I'm Alive.. no worries. Unless you didn't want me to be,

Hi all. It's me. 

I'm alive. 

Much like Kenny Chesney. 

I've had a CrAzY busy couple of weeks and honestly, needed to drop some balls that I was juggling.

 I am all caught up. 

Much like Usher. 

So.. I give to you.. my past two weeks via my iPhone.. (which I now realize is totally copying Neely.. sorry, yo. It wasn't intentional.) 

I ran 10 miles. It was glorious and not that painful. Which makes me quite hopeful for Savannah in 32 days. 

I had dinner with the Big Guy. 

I wore a dress you could see through.. by accident. 

I learned the hard way not to wear high heels the day after running 10 miles, no matter how NOT sore your legs were that morning. 

I ate BBQ. KIDDING. I most certainly did not. But a lot of people did. Including the Tide. Sorry Pig Sooie fans. 

One of the reasons I love The Zone... 

I ate my weight in cheesy potato wedges. 

Had a date night with the Hubs.. and had a stranger ask me if I was going to the Fair. Which I was not. 

My outfit for Savannah came in.. and the shorts are monsterously large and short. Good combo! 

And last but not least... we had a sickness invade one of our children that allowed me to stay home from Gainesville. 

I may or may not have had a little cry about it.. since on my 30 by 30 list is to go to every SEC stadium.. and we only play Florida about once every 5 years.. so... it's not going to happen. BUT, it should totally count, right? I mean.. I've seen them 4 other times. RIGHT???

Anyway.. as you can tell.. or maybe not? I am not doing a giveaway at my 400th post.. I do have the things needed for said giveaway, but just no time right now. 

So.. eventually, grasshopper. 

Bare with me.. as I have lost blogging motivation. I am trying to do better. 

Updates in pictures

Two years ago, I set out in my photography journey. 

I wanted to have an awesome Christmas card. 

So, I set it up and had Linda take our picture. 

Two years later, tons of hours editing, researching, and practicing later... John asked me to re-do the family picture. He said it was terrible. He wanted the same shot, but just better. So I turned that into our Project 12 for the month and a mini-photo shoot for the family. 

Just a tad different, don'tcha think?

I am almost embarrassed about that first picture.. I was so proud and it's terrible. I've learned a little bit more about exposure and white balance, but for me, photography is about constantly studying and getting better. If you think you know it all, it's time to get out. 

This is Classic Claire.

Linus and her blanket..

I love this picture. 

Of course I got gussied up and had John take my picture!

I hope you enjoyed my mini-session with the kids!

I was supposed to be giving the garage an acid bath, but I have apparently sniffed too many fumes, I have been banned from working in there anymore and he is going to finish it. Who knew that you could literally get sick from smelling paint thinner fumes? Don't worry.. I have before and after pictures of the garage to share with you soon.. it's only been a project for 3 weeks. 

Happy Friday, Y'all!!

Updates!

I ended up calling my OB/GYN yesterday and this is how the phone conversation proceeded:

Me: Hi! I'm a patient of Dr.F's and I am having some problems. I started having cramps last night in my lower abdomen around my ovaries, and then proceeded to start throwing up. I haven't thrown up today, but I am really hurting around my ovaries and was wondering if maybe I had a cyst to rupture? I would just like to talk to one of the nurses,please."

Mean Lady: "Well, she is going to want you to come in. How is Friday afternoon?"

Me: I can't do Friday. Is there anything sooner?

Mean Lady: Well then, can you do Tuesday? (In a snooty voice)

Me: *sigh* yes, Tuesday is fine. Am I still going to get to talk to a nurse today? Can someone call me back?

Mean Lady: Oh no. That's not likely.

Uhhh okay. Please tell me, what is the point of having doctors if and when you have a FREAKING problem, you can't get into see them that day? Please tell me how 6 days from now, this dr. appt is going to help me? This is ridiculous. I didn't call to be cock blocked by some stupid receptionist. I wanted to talk to someone. To see what I can do to aliviate pain. I can't even pick up my daughter b/c it hurts. Please tell me how this helps anyone?? Besides, when you go to these drs it's an all day affair anyway.

But, I am already feeling better. Just a little sore and extremely bloated. I have a muffin top over my jeans. I prefer elastic waist pants today.

On a different note... My weight loss is going pretty well. I got down to 136.5 a couple of weeks ago, and the WW peeps decided I needed less points and I kind of fell apart. And got sick. And with the bloating, I am back up to 139. Which isn't so bad. But I wanted to be 135 at Thanksgiving, and it doesn't look like that will happen. Sad day.

Updates

Happy Friday! I wanted to update you on my friend Liz. I was misinformed, she was going to an ultrasound of her breast and then if they radiologist wanted to, a mammogram. So, there was a mass, but the radiologist said that it was dense breast tissue from breastfeeding for too long. I told her she needed to STOP breastfeeding Ansley (she is 2!!!) immediately! It was getting borderline creep-o! Anyway, so thanks for the good vibes and prayers for Lizziola!

Also, one of my best friends, Mallory has started a blog!!! You should go over and check her out because she is awesome. She is so stinkin' cute and one of the most precious people you will ever meet. Plus, she has amazing style. Seriously, her house is amazing!!! So, go tell her Welcome to Blogging!

Life... Updated.

I swear. I have been such a slacker blogger lately. But, I haven't neglected your blogs. I'm going to try to catch you up quickly. 

Baby shower for Taylor.. I love my girls!

Addison listening to her iPod.. which is John's old one. Don't think we went out and bought her her own iPod. 

I got a new car and it's awesome. 

I had another dinner with great friends! 

Man alive, I love these ladies! Can you say Sista From Another Mista?

I also enjoyed my very first green beer. Fun times. 

In other news, John has given me the go ahead and quit my other job and concentrate on photography full time. {Insert squealing here.} Sooo... if you need a photographer.... :) 

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?

Sickly

In case you haven't read my tweets. I have been sick. My car had to be serviced on Monday, so Claire and I ventured to Birmingham and did some Christmas shopping, which, I am almost finished with! Whoo! Since the stroller wouldn't fit in the loaner car, I was destined to hold her as we walked around the mall, which I didn't think through very well, because she became extremely heavy and I also had to hold bags. Birmingham has apparently gotten a new Target that is the biggest in the U.S. or something like that, so we went to check it out. It was quite massive. But not massive enough to hold a size 2 1/2 pair of black Chuck Taylors with the white tips for James birthday. Anyway, at that point, Claire and I were tired of Birmingham and they couldn't tell me anything on my car so we headed back home. Which is a good thing, because they didn't call me until 6:00 to tell me that they needed to keep my car. Anyway, I hadn't eaten anything all day, so I scarfed down some goldfish crackers and headed to the gym. When I got home, I ate a lean cuisine and took a shower. ( Have I mentioned that my $160 hair dryer died on me two weeks ago? It started blowing cold air, and of course, the warranty was out. Grrr.) I got to use my new $200 T3 hair dryer and ohmylordisitamazing? Best money I have ever made my husband spend. Plus, it was a lifetime warranty from Sephora. Anyway, I woke up around 2:30 and was just nauseous. I was able to go back to bed but an hour later, I woke up again and knew I was going to vomit. And I did. It was gross. When I woke up about 6:30, I felt awful. My hips were killing me, I was extremely tired and weak, and I was still having some nausea. I ended up starting to run a fever and had to have John come and take me to the doctor. They tested me for flu- have you ever had that done? It felt like they were trying to scrape my brain. I pretty much screamed the whole time and poor Claire was sitting in my lap and I was squeezing her arm. It was negative, so he could just treat the symptoms. I ended up passing out when we got home and felt a little better after I woke up, and I tried to eat a sandwich for supper and ate about 4 bites of it and had to stop. I was in the bed at 7:15. I feel better this morning but my head is killing me. I have an occipital trigger point, which causes these AWFUL headaches that make me want to stab my eyeballs out. So, I am going to get that injected today. On the bright side, I have lost 4 lbs!

Sorry for the pity party, but this is what my life has been for the past 48 hours.

Halloween... A Week Later...

Hey Internets! I'm back! My house isn't up to par, but the girls clothes are sorted and organized and their closets look awesome! Another dose of good news... Addison is almost potty trained. Hallelujah!

Anyway, here are the pictures of Halloween. Friday, Addison had "trunk or treat" at school and she wanted to be Snow White, instead of Tinkerbell. Luckily, we had a Snow White costume, so it was no problem. She was a adorable!











This is Addison and her best friend Claire. Claire was Belle and Addison was Snow White. They are so cute together. They watch out for each other and are so sweet!


Here is John, Addison, and Claire trick or treating at the first house... MeMac and Poppys!



MeMac and Tink

Uncle Jay and Claire... how adorable is she?!!?



All-in-all, it was a fantastic Halloween(unless your Sarah, of course!).

Don't worry, I have still been stalking your blogs. I appreciate all of the support about the messiest that is my house. It is a work in progress!
Feels good to be back!

An Obsession with Dragons...

Not really sure how you can go from saying the "Pledge of Allegiance" to talking about scary dragons, but Addison seems to know how. I tried to translate as much as I could, but the cutest thing is the fact she says, "I pledge allegiance to THAT flag". And the scare-scare dragon part is because of Sleeping Beauty, where Prince Phillip kills Maleficent with the sword. She is obsessed with dragons now. I found her "Little People" dragon in my linen closet the other day. It's so cute. I swear, I just could eat her up with a spoon.



Other Random Thoughts by Addison Marie:

- She wants a Strawberry Cupcake party. I'm not sure if she is related to Strawberry Shortcake, but that is what she is getting.

-She has started telling me she loves me to the moon.

-She informed me tonight that I am her favorite person to play with at school.

-She loves for me to sing "twinkle twinkle little lump, go to sleep don't be a grump."

-She calls Claire "Sweet Pea".

I swear, if Claire is half as cute as Addison is, then we have it made.

*Bad Blogger Alert!!!*

I have been MIA for close to a week, I know all of you have been worried. Okay, you're right, my sister said, "You need to step it up, sista!" Granted, it's partly her fault that I have been so busy. I did my first photo session with her boys and the three cousins.

I barely survived to tell the tale. That was Thursday afternoon, and then we had the Fish Fry at church and Addison ran around the tables screaming with her squeaky shoes. She ran up to random people(Thank God it was church!) and crawled into their laps and I'm sure talked their heads off and they had no idea what she was saying. But she certainly got Mrs. Harding's attention when Addison started picking her nose and attempted to wipe it on Mrs. Harding and she had to do a quick head bob to keep from getting slim-ed.

I have never been more proud. I mean, really, what mom doesn't jump for joy when her eldest daughter tries to wipe boogers on a fellow church member?

Anyway, and then Friday, I realized(great mom alert, right here) that Claire hadn't pooped in 3 days. So,I felt I might want to call the doctor about that. They wanted me to try to take her temperature rectally and if that didn't work in a couple of hours to give her 1/2 of a glycerin suppository. Guess where McMommy was at 11:30, Friday night? In Wal-mart purchasing suppositories for my youngest daughter and in case you were wondering, the smallest container that I could find was 100 suppositories. So, if anyone needs one, come to me first. I have plenty to spare. Anyway, it worked. She pooped. A LOT.

Jana ended up coming a visiting us Friday afternoon, and we had a good time catching up. I love getting to spend time with my girlfriends. We went out to dinner with Joseph and Tracie for John's birthday in Birmingham Friday night. We went to Sumo and it was awesome! John ordered some of the best sushi!

Saturday was John's birthday and it was an all day affair. We ate lunch with one of John's college room mates, Murray and his fiance Callie and then everyone took a nap. Except for me. but I am not bitter about it. I would never be bitter about the fact that I had to clean the house up while every one else got to take a family nap together. Nope. Not Me. We went to dinner at Connor's in Huntsville for John's birthday dinner with his family. My mom graciously offered to watch the girls so we didn't have to take them. It was so nice! We went back and had birthday cake at our house after dinner, and it was so good!

Then Sunday was, of course, Easter Sunday and we ran from Grandparents house to Grandparents house to visit and hunt Easter eggs. BoomPa and GiGi stopped by that evening to give the girls their Easter presents. Addison loves spending time with them!

Monday, I went to the new gym and enjoyed a nice workout! It felt so good to get back on the elliptical machine. I forgot what a good friend it was. I am hoping to shed the last 10 pregnancy pounds and maybe a few extra! Ha! I worked on editing the Hinson pics yesterday and today and I think I finally got them done. Yay! So, anyway, hopefully, I am back. I hate to leave you guys wondering if you should send out a search party since I haven't been around.

Random thoughts from one sleep-deprived girl

I think I may have overexerted myself in the "tasks you can realistically handle". I feel like I haven't stopped moving since last Tuesday... oh wait, I haven't. Since we have gotten back from South Carolina I have made two trips to Huntsville, two trips to Birmingham, and one trip to Decatur. Plus, Dad's 60th Birthday is next week and I have been planning for that. And my favorite sister-in-law-to-be had a birthday on Wednesday, and we had to celebrate with "cake and Paaarrt-ee", as Addison calls it. I am also working on videos of the girls and pictures to send back with my Aunt to Texas for my Grandmother who hasn't seen Addison in over a year and never met Claire. I wouldn't want her to miss any of Addison's Medusa hair, tantrums, or gymnastic moves. I will say that Addison's tantrums have been much better lately. I think her temporary hearing losses are getting much better.

Knock on wood.

I mean, I haven't even had a chance to watch Twilight and it came out last Friday night!! I think that says it all. I have been too busy to watch my favorite obsession or monogram OR make any clothes or hair bows for my children OR obsessively clean my kitchen. It's as if aliens have abducted my real self and replaced me with a sleep-deprived non-overachiever.

I think tonight we are going to see if Claire will sleep part of the night in her bed. She is doing really well in there for naps, and honestly, I need my side of the bed back. She is turning into a scooter and sleeps at a diagonal. I think she is taking after her sister in the bad sleeping buddy department.

Addison is doing okay with the potty training. She refuses to go number two in the pink potty. Bribes of ice cream and 2 M&M's don't even work. She wants to wear the Princess panties, but will pitch a fit when I make her go on the pink potty but almost always tee-tees. I just don't know where she gets this stubbornness from. Yesterday, she had the grand idea of jumping on her bed in her Princess panties.

Apparently, she had a full bladder.

I am still washing all of her bedding.

Anyway, I guess I should end the random ramblings. I don't even think that they are making sense to me anymore. I apologize for that.

Claire Bear is 2 Months Old!

Claire had her 2 Month check-up on Thursday. And, honestly, it was an awful experience. Of course we were there for 2 and a half hours, but, the doctor was a flat out jerk. I have always felt like the girls' pediatrician is extremely intelligent and a great doctor, but sometimes he is Jekyll and Hyde(sp?). We had several concerns about Claire. She is extremely fussy, wheezy, snorty, spits- up a lot, has green poopy diapers( I know you wanted to know that, right?), and is not a good nurser in the evenings. Once we finally got back there, we were changing her diaper for her weight check( She weighed 12 lbs 3 oz, by the way) and she had blood in it. I feel like someone should show a little concern about that. He just looked at it under the scope and said," Yep, that's blood" and never really addressed it. Maybe he had already figured it out in his brain that it wasn't anything to be concerned about, but he never felt the need to explain that to us. ( By the way, John went with me, and he is officially un-invited to all doctor's appointments from now own.) I had been researching Claire possibly having a milk protein allergy and he quickly dismissed it. He never gave an explanation for what is going on with Claire, but gave her Prevacid for reflux and is referring us to a GI Specialist. So, who knows. I certainly don't. I am more confused than ever. But, the good news is, she seems to be growing well and gaining weight despite her spitting up all the time. I guess we will keep you posted on any updates we have on Claire.

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2 week check-up!

Little Claire-Bear is two weeks old! There really isn't anything new to report. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and everything looks good. Her weight was up 4 oz from birth. They like them to be back at birth weight by two weeks, so I guess her mommy milk is doing good things for her scrawny legs! She is still having a 4 hour stretch of sleep at night, but we are hitting a growth spurt, so I am expecting some changes in sleep. She has been more awake and alert the past couple of days and it's so sweet to her little eyes! Her two week pictures didn't go so well, but I figure most people don't care that she was crying, just as long as they get to see her! 

McPhillips Family Update

We are working extremely hard to get the nursery finished before Thanksgiving. We had the furniture delivered last week and John's brother and Dad came over and helped move the changing table/dresser in the room. I still have to move some of my office supplies out, although, I have NO idea where I am going to put them! I need to put up shelving and get some storage baskets. I hope to get a lot done this weekend and the end of this week... There is stuff all over our house! There are pictures to be hung, clothes to fold, and the house just needs a good deep cleaning before we get out all of the Christmas decorations. We are getting ready to go to the beach for John's family Thanksgiving... how awesome is that?!!? Addison seems really intrigued by the whole "baby" thing. We showed her to 4-D pictures and video of Claire and she just stared!! She wants to see all kinds of babies and hold them and give them kisses. This morning we were getting her ready to go to her MeMe's house, and she stopped in front of Claire's door and wanted to tell her Bye. I had to tell her that Claire was still in my belly so she waved and kissed my belly goodbye. She is also trying to help set up Claire's nursery. Of course, her version of help is taking a hammer or screw driver to the bed or taking all of the clothes out of the drawers. I am just glad she seems to be interested in a positive way! 

On a different note, anyone who knows me knows that I am OBSESSED with the Twilight books. Actually, obsessed may be an understatement. Anyway, the movie comes out this weekend, and I am SUPER excited. John really hasn't had a lot of negative things to say even though I know he isn't looking forward to going. I think we are making a date night out of it with my brother-in-law Joseph and his fiancee Tracie, who I sucked into the series. Man, I already love having a future sister-in-law who loves to read also!!

2 year check-up

Addison went for her two year check-up yesterday, and for those of you who want to hear about it... She weighed 25 pounds, was 34 inches tall( meaning she is taller than 4 out of 10 of her age group), and her head was 18 inches. All-in-all, Dr. Addison said she was growing well and everything looks good. Addison slept through most of the doctor's appointment, until they broke out the the needles!! What a way to wake up from your nap!! Poor baby got 4 shots in her legs, and never took a breath until after all 4 had been given. :( Of course, John complained about how long we waited, we were in and out of a pediatricians office in 1 hour and 20 min... I say, pretty good timing!! Considering, I've waited for 3 hours for a well-baby check up in the past!! 

1st Blog!

This is our first blog! Please let us know how to make it better!! Our lives are pretty hectic these days. John is still working at Buettner Brothers as well as running the home theatre area in the store. If you need a tv... give him a call! I am working part-time at the Pain Center here in Cullman and staying at home with Addison the rest of the time. Our new addition is growing and growing! Our life is fabulous but hectic!

Today I had my 23 week check-up at the doctor. Dr. Franklin said I measuring good. Claire's heartbeat was in the 140's and my blood pressure was excellent. We are so far pleased with my weight gain, but I don't want to speak too soon! :) We filled out the paperwork for the 3D ultrasound. Hopefully, they will be calling to set that up in the next few weeks. 

Claire's bedding came in today and it is SUPER cute! It's chocolate and pink. I cannot wait to get started on her nursery!