Sweet Summertime...

We've been here 3 days now, and today they brought us our 3rd rental car. At this rate I figure we'll go through the whole fleet before we go home. The first one wouldn't lock and the second stalled every time I used the breaks. We haven't taken the new one anywhere yet, maybe we'll try it out tomorrow.

Maggie is still screaming every time I drop her off in the mornings and she's always having a great time when I go back to pick her up. The teacher working with her must have the patience of a saint. She handles the screaming really well and yesterday when I went back to get her, Maggie was painting CiCi's nails...alternating colors. As long as Maggie said the color in Spanish she got to paint the nail, and bless her heart she still had the nail polish on today when we got there.

Aunt Amy arrived yesterday. We're so glad to have her here. Maggie adores her and Amy is so good to both girls. I also appreciate the extra set of hands and the girl talk. I'm so glad she was willing to come spend her vacation (can you really call it that when you're going to hang out with 2 little ones, and have Mac n' cheese for dinner) with us.

Grace decided today was going to be an awake day. she took a couple of short cat naps but no long stretches of sleep. I guess she was just having too much fun. I hope that means she will sleep good tonight. Time will tell.




This is what happens when Maggie decides to apply her own sunscreen...imagine the tan lines from that!



Grace has become very attached to her burp clothes. She seems to want to be holding one anytime she's sleeping. It doesn't have to be any certain one, just whatever I hand her. She's never really wanted a pacifier and I suppose I'd rather her hold a cloth then suck her thumb.



Today Maggie walked right up to a group of guys that work here and asked if they knew how to build a sand castle. She was thrilled when the did and they were willing to "teach" her.



Today Maggie and Cici made slippers, they are quite the fashion statement.



Gracie loved surfing!

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Location:Cabo

not exactly as planned...

Today didn't go exactly as planned. I suppose when you're traveling alone with 2 little girls, you probably shouldn't plan on anything going as planned.

Don't get me wrong we had a nice day and I LOVE being here, but Maggie is really having a hard time being away from me (by away, I mean in a different room) all of the sudden. I'm not sure what's causing it, but I hope we can find a solution soon.

I hired someone to work with Maggie on her Spanish for a little while each morning while we're here. My plan was, I'd drop Maggie off in the kids room for Spanish and then Grace would take a nap in her car seat next to my machine in the gym....well, it didn't exactly go like that. I went to drop Maggie off and she FREAKED...grabbed on to my leg, screaming, frothing at the mouth, uncontrollable. I finally just had to leave her there screaming, I could hear her yelling half-way up the steps. Then I got to the gym and instead of being asleep, like most mornings, Grace was awake and fussing. I walked a few laps bouncing her car seat (it was really humid so we were both sweating like crazy by the time she finally fell asleep). About half-way through my workout, I got a message that Maggie was doing better, I'm not sure if it was true or not, but they knew I was worried. After the gym, I ran home to take a quick shower before I picked Maggie back up....but wait, we didn't have any hot water...so I took a quick cold shower and then called someone to come relight the pilot light. Right as Grace and I were getting ready to leave to get Maggie, the rental car people showed up to switch our car, the first one they gave us was great, except it would only lock if it was on, that made leaving anything in it in a parking lot a little risky. By the time I returned to get Maggie, she was playing and having fun, and she was telling me what color everything we passed was in Spanish.

I hope tomorrow morning is less of a fight. I can't do that every morning, and I don't feel like I can "give in" to her crying and just stop making her go. What would that teach her? Not to mention, she loves learning and using spanish, so she'll have a great time if she can just relax. Say a little prayer for both of us, one for her to relax and enjoy the experiences before her and one for my patience and wisdom to comfort her.







Grace was just taking it all in. She wore herself out playing in the pool.



More guacamole...I think that's all she would eat while she was here if I let her get away with it.


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Location:cabo

We made it to the beach...

We made it safe and sound. Maggie has pink eye and Gracie pooped through her first outfit of the day before we were even checked-in at the airport in Omaha....but other then that, our trip was uneventful. Even after getting up at 4am, Maggie was a big help and she cooperated great all the way here. Grace slept through the first flight and watched part of a movie with Maggie on the second. Maggie, of course, didn't sleep..."Mom, I'm not going to be tired, ever!"



Maggie could hardly wait to have guacamole for lunch and get in the pool. Gracie took a nap on a pool chair and is quickly proving that loving the beach is genetic :)


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Location:Cabo

Crazy!!!

Things around here are a little crazy!  I had a whole bunch of editing to get wrapped up this week, we had a picnic for my girls group at our house last night and I still haven't started packing.  Oh well, it will all get done! 

The picnic last night was a great time.  I didn't count but my guess is there were more then 20 kids under the age of 5 running around out back.  I hope they all went home tired. 

Yesterday afternoon I hauled the waterslide out of the shed and set it up.  Apparently Maggie had forgotten all about it, because she was so excited when it was ready that she could hardly stand herself.  She put her swimsuit on about 4pm (the party didn't start until 6), and she went down over and over and over for the next 5 hours.  I bet she made 150 trips.  Unfortunately the water seemed to wash away the bug spray so the poor thing came in with tons of bites.  She is covered, I felt so bad for her.  She keeps asking for more itchy cream (benadryl).



Everybody bouncing, the funniest part of this picture is Carly's face...
someday she might regret that :)

 Grace seemed like she was back to normal yesterday. She took a few naps and was a happy girl. She's loving being able to play in her bouncer thing.  I think maybe she feels safer in it, as opposed to laying on the floor hoping her sister doesn't land on her! 

Mom, what's Maggie doing now??



Maggie asks to take Grace's picture about 50 times a day.

 Yesterday afternoon I had to take a headshot of Arnie quick.  It was strange.  I take his picture all the time, sometimes several times a day, but somehow having him in my studio and having to tell him what to do was wierd.  We got a good one. I won't post it, he'd probably prefer it that way.  Maggie was happy to help with the shoot, she straightened his shirt and used her cramera to take several pictures too. (Maybe I'll post one of hers.)

Off to pack, I think I'm going to be surprised by how much stuff it takes me and the girls to be gone for 3 weeks.  I have 8 cans of formula ready to go....that will probably be a suitcase on it's own.

Who needs sleep???

Grace woke up at 7:20 this morning, from then until 6pm, she slept less then 50 min.  I'm not sure what the problem was, she usually sleeps several hours a day, but I guess today she had a different idea (I think she knew I had a TON of work to get done).  We tried all the tricks...rocking, a car ride, swaddling, and Maggie & miss Lauren even strapped her in her car seat and took her for a wagon ride to see the horses, that ALWAYS works.  The wagon ride did get us the first 20 min. nap of the day, but it didn't last.  She must be exhausted!  She went to bed tonight like usual, so hopefully tomorrow we'll get our sleepy and agreeable little girl back.

Tomorrow night my girls group is coming to our house for a family picnic. Tonight while we were setting up the picnic tables and getting things ready I mentioned to Maggie that we would probably need to bring the table and chairs from her playroom out for kids to sit at. A little while later she came out the kitchen door with one of her chairs. Bless her little heart, she carried that chair all the way from her playroom, up the stairs to the kitchen.  She was SO proud of herself.  I convinced her that we could leave the chair in the kitchen until tomorrow, in case it rained, and off she went to get the next chair!  Sometimes she's a bit trying and requires extra patience on my part, but then sometimes she does things that are so sweet and grown-up....she's a good one!

No pictures today, it doesn't happen very often, but I didn't have time to dump the camera tonight...maybe tomorrow!

Happy Birthday America...

What a weekend!  We love the 4th of July around here (or America's Birthday, as Maggie likes to call it).  And this year didn't disappoint. 

Friday night Maggie went to the concert and fireworks in Omaha, while we had dinner at Dick & Betti's with the family.  Then Saturday there was lots of family time during the day and a party and fireworks in the evening.  Sunday we took it easy and just went swimming and out for supper and then Monday was a full day, of the Norfolk parade and the 4th of July at Aunt Trisha & Uncle Jeff's!  Whew, I'm tired just writing it all out.  The girls had a great time but are totally exhausted today.  Maggie was up for a few minutes about 7:30 and then went back to bed and slept until 10! That never happens!!

Apparently Grace has inherited Maggie's sense of style.  Maggie wore Grandpa's shop headphones during the fireworks on Friday night and Grace wore Pop's noise canceling headphones during the fireworks on Saturday.

There were lots of kids at the party on Saturday, Maggie loved having them to swim with.  She also loved playing a little pool basketball with AUUUNNTT AMMMYYY on Sunday (Maggie had Amy, Evan, Laura and Mark to play with her Sunday...that's about as good as it gets for her). Grace did a little swimming too, but was pretty happy to relax with anyone who would love on her.

Monday morning we all (Evan, Amy, Dick, Betti, Arnie, both girls and I) went to the parade.  We sat with the Sheppards and Maggie and Dani had a great time picking up candy. Maggie is trying to convince Pops to have a Norfolk Iron float next year so she can be in the parade. 

Apparently I didn't get my camera out enough this weekend, so I made up for it yesterday afternoon...
1- Gramma & Gracie relaxing by the pool.  Grace wasn't to thrilled about swimming, it was a little chilly.
2- Smarshmellows!!!
3- Gracie and Ellie doing a little floating.  Ellie definitely liked it better then Grace.
4- Happy 4th of July!!
5- Aunt Bobbie tried really hard to dunk Arnie...I don't think she was too successful.
6- Aren't they funny.... they sure thought they were.
7- BRrrrrrrrrrr.....
8- Poor Jetski, I'm not sure what Arnie was doing, but she looks thrilled!
9- A few snaps with Grandpa on the porch (Maggie loved those things)
10- Arnie did a lot of rock jumping.
11- Maggie and Alex playing on the edge.
12- Swimming! It took us a long time to have nice enough weather for family day at the pool, but what a nice day we had!
13- Maggie teaching Ben what it's like to have a 3 year old.
14- Maggie teaching Aunt Bobbie what it's like to have a 3 year old :)
15- We had a zillion toys, but these empty ice tea bottles provided lots of entertainment!
16- Gracie relaxing with Great-Grandma.
17- Maggie and Uncle Jeff went pinecone hunting, I think they both got crazy hair while they were gone.
18- Aunt Joyce was a great smarshmellow cooker.

What a weekend. Now a few days to work like crazy and start packing....I can't wait to get to the beach!!!

whew! Summer came....

Well Summer decided to show up, and it's here with vengeance.  Yesterday I think it hit 102 and it was ridiculously humid.  We were in Omaha, so I could take some pictures.  I got to photograph 2 babies (I've never done that in the same day, unless they were twins), when I take pictures of babies I have to heat up the studio/house....so yesterday we opened the windows to warm up my mom & dads "kitchen studio" and then I joked that I was the only person in town using a space heater. 

I haven't done many babies since Grace was born and these 2 were awesome.  The first was the daughter of my little sisters best friend, she was kind of like my second little pesky sibling when we were growing up. It was so fun to get to meet her beautiful little girl and to spend some time with them both.  In the afternoon I got my hands on little Oliver...he's so cute and I'm so glad to have him in the family.  Both babies had heads full of dark hair and both were so well behaved...it was a photographers dream.  I don't usually share pics of other peoples kids, but these 2 are pretty special to me, so here are a couple.....Oliver is on the left and Finley is on the right...

Maggie decided to stay in Omaha with Grandma & Grandpa, she was excited to get to go to the fireworks on Friday and then be in Norfolk for the fireworks on Saturday.  I hope she actually likes them, she's not always crazy about loud noises, unless of course she is the one making them!

While we were in Omaha wed/thur we had the special treat of seeing all the Westerfield great-grandkids...I'm looking forward to Monday when we have them all together at the same time...it's so fun that everyone will have someone their age to grow up with.  I hope we can all coordinate this well with our future children :)

Hey, what are you doing here?

Grandpa will give us ice cream anytime!!!



"Mom, Oliver has a bugger. I'll get it."



The 12 weeks between Grace and Oliver makes a big difference, they grow so fast!



I should get back to work, I have lots of adorable baby pictures to get through. Here are a couple more of Maggie....



Maggie LOVES to help my dad wind the grandfather clock, she wears the same white gloves
my great-grandma always wore when she did it.  I remember them fitting grandma better :)

 

Maggie and Grandpa were headed out to go swimming, but I guess the floor
needed a quick swiffering first.



Happy 4th of July!!