It’s a crap shoot basically.

And yes. He sleeps with his eyes cracked open.

Live better. Love more.

♥be

But there is one soup, I just can’t deny when its on the brain.

Taco soup. It’s delicious all year long, I tell you.

Yes, I sweat like a marathon runner while eating it. With each bite, I told my husband how hot I was, but yet how I.just.couldn’t.stop.eating.

So I instagrammed my delicious crock pot taco soup and got some requests for the recipe.

So here ya go

I originally got this recipe from my fabulous friend Mary. Below is her recipe with any changes that I made are included.

Ingredients:
4 frozen chicken breasts (at my house we buy the frozen chicken tenders in the big bag from Costco. So I used 5-6 of those)
1 onion chopped (I use half of one large onion)
3 corn tortilla cut up in strips
1 can of corn (or 1 cup of frozen)
1 can of garbanzo beans (I use 1 can of rinsed black beans)
2 cans of chicken broth
1 can of diced tomatoes (drained)
1 cup of Salsa Verde (this makes it really spicy. We like spice at our house, but if you or your kids are sensitive to spicy foods, you can use half)
1 small can of green chilies
1 tsp. of oregano
1 tsp. of cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste

Prep:
Combine all ingredients in a Crockpot. Cook on low for 7 hours. Stir until chicken shreds. Garnish with cheese, sour cream and tortilla chips.

Yummy. Yummy.

ps- are you on Instagram too? Find me at becky_earl

Live better. Love more.

♥ be

She is one where I would not be surprised if she became the next Mother Teresa or something. She is that amazing. no joke.

Plus she kills it behind a camera (well in front of it too!). Check out her beautiful artwork HERE!

She is a beautiful mama to three cute kids and a wife to her Mr. fireman hunk.

Said Mr. fireman hunk texted me to see if I would like to be in on a big birthday surprise for Brooke. Of course! How could I not? He got her a makeover and I took her pictures.

I am serious, I would take her pictures daily if I could.

Live better. Love more.

♥ be

I wanted to write about mother’s yesterday, but again, nothing sounded right when it came out.

Maybe because its a complicated subject. It seems as if it should be simple enough, right?

We love our kids. We would do anything for them. Once you have them they change your life. You wouldn’t have it any other way.

But there is more. For me at least.

Can I be candid?

IT’S NOT AN EASY GIG. (and just as I am writing this, I have kids yelling at me for just..one..more..drink of water before bed.)

Motherhood is a sacrifice. It is an all out internal battle sometimes. Trying to not give up on who I am completely (my hopes and dreams), but wanting to do everything in my power to provide love and nurturing. Plus, at the end of the day, I realllly don’t want to raise crazy ass kids.

Honestly, I gave up on trying to be the perfect cookie cutter mother a while back. Nothing about who I am screams- come to my house and it will look perfect and my children will be on their best behavior 100% of the time, and on top of all that, I will have pot roast on the table at 5pm on the dot.

In fact, if you came to my house right now, the first thing you would see are a pair of socks by the door (oh how I loathe random socks laying around the house). Then you will find a diaper here or there that needs to be put in the trash. There are about 3 too many empty cups of water on the kitchen table. Empty bottles in my bedroom, a pile of laundry that needs to be done and a bowl of ice cream that is desperately calling my name.

Dinner wasn’t fancy tonight. It was a salad with some grilled chicken mixed in with it. But it was the same meal we had last night. And guess what? No fun drinks tonight. Hope you like water…cause we got lots of it.

It’s not how I dreamed I would be. Every girl, I would imagine, dreams of being a super mom. Every one else in the world works off of 24 hours in a day, yet- for me, that would just be far too many. I would get it done faster, better, more awesomer.

But, it didn’t turn out that way.

Yet, I am okay. I am me. I may not be a domestic goddess. I may not be able to play barbies for more then 10 minutes (and that is pushing it). I can’t always stop what I am doing to watch Tangled agaiiiinnnn or I don’t always have the patience to read all 20 books they picked out for me.

But I love my kids with vigor and a crazy intensity that drives me to work my tail off every single day. To be there, even if I am in tears because I am tired and just want to what I want to do. It’s an unconditional love that I never knew existed. It’s filled with loyalty. It’s driven by the knowledge that they are part of me. And I am part of them.

Yeah, it’s hard. But there is absolutely nothing more rewarding than to love your child with everything in your heart, and to be loved the same in return.

Cause even though they ask a million questions, they shower me with even more hugs, kisses and cuddles. And I love them deeply.

I hope this post isn’t seen as negative, but hopefully someone out there can relate. And know that they are not alone in just being okay with who you are. As a human being. As a mother.

And now…some of my favorite ‘grams (Instagram, if you will) of my favorite people on this entire planet.

Are you on the ‘grams too? Find me at becky_earl

Live better. Love more.
♥ be

She persisted. And on a whim, we caved.

She learned to ride a bike without her training wheels in about ten minutes.

Maybe we should trust her instincts better next time.

Maybe we just don’t want her to grow up.

“what accomplishment looks like”

She had an absolutely adorable cheer squad!

Be sure to check out the amazing Stephanie Moore, and see what ____ looks like to her!

♥ be

Be sure to go on to visit the awesomely talented, Valeria Spring with the Red Balloon Photography!

Live better. Love more.
♥be

Sometimes you have to let them wear the hat. ohhhh that hat.

Sometimes you have to let them have their favorite blanket.

Sometimes you have to let them pick the pose.

Sometimes you just have to let them wear that too huge for them sweater cause its pink, and that’s their favorite color.

Sometimes you have to let them be shy.

Even when you don’t want to, sometimes you have to let them give you that silly face.

Sometimes you have to let them get lost in their thoughts.

Sometimes you don’t get the shots you were planning on.

And sometimes you end up with something even better.

I have learned how important it is (especially when photographing my own children) to go with the flow. Don’t be so strict on your vision all the time.

Sometimes, you just have to let it be.

Live better. Love more.

♥ be

ps- I used a LED light in some of these images. I borrowed my friend’s and will definitely be getting my own. It’s small and compact and if you don’t want to hold it you can mount it on a stand.

pss- In most of these images, I used my new Edge 80mm optic Lensbaby lens. LOVING it!

We were all in my bedroom the other day when I asked Jessie if I could take some pictures of her. She quickly said yes, jumped on the bed, and spread the edges of her dress out across the bed like a princess.

I didn’t want to guide her in any way while photographing her. I wanted to capture her exactly as she is. Perfect in her own very special way.

We had the Disney channel on Pandora playing and she was singing along. All of the sudden she closed her eyes, raised her hands and danced to the music.

She danced like nobody else on the planet was watching. Or maybe she knew, but she simply didn’t care.

I sat back in a corner squished against the wall and my dresser. I watched smiling, heart full of love- and then would snap a picture or two. Then would go back to admiring her spunk. Her confidence. Her spirit.

Its a hard thing to do. Especially in front of a camera. You know- open yourself up completely. Not worried about what you look like or how you are being portrayed. You simply are yourself. Free and wild.

She reminded me to chase the sun.

I am so thrilled to show you, what her spirit looks like-

Be sure to check out the beautiful Stephanie Moore!

Live better. Love more.
♥ be

I am SO ready to be done having babies, but not ready at all for her to stop being my baby.

She is by far the easiest kid out of the bunch. She sleeps AMAZING. She loves her bed. She loves her naps.

She eats and plays and crawls and smiles.

She is so smiley. Her laugh is hearty and sometimes a little silly.

We call her squeegee because her eyes water all the time.

Sawyer has called her janey boo from the beginning and it has stuck. We call her janey boo more then we call her Jane.

Her sisters and brother will always take care of her and protect her.

We love her. She fits us perfectly.

Jane.

and a few Polaroids...cause we all know I love me some Polaroids!

ps- Quite possibly my funniest, and definitely one of my most awesome and dearest friends, Tavis took my picture the other day. He’s on the facebooks too! I did a braid in my hair and everything! Go check it out!

Live better. Love more.

♥
be

Excited because well I love blogging (even though I have not been the best lately) I really do love it. It’s a kind of therapy for me. And excited because this week’s challenge is Self Portrait. I am thrilled because this image kicks off my self portrait project. I won’t be sharing any of them until the project is complete, but I have started and I have really high hopes for it. I have so much to say about it. But will keep that until the end as well. Just know that it will be a completely honest, raw view into who I am. The good. The bad. The lovely and yes, even the ugly.

And to kick it off, I am sharing this ONE image

And anxious because I have a confession. I just added a new baby to the Earl household. And her name is Nikon. She is really pretty and makes me really happy. She is a little different then her siblings in that she is digital and the rest of her siblings are film, but she is here and we love her just the same.

Yes, it’s true. I will be shooting both film and digital. 80% film / 20% digital. Or some days maybe it will be the other way around. The fact is I can’t afford to shoot all the fun things I have in my brain solely on film. Does film have my heart and always will? No question, YES! But I yearn to take more pictures and I yearn to blog more. So I had to ask myself- Is it more important for me to shoot film exclusively and not photograph all the things I want to? Or is it more important to just create and take pictures and do what I love regardless of the medium? I knew the answer right away. I just want to create. I just want to photograph my family. My life.

So expect both. Expect more blogging from me. Expect more of my kids (I know…is it even possible?) and except to see things that make me happy, inspire me, intrigue me, mean a lot to me, make me- me.

Be sure to check out my sweet and awesomely talented friend Stephanie Moore’s self portrait and complete the circle.

I also wanted to share an interview I recently did. I am excited to be apart of the Chic Critique forum doing 4 week long Portfolio Critique’s. I am so excited to be apart of Chic Critique. If you are interested in being apart of this, visit HERE and check out my interview HERE. I will do a post in a few days talking more about the portfolio critiques!

Live better. Love more. Create now.
♥ be