she's reading

friday i bought some new early reader books and she read 5 in a row. she's always loved reading, she knew her letters and sounds by 2 1/2, she knows several site words, and loves to spell. so i'm not shocked she actually reading just surprised how quickly she caught on. It's truly amazing to see your child take such a big step. she is so proud of herself and after each book she says, "i read a whole book by myself!"

mother's day

hope you had a wonderful one...

bunk beds

finally... a lens i am able to fit the entire bed in the frame! the girls have been sharing a room for over a month now. trying to make room for the baby. i had always planned on bunking them up but now it's necessity. they love sharing a room and sleeping in their bunk bed. big sister is the room monitor. if ava gets out of bed after we put them to sleep lily yells "ava's out of bed" and ava screams with fear. i don't know why... she's never been in trouble. we just put her back. it must be fear of the tattletale...

look what i got...

for mothers day...

ok, so it's really a business purchase. i've needed a wider lens for a while now and thought now would be a good time to play with one since i will be taking a little break soon. i'll post some shots with it tomorrow.

tiny dancer

through the window at dance yesterday. practicing for the recital on june 21st. i hope i can make it!!!

OMG....

i just did a webcast for Wells Fargo parents group!!!! my df april asked if i would give a presentation for the arizona parents group. hopefully i didn't make a fool of myself.... here's my title slide...

oops

i missed a day. well i'll make a double post to make up for it.

yesterday at swim lessons. i had the girls teacher get hard on them since ava thinks she can swim and lily is getting lazy about front strokes. lily did amazing! if we had a pool where she could swim daily she would be a fish. ava didn't like the pressure so much. she loves the pool but really hates when she has to float on her back.
























look at ava!






















lily can make it across the pool and back with a front or back stroke

up and away

we've been hanging out at grammy's pool this week letting the girls swim and trying to reduce my edema. it defiantly feels good to float around. lily loves to cannonball, get thrown in the air and have swimming races. ava was very careful around the water until a couple of weeks ago. now she thinks she can swim and will jump right in. oh boy!!!

40D

I bought it for my birthday back in september. unfortunately it was right in the middle of my busy season and i was extremely ill a month later for three months. i've been using it on my shoots but i never really had the chance to play around with it. tonight i thought i'd practice backlighting. a difficult lighting situation, but useful when the sun is still too high. i love the sun flare in the first shot.

big girl panties

she finally gave in. a couple of weeks ago she ran out of pull ups...oops! when she got up that morning she couldn't fine one so i asked if she wanted to wear big girl panties today. surprisingly she said "ok"! i thought, this is it! no turning back now.

well... loads of laundry two weeks later she's doing pretty well. she the first few days were a potty mess! pee everywhere. she quickly began to pee when it was potty time and was learning to control things. the past few days she has started to communicate when she has to go. now if she would only tell me when she has to poop! we have yet to land one of those in the toilet. any advise for poop training accepted here!

a post a day in may

this may be my last full month without another child so i thought i would take advantage of my freedom...lol... and post as much as i can now. care to join me???

can you believe she still sleeps in a fetal position... boy i hope she doesn't pee on my couch!

it's official....

i'm a minivan mommy... and i love it!!! we picked up our new ride a couple of weeks ago and i am so happy. we went with the 05 toyota sienna, leather for easy clean up and dvd for entertainment! lily was so excited to share her van with all of her friends. they love closing the auto doors and getting a movie on long trips. yes, chandler is considered a long trip :)



yesterday was tough... we were out late the night before visiting the franklund's and had tickets to see nemo on ice a 11:30am. the girls had thought it was a excellent show. lily's favorite part was the cotton candy and ava's was turtles. It wasn't but a few minutes in the car and they both passed out on our way to the next stop, a birthday party! whoo... back to regular scheduling today.

sleepy boy

at every ultrasound this boy has been sleepy. sleeping with his hands in his face. look here and here no different today. we had a third trimester ultrasound and look what we found.... sleeping baby with his hands in his face. no matter how many shakes or pokes he sleeps. he may kick back a few times out of annoyance but he just sleeps. still measuring about 5 days early. only about 12 weeks to go.

we're ready for our pictures mom

ava's had fever all day. we've been lying around today. trying to get a self portrait and the girls come in ready to pose. naked, messy hair, and dirty faced.

27 weeks 2 days

today. self timer. cropped.

easter time.

lily asked last week if they were going to get in their panties and color easter eggs again...of course i said. here's the big mess of egg coloring fun!

looking down

25 weeks. my current view down.

two and a half

Yes, we're celebrating another half birthday. My little ava is two and a half today. Growing up and becoming her own independent self.

As I type she is avoiding her nap. She usual has many excuses at bed time to leave her room. Today was poop in her pull up, potty in her pull up, showing me she changed into jammies and a few other visits to mom. Finally I locked the door. Now she's sleeping.

She's a sweet little girl who wakes up on the wrong side of the bed most days. Yes she's grouchy in the morning and wants to cuddle mommy when she awakes. You better not be lying in her spot or your might get an earful.

After she sweetens up breakfast is in high demand. Ava loves oatmeal, a variety of cereal and waffles. She has become quite independent and enjoys (demands) dressing herself. No panties yet. She insists (totally freaks out) on having the pull up with Ariel on it. We bought Ariel panties and she loves them but does not want to sit on the potty. She knows when she has to go and changes her own pull up but screams if you take her to the toilet. So much for potty training.

My "boylish" little girl has turned into a little princess recently. She adores playing dress up and barbie's with her sister. It's so funny to watch her copy everything she does. She registered for preschool today. She is excited to go to her own school next year. She knows her abc's, can count to almost 20, and loves to sing songs on the radio and her favorite kid cd's.

We went to the firefighter chili cook off yesterday. Here are a few shots of the girls having a good time.

So serious getting her face painted.

Showing off her beautiful cheek that she never wants to wash again.

Lily was impressed with the bagpipes.

bump

it's growing. almost 4 weeks later at about 23 weeks. only 4 months from yesterday. i grew quite a bit the past month and so did the boy. he's giving me a bit more movement this week. up until this week he just gave me gentile nudges.

my valentine

my little lily gave me about five handmade valentines last week. she is so sweet and thoughtful. she is quite creative, loves to draw, cut, color and write. lily is extremely interested in writing and loves to spell on her own. she just sounds the word out and writes the letters she hears.

my favorite valentine...our family... including baby brother in my tummy. and written in blue...macs...a name she likes. notice scotts biceps :)

valentine

late...but cute...

thumb sucker

isn't he cute.....

baby bump

half way there...only 20 weeks to go. stay tuned...we will be sharing some baby news on monday....