my friend janessa is famous!!!!! ok, maybe not famous famous, but she looks pretty darn good in this good morning texas segment :)

click here to watch

her story, strength, and humor are truly remarkable and its so fun to see her on tv!

on the road again...

we were in dallas this weekend for what felt like a whirlwind trip! from leaving friday afternoon to coming home sunday i don't think we had a moment to spare. friday night we attended katy & jay's housewarming party and got to see their beautiful new place. saturday morning we headed to lucy's 3rd birthday costume extravaganza! lily was the cutest hula girl there (even without her coconut bra that broke about 5 minutes into the party!)

saturday afternoon/evening i had the priviledge of shooting a gorgeous wedding - a few pics on the photography blog already. and sunday we had a unsucessful attempt at a birthday brunch for kevin's mom who was called away to deliver a baby before the party even started.

all in all, it was fun and i am TIRED! :)

oh the difference a year makes... this morning lily and i took breakfast tacos and coffee (and milk.. hah) to the pumpkin patch we went to last year. check out how much she has changed!!

2007


2008


2007


2008


and a few more cuties from today...

a few pictures from our trip to the pumpkin patch this weekend :)

check out erin's handiwork! she found an old wooden play kitchen at a yard sale last week for $10, painted it, bought a new bowl for the sink, installed a real tile backsplash and voila!!

our (almost) 3 year-old niece is coming to visit this weekend, so we'll let you know what her verdict is, but i think it looks pretty darn fun!

before:

after:

pics courtesy of her handy dandy iphone

no blankie = deal breaker

lily and i were in a rush to get out the door to get to school on time today. i fell asleep after waking up early to put lily's picture-day clothes in the dryer and didn't wake her up until 8:15. we have to be at the church at 9:00!

now, you might ask why i was getting her clothes ready for pictures the morning OF picture day. well someone *might* have thought picture day was last week and *might* have sent lily to school all dolled up for her photo a week early... you might also be wondering why a photographer cares about her daughter's school pictures which will inevitably suck...

anyway, back to the story. in our rush, blankie was left behind to wonder where his best friend went without him. (kevin is very against the fact that i refer to blankie with male pronouns, but i can't help it. its who he is. ;)

i realized my error when we arrived at school but hoped for the best.

i received a call 3 hours later that lily was wandering around the room with a pacifier in each hand moaning in everyone's general direction and could not be consoled. i hopped in the car with blankie at my side and was there in 15 minutes where i witnessed their very emotional reunion.

they are upstairs sleeping together now. i think its been a rough day for both of them. :)

is this not the perfect halloween moon/cloud arrangement? too bad its a few weeks early...

reason #4927 not go to the grocery store pregnant and hungry:

i just had a reeses klondike bar and orange juice for breakfast

...then i made artichoke dip. but, hey! at least my appetite is coming back! :)

yet again, matt carter has helped me to see something in a completely new way.

as i'm sure most of us feel most of the time- i am worn out and a little overwhelmed! the last thing i feel like i have right now is an abundance of myself, my time, and my energy to offer to others in need. i think of any free time as 'me time'.

so where does that leave me? living a pretty selfish life...

we discussed isaiah 58 10-12 this morning and i realized that maybe i'm approaching this all wrong.

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.

you'll notice it doesn't say ONCE you feel fulfilled and happy and strong, THEN give of yourself... it says GIVE of yourself and THEN you will be strong, satisfied, and refreshed!

now let's see if i can figure out how to really make that happen :)

lily and i were playing in the backyard this morning while breakfast was cooking. there is such a chill in the air and we could hear the high school band practicing! its officially starting to feel like fall :)

lily will now 'hug' anything you ask her to... just in time for fall :)

a few more from our fun yesterday afternoon...

what a FUN weekend! we drove up to the lakehouse with our neighbors and had a fabulous time. we are lucky to have such fun peeps living on either side of us and we had a great time hanging out away from home just relaxing.

its so nice to be away with no work, no chores, no errands! lily was on her best behavior as our only baby guest (not counting the lime baby i'm growing. and by the way- how is it already the size of a lime?! when did that happen?? hah). lily did all of her tricks and really enjoyed being the center of attention and showing off!

we rode the new waverunners and cruised around on the boat. i missed out on the tubing adventure staying at the house during one of lily's naps but everyone really had a great time. we are so grateful to have a fun place to hang out and get some r&r.

on the road again...

we are headed to the lakehouse this weekend for some r&r and i'm so excited. a whole weekend of no work and all play! i can't wait!

i have been a serious slacker about taking pics of lily lately. i had the camera out in the playroom today and got these. her favorite thing these days is putting on necklaces!

(and then dancing around with the necklace on)

she has also started pretending to laugh at books. she will have a serious face and then turn the page and point at something and laugh :)

and one of my girl with her 3 current favorite things (blankie not included).
a necklace, a book, and her magnet farm!

*special note for elizabeth. you will observe that my child is pant-less in these pictures. this is not because she needs henry to send her hand-me-down jeans. this is due to my strict 'no pants when napping' rule because really, who wants to nap wearing pants? i sure don't. and a lot of the time in the afternoon before dinner the pants just don't make it back on... okay? so there. ;)

what a craaaazy week. being sick really threw off my regularly scheduled programs. the house became a mess and rearranging work around throwing up made for a busy busy week.

i have had 6 clients in the last 7 days, lily fell and got a bloody nose, i actually managed to start eating what could pass as an adult sized meal, lily fell and got a big bruise on her forehead, erin turned 34, and i caved and hired the maids again since i haven't managed to so much as sweep the floor since the last time they were here.

we are headed to the lakehouse this weekend, so hopefully we'll get some peace and quiet :)

so random i know, but peacocks seem to be everywhere these days :) i was waiting on a client this afternoon and snapped these. he was so pretty and didnt seem to mind me coming pretty close...






and on a completely unrelated note, i'm off to bed. here's hoping i don't wake up throwing up my dinner again!! ah the small victories in life :)

its been a while since yall have seen the soon to be big sister! here are two snapshots of her from today.

check out the molar in this one:



and her impression of what mom has been doing a lot lately:

what a rollercoaster this pregnancy has been so far. we were so thrilled earlier in the week to see that our little bean is growing well and on wednesday the morning sickness reached a whole new level. i couldn't keep solids or liquids down despite taking anti-nausea medication i was very reluctant to try in the first place.

finally i wound up in the hospital this morning just extremely fatigued and dehydrated and they pumped me full of 2 liters of fluids and some meds. not feeling much better, but at least i know i won't end up a raisin, right?

here's hoping the morning sickness heads out the door with the first trimester- only two more weeks!

if you find yourself with a little extra time on your hands and need a laugh, head over to yearbookyourself.com

check out me, kevin, and lily in the 60s...

i'm not sure 'four's company' has quite the same ring to it, but i'm sure we'll figure something out :)




and no, there aren't two of them... that's the yolk sac on the left. it about gave me a heart attack! the official due date is april 23... our 4 year wedding anniversary!

of all the things you expect to see in your front yard, this was not one of them.

i was changing lily yesterday afternoon and got a phone call from my neighbor that i should come outside and lo and behold... a peacock was standing in my front yard.






i was on my way to work, so of course i had to snap a few pics. the funny part of the story is that last time i worked for this client i saw a giant turkey sitting on my lamppost on my way to their house. i'm kinda scared to see what happens if they hire me again :)

ten hours. i just had housekeepers work ten man-hours on my house. who knew it was such a total nightmare in here?! it looks sooooo good and its awesome to have everything sparkling clean for once.

is it bad that i don't want to let the dogs inside??

check out the very industrious work of my little chipmunk...