Summer Events

So for recent events. Let me tell you, we don't many exciting things. Not in the crazy heat we've been having. Like 103 degrees with the heat index around 115. It's unhealthy. I don't think I've seen a day with a high below 98 in months. But supposedly cooler days are coming next week. Cooler as in 93 degrees. I better unpack my sweaters :) So indoor activities are popular. Like gymnastics for Miss A and her insane energy.

She is strong! Look at those little biceps! I think she's inherited my arms. Sorry, girl, welcome to a lifetime of insecurities about having man arms. sigh....

Baby T's first food experience! Okay, she is the CUTEST! Don't even bother to tell me otherwise. I love her chubby little smiley face! But I HATE feeding solids. Hate hate hate it.

Eating as a family at Central. If you know Memphis, you know Central Bar-b-que. It's cheap....it's dirty....it's delicious...it's how bbq should be!

Then for dessert off to a cupcakery - you know I'm a sucker for those.
Post cupcake sugar nirvana face.

And...."I'm about to be given away by my family of 5 years" face. I took this right before we stuck Lulu in my parent's car to head to her new home.

Mostly, life just revolves around this girl. I guess we do actually get out a lot for events for her, just this past week she's gone to a movie, gymnastics, the mall carousel and playplace, the fountain at Mud Island, swimming, story time, slip-n-sliding, and I'm sure a few more things that I've forgotten.

And to wrap it up, a few pictures that I meant to share a couple posts ago. I had taken the T out to do her 6 month pictures. I think Miss A got tired of all the attention being focused on the baby and actually wanted her picture taken for once. Except she was in underwear and her hair was in it's usual glorious state. Which is a bummer because it's so hard to get a genuine smile from her!

Oh summertime in Memphis. Can't wait for the fall!

The end of an Era

See the sweet puppy? That's Lulu shortly after we adopted her five years ago. And let me tell you we were obsessed with her. I'm pretty sure my first facebook photo album that I created was just pictures of her. We took her everywhere, cuddled her, took her to the park almost everyday, dressed her up to watch steeler's games with us, took her backpacking, and she slept in my bed with her head on my pillow every night.

Can you see the love in our eyes? Even Zach's (who can't stand her now by the way).

So what happened? Kids happened. And just like in Lady and the Tramp, Lulu's luxurious life screeched to a halt. I had to go WAY back in our photo files to even find pics of Lulu. Where as pre children, every folder of pictures on our computer was mostly of her - which was a bit much I admit. (Don't tell but I used to take pictures of her with me when we would go out of town and had to leave her! Sad, right?)

I can't believe Miss A was ever this small! She's probably about they same age here as Baby T

So for a while now, Lulu has been ignored by Zach and I and tortured by Miss A. Miss A likes to poke her eyes, pull her tail, jump on her, kick her, you name it. And the tension has been rising. Lulu is terrified of her and bit her face a month or so ago. We knew it was time to find her a new home, and despite the fact that I haven't paid much attention to Lulu for a long time, I just dreaded giving her away. Well, my amazing parents offered to adopt her (but we're all considering it more of a joint custody arrangement) so last weekend, we met up in Nashville and did the hand off. I hope it's a good thing for all involved. I think Lulu will have a better life away from Miss A and I feel a lot less stressed constantly monitoring them or kenneling Lulu all day to keep further biting from happening. And my mom treats her way better then I do. But it does make me sad looking at these old pictures. Not even so much because I miss Lulu but because I used to really love her and then I became a cold-hearted person or something! Not that I don't care for her, but I have treated her more as an annoyance for a long time. Truth be told, she's one of the best dogs and always has been. So we have become yet another family who ditches their dog after having kids. But we made it 3 years at least with both and we'll be seeing Lulu when we visit my family, which is often!

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The good old days, when I had a heart :)

Not for the faint of heart :)

My goal for the last couple weeks has been to have pictures taken that I am actually in. It's just I hate seeing pictures of myself. They rarely make it off the camera on to my computer. But I know I will regret not having pictures of me with my children especially. I have none from the last 6 months. Soo....drum roll...I'm apprehensively posting some me pictures. The last time I appeared on my blog was when Baby T was born - and those were NOT pictures I want anyone to remember me by!

So first things first, it would be nice to have a facebook profile picture on my account that I'm actually in. So I started there.......and we did not get off to a good start. And I quickly was reminded why I never have my picture taken.
Seriously, this was the first picture. I have a major chronic issue where I blink when the flash goes off, but somehow the picture always catches me with my eyes half closed like above, so I don't just look goofy, I look hammered. This really is my signature look. Before digital, when I couldn't delete all the blinking pictures, I have dozens of printed snapshots with this exact face going on. Gross. For any of you BYU - ers, do you remember how each apartment complex/ward would have a directory with your picture, email, phone number, etc....The first two directories that I was forced to be in, my pictures were taken with film cameras, so the guy did one shot and moved on and I just had to cross my fingers that I looked ok. And when those directories were handed out, what do you think I looked like? Yup, just like above....hammered and heinous....and even more unfortunately, do you remember how people used to refer to those directories as like dating directories or something? So you could flip through and pick out the cuties you wanted to go on a date with. How many dates do you think I got based off of my picture? Let's just say most Friday nights I was taking public transportation to the climbing gym. Alone. Moving on :)

A little bit of an improvement. But if you think it's just the camera flash that gives me problems, my signature look number TWO is below.....

The Un-intentional Sassy Wink. For some reason, when I smile one eye gets REAL squinty and I honestly can't tell it's doing that. So I know lots of my friends have pictures of me doing the Wink and if you do, be a good friend and delete ASAP. Of course, if you were a REALLY good friend, you would have deleted them already and not had one say from a girls trip to NYC on your facebook account (Ahem brooke nelson :) )

Some of me and Miss A. She is also working on her own unflattering signature looks as you can see.

So I will continue to allow some pictures taken of me for memory sake. As long as they are only taken on a crappy point and shoot. I love the quality of pictures from a nice DSLR - unless that high resolution detailed sharpness is capturing every wrinkle, freckle and oversized pore on my face!