School, a visitor, and a birthday.

I know I'm extremely late on this, but here are the girls on their first days of school.

Clara on her way to preschool. She's loving every second of it. She may, or may not be a trouble maker in class. She's lucky she's so cute.

Since we live so close to the school, little Miss Abbey has been riding her scooter. It's probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen, but I'm the mom, so I don't count.
She loves the independence.

We had a wonderful visitor about a month ago. My dear sister Leslie came to Arizona.
She did lots of spoiling with the girls, and they loved her for it.
This is probably one of my favorite pictures EVER!!
Two of the naughtiest little sweethearts you'll ever have a chance of meeting.
These two are a couple of pea's in a pod.



My little Abbey turned SEVEN!!! I can't believe I have a 7 year old! I am just in love with this girl. She's grown into such a sweetheart. She always wants to make me happy, and do nice things for me. She even writes me love notes. She is a great big sister to Clara, they are the best of friends, and they watch out for eachother. She's doing wonderfully in her 2nd grade class, and reads like a pro.

Here she is in her birthday outfit. Good thing her birthday was on a Saturday!
Happy Birthday Abbey, I sure do love you.

We're still kickin over here.

Yes, it's been awhile.

Yes, I'm probably the worst blogger in the world.

No, I don't care, I'm doing my best here with the little sliver of creativity I have.

Like I say to my kids (A quote I learned from a very wise mom).

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit."

Here are my girls on one of our weekly adventures to Walmart. One thing I love about my girls is they hate shopping about as much as I do. One afternoon I told them the sad news that we had to go to Walmart. Abbey began crying and begging that we don't go. It didn't take her much convincing for me to cancel the walmart trip, and I told her we'd save the trip until the next day. I asked her why she didn't want to go so badly, to which she responded.

"Mom, just like you say, there doesn't always have to be a reason."

This is the "next day" when we finally made it there. I treated them to McDonalds, and we took a few fun pictures. I love that these two are such good buddies.

We've had our chihuahua "Papito" for almost a year now.
The girls love him....he's a pain in my butt.
sigh....
But he is really good with the kids. Clara carries him around absolutely EVERYWHERE.
I can tell he hates it, but he just sits there and lets her treat
him like he's her very own living doll.
Can't you tell he's just wishing he could jump out of
her arms and run to the nearest hiding spot?

Here's what I've been working on at the house.
It might be kind of hard to see in the picture, but.....
I've been painting!!
It took me over a year to pick out the colors I wanted, but it's been so much fun.
I've never done anything like this in my life. I was scared at first, but I'm loving it.
Abbey tells me I should get a job as a painter.
The dark color is called, Wild Manzanita. It's a deep deep red, almost brown. The light color is called, Quiet Veranda (Doesn't that name make you want to go to Italy or something? I love it). It's a yellowish beige.

Bee and Flower

The girls were in the most recent play, the Jungle Book, at EAC.

They got to sing the song, The Bear Necessities, but coming from Clara, it sounded more like, the bear nethethitieths. Abbey had a small line also. It was adorable. I was a proud mama. The girls loved every second of rehearsal and performance.....I'm just glad it's over now. But, it was so much fun to watch.

Happy Birthday Clara Floreine!

Today is my baby Clara's 4th birthday!!

I can't believe this little piece of spunk is growing so fast.

Clara is full of life and personality.

There's never a dull moment when she's around.

She is sweet, and cares for others.

Every morning getting Clara dressed is a hassle. She loves clothes, and is very picky with what she wears. She seriously tries on 3 to 4 outfits before she sticks with just one.

This morning I told her she could wear whatever she wanted....and I wasn't suprised when she walked out the door with 3 outfits on at the same time.

She wore a new yellow shirt that her daddy bought her.

A new yellow dress that her mommy bought her.

And a tutu that I made a few days ago.

I took this picture thinking she was finally dressed, but before she left, she saw a new pair of jeans she'd gotten from dad.....had to wear those.

And the shoes you see in this picture....she changed them.

But, you get the idea.

I am smitten with this little girl, and don't know what I'd do without her.

I love you Clara, Happy Birthday!

Embarrased!!

Have you ever tried to make an embarrased face, without actually being embarrased?

It's harder than you think.

The other day I captured my daughters showing me some embarrased talent.

Clara's version of what it looks like to be embarrased.

Such Talent.

And now Abbey

She's like a pro!

Oh how I love these two....and their willingness to play silly games with me after school.

Adventures....or something like it!

Everyday for me is pretty much the same ol thing. Wake up, get myself, and kids ready. Take kids to various locations. Go to work. Get off of work, pick up kids. Take care of kids, put them to bed, go to bed.

Start over.

Sometimes, I find adventure along the way.

This post is just a little insight into the occasionaly boring life that I attempt to make interesting.

This is me at one of my favorite places called, "Jason's Deli." I was visiting my dear friend Mariela one weekend, and we stopped into this cozy little sandwich shop. After ordering my sandwich, I noticed a fabulous little tray of muffins and other niceties that are COMPLIMENTARY!!

That means free, and my happy motto is:

"If it's free, it's for me!"

In my excitment for the free muffins and such, I had my dear friend take a picture of my happy little muffin.....right before I ate it.

Don't you think I could get a job as the excited face for Jason's Deli?

Could someone let Jason's Deli know that I deserve some of the royalties for the MASS amount of customers they are going to have after reading this post?

Sometimes my work becomes, more or less, boring. And I have to find ways to entertain myself.

I was wearing this very fashionable scarf....and in my boredom....I turned myself into a terrorist!! I especially love that there's a map behind me!

I'M GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!

Is it inappropriate to pretend to be a terrorist, and think it's funny?

I'm sick....I'm sure of it.

I really love the world, I promise, I don't really want to kill it.

One wonderful afternoon, my roommate and dear friend, Jamie and I, took a trip up to Mt Graham with some friends.

As I was talking to Jamie, I noticed the fire that was reflecting in her sunglasses.....

and THAT is when I turned into a photographer.

I took about 55 pictures of Jamie with the fire in her eyes, until it was perfect. And, I'm pretty impressed with myself.

I doubt the photographer in Sarah will come out again for a long time. That was stressful.

So...that's just a bit of my life.

Have a fabulous day.

I can't help it.

So, I have this little sister....we grew up together.

We shared a room.

We fought constantly, and were very different.

But we always loved eachother.

If all of our differences were put into one person, we could probably fly....

or have laser vision....

or be invisible.

Then she went on a mission.

I almost died because I missed her so much.

When she came home....she met a boy.

And then she got married!

I don't know why, I guess she thought it was a good idea.

AND IT WAS!!

I love the guy.....well I mostly love him.

The only reason I don't love him is because he moved my sister again.

TO NEW YORK!!

So mean.

My sister knows that I need constant re-assurance that she still loves me.

So she sends me fun pictures of life in the big apple.

Tons better than the mission, because I get a happy text from Leslie at least once a day.

I think Leslie is one of the BEST people in the world.

I think she's pretty.

Stylish.

And, I am pretty sure she has her own super powers.

For some reason, when she puts her mascara on, she thinks of me.

And so this is my FAVORITE picture ever.

I love you Leslie, more than you know.

Me