It’s the little things that go on around my house that keep me going. It’s these little things that, if I didn’t have them, would make my life less colorful and less dramatic. It’s these little things that probably don’t mean much to anyone else but mean the world to me.

The window in my dining room

Without this window I wouldn’t get all the fabulous shots of my girls. Most the picture I take of them are in front of that window and I’m going to be sad when winter comes and it’s dark when I get home. I love that window.

I love it so much that it’s not bothering me that everyday that I take pictures the background is all the same. It’s the perfect lighting and the perfect place to put a toddler in a Tinkerbell chair to take her pictures.

The Tinkerbell chair

She loves her chair. She sits in it all the time and will cross her legs like that while pretending to read or playing her DS. She acts so grown up and I really can’t get enough pictures of her in her favorite chair.

Livie’s curls

I’m sure the day we trim her hair the curls will be gone the same way Hannah’s were. I’m gonna hold out til she’s 4 or so before I trim it like I did with Hannah. Maybe even longer. I love her hair.

Toys

I just went and cleaned out Hannah’s entire room. It was a mess and she refused to clean it up so I followed through with my threat and brought up 3 garbage bags and filled up each one to the top with her toys. The worst part of the punishment was the fact that she didn’t care at all that 95% of her toys were just thrown away. She was just glad to see her floor again. So while I’m not tripping over her toys as much anymore, Livie’s are all over our downstairs no matter how much I try to keep them contained to a corner.

But I know that these toys on the floor mean that I have a healthy baby running around playing and really, I can’t complain about that. Too much anyway.

Baby talk

Listening to the girls play. I could listen to this all day. Livie still makes no sense but I love how Hannah acts like she can understand her and plays along anyway.

Point and shoot cameras

I have a fixed lens on my camera. I can’t zoom it in or out. I am in love with my lens BUT it makes it very hard to do self portraits of ourselves. So last night I busted out the point and shoot to get some pictures of me with my babies. When you have a husband who works in the evening when you do all your picture taking it makes it very hard to actually get any pictures of you with your kids. Well not anymore. I bought the point and shoot 2 weeks ago and it was a great, cheap investment.

A willing subject

Anytime Hannah is willing to let me take her picture is a happy day for me. Last night she was willing.

And I was happy.

I wanted to always have picture filled posts here. Happy go lucky my life is grand posts.

My life IS grand 95% of the time.

But there is 5%, give or take, that isn’t always grand. I try not to focus on those days because that’s what brings me down. Life is what you make it. I 100% believe that. YOU make your happiness. YOU choose to happy. YOU choose to dwell on things and let them affect you.

In other words, I choose those things. The few things that bring me down constantly…it’s my choice to dwell on them. It’s not my choice that they pop in my head but it’s MY choice how I react to them. I also admit that I sometimes need help with how I react to them. They’re things I can’t change about the past so I have to change how I feel about them. I HAVE to….before they consume me.

I choose, most days, to focus on the fabulous things about my life. Those are the things that define me. Those are the things that keep me going. I at least realize that the bad things don’t define me. And thank God they haven’t affected my life SO much that they’re all I think about…or that things are SO bad because those things happened to me. Because it’s not. Things are good. Things are really good. And those things are just speed bumps. Granted, sometimes I take a detour and circle back around and ride over those speed bumps again. Sometimes by choice. Sometimes it just happens. But I wouldn’t be me without them. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

I wish that “that person” would disappear. I miss my dad. I miss my ex best friend. I’m jealous of people who are close to their siblings. I wish that “one huge thing” never happened. These are my 5 speedbumps.

So now that I’m out from under the rock of sickness I was under for DAYS, I have to say, I NEVER want to be sick again. Like ever. I wish upon all the stars and beg God himself to grant me that wish. Stomach flus suck. Stomach flus when your ENTIRE family including your husband and MIL and SIL etc are out of town REALLY sucks.

It all started last week. I took Thursday and Friday off work because Hubs left for Florida with his family to go to his cousin’s wedding. I had to stay behind with the girls because they weren’t allowing kids at their reception. We found it pointless for us to travel that far with the girls and not even be able to attend all the wedding functions so I told Hubs to go and I’d go see my friends in California later this summer. Livie and I had a peaceful day Thursday. We took Hannah to school. We cleaned the house. We watched TV.

By Friday I was missing EVERYONE and pretty down in the dumps that they were all off having fun while I was left behind. I knew Hannah was REALLY hating it because that girl could live on the beach and she KNEW they were all on the beach. It was NOT fair, so I was told by her. But Friday was her field day at school. A slight bright spot to our otherwise sulky weekend we had planned.

After being outside in the heat I wasn’t feeling too hot. Livie was extremely crabby so as soon as we got home, we took naps. When I say that I woke up in pain…that’s a major understatement. I woke up writhing in pain. My back hurt. My legs ached. My toes even hurt. I called for Hannah and told her to bring me a drink. And so it started. I hadn’t eaten anything all day so I dry heaved. And at that point I knew I was surely dying. Or almost dying. Or just REALLY REALLY sick. And I cried because I knew that Hubs wasn’t going to be home til late the next night. And I was going to have to handle these kids BY MYSELF while puking my guts out.

Hannah was amazing. I complain about her attitude. I complain about her snarkiness and her sassy mouth. I took that all back on Friday. This child was like an angel. She took care of me like only a daughter could. She brought me my drinks. She heated up Livie’s bottles. She made her own cereal. Her own lunches. She checked on me every 30 minutes to make sure I was ok. I kept telling her that she’s so wonderful and I wouldn’t have made it through the day without her. Because I wouldn’t have. Honest to God.

By Saturday I was feeling a TAD bit better. I was at least able to get out of bed or the couch for longer than 5 minutes without wanting to pass out. I’ve been on the mend VERY slowly since then. But OMG. It was awful. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Except now Hubs’ brother, sister and HER boyfriend are all sick with what I had. They came over Sunday afternoon. It’s that contagious.

By Monday night things were pretty much back to normal. Hubs went to work. Hannah and I watched Dancing with the Stars. She made her usual comments:

I’m relieved. Finally over the sickness hump. Sadly, me taking pictures fell to the backburner. I kept telling myself that I’d regret it and I should take them anyway even if it hurt just so I’d have them later. But I couldn’t. And really didn’t want to. That’s how sick I was. So hopefully tonight I’ll get back into that groove. Thanks for all the well wishes though. I totally appreciate it

I’m alive. I think. I’m slowly getting over the stomach flu/virus/impending death sentence that was given to me last week on Friday. It makes me sick that I haven’t blogged since WEDNESDAY. Trust me. I just haven’t had it in me. Today is my first day back at work and I’m swamped. So blogging is going to have to take a backseat again. Please bear with me. And also, pray that I will be able to eat soon seeing as I’ve eaten 2 meals in the past 4 1/2 days.

Yes you read that right.

Also, I hate puking especially when it wasn’t from a fun night out or because I’m giving birth in 9 months. If it’s not for those 2 reasons, it’s worthless puking.

Remember that.

As promised, here are the pictures I took Sunday night. The good, the bad, the crying, the funny….there’s a lot so here we go.

We started off ok. I figured, let me get Livie’s done first since she’ll be the worst to photograph.

She was clearly NOT interested. Like at all.

So she said “Yo mom, I’m outta here. See ya” and took off. That was the end of that.

Now Hannah on the other hand…ham city!

My fav of her. I’m still amazed at how stunning she is. Like seriously, how did we create such a perfect face?

Then little miss I’m Outta Here decided to play nice for a bit and let me get this one of her.

My fav of Liv. Another perfect little face.

And then this happened. No perfect smiles. And yet…it’s perfect. It’s real. It’s our life. Hannah wanting so badly to hold her baby sister who USED to let her hold her and now cries every. single. time. I feel bad for her…but I told her there’ll come a day when Livie will WANT to be around her and she won’t want her to be. She replied “Yeah. I feel that way now.” HAH.

So we grabbed Livie off her lap and just told her to go run around and play.

Livie watched from a much happier spot in Daddy’s arms.

Then I had Hubs take this one. Me with my babies outside on a perfect weather, perfect sunshiney, perfect family day.