i ❤ Chad

I just saw this on T.V. and I couldn't stop thinking that the boy looks like Chad when he was little. Or rather what I think Chad looked like when he was little. Hard to know for sure since I sadly don't have any pictures of him as a little boy.



But I thought it was funny. My favorite part is where she whips out the balloon.

If anyone has any picture of Chad as a little guy PLEASE send it to me!

i will ♥ you forever. and so will my blog readers because I'm pretty sure we all want to know if I'm right. AND also I'm pretty sure everyone want to put their 2¢ in...

am I right?

yes I was SO bored today, why DO YOU ask?

It's all your fault.

Really. Is it too much to ask that you sit pretty for me?

I know i know i never really asked you to but it's only because I already know your camera shy.

The whole world is camera shy.

So this is what you get...


Stoopid me.

I am attracted to dramatic lighting and I need a model.

You see, I just can't see how the light falls on myself.

...and yet I still try.


so come be my brave little model. I need you...

I will show you how stunningly beautiful you are. I PROMISE :)

XO

my policy is... if you don't try you can't fail.

this is the story of a girl, and her little sister. But mostly the girl...


This girl. Natty. Brave-brave-sir-natty.

On a whim i asked Natalie if she wanted to do the Dynamite Express dance camp last week. She got all excited and giddy like a girl... cuz she is one :) so we hopped in the car and drove her down there full speed ahead. You see I had this idea about 2 minutes before it began... yeah it was a total mad dash.

{ FYI- Dynamite Express is a dance team you can tryout for at the place Natalie was taking her ballet class last year }

While I was signing her up I saw that they had a dance camp for the little ones too...


So I figured what the heck... and next thing Lucy knew she was being hurled into a studio in her little red striped dress and tennis shoes. I know what you're thinking... she's not in a red striped dress and tennis shoes... I said I was in a mad dash. If you rush me I forget things. like cameras.

She wasn't the only one who didn't fit in. As I looked in on Natty I noticed how all the other girls were all glammed up in their fancy dance pants... Yeah. Natly was in socks and dress with leggings. She stuck out a little :)

this photo is actually from the next day...


Which was a trick to get with all the crazy "stage moms" as Katy puts it... GLUED to the window. These ladies do not take bathroom breaks.

But anyway you can see that we helped her out a little with her dancewear. But i got to thinking that those dance shorts look pretty simple to make so when we weren't at dance I was busying myself with figuring out the "booty short".

They were pretty easy.

Henceforth she had a new pair every day :)

These are the ones she wore to the tryouts...


Which I'm not gonna lie. I totally tried to talk her out of doing. She insisted though. It's just that as I watched from behind all the other moms (what does that make me?) I couldn't help but notice that those other girls totally knew what they were doing and poor little Natly with her one ballet class behind her wasn't quite keeping up.

Katy { a.k.a the best stage mom in the world } gave me an awesome tip. On the last day go in and video the dance then go home and practice your guts out! And so I did. And I felt lucky to know Katy because even though most of the other moms also video taped the dance not a one of em taped it from the back as per the instruction from the best stage mom in the world. But I did :)

I tried the dance. I didn't get past 5,6,7,8 and 1,2...? huh? I'm lost. I thought all that dancing i do in my kitchen while i cook dinner was really paying off. Not so apparently.

Katy and her daughter were so kind as to help Natty figure out all the steps to her dance. They did it over and over with her till she couldn't help but remember it. You should see Katy dance. It's pretty impressive.

Katy... you totally would have made the firecracker team!


natalie and lucy reminiscing. Every day Lucy cried and fought me about going to her dance class. Which was shocking to me because her and Natalie play dance all the time. They even have recitals. She talks alot about being a ballerina. Yet every singe day she cried. I had to drag her into the classroom and run for my life out the door.

Till Saturday came. Class ended Friday. Saturday she decided she wanted to go to dance.

"the problem is Lu... there is no class today. Friday was the last day"

and so she cried and cried for hours about not being able to go to class. So there she is looking into her empty class room. it was kinda sad.

Today the results were posted. As you can probably tell by the way she whipped her triple dimple out ( you can see it hovering just above her big cheeky dimple on the right... opposite of her beautly mark, makes for a very symetrical face don't you think? )

she made the team :)

I'm not lying... look for yourself!


And her reaction...



A huge thanks to the lovely and talented Hannah and the best stage mom in the world! This would not have happened without you guys.

I hope we're not in over our heads. We are aren't we.

btw~ if your listening to "Sad Song" and wondering if I don't wanna live no more... well it's just not true. Theres just something I liked about this song (not the words so much)

...makes me want to close my eyes and sleep, and dance in the rain all at the same time.

"PETER JUST CALLED TO SAY HE SAW A SLUG EATING A CHIP"

haha. best line in the whole song.

like magic.

This morning I woke to...

"ewww. it's dripping. Lu, stop moving"

"gross, it's all over your legs. Here let me take your diaper off"

"MOM LUCY HAS DIARRHEA AND IT'S ALL OVER THE FLOOR!"

ugg... and there it was. A puddle of poo, with drip drip drip in every direction.

Talk about a rude awakening. But then just as I was finishing cleaning it up with Natalie's help, bless her little heart...

MOM! I FOUND A GIFT CARD FOR 10 DOLLARS IN THE CEREAL!

We had what I can only describe as an extreme morning :)

And when I went to post this it said I had 99 posts. You know what that means right??

100 posts!!

Couldn't hope for a more fun 100th post.

If I ever have a boy he's totally gonna be in a recital!

yesterday was so fun. We got to go to the dress rehearsal for Natalie's recital "Be Our Guest". Admittedly these top two photos were taken on picture day a week ago. Another easy way to remember when is... the day after she chopped her "bangs" for the second time rendering them quite short. Almost buzz like. On some days it's reminiscent of a mullet.
~ Joe Dirte(ish)~

The first time she chopped them (two days before the bang buzz mullet) they didn't look too bad... in some ways I kinda liked it. Reminded me of Audrey Hepburn.

I started dreaming up an Audrey Hepburn photoshoot...

but then she decided to { even them out }, claiming she { didn't know they were getting shorter }.

And then the dream was crushed. That was the day I was really really cranky.

Perhaps her adventures in hair disasters could have waited till after the recital? I guess not.


Luckily it's hard to tell from the pictures whats really going on {in or on} her head :)

besides lots and lots of hairspray.

And still she manages to look beautiful... I kinda doubt I could pull off a bang buzz.

OK now i have a little song. It's from Sesame Street. Feel free to sing along...

"Most of these kids belong together
Most of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing her own thing
can you tell before the song is done..."


"And now the song is done!"

Did you guess before the song was done?? Haha. i love it.

But then there's this next one...


Which is also fun. Natalie told me how some of the girls had to point their arms toward her while she stood in the middle looking very ballerina like...

...I'ts cuz you're the star of the show! I say...

She totally ate it up.

I loved this too.


This is after the dance. They had no clue how to exit. Some of the just took off in the wrong direction. Of course Natalie was one of them!

I've seen kid recitals on "America's Funniest Home Videos" before. I laughed with rest of em... secretly dreaming of the day when I could go to my own kid's recital and be delighted by funny things kids do. It did not disappoint. I LOVED this! I am almost positive I am going to put Lucy in dance now. The recital makes it all worth it . Priceless


Tonight is the actual recital. I can't wait because they don't allow cameras inside tonight. Which means I get to just sit back and fully enjoy the show. Sometimes I feel like I'm documenting things I didn't actually see. I know, I know... you don't feel the least bit of pity for me. I'm ok with that.


You're probably wondering why the heck your listening to Kris Kross right now :) Actually you probably paused it. You did, didn't you? Haha. Come on, unpause the music... live a little.

The last dance we witnessed...

3 boys
D-back shirts, basketball shorts
tearin it up to
oh yeah... "JUMP JUMP"
thats right, i was singing Kris Kross all the way home :)

the mack dad'll make ya...
Kris Kross'll make ya

JUMP JUMP

Everybody now...

K, Lu is trying to watch Bambi. She getting mad at me.

Just sing amongst yourselves!

Lu turns 3 and...You not coming!

About two weeks ago we clued Lucy in to the fact that it was almost her birthday...

since then we've been cordially un-invited about every 5 min. or in other words when ever we didn't do precisely what the princess wanted us to do.

"Lucy... get off the table!"

fine! YOU NOT COMING!

Even grandma and grandpa "not coming!"


So i thought for lu's birthday I would throw a couple pictures of her up. Maybe some of you don't Know she had a broken arm at the tender age of 7 months old!! This did not slow her down.


also she started rockin her { rockstar hair } at a very young age!


It took a while but I found a picture I like of each of us holding Lucy... the most adored baby on earth, I'm pretty sure.


This photo of Natalie and Lucy was in jerome... boy did we ever get some looks! Some people even stopped to take a picture!


I've always liked this picture of Chad and Lu. Lu with her tongue out.


Finding a picture of me with Lu was not an easy task seeing as how I am usually the one taking the pictures. Luckilly I was smart enough to make good use of my tripod and timer. Thts right folks... I take ALL the pictures around here! I'm not saying it's great, I'm just saying YAY! one exists...

I love this girl! Happy Birthday Lu!

little darling... the Smiles returning to the Faces

I walked into my dark bedroom and saw my 3 kids sitting on my tomato colored chair with their zombie eyes focused intently on the mac, staring in dreamy wonder at the cartoon rotting their brains. I thought to myself, no. This is not good. there is a perfectly good 50 inch plasma not 5 feet behind them! no wait, thats not what was wrong...

It's still light outside! What the heck is going on here?? "Everybody out"


When i walked outside I first noticed it felt nice, not similar to the toasty oven feel it usually has. And then I noticed the most glorious light coming down on my babies. It was so purdy I left Lucy on the driveway as I ran to get my camera. (a bad mom thing to do!) Told Lucy, "Lu, don't let anyone steal my bike!" Wouldn't you know it, when i got back the bike and the light were gone!

"Lu. Where'd my bike go?"

Lu wearing a big ol pout..."Kassy took it"

k, but where did my magical lighting go? So that what you see above is all there was left of it. And even then I had to implement some photoshop magic :)


Kids + wagon = Fun times! I know that one picture is blurry. Well actually most of the pictures are blurry ( it was pretty dark out ) but that look on Natalies face... i just couldnt pass it up!

a day in the life...

deeply dimpled darling

She's here!!



Well actually she's been here for a couple weeks now. I'm just a little slow :)


And Lori... i know I said that none of the photos on black were going to work out.

I was wrong.


Lori is such a dear to let me photograph her babe...

Honestly, because she {hearts} photography as much as me. But i made her promise before Mia was born that she'd share the photographic fun. Didn't even hesitate! What an awesome sister :)


I went to B&N a while back and picked up a book on knitting...


but I didn't knit the baby sack. I was just trying to make you think i did for a second. Yeah well. I haven't had time to delve into knitting just yet. I love knitted things so I am super stoked to get started... not sure when that will be. Maybe soon?


i stole the ring on the toe thing from Stephanie... an awesome photographer I met on flickr!

Yeah I steal ideas. I'm admitting it. It's just that other people have such good ones!


The key thing... ALL ME BABY!

No matter that her daddy wants to know why the heck shes holding a key :) I just say its the key to his heart. She's plotting ways to use it for good and evil!!


She's pretty good looking huh?


I'm related to good looking people :)

Hallelujah!



What a pretty baby. Good job Lolo. Love ya!

I have a cd ready to go for you!