my sister suggested i get this printed to hang in my office...

i think she might be onto something ;)

rainy first day of school

Eve's animal sounds

oh how i LOVE me a good 3 day weekend. despite being thrown back into work in trial-by-fire fashion (2 weddings and 3 portrait sessions in 8 days) i had a GREAT weekend with family.

tomorrow is the first day of 'school' for us and eve's first day ever!! i can't wait to see how much fun they have. eve and lil have been playing pretend school a lot lately- so we will see if they think the real deal is as fun :)

and because i can't seem to get enough of little eve's teeny voice...

one lovely side effect of being a donovan is the curse of fits of laughter that really come from nowhere. once you hear another donovan in the act, you join in and eventually you all have sore sides and are out of breath and no one is sure why or how it all started.

i went in to get eve out of her bed after naps and was recording her because i think its funny that after a full 3 hours in her crib she still doesn't really want to get out. she is such a cuddle bug.

what happened instead was a fit of laughter that reminded me she really is half donovan :)


(excuse my snake noise about halfway through- its kinda scary sounding! ha!)

i'm the first to admit i love my alone time in the morning. i wake up an hour before the girls intentionally so that i can have time to sip my coffee, read, catch up on the news*, and get mentally awake for the day.

today i slept in unintentionally and was honestly bugged when lily announced over her monitor "its two circles mommy! eight!!" and my coffee was scarcely touched.

i got them up, we started our morning rituals and instead of making breakfast right away i sat down to drink my coffee and before i knew it, i had a little buddy. now this i could get used to :)





*'news' means cnn some days and facebook others. don't judge.

lily: what's this mommy??
me: an animal cracker
lily: its a tiger!!
me: you're right, its a tiger.
(lily takes a big bite, eating the tiger's head)
lily: what's this mommy?
me: part of an animal cracker?
lily: no! its a QUIET tiger!!

i cannot believe august is already coming to an end. this time at home on the weekends has been so precious for me. i have just loved it!

thankfully going back to work next week i'll be shooting a wedding for the most amazing couple- that will help the adjustment back to work so much!

today we took advantage of the cooler (haha) weather and went down to town lake. we walked, people watched, fed swans, then headed to waterloo for lunch.

lots of pictures HERE

Quack

seriously, what is cuter? how she says 'quack quack' or her ridiculous obsession with those darn fingers??

lily is so not allowed to watch the weather forecast anymore.

she heard the term 'cold front' and got SO EXCITED about it that she insisted on wearing a jacket to the grocery store at 4pm... in august... in texas. it was 95 degrees and she had on a yellow cotton sundress, two left shoes (one black, one navy) and a blue sweatshirt hooded jacket.

she insisted she wasn't hot.

so fun to be highlighted on another great blog today!

head over to check it out!

confessions of a city eater

we got an update letter from the 3 year-old little girl we sponsor in brazil today and i read it to lily. she was so interested in fabiana that she brought the letter to bed. learning her favorite color and that she has 8 siblings was super exciting for her, but she was confused to learn that they don't have enough drinking water.

me: do you have all the water you could ever want to drink?
lily: yes! i do!
me: fabiana doesn't have enough water
lily: is she really really thirsty?
me: i'm sure she is.
lily: does she have maybe orange juice to drink?

sweet girl.

Whistle

the girls love it when i use grass to whistle really loud and it cracks me up when they hold the grass up to their mouths and squeeeeeeeal like they are whistling too.

it has been a pretty lazy weekend. we had fun at the liebster berry household saturday night and today we have read more books than i can recount.

just now i was cuddling with kevin in the playroom, eve saw us from across the room and immediately walked with open arms towards us for a group hug. how did i get so lucky??

shared with me this morning based on a conversation had last night by a missionary we bought chapstick and cd's for who is moving to ethiopia in two weeks...**

"Nadine and I would sit for hours in her room," she began. "Mostly we would talk about boys or school, but always, by the end of it, we talked about God. The thing I loved about Nadine was that I never felt like she was selling anything. She would talk about God as if she knew Him, as if she had talked to Him on the phone that day. She was never ashamed, which is the thing with some Christians I had encountered. They felt like they had to sell God, as if He were soap or a vacuum cleaner, and it's like they really weren't listening to me; they didn't care, they just wanted me to buy their product. I came to realize that I had judged all Christians on the personalities of a few. That was frightening for me, too, because it had been so easy just to dismiss Christians as nuts, but here was Nadine. I didn't have a category for her. To Nadine, God was a being with which she interacted, and even more, Nadine believed that God liked her. I thought that was beautiful. And more than that, her faith was a spiritual thing that produced a humanitarianism that was convicting.'"

-Blue Like Jazz

** how's that for the most random run-on sentence you've read all day?

my baby's all grown up. sniff sniff.

more of her on the photo blog :)

words are powerful- definitely not a subject of controversy. but this morning i was impressed by these amazing images of a study done on the power of words to affect something other than the human heart.

masuru emoto did a crazy experiment of the effects of words over water. he took samples of water and froze them while introducing them to either positive or negative words. through specific messages and prayers, the water took on different forms amazingly reflective of his input.

just a really neat and tangible visual of the way our words impact each other. but as james is quick to point out. its not an issue to tackle at the tongue, its a heart issue.

water wrapped with "you make me sick" while freezing:



water wrapped with "love & appreciation" while freezing:

purging. i'm in a purging kind of mood (and no, not the sonic oreo blast i just scarfed down, i'll be keeping that inside, thankyouverymuch). i cleaned out our toys last weekend and today started in on my closet.

i only have 3 button down shirts left hanging in what used to be my 'work clothes' section. and honestly, its probably 3 more than i really need.

i talked to my mom in the middle of today's cleanse and she wanted to be sure i didn't give away too much just because i'm pregnant and things don't fit right now. i was sure to tell her i have plenty of clothes no matter what i choose to donate right now.

part of our conversation went a little like this:

mom: you don't have THAT much clothes
me: oh mom, i have a lot. too much. i mean, its true i don't have 29 white t-shirts...
mom: i don't have 29 white t-shirts!!
me: you absolutely do, i counted last time i was in your closet!
mom: well.... it depends on what you consider a 'tshirt' i suppose. i mean some are v-necks, some are sleeveless...
me: mom. i am SO blogging this.
::cue laughter from both of us::

so no, i don't have 29 white t-shirts, but it feels good to look at that pile and get it out of my room and into the hands of someone who needs it more than i do!

i was talking to a friend yesterday about a segment she had listened to on npr that featured a christian man whose perspective on social and environmental issues sounded starkly different to the 'religious right'. he was describing the concept that we are to be stewards of this earth and use its resources responsibly.

now i realize its easier said than done, but gosh doesn't it sound like a no brainer to treat the earth as a gift? at least TRY to be intentional about the ways we use and treat it?

i just can't help but feel like this is another example of mainstream western christians using the bible to justify our lifestyle instead of really letting the bible guide our choices & convictions. you can't just cherry pick the parts that jive with you and ignore the hard parts. i feel like everywhere i turn lately that is what i see.

mind you, i am the last one that will line up to throw any stones. i'm just saddened that this mainstream sentiment is what the majority of people have come in contact with as 'christianity' when it seems so far from what jesus advocated.

'i like your Christ, but i do not like your Christians. your Christians are so unlike your Christ.' -Ghandi

perceptive guy. and sorry, but you're going to have to put up with posts like this while i get through this book. i don't know anyone else reading it so i will continue my dialog with the collective YOU :)

seeing them playing together is the best.



i love the lack of junk in her trunk to fill up lily's saggy jammies.

read this today (while cramming before small group tonight. seriously one day i will actually stay ahead of the curve) and thought it was oddly connected to the post below :)

community is about god's redemptive work in uniting diverse people together in Christ. the call of community isn't about finding people just like us, or excluding those who aren't. it's most definitely not about christians finding other christian friends. community, in the scriptural sense, is the result of unlike people committing to love and serve each other and the world.

careful what you ask for... here i am at 20 weeks! 19 more to go!

prepare yourself for rambling. i am just sitting here and a few scattered thoughts from the past few days are hitting me all at once and their interconnectedness seems to be obvious to ME in this moment but i'm not sure i'll be able to effectively communicate my thoughts.

even as a kid i remember having the distinct feeling that no one really understood me. whether it was my inability to articulate in a way that could draw a commonality or maybe a desire to keep a certain amount of comfortable distance between me and others, i'm not sure. it wasn't really until college that i felt i met a few people who 'got' me. in late high school i was lucky enough to meet a few people who, whether they 'got' me or not, accepted me 100% for who i was.

so all that to say, i'm not sure i'm very good at communicating thoughts like these...

the other day i had my sweet friend erin over for dinner and she commented that in reading my photography blog she was struck by how positive i always sound. she said, no matter the session i seemed to have something upbeat, fun, positive to say. we laughed that by reading it you definitely wouldn't know what a pessimist i can be in real life.

fast forward to this morning at church as we make our way through the book of james, we were discussing what he has to say about preferential treatment. i made it through the service, thoughtful as always, but not necessarily getting anything personal out of it other than my complete bias towards people who 'look' like me, who seem familiar to me, who i see and immediately think 'maybe they will 'get' me. and my complete disregard for the fact that my behavior is contrary to jesus' whole message of grace and inclusion.

that sounds like enough of a lesson to get out of the sermon, right?

i thought so. until i sat here just now thinking about my life and my work. and erin's comment.

it's not that i am not being myself when i post my photography, but its definitely a cheerier version of myself. i have to work at being preferred. its what i do. i work at having my photography, my vision, my colors, and my personality preferred over others so that clients will hire ME. not that there is anything inherently 'wrong' with that, but gosh its exhausting.

way back in april, i set aside the month of august as family time. rest time. anything but WORK time. now i am looking forward to it even more than ever. just time to process the past two years of work, of babies, of family, of changes and be able to make intentional choices about the next few months & years.

i warned you about the rambling...

PINK!!!


its (another) girl! :)

the gals and i painted toenails bright pink in celebration - pics here!

eve has started playing pretend a lot more lately. she mastered 'faux' eating and tea parties a month or two ago but today she was sitting in the doll bed saying 'ni ni' and laying down. her cuteness has no bounds :)

not because you need to know, but because i do not want to forget.

eve @ 15 months old

mama
dada
lily
bubba (casey)
dog
more
baby
dora (mom of the year)
map
ball
milk
book
bunny
bye bye
moon
snack
bubbles
bath

less frankenstein baby walking, more confident by the day. cute as a button with your scrunchy nose and still cuddling with me when you're extra tired.

my mom commented yesterday 'lily just LOVES life.' i couldn't agree more. she seems to do everything with 100% gusto and it is so fun for me to see her loving every minute of her birthday. from the moment she woke up to the moment she fell asleep she was in heaven. surrounded by people she loves and her favorite treats and new toys... what could be better??

a few of the pictures from lily's birthday ice cream extravaganza are on the photo BLOG and there is a bigger set on FLICKR.

lily. truthteller.

i went into her 'cave' this morning. (cave = an under-the-stairs closet full of toys & books that the former owner craftily painted with a dinosaur mural) i was organizing odds and ends back in their bins as there was so much stuff on the floor you could scarcely walk inside. lily asked...

'what are you doing in there mama?'

'i'm cleaning up!'

'when you're done can i get it all messy again?'

story of my life.

as i look in the mirror knowing i have physically only gained 2 pounds, but looking like i have gained at least 10, i finally realize why 'they' always say to not worry about how much you weigh, but about how your clothes fit when trying to get in shape.

oy. mama needs to loosen up the purse strings and buy some ugly ole maternity shorts. i can only live in elastic waist cotton skirts for so long...

for those curious to know, we will be finding out its a girl... *achem* i mean finding out the gender of the baby next wednesday!

my day in numbers...

7... minutes eve has been crying since going down (overtired) for her nap
1... times i have shouted 'that's ENOUGH!'
2... shots lily got at the doctor
3... times eve threw up last night
15... times lily shouted 'mommy turn the hall light OFF' while i was trying to clean up puke at 2am
5... days until lily's birthday party and i've done zilch to prepare
3... diapers our dog dug out of the trash and ate while we were out
2... playgrounds already visited today in an effort to keep grumpy girls happy until nap time
0... the amount of motivation i have to clean my house in the first quiet moment i've had since waking up
6... rooms in my house need to be cleaned
154... days until i can crack open a cold one during nap time after mornings like this

just a few fun snapshots of the cousins from this weekend. we had a great visit!

Lily in banana

in case you need inspiration to 'dance like no one is watching' let lily be your guide. caught her in the act at banana republic in the mall...

those of you who know me well may know that routine and predictability can go a long ways in making me a happy girl. i tend to have a hard time being organized or disciplined about certain things, so routine is my way of triumphing over my scattered side.

you will find me and my girls at the same grocery store at the very same day and time every single week. nap time? the same time. every day. if they wake up early? they chill in their beds until wake up time. i just need that predictability and knowing how much time i have with them after naps before kevin gets home gives me a sense of control.

ahhh... control. is that what this is all about? at church this morning the speaker pointed out that life isn't about routine, its about how you handle life when routine is interrupted. its not about creating a predictable flow of days that just come and go, its about how you fare when the unpredictable throws you into foreign territory.

easily frustrated? quickly tempermental? who me??? noooooo.... okay maybe a little. rather than turning to virtues like patience and grace and seeing life as an opportunity for experience rather than control, i look for the soonest chance to get things 'back on track' and into my false sense of being in charge of what is really going on.

it was a good reminder to seek more than predictability and ease out of life. of course, i'm still gonna be at the grocery store at 8am, tomorrow is monday afterall... old habits die hard ;)

lily has turned comedienne. let's be honest, it was just a matter of time. she made her first intentional joke last night. she's 'funny' a lot, but hasn't ever made up her own joke.

she was eating dinner and got a funny look on her face and pointed to her beans and said 'what ARE these?' and i said 'its edamame' and she shook her head and smiled and said 'nooooo, YOU'RE the momay!!!!' and laughed!

it was so darn cute.

it hit me last night when i caught a glimpse of me in my birthday suit in the bathroom mirror... i look pregnant! and not only am i starting to look pregnant, i'm going to be GIANTLY pregnant in a few months. sigh. this is so not my favorite part of having babies :)

well truth be told, i'd rather look 8 months pregnant than deal with post partum jelly belly but either way, my body is not excited about this part of the adventure!

maternity clothes, here we come!

eve. her superpower is being super cute.

don't mess with her.

lily was pretending the tent was a carwash, eve was just along for the ride and the giggles

she's awfully cute (and skinny!)

happy father's day to the coolest dad around. i was going to post something on facebook but then i saw all of my friends' statuses and didn't want to seem disengenuous. it seemed like a veritable 'no MY husband is the best dad EVER' status-off on facebook yesterday!

so instead of hearing it from me (which must get old, right?) i'll give you lily's list of reasons she loves her daddy. straight from the horse's mouth:

i love....

when daddy hugs me

how daddy sings and guitars for me

reading with daddy

when daddy turns dora on

gotta love her (and him). happy father's day, kevin :)

eve, where's your nose?

lily is a swimmin' fool!! we started swim lessons yesterday and it was a tearful introduction but today was MUCH better. here are a few videos- i was totally impressed by her and hopefully she continues to improve and learn this week. i have so many fond memories of growing up swimming- being around water, lakes, swimteam. i hope my girls can say the same!


disclaimer: ignore my EXTREMELY loud voice.

video one

video two

video three

someone made a comment about an artist i'd never heard of on my business blog, so i went to look them up and found myself staring at these images with tears in my eyes. i just *know* its another girl. these made my heart so happy.

jinky art - the girls

today i'd like to share a wish list.

i want this dress.



i want my old body to wear it on.

i want to wear it with impractical shoes since i will not be chasing babies around while wearing it.

i want a date night with my husband somewhere breezy enough to sit outside in june for a candle lit dinner.

i want a glass of expensive wine.

i want a decadent dessert during a gorgeous sunset.

and i want to go to bed early (sorry sweetheart, perhaps not how you would end the evening?).

my love of the color orange sometimes clouds my judgement... that and a good sale. i saw this romper for 75% off and got it for eve without realizing she would look like she was dressed for trash duty on the side of the highway. maybe i should stencil 'inmate4172009' on the back in black to complete the look?

i am raising the next oliver stone. lily had a few months before turning two when she was very skeptical of anything remotely resembling a hidden camera- alarm motion detectors and smoke detectors were the primary suspect. she would point to them and say 'no like the eye!' and try to walk dramatically around them instead of underneath.

we laughed it off for the most part... but its BACK. she eyes them with suspicion any chance she gets and has recently added naked electrical plugs to the list. she covered two of them up with pillows in the playroom today. if i moved the pillow a little bit to expose the plug she promptly came over to remedy the situation. i was chuckling on the inside.

she is definitely one quirky girl, but then again, i guess so is her mama!

its time to get your early voting in, i'm sure we will do a refresh before the big ultrasound in late july! so what'll it be? boy or girl?




and for the record, i was the first to vote and i am holding strong to my prediction.

they just don't write 'em like they used to. i was riding to dallas loving pandora on my iphone and found myself singing really loud when an old hymn found its way through the speakers (i could write a whole post about how well pandora knows me and use this as just one of many concrete examples! hah!)

its one of those songs that growing up in church of course i have heard so many times and i still am stumped by the beauty of the words and their meaning.

Come Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it,

Mount of God's unchanging love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Hither by Thy help I'm come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let that grace now like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

so then i was stuck in a car for two more hours wondering what the heck an 'ebeneezer' is and having made a promise for no texting or reading in the car, i patiently waited, then promptly forgot all about it until this morning. ahh mommy brain at its finest.

well it turns out that an ebeneezer (pronounced 'evan haazar' in hebrew) is literally a pile of remembrance stones to mark God's grace in our lives. figuratively it can be anything that helps you mark God's presence in your life. it was just a nice reminder to really take the time to notice and appreciate God's hand.

now if you don't have pandora- get to it! you'll thank me :)

today we're going to talk about a little thing called truth in advertising. the beginning of every dora episode on nick junior touts that "Dora the Explorer enhances preschoolers problem solving and language abilities".

now really i feel like it might make more sense to use one of the following suggestions:

"Dora the Explorer enhances mom's ability to get laundry folded while her 2 year old is awake."
"Dora the Explorer allows preschoolers the time to forget the giant fit they were just throwing about wanting a specific snack that we do not have in the house"
"Dora the Explorer helps to make sure parents actually get to drink their coffee in the morning uninterrupted."
"Dora the Explorer increases the chance that your preschooler will yell 'vamanos! rapido, mommy!' when you are taking too long to do something."
and my personal favorite
"Dora the Explorer exists to give me peace of mind and the ability to check facebook and post to my blog at 9am"

now how's that for honest advertising?

for all of you out there about to have a third this made me laugh this morning (and the picture at the bottom made me grab for my heart... i can't believe its really going to happen!)

http://thelongestyear.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/because-i-have-three.html

its official. lily totally has an ipad hidden in her her room somewhere or is sneaking into my office at night to use my laptop. she must have read my recent rant about her attitude because she has been a complete angel the past two days.

i'm definitely going to talk smack about her on here more often so she can continue to prove me wrong :)