The Cotta Family: Today was good.

I baked homemade oatmeal raison chocolate chip cookies this evening. From scratch. Minus the fact that I had no vanilla and my chocolate chips have been stashed away in my freezer for about a year, I'd say they turned out quite delightful. And if I wasn't too lazy this evening to load up the pictures on my computer, I'd share my holly homemaker treats with you. Unfortunately, momma's a little sleepy. Between a busy few days of awesome shoots and a little one that has six teeth coming through at once (and has reverted back to not sleeping through the night and wanting to come into our bed), I'm in need of a few hours of trash tv on the couch. Need a better picture? I actually stepped into the shower today with my clothes on in my hurry to get ready.

In other news, life is quite delicious.

If there is one thing I want Jacob to know, it's that there is nothing more important than family. Wherever you may go, whatever else might be going on in your life, family is always there.

And I know you can't choose your family, but I think someone might have just handpicked the best of the best when it comes to my family.

Are we a perfect bunch?

Well, my nephew sure is stinking cute but, no sir, we are not perfect. Sometimes, we bicker (or, as seen here, sometimes we allow the seventeen-month-old to wrestle with the twenty-seven-month-old).

But in the end, we work it out. Life's too short to worry about little messes.

(On a side note, if you do have a mess, just call on my little one to clean it up. Loving the broom these days....he must get that from Philip.)

And I love watching my parents with the grandkiddies because it is the exact same scenes from when we were wee little ones, even down to the exact same Dr. Seuss books that were read to us...

.... only she had four of us on her lap.

Perhaps the greatest part about family is that the love that exists is truly unconditional. And I wonder if this little one knows how good we have it. How much love is really in our lives.