White Flag

Well, I'm giving in, waving the white flag, crying uncle, surrendering. As you might have guessed over the past photo-less month, I've fallen off the wagon. I haven't been taking daily photos, and when I've attempted to, I haven't gotten them posted. I decided to admit defeat today, and when I logged in, I saw that it's been one month to the day since my last post. I actually thought it had been longer.

BUT! All is not lost! I have not given up completely, I'm just taking a break. This summer has been insanely busy, and honestly, more than that, I haven't been getting enough sleep, or enough GOOD sleep, thanks to Miss Mollie - whose FIRST BIRTHDAY is TODAY. Seriously. I'm shaking my head too. Where did the time go? She's a blessing and a gift and an amazingly special little addition to our family, and I *think* she's on a better sleep track. So who knows, maybe you'll be hearing from me again sooner rather than later.

Fingers crossed!

One Twenty Four

This week's theme: Fire (yeahhhhhh so I probably won't be sticking to that every day)

No fire here. Just some cute toddler toes in some fancy pink shoes. I love this photo of just her feet, but I had to post a full-body shot so you get the full effect. ;)

One Twenty Three

This week's theme: Habits

Well, this isn't really a habit, it's just Mollie playing outside. :)

One Twenty Two

This week's theme: Habits

So this isn't really a habit of mine, but tending to our super-cool garden has become a habit of Brad's. Here's our first watermelon! How teeny and cute is this?

One Twenty One

This week's theme: Habits

One (good) habit that I have that I definitely stick to is taking my vitamins! :) Here's a bunch of my Vitamin C.

One Twenty

This week's theme: Habits

I'm desperately trying to get back into the habit of walking/jogging/running. And, hey, I've done a little over 20 miles in June. I'd say that's a pretty good start!

One Nineteen

This week's theme: Habits (but sorry, no habits here)

OK so I messed up and posted this on the wrong day, but I'm too lazy to fix it. :)

Natalie and I went on a little Mommy-Daughter shopping trip on Saturday where she helped (and I use this term in just about the loosest possible sense of the word, but that's ok) me pick out some new shirts. I let her wear a necklace of mine with an "N" stamped on a silver disc and a little bead the color of her birthstone. I have a new necklace now with both girls' names, so I figure I'll give this one to her when she's a bit older. Let's just say she was more than a tad bit impressed with herself for getting to wear a REAL "neckisss" all day. :)

One Eighteen

This week's theme: Habits

Well, this is a candid shot I captured of Natalie embodying a habit of mine . . . smelling/nuzzling Mollie's sweet little head. Mmmmm.

One Seventeen

This week's theme: Habits (but not today)

OK wait, maybe habit is ok. I am definitely in the habit of practicing my skillz on any wonderful family member who will let me. (Thanks Big Little Bro, Carolyn, & Gav-Man!)

LOVE this photo! What a happy, gorgeous family . . . that is about to grow by one more lovely little soul!

One Sixteen

This week's theme: Things I couldn't live without

Why, Miss Mollie Grace, of course!

I love this photo. She's standing all on her own! YAY Mollie! And how adorable is it that pretty much every time she succeeds, she claps for herself? haha!

One Fifteen

This week's theme: Things I couldn't Live Without

Organization? I need more of it, but if I didn't have at least the amount that I have now, I don't know where I'd be!!

Oh irony of ironies (is that a word?). Please look away from the insanely messy desk below the pretty new shelves and storage boxes I made. Those papers flailing around with no place to be are just a figment of your imagination.

One Fourteen

This week's theme: Things I Couldn't Live Without

Um, Brad. Hello? He's at the top of my list (here seen hanging up shelves for me - see #115 for the finished product)! :)

One Thirteen

This week's theme: Things I Couldn't Live Without

Well, Natalie, of course! :)

One Twelve

This week's theme: Things I Couldn't Live Without

This is our Media Center PC, which serves as our DVR. One of the greatest inventions EVER. Especially for parents! Please ignore the dust. And cords. And ugliness. And dust. Thank you!

One Eleven

OK I'm cheating. This wasn't taken ON the day. But it was close. :) This one was with my point & shoot and *gasp* the flash. I even got to play with some red-eye removal in PhotoShop. ;)

One Ten

Theme? What theme?

So we were letting the girls play outside, and Natalie was getting all hot & sweaty. I realized that she didn't have any clips in to keep her bangs out of her eyes (we're growing them out), so I had her come in to get some. I had to check on something in the oven, and she went to her room. I thought she'd bring the clips out to me, but instead, this is how she came out. I thought she did a pretty good job for her first time! ;)

Uncle!

OK I'm crying, "UNCLE!" Whatever it is that actually means. I just know that's what they want the kid on A Christmas Story to say in evidence of surrender. I have not done very well with my daily photo-taking lately. So I'm going to work on posting what I have and then catching up tonight. I think. I'm pretty sure. :-P

But seriously, whether or not I get stuff posted tonight, I'm starting today getting back on the photo-taking-and-posting wagon. Yep yep!

I think I'll not pay as close attention to my weekly theme unless I really like the theme that week though. :)

One Hundred Nine

This week's theme: Pets - or Flowers! :)
Next week's theme: Things I Couldn't Live Without

Here is my beeeeeeeeeauuuuutiful hydrangea. It finally bloomed a ton this year, and I actually cut a bunch of blooms before they died so that we can enjoy them indoors! So here's before - and then two afters. ;) LOVE them!

One Hundred Eight

This week's theme: Pets (but again, not today :))

OK, I'm just gonna say this: how did she get this big?!

One Hundred Seven

This week's theme: Pets (but not today, or most days for that matter)

So this first shot is the one I would have posted, but I thought I'd post the second one so you could see Mollie's sweet face and get the full effect. Mollie :hearts: lasagna. :)

One Hundred Six

This week's theme: Pets

Look! It's a pet!! Here's Casey this morning - I thought she was hiding from Mollie, so I got a shot of her through the toy she was behind. Little did I know she was stalking a weird bug that was hiding under the toy! Ick! Glad Brad was still home to take care of that!

One Hundred Five

This week's theme: Pets (no pets today though)

Just a cute candid, not-technically-anywhere-NEAR-perfect shot of Miss Mollie. I ran Pioneer Woman's "seventies" action on it, just for fun.

One Hundred Four

This week's theme: Pets

Sorry, no pets here today. Just Natalie and Mollie playing in her new IKEA curtains. I love them! You can't see Mollie, but she's definitely in there too. I hung the curtains to see how long I needed to make them, and Natalie immediately said, "We can hide in there?" And jumped right in. After a few minutes, Mollie got bored and crawled out, but Natalie grabbed a book and was looking at it in her own little world. :) I kind of hate to take them down to hem them!

One Hundred Three

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment
Next week's theme: Pets (ok I'm just gonna go ahead and say I'll probably take one pic of Casey, but that will be about the extent of that). :)

Love this photo of Brad and Natalie dancing (and singing Once Upon a Dream, I might add). Mollie obviously wished she could join in on the fun. I just had to share both photos so you could get the full effect. :)

One Hundred Two

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment

I'm definitely not emotionally attached to anything about this photo, but I like it. :) This is our room at NYLO Legacy at Plano where we stayed Friday night. It was such a cool hotel! Apparently slightly too cool for us, as we didn't get the calm, relaxing, quiet sleep we'd been hoping for since Jimmy Buffet was in town and they had a Parrot Head Bay party in the "back yard" as they called it, which consisted of a DJ playing LOUD party music right below our window, four floors down . . . until about 1 am. We still managed to enjoy our stay and get some sleep, just not exactly how we'd pictured it. Then it was off for some shopping and yummy food on Saturday!

One Hundred One

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment

Again, I should just change this week's theme to "My Girls." I wish the shadows weren't so prominent on her face. I was just struck by what a "little girl" she looked like instead of a baby or toddler. :)

One hundred

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment

Again, I'm kind of ignoring the theme. I'm emotionally attached to these two for sure though! :) It's far from technically perfect (or good even), but I love this photo! Natalie had her metal bucket and was banging it with a spoon. Mollie would NOT stop trying to take them, so I got her a metal pot and her own spoon. They had a blast with their little band. :)

Ninety-Nine

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment

OK I'm playing fast & loose with the theme this week, but who cares? I'm definitely emotionally attached to Miss Mollie, and she turned TEN MONTHS old a couple days ago. I'm not even joking. TEN. Like, two months away from a YEAR. This is certainly not the greatest photo (darn that yellow room! think twice before painting yellow if you want to take photos in the room, folks), but here's sweet Mollie clean, smelling yummy, and looking adorable in her jammies. LOVE HER!

Ninety-Eight

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment BUT
TODAY: Food

I'm not emotionally attached to Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes - well, not really. They are amazingly good and easy, my favorite kind of food! :) Anyway, I decided that sometimes the theme is too difficult to do every single day. So, today, I took a picture of what I liked in that moment. Potatoes. :)

Ninety-Seven

This week's theme: Emotional Attachment

Here's my girlies. This isn't the greatest pic, and I didn't have my settings right at all, but they were being so adorable! I grabbed my camera, and as soon as I got one shot, newly-mobile Mollie crawled away and wouldn't be coaxed back for more. I decided to just work with what I had!

Ninety-Six

This week's theme: Weather
Next week's theme: Emotional Attachment

What, you thought it would be done raining here? Nope. Doesn't stop this little one from dancing though!

Ninety-Five

This week's theme: Weather

Well, this isn't exactly weather, but I am getting tired of gray, blah, rain. So here's a happy product of lots of rain: GREEN BEAN PLANTS!

Ninety-Four

This week's theme: Weather

Soooo can you take a picture of "cold" when it doesn't include snow or ice, and everything IN the photo is nice and green? Seems like it's difficult to convey in that circumstance. It's difficult to ACCEPT cold in that circumstance, but that's today. It's 57 at 1:30 pm. I realize that's not frosty, but on May 13 when it's been 85 this week, that's cold. *sigh*

Ninety-Three

This week's theme: Weather

Gray, gray, gray. And don't forget - more rain. I thought this was cool though.

Ninety-Two

This week's theme: Weather

Well, at the beginning of the week, I thought, "Oh how cool. We may have some interesting weather for this week, and then I can practice with some sun stuff again." Nope. Gray, gray, gray and storms. I am trying to shoot more in manual though!

Ninety-One

This week's theme: Weather

What a week for weather photos! I'm sure this was even bigger as it fell, but we were in the closet with the girls, and I wasn't going to attempt a photo until it was all clear. SCARY STUFF!

Ninety

This week's theme: Weather

OK I'm learning how to make my photos bigger!

I really like this one, but I'm not sure if the rain on the petals is obvious enough to call it "weather." I tried and tried and tried and tried to catch a raindrop, but it didn't happen. I need to work on shutter speed - I think I needed to slow it down. Maybe next time!

I really like this one, but I'm not sure if the rain on the petals is obvious enough to call it "weather." I tried and tried and tried and tried to catch a raindrop, but it didn't happen. I need to work on shutter speed - I think I needed to slow it down. Maybe next time!

Eighty-Nine

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography
Next week's theme: Weather

I bake! Not always, but I've been doing more baking and cooking lately. This is to be my first attempt at fondant, but the photo is the pre-fondant stage - super moist yellow cake with raspberry whipped filling oozing out from between the layers. Yum!

Eighty-Eight

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

I play on the computer. :) Although some of my playing definitely crosses over into the world of photography. :)

Please ignore the messsssssy desk! :) Thank you!

Eighty-Seven

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

I create and paint boxes. :) I'm working on a cool organizing project. Hopefully I'll have final results to show soon!

Eighty-Six

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

I do . . . accounting! Fun! :) Since this photo isn't too exciting, I boosted the colors a ton.

Eighty-Five

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

I sit outside in the driveway and watch my girlie draw . . . I play hopscotch . . . I let her "chatch" me . . . and I enjoy our family.

Eighty-Four

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

I clean bathtubs and showers . . . :)

Eighty-Three

This week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

Today, I baked a cake for Mother's Day (it is sooooo yummy - we snacked on the part that I cut off to level it) and I made chicken enchiladas for tonight and a delicious-smelling new recipe for Shepherd's Pie for tomorrow.

Eighty-Two

This week's theme: Something Old
Next week's theme: What I do outside the world of photography

This is my MOM'S baby book. How cool is that?! :)

Eighty-One

This week's theme: Something Old

More relics of my childhood. Some of my favorite books. :)