Toothless!

My baby girl is toothless-- well not really, but she's got a very large vacancy!

Happy Birthday Brit!

Today is my lil sis's 25th birthday! Happy Birthday!

After two girls...

Two things about these pictures never happened with either of my girls. I always heard stories about little girls (or boys) sneaking off, being too quiet, and mom or dad discovering a child covered in lipstick, eyeshadow.... or magic marker. Through raising two girls, none of this happened. Monday-- today is a day off from photography for me-- so I try to spend the day with the kids. Jacob didn't nap today, so I was trying to catch up on some email while he was sitting quietly reading in a chair. He was very quiet, but I kept checking on him and all was well. The last time I checked on him, I saw him quickly toss something and when he turned to look at me-- I didn't know whether to laugh or scream. Here's what I saw:



And this was the culprit:



As you can see, I took him out to the deck to take these pictures... but the only way I got them was to let him bring his favorite toy and most prized possession, his metal Disney Cars backpack lunchbox full of his favorite cars. I have never seen a child so completely in love with something with wheels. His latest is to line them up in a row and make them crash off of whatever they are on-- in the picture above it was the grill ledge. He went to bed tonight in his cars pajamas with cars in the pockets of them!

Playdate at the park

Last week we joined some friends for a play date at a park in Great Falls. This was the first time the kids had seen a Merry Go Round. They spent over an hour running and jumping on the big metal catastrophe in motion. Both of them ended up with banged up shins from running as hard as they could to get it going and then jumping on but not quite judging the distance and speed correctly. I tried to sit with Jacob in the middle, but only lasted a couple rides. My stomach is a bit weaker than when I was a kid! As you can tell in the pictures, they had a blast. However, a tired little guy took a tumble off the edge of one of the pieces of equipment and gave me quite a scare. It was no taller than a bed and he landed in mulch, but I wasn't quite sure whether he hit his head/neck on the pole on his descent. All was well, thank goodness!

Hiking on the Appalachian Trail...

We've planned to take the girls for a nice hike for the past month. Marc actually took them to the C&O canal a couple weeks ago for a nice flat hike... but we wanted something a little more scenic this weekend. Marc had found some information about a great hike with beautiful waterfalls and waterholes for swimming on the Cedar Run Trail in Shenandoah National Park, but we both agreed that it might be a little difficult for us with the girls. So after seeing my friend Trace-Ann's post about her recent hike to Weverton Cliff near Harpers Ferry, we decided to give it a try. It was perfect for us. We ate lunch, hiked up to the top to see the view, and then back down to the Potomac for a swim. It took us a few hours and the girls, while tired, had a lot of fun. We all slept well last night!

What, you have time to digiscrap again?

Well, not really! But since I do take a ton of pictures, I have been determined to find a way to use them more than just on a blog... and I only have so many walls :) So... over the past few weeks I've been researching book vendors for my photography business. Obviously these books are nice, but too expensive for me to print several copies for family or do books of every event.  Anyway, in doing research I found some really nice templates available at a site called Oscraps. In particular, these two scrapping designers have quickly become a favorite: Taylor Made Designs and Paislee Press. I love the classic, clean, and simple designs that they create. So I made my first Shutterfly Book using some pictures I took from the Outer Banks and a Dream template. When I get it next week, I'll let you know how it turned out.... but for now here's a look.

Click here to view this photo book.

Looth Tooth turns snaggletooth...

Last weekend Ashley announced that she had a loose tooth. I didn't really believe her, but when she showed me, sure enough one of her top teeth was loose. She wiggled and wiggled it over the weekend and by Sunday it was pretty loose... but not quite ready to come out. We went to pump-it-up on Wednesday evening and Ashley banged into Hannah's head. She was crying, her mouth was bleeding, I was just sure that the tooth was gone... but nope it was still in there. She had a bloody lip, but nothing serious enough to keep her from playing. Then last night she was eating a tootsie pop and again she came running to me crying that her tooth got stuck in the lollipop... but it was still in there. Finally this morning I looked at it and it was just barely hanging on. I barely touched it and it came out. Wow! That's the first tooth I've pulled since I was a kid! I usually leave that to Marc! She looks pretty cute as a snaggletooth, soon to be first grader!

I can't make a post of Ashley without including pictures of Hannah and Jacob! Here's a couple from today.