Four More Babies

Did I ever mention that I love January and February? 

These months aren't great just for the cool crisp mornings, short days and occasional sprinklings of snow.  I love seeing new the baby calves learning to walk and run. I love seeing the mothers protecting and caring for their new treasures. I love seeing what a new baby brings to the ranch; a sense of freshness and joy... if you can understand that in an animal sort of way.

I went out to check on the cows and their babies yesterday.

This is how it went....

Luckily for me, and the cows, we have an understanding, a sort of mutual agreement that says....

I'm coming in the pasture, don't mind me, I'm just looking.

They look back. Eyes wide sometimes.

But then they remember it's just me, the one who comes around and gets close enough to touch but doesn't, most of the time, and makes a clicking noise with a black box [my camera].

If I could sit there among them for hours I would.  I love watching them. I love taking pictures of them.  They let me.  One day I hope to be able to touch a baby without the mother getting too anxious.  I will try with Daisy's [my cow] next baby.  She is ready any moment.

 For now, I'm happy just seeing all of the beauty in them.  On the outside you see just a baby calf.  But when you know the parents [bull and cow] and see how beautiful the calf came out, you have an understanding.  This little guy looks just like his dad, Red-Bull.  Red-Bull was sold so seeing his little off-spring brings a smile to me.

This little guy got a bad rap!  When the cowboys recorded his birth they made mention that this mother cow had an ugly baby calf! How could they say that?


To me, he is gorgeous! I love his markings and coloring, especially his legs which look like they are dusted with snow.  He is a bit gray rather than black, but they always change by the time they are a yearling.  I love him no matter what color.

I posted this picture to show you the enormity of the mother and how tiny this little one is.  Luckily for the Angus cow, it was probably an easy birth...the smaller the better.  She is a protective mama.


Hope you enjoyed...until the next ones are born!

Photo Shoot Under The Clouds - Part III

The third beautiful teen I had the good fortune of shooting pictures of was Brette!  Although the clouds played a bit of a challenge in this shoot, we were able to rock some great shots!

This is how it went....

Brette was such a great girl to shoot, she is full of smiles and laughter that was infectious to all of us at the shoot.

I received a lot of emails regarding what type of lens I used and editing questions, I will give you that information in this post.

I use a Canon 7D camera body.  On this shoot I used an EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM, this lens is really great for portraits.  This image was edited in Photoshop CS5 and topped off with an action from Florabella Actions. 

 This is my favorite of Brette, she's always laughing and smiling.

Oh Brette, you are gorgeous! Thank you for allowing me to photograph you! [smile]

Photo Shoot Under The Clouds - Part II

The second beautiful teen I had the good fortune of shooting pictures of was for Selena.  Luckily for me, she made my job easy because she is very photogenic. She followed my posing suggestions flawlessly allowing for a very fun session.

This is how it went....

This image speaks to me, I'm not exactly sure what it says, but I love it so much I have to look at it often.  [smile]

It's all in the eye of the beholder.

I'm pretty sure this was a great day for all of us.  I got to release my inner creativity and the girls got to have their pictures taken for Facebook! Isn't that all that matters these days! [smile]

Photo Shoot Under The Clouds

I had the good fortune of doing a photo shoot for some beautiful high school girls today.  We had rain and plenty of gray sky, but with a break in the gloominess, we made a run for it and started the shoot. 

This is how it went...   

Nora did a great job of pretending she was on America's Next Top Model while I pretended to be a famous photographer from New York.  We had a lot of fun together. 

 The background we settled on, partly because we didn't have to deal with mud, was at the base of the mountain, which is filled with richly colored boulders.

Great job Nora, on to the next one!

Five Good Reasons To Smile

There's a lot of reasons to smile, but today we are smiling about the five new  creatures frolicking around the ranch.

This is what I'm talking about....

This is my favorite time of year because here on the ranch we are having baby calves nearly everyday!  We have had five so far with two more cows are ready any moment.

These little guys are scrumptious... in a non-edible way.
We won't talk about that right now.
I could just squeeze them.

Oh so cute!

I love this little one, I want to take it home and swaddle it in a blanket!   
I'm not so sure Mama would like that though.
So off I went, ready for two more to welcome to the ranch!

Show Down

Have you ever seen two horses playing around to get attention?

I hadn't, like these two horses did.

Until yesterday.

This is how it went....

I was at my friend Denise's ranch house and across the street were these two horses running around like two teenagers.  I walked over to watch them and take a couple pictures.  The horses put on a show, you'll see.

Do you see the white horse? Its feet are off of the ground like a jumping jack!

Hope you enjoyed seeing their fun.


Have a great day!

Fruity Pebble Treat Pops

What do you do with Charm Pops, a bag of marshmallows and Fruity Pebbles cereal?

Make Fruity Pebble Treat Pops!

That's what we did.

This is how it went....

This is the perfect treat to make with kids.  It's fun and easy.

I was trying to follow one of my New Years Resolutions of organizing the kitchen pantry when I saw a half eaten bag of Charm lollipops and immediately tossed it into the throw-out-of-house-quickly bin only because I was following another resolution of eating less sugar, but I changed my mind due to the overwhelming feeling of not wanting to waste something perfectly good.


As I organized the excessive amount of cereal boxes we had and didn't need half of, I was thinking the Fruity Pebbles cereal could be put to good use by making them into treats for the kids.  When I looked at the Charm Pops sitting in the throw out bin, a bright idea came to mind...what if I combined the two into one treat, then I would have one less box of cereal to organize and one bag of half eaten Charm Pops used with no waste.  Thus, Fruity Pebble Treat Pops were born in my mind!   I'm a little crazy but I knew it would be fun for Sophia since she likes to cook rather than color.

 I only had 4 cups of Fruity Pebbles cereal left in the box, so that's what we used.

 I used 3 Tablespoons of butter.

 4 cups of marshmallows.


Make the Fruity Pebble Treats similar to Rice Crispy Treats; melt the butter in a sauce pan , stir in the marshmallows and melt until creamy, then stir in the cereal until combined evenly. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray to prevent sticking and spread mixture to cool slightly.

 Let the treat mixture cool slightly until it can be hand formed around the lollipop, once cooled shape into ball the size you like.

 I had small sized Charm Pops, so I formed the cereal mixture proportionally.

 These treats are perfect for kids...sweet, fruity and colorful.  

Servings: 21 small lollipops


INGREDIENTS:


4  Cups Fruity Pebbles cereal
4  Cups Marshmallows
3  Tablespoons butter
21 Charm Pop (lollipops)


DIRECTIONS:


Melt butter in a sauce pan, stir in the marshmallows and melt until creamy, then stir in the cereal until combined evenly. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray to prevent sticking and spread the mixture onto tray to cool slightly (about 5 minutes).  Once slightly cooled, wrap and form cereal mixture around Charm pops and set on cookie sheet until fully cooled.  Add ribbon around neck of lollipop stick for a decorative look.

New Years Party 2012

Starting off the New Year with good friends, food and music, we rang in 2012 at our friend's, JJ and Kelsey's annual new years party.

This is how it went....

We knew we were in for a surprise when we arrived and saw that their driveway had been transformed into an entrance fit for the stars! The once garage was transformed into a hip lounge draped with white shimmery fabric and back-lit with red lighting. The seating was ultra cool with modern white couches topped off with glowing tables and adorned with giant lit martini glasses.  


The sight was spectacular!

 Night shots ~ no flash....

The girls did most of the dancing (especially Kelsey's sisters) keeping the party going.  

 Sandy was getting her groove on ~ loved her jacket!

 I think these two were planning out their New Year's Resolutions.

 Gabe kept an eye on the dance floor but I never saw him kicking up his heels out there.

 Courtney rocked the house all night!

 Cari rocked it too!

Love those heels!

 Vic and Lisa taking a breather from the dance floor.

 Vic and JJ

 Mr. Incredible had a birthday and we all celebrated ~ [smile].

 Craig was looking cool on those white couches!

 Mr. Happy popped in for a picture!

 Beautiful Megan and her husband Billy.

 Awe...me and my cute cowboy.

 Megan and Brian

Kevin is ready for the count down.

 Loved the Photo Booth! We had some fun in there ~ great idea Kelsey.

Getting ready for the count down!

 Wow Kelsey, I'm lovin those eyes, was JJ behind me?  Gorgeous girls!

At the end of the night the awesome couches REALLY came in handy!  Nighty-night Craig.

We had so much fun and look forward to a great new year with friends and family!