triple layer chocolate crunch brownies...

These should really be called "To. Die. For. Brownies"... or,
"The Best Brownies I've Ever Had"... or,
"I'll pay your mom forty bucks if she makes me some of my
very own Brownies"!
Ha ha ha, on that last one...
I packed one single brownie in my baby homegirl's lunch yesterday.
She shared with many... don't ask me how. *Cringe*
Anywho, when I picked her up from school she told me that one of her friends couldn't believe how awesome it was and told her that he'd pay me forty dollars to make him his own batch.
After I stopped laughing, I stopped by the store to pick up what I needed to make more!

These are incredibly easy to make and oh so darn delicious.

~Triple Layer Chocolate Crunch Brownies~

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk chocolate chips, divided use
20 whole Oreo cookies, divided use
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

~Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
~Butter and flour an 8x8 cake pan.
~Mix together in a bowl the butter and sugar until fluffy.
~Add the eggs one at a time.
~Add in the vanilla and the cocoa powder. Mix until combined.
~Add the flour and salt, mixing until well combined and smooth.
~Fold in 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.
~Spread into the 8x8 cake pan.
~Sink 9 Oreo cookies into the batter and press down slightly to partially submerge.
~Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.
~While baking, crush the remaining Oreo cookies in a Ziploc bag.
~Remove from oven and sprinkle with 1/2 cup chocolate chips and the crushed Oreo cookies.
~Put back in oven for 2 to 3 minutes.
~During this time melt the remaining chocolate chips and peanut butter together in the
microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and melt again.
~Remove brownies from oven and pour melted chocolate mixture
over the top, spreading with a spatula. Be sure the chocolate gets down
into the Oreo crevices, as it is the "glue" that holds the top to the bottom.
~Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving.
~Let sit at room temperature about 15 minutes before cutting.
~Have a giant glass of milk ready.
~Take one humongous bite.
~*faint* Make 'em this weekend... sharing is optional.

an old favorite...

My oldest homegirl is in the hood!
She brought her little family down from
my old home town of, Muncie, Indiana for
some warmth and sunshine.

Pretty much as soon as they arrived and all the family and
extended family got together, someone got the bug.
*Cuss* at the bug. The bug is from the devil.
One by one it has infected and brought them to their knees...
even my poor little baby boy. It seemed to strike at the babies first.
*Cuss* at the bug. The bug is from the devil.

In between rotating in and out of the bathroom, we have
managed to have a little fun. Here's my granddaughter, Avah
at the Fort Worth Stockyards. She's a lil' miss sassy pants.
But that's ok... just look at that face.


Here's baby Gavin. He's only 3 months old.
He's the sweetest, most laid back little man
I've ever met... except when you mess with feeding time.

I have a point here... I was going to tell you something other
than about my family. However, I could talk about them all day.
They make me happy.

Oh, I know... "an old favorite".
Although my homegirl, Megan is an old favorite, she's not
what I wanted to tell you about.
No, my second favorite thing to talk about is... FOOD!

With the bug still lingering about, and since we're full blown
into the winter season (even though it's 50 degrees and sunny
here in big D... sorry to my Hoosier friends and family), I thought
I'd make an old favorite for dinner tonight
and wanted to remind you how easy and yummy it is.


*Chicken Tortilla Soup*

1 rotisserie chicken, chicken removed
3 to 4 cans chicken broth
1 can cream of chicken
1 can of Original Rotel
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
Tortilla chips
Mexican blend shredded cheese
Sour cream... optional

~Combine the first six ingredients in a medium-large pot,
over medium-high heat. Stir to combine.
~Bring to a simmer. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes.
~Serve with the tortilla chips and cheese (and sour cream) sprinkled on top.

Enjoy friends.
Stay warm and stay away from the bug.
It's the devil.
rolo

they grow up...

They grow up... they do.

This is my P Pie... my second born granddaughter.
She turned 1 yesterday.
Happy Birthday PJ!

A year ago my second born homegirl was
busy bringing her into the world.

I remember this exact moment... she, "Big D"
and the Doc had just made the decision to go with
a c-section. I told her give me thumbs up.
She was so brave.

A little while later we had this...


And this.


The next day I got to do this...

And take images of the beginning of her life.


So much love.


I know the feeling.
Even though I was a little younger when I had
my homegirl, (here she is turning 2), I can still
remember the exact moment of bringing her into the world...
and about a billion more moments of her life, and still feel the love.

I'll always feel the love.

Gosh, dang, they grow up too fast.
*sniff sniff*

edit addiction...

This is for my fellow photography enthusiasts...
you will be able to appreciate the natural occurrence
that overcomes you to edit-baby-edit, when you view your
images straight out of the camera. It happens to me always.
I can no longer look at a photo without the thought of
how to make it better, cooler, funkier, softer, textured, or pretty.

Don't get me wrong... I love, love, love capturing the images,
but it's the editing that is the most fun. To me, it's like a "blank
canvas", per se, each time.

Here let me show you how fun it can be...


This is a photo of me and my baby taken a couple
of weeks ago at the Arboretum by my homegirl.
We were out there getting some Fall/pumpkin/family
shots of P Pie, because she's turning one very soon,
and of her Uncle (that's my baby boy... ha ha, confused yet?)
because he's turning two next month.

Oh so sorry, we were talking about photography
and editing, not my family tree. I do that sometimes...
get off track.

Now where was I?

Oh yes... This is the SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) image.
My homegirl did good with centering us in front of the waterfall.
Although, my camera has a tendency to shoot a little on the dark side.

And what the heck? What was that white fuzzy
thing in my hair? Geez... so typical for me.


First thing was first...
I cropped the image, then removed the white fuzzy thing.


Next, I ran "Lighten Brighten" from Flora Bella's Action Sets...
There, that brightened things up a bit.


Then it was time for "Soft Color Pop from the Flora Bella collections...
This is one of my favorites from the collections but it made
this image a little too yellow. But I know how to fix it...


Pioneer Woman's "Cooler" action from Set 2
does wonders for red and yellow tones...
I use this one a lot. Especially on my food photos
when shooting in unnatural light while cooking after dark.


And lastly, I did a little airbrushing...
just to smooth things out and give a softness to us.

All that took only a couple of minutes.

But I couldn't stop there...

It's an addiction I tell ya.

My name is Rolo and I'm a Photoshop addict.

some of my favorite things from the weekend...

My baby homegirl's Homecoming shoe with her date's...


Being silly in formal wear...

Finally getting to wear my new vintage boots...


A sign at the Dallas Zoo... Love this! Love the "details"! ha ha ha...

And finally getting to see Jenny (she's the one on the left
with her trunk up) in her new, well deserved
and long over due, new habitat.
It made my heart happy for her. *sniff*

I'll have more fun details about each one later...
Hey, did you happen to catch which dress my homegirl chose?

Be back tomorrow...

dress shopping...

This is the dress.
This is it people.

ha ha ha... No, just joking.
This isn't the dress my homegirl chose to wear to Homecoming.
But you have to agree, it's a pretty snazzy dress huh?

Remember I said we called in all forces.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 were lots of help.
They picked 'em and homegirl carried.

They'd say, "How 'bout this one homegirl"...
and homegirl would agree to try it on.

Even P Pie had some comments to make.

Really she was saying, "Hey mom, take me to sit in the big fancy chair"...
"YaaaaaaY", she says.

A perfectly poised princess.

Oh look, they saw the camera.

And there they go...

Dress 1.
Cute. Black.

Dress 2.
Colorful. Funky.

While we waited in between try ons
P Pie showed us her standing skills...

Then she went back to gotta-get-somewhere-fast skill.
Hey, she's got places to go and people to see.

Dress four.
Shiny. Pretty.

Dress five.
Cool. Fun. Flirty.

Dress six.
Pretty color. Delicate detail.
The lady who was helping us/her said she
looks like a little dolly in this dress.

Dress seven.
Well, who in tarnation can go shopping
with homegirl legs over there...
What dress?

Ok... dress seven.
Pretty. Champagne in color.

Dress eight.
Pretty color. Pretty detailing.
Super low cut in front and sides. Cool crisscross back.
Homegirl didn't keep it on for very long.

Dress nine.
Pretty blue. Flowy.

There were a few other that weren't even
worthy of a try on.

So, what's your vote?
Which one do you think my baby freshman homegirl chose
to wear to her very first formal dance?

I'll give you a little hint...


It wasn't this one.

Stayed tuned... a couple of weeks is the big day.

Peace out...
rolo

i apologize...

I've been slackin' on the blog again... I'm sorry.
I wouldn't blame you if you never spoke to me again.

It's just that I've had a ton of stuff going on all at the same time.
And for some reason, the one thing... the thing that I love most...
well, aside from my family, of course... seems to always gets put aside. My blog.

Here, let me catch you up on a few things from the past week...

Our new bedroom furniture arrived.
Only there's one tiny problem...

our bedroom is not ready yet.

So, I had no choice but to stack and tuck in the pieces in the living room.
And this is just one corner in my house...
everything is in such disarray. Don't ya just hate that?
I do. It makes my heart rate go up when everything is in chaos.

After the last round of inspections and all was go again...
they got busy installing the insulation and sheetrock.
By the end of last week they were already tape and bedding.
Now we're cookin'!
This is the door and wall inside the bathroom looking into the bedroom.


And here's a not so great photo of the closet wall...
the lighting wasn't the best.

On Saturday, I shot my very first "real" event...
A baptism.
I think it went pretty good... for my first time anyway.

And wrapping up the weekend was an event in itself...
Homecoming dress shopping for my youngest homegirl.

We called in all forces. Here she is with Thing 1 and Thing 2.
ha ha ha...
Well, actually, they are her best buds, and their names are I and A.
A good group of young ladies I must say.

Look, there's P Pie! She and her mommy met us at the mall.
I told you we called in all forces...

After all, this homegirl of mine is the expert on fashion.

And there they go... with no less than ten dresses in hand.

I'll be back tomorrow with more photos of the event
and you can try to guess which one she chose.

I'm taking care of a sick JB and baby today...

rolo