Sunday Afternoon

Today I photographed a family that is dear to my heart. This is one of the first families that welcomed my dad into the church when he was looking for Christ about thirty years ago. This family happens to contain one of my besties of 20 + years. And this family also happens to make me giggle, with comments today such as "give mom and dad their privacy" (while photographing one part of the family's parents), and this little conversation
(paraphrased, of course)

me: I'm not sure who you look like (speaking to six year old Jake)

Jake: I look like my uncle Rob

me: Do you want to be a musician like him too?

Jake: No, I don't know any magic tricks.

The sweet little conversational mishaps with kids are certainly some of the most memorable. Well, here is a super small sneak peek of Jake (not to be confused with a magician), and the grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, sisters, cousin, uncles and aunts that go along with him.

Selfless Sunday

Hey friends,

As the holidays are drawing near, and we focus more and more on shopping, spending, and family events, I ask that we all take one big step toward selflessness. Thanksgiving Thursday, Black Friday, small business Saturday, and Cyber Monday have everyone excited, but, whatever happened to Sunday? Yes, there's church on Sunday and then we move forward with the rest of the week, but taking a step forward to thinking outside of ourselves, challenge yourselves to starting with Sunday. Let's start off 2012 on the right foot and ahead of time with Selfless Sunday. Let's move our American traditions to national and global giving mindsets. Here's the challenge: do something. Move. React. Give. Love.

Some great ways to start:

Find a bum. Love them.

Go visit a lonely old person. Give them a card. Say thanks for being a part of the generation that helped us be who we are.

Write vets thank you notes. They'll appreciate it, trust me.

Call up an orphanage or foster center, or boys and girls club and play with some kids. You'll like it, I promise.

Go visit a prisoner. Tell them the Good News and that somebody loves them. It'll hurt, especially your pride and ideology, but somebody needs to love them for this world to change.

Give to a charitable organization. Great places to start? The Salvation Army. Samaritan's Purse. Crowdrise. Just DO something.

"I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me."

-Matthew 25:36 (NLT)

Four and a Half

My dear sweet Carley and her gang of three (alllmost four!) allowed me to spend some time with them today. They are so fun, they made me laugh the whole way through the shoot. Here are some sneak peeks of my time with a family I love, enjoy!

As Close as Kin

Some years ago I took part in this family's home as their nanny, and they took a part of my heart. Well, that'll happen when you know people as sweet and loving as this. When I embarked on the adventure of photography, they were the first in line to support me, letting me take photos of their little ones for practice, as well as their family photos, encouraging me all the way. To help me along, they bought me my first real portfolio, photo notebook and file case, and made me feel like a professional. Four years and many memories down the road they're still letting me take their photos and share in special memories with them. I am so SO blessed to know these guys, God has always proven His best judgement when putting people into my life, and for that I'm truly grateful.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful Gramma a girl could have ever asked for.

Pumpkin Pie

Last Saturday David, Christian and I made our very first homemade pumpkin pie. Now I'm not much of a pumpkin pie person, I eat it socially, but I'm not it's biggest fan, but this pie is definitely the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. We got the recipe off of a sticker on the bottom of the pie pumpkin we purchased, but since we Heberts never do anything conventionally, things were somewhat "approximated". Anyway, here goes:

First, go find the best pumpkin possible. The hunt might be tedious, but well worth it (our real pie pumpkin was found at Fry's, but that doesn't have the same effect now does it?)

Bring your pumpkin home, cut it in half (stem off), and pull out as much of the seeds and strings as you can.

Once cut, place open cut down on a foil covered baking sheet, and cover both halves with foil. Bake at 350 degrees until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove foil and let cool.

Scoop out the flesh and mash it with a potato masher or food processor until smooth. Make sure to drain it if it's too watery. Beat it just until smooth.

Combine 1 1/3 cup pumpkin, 1 1/3 sweet 'n condensed milk, 1 egg (we used cinnamon applesauce instead), 1 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 cup hot water (if using applesauce, you'll need to eyeball the water and use less).

Pour into a 9" pie shell. Now I wasn't ambitious enough to make my own pie shell this time, so I bought the inexpensive two-in-a-bag Kroger pie shells, waited until they thawed, removed the pie shells, blended them together in a ball, rolling pinned it out, re laid it in a pie pan, and made riveted edges with the end of a butter knife.

Make sure you're being properly supervised, every little hand can help!

Bake at 375 degress 55 - 65 minutes, the center will still move slightly, the top will be nicely browned.

Cool, add a favorite topping if you wish, and enjoy!! The recipe says that the mashed pumpkin will hold 5 days in the refrigerator, so maybe make some pumpkin bread with the leftovers? And if so, please be sure to send some my way :)
**As I said, we did things somewhat unconventionally. After adding some hot water to the mix we realized it felt way too water, so we added some more pumpkin and spices, all the spices were eyeballed. I would make sure the consistency of the mixture is soft but certainly not runny or watery.