Pink Pretties

I just love how photogenic my girls are. Elaina, I could photograph all day....all day, all day, all day- until she gets grumpy, which she does. These were from my birthday, and her shirt says something cute about mommies, so I thought it appropriate for that day. As a matter of fact, we took her to breakfast and out to dinner in it, with a bow on her head no less, and she got more comments than she ever has- gotta love that!Celeste never lets you do anything to her hair - EVER- but this day, she let Leah braid it and then take some fun shots during their rest time. She cracks me up!

Awesome August

Where has this month gone? SO hard to believe it is the end of the month already. We, however, still have 2 weeks until school starts, so my kids are still enjoying summer for a while longer. The humidity has left for a small reprieve, and we have gotten to do lots of fun stuff during its absence.

Dana's mom has been visiting us from CA and Alex got to spend a few days at Ivy's house with Isaac who was visiting from NC. He was in heaven, because Aunt Ivy really knows how to spoil him! He went to the fair, ate out, went to the movies, ate out, played at the rec center, ate out, and stayed up very late for days and days- quite a thing for an 11 year old! Then he went to Cedar Point with Uncle Sean and Aunt Stephanie- I'd say his summer has been full!

Last weekend was our annual family trip to the lake. Unfortunately it was only perfect weather on Saturday, because on Sunday, the rains came down and the floods came up- LITERALLY! It was interesting, we even witnessed waterspouts on the lake! We got to spend all day Saturday in the sun and soaking up rays at the pool. The kids had a blast!

My birthday fell that weekend too, and Dana and I only had Elaina with us, since the girls went up early to the lake with my parents and Alex was with Sean. We went to breakfast at my fav spot: First Watch, and then shopping- my very favorite, and then dinner at Abuelo's , followed by more shopping! Perfect way to celebrate 36.

We also got to visit with my sweet grandma- the kids loved that and I did too!

I am behind in posting pics, but here are some highlights of this month:

I could go on and on about how much I love this face- she is growing so fast and starting to do such fun stuff. Sometimes she wakes herself up and I hear her blowing bubbles in her crib, or playing with her mirror on her bed. She is laughing out loud and rolling over and over. She stands up as much as she possibly can, and if she could eat your fingers, she would- and she tries and tries!! I love capturing the perfect smile - if she could stay this little butterball forever, I promise I would not complain. At 4 months she weighed 14 lbs 14 oz and was 23 1/2 inches! And 10 days later, after her ear infection was cleared, she had gained 8 more ounces and was 15lbs 6 oz! Chubby little girl- that's how we make em' around here!

She is starting to sleep better now that she gets cereal at night- and man does she love that stuff! Mixed with white grape juice, she downs every single bite you give her! No doubt about it, this girl likes to eat! She is a gem!

Elaina 4 months

Camera Happy

Do you think she likes the camera or what?! What she really loves is rolling around on her tummy- I can hardly keep her still!

4 months

So little one is 4 months old already! Don't ask me where the time has gone- I have no concept of time right now- hoping that comes back relatively soon. Elaina has gotten her first cold and ear infection! Poor baby girl! However that hasn't stopped her from eating and GROWING!! She is weighing in at a whopping 14lbs 14oz! I know, good stuff, right?!

Camera Happy

Leah has a knack for getting lots of cute shots of the babe. She has good angles, and can get close up like no one else. Plus, Elaina LOVES her, so it makes it easy to get good shots. This week Leah took these:
Note the runny nose: Elaina has her first ever cold! Bummer, but still so cute!

Great sisters shot:
Now that she is laughing and so happy, look for more posts like these!!

More Summer Fun

It's still hot here. Hot, Hot, Hot...did I mention it's hot? My word, we have hardly gone anywhere or done anything because of the heat!
This week Celeste had "Safety Town" for 3 days and I didn't even take a single picture of her! It was too hot! Dana dropped her off each morning at 8:30 and I picked her up at 11:30- she had a ton of fun and learned lots of fun safety stuff. Then today, Isaac arrived from NC and the older kids spent the day at the indoor water park- camera? Nope- too hot INSIDE!! I just dropped them off and picked them up too- but it was so warm in there, my camera would've probably had moisture all over the lens! But such fun they had!
We do take evening walks each night- heat or not and last night we went to the park at Alex's school. We took a few photos:

I took these swing pictures, but Celeste made the collage- not bad for a first time!

Leah actually took these of Elaina yesterday- she is getting so good with my camera- I let her take pics as often as she wants because she pays attention to details and gets great shots! She made this collage all herself too.
Since my picture program has disappeared, I have been making more of these collages, but really because I can't upload individual pictures until I figure this mess out. Luckily they are cute!

Buddy the Boss

Today was Alex and Leah's fondant class at JoAnn's. They could hardly wait! I think they had a great time, and we learned a lot about fondant- things I wish I would have known Saturday when we did Leah's birthday cake- but now we do, so look out birthdays from here on out! Here is the montage of their class and creations:
They are officially taking orders! ha ha- I bet it won't be long- and if we get to eat the trial ones, I won't complain!

Birthday Girl

Yesterday my first beautiful girl turned 9!!
NINE
Nine...honest- really, can't believe it still.
She is really into clothes this year- must be the "going into 4th grade" thing because she really didn't care a whole lot up to now. She is content in Old Navy t-shirts and "soft" pants- no jeans. Well, not this time around- much more into structured things and hip outfits. She still has this tiny body- barely wearing an 8 and shoes, still a 13. Tiny for a NINE year old!
The other thing she is really into is "Cake Boss". She and Alex watch it daily- even DVR the shows so they can watch them first thing in the morning. I can't complain- it's better than Phineaus and Ferb!! So, for one of her gifts, we got her cake decorating classes and then we attempted to make our own with fondant (before she takes the fondant class!). Here is our (HER) creation:It was a two layer 8" round. We did the white fondant (yuck!) and then had some left over to make the pieces for it- the 9 and the L's and O's were her idea and so she decorated it solely herself. All I did was the icing and putting the fondant on- she smoothed it down and created away. She was so happy with it- and I think for a NINE year old, she did an outstanding job. Now she wants to make more, since Aunt Stephanie got her a whole cake decorating kit! We are really adding to our (her) decorating collection.

The Dowell's and us got together to eat this wonderful creation and open lots of fun presents:
Grandma and Grandpa did a fabulous job of spoiling her with amazing fun clothes- even took her shopping to pick them out! Lucky girl!
We love this girl. She is such a wonderful daughter. We could not ask for more with her (perhaps less lip, but she is NINE, right?!) She has been so helpful with Elaina- I don't even have to ask her help, she jumps right in and helps constantly. I am so blessed to have her at this time with all she does for me. I remember when I first held her- she was so tiny and precious- I think of her the same now- she had a stomach ache on Friday night- in the middle of the night she came to me and I held her in my arms and we fell asleep on the bathroom floor, then a while later we slept in her bed. She is still a snuggler. Lucky me.
Leah - we hope you know how loved you are- you are an amazing NINE year old and we are so lucky to have you- if you could only know an inkling of how much we love you- we hope you do.

Fun with Picnik

My Picasa has been causing me grief! I CANNOT get it to work!! I am not happy, so I have had to look elsewhere for a good photo editing program. I have used Picnik before, but not tried all the fun features it has to offer. Though it doesn't store my photos and catalog them like Picasa, I have had a lot of fun using it to make fun pics like these:

And yes, I could do this all day!