A Thorn Among Roses

i'm not the made from scratch mom, but my girls love a little dump, stir and bake action. there's so much help sometimes... the excitement is almost, well, unconfined! {she takes after her father's side...he he he} jada is a natural born chef or "cooker" as she often refers to herself.  she glows in delight when she is in the kitchen. {see what i mean about the father's side?  hmmm?} and what does brooke do while the other girls cook?  chill and wait for the baking to be done.

i'm not the biggest halloween fan, but i do love the dress up and get candy part...so that's what we do! my parents always are part of the night...which i love!!! brooke is still brooke...running like a tazmanian devil.  she does the princess part, but still totally has to be her own unique self...with jeans, and a plaid jacket. jada is always the perfect little sparkly princess... and sofia is simply elated to be her most fav minnie mouse ever! and in the end, they ate way too much sugar, had a blast and mom and dad ate some "tax" candy.

sometimes, not so often, i leave a drip or two of coffee in my cup and walk away for a second.  honestly, i usually have the cup firmly attached to my hand while there is any caffeine love in it for me. of late, i've been caught a few times by the sofia...who is a mad mad lover of coffee.  she takes what's in my cup, pours it in hers and takes off... when i find her she CHUGS to the end... then shows me the spit shine clean bottom of the cup... and it's always followed by the "i'm so cute you could die face"... and a giggle.

fam shoots are necessary, but this flipping DST killed my fam shoot last night! i had the field and the wood boxes and the rocking horse, but hubs conference call went until 5:20...and the light was gone.  i'm not talking about sunset, i'm talking PITCH BLACK! so i grabbed the lighting and hubs grabbed the extension cords so we could at least see how the outfits looked since it took me an hour and a half to get everyone dressed, hair done and in one place. the lighting worked fine...i was hacked though. it wasn't what i wanted...i just tossed them in the yard and said stand there and we'll see what we get. and what we got, well, was not the best. {seriously terrible...i mean, i should have at least posed them}   i was being somber a little and brooke looks at me and says, "mom, if you don't think about it and just move on, it will be better.  besides, you are totally making it worse.  i mean, we are all in the picture." not such bad advice...

i grabbed a few quick shots of sofia...and i just had to share them. and then there's the smile to end all smiles... and the real girl finally comes out!