today i have a few oldies but goodies. i finally sat down to look through the rest of the amazing maternity pics and these are a few favorites :)




and look at these last two- its amazing how much lily has changed and grown. these were taken only about 7 months apart!

march 09:

july 08:

these were all taken by jennifer cota and processed by me :)

what better way to enjoy the afternoon than with fabulous, talented friends, tasty margaritas, and gorgeous weather out in the trees at the nutty brown cafe?

here are a few pics courtesy of miss bonnie. i have to say i'm so thankful for every precious picture of me with my girls. i'm always the one behind the camera in our family!

she's eating mayonnaise with a fork!

lots more images from our lazy afternoon on bonnie's blog!

lil is stylin!

i got a new camera on sunday and i haven't had much time to play with it yet, but hopefully you'll see some images from it soon! i love it so far!

one of the joys of stay-at-home motherhood is being here for all of the 'firsts'. the first smile, the first laugh, the first steps...

the first diaper blowout, while nursing ON me. oh joy. ;)

prepare for sugar overload...

not just from that total sweetness, but from the ice cream that i had to promise lily to get her to lay down and love on her baby sister. yep, you read that right. the sweet innocent toddler smiling beguilingly at the camera is thinking one thing - treat!

i'm (clearly) not above bribery to get *the* shot that i'm after, but what i didn't expect was for her to go around all afternoon hugging her baby sister then turning to me and asking 'treat??' as though any show of affection now warrants chocolate. :) sweet lily, gotta love her ingenuity and determination!

the phrase 'patience is a virtue' as well as the lyrics to the 'have patience' song pass my lips on a daily basis. both come in quite handy when a toddler has repeated her request for the 15th time in a row when you are usually very much occupied elsewhere. (for example, 'mommy, open please'... 'mommy open please'.... 'mommy open'...'pleeeeease'... 'mommy open please')

now that i have 2 under 2, the need for patience is much more of a two way street around here. not only could my toddler use a boost, but i run pretty low myself most days. i blame lack of sleep combined with the whole minor issue of also caring for a newborn.

its funny, i wouldn't have believed you a month ago, but at this point either a) having a newborn or b) having a toddler seem quite manageable and stress free. its c) having a newborn and a toddler that i'm not so adept at quite yet.

right when you think 'i am pretty sure i finally have this under control!' is when your 2-year-old lets go of your free hand and runs off while you chase her carrying an unwieldy infant carseat yelling 'come back here!' and by the time you reach her, she is sitting in the middle of the street and has removed her shoes.

this lack of patience leads to quick and sometimes unfairly directed frustration. now frustration is something any 2-year-old can relate to. heck, just pull out a puzzle or a shape sorter for the first time if you want to see some good toddler frustration.

not that mommies are immune. i was raising my voice and altering my tone on the telephone in frustration the other day and turned around to hear lily saying 'shh shh shhhhh. shh shh shhhhh.' as though i was a colicky baby she was trying to calm. now if that's not a giant slice of patience and humble pie, i don't know what is! it was darn funny too.

so for now i guess we'll both keep reminding each other to 'have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry' and have grace for each other when it doesn't quite work out that way.

moments today with eve...

sweet lily is warming up to the idea of being a big sister and was all about the kisses this morning :)

what a fun mother's day! after a bout with mastitis (not my favorite mother's day present) i am on the mend thanks to antibiotics. lily woke me up this morning with a sweet present that came in that unmistakable little blue box saying 'open! open!'

we went out to a yummy breakfast and then lily and kevin ran through the sprinklers in the backyard while i snapped pictures. she was having a BLAST.

sweet baby eve. 19 days already. i can hardly believe it.

what lucky girls i have.
they have the most wonderful loving dad.

i really have been taking pictures of my girls every day. i was setting up the backdrop this morning and lily saw it an insisted on having a mini photo soot of her own immediately! she has such a fun personality!

and a few of miss eve to be fair ;)

for those of you missing your lily fix lately, we took our focus off eve long enough to attend a few birthday parties this weekend for lily's sweet friends turning 2. today kyla's party, which called for a tutu and some great dance moves, was so fun!

lily's fancy yellow tutu, courtesy of GaGa


lily and aidric swapping icing with a kiss

i was stroking the softness of sweet eve's newborn hair to encourage her to sleep and saw my mother's hands. when did my hands become my mother's hands?

..... and eve!!

the blog header is officially updated with our newest (and most likely final) family member.

as i type, miss genevieve is asleep behind me on a rapidly falling asleep kevin. (who was promptly awakened by my camera shutter)

i'll take a break from our regularly scheduled programming of adorable eve pictures to share this fun announcement- i've been published!! one of the images i took for sugar mama's bakeshop here in town is featured in an article in austin monthly magazine's may issue!

i wish and hope and dream for my sweet girls every day. as i watch lily's imagination literally growing before my eyes and her interest and observations of the people and things around her continue to impress me, i can't help but wish and hope for her.

i hope she will always know how much i love her. i wish that she will one day realize that the boundaries and discipline we exhibit are because we love her and want her character to reflect how amazing she truly is. i dream that she will never lose her enthusiasm for life, her creativity, and the humor that she displays already.

i have only begun to wish these things for my sweet eve. most of the time i just wish for her belly to feel better at night and for her to sleep well :) but soon i will learn more about her developing personality and who this beautiful creature is that God gave to our family.

most of all i hope for their relationships to be strong and supportive. for their sisterhood to mean as much to them as mine does to me. for our relationship to be even a fraction as close as mine is to my mother. for their faith to be strong and solid. those things would make me happier than any worldly success they achieve.

my mom is leaving tomorrow. i can't even type that without my eyes welling up with tears. i don't know what i will do without her. i know i felt the same way when she left after lily was born and somehow i managed to pick myself up off the entryway floor, dry my tears, and not kill the child when left alone with her, so surely i will find similar success with two. Emotionally its overwhelming to picture handling all of this without her support, then throw in some post-partum hormones and its a recipe for a tearful disaster.

is it bad to one day wish i am this indispensable to my own daughters?

genevieve keeps hearing about her big sister's big beautiful eyes and wanted to do her best to show off her peepers today. heehee

and she wanted to show off her *brand new* belly button!!

also, don't forget those gorgeous lips...