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:)

Great American Bake Sale

For awhile now Bella has been wanting to do something to help out those less fortunate in the community. After some searching, and a lot of watching Food Network, we decided that we are going to host a Great American Bake Sale. You can visit their site to learn more so I will spare you my details, but it looks like a pretty good deal and 100% of the money we will go to help plenty of children. I am hoping that some of you would like to participate. If so, call me or e-mail me, you know my info. I will post more of the details in a bit like the date, location etc. Oh, and we need to come up with a name for the bake sale. I am wanting it to be something that ties in with ending hunger and ties in with the whole bake sale idea. My mom thought of a good one, "Treats for Tots," but the bake sale is for children of all ages so we thought we would throw that one out but you get the idea. If you have any creative ideas leave some comments so we can all decide on one together. The more people we can get in on this the more money we can raise so tell your friends/family and let's get it going:)

This is her latest. She has figured out how to climb on everything! Notice that she is also covered in jelly. I made the mistake of leaving an uneaten english muffin out after the kids' snack and she must have been hungry. The other day Greg and I were talking in our bedroom and I heard some commotion in the kitchen so I went in there to find out that she had climbed up on to the bar stools and made it up to the counter. I am still in shock as to how she did it because they are not the most ideal stools for climbing. She really wanted those cupcakes that were up there and she was covered in chocolate, it was really funny! I love her face here too, she is so proud of herself!

I just wanted to clarify something. I have had quite a few people ask me if I was pregnant since I had a d and c. No, I was never pregnant, the d and c was done to get some tissue from my uterus so they could biopsy it and check for any internal diseases that she might not have been able to diagnose otherwise. So don't worry. I did not have a miscarriage, thank goodness, and everything is going fine right now. Just in case you were wondering:)
Can I just say that those leg massagers that they put on you before you go in for surgery are AMAZING! I felt so relaxed while those were on which was so needed since I was convinced that I was going to die during my surgery. I know. I am a huge dork! Apparently they are used now to prevent blood clots from running to the heart and brain but I just thought they were pure heaven. I tried to talk Greg into stuffing them into my purse before we left the hospital but it was kind of big, and he just wouldn't do it.

surgery update

Hey guys! Sorry I have been a loser about answering the phone. I am doing ok though. This hurts a lot more than my doctor said it would, or maybe I am just a huge baby. Everything went very well. She did find some polyps and scar tissue which she zapped with a laser, and then I had the d and c as well. Right now I am just very sore, and the antibiotic that I have to take makes me terribly nauseated. Thank God for pain pills! More later, sitting up make me feel like shizzle so I better go lay down.

Project 52: week 9

This girl is so willing to drop everything she is doing to let me get my pictures. I cherish this time that we get to spend together while the kids are off at school. Today, we made soup for Nic and Amber, we read all the ads that came in the mail and talked about all the "good deals" according to her, then Frankie woke up and was being super cute so we played with her for awhile, and then we went and played the Wii game that Sophie bought for Greg for his birthday, love how that works out. A perfect time spent with Sophie and I wouldn't change this for anything.  Got TONS of pics from today but I am lame and it is my bedtime.

Do you think he is pouting because there is no water in his dish? What a baby! 

Project 52: week 8

Yeah, I have been a total slacker on this little project. I actually do have the pictures, I just have forgotten to post them. This is me and my Sophie chillen' outside, and I am wearing my "stunners" as Greg likes to call them (he always makes fun of me for my huge glasses!).  I love how you can see Bella taking the picture in the reflection of my shades.  If you want to know what project 52 even is, click here.

The other night we went and ate and Gabor Bros. Pizza (which by the way might be the best italian food in Layton) and along the street behind the restaurant were these gorgeous trees that are in full bloom. They were all enclosed in a fence so I decided to just focus on the blooms rather than get the yucky fence in the shot too. When I used to take pictures like this in direct sunlight everything behind my object looked almost white and I always over-exposed the shot. So.... now I am practicing shooting nature like this, and achieving the proper exposure so that the sky stays that gorgeous blue, which would explain all my sky shots lately, in case you were wondering :) I think this is so beautiful and I wish I had some in my yard! Spring is here finally!

A typical Saturday in Spring.

I LOVE this time of year. Everything is starting to look so green, the girls can play outside more, and SOCCER season has begun! I seriously love getting all packed up and heading out to the girls' games. Today was gorgeous. Sophie had an early game, and Bella had a late game. I don't think I took many pics last year of soccer so I am making sure that I do it this time. Sophie is amazing. She isn't afraid to steal the ball, she can run it down the field, and she gets it. It is really exciting to watch her out there, and you can tell how much she really loves the game. She scored three goals today and really gave the other girls a run for their money. Ella is on her team too and I am not sure there is anything cuter than Ella out there hopping around on the field. Bella had a great game too. Last week she scored the first game of the season which she was sooooo excited about, I think we all were. It is so fun to see the look on their faces when they score goals and everyone is cheering their name, I love it! She didn't get any goals today, but she really worked hard and had an awesome time. So these are pictures from what I am hoping will be our typical Saturday's for the next few weeks.

I believe that this was Greg's same number all while he was growing up. 

Getting ready for kick-off....

This was just after kick-off and just before she scored the first goal of the game YAY!

Princess Ella. She is too. cute.

Bella and Keira holding down the fort. 

Greg HATES it when I take pictures of him, let alone actually post them. Oh well, I do it anyway:) Frankie just likes to get in and out of the stroller a million times so she stays entertained.

And here is Frankie enjoying her absolute favorite new dish: spaghetti. I am not so thrilled though. Spaghetti might just be the hardest thing to clean up when a child who is learning to self-feed in concerned. That bowl was FULL of spaghetti and she ate it all, minus a bit that fell all around her. The other day she ate 2 Ikea bowls of spaghetti, and I fed her this time so she ate it ALL! and is it just me or do her eyes look green?

Then when we get home it is off to play.  These are Bella's friends from the neighborhood.  They were playing in the backyard and swinging eachother around as fast as possible, and then trying to walk afterward.  Pretty funny, but it was making me sick just watching.  


and then I took this picture of our rose bush that has yet to bloom. after I used this vintage action in photoshop and I think it looked pretty neato.