i had such an amazing birthday. i have such a sweet husband, wonderful friends, fantastic sister, and beautiful children. i couldn't ask for anything more.

here are a few pics of my baker and her cupcake from tonight...

RIP MAM pacifiers
07.2007-10.2009

beloved friend and faithful comforter.
you were many in number and never let us down.
you will not be forgotten.

seriously though, a little tiny piece of my heart hurts that my sweet girl is sleeping without pacifiers now. i'm so proud of her and amazed at how quickly and easily she made the transition, but gosh if she does one more thing to prove to me she's not a baby anymore it might break my heart in two.

that is the last picture i have of her with a paci in her mouth. her decision to trade her pacis for a bike was so unexpected and quick that the photographer in me didn't have time to take a whole bunch of pictures of her with her pacis before she sent them off to the 'paci fairy'. i can't believe this is the last shot i have with one in her mouth- she only used them for bed and i tended to pop it out of her mouth before taking a picture if she did have one. now i wish i had left it in.

a small part of my baby girl has changed forever. i'm so proud of her. she amazes me daily.

where do i begin? i'm so behind on an update! we've had a few crazy weeks around here, but we're all still in one piece. well, after surgery we're all in one piece.

kevin had a freak accident with a drinking glass. he fought the glass and the glass won. one surgery later, his foot seems to be on the road to recovery and i actually witnessed a toe-wiggle yesterday, so it seems that movement has been restored. seriously, who has to have surgery to repair the damage done by a water glass?! we do!

so if you're using your imagination, you'll realize this means the baby-daddy has been on crutches for two weeks. let's just say we're both ready for him to be able to...say... hold a child while walking? :)

this happened right as i launched head first into the holiday season with work. from now till the end of the year i am busy busy and at some point in the next 7 weeks my sister is going to birth those babies, so life is FULL.

some days full means good and some days full means i want to cry by 7am and hide until christmas. in the meantime, lily continues to cultivate her hilarious personality. the latest developments include talking in full sentences (me: 'lily do you want to go to the park?' lily: 'yes mommy, i do want to go to the park)

i also caught my first glance of lily-as-instigator when i spied on her class during naptime the other day. hopefully i'll have time to recount the story for you this weekend. right now its 7am, i just finished nursing, i can hear lily already singing to herself in the next room, and i think i'm going to throw on some shoes and take the girls to get donuts while kevin sleeps in.

here's hoping full means good today :)

sometimes i can't believe how lucky i am.

i took my camera with me to get ice cream with the family yesterday. its something we do fairly often- there is a GREAT local place near us called austin scoops that we love. i just wanted to capture an every day outing for us to remember.

i wish i had recorded lily's response when we asked her if she wanted to go. she LOVES loves ice cream :)

you can see the whole album HERE. a few of the images:

after a loooooong day (thanks, terrible twos!) i was sitting here reminiscing about a simpler time in life and remembered my first non-polariod camera... my le clic! i found this picture online and it brought a smile to my face. anyone else have a shared love of the le clic? its even the right color! hah :)

we attempted a fun morning at the pumpkin patch today with a few friends, not realizing it was going to be 90 degrees and crazy humid. i think we were all pretty grumpy by the time we got home, but we had fun while the good moods lasted :)

eve is very much loved by her sweet cousins on both sides of the family. she had better live it up now before the twins come and steal all of her attention!! charlie LOVES babies...

(we will try to teach charlie to be gentle before the twins show up- ha)

lucy loves her some eve too!

love squared

such a big girl :)

sweet eve is sitting up!!! can you believe it? this year is just flying by at warp speed. as adorable as she is in this picture, it hurts my heart a little bit that this is my baby!! she's getting so big!

an open apology:

to anyone who gave lily a birthday present, i would like to apologize that the written thank you notes are still sitting on my desk unsent. the delimma, better late than never or trash em?

to anyone who has emailed my personal address with no response, i realized i had 919 emails in my inbox and in my moment of being overwhelmed i selected 'all' and hit 'archive'

bigger is better. i am not usually one for super sizing, but i went out on a limb and ordered my biggest print to-date to go on our mantle and surprisingly, a 20x34 inch print actually fills the space nicely without feeling too big!