PRE-GAME SOUP

Hello all! I love the cooler weather that comes with fall and winter because I get to make all kinds of soups, stews and chili's which I think are some of my favorite things to eat...EVER! Plus, everything is make is in 1 pot which those of you who know me well, know that I HATE DISHES! :) and having 1 pot to wash is pure Heaven! I make this soup once a week and it usually gets us from Saturday to Monday eating leftovers for either lunch or dinner. My husband and I love this soup so I thought I would share it with you...pictures included! :)

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:

1 large pot, crushed red pepper flakes, oregano, herbes de provence, smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste, 1 lb of Laura Lean ground beef, 2 stalks of celery (diced), 2 carrots (peeled and diced), 1 yellow or white onion (diced), 1 garlic clove (minced), 1 yellow squash (quartered and sliced), 1 zucchini (quartered and sliced), 1 can of cannellini beans/white beans (drained and rinsed), 1 jar of Emeril's Kicked Up Tomato Sauce (found in pasta aisle but if you can't find it then use your favorite sauce), 1 box of beef or vegetable stock, 3/4 to 1 cup of detali pasta (short pasta)

Heat pot on stove med-high heat and add 1 TBS of oil or butter...
Take 1 lb of beef, add salt and pepper to season and roll into mini meatballs and cook through (about 5 minutes)

Add diced celery, carrots, and onion...soften for 3-5 minutes...add 1 minced clove of garlic and stir...
Add 1tsp crushed red peppers or 1/2 TB if you like things SPICY! Also throw in 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp smoked paprika and 1/2 TB of Herbes de Provence and stir...

Stir in Emeril's Kicked Up Tomato Sauce and add box of beef or vegetable stock and bring back up to a boil...

Toss in the Zucchini and Squash...add cannellini beans and stir gently...

Add 1 cup of ditali pasta (short pasta) Cover and let simmer with burner on low for 15 minutes...Turn off stove top and stir and let rest, covered, for another 5 minutes.

And SERVE! Should serve about 6 people...

ENJOY! Try out this recipe and let me know what you think about it and about my post! If you like it then maybe I can post a monthly recipe with pictures because I love to bake and cook! Anyways...Happy Eating! :)

BELILES | Family Portraits

I know Valerie from bible study and I was really excited when she asked me to take her family portraits a while back! Of course, when we scheduled it the weather had been perfect...not too cold, no snow, etc! Well, needless to say it was absolutely FREEZING the day of the shoot and there was a lack of sunshine and the wind was blowing like crazy! Val's family were troopers though :) Seriously...they braved the cold for a few short minutes and I think we got some pretty good shots! We headed back to their house to finish up the shoot and to get in out of the cold and take some pictures in front of their beautiful Christmas tree! Below are some of my favorite shots of the day...Enjoy your sneak peak Beliles Family!

My Totally Awesome Sister, KORI! :)

While I was home for Thanksgiving I talked my sister into a 45 minute photo shoot! She was more than happy to come and hang out with me in our pasture but then again who doesn't like to hang out in pastures right!! :)

Anyways...My sister is TOTALLY AWESOME! It's a lot harder to write about my sister than I thought it would be...I feel the need to explain a little bit more about her other than TOTALLY AWESOME so I thought it might be kinda fun to just list some words to describe her the way that I see her! So, here we go:

KORI A-Z - Awesome, Beautiful, Crazy, Daring, Entertaining, Fun, Grumpy(in the mornings!), Hilarious(seriously, just check out her Facebook), Imaginative, Jokey, Kind, Lovable, Misunderstood, Nice, Outstanding, Pretty, Quiet(when she first meets you), Rebellious(but she's working on that!! :)), Skinny(not like model skinny but but more like "she's half my size, wish I had her flat stomach, size 4-6 wearing jeans kind of skinny...Yeah...I am a little envious!), Tall, Unique, Versatile, Wacky :), X, well...I can't really think of anything starting with X so I am thinking eXciting will have to work!, Young, Zappy! It's a word...look it up!! :) Well...I guess we've come the the end of the alphabet but there is so much more I could tell you about her but I will save that for another time...

Kori - 


I love you and I am proud of you! And you are totally beautiful and I love the way these pics came out!


Love always,


Big Sis

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Eve was a bit chilly in Oklahoma...Dad and I woke up early and he made eggs, bacon, and cinnamon toast and then we were off to church to put in some shelving! If you are really that interested in looking at how totally awesome our shelving unit turned out please go to http://instagr.am/p/XFrD/  If not then that's okay too!

We always do Thanksgiving at MeeMaw and Grandpa's house and it is always full of fantastic food and great family fun! Aunt Lisa, Uncle Terry, and my cousins Amber and Kasey came out and we had quail and pheasant and potatoes, green beans, corn, salad, etc. It was DELISH!! And then we had pecan pie and pumpkin pie and of course we can't go a Thanksgiving with out Aunt Lisa's sugar cookies with icing and sprinkles! :)

After lunch we were totally full and just chilled out until picture time! We took a family shot of course and there are some pretty funny ones of us 4 cousins and then some sisterly love shown between Amber and Kasey! Overall I think we had a great Thanksgiving!! :)

Generational Family Photo Fun!

As I told you in my earlier post I chose to go home for Thanksgiving again this year and thought it would be the perfect time to take some family photos. I love pictures! I love taking them, I love being in them...just capturing that moment in time to have forever it totally awesome to me!

In these photos below are my 2 great grandmothers, Grandma Dee and Granny Babe, both sets of grandparents, MeeMaw and Grandpa, Grandma Jeri and Grandpa Chuck, my parents, Neil and Pam and my younger sister, Kori and of course my self! I was so glad to get all of us together and I think we came up with some pretty great shots!

All the ladies!!

My awesome family!

Grandma Dee...she'll be 103 years old in Feb! :)

Grandma Jeri and Grandpa Chuck

Grandpa and MeeMaw

Mom and Dad...They totally love each other...I promise!!

See...I told you so! :)

NEGLECTED BLOG!

Can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post! I have been super busy...Obviously! :) Hope everyone is doing well and is ready for Christmas because it will be here in 12 days! I mean seriously, where has the time gone!?!

In the past month I have been home to Oklahoma for a week, had family and friends travel up to Indy from Oklahoma and Texas and Louisiana, gotten ALL my donation money needed for my Africa trip coming up in January, teamed up with Help-Portrait to give back to the community with my photographs, taken some amazing family portraits, and enjoyed Colts Football! Which by the way I have not posted any of these to the blog! So behind...:( Hopefully these things will be posted by the end of the week! At least that's my goal!!

Anyways, I am so thankful for this time of year...spending time with family and friends, being a witness for Christ and planning great things for a new year! It can be overwhelming with all the hustle and bustle of the season but I am so grateful to be where I am today! For those of you who don't know I got married this past summer to an amazing man <3 and I am super excited to start new traditions with him as a family! I am a Dawson now which is totally crazy but reflecting back over this past year I realize truly how wonderfully blessed I am to have God, family and friends who support me and love me unconditionally!

So, thank you and I love you!

MORE POSTS...WITH PICS...COMING SOON!!

Have a blessed day!

Brandy

DEAR FRIENDS & FAMILY

YAY! :) I am 2/3 of the way to having full funding for my trip to Africa in January! You have donated a total of $1110 thus far and only $390 to go! I am so blessed to have you in my life whether you donated money or your time in prayer for me or just your love and support of me going on this trip. Thank you for being such a special part of my life and for contributing to this great cause. I will keep you guys updated...until then, have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Be blessed!

Brandy Dawson

HELP SEND BRANDY TO AFRICA

I am very glad to tell you that I have been given a once in a life time opportunity this coming January (the 11th through the 28th). I will be going on a photography mission trip to Malawi for two weeks with a team from Circle of Hope International.

I will be helping take photographs for advertising and fundraising needs for the organization. I will also document the wonderful stories of several of the orphan children in hopes of building sponsorship programs for them.

I believe that God is calling me to go on this mission trip so I can learn how to be more of a servant for Him. I hope to grow stronger in my faith and become completely reliant on Him to use me to reach the people in the Nmanda Village and to document their stories in the best way possible.

I need your help to get to Malawi and make a difference in the lives of the many orphans in the care of Circle of Hope as well as those in the Nmanda Village community. I'd like to give you the opportunity to support me for this mission trip and to be a part of a life-changing experience both to me and the people of Malawi.

I am asking for your support and prayers.

• I have my flight expenses covered but still need an additional $1500 for travel and project expenses by December 30th.

Please pray for the people in Nmanda Village to open their heart to the love of God and for the lost to be saved. Also, pray that the images I capture will inspire those who see and help the Circle of Hope organization promote their advertising and fundraising needs. Lastly, please pray for good health and safety and traveling grace on the trip.

If you would like to help you can link to my Send Brandy to Africa and FundRazr page below or contact me via email at brandydawson712@gmail.com to send a check.

        

I thank you for being such an important part of my life and I thank you in advance for your generous support and prayers.

Love in Christ,

Brandy Dawson

Please check out my links below for my Send Brandy to Africa facebook page and a link to Paypal to give monetarily:

Send Brandy to Africa

FundRazr LINK

Also, please feel free to post on my blog if you have any questions! Thanks! 

Brandy

THE BIASILLO'S | family

I had a great time this evening with the BIASILLO family! We went to Eagle Creek and it was a beautiful setting for a beautiful family! The kids were perfect and I had a lot of fun shooting you guys! Big thanks to my girl Laura for assisting me again with her creative genius and amazing reflector holding! Biasillo family please enjoy your sneak peek! :)

ARIANNA | newborn

Say hello to the newest addition of the Whiteside Family! Arianna was so adorable! She fought the sleep but we still got some good shots! Her sister Lexi was one of the pumpkins I posted earlier! It was great meeting this beautiful family. Enjoy your sneak peak!

SARAI+LEXI | children

I had the pleasure of shooting these 2 adorable little pumpkins this past Saturday! Sarai and Lexi were so cute and a lot of fun to shoot! There was a lot of running and playing with leaves and pumpkins and a short ride in a little red wagon! Verna and Susan please enjoy the sneak peak of your beautiful, wonderful daughters!