Photo Shoot with Life by Light

Here are a few of my favorite shots from the other day! I know I've been complaining (on Facebook) about how Alexis acted, but it's only because she normally does fantastic with pictures. And there are some really great ones here too, I was just disappointed with her behavior that day. Thanks again Kelley! I'm working on deciding what to order. Here is Kelley's photography website.

I think this is my favorite of Alexis! I loved this tutu that Kelley had for her to wear!

This one is Ross' and might me my favorite as well of Isabel.

Alexis looks a little serious in this one but it's still cute.

Love this one!

Ross thought this one was goofy, but I LOVE it!

So curious....

The sun was soooo bright that morning, so she was kind of squinty in some of them.

This is just a classic Isabel look right there!

Ross laughed hysterically when he saw this one! And the way Isabel has her hand under her chin is just priceless! We love it!

 That's my beautiful girl!!

 

A Good Weekend

This weekend was so nice and relaxing. I needed it.

Friday night I got off work at 12:30 and headed up to Rolla to get the shopping out of the way for the week. It was so nice not fighting a crowd while I was shopping. I think that's when I'm going to do the majority of my shopping from now on. I got home around 2:30am and was unloading the car when Isabel woke up and wanted to nurse. I brought her downstairs and fed her. She didn't want to go back in her crib so her fussing woke Alexis up. They both ended up coming downstairs with me around 3am and didn't go back to bed until 3:45am. It was after 4am before I got to sleep and the girls were ready to get up for the day by 7am. Needless to say I was a little tired yesterday.

I spent most of the morning holding Isabel. After a week at work, she is ready for some serious Mommy time by the weekend and it's pretty pointless for me to try and get anything done. In the afternoon I did some straightening and cleaning.

My best friend Amy and her man Chris came over with their 2 girls, Katelyn and Callie for supper. Ross grilled some burgers, brats and hot dogs and we just had a salad and some baked beans. Simple, but great summer time food. We had a nice visit and the kids had a great time playing. We made plans to go to Elephant Rocks with them this fall when the leaves start changing. There are some awesome views there in the fall.

Ross and I crashed hard last night around 11:30, we were both tired. Isabel does the bulk of her nursing at night and last night she was up at 12:30, 3:00 and then again at 6:00. I was exhausted when I got up at 7 this morning. Ross and I fixed biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then I headed to the couch. I didn't intend to sleep for very long, but I didn't get up until almost noon.

We loaded up and headed to the creek. They were having a birthday party for 5 different birthdays. We had lunch, presents, cake, ice cream and then creek time. We got home around 6. It was a great day! We are all showered, bathed and fed. Now I'm going to play a game with Alexis and get some serious snuggle time in with the girls and then Ross after they go to bed. I love these kinds of weekends!!! Hope yours was great too!

I'm Honored

A few weeks back Susie B. Homemaker gave me a blog award! I was very honored to receive this award, so thank you very much Susie!

Here are the rules:

• Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.
• Sum up blogging philosophy, motivation and experience using 5 words.
• Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

Okay, so I thanked Susie.

My 5 words are:

Fun * Inspiring * Connected * Encouraged * Challenged

And I'm passing the award on to these lovely ladies: (I'm not doing 10 and I don't think you have to follow the rules. I just thought it was a pretty cool award so I wanted to pass it on!)

Krista @ Krista's Korner

Ashley @ My Redburn Journal

Chrissy @ Traveling Light

Mrs. Haid @ The Fabulous Adventures of Mrs. Haid

Ladies, I love reading all of your posts and you all inspire and encourage me in different ways. Keep up the good work! 

Like Mother Like Daughter?

I'm Such A Slacker

Really I am. I've been terrible about trying to keep up with my blog. I have things circulating in my brain to blog about, just don't have the time to get them out.

This morning the girls and I went over to St. James and Kelley took their pictures!

Here's a couple sneak peeks she emailed me:

I just love the tutu she had for Alexis to wear! Alexis did good for the first part of the session and then proceed to completely embarrass me with her behavior. She wouldn't cooperate at all. Thankfully, I think we got some good ones before she decided to be Crankzilla.

I love this one of Isabel!! I can't wait to see how the rest of them turned out!

I've also been a slacker with getting their pictures taken. By the time Alexis was 1 I had taken her 4 times for pictures.

This is just Isabel's 2nd and she's 10 months. =( I'm planning on getting more pictures done sometime in September after Isabel turns 1. That will be the ones for the Christmas cards! (I love Christmas, just over 5 months away!)


Isabel is doing this completely adorable thing right now that I love. She shakes her head side to side when we say, no no no no. And she'll bob it up and down when we say yes yes yes yes!!! It's so funny. She's at that really fun stage right now. She took a single step yesterday without holding onto anything, so I don't think it will be much longer before she is walking!

Alexis is still going strong on the potty. Still doing diapers at bedtime, sometimes she wakes up dry, but not real regularly yet. She had an accident or two that first week after she started going. Today was a really strange day. She peed in her pants 3 times today! But then she finally decided to start going on the potty again. Very bizarre.... She's had no trouble with the poopy part of it either. It's all in the potty! Such a financial relief to not be buying diapers for two anymore, and an even BIGGER relief to not have to changer her poopies anymore! YAY!

It's been super hot lately and that makes work super nasty. Last week was just miserable in there. I was fortunate enough to get to work in the AC Tuesday night, but unloaded trailers on Wednesday and Thursday night. I stayed home Friday night because I wasn't feeling well. This week looks like it's going to be pretty much the same as last...ugh.

Our garden is thriving still and Ross is working hard to keep up with it. He's been busy making pickles every few days. I made some salsa this weekend and I'll be making more next weekend also. It was so yummy!

I think I've finally managed to get a handle on the house work, as long as I can keep up with it now. Ross usually helps out with the laundry when I'm working, but we've agreed that I've pretty much got the housework to myself and he's got the garden. It's been a lot since I went back to work, I'm having to let go of trying to keep everything perfect during the week. It's just too hard and I don't get to spend anytime with the girls in the morning if all I'm doing is running around picking up this and that. It can wait until the weekend now.

I've got to run for now, I have housework to do this evening before I start my work week. I'm going to try and schedule a few blog posts for this week. I really have missed it and all of you.

A Link

I asked for prayer the other day for my friend and her family. This is her blog: Carrying Ella

5QF July 9th, 2010

Yay! I finally managed to get a 5QF in, I'm proud of me!

Join in with Mama M. for Friday fun!

1. What is one food you could eat everyday?

Hands down, peanut butter. I could live off the stuff if I had to. Love it!

2. Are you working in the career you thought you would be when you were 18?

Yes and no. When I was 18 I wanted to be getting married and have a kid or two by the time I was 21 or so. God obviously had other plans for me because Ross and I met when I was 19, but didn't get married until I was 24. I had my first baby when I was 26. So, in one way yes, because I have 2 beautiful daughters I can claim as my own and a wonderful husband to spend all my years with. No, because I'm not a full time stay at home mom just yet....maybe someday. 

3. What is something that you wish you would have done when you were younger and you didn't?

I wish I would have been more athletic than I was. Because I was home schooled, I didn't make an effort to get involved with town sports teams or being really physically active.  

4. What color are your kitchen walls?

Some wallpaper with chickens on it. Unfortunately, the kitchen will be the last remodel project for our house since they are the most expensive to redo. Still a few years away from any changes in there.

5. Do you remember what your very first favorite song was?

Tall, Tall Trees by Alan Jackson. 

Please Pray

One of my Facebook friends posted this today:

"We learned yesterday that our baby girl has a birth defect called Anencephaly. Anencephaly is a neural tube defect where the top of the baby's head is open. The life expectancy for a baby with anencephaly is only a few hours, a few days at most. We will carry our sweet girl to term and cherish whatever time God gives us with her. Thank you all for your prayers and keep them coming!"

Please pray for them. She is currently 5 months pregnant. Thank you Ashley for agreeing to be there if she needs someone to talk to that completely understands her situation. 

4th Pictures

The girls are growing so incredibly fast, I just can't seem to get enough of them these days since I went back to work. Here are some more pictures that I took on the 4th.

Isabel Vs. Alexis @ 10 Months

People are constantly saying how much Isabel looks like Alexis these days, so I decided to do some picture comparisons and see just how much they do or don't resemble each other.

Alexis at 10 months. (She has more teeth at this point than Isabel does.)

 Isabel, about a week and a half shy of 10 months.

What do you think?

Happy 4th

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! We certainly did!

She Did It!

For the first time today, Alexis finally went pee on the toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so excited for her, and us too!

In all the times we've tried to get her potty trained, she's never once gone on her potty seat or in the toilet. And finally today, I guess it just clicked for her. She wore underwear all day and didn't have an accident at all. And she peed twice, actually in the toilet! We are sooooooo proud of her!

Now, pooping, that may take longer, but I'm so thankful she finally decided she was going to go on the toilet. She's known for quite some time when she is going and what it feels like to need to go, but she's been too stubborn to do it on the toilet.

Fingers crossed that we have continued success and can say goodbye to buying diapers for two!

Introductions

I was very excited to see two of my long time friends recently start blogging. They are both delightful ladies and I'm very excited to see what interesting things they'll have to say. With just a few posts each, I'm already liking what I read, so I thought I'd let you check them out too.

Krista, over @ Krista's Korner.

Krista and I have known one another since diaper days. We have one of those friendships that can be picked up anytime, anywhere. We go for long periods without seeing one another, but it's always good when we do. Thanks to Facebook, we are staying more connected with each other nowadays.

Krista was a bridesmaid in my wedding and I in her's. She and Jake have been married for almost 3 years and they have a beautiful daughter, Halle. Krista is a 2nd grade teacher and I'm looking forward to seeing what all she decides to blog about!

Make sure you check her out and become a follower if you like what you read.

My other friend is Denise over @ Nana's Thoughts!

Denise is Krista's mom, so I've also known her forever and a day long! She is a middle school teacher and a great lady. Hope you enjoy getting to know 2 of my friends.

Happy blogging!

Home Grown Goodness

It's been awhile since I've let you all know about how our garden is doing. So, I went outside yesterday and snapped a few picture so you can see how it's doing.

Here are the 27 tomato plants. 

Yep, 27!

And they are all loaded down with green tomatoes too.

 A few of them have started ripening and they are so yummy to eat!

Here is one of the cherry tomato plants. Alexis loves eating these and most of the time the ones we pick don't even make it into the house. She eats them all up while she's outside playing.

Cucumber vines, have been getting a ton of cucumbers the past 2 weeks. Going to be making some dill pickles this weekend.

 Green Beans.

 And Banana Peppers.

Ross has put so much time and effort into our garden this year and it is doing great. I wish I had more time to help him, but Isabel makes gardening a challenge, and our schedule doesn't help either. I'm sure I'll be more helpful next year! In the mean time, I'm enjoying getting to eat all these yummy things and I'm looking forward to canning a bunch this summer too.