Three Things

FIRST...
www.melaniepitcherphotography.com/

I've been working on a new photoblog/website to replace the Life As A 4x6 one. This new format is just so much better for displaying photos and is a little more pulled together looking, a little more official-ish. Since I had to do it all myself to keep it cheap, it's not as spectacular as in my dreams, but still, much better then before! I have 3 new posts up there already so go check it out!

SECOND.... Miss A turned 3! After my beyond lame and fairly non-existent attempts at her 2 year festivities, I'd resolved to do better this year.....

And if I were a more awesome mom (not to mention a mom with tons of extra cash to throw around) I WOULD have done something like you see above (picture is straight from the Hostess with the Mostess blog). Miss A's birthday was better this year, because I bought her several good gifts, versus the one watering can I bought her last year that I'm using for a decoration so she can't play with it. But other then that....no decor, storebought cake. It's just so overwhelming time-wise and EXPENSIVE to do those big shindigs. And I've decided I have to keep my task load small. I'm not one of those moms who can juggle a million things at once. If I try and do too many things beyond taking care of my kids and their activities, I start feeling stressed, then frustrated when I can't get anything done because my kids need me....and then I go into mean mom mode. I guess I know my limits. I wish I was a do it all mom, but I'm just a much nicer mom if I keep life simple. But when I was thinking about trying to actually do a party for Miss A, I thought that this idea for a place setting was cute! Not the colors and patterns necessarily, but the idea of it. I will use it one day!

THIRDLY -

Baby T is 6 months! She's sitting up, eating some solids, rocking on all fours, and has awful diaper rash from antibiotics from a double ear infection. Happy Half Birthday! I'll make your one year birthday better! Just don't ask your sister about her birthdays :)



A little before and after photoshop example. Below is the straight out of camera.

So my husband told me that my blog was getting boring and that he wouldn't look at it if it wasn't about his kids....and maybe those weren't his exact words but I filtered out the fluff and that's what I heard :) Regardless of what he actually said, the truth is, life has been pretty tame lately, wonderful, but not sooo exciting. I know every post I do is "i love my kids, aren't they the cutest" but really, I can't think of much of anything I've done this past month that hasn't been with them, about them, for them.... So here's the June review...yes, mostly about kids :)

BABY T IS FIVE MONTHS!!!!!

Her gorgeous hair is thinning like crazy. I haven't yet figured out how to make it look nice. Then again, I haven't yet figured out how to make my own hair look nice and I've had 27 years to figure that out. My girls have no hope of cute hairstyles ever.

Can you believe how much she's changed! The above picture was taken at about a week old. With all of her thick gorgeous hair intact. I miss it! She's growing so much, so quickly, it's breaking my heart. Stay my baby!!!
And would you look at that! Sitting up already. Very wobbly, but getting there.

Isn't this swimsuit A-DOR-A-BLE!!
Look at that little tutu bum!
And she's practicing for her facebook profile picture already. You know, doing a kissy face.

Miss A

Summer suits her. Lots of cold treats, she has popsicles, slushes, and ice cream cones on a daily basis.

This is her "cooperating" for pictures.

Due to it being extremely hot here (we've had a heat advisory for almost 2 weeks now) she spends a lot of time in the water. Slip 'n slidin with friends... (thanks Jeanette for the pic!)
And swimming with dad...
We've braved very few non water outings. Feeding the fish at the gardens...

And touring the fire station with a field trip group that I'm involved with and love!

The kids in our field trip group. Pretty cute eh?

Melanie and Zach update
I have no pictures of us this month. In fact, I don't have a picture of me since the really gross ones taken of me in the hospital when Baby T was born. My goal for next post will be to have a picture of the parentals on here, maybe even together! And who said my blog wasn't exciting? :)

Hiding....

I've been avoiding my blog and all blogs the past few weeks, I knew once I started looking I'd be sucked in! I have no willpower! And I haven't had the time. But right now the kids are in bed, the house is clean, and I've caught up on the last month of Glee, so I have the essentials done. The past 6 weeks or so have been busy, good busy, but busy. I decided that having two young kids is totally easy and do-able, as long as you don't try and do anything else! In May I got a chance to help shoot a couple weddings for the first time, it was a great experience. But the edits sure kept me busy! Mostly done holding Baby T in my left arm. I'll be getting those pictures up SOMEtime on my photoblog. We also went to visit my family for a week, I went to Atlanta for a day for a photoshop workshop, I had family come stay with me for a bit, tried to keep Miss A busy with field trips and activities, been trying to potty train her (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH! hate it!) so on and so forth. Anyways, I'll be getting my act together this week I hope. I'm scared to open my google reader but excited to see what my friends have been up too!

On a side note, I know I've given Miss A a bad rep here and there on my blog. Not that it wasn't earned :) But she really has been such a joy to be around lately!! I think it has a lot to do with keeping her busy. Also, I have to say what a great big sister she has been. She's really shocked me in that area. She is so sweet and concerned for her baby sister. She cares about her but doesn't try to take care of her, which is a good thing. I was afraid she might try and carry her or feed her cheetos or something (not that we ever have those in our house, I meant to say carrots, I'm afraid she might feed her carrots....right right...). But she is so gentle with her and doesn't get mad when she has to wait on something while I take care of Baby T. In fact, she's offered to hold the baby's bottle sometimes so I can go quickly and do something else. This only lasts like a minute, but that minute is wonderful! Especially if I need to run to the bathroom or grab a snack of chee...ahem "carrots".And another side note...Something Miss A has been doing that has been cracking me up is coming up with little morning greetings. Even though I don't lock her door, she must think I do because she won't come out of her room in the morning until I get her. And lately she has been waiting for me as soon as I open the door with a pose like this.....

or this.....

Funny huh? But some mornings she just greets me with a major funk and and gleeful "I'm POOPY!!!" yeah, potty training....

Another side note - Miss A's amazing modeling cooperation from the last post is most definitely over. My friend and I took our daughters out to get some pictures of them together. I was a bit over ambitious given her recent good behavior and had a whole scenario in my head of the girls in front of this old house with pearls and old suitcases and umbrellas involved....yeah...I didn't get a single shot of any of that together. Miss A decided not to do anything I wanted, but seeing as it was 95 degrees outside and I had set my expectations a little high, who can blame her? But the little ladybug picture up top was from that day and it makes me happy at least! As does the one below.

Last side note: She's also started lying! Like if she doesn't want to help clean up her toys, she says "Oh, my belly hurts, I need to lie down. Mommy clean up OK?" Seriously? And she clutches her belly and whimpers while doing it. What a goober!

Oh and baby T? She's perfect as always. Smiles and giggles anytime I talk to her...chunky and tall and wearing clothes that Miss A wore when she was 12 months old and walking! Crazy how different these 2 are!