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Look who has piggies!!


Today I am thankful for Lucy's last day as a two year old. I can't believe that tomorrow is her third birthday. When I told her tonight that her birthday is tomorrow she told me that she has already had her birthday. She doesn't quite get that we had her birthday party before her actual birthday. I will do a full update on her tomorrow. I just love her so much I can hardly stand it.

I got part of Lucy's 3 year session done today. I know you guys are going to want to know where I got these vintage outfits for the girls, so I am going to let you in on a little secret. Go to Rae Gun's etsy shop. You will not be disappointed. These are the cutest things ever. Seriously, you know you want one for your little girl, too. There are a million pictures today, but I couldn't help it because they are so darling.

Here is your last look at Lucy as a 2 year old. Don't you just LOVE the way she says wool? I love when the southern accent comes out. This is her current favorite song.





















I really do love this one. It caught my eye from the beginning.


Say it with me now, S-A-S-S!




















I have been asked before if Annie is tall because she has deceivingly looked tall in some of the pictures. She is FAR from being tall. She is such a shorty. At her 15 month appointment, she was in the 4th% for height. You get the idea here.

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Today I am thankful for the FIRST TIME EVER, Annie slept through the night without me having to go in one single time. She went to bed at 7 pm, I heard her make a few quiet noises at midnight (but no crying), and did not hear another peep out of her until 8 am. She still takes a bottle in the middle of the night every night. She has made it through the night a few times without eating, but I have always had to go in there at least once at some point because she was crying. She almost always wakes up around 11 pm and has to be comforted back to sleep. I was so proud of her!

We had a huge thunderstorm come through just before 6 am this morning. It cooled things off and we ended up having a beautiful day that stayed in the 80s. Nana and Grandy, we got some good swingset time in today. I was even wearing jeans and was not hot. Love it. I really can't wait for fall weather. It will be so nice to cool off a little.

I wanted to write down something cute that Lucy told us the other day. We were all in the car and Lucy was playing with this little plastic toy. All of the sudden she announces, "I am going to look for birds with my noculars." She was holding the toy up to her eyes like binoculars. It is statements like this when you stop and think, there is really nothing she can't talk about now. She knows words that I don't remember talking about with her. She is officially big. *sigh. really, really big sigh*

I had a lot of comments and questions on yesterday's pictures. First, we do have beautiful light in our kitchen, which is where most of our indoor pictures come from. There is also great light by the french doors that go out to our yard, which is the other place indoors that I take natural light photos. 2 days ago I took bathtub pictures using my SB600 Speedlite, which is an external flash on my camera. I really don't know how to properly use this flash, so I left it on my camera to practice using it. So yesterday's pictures were using the flash. The awesome thing about these flashes is that you can rotate the head so that the flash bounces off of a surface instead of your subject. I usually bounce off of the ceiling, but for yesterday's images the flash was pointed behind me at the cabinets. By bouncing the flash, you don't get any of that ugly harsh flash look to your pictures. They look like natural light. There is my photography tip of the week! Hope it is a tad helpful. But just so you know with 99% of my pictures, there is no flash used. I had to look for the flash for Lucy's birthday and before then, it had been months since I had used it. I really like the results when it is properly used, so I might start practicing with it more.

The picture above of Lucy is a true glimpse into our lives. Every night when I sing songs to her at bed, she lays like this with her hands under her cheek and smiles at me while I sing. Every night I think to myself how I wish I had a picture of her because she is so precious. She was in a such a sweet mood at bedtime tonight that I asked her if I could get my camera and take her picture and she happily agreed because it prolonged going to bed. She stayed right in her position and let me snap away. This is something that really only me, Justin, Nana, or Lee Lee would have ever seen because we are the only people who have ever put her to bed. Now you can all see how lucky we are to get to put this pumpkin to bed every night.

How hysterical are the roller skates. She got those from her friend Molly for her birthday and she has really been kind of scared of them. However tonight she brought all of the gear in my room and wanted to skate. She thought she was hilarious when she would fall down. It really was funny. She cried when it was time to take them off for bed. We had to tell the princess skates good night and tell them we would see them first thing in the morning.









I LOVE this picture. Annie was so happy that Lucy was pushing her in the swing. I love it when they can be sweet to one another for a while.

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Today I am thankful for a new dress that I got at Anthropologie. I have a lot of days where I just feel so "mom-ish", which is okay, but I feel like I lose myself some days when I am covered in drool and smeared food all day long. It is not uncommon for me to not have much of a desire to get out of pjs. I don't like that feeling and I feel so much better when I feel good about what I am wearing. So, today I got a pretty dress and I am excited to wear it. I have found that since the girls, I have almost stopped buying anything for myself and only buying stuff for them. But today I got a special treat.

We had a great day today other than a meltdown by both girls after naps. I have no idea what happened. Lucy was actually okay when she woke up and then just kept losing it until she just cried for a LONG time. I did everything I could think of to calm her, but nothing would work so I finally just let her do her thing. All of this sent Annie into a tail spin and soon both girls were all out of sorts. Instead of letting it get me all worked up, I did what comes naturally and caught the moment on film. I don't think this made the girls feel much better! :)

I really love days like today when I am not expecting much for my pictures and then I end up loving them!

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Today I am thankful for getting to have a really relaxed day because Justin did a lot of the work with the girls. First, I have been so tired lately. We have just had a lot going on and I have not been sleeping well. All of this has resulted in me dragging most days. In fact, now when Lucy is tired and she yawns, she will say, "Oh boy, I am tired. I just can't stop yawning." All because she has heard me say that 1,000 times in the past few weeks. So as I was going to bed last night, Justin says, "Why don't you sleep in tomorrow. I will take the girls in the morning." I definitely took him up on this offer and did not get up until 11 am!! It was spectacular and I feel like a new person. I also got a pedicure and went to a little party that my neighbor was having tonight. It was a nice break and greatly appreciated. Thanks honey!

I am going to watch Revolutionary Road with Justin. I hope it is good because I get very easily bored with movies.

The pictures in the bathtub sum up the girls' personalities perfectly - Annie is a reckless, wild child and Lucy is diligently working on pouring the water from the cup. The pics of Lucy are from this morning when we used her new Princess Oven that she got for her birthday. It doesn't use heat and I am not going to lie, the cookie things it made grossed me out. Lucy LOVED the whole cooking process, but she even admitted that the end result did not taste good. I was happy to hear that since I really didn't want her to eat them!



Water never stop flying while she is in the bath. It is dangerous for me to have my camera in the bathroom!


















At first she tired tried to pretend like they tasted good, but on the second nibble, she just couldn't do it.