Little Fish

i have no idea where i left off from catching up last time but here we go again! allison and i just finished a 7 wedding sprint over 5 weeks before her maternity leave. needless to say, i had to let a few things go: mainly laundry and blogging. ;-) so i'll start going backwards and see how far we get before i have to play catch up again!

saturday i came home to one sick baby, 5 days later we had two sick babies, and 2 days after that a sick big girl...all while paul was at training in atlanta.

my thoughts from the week: 1.) i am more than ever thankful for my husband! 2.) i am also super thankful for my mom. 3.) i need at least one additional lap and 2-3 additional arms. 4.) a five day fever virus followed by ear infections x2 might be worse than a 24 hour stomach bug, but the verdict is still out. 5) i am more than ever thankful for my husband and that he's home!!!

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We did one week of swimming lessons with addie this year. she had so much fun, and needless to say there were significantly fewer tears than last year! in fact, there were none at all! she would plop down on the bench and talk mrs. karen's ear off!
they did lots of practicing... which was clearly hard work! but made for a happy swimmer! they practiced floating on their backs with helpand with little help!

and swam through hoops...
this little girl loved being in the water, and she paid careful attention to her teachers as she waited her turn......except for when she was waiting patiently by going underwater and shooting up like a rocket! what i love about how these lessons are done is that each child has a one on one time with the teacher while the other kids practice with the assistants. she takes each child where they are and pushes them farther. this year they practiced "diving" off the side and while jumping off the diving board and swimming to the side was part of last year, this year mrs. karen waited by the ladder for miss addie instead of having to hold her hand while she jumped!
which not only certifies mrs. karen as an excellent swim instructor, but also a miracle worker!

Here's a quick clip of addie jumping off the diving board last year...
...to This Year: thank you mrs. karen for a wonderful week of learning and fun! 

i'm working on pictures from VBS and came across these.

sweet anne perry and audrey kate weren't too sure about it. i was standing outside the second night and looked up to find audrey kate standing at the window sobbing! she'd been fine until she realized mommy was just outside! so mr. chad brought them out to play with us! she still wasn't too sure about things...

Addie had a blast. Singing. Dancing. Learning. Playing. Oh...and running! She loved it!

and anne perry? check out that laugh! this was taken right after addie ran around the circle and landed back in her seat! anne perry thought it was hilarious!  addie had vbs this week, and the little girls and i tagged along so i could take pictures on two nights. addie also had swimming lessons this week. i cant wait to share pictures and compare them to last year! the little girl who refused to jump off the side last year took a running leap off the diving board into the deep end this year! so our days and nights have been busy this week! we're having a fun summer, but i'm having a hard time editing our pictures with everything going on. i'll work on that while paul is at training next week!

happy weekend!

First Haircuts

i fully admit that i take entirely too many pictures. 1600 in May. granted, Allison and I can take that many in an 8 hour wedding. What most people don't realize is that because we shoot in RAW (think old school negatives), we have to process them before they become pictures.

sometimes, i wait entirely too long to go through and edit pictures. sometimes it's the lack of time. sometimes it's the lack of motivation. and sometimes it's just plain laziness.

but when grandpa called last night and made sure to tell paul how much he enjoyed looking at my pictures of our girls, the motivation returned! (thank you grandpa!)

so here goes...

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the little girls were in desperate need of a haircut, but they kept getting sick and i kept having to reschedule!

finally, we headed for a haircut last week! thankfully my mom was able to join me for reinforcement!

i managed to grab a few pictures outside before we started; because once we got inside, i had two appendages that wouldn't let go!

Anne Perry was first. She screamed when i tried to put her in the chair. no way. so i held her, and my mom took some pictures!
she was perfectly content once she was in my lap and eating a sucker. she could have cared less what someone was doing to her curls!
we didn't even attempt to put audrey kate in the chair alone. so my mom held her while i got to take a few pictures.
She had already gotten into and eaten her sucker, so we moved onto the cookies we got earlier to get her through it!
And it was done before I knew it!


significantly less of a mullet fro i might say!

Our Boy

we loved our abbey girl. she was a great dog. even better first child. and huge mama's girl.

we might have jumped into adopting a new dog a little soon after we lost abbey to cancer, but there is no doubt in my mind that this little big guy was meant for our family.

i've worked with him on obedience training: puppy class. not such a big deal. by the time we were in beginners obedience, i could hardly get into the building for fear i'd be pulled over by our 60 pound pure muscle boy. he was stronger than abbey ever was, and at the time, far wilder.

but with a little power steering, many practice sessions, and even more treats, this little big guy has turned out to be the most amazing dog we could have ever hoped for. he went on to pass beginners obedience and novice 1, both with only one try and has moved on to novice 2!

but besides being an automatic vacuum cleaner, jumping up less, staying put more, and being all around a more pleasant dog to exist with...

he's patient.
has a good sense of humor.

loves our girls.
loves our girls to love on him!
and is down right gorgeous.

not to mention he's a mama's boy who will follow me from room to room and loves to pose for a camera!

...pretty perfect match for our family.