Our addition to the family....

Say "Hi" to Henry 'Biscuit' Santos. We just adopted him. He is a 4 1/2 year old malti-poo. 

He weighs around 12 lbs. And he is SUPER adorable!!

For a while now we have been thinking about getting a pet. I originally want a cat, but being that Chris is allergic to them  didn't really work. So I wanted to get a small dog instead. Chris was super UNsure about the whole idea. He just didn't see how getting a dog would be a good decision. But regardless he browsed around on craigslist in the pet section just incase.

Today he found some free puppies( I can't remember what breed exactly) So we called. It ended up being a scam :( Sad day, cause I was kinda excited. So I came home and started looking around on craigslist. (Which I do OFTEN) And I came across a few cute dogs. AND THEN........I came across 'Biscuit'. His "dad" was looking for a new home for him and wasn't exactly thrilled about having to get rid of him. So I shot the guy a email, and sent a picture of our family along with it.

He emailed me back and said he would love to  meet us and for us to meet Biscuit. After a few more email exchanges and a couple phone calls. We were on our way to pick him up. I'm SO happy to be giving this dog a home. He is so sweet and energetic, but not crazy. I love our addition. We renamed him Henry, but kept Biscuit as his middle name. My little Henry Biscuit ")

Dear Jesus..

Thank you for giving me the gift of  baking!!

X&O

-Courtney

For a while now I've been wanting to bake a pie, not just any pie but an apple pie. Completely. From. Scratch. I've never got around to buying a pie pan, call it laziness or lack of "pie pan" money. So I went to my parents house yesterday and dug through their cabinets. I came across FOUR!! Now considering that my mom doesn't bake(no offense mom) I was shocked to find four of them. I decided to take two, cause I figured she won't be baking a pie any time soon.  Any who, I woke up this morning REALLY wanted to bake a pie but unfortunately I didn't have any apples :( On the bright side, my friend Lisa was going to be coming over today with her daughter. SO, I did what any normal desperate stay-at-home mom would do who doesn't have a car, I text her and asked her to pick up some granny smith apples for me. And she happily obliged. 

So now on to the good stuff. I started with making a pie crust. Duh, what else would I start with. It was pretty dang easy. 3 cups of flour, 1/2 cup (one stick) butter cubed, 1/2 cup shortening, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt, Combine all that with pastry cutter or a fork. Add cold water a tablespoon at a time just until the dough comes together. Then put in refrigerator and chill for at least 30 minutes. Mean while, peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4 inch slices. Then melt a stick of butter(half cup) in a small sauce pan, add three tablespoons of flour, stir until well mixed. Then add, half cup of white sugar, half cup brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, 3 tablespoons of water, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Mix it well, bring to a boil. Then just turn off the burner. 

Now back to the crust. Take it out of the fridge, and divid it in two equal parts. Starting with one ball of dough, roll it out on a floured surface until it's just bigger than your pie dish, roll it on to your rolling pin and transfer it to your pie pan. be sure that it is big enough to fold over the edge just a little bit, cut off any excess. The put that in the fridge. Now roll out the other ball of dough, lay it on a flat surface or on i pie pan that has been turned upside down and stick that in the fridge. 

Now take a break to eat a snack, grab a drink, watch your favorite tv show, or whatever you feel like doing to kill about 20 minutes. Then back to the kitchen. First take out the second pie crust we rolled out.  Lay it out on your cutting board (or counter) and cut into 1/4 inch(can be wider depending on how you want your pie to look) wide stripes.  Now with your apples in a large bowl add the syrupy mixture and stir to coat all the apples.  (Btw did I mention I used about 3 pounds of apples to start with) Then get your other pie crust out of the fridge and dump all your apples in the crust. Then put on your lattice crust top (here's a video of how to make the lattice crust)

It should look something like this^ Then fold under the edges and crimp the edge of the pie (video on how to here) You will want to cover the edge with tin foil so it doesn't over cook. Then bake it in a preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes, When that 15 minutes is up reduce your oven temperature to 350 and bake for 35-45 minutes. the last 10 minutes, I paused the timer and took the pie out on the oven and brushed the entire top crust with a mixture of dark corn syrup, butter, and a little bit of hot water. Then sprinkled a cinnamon and white sugar mixture over the top. I put it back in the oven and let the timer finish the last 10 minutes. It is now sitting on a cooling rack on my counter. Tempting me to cut into it.

Anyway I can't WAIT until it cools. It looks and smells delicious!!

Recipe for the original pie was found here. 

A woman of inspiration.

This is my grandmother(my dads mom), Mary Jo Cowan. She is a fantastic woman. I don't remember exactly how long ago it started but she has dementia. At this point she can't really talk comprehendingly, sometimes she gets something out that is actually words but for the most part it is gibberish. Back when I was a sophomore in high school she lived in our neighborhood. Everyday after school I would stop by her house to visit with her for a couple hours. I look back now and treasure that time I had with her. I'm so grateful for that time! Even then she showed signs of dementia. She could never remember if I had come over so the days that I did stop by she would write it on her calendar. Every time a stopped by she told me the same stories, we did the same thing. Despite all that it never got old. I loved hearing stories about her past.

She is a mother of five. Carolyn Joyce "Joy", David Newton III "Rusty", Clayborne Nathan "Clay", Charles Eagle "Carlos" (adopted from Mexico),  Joel Wade (my dad), Grady Jr (stepson) Serena (step-daughter).  And a grandmother to (about) 20. She has always been loving and caring to all of us. I remember when I was little my sister and I would go spend the night at her house. I loved spending time there, fishing, exploring, swimming, and just hanging out.

It makes me sad that she's kind of "gone" Although when I spend time with her I can see the happiness in her eyes. She may not know my name, but I like to believe she knows who I am. She hugs me and tells me she loves me, and it makes my heart smile.

New Business Adventure

If you didn't already know, I've been getting back into photography recently. Let me back up a little and get you a little bit about my photography past...

I've always been into taking photos to capture important moments in my life. I remember when I was in school, st arting in fifth grade, it was ALWAYS super important to me to have at least 3 disposable cameras for the last days of school. Back in 2002 when I was 15 I became very interested in all aspects of photography. A good friend of the family (Tom McCubbins) was a photographer, and I was in awe of his work and was continuously asking him questions about photography and what not. He was always more than willing to share his passion for the art of photography with me. And I believe that's when I really fell in love. For my 16th birthday, Tom and his wife, Mary Alice, gave me a Canon EOS Rebel Ti . I couldn't believe they blessed me in such a way! I was overwhelmed. So there was my beginning.

Over the next few years I went through endless amounts of rolls of film. Reading through every book about photography I could get my hands on. I just couldn't get enough. I always wanted to get better and learn more. Then in 2006 I bought a Canon 30D. I was SO excited to make the switch over to digital. Although there are things about film that just can't be matched! Any who, my love and passion for photography continued to grow. I started making money doing what I love. Event photos, weddings, senior portraits, children, boudoir, family portraits, you name it I was willing to photograph it. My dreams were beginning to come true. Then the unthinkable happened. My camera broke, NO even worse I broke my camera. I sat there and cried. I felt like everything was over. My camera couldn't be fixed and I couldn't afford another one. I felt hopeless. Although my husband, Chris reassured me that it wasn't the end of the world. We tired to compensate by buying a cheap point and shoot, but it wasn't even remote close to filling the void. My son was just barely 4 months old and I felt I had nothing to capture all the precious moments that I KNEW were going to fly by. After a little over a year, I had finally just dealt with the fact that I didn't have a camera. I was now having my second child, and promised myself that with our next income tax we are SOOO buying another camera. With that in mind, God decided to intervene. Let me just say right now that I know without a shadow of a doubt that God had His hand in the situation, for what purpose, I don't know but I continue to thank Him daily for His blessing. Well here's what happened, keep in mind that since buying my camera in 2006 I got married and moved three times. One day Chris calls me overly excited. He told me I had to call Best Buy imediately because I got a notice in the mail that my warranty for my Canon 30D was going to expire soon and asked me if I want to renew. I COULD NOT believe it! I had no memory of purchasing a 4 year warranty. So I called Best Buy and asked them about it and they said that sure enough my camera was still under warranty and that I could bring it into any Best Buy and take it to geek squad and if they couldn't fix it they would replace it. We took it in and they said it would be 2 weeks before we would hear anything back and that we could check the status online. The day of the 2 week mark Chris checked the status and it said waiting on customer approval. So I called and they said that the camera couldn't be fixed and if I came in they would replace it. So called Chris immediately (he was at work) and told him then news, and told him we were going to go up there on his lunch break cause I just couldn't wait, I was tooooooooo excited!!  We went in and they replaced it with a Canon 50D, no questions asked! So that was in June 2010, and since then I've been trying to balance starting my photography back up and being a mom of two babies under 2 years old. I'm so excited that I've been blessed with another chance at my dream. I feel like the time without my camera I really grew as a photographer and as a person. I pray that God will continue to bless me and open doors for me to pursue my dream.

I've recently launched my webpage, but I can 't wait to purchase my domain (awkwardeyephotography.com) It's seems as though everything is falling into place, and I couldn't be more thrilled!! 

Kids grow too fast

Man, my kids are growing waaaaay to fast. The time is flying by so quickly I have a hard time keeping all the memories in my head. Today someone asked me how much Jocelyn weighed when she was born and I couldn't really remember exactly. It was weird. But it made me think, I really need to try and capture all these moments cause they will be gone and forgotten if I don't. I've been really good about taking endless amounts of pictures of my kids. I love everything about them. Here are a few of my favorites from today:

View the rest of the photos over at my photo blog