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Afternoon Shenanigans {Hendersonville, TN Family Photographer}

So many things have happened since my last post! On March 9th, I turned THIRTY!!!! I know, I can’t believe it either. I used to think that thirty was SO old. Like, when you turn thirty, you are a legit adult. I mean, being a wife and mother of two boys had me doing a lot of “adulting” already, but once I turned thirty it’s like I could feel my youth being sucked from me. Haha! Don’t get me wrong, I still feel ever bit as young as I always have, it just feels like I have to be more responsible now or something.

Another big thing was that we moved from our large, beautiful home into a much smaller rental house while we, Lord willing, build our dream home. Our new house is going to be everything we have always wanted in a home, and I will even have my own photography studio separate from our house! That will be such a blessing! I can’t tell you how many times I have apologized to clients because of all the toys that were scattered around, or the dishes that were left out on the counter.

Our puppy, Skye, is now a huge 73+ pound giant of a dog, and is steadily gaining between 3 to 5 pounds a week. It won’t be long before she passes up Kaylee, our St. Bernard. Here’s a snapshot of her growth so far.

Speaking of Kaylee, she and Skye had quite the play session the other afternoon. Here’s a little bit of what went down.

Well that’s just ridiculous. And could Kaylee look any more like a senior citizen? I mean, she is eight years old, but she looks at least twelve in this picture!

Grayson wanted to get in on the action.

Not sure what Kaylee is doing here. Probably gagging on a stick. Don’t worry. She’s fine.

See? What a goober.

Then there’s this precious face. I mean, how could you stay mad at a face like that?

We just love her. She’s been a great dog so far!

Grayson says she’s his dog, and loves her a lot more than Oliver does. Oliver doesn’t like when she comes up to him when he didn’t invite her. He basically likes her only on his terms. Whereas Grayson doesn’t care what she does. He just laughs and snuggles with her and tries to play. It’s so cute to watch. I’ve heard him say on many occasions, “I love you, Skye!”

Then there was the time I told him to give Skye a hug, and he did this. Haha! We’re still working on appropriate positions for hugging dogs. Luckily Skye didn’t take offense.

Oliver would much rather play with a dandelion than take pictures with our dogs. Which is fine by me. It made for some great photos!

Love these boys. I often get asked if they are twins when we’re out and about, and although they are almost 20 months apart, I feel like they’re twins most of the time. The only difference is that Grayson can communicate better than Oliver and is potty trained. Hopefully Oliver will be trained by two and a half just like his brother. So we’ve got three months to work on that. 🙂 So far he isn’t interested.

The Pioneer Woman’s 7-Can Soup

As a stay at home mom, I often get tired of eating “kid” food for lunch. Normally I’ll just eat off the kids’ plates, heat up some chicken nuggets, or make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for myself. Sometimes I’ll just snack my way through the day, without a REAL meal until dinnertime. I’m sure many of you SAHMs can relate!

Today, however, I decided I would made myself a scrumptious and filling lunch, that’s also super easy to make! Bonus — my youngest son loves it too! (We won’t get into my oldest son and his pickiness today).

Several months ago, I saw the Pioneer Woman make this soup on her Food Network show, and since then I have made it several times. This soup literally only uses 7 cans of ingredients, and an optional block of Velveeta cheese (although, I don’t know anyone in their right mind who would choose to opt out of the Velveeta…it’s scrumptious!). The best part? You don’t even have to drain any of the liquid out of the cans!

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 can (15oz) black beans
1 can (15oz) pinto beans
1 can (15oz) kidney beans
1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes
1 can (10oz) diced tomatoes with green chilies (such as Ro*tel)
1 can (15oz) southwest corn (or fiesta style corn)
1 can (15oz) no bean chili
8 oz Velveeta cheese (optional…but not really)

Add all the beans to a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Remember not to drain any of the cans! Just pour the whole thing in, liquid and all.

Add tomatoes and corn,

and the can of chili. The chili gives the soup a nice kick.

Stir all the ingredients together and add salt to taste. Cover, reduce to simmer, and let it cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cut up the Velveeta into cubes, and add it to the soup.

Stir the cheese into the soup until it’s all melted and wonderful.

Then, ladle yourself up a big bowl of deliciousness!

How good does that look? And it’s super filling too! The perfect soup for a cold, dreary day.

Here’s my little Oliver with his bowl of soup. That bib didn’t stay on long, and now he has soup on his shirt. Oh well. 🙂

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Meet Skye!!!

Yes, I know. Didn’t we just meet a new pet a couple weeks ago? You did. That was Blaze the cat, who unfortunately left home and didn’t come back about a week after that post. I’m hoping he went back to his original home, or that someone else took him in. I’m thankful that, wherever he went, we were able to get him vaccinated and neutered before he left.

But now I have a NEW adorable fur baby to introduce to you!

Her name is Skye (named by my son, Grayson, after his favorite Paw Patrol character), and she is an 8 week old English Mastiff. Well, she’s 9 weeks old now, but at the time these photos were taken, she was 8 weeks old.

She is one of the sweetest, most well mannered puppies I have ever encountered. She pretty much came to us from her breeder already potty trained. In the almost 2 weeks we’ve had her, she’s only had maybe three accidents in the house. Quite a difference from our almost eight year old St. Bernard, Kaylee, who peed in the house every 5 minutes at this age!

Speaking of Kaylee, Skye absolutely adores her!

I think she reminds her of her own mom, since she’s so big. Skye is always trying to cuddle with her or play with her, much to Kaylee’s dismay. She’s never been much of a cuddler. But Skye knows when enough is enough, and doesn’t torment her too much. I think Kaylee is happy to have a friend to play with, even though she’d never admit it.

Skye certainly loves playing with toys, and this orange stuffy is one of her favorites.

We stopped buying Kaylee toys a while ago, because she never played with them. But now that Skye has toys, Kaylee finds herself drawn to them, and is starting to love playing with them again. She’s never been great at tug-of-war, however, and if you try to grab the other end of the rope, she’ll let go, as if she’s saying, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you wanted to play with this!”

The boys certainly love her! They’re always so excited to help me get her out of her crate, or to give her her hotdog treat when she goes into her crate! She’s still a little mouthy, you know, from being a puppy and all, so whenever she starts trying to bite on them, Grayson will yell, “No Skye! No bite!”

Another super adorable thing Grayson will say to her is, “Hi Skye! It’s me, Grayson!” And he’ll say it over and over to her, looking at her like, “Why aren’t you responding?” Haha! Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s the cutest thing. 🙂

I’m going to try to remember to keep taking growth pictures of her every 1-2 weeks, so we can see how much she changes over the next year. At 8 weeks, she’s already 20lbs! She could get up to anywhere between 150-200lbs! Her mom is 160lbs, and her dad is 230lbs, so she’s going to be a big girl! She’ll definitely pass up Kaylee, who weighs around 95lbs.

And, of course, you knew it was coming! I couldn’t have a new baby in the house without giving her a proper “newborn” photo shoot! Doesn’t she look adorable and hilarious at the same time? I doubt she’ll even be able to fit inside this basket in a month! Maybe I should try, just to see the difference.

Here’s a closeup of her face. Isn’t she just so smushy and squishy? I even put one of my newborn headbands on her. Hehe! Ok, enough photos. I’m going to go squish that cute little face before bedtime. Stay tuned for more Skye posts, and to see how she grows!