today i decided to try to capture lily's growing sign language vocabulary. she wasn't all that interested in playing along, but i got most of them (sort of).

she'd rather watch the dogs than have her picture taken...



here is the sign for milk (think squeezing your hands like milking a cow). she uses it for any kind of drink.



here she is saying 'more'. it looks close to clapping, but she manages to get one hand closed like it is supposed to be...



this is the sign for 'eat'. pretty self explanatory :)



and her version of 'all finished' where she just waves her palms both at you in a circle instead of flipping them over and back...



and finally i had to snap a pic of her posture... remember when she used to sit up so straight?! i guess she decided not to be so ladylike anymore. i really can't blame her :)

just a few snapshots of crazy lily today. she is in rare form!!

woo hoooo!!

kevin and i scored a new acadia on the gmc employee pricing and its beee yuuuuu tiful!

you could fit the whole brady bunch in this thing. three rows of seats and lots of space! hooray!

we had a fun day out at lost pines with gaga and moon! they are coming again next weekend with the donovan clan. i'm excited for lily to have more time with lucy and charlie too. after that we are heading up to dallas for work and to visit with family while kevin is on his big trip to europe with the boys!

i'm not sure i want to know what they are adding to my apple juice to make it last 1001 years...

talk about preservatives! :)

a few pics from jill's 30th bash in lukenbach and the peavy's gorgeous ranch! you can see all the pics HERE :)

its all fun and games until someone gets sick...

i had a great time at the peavy ranch for jill's 30th birthday party until a stomach bug took over my fun around 1am. thankfully it looks to have been a 24 hour bug b/c i'm already turning the corner on feeling better.

lots of fun pics to come soon- we had a great time in luckenbach!

a few months ago my sister burned me a CD of hymns that i find myself listening to over and over again (sorry lily and kevin). my favorite song keeps changing and this week i've been playing the same one on repeat whenever i'm in the car.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

it is a beautiful song but the idea that if i was really focused on my savior that things that seem so important in this world would fade away as clutter just seems so amazing and convicting at the same time.

happy friday and happy weekend to all! i can't wait to celebrate jill's 30th birthday out in luckenbach tonight! :)

overheard while walking into aaron brother's frame store today...

a grandfather holding his 3ish year old grandson up on his hip pointing at a sign in the window advertising the 30% off sale saying "see, the sign says 'sale'... s - a - i - l.... sale."

i swear it took the entirety of my self control to keep walking without a chuckle.

i'm not feeling like a mental giant today. i only got 33.

take the quiz - see how you do!

guess the 100 most common words in the english language!

today's post brought to you by erin, score 32.

its hard for me to believe summer is already winding down! vacations are over (if you can call a 24 hour visit to the beach a vacation), my mom heads back to school in 2 weeks, and lily starts preschool in just 3 weeks.

now the 100 degree weather begs to differ with my theory that summer is about to end, but do you ever feel like you'll blink and it will be christmas already?! when did time start speeding up?

i will admit i'm the teeny tiniest bit heartbroken about lily starting 'school'. on one hand i can't believe my baby is old enough to be away from me twice a week, but on the other hand i think about how much fun she is going to have learning with other kids and how i will be able to balance work and staying at home better and i feel good about it! yet another example of motherhood being a big mixed bag of emotions! :)

not much else to report around here. we are heading to yoga as soon as lily wakes up from her nap in my attempt to motivate my increasingly lazy bum! so if you need a laugh, just think of the most un-flexible person you know trying to disguise their new muffin top while balancing on one leg... sounds about right!!

rock the vote!!

yeah yeah, i know there is a presidential election coming up, but i'm talking about my very first photography in bloom contest!! head over to the bloom blog and join in the fun :)

stupid edouard and his stupid tropical storm.

i'm back in austin 24 hours after heading to the beach for vacation with my family and all i have to show for it is bags of clothes packed with a week's worth of gear, some sand in my ear, and some fun pics from the morning with my niece and nephew.

lily's birthday pics are up and running. here are just a few, but you can see the whole album HERE

birthday girl


cupcakes from sugar mama's!

happy birthday to lily


yummy cake

barton springs birthday

her first official dip in the springs

birthdays make me tired