Ten on... eh, whatever day it is!

1.  I apologize for my absence around here.  Things have been crazy busy what with editing for clients and card design, our own Christmas preparations, and end of the year business stuff.  I didn't really realize how much I was adding to December with starting my own business!!!

2.  Because of #1, my house has really fallen by the wayside.  Today will be the day to attack mountains of laundry and hunt down all those elusive dust bunnies!!!  I want a maid for Christmas.  Does Santa bring those?

3.  We are doing Elf on the Shelf this year - and it cracks.me.up!  Lauren loves hunting for Sprinkley every morning, and she talks to her throughout the day.  When I had my first OB appointment and showed Lauren the little ultrasound print out, she immediately asked if she could insisted she show it to Sprinkley!  The funniest thing about it to me... she opted to just ask the Elf to tell Santa what she wanted this year, instead of going to see him herself!  Since I knew Santa would be a freak-out moment for Paige this year, I was more than happy to give that up!

4.  Fifteen days until Christmas, people!  15!!!  Ack.

5.  As mentioned in #3, I had my first OB appointment and ultrasound last week.  I would like to mention there is ONLY ONE BABY, praise God!  And it looks perfect in size and development!  Music to my ears!!!

6.  I want a birth photographer for this baby, but there just aren't any to be found!  Why hasn't anyone tapped into this amazing opportunity in Phoenix?!?

7.  I love that Colleen always Tweets about the news - if it weren't for her, I would be totally unaware of everything going on.  I am so happy to live in my bubble, though.  I don't miss cable TV at all (okay, other than FOOD NETWORK)!

8.  Anyone know any cute holiday craft ideas?  I want to do something with the girls, but I don't know what.  It needs to be appropriate for a two year old...

9.  I am getting my hair done tomorrow!!!  I love getting my hair done... I feel pretty for a few days.  Fresh and fun.  I don't plan on cutting much off, but I do plan on going dark - like back to my roots DARK.  Prenatal vitamins are great and all -- but they make my hair grow like crazy, and I can't take the constant roots looking greasy and nasty.  So next time you see me, I will be a brunette.  Any wagers on how long it will last this time?  Hee hee!

10.  We are trying to sell Lauren's bed and dresser on craiglist - and again, I really dislike dealing with buyers/sellers on craigslist!!!  People are flaky, rude, scammers.... and on and on.  Anyone need a twin captains bed and dresser with cute flowers painted on them?  Go here - there would be a discount involved!

Have a great weekend everyone!  (That is my way of saying I probably won't be on here again until Monday. Maybe I will be wrong... but I'm not promising!)  =)

Two Years

Paige is now a full-fledged two year old!  Not that she didn't have the attitude down before midnight Monday morning.  ;o)  I am still shocked to think her time of birth was 12:00AM on the dot.  But that is my sweet Paige, she doesn't do anything part of the way - she does it ALL!

Before her party on Sunday we had a little front porch photo session.

Ack!  How can she be this big already?!?  Not possible.

Here's a picture of what she does while she says something is "Cute."

Pretty CUTE, if you ask us!

Hey Paige, how old are you?

It was a nice party with good friends and both sets of Grandparents here to celebrate!

I bought what I thought was a pretty cute cupcake cake, straight out of the bakery's book.

Little did I know that this blue frosting was not the best idea.  We all had blue lips, tongues, fingers... you name it!  My new outdoor furniture even has a nice blue streak from my oldest daughter.  This stuff was brutal!  I am sure the food coloring in it made my children craaaaaazy for two days, and their BM's have been bright green.  Like grass.  Only florescent grass that grows near nuclear power plants - green.  Ew.

Paige didn't really know what to do with the candle - because we didn't practice.

But, at least she didn't scream "No. No. No. No." during the happy birthday song like she did when we practiced that!

And you can always find us Beeler-girls at the party.  We are the ones chanting, "Bring on the icing!"

Then it was present time!  She received lots of awesome goodies!!!

And even her first tricycle!  Thanks "Ama", "Poppa", and "GG"!

Happy Birthday, Paige!

We love you, sweet girl!!!

Nice morning

The girls and I went for a walk around City North this morning, while I attempted over and over again to get a decent picture of the two of them together.  We had fun - even though I am not in love with the shots, I am in love with these kiddos!!!  They were so sweet to each other and me all morning - it was a great two hours of girl time!

After our walk we stopped by a little cafe for a hot chocolate.  Both girls were in heaven!!!

I am still coming to terms with little Paige turning TWO soon.  Her little hands holding this cup so carefully are a firm reminder to my heart... she will be a full fledged pre-schooler before we know it!!!

Just one.

I took 25 pictures of the girls together this morning. And the result? One good picture. Just one. Why is it my own children are the most difficult to photograph? And, why is it that when I am determined to get a certain picture that it become nearly unattainable?!? My theory is that children have this kind of radar - that picks up when they can have even the slightest bit of control over a situation. My children have theirs turned up to maximum. =)

Oh, did you want to see the one picture? My bad.

It'll have to do for today! I am still on a mission for that perfect shot. Just one.

Just one, girls. Pretty please?

Ten on Tuesday

1. I am starting to feel the effects of pregnancy already. Man alive, am I tired! But I can't sleep. Now what kind of cruel torture is THAT?!?

2. We are going to the Suns game on Sunday, and I am super excited for a date with my hubby!!! It feels like it has been way too long!

3. I am so proud of myself, I have to share, even though you might find it a touch boring. Here's my rockin' deals from Super Target this week:

2 boxes Pepperidge Farm crackers

2 bags Goldfish crackers

16 cans of DelMonte Veggies

4 cans Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup

6 cans Swansons Chicken Broth

1 bottle Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice

2 boxes Stove Top Stuffing

3 boxes Philidephia Cream Cheese

2 bags Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chips

1 pack Target brand baby wipes

Total Paid: $2.64!!!

Ok - I cheated a little and used my two $5 giftcards I earned there last week

- so you could say $12.64, if you want - making it 23 cents per item.

Either way, I am one happy shopper!

(In case you wonder, I am not revealing everything I bought today, ONLY the super deals -- even I find the rest too boring to write about.) Ha!

4. The "D" button on my keyboard is sticking and driving me crazy. So if I miss a letter D in something, it is not because I can't spell, it is just because I got sick of fixing it all the time!

5. Lauren gave Justin and I a good laugh last week - and I just have to share! We were hanging out on the back porch talking, and I have no idea what Justin originally asked Lauren. How her day was, or something like that...

Lauren: "Ehhh, it was okay."

Justin: "Who taught you to say 'Eh' like that? You get that from Mommy."

Lauren: "No Daddy, I get it from you!"

Justin: "I don't think so!"

**less than a minute pause**

Lauren: "So, Daddy - what did you have for lunch today?"

Justin: "Leftovers from last night."

Lauren: "Was it good?"

Justin: "Ehhh, it was okay."

Lauren: "SEE Daddy! I told you I get it from you!!!"

She totally tricked him! On.Purpose. It was hysterical - we laughed for a good five minutes! I love kids!!!

6. MckMama made me happy yesterday. Her pile of clean clothes in the corner of her room is actually bigger than mine! I didn't know that was possible - but it made me feel less like a failure as a housewife.

7. Paige's birthday party is in twelve days and I have done zero to prepare. Guess I should get on that soon.

8. Christmas is in 38 days and I have done zero to prepare. Are we seeing a trend here?

9. I guess not ZERO. There are those Sweet Streets playsets I bought for Lauren on eBay in August. Hmm, where are those things anyway? *snerk*

10. Sounds like I have a lot to do... so I probably shouldn't be sitting here trying to think of a number 10! LOL! I have a plan to TRY and take some pictures of the girls tomorrow, so there might be a possibility of pictures on here soon. (Is that far enough away from a promise for you?) ;o)

Have a great Tuesday!!!

Canvas

Thank you all for your congratulations on baby #3! We love being able to share this experience with all of you!!!

Since my Ten On Tuesday post, I have had several people ask to see the gallery wrap canvases... so here is one of them. I haven't decided where to hang the other yet! This one is a 30x20 and is hung above our living room couch.

Once we paint (snerk), I will place it more to the left and flank it with some framed black and whites on the right side. The following is to show the "wrap" better:

I can't take anything but partial credit for this design. The original concept comes from Wordle, and Lindsay Stradtner (a blogging photographer that I adore) was kind enough to share a Photoshop template of it that she created! I simply filled in our own words, dropped our picture behind (and made it very faint), moved some of the words around a touch and voila!

The gallery-wraps come ready to hang on your wall, and beautifully finished all the way around! I am in love!!! If any past or present clients are interested, there is a 20% off sale going on RIGHT NOW - so get your orders in if you want them!!!

While I was hanging and photographing this, the girls were being awfully quiet. I tiptoed over to the playroom and saw yet another tea party going on! They have been making each other "food" daily, and just have the best time cooking it up and eating it together!

My sweet Beeler Girls! If only there were more of these moments in the day-to-day. But, no one ever said parenting was easy - we've just got to roll with the punches!!!

One last time...

All that charting, and temperature taking, and alkaline dieting, and... (etc, etc, etc) gave us the result we were waiting for!

Yowza!  Looking at that little statement there just sends my heart into overdrive!  We are very excited to be welcoming our new addition to the Beeler family in July 2010!

Funny thing about kids - they can have a crazy good memory sometimes!  When we learned we were expecting Paige, we took this family picture:

And Lauren has seen it scroll by on our screensaver occasionally over the last two and a half years.  So, when it came time to take another family picture of our positive test moment, this is what we got:

When Justin asked her why she wouldn't look at the camera she said, "I want to look at you, like I did the LAST time!"  I didn't even care to try again, I was just amazed at her crazy good memory!!!

In light of this "development", I have decided to hold off on combining my blogs to the business blog.  I don't think anyone looking to hire me for portraits will be interested in hearing the ramblings of a very crazy pregnant woman!  So, I will wait until baby #3 is here to make any major blog changes.

Oh my.  Crazy.  Pregnant.  I am just never really ready for those words!