Tag Archives: Family Photog

Dogs Are Not Our Whole Life | {But They Make Our Lives Whole}

Title quote by Roger Caras

 

 

 

A tale of two doggies

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I don’t think I’ve gone a single day in my life without having a dog right beside me. My first dog, Bubba, was my best friend. He was only a few months younger than I was, so from birth we were inseparable! From playing outside to going fishing, we did everything together. So it was no question when J and I started dating that we were going to have a dog. That’s when Scrappy Doo came into our lives.

Let me start off by telling you her breed; she’s a chiweenie. What on Earth is a chiweenie you ask? It’s a “hybrid breed” of dog that is a mix of Chihuahua and Dachshund. When we first met Scrappy, she was a wee 7 months old. All ears, no lie. She was actually owned by my neighbor, who wasn’t supposed to have her due to my apartment owner’s rules. He tried to get rid of her, but no one was interested. He even tried to dump her on the side of the road, but just couldn’t bring himself to do so. Terrible situation, I know. But J and I knew we wanted the little furball, so we took her in. Now here we are, 7 years later and she’s still my little baby. We knew we wanted to get her a playmate after we were stationed here in California, so we went on a hunt. I’m not one for buying a dog, so we were searching at local shelters. That’s when we found Honey.

 

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Honey is the sweetest old Basset Hound you could ever meet! I always joke around about how she makes a terrible guard dog and would probably just lick someone to death. When we adopted Honey, she was 7 years old. She’s now 9. But you could never tell by the way she plays! She’s so full of energy and excitement! And she LOVES the fact that we have a toddler in the house. That’s because said toddler sneaks her snacks, throws her ball for her, and makes she she gets all her necessary pets throughout the day. We know very little about Honey’s past, but we believe she may have been mistreated. We’re just glad we could give her a loving home and family that she can spend the rest of her days with.

 

 

Do you have a family pet that you rescued? Thinking about getting a pet of your own? Rescue dogs might not be that cute, spry little puppy you think you’re looking for, but they make amazing family pets! Puppies and kittens are only puppies and kittens for a short time. Don’t get them only to lose interest when they lose their little-ness. I’ve seen too many cases where people BUY a puppy (for their toddler, mind you) only to chain the dog up outside all day everyday when it got older. Also keep in mind the type of dog (if you’re looking for a dog) that would best suit your/your family’s lifestyle before fully committing to one. Large breed dogs don’t do well in small apartments just as much as hyper/easily excitable dogs may not be very good for a family with small children. (Where personalities can vary breed by breed, they also vary dog by dog. Just something else to keep in mind.)

 

I was very happy to share my wonderful fur babies with you!

 

Until next time,

Karen

My Little Family | {Our Adventures}

This post is going to be a little bit different. I want to let you look into the life of my little family and see the things we like to do together. I’m sure it’s not much different than what your family might do. Here’s some visuals for you to enjoy.

Oh, and before I forget, check me out on Facebook at facebook.com/photosbykaren2010. Likes and shares are greatly appreciated!!

 

 

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Little K and I like to “window paint”. I found it on Pinterest (of course) but I couldn’t tell you who from. There’s probably hundreds of tutorials/posts about doing this. Like this one. Or this one (who got it from this one).Untitled-1She was showing me the smiley’s eye and then her eye! How adorable is my little one??

 

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Remember how I said I like the outdoors? Well so does K, A LOT! She loved feeding and petting the donkeys at La Purisima Mission in Lompoc, CA.

 

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Donkeys aren’t the only animals she feeds. Well, actually, she’ll feed just about ANY animal… Anywho, we love spending time together at the duck park!

 

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And we’re always up for a trip to the Ty Warner Sea Center in Santa Barbara, CA! It’s fun, interactive, educational, and let’s not forget inexpensive! K absolutely loves playing with the “shish” (fish). She also likes to splash in the water because she knows she’s not supposed to…

 

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And splash in the water when she IS supposed to! I have a little shish of my own!

 

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Oh how we love to spend time at the beach! Even though most of the time we’re dressed for a blizzard, there are a few days that are wonderful to play in the sand or go watch the sunset.

 

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These are two separate trips, but see what I mean about K feeding animals? She likes to sneak her nacks (snacks) to our basset hound, Honey, any chance she can get! So of course she was all for feeding goats at the Santa Barbara Zoo!

 

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What can I say, we like going to the Sea Center! She really does love to splash, and get everything soaking wet…. But you should always let littles be little!

 

Until next time,

Karen

Our House Will Be Growing | {By 2 Feet}

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Friends are always the best models

When I first met Chelsea, I was pregnant. I went with to pick her up from the airport. I believe the first thing she said to me was, “You must be Karen, because you’re the pregnant one.” I guess so. We then spent the entire hour long car ride home making sure she knew how much California (where we are) isn’t always the sunny, warm, wonderful place everyone makes it out to be. We basically told her the weather here sucked. Because it does. But when we aren’t being bombarded by fog or high winds, we might actually get some sun and kind of warmth. Which is what I love taking advantage of.

Fast forward about a year. I get the “guess what” text from Chels. Of course it was that they were pregnant! And I was so excited for them! We immediately decided to take some quick announcement pictures so the happy couple could share with the world their wonderful news. We got some boots and shoes shots and put ’em all in a collage titled, “Our house will be growing by 2 feet in 2014.” Downright adorable.

As her due date grew nearer (and Chels finally started to show) we knew we needed to take some maternity photos. I loved this part! Deciding where she wanted them done, going to take them, and then hearing her response when they were finished. We settled on some beach photos (since we’re literally 5-10 minutes away) and some woodsy ones. I’m a bit of a sucker for the great outdoors. Although daddy didn’t want to appear in them, we got some wonderful shots of momma and I couldn’t be happier with the way they turned out! I absolutely love working with Chelsea and getting to be the “family photographer” for them.

I’ll make sure to get photos up later of sweet Baby B. He was such a stinker to get any done, even with extra hands from everyone! But we still managed to get some great shots!

 

Until next time,

Karen

 

 

***Photos have been moved to here! Why? Visit this post to find out!***