oven was still warm from the Apple Crisp I baked tonight so we set the wands into the warm oven for a couple of minutes and voila…perfect wands!
Oh, and you might be wondering what the dog is doing in there….I was told that while O is H’s wizard apprentice, Zindzhi (the dog) is O’s apprentice.
You know what they say about the cobbler’s son? Well, it’s often the same with the photographer’s child. Believe it or not, my children both missed their annual sessions this year (7yr and 9 yr) and they almost missed their Christmas shoot as well!
But I pulled it together, very last minute, and was able to get a few good shots before my camera battery died. Yes, can you believe that! I grabbed the wrong camera battery as we ran out of the house trying to race down to old Glendale before the sun set.
I’ve been a mother for nine years now, I still sometimes catch my breath when I realize that I am the mother to these two amazing children.
- Great shots, your kids are adorable! They look pretty at home in front of the camera :)
Usually by this time of the year, I am finished with sessions and settle in to enjoy the holiday season with my family but every now and then I let a session sneak it’s way onto my schedule. This family called the studio this past weekend needing a last minute newborn session. Luckily I had the next day open (well, actually, I had to cancel on something I was doing for church…sorry, Ann!). Luckily the weather cooperated with us (it almost didn’t!). As you can see by the preview, we were lucky because these are two beautiful children! And big brother, “I”, was so much fun to work with and such a good listener! I’m looking forward to seeing both boys grow up in front of my camera with our Baby Plan.
I think this is one of my favorite sibling shots of all time….
I have enjoyed watching this family grow over the past two years. This week we had big sister’s 2 yr old session. Next month, we’ll be back together for baby brother’s six month old session (but I did manage to sneak in a shot or two of him this week!).
Don’t they both have the most amazing eyes?
Little “B” was about six months old when I first met this family and became their photographer. You can see that it’s been a few years. I’ve enjoyed watching these brothers grow up and develop their bond as brothers. This year’s session was up in Anthem. You can see how much fun they have with each other in the storyboard images!
Many of you know that one of my favorite woman & children’s boutique is located in Glendale, AZ. Daniela Jay Boutique is family owned and operated. Since the boutique opened a few years ago, I’ve had the privilege of photographing for the boutique and for the Torres family.
The boutique has the most beautiful wood floors. Last year, I actually held mini-sessions at the boutique because of these floors! So, it was a natural choice to photograph their holiday session right at the boutique!
I just can’t get over how much little “R” has grown since his newborn session almost six months ago! And “D” is just as beautiful as ever!
I met this cutie this past week. He’ll tell you that he’s 3 yrs old but he’s actually still 2 yrs old (at least for another month!). I enjoyed working with his family so much. They’re both from California so I felt like it was so easy to bond. 
Little “A” was so much fun to photograph. You can see some of his sweet personality in this sneak peek…
by JeniferS
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