Formulas, Bubbles, and Family

I know it has been awhile since I've posted. Christmas is screaming towards us and I've been a busy Queen Bee around here. Last weekend we headed to Webb City to celebrate Christmas with the Allens. The drive was long but we found a formula that has become essential when traveling with a toddler these days.

DVD player + snacks = happy kiddo

Remember that.

 The long drive was worth it. When Dude sees Sissy,

 the happiness that bubbles out of him is just an awesome thing to see.

You can't ask for more as a parent than to see your children love each other so fiercely and have a blast together.

Forgive the quality of the photo. It was one of those

 "just capture the moment and don't worry about the setting" split second.

 We stopped for an overnight stay in Springfield on Friday

 then headed to Webb City on Saturday morning.

The only time I ever got out my camera was when Hub's dad took Dude out to sit in his '66 Chevy Truck. Man, this truck was darn cool. Dude got a kick out of honking the horn.

It was a short visit but a good visit nonetheless.  

We got in late Sunday night but I just had to get everything back to normal as quickly as possible, so unpacking everything was first on my list. I had a little helper.

Again with the photo quality. Eeeesh.

 Man, he's cute. Crazy hair. Big blue eyes. I'm in love.

 Christmas Eve is in 2 days. Shopping is done and gifts are wrapped. All that needs to happen now is for me to sit back and enjoy my family for a three day weekend.

See ya. 

New Blog, Beach Boys, and a Naked House

My new blog is up! It's nothing fancy yet. No real design to it. Not even a picture! (Ha!) I just wanted to get the first post up. Do me a favor and click "follow" so I know you're out there!

Awesomeness sure to come. :)

Christmas is in full swing. I baked Christmas Cookies with my mother this afternoon. It has become a tradition and we cranked out some awesome ones this year! On the menu: Chocolate Crinkles, Chocolate Chip cookies with chopped up Andes mints baked in, Peanut Butter cookies, Pumpkin cookies, Cyclops cookies & Chocolate Peppermint Bark.

 A-Yum. A-Yum. A-Yum.

In a mere 3 hours, we cranked out about 6 dozen cookies. The tunes?

Staple Christmas music at mom's. Beach Boys, Hawaiian Christmas, & Andy Williams.

Old School.

Hubs and I haven't decorated for Christmas in 6 years. SIX YEARS. We blame it on our house being too small. And the 5 bins of decorations that are in the storage unit waaaay across town. And being too busy. And the cats. And strawberries. Because one excuse is as good as another. We both would love a house filled to the brim with Christmas decorations but somehow each year just zooms by.

There's always next year.

And maybe we'll decorate.

Maybe.

It's so windy right now that it sounds like someone is beating on the house.

This calls for a hot chocolate. 

Good night, readers.  

New Blog

I have been working on a new blog (Don't worry. I'm still keeping this one!). For those of you who don't know, I've started doing photography professionally. It feels weird to say that. I still feel like I'm stumbling around in the dark trying to figure stuff out. But I think I'm getting better.

And I have clients.

Clients!

I'm starting a new blog that will follow me on my journey. And I've decided to be honest. I mean, really honest. For some reason, my whole life I've felt the need to be the person that already knows everything. Not in a snotty way, just in an "I don't want anyone to know I don't know how to do this because I don't want to appear weak and vulnerable" way. I'm trying to change that. Because I don't know everything. And having a child has brought out in me the love of learning something new again.

And hey, maybe it'll inspire someone. Who knows. :)

For those of you who are on Facebook, please "like" Cassie Allen Photography and pass the word!

Here are some recent photos.

 Mr. Cool Dude

 Snack time in our house looks like this. Luckily, nothing has been shoved up his nose. :)

This is from a recent shoot. This is Lindsay, whom I knew in my "former life", and her family.

All mashed together in chaotic awesomeness.

Lindsay is also a photographer and just yesterday, I was on the other side of the camera with Hubs. Lindsay was amazing and we had an absolute blast. I can't wait to show you pictures!

Happy Monday!

"Sissy Here!"

Sissy hasn't been able to visit us for a month and a half. That's too long for the Hubs and I.

It's PAINFULLY long for Big Man.

Big Man gets soooo excited when Sissy comes to visit. "Sissy HERE!" he says.

These two have a crazy bond like I've never seen before. Big Man NEEDS his Sissy. He's gotten so excited to see her before that he's thrown up all over his ecstatic self. And she's loves her brother.

When she's here, she jumps right in and helps with everything and she's so patient with him.

It's an amazing thing to see.

We ventured out today so I can get some potential Christmas Card pictures. Big Man was his usual busy, exhausting self. But they had fun and I captured some memories.

 The first shot of the day! Can you believe it?

 Just look at her. Simply gorgeous.

 Griffin ran away to play with Daddy for awhile so I took the opportunity to get some Sissy shots. It's been two whole years since I had the camera just on her alone. She's all grown up!

 They always have fun together. Always.

 That's my girl. :)

And that's my boy. Wouldn't have it any other way!



The Rockstar

This is my favorite picture at the moment.

This little guy takes my breath away.

That's pretty much all I wanted to say.

Happy Weekend!

Wa hoo 32!

Yesterday was my birthday.

I had a fabulous, quiet day with my two favorite boys.

The Hubster woke me up by handing me a piping hot mug of hot chocolate and then created an amazing breakfast pizza!

He then proceeded to clean out the litter box, do the dishes, and generally clean up the house. What a gift! :)

It was a beautiful day so we took a walk through the woods.

Griffin had never walked on a trail before and he did so great!

 It was the middle of the day but the light was beautifully filtered through the trees.

 One of my favorite pictures of the day!

 The best gift was when my busy, crazy boy asked me to hold him.

He didn't even mind when the Hubster snapped some photos! Not only am I the one always behind the camera but Dude never sits still for a picture. This was such a great moment!

 Speak softly and carry a big stick.

Later on in the evening, the Hubster and I had a date.
We haven't had a date in a very long time.
With the Dude at Nana's we were free to do what we wanted for a whole 2 hours!
We were going to go out to dinner but I opted to change things up. I wanted to have Chinese take out and rent a movie just like we used to when we were dating. Back then, when I would worry about money, Hubs would tell me, "We have $12 in the bank. Yay! We can have Chinese!". He's so Glass Is Half Full. :)
Back at home, I changed into my PJs and we watched the movie loudly. Seems we never get the chance to use our surround sound to it's full ability! It felt so nice to sit and breathe for a little bit. We love our Little Dude but it seems lately we barely have the time to even look at each other!
 It was the perfect end to the day.

I have such a blessed life.

I love who I am, who I'm with, and where my life - both personally and professionally - is going. 

Bring it, 32!

National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Well, it was officially yesterday but yesterday was just a bad day all around so I am celebrating it today! I also cheated on the "cupcake". It's actually a brownie with an extra egg added to make it more fluffy. YUM! Don't you just love these wrappers? The Hubster got them for me for Halloween time and I think they're just awesome!

Chocolate brownie, chocolate buttercream, & chocolate jimmies
This girl dreams with visions of cupcake swirls dancing in her head.

Oh happy day!

"Sissy?"

We love it when Rachael comes to visit. We rarely do anything special or have much planned.

We just love hanging out together. We bake cupcakes, watch movies, take walks, and just play.

The last time she visited us, it was chilly. Okay, COLD.

But we bundled up and headed out for a walk.

Me and my lovie
My family
We walked to a little green patch in our community.
It has a colorful stage and Griffin had a blast chasing Sissy!

No one can make Griffin laugh like Rachael. He laughs until he's out of breath!

It's been several weeks since we've seen our Sissy. Yesterday when Griffin woke up he knocked on his door. Matt went to the door, opened it and Griffin poked his head out and asked, "Sissy?". Matt said "No, no Sissy. Daddy."

Griffin shut the door in his face and ran back to bed. :)

Happy Friday!

You Baked WHAT in a Cupcake?

A pumpkin pie! That's right, folks!

I headed out into the blogosphere for baking inspiration and ran across www.bakeitinacake.com

A-Maz-Ing!

Wanting to bake a Fall treat for the Hubster, I chose the Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes since pumpkin pie is one of his favorites. Let me tell you, the recipe DID NOT disappoint! A super moist vanilla cream cheese cupcake with cinnamon buttercream and a mini pumpkin pie baked right in the middle.

Nom nom nom

They were a pain in the patoot to make but the Hubster really enjoyed them!

The only thing lacking was the lighting in my kitchen so I could get a decent shot.

Ah well.

Happy Fall!

Stompin' Grounds

With Griffin spending some quality time at my mother's house this evening, I grabbed some "me" time. I headed down to Main Street to seek out a few good locations as well as experiment with different settings on my camera. It was a beautiful evening. The weather was that PERFECT temperature and the sunshine was sooooo buttery smooth.

I was able to take a few deep breaths.

Something I don't do enough.

On Main Street there is this odd mix of fabulous antiques, old and broken down antiques, and kitschy, touristy stuff.
There are two train cars permanently on the rail road tracks along the Katy Trail.
Griffin loves to run along these old tracks.

The sun was setting and I wanted to try out some different camera settings.

This picture will always make me smile. Here I am at the base of the Walnut Tree that stands in the front yard of the building I once lived in. My mother planted a walnut. My sister and I used to leap frog over the tiny sapling. Now, it's this beast of a tall tree and I think it's fabulous.

My first self portrait! :)

Fishies and Lions and Fondant, Oh My!

I'm still here, faithful blog readers! Here are a few recent creations of mine that I'm particularly proud of. The first one is a fishy cake that I made for the son of my very first friend ever. We recently reconnected on Facebook and all she asked for was a fishy cake. Turns out, the colors that I used were the EXACT colors that she had for the party. It worked out perfectly! This was my first time trying out these fondant fish and I think they turned out pretty good! Looking back, I think I would've added a little more to the cake.

This was a 10" round cake

Yellow cake with vanilla buttercream and homemade marshmallow fondant "water" and fish

My next cake was a jungle themed cake.

I copied the lion face from a picture that was sent to me.

A simple 6" round cake with mini cuppies for a 1 year old boy.

Yellow cake with vanilla buttercream and homemade marshmallow fondant base and accents.

I had a lot of fun with these and I look forward to my next animal adventure! :)

Bugs

Recently I was able to capture some neat shots.

I really liked these Lazy Susans but when I bent down, I

saw this Praying Mantis just staring at me!
My mother actually pointed this out to me. I'm so glad she did!
I want to turn this into a "hang in there!!" poster. :)