Stolen

I was told that a boy will steal a mothers heart. I had no idea what that meant, until I met this little guy. He came in to this world, and snatched mine right up, and I don't think I'll ever be quite the same.

Here is a picture of the culprit, but be careful, he may steal yours too.

Here he is meeting his two big sisters for the first time.

From the looks of it, he's stolen their hearts as well.

So, my sparse blogging usually consists of me going through my phone and seeing what may be somewhat entertaining. This is the randomness that I was able to come up with.

My girls and I at our recent and extremely fashionable photo shoot.

Actually, this is us just being our silly selves.

This is Max. He's not our puppy, but is a frequent visitor to our house, and he's a good little guy. This may come as a shock to some, but we had to find our last puppy (Papito) a new home. Thankfully we were able to find someone that loves and adores him, and doesn't mind his lack of potty training. I couldn't handle it any longer. Luckily, Max doesn't feel the need to mark every corner and rug in my house. Good boy.

Grandpa Mark at Christmas time!

What a handsome elf he is!

I think the facial hair makes him look quite manly, don't you?

I went on a vacation! I haven't gone anywhere in so long, and desperately needed it.

I had the best time, and can't wait for the next adventure.
If you don't know where this is, then you can sing the old rice-a-roni song, I was probably singing this in my head the whole time.

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.