My Other Baby

My first born.  Natalya turns 10 in Feb.  Double digits.  I have to say, that's a pretty big deal.  For her and for me.  But I'll talk about that more in February because I've told Natalya that February is her month on the blog.  She was less than excited about.  :)  But I really don't get many pictures of her because she's rarely as willing to pose for me as Vienne is.  I'll take what I can get, like this pic of her doing what she does regularly.  Read.  And her favorite subject- horses.

And what does Rockey do while N is reading?  Sleep.  Frankly she sleeps all the time.  At 11 years old, she's still got lots of pep and craziness but it must wear her out quicker.  And who can resist falling asleep in a warm sun spot?

(BTW, I used a free action on these two.  Get it here.  Oeil Photography is wonderful and so are her actions.)

Oh No She Didn't!

Oh yes we did.  We put our tree up.  Trees.  This is the one in the girls play room.  They decorated it themselves so it's really bottom heavy.  But fab.  We have another in the living room that's not decorated yet but will be this week.  They just couldn't wait so I said why not.  Check that off the list. 

I spent last week with a good five day long headache.  It's not unusual, very annoying, hard to work.  But I'm feeling better and ready to get back to life.  I took the girls' picture for our Christmas card.  I love it.  Can't wait to show it to you.  I'm finishing up the last of the Christmas sessions and hopefully will be done with them by this weekend.  Please hold me to that cuz I really do want to be done with them soon. 

Later gaters.  Happy Monday.

The Way Summer Should Be

You know, I'm glad to say that we've had a very nice Summer break.  Although there might have been a few days when I thought I would go nuts by the end of the day because the girls were just having one of those days, I honestly can look back say that we've spent our days the way we should have.  Some days we stayed in our jammies all day, ate pancakes for dinner, skipped our naps and baked cookies, and played in the rain.  Some days we pulled each other on the blanket around the house, played hide and seek for hours (Vienne's current FAVORITE game), or went exploring in the backyard looking for animal tracks.  Things that make up Summer vacation.  On Friday evening, the girls wanted to swim after dinner, at about 6:00.  So we got our suits on and jumped in.  The water was a wonderful 86 degrees!  I know that may seem warm to some, but it is perfect for me.  For the first time, they swam til it got dark, and til we had to put the lights on in the pool, and until the moon shined from behind the clouds.  Summer.  When we came in to dry off, Vienne said, "That was the best day I ever had."  

This is when I wish I had stayed in.  My heart races every time.

The girls would do this forever if Daddy's arms would hold up.

Hopefully you'll take some time and relish the last days of Summer break, enjoy the sunsetting, the moon coming up.  More Best Shots on this last Monday before we go back to school next Monday.

Eyes, and a Tongue, and a Backyard

We finally got some landscapers out here to get the girls' playground done.  I really wish it could have been done at the beginning of Summer because they love it!  Before it was hard to get them out here to play.  Now they don't want to go inside.  And I finally feel like the backyard is home. 

Natalya's eyes.  And tongue.  This is what she does to sabotage my pictures.  Her way of saying, "If you point that thing at me, this is what you'll get."

The view of the sun setting from the playground.  Yep, home.

Summer Lovin'

Hold on to your horses, this is a long one. 

Here are the pictures from our trip to the Bahamas.  I really made a conscious decision not to lug "the third child" (aka camera) around all the time.  As you know, it becomes cumbersome to have to watch it all the time, keep it dry, etc.  It did take one possibly life threatening spill on the first day we got there.  Luckily, it survived with only a headache.  But you should have heard the noise it made when it hit the ground.  Eek.

We had a really great time.  We stayed at a really nice hotel that was totally kid friendly.  Wall to wall kids.  Sorry to those who honeymooned there because you probably got splashed by our children.  The weather was great.  We had two days when it rained in the evening but it left us with plenty o' fun in the sun.  One of those evenings we ordered room service and the girls thought it was the best thing ever.  What kid wouldn't like eating in bed?

Treasure hunting.

She had high hopes of snorkeling in the ocean.  Until the fish came.  You know the ones.  The monster 3 inch ones that threaten you by swimming close to your knees then scamper away.  The snorkel works great in the pool, though.

Still treasure hunting.  Vienne actually enjoyed swimming in the ocean.  That snorkel will be for her next time.

The hotel was full of fish.  There were aquariums all though it.  There were also lots of "lagoons" with hammer head shark, sea turtles, sting ray.  We happened into this tunnel while exploring.

A highlight was definitely when we got to get in the water with dolphins.  We got to kiss, hug, and dance with them.  Vienne smiled from ear to ear. 

Natalya again panicked because of the monster 3 inch fish.  I have to admit, the fish freaked me out, too.  But they are still talking about the dolphin.

The lazy river.  This one was actually more crazy than lazy.  It has rapids that took us pretty high.  The girls got a kick out of watching Momma freak out.

The girls had to get their hair braided.  Somehow it's become a tradition when we go to the beach.  It actually is much easier to take care of while we are there.  They are still in. 

Beauty comes at a price.  Both girls were in tears by the end of it.  The ladies doing the braiding must have been pulling a little hard, it was at the end of the first day we were there, they each sat for a good 45 minutes, and I hadn't combed there hair that day because we had to wake up 4:00 am to get the flight. 

This might be the only evidence of me being on this trip.  This was taken by Natalya at dinner one night.  All in all, I'd recommend the Bahamas.  Actually, I'd recommend the hotel.  We only left the resort once and that was for the dolphin experience.  The water was gorgeous, the temperature was perfect.  When I was little, we didn't go on big family vacations often.  I'm so glad that we are fortunate enough to be able to share this kind of trip with the girls.  I hope that they can look back on this years from now and remember how much fun they had. 

Summer fun.  More at Stacy's today.