R-H-Y-L-A-N

I have been working a lot with Rhylan on the letters in her name! We spell her name in the bath with foam letters, we use letter stamps to write it, we use stickers, and magnet letters. We play memory with these letters and any other way I can think of! It is paying off. Today we made a sign for her room. She found all the letters and put them on herself with very little help. She even remembered the order of the letters! What a little smarty:)

My birthday

I had such a great birthday this year!! I am now 26 years old...closer to 30 than 20 so weird. But I don't feel old. I am married and have 2 kids, 26 sounds about right. We celebrated a couple days in a row. Saturday, Riley took me out to eat at my favorite, Olive Garden! I got this new dish that I am pretty sure was the most delicious food I have ever tasted. I also got a new desert that was wonderful.

Then Sunday, we did the cake because Riley was going to have a late day at school on Monday--my birthday. I asked for an ice cream cake this year. Riley was so good and picked the prettiest cake with flowers and fun candles...the letter T was missing?! Then when I cut into the cake... no ice cream. Riley was so disappointed, he said it was right there with all the other ice cream cakes. I still thought it was yummy:)

Monday morning Riley gave me some great gifts and a sweet card. (I got a watch, thick cream lotion from Bath & Body Works, a gift card to my favorite store a Spa Pedicure gift card, and 2 UV lens filters for my camera lenses--way too much) I also got a few cards and gift cards in the mail that day from family, and some nice phone calls and texts. My friend surprised me and got a babysitter for our kids and took me out to eat for lunch!!! Then we spend the afternoon sewing projects, while the kids napped and watched a movie. The perfect afternoon.

I had a wonderful day!! Thanks everyone who wished me happy birthday.

TWOpeasinabucket.COM photography Course: 12 Weeks to Better Photos By Mark & Joanna Bolick

Okay, since I am not going to be able to take an actual college course right now, I am taking a free internet course! Its called 12 Weeks to Better Photos. Anyone is welcome to do it with me. Here is the link :http://sites.google.com/site/biowbiow002/twopeas_12week. I will be posting my homework assignments here on the blog. And hopefully, in 12 weeks, you will see a big improvement. (The course is made for SLR cameras and point and shoot.)

funny story of the night

...I say funny only so I won't get mad! I was checking my e-mail after I gave Gracin a bath. He is running "free." In a whole 20 seconds, he opened a craft drawer, pulled out some cute alphabet stickers, dropped them on the floor and peed on them!!! Pee got on all 3 pages of stickers he pulled out!

2 days of swimming!!

Last week, it was SO HOT outside. We spent a lot of time in the backyard playing in water. One day I decided to fill both our pools. It was kind of funny, Gracin stayed mostly in the bigger pool and Rhylan hung out in the baby pool:) The kids shared the last ice cream bar after wards.



(This pic of Gracin cracks me up! This little swim shirt is size 2-3T. See it's a little tight on the tummy, and big in the shoulders?)

See day 2 below!!!

Then Friday, I went to Target and got this fun sprinkler type toy. We call it the Sprinkler Park! They kids loved it! Gracin is such a water boy, we could have done this for hours and hours. I even had my suit on and joined in to avoid the heat. Then we all had our own popsicles yummy!

Baby Logan Photo Shoot

Well this was my second newborn photo shoot. This little baby was happy to sleep during the shoot! This made my job easy. He was just so peaceful. I just kept snapping and snapping! It was so hard to narrow it down. That is why it has taken me forever to edit them. They were all really good because he never even moved. This experience helped me learn a ton about newborn photography!! I can't wait to learn more!!! Here are a few of my favorites. What do you think? Oh and there is a pic of big brother. I snapped this while Logan was eating.

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5th of july!!

Our day started like this: I see our mouse trap upside down and wiggling in the kitchen. We had figured he had moved out, it had been over a week since we put the glue trap down. I DON'T go check it out, I just tell Riley the good news and leave it to him. He goes to dispose of the creature and says "um... this is not a mouse!" ....................?


What on earth could it be? I couldn't think of one other thing that was small and gray and lived in our house!!!!! Can you?
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He said "its a mole!"--- What! Yeah we had a mole in our house, weird huh?

We moved on and didn't let us spoil our fun.


Riley had and extra day off for the 4th of July weekend. So he planned a fun day for us Monday. He had everyone in mind when picking the activities. Thanks hun for a fun day:)

First we headed to Shelby Farms in TN. Rhylan went for a pony ride. She absolutely loved it!! The ride was pretty long too. They went three times around this long track. After wards, we went and met the horses. Gracin is so brave, he touched the horse right away.






Then we headed to little place part of Shelby Farms:

Rhylan loved helping me pick some fresh fruits for us! We got peaches, nectarines, plums, and a big tomato!



Then after that we headed to the mall. We stopped and had lunch, poor Gracin was so exhausted he was missing his second nap! But he was still in a great mood. We stopped by the Disney store, they were having wonderful sales!! We spent $40 and got Rhylan sunglasses, flip-flops, a summer dress, and a gold princess tea set. We got Gracin sunglasses, a Buzzlightyear swim shirt, 3 pull and go cars from Cars, and a little soccer ball.

Then we just browsed, my birthday is coming up and Riley wanted me to show him some things I wanted. If you are from here and go to the Wolfchase Galleria ever, my new favorite store is Charming Charlie go check it out sometime!!! Its like Claire's for adults. I loved everything in there!
Before we headed home we all got some tasty treats from Dairy Queen. Rhylan was happy to share her's with Gracin. She continues to surprise me with how nice she is to her brother. Just today in the car, she said she wanted to marry Gracin. I said no, you can't marry your brother. She said "I have to marry him, or I will never see him!!!!" --How sweet is that:)

SOOC

I won't say this is my favorite pic from the weekend... I love pics of my kids. But this is my favorite picture I took without my family in it!! SOOC-means "straight out of the camera." This is one of my goals. Take pictures and love them without editing!

Got POOP!!!!

Today since 1:00 (that is 3 hrs ago) I have done a lot of poop detail!!

Surfaces I have cleaned free of poop: Hallway carpet, Gracin's bum, bathroom floor, Rhylan's legs, Rhylan's bedroom carpet, Gracin's feet, bathtub, living room carpet, Rhylan's bum, toilet seat, and my shirt. Yes I did say 3 hrs.

Tools I have used to clean these: Water, Oxyclean, Cleaning spray, a washing machine, toilet paper, paper towels, wipies, 2 rags, 2 paper plates (great scoops), Wal-mart bags, and a cardboard box!!

The culprits:
1. Gracin: pooped in the hallway, stepped in it, and trailed it through the living room. In the process of cleaning him up he got poop all over the bathtub.

2. Zelda: pooped in Rhylan's room!!! She has never done this before. That was really gross.

3. Gracin: had a poopy diaper. I carried him to the change table and in the process got poop on my shirt!

4. Rhylan wanted some privacy to go to the bathroom. When I went to check on her she had a "dirty" tissue and was cleaning poop off the floor. When I asked her how it got there she said " I just don't know, get out of here okay!" I offered to help, then I found poop on the toilet seat and all over her legs!

Please let tomorrow be a poop free day!!!!