First Time Jitters

I don't think it's a secret that I've had a long time love for photography.  When I was young I would save up all my babysitting money, head up to Otto Drug and buy as many disposable cameras as I possibly could.  I'd take pictures of anything and everything. In high school, the class I enjoyed most was photography.  While the smell of the dark room was a bit overwhelming, it was something I loved because I knew I'd soon get to see the results of my work.  Obviously this was all before the age of digital photography and I fear that I'm completely aging myself. YIKES!
Fast forward:   My sweet kiddos really brought out my love for photography again after putting down the camera for so many years.  The last few years I've enjoyed taking pictures of everything from my fav outfits, delicious (and at times, beautiful) food I've created and of course, my family.   About a year ago, I purchased a new camera and took my time learning about it.  I feel like photography is something you never know everything about and it's fun to keep learning something new all the time and with each experience.
My youngest is headed to Kindergarten in the fall and I've been incredibly blessed as a stay at home mom.  I dread sending her off, but at the same time I'm excited to spend more time doing things that I enjoy doing outside of being "mom."  One of those things being photography.  (Trying to focus on the silver lining while part of me dies thinking of sending her off on her first day. #momlife)
It was an easy choice to put myself out there, but extremely hard to do.  Will anyone give me a chance?  Am I good enough?  Like many, I have a fear of failure.  A BIG fear of failure.  However, as I get older and wiser, little by little my fear is taken over by a few things.  A. Not worrying so much about what others think.  B. Comparison is the devil and it made me fear I wasn't good enough to give myself a shot.  I had to stop comparing myself to people who have been doing this professionally for years!  It was killing me.  It took a friend of mine to point that out to me. Finally, C. To escape fear, I have to go through it.  NOT around it.  Growth doesn't happen by staying in my safe zone.  So, I did it.  I put myself out there and thankfully, the response was so positive!  I'm extremely grateful to the friends and family that have been so encouraging.

Soon, I had booked my first job!  YES!  The star of the show being Makena, a two year old birthday girl and her big brother and sister.  I arrived to the location a bit early to look around again (I had been there about a week before to look at lighting, outbuildings, etc) and found myself so nervous that my tummy was doing flip flops!  I had hoped that when they arrived my nerves would calm and my confidence would come back.
Sarah pulled up with her kiddos and I realized I wasn't the only nervous one there.  In fact, there was only ONE person who was more nervous than me and that was sweet little Makena!  I forgot how wary of others two year olds can be at times!  That alone was enough to calm me down.  If I didn't have confidence in myself, how was this little one going to be comfortable around me?
As time went on and she saw the older kids were cool with me, Makena started to come around.  Not enough to actually look at me and give me a smile when the camera was out but enough to let me hold her hand on the dock and by the beach.  That was enough for me!  This girl was gonna make me work for my pictures!  HA! 
I learned a few lessons that day.  You can't completely plan your photoshoot.  (Candid shots are my favs anyway!)  Never underestimate a two year old, (which I knew after having two of my own but it was a good reminder!) and lastly, unplanned can work out pretty wonderfully as well.  A gorgeous day and those beautiful baby blues totally worked in my favor!

Photographing Makena and her older sister and brother was a complete joy and so much fun.  We ended the session playing down by the beach.  It was great!  Here are a few (and by a few I really mean, like, a dozen ) of my favs from my session with Makena and her crew...

Little Miss M obviously had the most fun once she could get her tiny tootsies in the sand!
Again, I had so much fun doing this and I couldn't be more thankful for this family for giving me an opportunity to photograph their adorable trio.
I hope you all enjoyed the pics!

XOXO,
Sara

This Is How We (Egg) Roll

If you enjoy cooking, spending time with a dear friend and want delicious eggrolls to pop into the freezer for quick lunches or after school snacks, then this blog post is for you!

A few weeks ago my dear friend Sarah and I decided to have an eggroll day.  Let me rewind... Sarah moved into our neighborhood about a year or two after we did.  Her daughter was just a few months older than my oldest daughter and soon the two of them were fast little toddler friends, which gave me an opportunity to get to know Sarah a better.  A few months after I found out I was expecting my youngest daughter, she found out she was pregnant as well!  We would get together while the kids played and talked pregnancy and mom life and we both had our second children, baby girls, just 6 months apart from each other.  Sarah and I grew closer, our oldest girls are total "besties" and our youngest girls, now both five, are becoming closer as they get older as well.  It's a blessing to have a good friend so close by for myself and for my girls.  We find we go through the same stages, challenges and wonderful experiences together with our kids so close in age and can talk about it WITHOUT judgement but with honest feedback and advice. (We ALL need those friends)  Bonus?  Like myself, she enjoys delicious food and a good glass of wine!  #meanttobe

We got together one morning a few weeks ago after the older girls went off to school.  The youngest of our girls played and we got to work in the kitchen.  Sarah had bought all the ingredients beforehand and we split the cost in half, only $10 each and were able to make 34 egg rolls, total.  I did the chopping, she did the sautéing and we both got to rolling.  It was so fun to be in the kitchen with a good friend, experimenting with recipes and getting in our girl talk.

Of course, their cat, Peanut, tried to get in on the action.

These eggrolls are made with ground turkey but feel free to use beef or pork.  I haven't tried this recipe with either of those yet because I've been so happy with the turkey but if you try it, let me know how they turn out.

So grab your fav friend, a few ingredients and give these amazing eggrolls a try!

Freezer Eggrolls

*One package of defrosted eggroll wrappers (Sarah got ours in the refrigerator section)

*one pound ground turkey

*One large sweet yellow onion, finely chopped

*Two large carrots, diced (wash carrot but don't bother to peel)

*3-4 cups of shredded cabbage

*3-4 green onions, chopped

*3 cloves of garlic, minced

*1 1/4 teas black pepper

*1 1/4 teas salt

*1 1/2 Tbls soy sauce

*one Tbls olive oil

Heat the oil in a deep bottomed pan.  Add package of ground turkey and brown until fully cooked.  Drain and set meat aside.  In the same pan, sauté onions, carrots and garlic over medium heat.  There should be enough oil left in the pan from the turkey but if you need more just add a bit. Once onions are soft, stir in salt, pepper and soy sauce.  Then add cabbage and green onions.  Cook all veggies until nearly soft and add meat back to the pan.  Allow mixture to continue cooking together for 5-10 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Allow meat and veggie mix to cool off a bit.  Next you'll want to assemble the eggrolls.  We used a tablespoon or two of mixture per eggroll.  You don't want them too stuffed or they won't roll properly.  To make the top corner of the wrapper stick down, we used a bit of water on the corners.  Most eggroll wrappers come with instructions so be sure to follow the back of the package or follow this link. It's similar to how we did it but we used much less water. Once they were all wrapped we set them on baking sheets to freeze and once frozen, we sealed them in freezer safe bags of about 3-4 rolls.  To cook, remove rolls from freezer and cook them at a medium to med-high temp in a small about of oil.  Be sure to turn a few times so they cook evenly and avoid burning.  It usually takes about 10 minutes to cook a batch.

These are great with sweet chili dipping sauce but you can definitely try a variety of sauces for dipping. Enjoy!

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