one for my dad.

This is my Grandma Mary. We visited her in her nursing home and I love the way it brightens her day to just have all the kids around. Heck, even the people who don't know us look happy to see us. It is so special! I decided to post these for my dad before going to bed. I hope you like them dad!  

Refreshed.

This is the only word that I can think of to describe how I feel right now. This is a picture of the so called "cabin" that we were lucky enough to stay in this weekend. More like a mansion, really. Linda, you are amazing. Your house is amazing. Your FOOD is amazing. And just so you know...that pasta salad that I took with me....yeah, it is almost gone!!! Friends, I have the most to die for pasta salad that you will ever eat in your life. Better than the one you already have for sure. And I think I have Jenny to thank for this? 

Linda and I share a passion for photography and on Sunday while the guys went golfing we shared tips and tricks with each other. It was so fun! I have a ridiculous amount of pictures to post from this weekend and since it is already late I think I will get an early start tomorrow so that I can get some sleep and be ready for the upcoming week back at work.

Bella's wrist drama

Here is Bella's poor little wrist. So this is how it all went down.....We live about 1 1/2 miles from the school, well that is my guess at least. Bella loves to walk home after school with her girlfriends. She met up with her friend Chelsea but they both wanted to catch up with Chelsea's sister. So they started running and were going down a slight hill when Bella tripped on her backpack and landed on her arm. This happened half way home. Bella said that a nice woman who always walks her dog tried to help, she offered to let Bella use her cell phone so she could call us, and she even offered to make the call. Bella's stranger danger signals went up and even though she had a broken arm she wasn't about to give this woman her phone number. So she walked all the way home in pain and crying. Her cute friends carried all her stuff for her and walked her to our door and you should have seen the concern on their faces. I think they knew that Bella didn't just get a few scrapes and bruises. The lady with her dog also walked with them and made sure she made it ok. When she got home I saw her walking up to the door and I could tell something was wrong. Greg saw that I was alarmed and he ran out there too. We took one look at her arm and just said "Ok, lets go to the ER."

At the ER the doctor did the same. Took one look at it and could tell it was broken. They gave her a needle in her arm for the various drugs that they were going to give her, and to my surprise she didn't even move when they put it in. Then they gave her 2mg of morphine which kind of surprised me at first, but it totally helped her relax and I think that made all the difference on how the rest of the visit went. After x-rays we learned that she had a "very significant" fracture on her wrist which did extend to her growth plate. That means that there is a 3-5 percent chance that her arm may not grow properly. Not a big chance but it is still present. The doctor also determined that he needed to do a reduction which to my understanding is a fancy term for having to manually force the bones back into alignment for proper growth. This makes me cringe. The doctor reccommended sedating her for this and I totally agreed. So, they popped her sedative into her arm, she talked like she was tossed for a few minutes, told us all we were spinning, told us that she likes to talk in her sleep, and then almost instantly her chin dropped and she was out. They asked us to leave since the reduction process can be pretty intense. 5-7 minutes later it was all over and he was putting the cast stuff on when we went in. Since she was still asleep Greg and I asked the nurses to clean out her cuts really good with alcohol or whatever they use. The nurse happily did this but it started to wake Bella up and she said "Stop licking me Daisy." This made us all laugh. The whole waking up process was hilarious too. She said the funniest things, and when she was really awake it was like she was on crack. She just wouldn't stop talking. They sent us home with a liquid narcotic since the reduction can cause pain afterwards. We gave her that a couple times throughout the night, but after seeing her this morning I think she will not need anymore. She will be seen in a week to make sure the wrist is still in alignment, and at that time she can pick out a color for her cast. In about 3-4 weeks if the doctor thinks everything looks ok he said he will put a waterproof cast on HOORAY!!! In total she will have to be in some kind of a cast for 6-8 weeks. So that's it! She is doing well now. She has a personal nurse named Sophie who takes care of her every need. As I type Sophie is putting socks on Bella's feet since Bella said her feet are cold. She makes sure Bella has a blanket and her favorite bear. I love it! Thanks for all the phone calls and concerns.

We have been in the ER for the last 3 hours. Bella broke her arm on the way home from school today. She was running with her friends and tripped on her back pack and landed on her arm. She is doing great and is feeling pretty good. Details and photos from my phone will be up later.

Now, I will leave you with this
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run, run, run, run, run, is what we say. and she does just that. all while losing her drawers.

p.s. and please don't judge my photo skills here people. this was horribly under-exposed and I just don't have the energy to try and save it in photoshop. so grainy and yucky, but still cute!!!

water.

Greg and I have been working really hard to clean up the flower beds in the front yard. Doing this proves to be quite the challenge when a 15 month old is concerned. We had to get creative to find things to entertain her while we got some work done. Solution: let her drench herself with the hose. Totally kept her busy till I thought she would probably be getting cold and I should take her in. She threw a fit all the way to the bathtub.
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now this might look cruel, but I promise, she had fun!

and since I am sitting her stuffing my face, do yourself a favor and stay away from these.........

you will eat the whole thing by yourself. i promise.

whew. Losing steam but still so many posts! This is the firetruck that I referred to on my photo blog.....Anyway, my neighbor Dan, who is a retired firefighter, has been promising the kids all a ride for quite some time now. They were thrilled when he came out and asked them to hop in so they could go cruise the neighborhood. It is so cool. The horn is SO loud and he lets the kids honk it all the time, and he even lets them play in it whenever they want. Thanks Dan!

and I couldn't help but make this a giant size picture. she looks so darn cute!

We have been doing a lot of this lately. On Mother's Day after a long day at the workshop, I got home to a delicious steak and baked potato dinner hot and ready, gorgeous flowers that the girlies picked out, and I looked in the backyard and Greg has this little area all set up. He had the lawn chairs up, the fire pit in the middle, the girls had mats to get cozy on, and of course, marshmallows. I LOVE roasted marshmallows. It was perfect. Thank you Greg, I LOVE YOU!!!

Last game of the season.

The girls both had their last games of the season today. I am an idiot and forgot to bring my camera to Sophie's game, and I even forgot to bring it to Bella's, but I ran home and picked it up so I could get some pics of the team. It was fun, Soph scored what seemed like 8 goals (no joke, she is a beast on the field), and Bella probably played her best game ever. I really look forward to next season since Greg will coach both girls' teams.  

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my girl playing defense. i think this is where she shines.


this was a freakin' sweet kick-off! she booted that ball all the way down the field!

and the cute team and coach tenney. thanks girls! you were awesome and we'll see you next year!

and..........i think we might have another little soccer star on our hands. like father, like daughter, i guess.
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this was taken with my new blackberry that my hubba bubba got me for my birthday.  thank you baby!  i love it and i love that i can whip it out and take a quick video whenever! a little low quality but you get the idea. girlfriend is good!

and i just had to post this merely for the size of greg's left hand. WTF......is that the hand of fat bastard???? and we fully admit that we are dorks and this might not be funny, at all, to most of you. i sure got a kick out of it!!!

Yes, I have been a blogging slacker lately! I will start with my awesome Mother's Day weekend. I was able to go to an amazing workshop presented by an amazing photographer. I learned a ton of things from editing techniques to business practices. Amazing. That's all I am going to say. I am sure you have seen these already but I wanted to post them here anyway. People have asked me where they got all the models from. One of the other photographers in the class personally new them all and of course they were more than willing to model for the class. Who wouldn't want free pictures, right? What blew me away is that they were ALL family. The mom's were sisters, each with 3 or 4, maybe 5, absolutely drop. dead. gorgeous. children. How you have a family that big and all the members in it are smokin' hot is beyond me.....Anyway, here is what I got......


these 3 lovely ladies were sisters. so beautiful. it kind of made me imagine my life in a few years with teenage girls....i cringed and smiled at the same time.

and the mommies....aren't they freakin' cute?! and this is my favorite of this girly.

so yeah, as you can see, it was soooo worth it! great learning experience, i made some friends, it was perfect.

SYTYCD

YAY!!!!! I just checked and So You Think You Can Dance premiers on MAY 21st!!!! I don't watch much TV at all but I tell you what, I have been waiting for this time of year since last year's finale! In fact, Greg even loves this show. He HATES reality TV, but this one he will actually watch, and even loves it as much as I do! I remember last year the girls, Greg, and myself would all sit down to watch it religiously every night it was on. Never missed a show! We don't let them watch the auditions since I think those aren't the most appropriate for a lot of reasons, and there are even some dances that we don't let them watch since they aren't the most age appropriate either. But they don't care, they get to see most of it and are fine with that! Click here and you can preview season 5. Chills, I am telling you, I got chills! And in case you are wondering I am a huge dork! I LOVE summer time!!!

Bella

Lookin' so grown up! I don't think I like it!

the deal.

yesterday i took the just bella and sophie out for a little date. we went shopping, out to eat, and then we went to the Fairytale Ball at the Children's Museum. while we were at the mall shopping, she spotted this dress and hat at the Children's Place and of course she just had to have it. so i told her that the only way i would get it for her is if she let me take her out and get some fun pics. my bribery worked and here is what we got. bella also came along for the shoot and i shot some great pics of her too.

**warning**

there is some serious color in these photos, i love it and there was no way any of these were going up in black and white!




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a disaster!

since my little nephew mckade spilled the beans to my sweet mom that we took pictures yesterday for her mother's day gift, i decided to put them up. this was sort of a disaster as some sessions can prove to be occasionally. my dad is the librarian at NDJH and he brought my girls some books from his book fair. one of bella's books had this really cool necklace that came with it and the first thing she wanted to do was show her cousin makenzie. well, she didn't even get that far and dropped into a ditch that was covered with a metal gate. needless to say there was no retreiving it. she lost her mind!!! i don't think i have seen her cry like that in years. so that was problem 1. problem 2: my other daughter frankie, had just woken up from a nap, and we all know how that goes. she didn't want anyone but me and when i tried to hand her off to bella the tears started falling even more and she was screaming her face off. then on to problem 3: i am not sure my neice makenzie has ever liked having her picture taken so she didn't have any smiles for anyone, and i am convinced she hated every minute of my attempt to get a picture for my mom. you will be able to tell from the pictures how much fun this was. everytime i look it i have to laugh. oh well, at least we have a little story to tell about this picture and one day we will look back and laugh at what terd's our kids were being. thanks to hunter, mckade and sophie for trying to make the best of this:)