My very creative and interesting 5-year old

Today is my daughter's 5th birthday. Here she is:


So sweet, so cute, so innocent. Right? WRONG!!!

This girl is so dang creative and cranks out such a volume of "art" and "crafts" that I can barely keep up with her. This year for her birthday she put in an extensive and quite detailed "order" for her birthday cake. I thought it was quite funny until I realized she was completely serious.

So, this is what my sweet, cute, INNOCENT girl came up with for her birthday cake:
Yes, a beach scene...but not any beach scene! This is how she described the cake to me: "I want a round cake with sharks. And a girl on the beach. And a 'no swimming' sign". The execution was left entirely up to me. The girl is made of fondant, laffy taffy (thank goodness it was just Halloween!) and Tootsie Roll (again, thank you Halloween!). The sharks are made of twinkies, fruit roll-ups, mini-chocolate chips, icing and a funny cracker for the fin.
Here's a little bit of a close-up shot...and yes, those are feet coming out of that sharks mouth! That was Daddy's idea, and she loved it! She said, "Yeah, because there's a 'no swimming' sign and you're not supposed to swim with sharks". Where does she get this stuff??


Well, at least the birthday girl was pleased. When I finished the cake I laughed so dang hard! It has got to be the funniest cake I have made to date and probably will be the funniest for a while! Way to go, Baby! Your cake idea was fabulous!

I love this family!

Saturday I was cold and tired and fighting wind and rain and even hail at one point. But, it was all in the name of getting great pictures of a family that I have been taking pictures for for 2 and a half years! That's right...2 and a half YEARS! I first took their pictures when Angie and Cody were having a wedding reception and she was like 7 months pregnant with her adorable boy, Carter. It has been so much fun to watch them grow, especially Carter! He is adorable! We went up Millcreek Canyon to Millcreek Inn and shot as many pictures as we could in about 30 minutes due to the cold weather and a crazy, busy 2-year old! It was good to see them and have a little fun! ;)
Aren't they just adorable? I think so!

Julianna's 1st birthday!

So, here's the birthday girl:

And here are the birthday girl's butterfly cupcakes:

And here is the birthday girl's flower cake:
I think I did a pretty good job on everything. Very cute, eh? We had a good day.

Crandall Family

This family braved early Fall rain to have their portraits taken. It was a lot of fun, even though we had to hide under a tree for a bit!So cute!

Addicted?

I think I'm addicted. Last night I stayed up until midnight making raspberry-peach jam. This afternoon, I totally fell in love with the jam. For it's taste? Nope. I haven't even cracked open a bottle yet. I fell in love with it's COLOR! And, then what did I do? I took pictures of it! I took pictures of JAM! There must be some term to describe whatever I am. All I know is that I love my jam!

Take a look:
I mean, really...who wouldn't love a sight like this?!?

Salsbury Family

This wonderful family supported the YW in my ward by purchasing a bunch of stuff at the silent auction during our fundraiser back in April. One thing they bought was a photo shoot with me. I hope they will be pleased!

Here's a little sample of the cuteness that happened yesterday:

Goleman-Brown Family

Yesterday I was privileged to take family portraits for the Goleman and Brown families. They were celebrating a new baby in the family...what a better time to have fun pictures taken?