1 year old! Carson was one of the first newborns I photographed after Simon was born and now he is 1 year old.

They grow up way to fast – Hug them tight!

Sorry – I know I promised more photos but life got in the way. We are having some nice weather so who wants to be inside working on the computer?
At any rate. Here is the real reason that we were in Cali. If you are a long time blog reader you will remember my good friend Melissa Skaugset who lived with us last year while she was on rotation at UW. Well last weekend she Graduated from Loma Linda Medical school!! So now she is an official Dr.!!!

I think her husband Eric was a little beyond excited  : ) And he should be, med school was a huge sacrifice and A LOT of work (for both of them).  We did some formal family portraits but then things got a little silly. This is just a sneak peek but I think this is the one that will end up above their fire place don’t you?

I know the whole jump shot thing is a little cliched but who doesn’t love seeing adults dressed up formal acting like a bunch of hooligans? Mabye I should submit it to Awkward Family Photos? – Just kidding you guys! I had a blast!

Yes, we took him to Disneyland – He had the time of his life.

Whew – what a week. We just got back from California if you hadn’t guessed by the photos. My good friend Melissa graduated from Loma Linda Medical School and I went down to take some family photos for her. Turns out graduations are an excellent time to catch all of your extended family in one spot. Myles was working in New York but my mom accompanied Simon and me/ kept life with a toddler sane. Since we were in California we tacked on a few days and visited my brother Mark. And since we were already there why not take Simon to Disneyland?  yes, he is a bit young to really ‘get it’ but he did have a very good time. The whole day was filled with “OOOO!!” and “OHHH!!” – He really liked the boat rides the best – probably The Jungle Cruise and Small World were his favorites. But he also thought that Dumbo was pretty fun.

My mom and I had a great time watch Simon have a great time. I have a lot of fond memories from Disneyland during my childhood so it’s fun to see Simon experience the magic too. We picked a good day that wasn’t very crowded and had no trouble getting right on the rides. And as you can see Simon got his first mouse ears. I have tons more photos to get though so more coming soon.

After photographing Simon at the park the other night and getting the photos on my computer an editing them I decided that his hair was just to scraggly and long in the back and needed a trim. So I took him for his first hair cut at one of those children’s salons where they have toys that the kids sit in and videos to keep them occupied. (Bella and Max at Country Village if you are local).  Simon got to sit in the airplane and watch a movie on the TV and eat animal crackers and play with a basket of toys. He was so overstimulated that he barely even noticed that he was getting his hair cut. Ok here are the photos – be prepared for snapshot overload. (and for photographers these were all taken at ISO 800 and you can barely see any grain – I am so excited to be able to shoot in the dark!)

here is the before shot -  you can see how long and scraggly his hair is in the back and over his ears. The top just isn’t keeping up so it needed a little evening out.

Here is the back before

crazy when wet.

who are you… and what are you doing?

Here is the back after – all cleaned up

He looks like such a little boy now!

After you get your hair cut at Bela and Max you get a free train ride on the country village train – which Simon loved. One a side note after the hair cut he kept signing “penguin” – a sign he just learned last week at the zoo. I didn’t know why he was talking about penguins or if he was confusing some other animal with a penguin (he thinks all birds are either ducks or penguins now). It wasn’t until I started editing these photos that I realized where he had seen a penguin – check out the cape he is wearing. Too funny the things that he picks up on!  As of recent Simon has had a sign language explosion and he probably knows close to 50 signs and he is always wanting to know more,  I had to put a sign language dictionary on my phone just to keep up with him.

I was of course itching to try out my new camera so I took Simon down to the park last night. He was NOT a cooperative subject. He wanted nothing to do with the picture taking. This is the one decent shot I got of him.

He is only happy because he saw a dog.

Here he is running away from me  and my camera                                                                    but at least the swing still gets a smile.

The rest of the photos look like this

Thanks Simon, for letting mommy enjoy her new camera.

After getting these home and on my computer I realized that he really does need a hair cut so that is what we did today. Photos of that coming up later.

I have been waiting so long for this.

You got to love it when they sleep long and hard! This is little lady stayed sacked out almost the entire shoot and let me move her all around. You can’t get much sweet than this.

I went through a photo album that my mom made for me last year and pulled out a few photos. Like in most families my mom was the family photographer so there are really not that many photos of me with her and a lot more of me with my dad so these ones are pretty special. I think the one on the left was taken in 1985 or 86 and I am guessing but I think that is the Mendenhall glacier (That’s my little brother Mark not looking at the camera).   Moms are pretty special so make sure and give yours a big hug today.

I realized that haven’t posted any food photos recently.  Lately I haven’t been very motivated to cook – I need to get inspired again.  This was a pretty easy and pretty quick recipe to make. I like sweet and spicy so this one was right up my ally though it turned out a little too spicy and I ended up drinking several glasses of water with it. Next time I will tone down the spice a little bit. This is from my Simply Organic cook book.

• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1.4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 bone-in chicken breast halves skinned (I used boneless skinless chicken breast.)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 to 2 hot chile peppers, such as cayenne, red jalapeno, or habanero, seeded and minced ( I used 1 habanero and it was TOO hot).

preheat the oven to 400 *F

in a small bowl, combine the paprika, salt, and black pepper. Place the chicken in a large shallow roasting pan. Brush with 1 tablespoon of the oil and sprinkle with the paprika mixture.

Roast for 45 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest portion registers 180*F and the juices run clear. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion for 5 minutes, or until soft. Add the broth, cherries, capers, honey, cumin, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the cherries are plump and the sauce has thickened. Stir in the chile peppers.

When the Chicken is cooked, for extra flavor, if desired, drain off the pan juices and stir them into the cherry sauce. Remove and discard the cinnamon stick before serving. Place the chicken on a serving platter and top with the sauce.

enjoy!

Now that Simon is 15 months old I thought I should do an update of this picture which eveyone liked so well. Here he is – much bigger almost 12 months later.He has changed a lot.