Beautiful

They say bald is beautiful,

but hair is pretty darn cute too! I'm so glad she finally got some!

Here is Kerri's latest hair experiment. She LOVED it. As soon as she saw it, she laughed and said she looked just like a poodle (which might not seem like a compliment to anyone else in the world, but since her favorite stuffed dog is a poodle she was very happy). 

Shameless Self-Promotion

Ok, so I'm being one of those annoying "vote for me" people. Here's the story: I was checking out the canvas prints on Winkflash yesterday (60% off until 8/1 with the code CANVAS60), and I saw that they are doing a weekly photo contest with a $100 credit prize. Of course, my brain thought, "Hmm, free canvas would be even better than 60% off canvas," so here we are.

This week's theme is flowers, so I entered a picture I took of Macon's cherry blossoms this past spring. (Want to see it? Click the link and vote! Yeah, I'm mean like that!) I'm barely hanging in the top twenty, but the number one spot is (at this moment) only 35 votes ahead of me. Soooo, vote....for me! I won't complain either if you want to get your friends to vote for me too!

Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is simple. Click this link http://www.winkflash.com/contest/winkflash/browse.aspx?idce=56484 and click vote and you're done! My walls (and Andy's wallet) will thank you! This week's contest ends 8/1, but there's a new contest every week. If you want to enter another week I'll vote for you!

Multi-Purpose

You know the great thing about slip-n-slides?

It comes with a built-in water fountain in case you get thirsty.

At least, that's what these silly girls thought.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

*Sorry about the "squashedness" of the video. I forgot I had my camera turned the wrong way.

Training Them Up

When I was younger, I was the perfect big sister. Really! Ask any of my siblings. Take for example, the second born in our family, Anna. She will tell you I was her best friend, her role model, her confidant...okay, well she might also throw tormentor in there...maybe I wasn't so perfect after all. My sister frightens super easily, and without fail she offers a big reaction to anyone who would happen to take advantage of it. I don't know how many times I scared her growing up, and it didn't stop there. I remember going to great lengths to get in a couple good ones during our time together in college too.

Anyway, lately the girls have spent our dinnertime together begging Andy and I for stories from our childhood. I'll admit, several of my "scaring Anna" stories have surfaced during these times. Well, we just spent all of last week with Anna, and the girls (it was really all their own idea, I promise!) thought it would be great for them to continue the legacy and scare Aunt Anna. For days, they would come up to me whispering and planning what they could do. I even gave Anna fair warning and explained the situation (see - I am a great sister!). We finally came up with a plan. The girls hid in a large cabinet in one of the bathrooms at my parent's house. I was on my way to shower upstairs and called out to Anna to go get me a towel out of that cabinet. It worked! She screamed, they laughed, and here's another fair warning, they're planning for round two! Like mother, like daughter, huh?!

7-11-11 (a little late)

*Playing catch up after being away from home and my computer most of the month!
Here's my monthly picture of the girls - just posted a little late!

Family Pictures

I'd like to take this moment to thank my girls for being easily bribe-able (promises of a late night swim in the pool and a few pieces of chocolate was well worth it in my book). I'd also like to thank my husband for indulging me (although he might have been bribed as well.....).

Without further ado, here are a few of my favorites:

 

of course, there are LOTS more favorites. You can see them all here.

Vacation

This was kind of a strange vacation for us. Normally, we go somewhere and stay for a week. This time, we split up our time between Savannah and Hilton Head. We had never been to either before, so it was fun to get to check them both out. I think it made our vacation seem a little shorter though because it felt like just as we were getting settled in, it was time to move on. We squeezed in as much fun as possible, with a little relaxing on the side.

On our way to Savannah, we stopped and spent most of the day at a water park. It was tons of fun, and the girls were real daredevils with the huge water slide and the "surfing" ride they have.

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

*The girls are on the yellow, and Andy is beside them on the orange.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(I also have an incriminating video of Andy on this, but have decided it's better for my well-being to refrain from posting in on my blog!)

 We spent the 4th in Savannah. In the morning, we went to the Oatland Island Wildlife Center of Savannah and had a lot of fun walking their 2 mile trail and looking at all the animals. Of course, after a hot morning outside, we HAD to spend the afternoon in the pool. We ended the day with dinner and fireworks on the Riverwalk, where we also HAD to check out the world famous pralines and other treats from River Street Sweets - yummy!!

 We did have one little "hiccup" in our vacation. I realized on the 4th that I forgot to pack my camera battery charger. I'll admit it. I'm not proud of it, but I had a Michaella version of a meltdown - read quiet, moody, and pouty - until we got it solved. I was looking into some options but thinking about how I could convince Andy to buy me a $40 charger that I already had at home. Andy is smart enough by now to leave me pretty much alone when I get like that, but he was thinking about how he was going to convince me that he was not going to buy a $40 charger that we already had at home. (Just for the record, I SO would have won out!). Fortunately, for a small fee, Battery Plus saved the day (and my birthday and maybe my marriage.....haha kidding) and charged my battery for me while we ate lunch. Whew! I'm pretty sure I'll not forget my charger ever again! After the crisis was solved, we headed to Hilton Head and celebrated my birthday. We had a great dinner at a really fun place, took a walk on the beach, and had ice cream with some friends.

 The rest of the week was spent hanging out at the beach, doing a little shopping, getting a little beach entertainment for the kids with Gregg Russell, swimming in the pool, and applying aloe to everyone's sunburns!

Oh, and I think the part of the week I was most excited about (hence the reason I HAD to have my charger! ahem, letting it go now) . . . family pictures on the beach! You'll have to check back for those later though!

We're Back!

We're back to our home sweet home (for a day or two). I've got 509 pictures to go through, and I'm excited because I think I got some good ones. We had a great time, and the girls were very adventurous in the water this year. They jumped right in without the slightest hesitation and were probably a little too brave for their own good. (If you're a mommy, you know this means much more work - no more relaxing on the beach with a book while your kids happily play at the edge of the water - but the smiles I got were so worth it!) Their favorite activity was catching waves with their boogie board, and they were pretty good at it! :)

Stay tuned - I'll have lots more vacation photos to post!

Family Time

We've been counting down the weeks, and it's finally here! Vacation=fun family time with just the four of us! In typical Michaella fashion, I've got a week full of activities planned out but left plenty of time for relaxing and of course some beach bum time. I got a spur of the moment idea to make the girls and I dresses for a beach photo shoot and finished them up just in time. Here's a little sneak peak. I'm not sure how often I'll get to update my blog this week, but I'm sure it will be picture overload when we get back!