The 5 Best Things About the First Day of School

1. The anticipation of the first day causes me to plan early... which means a smooth morning and a great start to staying on schedule.
2. Two words: Photo op.
3. Ella and Mommy time.
4. Getting not only the laundry finished in one morning but also having enough me time during Ella's nap to get on the tread mill AND shower all before 11 am.
5. Seeing the smile on my preschooler's face that tells me that she is a well adjusted little girl ready to learn and meet new friends.

Yep... MORE Pictures.

I'm pretty burnt out on pictures if you can believe it. Every picture I take equals work for me away from the girls. I can't tell you the last time I actually ordered prints. My collection is OUT.OF.CONTROL and if something happened to my hard drive, I'd be screwed.

With that said, I hope the rest of our family pictures will hold you over.

Oh, as a sidenote: Ella weighed in at only 18% at her 18 month check-up. Even though she's a fantastic eater, I have decided to supplement with some of this stuff on top of the whole milk I already give her. We have a follow-up weight check in three months so I've got to get her fattened up before then. :) Other than that, she's doing great... her vocabulary is wonderful and she might even catch up to her sister. Adelyn can't sit long enough for me to teach her much in one sitting. She's our Miss Congeniality. Speaking of that, her first day of preschool is tomorrow! We already had an open house last week and she's psyched. O.k... I'm psyched, too, to have three mornings a week to get some things done around here.

Have a great week!

An All Girls Weekend!

We were graced with the presence of these two little cuties this weekend:

Oh, and their momma and grandma came to visit, too. LOL! Thanks for a great visit, Angel, Mom, and my two sweet nieces! Adelyn and Ella are still talking about it. :)

Our Lil' Models

Courtesy of our recent family photo shoot...

Oh, and I LOVE this picture of Ella Bella:

And here's our gorgeous brown-eyed girl...

I have more pictures to share but need more time to go through all of them. I'm SO happy with how they turned out!

VACA

We had a blast on our annual trip to Branson for some fun in the sun with family. We spent every day on the lake and pool... and the girls LOVED it. They BOTH took a dip in the lake and Adelyn became quite the fish in the water with her cousins' help. Apparently she even worked up enough courage to go down a water slide all by herself. See?

Yeah, I know. I'm still freakin' out about this picture... mostly because I wasn't there to take it. Admittedly, I would have never allowed her to do that by herself even with a life jacket on. But grandmas are way more fun than mommies, right? She was obviously just fine with it because she was jumping off the dock into the lake the very same day. She's FEARLESS... and I'm FEARFUL that Ella is going to be the same way. (Note to self: sign up the girls for more swim lessons at the Y.)

Here's a digital scrapbook of some pictures we took during our week on Table Rock Lake in Branson.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Are We There Yet?

In honor of our vacation that we're leaving for tomorrow, we've been playing this video over and over and over again until it makes Mommy crazy! :)

So it's not Hawaii or Atlantis or some other tropical destination... it's just Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO... but we go with Andrew's family and it's a wonderful, relaxing time and I look forward to it!

The last time we went was two years ago when I was newly pregnant with Ella and Adelyn was about 15 months old. Here's an old picture to hold you over until I get some posted from our VACA later. I look forward to not having morning/all day sickness time time around. :)

Dear Adelyn,

Mommy here. You know... the one that tells you "no" all day long; the one behind the camera who begs for you to smile; the one that reads you stories in goofy voices; the one who cleans up all of your messes; the one who wipes your... well, you get the idea. There's something on my mind but since you can't understand my feelings (it's your world and I just live in it), I thought it would be a good idea to pretend like you could. It's therapy for me. It's like having an imaginary friend. You know... like you talking to Okie and Okie never actually talking back. It's kind-of nice, right?

Anywho.... I have to say that you've been very challenging lately. Like, more challenging than my FI480 Sr. level Finance course in college. Your poor baby sister gets the grunt of the little green eyed monster that rears its nasty head around 2ish every afternoon when you SHOULD be napping. If there's anything that your sister has in her possession whether it be a cool toy or a pickle (which you despise by the way), you want it and will happily swipe it out of her hands the moment it gets there. I'd be lying if I said that you aren't always like this with your sister... it's just very monsterish/aggressive at that time of the day. Oh, and for the record, if I hear you say "MINE!" too many more times, I might just go off the deep end.

Then there are the meltdowns. You threw two of them the other day at Target... one in the store when I told you I wouldn't buy you a pair of shoes that didn't fit. Then another out in the parking lot where you fell to your feet and screamed when I wouldn't give you your "bwicel." Yep... still don't know what that is and still wish I did. These meltdowns are of the extraordinary kind. It's like you're one of those dolls that you push a button and it collapses. Once you get upset, you collapse on to the ground and scream and cry. Not cool when I already have a baby to hold who weighs almost as much as you do... even less cool when that baby has poo poo in her pants.

Oh, and then there's the early introduction of sassing. Unfortunately,"Addy with the Attitude" isn't just a play on words. "Mommy- get that for me NOW!!!" "Daddy- I don't want that RIGHT NOW!" "Ella- that's MINE NOW!" When the sentence ends with "NOW," I know you really mean business. It's like a go to time-out for free card. I really hope it's just an impulsive plea for attention. It does typically go hand in hand with the jealousy issue.

I'm sure it's just a phase. (Translation: I hope it's just a phase.) My books and e-mail alerts tell me you're at the prime age and probably going through a growth spurt. What I need to remind myself... often... is that what you're doing isn't personal. When you're screaming at me or embarrassing us with fits you throw at stores, I cannot take it personally. I have to look at the issue objectively to find the best solution for disciplining bad behavior. But girl- let me tell ya- it's HARD sometimes... especially when they are occurring simultaneously.

You see... I'm not a perfect mommy either. But I will continue to work on punishing you only out of love and not out of anger. Because even though you can be a handful, you are a sweet blessing. And even though we look forward to a time when jealousy, meltdowns and sassing is gone, we look forward even more to watching you develop into a special young lady with a lot of positive, beautiful characteristics... who will love and appreciate her mother even more for all of those rough phases now and when we hit the teenage years. (God help me.)

Love,
Mommy

Camera 1; Camera 2

I find myself photoshopping in my 'spare time'. It's SO involved and SO addicting. It was really only a matter of time considering that it involves two of my favorite things to do: taking photos of my beautiful girls and playing around on the computer. It's also a nice creative outlet for me while allowing the perfectionist in me to EDIT, EDIT, EDIT. :)

First, here's the original, raw picture-

And here are two different versions:

See how it adds drama to the picture? It's nice because I have zero photography skills so the photoshopping can mask that a bit.

Oh, and speaking of photoshopping, here's another birthday card invitation I did for a friend who is having a Mickey-themed party at the petting zoo. I'm sharing the one I mocked up with Adelyn's pictures for privacy reasons. I might actually be able to do this for profit one day! :)

My Baby is 18 Months Old! *Tear*

Ella and I had an opportunity to do a mini amateur photo shoot in honor of her 18 month b-day today until our professional shoot next week. I actually impressed myself with some really good shots... here's one of them.

I wanted to share just how special our little 18 month old is. She has such a sweet disposition- it's amazingly easy to get her giggling... and it doesn't take much for her giggles to transform into hiccups. It's so cute! She is very much a go-with-the-flow kind-of girl. But don't get me wrong- she does have a mind for herself and when it comes to food especially, she is NOT a push-over. Not only is she a good eater, but she's an awesome sleeper, too. I have friends who curse me for that! :) Seriously, she sleeps 7:30 pm to 8:30 am (besides naps.) Other faves: 'Bu Bu' (translation: bubbles) AKA bathtime; taking her diaper off and walking around naked while scratching her belly; her sister- I'm convinced they already have inside jokes between them; dessert- especially ice cream and popsicles.

We love you more than you can ever imagine, Ella Bella, and we're SO blessed to have you!

Our Lil' Firecrackers

Just now getting 4th of July pictures up... sorry! We watched the big firework display after a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's for barbeque. Ella wasn't feeling well because she contracted Adelyn's sickies... but thankfully, her sickies were even more short-lived. The neighbors came over the night before to watch the fireworks that Andrew bought in STL. And of course there were plenty of sparklers and pops to pass around. Hope you enjoyed your day!

Andrew's 30th!

Well, it might not have been the most exciting 30th birthday for Andrew considering that our flight back to STL was delayed two hours due to Obama's trip there for the All-Star game. We did get to see Air Force One but we totally missed our reservations at a favorite restaurant in STL. At least we were spending it with him... and at least he seemed to enjoy the cake that was ready for his arrival at 10ish pm. It was his fave kind and it even came Harley-inspired in honor of his first Harley this year. The candles had to be improvised but hey- it was late when we got in! :) Thanks, Tracy, for a great cake! (Selfishly, I wish it didn't taste so good since we have family pictures next week! LOL)

Once Upon a Bash

While browsing the internet, I ran into a business called "Once Upon a Bash" that hosts sweet themed parties (princesses, fairies, etc.). Then I noticed that they allow children to come to their storefront for open play. The pictures looked darling and the place was located down the street from my grandma's house who I desperately needed to visit anyway. So we invited my best friend, Aubrey, and her two kids to check it out a couple weeks ago. We had the place almost all to ourselves- doll houses, dress-up, tea parties, a stage, craft time, etc. It was great. I plan to go back when they have princess visits; my girls have been deprived and have not been to Disney yet so any chance to meet a princess is special!

I captured the picture above of Adelyn playing with her buddy, Jackson, and felt compelled to do some photoshopping on it. Isn't it sweet? Ella had her buddy, Caroline, to play with also. It was a great time and we even got to see Great Grandma Dorothy, too!