i finally had a chance to pull out my new camera this morning while eve was napping and lily and i were playing in the front yard. i love it so far but what i love even more is having regular lazy days of summer captured. one day i'll love remembering what her chubby feet looked like dancing on the utility cover and how goofy she was.

big smiles for the camera


carrying her stroller


so coy


showing off her smile


tap dancing


such a silly girl


carrying teddy to his stroller


checking on eve napping on the video monitor


tracing her feet


tracing teddy

then after her nap, we had some fun in the sun with auntie e in the backyard

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)