Slow down, summer!

Especially this last summer before we go back to school. Aargh! Schedules! Anticipation...so many unknowns! I've got that dreaded back to school butterflies in my stomach feeling I thought I'd never have to feel again except maybe in a bad dream. I'm not even technically going back to school, but Lily starts Kindergarten in like 2 weeks!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!

Of all things - I am not looking forward to waking up to an alarm clock again... though now that I think about it maybe I will still be waking up to crying baby...Sierra will probably still be waking me up earlier than necessary... I am annoyingly cheerful on here, aren't I? Always looking for the bright side! J/K :) The bright side of this is Lily will probably grow to love Kindergarten and all the exciting things planned for her to do every day, and a little more schedule in our life will probably be good for our little family. We had a good break - didn't think about returning to school when we thought about having a baby...but though we will not actually be in the class it feels like almost the same thing!

I have so many things I have not posted that I still really want to. Birthday parties and our vacation visiting Mike's family, and updates on my little ones. Time just slips by too fast and life as a mom keeps me too busy. This last week life has been heaping one physical ailment after another upon me and my body and spirit have been buckling under the pressure. After a bit of TLC from my sweet overworked husband I am feeling a little bit better than I was this morning, and I started getting some random pictures together for a blog post like a week ago so I thought I would go ahead and post them up. Not sure what the connection of these photos is except maybe July minus the birthday parties and vacation? Actually these are probably all from the same week in the last half of July and I just liked them, because...

I may never win mother of the year, but I have the two most adorable daughters!

Sisters sharing secrets in pink tutu swimsuits in a backyard baby pool.

I love this picture because it came first, and the picture below came immediately
(like 1 second) after ;)

Then I figured out how to look at the reflection of the
 viewfinder to take the picture without the camera in it ;)

There's just something about a clean baby wrapped in a big yellow towel!
(and I don't take enough photos with my kids and me)

The same baby cheesing it up for the camera! Love this kid.
(Kid, but still my baby)

I had to share this - Lily has frequently made up words in songs or rhymes that have (unfortunately) hit on real words. Well, lately Lily has been trying to write, spelling things by sounding them out on her own. So exciting, I know!! This is a card she made for her cousin Audrey on her birthday. It reads: "Audrey from Lily. I 'Love' You. I have a birthday present just for you, Audrey girl." Note: Audrey is spelled O-G-R-E. I know sweet Miss Lily had no intention to call or compare her cousin to an ogre. But, I had to laugh that she happened to hit on that exact combination, and twice! Well, at least the Shrek movies have given ogres a better name, and Audrey isn't reading quite yet - so no hurt feelings ;)

Darling Miss Lily drawing an entry for our church's 'July Jubilee' ---which I feel terrible about not actually entering because we were at the beach and the Leucadia Pizzeria during the window of time you could turn in your entries. She probably would have won a blue ribbon because (this drawing's awesomeness aside) there were a decided lack of entries this year and it seemed like almost everything on display had a blue ribbon or an honorable mention. Which makes me feel even worse for not entering anything...because Lily would have been stoked to win a ribbon and we all could have contributed to the artistic display, but, in my defense we'd hardly had a chance to get to the beach this summer and we really needed it, and the Leucadia Pizzeria is awesome and we were there with awesome friends - so sometimes you just have to make tough choices. Anyway, so it gets the visibility it deserves - here is her really cool drawing of a tiger, and a butterfly and a pink tulip and an apple tree:

Here's Lily getting ready for the Primary Parade at the July Jubilee proudly sitting on her big wheel - decorated all by herself including a handwritten sign honoring the Pioneers!

...And here is a darling baby in the car on the way to the beach...

...and darling Miss Lily at the beach!
(How many times can I use the word darling?)

...and downing the hugest hot-dog (already half consumed in this photo)!

Playing Peek-a-boo at the beach

 Probably not the best idea (my bad)!

(And after Lily had a traumatic sand in the eye episode too. 

No worries - that was before the hot dog above- all eyes are OK!)

Wiped out baby and dad sleeping on the floor after the beach.

Not-wiped-out Lily just getting in on the sleeping-people-on-the-floor picture action. 

Hmm...Which of these people are not really asleep?

Fun to see the love between these two :)

First ponytail ever! It lasted maybe 45 minutes...

Long enough to get a few pictures...
including a picture with some cute naturally curly ponytails in it, too!

I may not be the best mom ever, but I'm so glad I'm the mom to these super incredible little girls!