dear baby hollis.

>> Sunday, May 31, 2009

dear baby hollis.
i adore you more than you can possibly know. you seem pretty calm during the day, but as soon as i lay down at night you seem to want to play & let me know you're full of personality. you also like to play when your sister is sitting on my lap near my belly, i think you can hear her and you already love her & want her to know you can't wait to meet her. i can't believe just a few short weeks (13ish, actually) you will be here with us, joining our family.
until then, could you please quite using mommy's bladder as your own personal trampoline. i know it's fun, but it's causing me all kinds of embarassing problems lately :)
love you baby,
mommy

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puppy love & STOP!!! potty time!

>> Wednesday, May 27, 2009

ava loves her puppies...so much that she covers them up with her blankies when they are laying down...or she is trying to make them horses and those are the saddles...not quite sure :) either way, i think it's super cute!

by the way...we have had several days in a row with poo poo and pee pee in the potty! yay! not all day long, but at least a few times!!! that's all i can ask for! just kind of easing into this whole potty thing, but crossing my fingers that by her birthday she is using the potty pretty regularly and that by the time hollis joins our family, he will be the only one in diapers! ha! she is being rewarded with "lips" whenever she uses the potty...she loves her lipstick!!! nice little bribe there!

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holiday weekend

>> Sunday, May 24, 2009

hope you are having a fun and safe holiday weekend!!
much love,
amanda

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a year ago...

>> Friday, May 22, 2009

today...my how she has grown!

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country girl

>> Thursday, May 21, 2009

throughout my life i have always felt like a country girl...not so much in the desire for all things farm; pigs, chickens, etc...but more for the wide open spaces. something about waking up, looking out the window and seeing nothing but horses, pasture and blue sky makes me swoon. the more i watch ava and see her love of nature, animals and running free, i just know this dream of country living will someday just HAVE to come true! maybe not tomorrow or in a year or two, but someday! but for now, one acre & a couple of big dogs will have to do! at least we already have that big texas sky!
just a few more from our day with vickie and randy!

cowgirl watching ava chase charlie

love this one of my girl in the flowers


ava and randy

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pony love

>> Wednesday, May 20, 2009

yep...we have found ava's true love! animals! she love, love, loves them! she is pretty fearless when it comes to most animals (she's not too sure about the gorill at the zoo, though).
we had such a fun day at vicky and randy's yesterday and ava got to get up close and personal with her all time favorite animal (at least right now)...horsies! actually, horsies and "puppies"...i think she loves them equally! anyway, i took over 150 shots yesterday and haven't even made it through half of them...these are just a few cute ones i had to share! definitly more to come! it was a gorgeous day and ava had so much fun! thanks so much for having us out vic and for making ava's day so special!

okay, so the above photo has been majorly photoshopped to get rid of hands and bodies and ropes...no, we did not let ava go galloping off into the sunset on sweet faith (even though i think she is quite a natural cowgirl!)!






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>> Tuesday, May 19, 2009

we spent the day out at vickie's. ava had a total blast playing with the dogs, horses, vickie, and randy! it was so much fun! more pics to come...ava "riding" her first horse!

i think it was the best day of her two years! she loved it!


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meet up

>> Sunday, May 17, 2009

today i spent part of the afternoon at the botanic gardens in fort worth with my photography meet up group. i wandered around with two other super nice ladies and we had a great time and got some pretty photos. i had never really thought about photographing nature...i seem to gravitate towards people & animals...but i have to say that this experience has opened my eyes to the beauty of nature photography. first of all...i LOVE how everything holds pretty still for you...no chasing! secondly, nature is just beautiful anyway, so it is really fun to capture! anyway, here are a few of my favorites from the afternoon...



this bird posed for us for quite a while! it was pretty funny!

i couldn't resist photographing a person...she was just too cute!
i have always loved magnolias...i think this one is my favorite!
i am soooooo thrilled that i found this meet up group. everyone is just so nice and has a different level of experience. great to learn from as well as help out! so fun to get together with people that share a similar passion...i always leave feeling inspired!
after the meet up, i picked up super girl and met my mom at the antique mall. i have been trying to find ava the perfect big girl bed to transition her to sometime soon. mom spotted a few cute ones while she was working today so i had to go check them out! they were all adorable, but i went with a black one (to be painted another color...i like the black, but it won't go in ava's room)! so excited to have found one and can't wait to paint it and get it in her room! i know she is going to love a new big girl bed! hopefully the transition won't be too difficult for her.....i'll post some pics as soon as i get things switched around!

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rewind...

>> Saturday, May 16, 2009

do you ever have one of those days you wish you could just rewind and start over...today was that day for me...if only i had been more patient, less grumpy, more playful, present, a soft place to fall, understanding, welcoming, happy...
yes, i wish i could rewind today and do it over, i would do it better....
thank goodness for tomorrow...

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amazing

>> Thursday, May 14, 2009

tonight i sat and watched ava play on the floor with her blocks for a good 30 minutes. she has had these blocks since christmas and has always liked to play with them, usually mommy and daddy have to play, too. tonight, she just kept putting them together and taking them apart totally content to be doing this by herself and totally focused on her task. i wanted to get the camera so badly, but thought that might steal her attention away and the moment would be lost...so i just sat and watched my amazing girl and it made my heart sing. she is just growing and changing so quickly...i want to remember all these moments with her, just her and i, quiet around the house, no distraction, no noise...just my girl with her blocks discovering something new.

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we had a lot of fun last week with mimi and gabby! spent a lot of time together and even made a trip to the zoo...the weather finally cooperated!

ava giving gabby kisses!
ready for some zoo fun!

watching the elephants...moments before falling headfirst into the bushes on the other side of the fence....what can i say...she got a little top heavy!
and her absolute favorite: feeding the birds...i think she could have stayed in here all day long!
thanks mimi for all the great pictures!
ava loves zoo so much. we got a zoo pass so now we can go whenever we want to and as much as we want to! yay! hoping to go again soon!

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happy mother's day!

>> Saturday, May 9, 2009

happy mother's day to all of you beautiful, wonderful mama's out there! but especially to my mama, happy mother's day! thank you for always being there for me and loving me no matter what. i hope i can be as wonderful a mom to my babies as you are to me.


had to edit this post with the video i have spent hours trying to get uploaded...grrrr...finally it worked!!! yaaaayyyy!!!!
love you mama!
xoxo,
your baby girl

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24 weeks

>> Friday, May 8, 2009

there you have it...the 24 week baby belly! only 16 more weeks to go....

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black eyes & sticker fun

>> Thursday, May 7, 2009

sorry for the slow blogging lately...we have been keeping ourselves pretty busy around here. to start things off...the other day ava was playing at her little table sitting in her chair on her knees (i am constantly telling her, "sit on your bottom"). anyway, long story short, she feel forward off the chair hitting her head against the table. she had a few tears, and then said, "all better" and was back to her playing...i told you last time, she's a bruiser. a little later i noticed that she cut her eyelid when she fell. poor little baby. i keep calling it her first black eye...even though it never bruised. just got really swollen. this is the best pic i could get of the black eye:

yesterday morning we were supposed to go to the zoo with mimi and gabby (maryann's mom)...but of course, the weather has been crazy and unpredictable around here and it looked like it was going to rain and the weather men were all saying rain all morning. so we decided to try again friday morning and just get together. nobody wants to go sloshing around the zoo...stinky & not fun! so ava and i ran over to mimi's to play for a bit. while we were there, ava discovered a coloring book in a stack of magazines. poppy had gotten it for her at halloween and forgotten to give it to her. well, thank goodness he forgot, because inside the coloring book was a page or two of stickers and she kept herself entertained with those stickers for a long time and was just so happy! toddler bliss:



such a silly girl:
mimi and ava

mr. zack...having ava over is always exhausting!
i'll have to get some shots of ava and gabby on friday! most of the ones i got yesterday were too dark...grrrrr!
i had a dr. appointment tuesday. just a boring one (thankful they are boring, usually that means things are going well). got to hear little man's heart beat, which is always nice. dr. ryan said everything looks good and he'll see me in a month...then he rushed out to deliver a baby, how exciting!






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this little piggie...

>> Friday, May 1, 2009

i think it is physically impossible for this child to sit still...she always has to be moving something, even if she is totally relaxed. usually it's her fingers or toes, this morning it was both, together. she is quite the quirky little thing. and yes, those are some bruises on her right leg...if you saw her play, you would totally understand! we don't call her bruiser for nothin'! and yes, that is just a smidge of pink nail polish left on her toes...she can be a bruiser and still be girly...right???!!!




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