The best homemade granola bars!

My kids go through granola bars at a very unusual pace! I hate buying the store bought ones that are filled with preservatives, and well, they can get very expensive. I've been searching for a good homemade recipe for a while now and I think I've finally find out!

Don't these look delish! (not the best photo but I had to snap it quick before they were eaten by 3 little monsters).

No-Bake Peanut Butter Pretzel Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

1/4 c unsalted butter
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c honey
1/4 c natural peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 c oats
1/2 c crispy rice cereal
3/4 c chopped pretzels (you can substitute for extra nuts if you want)
1/4 c mini chocolate chips (substitute with raisins if you have something against chocolate)

1. In large sauce pan, add butter, sugar, honey and peanut butter. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally until mixture starts to bubble. Once bubbling, cook for 2 minutes while stirring. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

2. Stir in the oats, crispy cereal, and pretzels. Stir until well coated. Prepare 8x8 pan with layer of parchment paper. Pour into pan. Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and gently press into the granola bars.

3. Place in refrigerator and let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting.

Note: I individual wrap the bars and store them in the refrigerator. You can also keep them in the freeze for lunches, but mine don't usually last that long!

Enjoy!

Project 365: Everyday life.

Some days are a little monotonous (who am I kidding, most days are like this!), and I'm trying to find a little more fun and be a little more thankful each day. I like taking photos of some of the basic stuff we do every day, not only to have a record, but well, because I think my kids are so stinkin' cute! No matter how annoyed I am with them sometimes!).

My little one loves to color and do art, so we do this almost every day together.

My oldest loves to wind down at the end of the day, by lying on the shag carpet and reading a book.

And my youngest, well let's just say, the top thing on his Christmas list was his own iphone.

These are all such quite moments with my kids, next time I'll show you what they're really like!

Getting a great Macro shot.

At a recent wedding I photographed, the other photographer I was working with had a very cool macro tube extension for her lens. I've always loved macro photography, but never really found the need to spend money on getting a macro lens. These amazing attachments connect to your lens and you can get one for under $100! You do have to shoot and focus manually, but they are a lot of fun for minimal cost.

So of course I bought some right away and have just now had the chance to play around with them a bit. They take a little getting used to but are pretty easy to use overall.

If you're interested in macro photography - go check these out!
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=canon+extension+tube+set&N=0&InitialSearch=yes&sts=ma&Top+Nav-Search=

New Year's Resolutions 2014

I'm not good at making New Year's Resolutions. Mostly because I don't really see the point in waiting until New Years to set goals and start new things. But with that said, every new year I do like to re-evaluate where I'm at in my business and my life.

Every January I start fresh with a Photo A Day Project 365 (like I know a lot of you do). Mostly it gets me more in the habit of pulling out the big camera to capture every day moments in my family's life. So I've started it again this year! Here's a few photos from the first week of January...