59/365

Today I am thankful for getting to see my baby sister, Katy (aka Seashy on the comments). She is in town visiting a good friend of hers and they all came over to our house this afternoon. I actually went shopping with them while Justin kept the girls and we had a great time. Then they hung out at our house for a while and they all got to play with Annie. She was being her normal, charming self - full of smiles, giggles, and snuggles. Lucy was only really interested in her show and was still a little grouchy from her nap wake up, so she wasn't too much fun. It was awesome to get to see all of you girls today! Thanks for coming over here and letting me hang out with the young girls for the day!! Love you Seashy.

Yesterday and today I have had to force myself to take pics right before the girls go to bed. I have just been really busy during the days and not had much picture taking time. I promise to do better tomorrow. Aren't these cowboy boot house slippers Annie has on awesome? They are so cute.

Justin is not feeling well, so we are all going to bed early tonight. Talk to you all tomorrow!

She was admiring her boots!

58/365

Today I am thankful for bedtime. I have to say that at the end of every day with the girls, I am pretty ready for them to hit the hay. I am tired and the idea of peace and quiet is so exciting. I love quiet. I love this time before I go to sleep when I can do whatever I want to do with no distractions (except for the occasional waking of Annie) or interruptions. I cherish the hours after the girls go to bed. I love spending every day with them - I wouldn't trade it for anything, but that doesn't mean that it is always easy or glamourous. The highlight of my day today was lunch at Chick-Fil-A with Mandy and her kids. Don't get me wrong, I had an awesome time because I got to sit and talk with a dear friend, but seriously, Chick-Fil-A was the most exciting thing I did today. Most of the time this doesn't bother me in the least. I don't mind playing toys, listening to Lucy's constant chitter chatter, or carrying Annie around. I didn't really mind it today, I was just ready for my break and the girls were awesome, as they always are, and went to bed with no fuss or fight. So I am thankful that it is quiet time for me.

Other than a few errands and lunch, we just hung out around the house today and played. I worked on my website while the girls napped and it is really getting close to being done. I will share it when I am done, but for now, you will just have to wait. I really like the way it is shaping up. My business name turned out really cute - Mandy gets full credit because she did think of it and I love it. She gets free sessions for life for thinking of the name. She would have gotten that anyway, but that is how I convinced her to be thinking of a name for me!!

The turtle that the girls are holding in these pictures is from Marble Mountain in Danang, Vietnam. Lucy loves that thing and would take it everywhere if I would let her. The girls are so cute and yummy right after bath. There is nothing sweeter than a freshly washed baby.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

I took these two videos this morning. Every day when I take a shower, I put Annie right outside the shower opening with my make up bag. It keeps her busy and happy while I enjoy a hot shower. I end up spending a lot of extra time in the shower because every time I peek around the corner to check on her, I catch her eye, and she lights up so bright. I love it. I peek at her over and over and get the same wonderful reaction every single time. She is such a special soul. I will be saying that for the rest of my life because she truly is. I hid in the shower afterwards today to get it on video. You get the idea, but whenever she sees the camera, she is not quite as excitable.



And this one shows off her ability to do the Vietnamese cluck that they do at all of the babies. Justin learned to do it on our trip for Lucy, I learned on our trip for Annie, and Lucy even learned to do it the other day. Annie has always been able to do it. She still loves for us to cluck at her and if she is getting fussy or upset, I see Lucy go over to her and cluck. Melts my heart!


Annie's eyes are like glass. I didn't even have to point out the other day that you could see me plain as day in the reflection in her eye, and that is the case again today. This happens a lot with her eyes and has inspired me with lots of ideas. Some day I will share these ideas.


This is one from yesterday.

Fix It Friday

I decided to play this week in Fix it Friday at I Heart Faces. I know this little pumpkin's mom! To edit the photo I used Photoshop CS3 and I fiddled with it way too much to even remember what all I did to it. She is such a cutie. I adore her expression.



Here is the original photo, which is a great photo to start with

57/365

Today I am thankful for the special little girl that Lucy is blossoming into right before our eyes. She has always been amazing, but most people didn't get to see that. She was just too shy and reserved. But lately, as in the past month or so, she has started totally opening up to people. She doesn't take hours to warm up - sometimes she doesn't even need a few minutes. She is full of life and laughter around everyone. I love it. Seriously love it. She is still extremely protective of her personal space and doesn't like that being invaded by a stranger, but her overall personality has opened up so much. I have always tried my hardest to not push her. It has not always been easy. There have been times when we have been around other kids or families and she has stayed glued to me the entire time. I wanted nothing more than to pry her off and tell her to just play with the other kids. But I didn't. I let her do this her way. And it has totally paid off. She is kind, loving, affectionate, trusting, and just plain funny around other kids now. She shares her stuff and likes to make people happy. If she is at all unsure, she will stick close to me until she feels a little more comfortable, but again, it doesn't take much for her to warm up these days. I really didn't ever think that she would be like this. I thought that she was always going to be that painfully shy person in a group setting. But she has totally proven me wrong. It makes me so proud to know that she has gotten to a point where she knows it is okay to show people how much fun she loves to have. I just couldn't possibly love her any more.

Today the high here was 90 degrees. No, that was not a typo, I did say 90. I think it got to the upper 80s but not quite 90. When we left dinner tonight at 6:30 my car said it was 84. It was a really beautiful day. As long as we weren't in direct sun, it was perfect out. Lucy, Annie, and I met our friends Katy and Ava at the Arboretum this morning. I took some pictures of Ava and the girls ran and ran and ran. They were so cute together. Then Katy and Ava came over to our house and ate lunch. After they went home, the girls napped and then we went to dinner with Mandy, Louis, and Anna at our very favorite Vietnamese restaurant. It was so delicious. Lucy was a hoot. She was eating pho noodles with my sunglasses on. I was really proud of her because she normally won't even touch any of the food. We came home, put Annie straight to bed, Lucy and I hung out for a while, and then she went down. It was a busy and lovely day. We are all worn out from being on the go so much.

Seashy - how do you think the dress looks? Pretty cute if I do say so myself. Mom, this is the Senorita Margarita dress, or that is what we named it!














These 2 are from Mandy's camera at dinner tonight.

56/365

Today I am thankful that it is the beginning of Lent and that I am going to start improving my health. I have a confession. Ever since Annie has been home, I have become addicted, and I do mean truly addicted, to sweets. I find myself eating candy, cookies, cupcakes, chocolate, really anything full of sugar all day long. I would rather have dessert for dinner any time. It is not pretty. At all. I am lucky for some reason that my body has not revolted and gained a zillion pounds, but I have definitely gained some lbs. I am not making changes to lose weight, but because I have no reason to be eating so much junk. I need to get healthier. I am sure my teeth can't handle it either! So, I have cut out all processed sugar and enriched flour for all of Lent. If any of you have ever done the Sugar Busters diet, that is what I am doing. I never break my Lent promises, so I sure hope I don't this time either. And no, I am not Catholic but I have always liked to give something up for Lent. I like to challenge myself, and this is going to be the most challenged I have probably ever been. I couldn't have tested myself any more than I did tonight - we ate Mexican. I didn't eat a single chip or tortilla or drink the mango margarita that I wanted so very badly. I had a taco salad and the good news is - I am not disgustingly stuffed like I am any other time we eat Mexican.

Today was a beautiful day here. The girls were in short sleeved dresses and sandals. The sun was shining and we got to eat dinner outside without being hot or cold, just perfect. I took Lucy to school this morning and took Anners with me so that Justin got a morning to rest as well. Annie and I went to the bookstore. I swear my favorite thing in the world is sitting in Barnes and Noble with a cup of coffee and read through photography books. Annie is so good that I can give her a few toys/books and she will sit right next to me and keep herself content for a while. After that, we went to the mall to exchange a pair of Lucy's shoes. Annie fell asleep in the Ergo so I just walked around with her sleeping. I went through every baby store that I love. All of the new Juicy swimsuits are out and I wanted them all, but I was so good and bought nothing. There were also these Juicy dresses that I REALLY wanted, but again, I used self control and didn't get them. Now that I want two of everything it is extra bad. I need this photography business to take off so that I can indulge in all of my baby girl fashion wants!!

After naps we spent the entire rest of the day outside. Love that. Love it. I am really trying to take advantage of our weather before it is blistering hot and the mosquitoes have returned. We have a busy day planned tomorrow with lots of outside activities. Yippee!

The girls were so cute for their pics today. And just in case you are wondering, Lucy puts herself in the "hands under chin" pose all of the time. I find her sitting like that all of the time. I promise I don't ask her to get in this position since it seems to be popping up in my pictures so often recently. I must admit, it is cute though.







She thought everything was hilarious today.


















She is totally Miss America waving at passing cars here.


I adore this picture.


I love this picture because she is breaking her neck to see my neighbor coming out of his house with a girl. We have two single guys next door to us and there is always a constant stream of girls coming and going. It was about 11 am and I am pretty sure that one of them was just getting rounded around for work with one of his ladies in tow. We are kind of hidden on our front porch by all of our landscaping so Annie really wanted to see what was going on. I kind of did too!

55/365

Today I am SO SO thankful for how awesome Justin was to me today. I have been exhausted for the past week. Not to beat a dead horse, but Annie is really struggling with sleep again. She had gotten SO much better. She was only getting up one or two times a night for several weeks and then wam, she is back to the old routine of getting up a Whole. Bunch. Of. Times. a night. She was up and down nonstop from about midnight to 2:30 last night. Justin finally got her down for good with a bottle around 2:30 and she did stay asleep until 8:15, which is awesome. I finally got to sleep around 3 and woke up several times in the night, so I was not rested at all when the girls got up. I got up, fed Annie a bottle and got her dressed and then said that I needed to lay down in Lucy's bed for a while to try and get another hour or so of sleep. Justin let me sleep, and sleep, and sleep some more. I woke up at 12:30!! Yes, as in after the noon hour. I was shocked. It felt so great. I went downstairs to find Justin eating lunch, Lucy finishing up her lunch, Annie playing on the floor because she had already eaten her lunch, and everyone happy as could be. Justin rocked this morning. And then, he emptied the dishwasher on top of all of that! Thank you so so much honey. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to get the morning off. I love you!

Shortly after I got up, both girls were down for naps. During that time, Justin napped and I worked on our taxes. I think by tonight I will have everything ready to go to the accountant. I always feel so relieved when I have it all sent off to her and we need the refund money, so I don't need to put it off any longer. It is just a beating getting it all together, organized, and figured out. I am almost there though. We got Annie's social security number in the mail yesterday, so I have no more excuses. For those of you wondering about getting a ss#, it only took a week to get it in the mail from the day I applied. Really fast.

Lucy got up from nap first and she and I went to happy hour at Sonic for a drink for everybody. Then I made dinner, we all ate, cleaned the kitchen, baths and it was time for bed. Today was so fast for me since I was asleep for so much of it!! I am really bummed about no Idol tonight but it is good for me because then I can concentrate on knocking out the tax stuff.

Lucy's picture above is so typical of her - bossing us all around about when we can or can't talk. She is BIG into telling someone if they are being too loud for her liking. She is such a mess.







She is just so darn cute. I mean really, isn't she so cute?