Debbie Downer Post

Hi. I am on the verge of a mental running breakdown. Every time I have run since Disney, my knee hurts and I am getting side stitches. Since I like to overanalyze everything, here is my breakdown. My knee is hurting because I need new shoes. Because my knee hurts, I change my running gait and hunch therefore inhibiting my breathing ability while running. Makes sense? Totally nonsense? You be the judge.

I told John that I don't think I should run until I am able to go get re-fitted and get some new shoes. Now, let's just find the $$ and time to head up to the Huntsville to Fleet Feet Sports. 

Not running and having bad runs kinda makes me a little crazy in the head. It makes me stress about it, and that runs over into my daily life. And doesn't help my attitude with my sassy princesses. And honestly? It makes me a little depressed. I REALLY want to run Nashville, I have yet to sign up due to the fact that I am scared I am really injured and I want to mentally be ready for this race and I don't feel like I am right now. And then I get mad about it. You see why I am a little bit of a crazy person, right now? 

Any advice, words of wisdom, slaps in the face are always welcome. 

In other news, I am headed to Hartselle today with Becca so she can get fitted for her bridesmaids dress for her brothers wedding-- did I mention that I am the wedding photographer? Holy cow. I am. I am so pumped. And then tonight, pizza dinner and play date with Lee and Alana and their kiddos. Super excited about what today holds. 

Guess it's time to get out of the jammies and put some real people clothes on. 

P.S. Did you watch the Bachelor? So glad he picked Emily. Loved her hair on the After the Final Rose- but that was the most awkward show ever. Brad has a temper? Must be bad-- why didn't she have the ring and he gave it back on the show? That's just strange. I would love to know what happened... Because I am just nosey. :) 

P.P.S. I am not a fan of the scales this week- I had gotten down to 131.5- I could taste the glory of 130- and guess who's hormonal and has a monthly visitor and back up to 135?? So, I refuse to input my weight on My Fitness Pal this week. 

Oh. Wow.

Wow. Just wow. I woke this morning to find my inbox being flooded with comments and e-mails from all the readers that have stopped by from Skinny Runner. You guys are so nice! You have really made my Friday! It makes me feel bad that the first post is a rant on my children.. Whoops. I promise those things rarely happen.
Anyway, I wanted to share some of the awesome advice I got on how to deal with the 'tude and toddlers... apparently, the best thing is to ignore it. Which is going to be crazy hard for me to do, but I shall try and let you know how it goes. I am also going to try and really compliment her when her behavior is awesome. She really is extremely sweet and likes to help- so I am going to encourage that.

GiGi came and picked the girls up yesterday and they spent the night with her and it was awesome. I really needed that- they will be coming home sometime today, so I am going to try to knock out some of things on my To Do List-- got some crafts I want to work on and some organizing too.

I also got out and ran this morning.. Two and a half miles- nice and easy- except I seem to have forgotten how to breathe and keep getting side stitches. I need to make sure I am drinking enough water.

To my new readers-- is anyone planning on running the Rock N Roll Country Music Marathon in Nashville at the end of April? I still haven't signed up, but I really want to!

More and More Randomness.. on Tuesday.

So, I survived my weekend. Just barely. It went a little something like this.. Friday-- date night with the hubs to see No Strings Attached, where I laughed entirely too loud and related too much for my liking with Natalie Portman's character. Seriously. Emotional robot.. I totally understand her. As my heart was going out for a sister, John leaned over and whispered, "What is UP with her? She has problems!" Whoops.

Saturday- John worked.. supposed to run 6 miles, only did 4.8. Photo session at 1. Dinner in Huntsville with Mom and Bill-- delish!! And a great time was had, in my opinion. 

Sunday- overslept for church--children are not good alarm clocks. Who knew? Birthday party at 2-- which my children went to and I took pictures for then straight to Birmingham for dinner for Jay's Birthday. 

Whew. I am tired just typing all that. 

Claire has a new way of eating goldfish she would like to share with you. 

Look Ma! No hands!!

Then, you pile them all together...

Try to eat one the normal way.. it just doesn't feel right!

 Back to my new way!!

All of that makes a person entirely too tired... So Ma takes pictures while I sleep!

 Why am I so cute?? Who knows!

Consider this my Project 52 week 3 too! Two birds with one stone! 

I am turning into a crazy person... I am leaving for Blissdom tomorrow!! Gotta pack up my stilettos and jeggings.. and I don't have enough room in one suitcase. Unless I go get my BIG bag that I normally check in an airport.. too much? Most likely. 

Oh.. and tomorrow is Jay's birthday and my mom is having knee surgery and I will most likely not get to see her since I am leaving at lunch time. 

I really hope I don't forget my ADD medication! 

And since I really enjoyed the other days music trivia.. I shall start doing that again. I think "Grenade" was a little too easy for peeps. 

"So baby, what's the story? Did ya find another man? Is easy to sleep in the bed that we made

WHen you don't look back, guess those feelings they start to fade away.

I used to feel your fire, but now it's cold inside

and your back on the streets like you didn't miss a beat" 

Mice, Germs, and Alcohol...

I know. It's been a while. But I have an excuse.  I have been sick. Went to the doctor last week, he told me I had an cold which it's primary place of attack was my chest and back of the throat. And it was a "landing pad" for other infections. Whatever. Just give me some medicine and send me on my way.. a week later.. I am still sick!!!

We have also had a mouse problem during my sickness... I could hear it squeaking in the cabinet under the sink. Which meant, I didn't go in the kitchen. Or clean it. Or clean the rest of my house. Terminix man came, said there were actually TWO of them. Great.. he took care of them and set some more glue traps. I heard another one squeaking... and then it stopped. and THEN Saturday, I was minding my own business, editing pictures at my computer, and I thought I saw something move by my foot. Hmm.. didn't seen anything so I thought it was an illusion. BUT, then a few minutes later I got up to get something out of the kitchen and I saw it. A mouse, climbing into a hole between my cabinets and my oven. AHHH...  I screamed. John made fun of me. And I left. I am pretty sure John didn't do anything about that mouse.

Also.. BIG NEWS in our small town. We had our Wet/Dry vote last week... and We have gone wet. So.. we can serve and buy alcohol here. It's a BFD, people. I am hoping for a Target or a Publix or both. That would be way super awesome. It won't go into effect for a few months, while the City Council works on the stipulations.

I have also been crazy busy with photography lately. Which is a good thing. I am loving it.

Happy Monday!

Busy Week... for our Doctors

Sunday afternoon was just like any other lazy day. We had just come in from the pool where Addison and Claire both had a blast and really, FINALLY, started swimming. Claire has gotten into this new habit of stealing Addison's shoes that are haphazardly laying around and sticking them on her hands. It really peeves Addison and she always uses her Mommy Voice, "Cwaire, do NOT do that Aaannyyymore!", which consists of lots of clipped tones and words. As John and I were enthralled in the Man Vs Food marathon that was on the Travel Channel, we hear they thud. The one that let's us know that Claire has taken a spill. John looks at me and says, "I don't understand how she just falls randomly." After a few seconds, Addison looks at us, who has been watching the whole thing unfold, and says, "Uh OH! Cwaire have blood!" We immediately jump up, John gets to her first. And sure enough, blood is coming out of her lip at an alarming pace. We get over to the sink and start to clean it up, and John is asking, "did she bit through it? what about her teeth?" And about that time, blood starts coming out of her nose and I start my investigation on whether it's broken or not. We get the bleeding stopped and decide that she does, indeed, need to be checked out "just in case". Which, I hate doing, simply because it's a $35 co pay down the drain. Normally, they just check you out, say, "Oh she's fine! Just keep doing what you are doing!" and then I'm $35 poorer. But, I was worried her nose was possibly broken or she was going to need stitches, so we went to Urgent Care. Her nose was in fact, NOT broken and the doctor would do stitches for the fact that it's inside the lip, but it looked really bad. 

So, that was our Sunday evening. Monday goes off without a hitch, with me going to Huntsville to get my car serviced and Tuesday morning is no different, with Addison crawling into my bed around 6:30 as John is on his way out the door. Claire wakes up around 7:30 and I get up with her. Addison sleeps until about 8:45, which she NEVER does. When she woke up, she was BURNING UP. Like, she'd been sleeping wrapped in a heating blanket all night. I give her a few minutes, to cool down, thinking it was just warm under my covers and she tends to radiate heat anyway. I take her temp. It's 104. I take it a few minutes later and it's 103.5. At this point, I decided to just give her some Tylenol and see what that does to her fever. Over the next few hours it brings it down to around 101.5 and after her nap it's 103.5. So I load the kiddos up and take them to Urgent Care again. They recognize us, and I assure them that it's the other child this time. The lady takes A's temp and it says 99.6. I said No Way. She takes it again. 99.5. I just decide that she doesn't know how to take a temperature. 

So, they do a strep test and it's negative, but all signs point to strep, so that's what we are treating. Strep Throat. Great. 

After one dose of medicine, she was already feeling better and after the second dose, she is pretty much back to normal, just a not as hungry version of herself. Which, has been kind of awful, she is still contagious until tomorrow afternoon. So, we can't go anywhere. Boo. 

Anyway, here is a picture of her with chocolate on her face and a video of her dancing and singing to Lady GaGa, who is her very favorite. 

Addison Sings Lady GaGa from Rachel McPhillips on Vimeo.

Hope You Enjoy!

General Updates

I realized that there have been some things that I had lacked in blogging about. I didn't realized that I hadn't talked about changing my hair color until after I posted all the Disney pics. I went dark, peeps. And I like a LOT more than I thought I would. It's darker than what I had in mind.. I wanted more of a Carrie Bradshaw in SATC movie, but got more Selena Gomez. But, it's cool! It didn't fade as much as I thought, but I dig. I hope you dig too! :) 

( P.S. Addison just came over here and asked who this girl was and when I told her it was me, she stated, " But.. it doesn't look good!)

Also, the night before we left for Disney, we went to go see Rascal Flatts and Darius Rucker in concert. It was awesome! We ordered our tickets through the fan club( nerdy) and so we didn't know where we were sitting until we picked up our tickets at will call. Well, people, we were on the second row!!! Philly said my my face was priceless as we were walking down to the floor. Being our normal chatty selfs, we got sucked in to a convo with the peeps next to us, and I felt a kindred soul in the 13 year old sitting next to us. She loved RF and was so excited to be there. I took it upon myself to make sure she had a good time. These 16 year old skanks ended up in the 3 seats directly in front of me and tried to sneak two of their friends in those seats with them. *Note to skanks- 5 people don't fit in 3 peoples seats. The 13 year old couldn't see, so I, told upon myself to find my inner bitch( trust me, it wasn't that hard) and tell those girls ( who had already been told by security to move ) to get back in their seats. She wanted to say something, but thought better of it since I was giving her the stern mommy look. It doesn't work on my kids, but it totally works on other people. I also had to call security on those biatches later because they tried to sneak back!! Seriously?!!? 3 times they got into trouble. Sounds like someone's parents have their work cut out for them.

So, do you like the hair? Any more thoughts on the cleanse? Tips to get me back on my running game? I'm planning on running the Rock N Roll half marathon in Nashville... who's with me? Also, I'm setting a goal of 25 miles a week running wise. Who's gonna help pump me up?

Weekend Re-Cap

We started off our weekend by taking Addison to her first gymnastics meet. It was Alabama's "Power of Pink" meet. We ate at Bento before the meet, and I am telling you, that I experienced the longest fall known to man kind. I am not kidding. John had time to turn around and ask, "Are you okay?" before I hit the ground. And I hit the ground. HARD. On all fours. On one of the busiest streets in Tuscaloosa. In front of one of the most popular bars. Luckily, no one was outside said bar, but trust me, the street was crowed and I know someone was saying, "Oh my God, did you see that girl just bust it?!!?" As long as I don't make YouTube, I am cool. Before going into the meet, I cracked Addison's eye with the seat belt, so she was cut and is now sporting a black eye. Cool Mom!

A little unsure, but excited nonetheless!

Cheerleaders are always a plus!

She has some great connections with her Uncle Jay and she got to go down on the floor afterwards and meet some of the gymnasts.

Here is Addison with Morgan Dennis, who is Alabama's top gymnast. She is beyond awesome. Not the best picture, but...

On Saturday, John had to work and I had a photo session, but we went over to Mallory and Austin's new house for some pizza that night. The girls just love them. Addison frequently asks if we can go see Mal and Aus- she is so cute!

John just lounged in the chair and watched the Olympics.

Mallory left Addison play with her camera, and she wouldn't stop taking pictures.. it was so cute!

Mallory and Claire.. I definitely think they should work on one of these!

On Sunday, we made a trip to Target to look at some stuff for the house. I need to figure out what to do with my makeshift office, which is in the dining room. I need more storage. I may have to do a blog post and you guys can help me figure some stuff out. I love weekends where we don't have to do anything but what we want to do... we aren't homebodies at all, so it's nice to be able to say, "Let's jump in the car and go" Joseph and Tracie watched the girls while we went to Target and had a make-shift date night. I would much rather do dinner and a movie or dinner and a trip to Target than anything else.

Addison cuteness

Lately, I am starting to get a glimpse of what the next 15 years are going to be like with Addison. She is all attitude! She is really into knowing what the names of songs are and who sings them. She has been cracking me up with some of her quotes lately and I feel I should share with you.
I was vacuuming the other day and she said, "Mama, you're being too loud, I can't check my e-mail."

She told John the other day, "That's not the truth!"

Yesterday morning, we were having another drama filled morning and I told her that she needed to stop arguing and talking back to me and she replied, "...but... it's sooo hard to not to."

Tonight she exclaimed, "We did it, dawg!"

I will leave with a somewhat long video of her singing some of her favorite songs, which include, "Hey, Soul Sister", "Party in the USA", "Sweet Escape", and "Fifteen".

If you don't like cute kids singing and talking, then you won't like this.

Farewell 2009

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the past decade. 10 years ago, I was a 15 year old girl. I had no idea who I was. I had no idea if I even wanted children or not and I definitely had no idea who I wanted to be when I grow up. When I started college, I still had no idea who I wanted to be and would often ask my mom," Can't you just TELL me what I am supposed to do with my life?!!?" I met John and the crazy thing is, he knows exactly what I need. He had no idea what I should be when I grow up or what kind of person I should/would be, but he has always known what is best for me.
I've been thinking a lot about the person I was then and person I am turning into be. I like the new me a LOT better. She isn't as loud(although, still sort of loud and highly opinionated), is a fierce friend, has found the passion for photography that grows everyday, loves her children more than anything, has a husband who is her rock, has a newfound relationship with her dad that she treasures, her sister is one of her best friends, has married into one of the most fabulous families ever, she isn't near as crazy as 15 year old me, is re-discovering her love for fashion, and is developing a love for running( who would've thought!).
I'm not sure 15 year old me would recognize me now, but who cares? She was slightly crazy anyway.
2009 was a year of discovery for me. Discovering how crazy life is with two small children. How sleep deprived one can actually be. How it's okay to need an anti-depressant everyday to not be a crazy person. How awesome I feel behind a camera. How right it feels for it to just be me, my iPod and a pair of running shoes.
I'll miss you 2009, but I have GREAT things planned for 2010.

It's official. I'm running.

Well, I did it. I signed up for my very first race. It's official. It's Saturday morning. And I am not ready. I cannot run 3 miles straight. I am extremely nervous. Are the other runners going to laugh at me because I will have to stop and walk? How do I sign in? What DO I DO??? I have no idea how any of this works, all I know is that I want to cross the finish line.

I bought these new head band elastic things to keep my hair out of my face and all it does is get on my nerves. So, I'm not sure what I am going to do about that. And what do I wear??? I mean, obviously, running gear, but do I do a long sleeve shirt or short sleeve since that is what I am comfortable in? But what if it's too cold?

Maybe I am too OCD about this. BUT, I WILL CROSS THE FINISH LINE. I am just hoping that pure adrenaline can get me there. I'm not completely out of shape, mind you, but I am most comfortable running at a 9:00 min pace, but my lungs just can hang with that. *sigh*

I definitely am needing some encouragement.

My mom is against my running. She has arthritis and has made it very clear that she thinks I am stupid for doing this because I am ruining my joints.

but... I WANT TO!! So, I will.

I found this on someones profile and now I can't remember where it was, but it gave me some encouragement this morning: " Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1.

How awesome is that?

Anyway... wish me luck!

The Turtle That Got Away

Last week, my sister and her boys came over to Re-po my breast pump( it's a long story, she rents them and is kind to her sister but if anyone needs to rent a pump and she doesn't have one, guess who's gets stolen?). Since we are sisters, we got a little chatty and sent the kids out to ride bikes for a little bit. The kids come running in after a little screaming that there is a huge turtle in our yard. I'm thinking, "I think I saw this tiny turtle in the road the other day, but cool!" So, we go outside and look out towards the road and sure enough, there is a huge turtle. Huge enough that Sarah started yelling, "Go get your camera!!" but I was two steps ahead of her and already had it in my hand and was running back outside. It is absolutely the largest turtle I ever laid eyes on. I don't care what anyone says, that turtle was FAST. It knew I was coming after it and it was looking for a place to hide. It went for the sewer. Maybe this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was looking for Splinter.












Raphael ended up getting stuck in there, because he was too big to turn around and had to just keep inching forward. Joseph taunted him with a long piece of grass and he ended up snapping at it. The boys wanted to touch him, but I said it prob'ly wasn't their best idea, being as turtles carry all kinds of diseases. I tried to show Raphael the turtle on my toe, but I was afraid he would bite it off.
Joseph and Raphael

James got stuck in the pink car

Addison is checking out the stuck Raphael


Nothing says "Gangsta" like a pink car, James

James helping Addison up on the pink car for a picture

This is a miniature Andy Hinson if I have ever seen one


James is trying to ram Addison with the car, but she is staying strong

Off into the sunset

Sa-Sa's impromptu photo session with Bay-Bay Cwaire



Beautiful. Love these two


I guess you never know where a "bloggy" moment will strike!

{Insert Something Witty Here}

Disclaimer: This post is as random as my thought process and will probably make little sense.

I cannot believe Addison is turning 3 on Sunday. Claire just turned 9 months. It's unbelievable. We are in the firery depths of hell of potty training, but Addison had a good day at school yesterday and stayed dry until we got home and had an accident. I don't think I mentioned that Addison got bit at school last Monday and it was a bad bite. But she seemed to be okay. When I picked her up on Wednesday, it seemed she had gotten bit AGAIN but by a different little girl and was scratched by a little boy. Her teacher was quite distressed about it. Thankfully, nothing happened on Friday.

Claire is pulling up all over the place and crawling all over the house. She has two teeth and loves any food you put in her mouth. Don't even think about trying to eat in front of this child. She wants whatever you are eating. She isn't saying much, but makes some loud screeches at times. She loves to bounce. I don't see her walking anytime soon. She is content to crawl. She notices( does not like) when you leave the room. She wants you just where she can see you.

I have been crafting like crazy and am trying to get a post together about that.

One of THOSE days

Have you ever had one of those days?

You know the ones.

The ones that start out with you trying to do something different and exciting for your children and then, by the end of the day, you want to put them in a cart at Wal-mart and turn around and run the other way?

Well, I had my second day like that since Claire has been born.

It started out innocent enough. We got up and got ready because Addison was starting gymnastics on Tuesday. I needed her to channel all of that energy somewhere where it was okay for her to run and jump and scream. She loved it. She turned flips on the bar, walked on the balance beam with ease, jumped on the trampoline and just generally got to be a kid who was able to run wild. Since I knew we were already going to be up and on that end of town, I told my sister we would stop by the Breastfeeding Support Group that she does. I got to see some moms that I hadn't seen in a while and chit chat with other grown ups while my children played. We then, went and ate lunch with John and Poppy. John told me as I was loading the girls up in the car that Addison wasn't going to take a nap today. I looked at him like he was crazy. She ran around all morning, for goodness sake!

I hate when he is right. She didn't take a nap. She stayed on her bed for two hours telling me, "I had a good rest, Mama!" She also started this thing where she will NOT poo-poo in the potty. She will wait until bedtime or naptime when we put a pull up on her to poop. And she doesn't poop once. She poops a little bit and then tells you she has poo-poo. So, you go in and change it. THEN, after you have wasted a pull up, she poops FOR REAL. So, you have to put another pull up on her. We are going through about 45 pull ups in a week. I am ready to pull my hair out, so if you have any suggestions, I am desperate to try them.

Anyway, I wouldn't let Addison come into the living room with me until Claire woke up from her nap. And Claire was in one of her moods. The one that says, "You have messed up my day by doing something different and I am going to punish you for it."

I knew that John and I were going to the gym when he got off of work and if I could just make it one more hour, then I could survive, so I loaded everyone up and took them to Wal-mart to get some stuff to finish up some crafts. Of course, Claire wanted a snack and Addison wouldn't sit down in the cart and was reaching over and try to grab stuff and I was generally frazzled anyway, so by the time we got out of there, I felt like the hunchback because my neck and shoulders were in a pretzel.

I made it through the day and didn't kill or leave my children anywhere, so I would say it is a success. And they are back to being their sweet and charming selves.

Thank the Lord.

Addison's Antics

With Addison being at that age of independence and "I do it myself", I find it extremely hard sometimes to get my temper in check. She gets this attitude and points her finger at me and says things like, "No, you do NOT! I CAN listen to my song!" or whatever it is she is wanting. Honestly, I don't know where she gets this from.

She is such a daddy's girl too. Anytime she gets into trouble or you are going to make her do something that she doesn't want to do it's, "I want my Da-Daaaaaaa!!!!!!!!" Her dramatics don't work with me. I feel like a lot of times, she could take me or leave me, but her relationship with John is a different story. She just adores him. Worships the ground he walks on. She told me on Sunday after they had been at BoomPa and GiGi's house that she missed Daddy more, but Claire missed me more.

So, it came as a surprise to me last night, when I was getting ready to go out to dinner with some friends that she noticed that I was getting ready and asked me, "Where go, Mama?" I said that I was going to dinner with some friends. She looked out the window and said, "No Mama. It 'bout it start raining. You can't go. You stay here with me." Man, she really does care! :) It made me puff up my chest a bit and do a little strut. I told her that she was going to stay with Daddy and have a great time. Then, when I tried to walk out the door it started again, "No Mama, you stay here with me!" and she clung to my leg and started crying. It was heart wrenching. She has never been like that with me. Sure, I see it all the time with John, but I had never been on the receiving end.

I made it out the door and had a great time at dinner. It was so good to get together, although, we were missing a few, but we still had such a great time.

I went MIA without evening knowing it...

I got a Facebook message from one of my readers( okay, okay, he's really my friend that wanted to hear some more about John's tailgating antics, but whatevs.) I realized that I fell down on blogging last week. The girls have been sick with upper respiratory infections and we went out of town to CEDIA again ( which, is a GIANT electronics show with a BUNCH of nerds) and then headed straight to Tuscaloosa for the game. I assured Robbie that I would be back in action today with LOTS of pictures of the tent. I am a photographer, after all. Right??

Wrong. I took one picture the entire weekend and it was of a red velvet cake. Not even of the tent. I am as cool as cancer, I know.

Anyway, we had a great time tailgating, the tent is SAHWEET! I can't even tell you how awesome it is. It was tailgating heaven. Even though, I wasn't exactly 100% on Saturday, I could still appreciate it.

Things have been extremely busy around here with me trying to get the photography business up and running, but I am making some SERIOUS progress and it feels great to finally know what I want to do with my life.

Weekend Recap

We did a bunch of nothing.

The End.

Just kidding! We really didn't do much, I took some pictures of Addison on Saturday and Uncle Jay came up and we went to lunch with everyone minus Poppy and Tracie. John and I braved Walmart on Saturday afternoon, because, we were out of everything. Then, later, we went out on a limb, and went to dinner with his family. But this time, Poppy and Tracie joined us. Addison, who refused to order a sweet tea, informed me that she needed to go tee-tee. This child is so backwards. She NEVER will tell me she has to go tee-tee at home, but in EVERY restaurant we go to, she always has to go. She then proclaimed to the entire restaurant that she went tee-tee in the potty. But was too shy to order her drink. How weird? She wanted to spend the night with MeMac and Poppy on Saturday, so John, Claire, and I got to sleep in until 7:30. We rounded off the morning with breakfast at the All Steak. We ended up going to Huntsville to help MeMac and Joseph get some new computers. I was super jealous and the new computer bug hit me. So, now I want a new computer. Even though, I certainly don't NEED one.

Addison didn't have ANY accidents on Sunday and even hit John on the head to wake him up to tell him that she needed to go poo-poo in the potty which she NEVER does. Afterwards, she proclaimed, " I took a crap! No... I took a dump." Grrreeaatt. Please tell your Christian Pre-School teachers THAT. It would make me look even better especially after dropping you off in my pajamas this morning.
Anyway, here is some pictures of the girls. I feel like I have been neglecting you.