Another interesting picture

I took another picture for the girls' playroom. I think it is cute. I don't like it as much as the colored pencil shot, but at least I can fill the walls with my own artwork. Mini jawbreakers. The girls were completely obnoxious when I was trying to take the photos. They wanted to eat them....no way, too small and too much of a choking hazard!

School days

Sydney starts pre-school in just a few short weeks. She is so excited. Several times over the summer, we have gone to the school's summer orientation program. She loves her teacher and she always says she is "so pretty."

Lately I have been talking up going to school with her a lot. I explain that Sawyer and I will drop her off and that she will play with her friends and her teacher. She gets a little upset, but then I explain that I will be right back to pick her up. That seems to please her. I think she is going to be shy for a few days and maybe she will be really upset when I leave her, but she will get into a routine fast. That is just how Sydy works.

I bought a big Youth sized backpack to take with us to restaurants and on the boat. I will fill it with coloring stuff or books. Lately Sydney has been wanting to carry it around with her all the time. I have a smaller one that she will use for school, but she really wants to carry this big one around! Too funny. Here she is this morning with the backpack all strapped on! Silly girl.

New prints

I am still updating some of my old prints and replacing them with newer images. I am really pleased with how these turned out and I have them hung in the playroom/livingroom. I can look right into the livingroom from my chair and see Sydy's feet and Bethany's beautiful face! Love it.
These photos are also in the playroom/livingroom. I love how our beach trip pictures turned out. Also, the one of Sydy for her 3 year old shot is priceless!

More words

I know these posts are random, but I forget about some of the words she is saying. After she says them, I run to my list or the computer to write them down.

Soybean is a true Daddy's girl. Lately, she gets a little sad when he leaves for work. She and I will watch him leave from the window. She is now telling Daddy "wuv you" and "see you" when he leaves.

I don't like to mention her not so nice words like "go way" when she is mad at me or Sydney or Daddy or even the doggies! She is a little bold, my Sawyer Molly.

Other favorites
bubba bath
horse
cow
doo -doo (for the chickens and roosters)
go (for goat)

and many more...

Friends

We had our friends (and former neighbors) over for dinner the other night. Can you tell that my girls love hanging out with the older kids!!!??? I was reminicing with Amy about how grown up her kids are and that when we moved to NY, Sarah was Sydney's age! How time flies. Bethany and Jared are going to be jealous that Syd and Soybean got to hang out with the S kids!

More Bathtime Silliness

Great Aunt Barbara, from California, sent home adorable hooded towels with Grandma a few weeks ago. I have been meaning to get pictures of the girls using the towels. They love them! And I love them too. Both girls have outgrown the baby towels and I haven't had a chance to buy regular size towels. Now Aunt Barb made my life so much easier by getting the girls these beautiful handmade hooded towels! They are made by taking two washclothes to create the hood. Awesome. I may have to make a few more of these!

Here are the girls showing off their cool new towels.

Coloring

I love to let the girls color. Sydney is really into using markers and pencils. Soybean would rather draw on her face than on the paper!

So proud of her pretty picture.

After Bath Silly Girls

Energy bursts right after bathtime!

What a waste

Why did I waste my money on this bitter DD coffee this morning? Right beside it was a perfectly yummy home brewed coffee from earlier in the morning.

I know I am being rather random. Just that kind of week. Not too many pictures this week as I am shooting another wedding on Friday. Gotta keep the camera safe : )

Just a random picture from today

I forgot to mention

One of Sawyer's other favorite things to say these days is "Sydney." She says it so clearly too! She is starting to say her own name too, but it sounds more like "Suri." Sort of the same way Sydney says her name too!

Sawyer's words

Some of her new favorites.

"tuck me in" when she is fighting sleep and grabbing at her blanket so I will cover her up
"hold you" when she wants me to pick her up
"me too" this one makes me laugh because it is often very random!
"up peas" meaning up please when she wants me to hold her
"book peas" when she wants to read a book

She is unbelievable. I am totally amazed.

It is August, right?

Note how my kids are dressed today as we played outside! It was cold outside!

The girls enjoyed getting outside after the yucky rainy weather we have had for days! Even though we all have colds and our noses were running, we had fun.

Sydney was keeping a close eye on Sawyer as she climbed the up the slide.

This is what I get when I ask Sydney to please let me take cute picture of her laying in the grass! Brat : ) Note the dog hair all over her sweatshirt. She and Izzy were chasing eachother around the yard just before this.

Sydney thought it would be fun to grab hold of Soybean's foot and pull her down the slide. Sawyer thought it was pretty fun too. First this...Then this...all smiles. Even after she landed on her diapered bottom pretty hard!

One more 3 year old shot

I forgot about this one and I really love it.

Naps

Soybean isn't as good of a napper as Sydney used to be.

We had a busy weekend and a fun playdate today. Sydney needed a nap today, so I put both of them to bed. Both of them took a really long nap! I kept looking at the clock waiting for Soybean to wake up. I finally called Jim and told him I was bored! Both girls napping, house was clean, work was done, laundry was done...what the heck am I supposed to do? Sounds funny, I know, but I really didn't want to watch tv and I certainly didn't want to sit in front of the computer. He just laughed at me and told me to enjoy the quiet.

I snuck up to check on Sydney (with the camera in hand) because I thought I heard her stirring. I took a quick photo of her while she napped. So sweet. Bandaids and all. I didn't dare try to get a picture of Sawyer because she would wake up...and she was tired and needed to sleep.

Because both girls weren't very tired tonight, we decided to take a walk but without the stroller. Both girls thought it was pretty cool walking along holding mommy and daddy's hands. We went to visit our cow friends and one of them moo'd for us! It was adorable! Both ladies thought it was pretty cool too. The weather was so cool so we were all bundled up! Crazy weather.

I have another wedding to shoot on Friday night, but after that, I promise to take some photos of the girls.

Daddy fell down

I have been a bad blogger lately. I always get a little nervous using my camera a few days before I have to shoot a wedding. We have also just been really busy.

We got a lot of stuff done around the house this weekend until poor Jimmy fell down the porch steps. He was wearing his Crocs in the raining weather and was running down the steps and slipped. He came inside in serious pain and I watched him sit himself down on the kitchen floor, shaking and turning gray. He nearly passed out from the pain. Soybean was sleeping but Sydney watched Daddy in pain. She was little scared and kept asking if he was ok. I told her that he was ok and that he needed to rest for a minute. After the pain subsided, he got up and assured Sydy that he was ok. I told him that I now understand where Sydney gets the passing out from pain trait from! Poor Daddy. I got him some medicine and he got himself out of a few more house projects that afternoon ; )

Sydney continued to ask him if he was ok. She was still talking about it today.

Fortunately, Jimmy is doing fine. A little sore, but nothing major.

Pure frustration

Sydney is such a good kid but we are having some issue with her piddling in her undies. Sometimes it is more than piddles. Recently she had two small accidents in her car seat. I don't understand why she is having issues with peeing. I don't get it! She was so easy to train and quickly caught on to telling me when she had to go potty. The only thing I can think of is that when we are at camp, she spends a lot of time in the water, therefore, she is going in the lake (gross, I know). She also goes potty in the grass if we are outside and can't get in quickly enough (seriously, I have 4.5 acres of yard to cross!).

I hate having to yell at her, but I don't know what else to do. I feel like I am being mean when I have to punish for these accidents. I want her to be responsible for her actions and I think a lot of this has to do with laziness. Not wanting to leave her toys, not wanting to stop whatever she is doing.

I feel like such a mean mommy, basically I feel horrible. These girls have had a crazy and often chaotic summer with all that we have had going on.

Hopefully now that life has slowed down, she will get back into her good routine.

Fun Weekend at Camp

We had a fun long weekend with Jessica, Bethany and Jared. The S kids came to visit us at camp for a sleep over. The weather wasn't great on our last day, but we made the best of it and went boat riding, tubing and rock jumping! It was fun.

Here are some random shots from the weekend. Needless to say, the 3 adults were outnumbered by the 7 kids.

Here are the kids getting ready to jump off of the big rock! We had a great time jumping.
Aunt Jess swam in the water with Sydney. They made laps around the boat. Poor Jess was tired from holding on to this little lady.

Daddy and his girls.

Bethany and Julia tubing. Crazy girls.

Jess, Bethany, Julie and Jared.

Jon and Jared...the boys...the buds.

Bethany, Julia and Sarah are relaxing after an exhausting boating day.

Bethany and Jared on the golf cart.

Half Birthday

Here are a few pictures from Sawyer's half birthday celebration. She loved her cake!

First a taste.
Then a huge bite. My sweet tooth girl ate the whole piece!

I can't believe she is 18 months old already. What a joy.

Sawyer Strikes

Yesterday she found my makeup bag and decided to try on my burts bees lipstick...

Today she thought the blue marker looked pretty tasty....She's trouble...but she is sweet and beautiful and she is all mine : )

Half Birthday Tomorrow

Sawyer Molly will be 18 months old tomorrow! I can't believe it. I still wonder where all the time has gone.

I started a new tradition back in January for the girls. We are going to celebrate half birthdays with a half cake and a small treat (balloon or coloring book). I discovered this idea on a blog that I follow. I thought it was a wonderful idea and wanted to start this for my girls. I think they will really appreciate it in a few years!

Keep an eye out for pictures tomorrow night. We are very excited to celebrate Sawyer's half birthday.

Only a month late!

I posted some fun photos from Sydney's birthday celebration at camp, but I never did a photo session for her third birthday. Life has taken over and we have been so busy this summer. Finally I got a few good ones. We went outside this afternoon while Sawyer napped. As usual, Sydy was distracted by all things bug. Got a few cute ones, but I can't seem to get big smiles out of this one!!!!! No matter the bribe!

SOOOO Sydney...she was thinking about all of the bugs flying around her! I love this one. My sweet little lady.

More Beach Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our trip. Random order, but oh well!

We left for the beach last week to visit with grandma, papa and Teddy. We had a great time and the girls did too.

Grandma layed out a futon mattress on the floor for the girls. Can I just tell you how much they loved their bed! Soybean was so excited to be a big girl. It has confirmed out suspicion that some of her sleep issues are due to the fact that she no longer wants to be in a crib. More about that soon.

More about our trip. We went to the beach one afternoon to visit Papa while he sold his ice cream. The girls loved the ocean water and Sydney couldn't get enough of the waves. I am a huge fan of the ocean, so I was hoping both girls would be too. Sydney and I played in the water for a long time. She was a little timid at first and then suddenly decided that the waves were the best thing ever! She and I jumped in the wave breaks and had so much fun. Soybean also loved the water, but we were there over nap time, so she was a little tired. She and I cuddled under an umbrella for a little while. She and Grandma also enjoyed putting their feet in the water.

I went pretty far out into the water to jump the waves. The water was freezing! Seriously freezing. I would have stayed out there for a lot longer, but Sydy was crying for me so Jim had to wave me in. Bummer.

Jim and Teddy went fishing for flounder on a guide boat two mornings for several hours. The fishing was good! One afternoon Grandma and I ditched the family and headed up to Cherry Hill to shop at Anthropoligie http://www.anthropologie.com. Can I just tell you how much I love looking at their stuff online! I couldn't believe it when Pat told me there was a store locally. I can only say, it did not disappoint. The store was lovely! I wish I could have had a bigger shopping budget as there was a quilt, shower curtain, and so many other things I could have walked away with! Oh well. Maybe next year I can shop till I drop.

As usual, the bugs in Atlantic City are crazy bad! We are all covered in bug bites. Luckily Grandma has a ton of bug spray and cream at home. Sydy had fun carrying the after bit medicine all around.

Yesterday morning we drove into Ocean City to walk along the boardwalk. Syd wanted to walk for a little while. Sawyer of course saw this and decided she wanted to walk too. She just cracks me up. She is such a big girl. She walked along the boardwalk, strutting the whole time. She really isn't a baby anymore. She walks around with such purpose. It makes Jim and I laugh all of the time.

Here are the photos. Forgot to mention that Sawyer fell on the sidewalk two days into our trip. Of course she scuffed up her nose. Luckily, most of the pictures I took were of them walking along the beach, so the scuffed nose isn't too visible in the pictures. Oh well, Photoshop, here I come.

Sydy found a pretty shell that caught her attention. I was glad it was a non living object! Very unusual for Sydy not to find creatures.
Sawyer loved the sand under her feet.

This is such a Sydney expression. She was trying very hard to keep her dress clean! Jim and I were trying to convince her to go put her feet in the waves, she wouldn't do it. She kept lifting her dress up so it wouldn't get sandy. This being the same child that didn't want to get out of the water the day before. Of course, the day before, she was in her swim suit. Good grief, trying to keep herself clean...wonder where she gets that from ; )

Grandma and Soybean enjoying the water.

Ice Cream Man...aka...Papa. Soybean didn't recognize him at first.

Here is Teddy watering the plants for Grandma and Papa.

Grandma and Sydney walking out to the docks. This was one of the nights that Sydy got chewed up with bugs. Her legs were covered in bug bites. Poor thing.

Papa and his little girl.