143 | 365 being a shoe-girl joy

Like mama, like daughter. This little girl loves shoes...even if they belong to big brother and are 7 sizes too big. She has a sense of humor too and she knows this is cute and funny.

142 | 365 father's day joy

Happy Father's Day!!

141 | 365 celebrating 2 years joy

Annabelle's Party was so much fun.  My friend Deanna made this awesome cake and it was as delicious as it is beautiful!  It was so good to get together with family and friends and celebrate Annabelle's first 2 years!

140 | 365 Mom's recipe joy

It took about 5 phone calls and at least 10 texts (some with pictures), but I managed to make my mom's Lemon Pie (minus the meringe...baby steps).  I made the filling and put them in little jars for favors at Annabelle's birthday party.  They turned out pretty cute, and tasty too!

139 | 365 Happy Birthday Annabelle

Annabelle's birthday picture taken first thing in the morning on her birthday

In the first pic you are stretching and looking a little like Uncle Casey.  In the second pic, you are just being your cute, funny self.

138 | 365 Pirate Booty joy

137 | 365 all zipped up in 88 degrees joy

136 | 365 Splashing joy

Took the kids to the neighborhood splash pad.  I love these guys!

135 | 365 getting the group together joy

Sadly, two of our favorite families are moving away so we got together for a swim party and to wish them well.  We managed to get a group picture.

134 | 365 finding Paris pics on my cell phone joy

iPhone hasn't perfected the night shot...wierd but who cares, we were in Paris!

133 | 365 girl pretend play joy

When Barrett and Kyle were little, they pretended everything was a car or truck. Raisin boxes were cars, blocks became trucks, food was any kind vehicle they could imagine. I have noticed recently that Annabelle is pretending things are phones...

a block and a french fry are her pretend cell phones

132 | 365 Kyle was here joy

131 | 365 blurry-schmurry joy

Sometimes the kids do something funny and I just have to grab the quickest, nearest camera and shoot and not think about background and lighting, and all that photographer stuff.  This was one of those moments.  Taken with iphone, terribly blurry, and I don't care.  This one's for furure girlfriends!

Somewhere I have a picture of what this looked like from behind :p

...now where is that picture...

130 | 365 goodbye old car joy

When I look at old photo albums, I always see pictures of people with their cars. And because they are old albums you can really see how much cars have changed over the years. So I can someday have my kids gawk at the "cars from the olden days" in our album, I had Cody take a quick pic before I traded in my 2003 Honda Pilot. This is was taken literally as I was pulling out of the driveway to take it to trade in. Check back soon, and maybe I'll post a pic of me with my new car! This was a great car and very reliable and I really did love it. It was my first NEW car and it served me very well. In it's last days in my posession, however, I was not able to remove the keys from the ignition because the starter was broken. I drove around for about a week like that, leaving the keys in, doors unlocked. Made the goodbye a little easier. Other things were falling apart and the kids had really done their share of damage inside and out.
 

Goodbye old friend.

129 | 365 Annabelle Was Here joy

128 | 365 From Paris with Love Joy

So, no, I did not take this today, but I am still going through the Paris/Amsterday pictures slowly (in all my spare time) so I DID just come across this set of pictures today. We came across this bridge in Paris covered in locks with couples' names on them. They symbolize a couples' unbreakable, unending love. You put on your lock and throw the key into the river as a sign of your commitment and enduring love. Here's a link about the lock tradition if you are interested: http://www.bonjourparis.com/story/paris-love-locks-love-that-wont-die/ Can you find our lock? (BTW, Notre Dame in the background)

127 | 365 joy in my rear view mirror

It fills my heart when I look in the mirror and see Annabelle and Barrett holding hands in the car. love. Instagram

126 | 365 patio-weather joy

Today is June 1st and it was about 73 degrees today when my mom, her friend, Susan and I were trying to decide where to go for lunch. So we went to Gloria's and enjoyed a wonderful al fresca lunch. Annabelle was really going after the black bean dip. She's the only person I know who can pull off the black bean face look. On a completely unrelated note, I did like 5 push ups yesterday (the real kind...I know, watch out! I'm so shredded...Okay, I don't even know what that means, I just overheard a gym guy say that once.) and now my arms feel sore as I type this. Pitiful. Here's Miss A: Black Bean Dip is the new black!

We were under a red umbrella--her hair is not red, I just didn't "fix" the color.