Bedtime for Cassie Girl...

I was laying down with Cassie tonight and took a few pictures (she took one of me too!) What a cutie pie! They aren't the best because we were taking them in the near-dark with no flash and I tried to fix them *laugh*, but hey... whatever - I ain't not no real photographer :p

Glad the 80's are OVER!!! hahah

Yeah..they've been gone for over 16 years now, but that doesn't mean its time to stop being happy that the 1980's are gone FOREVER!!!

Just incase you are inclined to disagree...here is a little "blast from the past" to remind you why the 80's are better gone AND forgotten.

Lump Update...

Cassie's appointment to see the surgeon is July 5th. I may go crazy before then.

If I may go off on a political tangent for a moment (and yes, I may... this is our blog, not yours... lol)... what does it say about this country that before the receptionist even asks what her name is or how old she is they are asking for insurance information - in detail. They don't even know the details of her or her case and they want the insurance information. Yes, I'm aware this is the real world, but I was honestly taken aback that they didn't even ask anything more about her. WTF? Literally, the first question was "what's her first name", the second question was (not what's wrong you notice), but "what kind of insurance do you have" - the next four were asking for the details of that insurance. Let me clue you in, here... I'm a paranoid mother whose youngest little one (a girl) has a buldge sticking out of her groin... I don't give a damn of what my policy number is, I will fax you a copy of the card, now tell me what the heck I'm supposed to do.

*breathe* Okay, anyway, so her appointment is July 5th and I have all ideas she's going to be babied even more than normal until that time.

Cassie's Lump (not as bad as it sounds)...

I took Cassie to the doctor today. She has this lump in her groin that seems to come and go, doesn't hurt her, but it's kind of freaking me out... the pediatrician thinks it might be a hernia, but she's not sure. Apparently, sometimes the adominal muscles don't always form all the way and leave a hole where the intestines can poke through. I have to call tomorrow to get an appointment with a pediatric surgeon. I *know* that this is a standard thing and I *know* that it might turn out to be just nothing more than a swollen lymph node, but I'm still a little bit freaked out. The only "cure" is surgery and the idea of someone cutting into my little baby just scares the bejeezus out of me. So, I'm trying not to think about it and just see what they say... I'll update when I know more...

The NEW and IMPROVED Meeting Of The Minds

Earlier this month, I mentioned the meeting of the minds, where my two kids and the girl next door meet at the fence for HOURS and talk. They even managed to pull down a plank from the fence (okay, it was VERY loose, but still). The neighbors decided to replace the fence and the little girl was VERY unhappy about it so they promised there would be a way for them to still see each other.


How cool is THAT? Seriously, we have great neighbors, we are very lucky! They installed a new gate on the fence line that connects our yard to theirs and made the slats big so the kids could see each other and everything and could easily go play with each other. My kids think that Santa has come! *laugh*

Notice Cassie is in a jacket, she threw a hissy fit this morning to wear it and Tom was fighting her. Like I told him, what's the point? If she gets hot, she'll take it off, in the meantime, it's totally NOT worth the battle. She has a doctor's appointment today and I'm going to have enough of a fight about that without adding to it!

Mom's Night Out: The REAL Story

So, what club you guys go to anyways?

Sunday Six: The Monday Edition

'cuz Kelly says so....

Yeah, I'm late... I forgot to upload the video.... Cassie wouldn't let me take one so you only get Jamie (who knows everything anyway):


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Moblog: Mom's Night Out

The crazy ladies strike again... good food, a LOT of laughs, what more could you ask for?

Recipe for Salmon and.... A favor to ask of anyone that drinks Coke/Diet Coke/Coke Zero...

Hello, people that are asking for the recipe... I provided the link to it in the blog post... LOL... here it is again though: http://www.recipezaar.com/174492

---- and ----

Tom and I have a business trip coming up in April and I'm trying to get together enough miles so we can fly there without too much strain on the budget. Coke is running a "rewards" promotion that has codes on them that you can get miles for... anyway, if you drink Coke (Diet Coke or Coke Zero too) and are NOT participating in the rewards program, I would appreciate it if you could save your codes for us. You can either email us the code (it's a 15 digit number usually on the inside of the box or under the cap), or we can get them from you in some other way.

I know this sounds crazy, but hey... every little bit helps when you're flying! Thanks guys!

If you want to participate, but haven't signed up, let me know, I can email you and get a few points for referring you :)

Moblog: Dinner with friends...

Moblog: PsychoSAHMs scary hubby

We had dinner over P's house... nothing like dinner topped off with a dude in a mask! :-) We had a great time, thanks!

Help me pick one!

Remember that photo shoot thing Cassie and I did a few weeks ago? Here's the pics... which one do you like best??
(click on one to see bigger pics)

Stuff Portrait Friday: Whatever...

Kristine told me to....

1. Your Drinking Glasses. I was going to clean up the cabinet and then decided "screw it", so you get to see my messy cups - hey! 13 years of marriage and 2 kids later, nothing matches... well, except for my champange glasses, we gotta have priorities, people!

2. Your Address book/Stationary (remember that stuff we used BEFORE email?) - What? Please woman... I don't have an address book and I've never used stationary. Even today, my stationary is electronic and I print it out if I must... all of my addresses (and hell, email too) is kept in Morris:

3. SOMETHING NEW - Tom's newest creation... Texas-Style Lomi Lomi Salmon Pasta Salad -- say that 3 times fast... it was pretty good. I don't like raw onions though, but without it, it's not lomi lomi, so there you go. Tom really misses Lomi Lomi Salmon in Hawaii, so he made this up:
Didya play? Well? Didya?

Help Fight Cervical Cancer...

Generally I don't bother with these things, but ladies - this could happen to any of us! Thanks! It looks legit.

Go to this link and order your free bracelet it costs you nothing, but for every one that is ordered, Merck Pharmaceuticals donates $1 for cervical cancer research. It only takes a minute and is legit; the link sends you right to the Merck website. It would be great to get Merck to donate the "up to $100,000" they have agreed to!

http://www.maketheconnection.org

Don't forget to pass it on! :-)

Hiding behind the door....

Ok, I know at least SOME of you have seen this on sitcoms:

Guy walks in,"Hi, honey, how was your day? I am so glad that Frank guy stopped coming around. I know he was just a friend, but I was getting really jealous."

The guy goes to put his coat in the closet, open the door. "Oh, hi Frank". Hands Frank his coat and closes the door.

Sound familiar?

As Candy said below, we have been watching Mac (5) and Delia (1) for a few days while their mommy had their baby brother Jasper. Anyways...Mac had the couch for a bed, and all the other kids were in their assorted sleeping spots. Cassie decided she just MUST have this stuffed dog. We had piled all the toy animals into Jamie closet, so I go in to get it.

Jamies bedroom door cover half of his closet when it is open, so I went in and partially closed the door. I bent down, picked up the dog, and opened the door.....WHOA! Wait a sec! I closed the door again, and there was Mac. Really funny, the dog I picked up was sitting on her feet. I saw them when I picked it up but it took a second to register.

And I thought this kinda thing only happened on those sitcoms!

What is it? Interesting item someone is trying to identify...

http://www.nanacarol.com/whatisit/whatisit.htm

It looks dangerous, whatever it is!

We're Outnumbered!!

Sunday afternoon at 4pm, we were invaded... shortly thereafter I think I took an entire row of birth control pills. *laugh*

My dear friend, Crystal, had to be at the hospital bright and early to have their newest addition, so Tom and I volunteered to watch her two little girls. It's been... interesting. Let me give you the break down of ages here. My son is 5. Her daughter is 5. My daughter is 3. Her daughter is 23 months old. Yes, count with me. That's 4 kids age 5 and under. It's been interesting - and educational!

First thing that Tom and I noticed is that we are WAY outnumbered. And it's not just the fact that there are FOUR children in this house. But that when there are FOUR it seems like at least 15 and they all talk at once and they all want the same exact thing and the same exact moment in time. It is definitely a divide and conquer situation!

Everything has turned into an assembly line. Sandwiches for lunch get lined up on plates on the counter and it's like some quasi-lunchroom where Tom is throwing mustard on the bread, then turkey, then cheese and if someone doesn't like it, well, they'll just have to pick it off *laugh*.

Bathtime has been interesting... we put her two girls (M and D) in there first, then the youngest one (D) comes out, where I'm sitting in one of the bedrooms surrounded by nightclothes. While I get her dressed, Tom puts Cassie in there, then the oldest (M) comes out just as I'm finishing up her sister... then we put Jamie in there with Cassie while I'm getting D dressed, then Cassie comes out a few minutes later and while I'm getting her dressed, Jamie gets in to take his bath (poor boy, always gets the tepid water, but hey, whatever).

Bedtime has been funny. Both Cassie and D need help getting to sleep, so we get the older ones set up (Jamie in his bed and M on the sofa) and threaten them with no painting or whatever the next day if they get out of bed and then we try to get the little ones to sleep... then we hear whispering and giggling... the two oldest are pretty smart and have figured out that we are otherwise engaged so M is in Jamie's room sitting on his bed talking. (Tom has a funny story about this so I'll let him share that later)... When they do finally go to sleep, I am in awe of people that do this every day. There actually ARE people out there with 4 kids 5 and under. There should be laws against it. ;)

Actually, it hasn't been too bad. We basically have thrown in the towel and as long as they aren't going to hurt themselves or each other, the rest is okay. The two oldest are really good at helping clean up, but let's face it, that lasts about 3.4 seconds. We had grand plans to make a decent dinner tonight, but after realizing that we didn't thaw out the ground turkey, we did delivery pizza... again. Hey, the kids eat it and are actually quiet for about 5 minutes! SCORE!

Pictures (and if anyone says anything about the mess I *WILL* hunt you down and kill you):

It's been interesting to see all the different personalities. M is our little tattle-tale (it's the age, so is Jamie, which is interesting when they tattle on each other for doing the same thing). She is also one heck of a brilliant child. This little girl (in blue) is going to take over the world one day. She's also really very sweet. She's been so nice to her sister and Cassie and she thinks Jamie's just the best thing since sliced bread. It's been a joy having her here.

D is a complete doll. We want to keep her for a few more days *laugh*. She has latched onto Tom, he's her little buddy and she is a genius. She is very much aware that she has him wrapped around BOTH of her little fingers! I had an "awwww" moment today when she was taking wooden blocks out of the basket and giving them to Cassie, she was naming (CORRECTLY!) each color and Cassie was saying "Very good, D!" and building something. So cute!

And, no Crystal, I didn't drink the margaritas that were in that empty bucket in the past few days, Jamie asked for the bucket when he saw it and I gave it to him.

... that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Jasper is here!!!!

I just talked to Crystal and Jasper is here! He was born this morning around 9am. Weighs in at 8 lbs 13 oz and is 20" long. He had low sugar, and is fighting nursing, but he's doing great. Crystal sounds really great. She said that Don is walking around with his chest sticking out (first boy, they have 2 little girls - well I do at the moment... LOL).

Her c-section was pushed back 2 hours because an emergency c-section came in. So they have had a very long morning indeed!

I'm hoping to go see her this afternoon and maybe take some pictures :-)

Sunday Six: Daddies...

Ack! I almost forgot my Sunday Six!

Notice the children gave the SAME answer to the 3rd question... and I did NOT prompt them and they were separated so they wouldn't parrot each other... I laughed SO hard... and Jamie and that tongue - his new tooth is almost all the way in and the one beside it is a little loose and he can't stop messing with it.


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Happy Father's Day!

Just a shout-out to all the Daddy's out there. Happy Father's Day!

To Tom - you are simply the best Dad in the world - just ask the kids; they know it, I know it and everyone else should too. You are an amazingly good sport with me and all of my crazy antics and you keep me from taking myself too seriously. 13 years and 2 kids later, I love you more and more each day...

Blah blah blah, sappy sappy... here's a laugh for everyone:


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Lunar Golf Baby!

We promised the kids earlier this week that we would take them to Lunar Golf. They see it in the mall when we go and always ask, so we kept our date and took them today... they had a great time!


If you can't hit it in, just "cheat" a little... no one was watching... well, except for mom and that darn camera! :-)

In other news, Jamie fell off his bike and I took this picture of his boo-boo and then played with it because I felt like it *laugh* Yes, he had on a helmet. Only my child could do this, I swear... he's so accident-prone!

SPF: Watching Kristine Be Sappy...

Kristine is getting married in like 3 weeks and she's handing out SPF assignments. I did this one because I'm, frankly, scared of her now. She's got that bride thing going on... She says she doesn't, but we all know the truth... So without further ado...

Oh wait... first, can we have a moment of silence for the catepillar mentioned earlier this week? Her mom just told me that apparently it won' t become a BEAU-TI-FUL butterfly afterall (and not just because it's a web worm or whatever)... he didn't make it, I'm sad to report.

Onward...

1. Your Puzzle -- I was going to take a picture of my empty bird feeders, ya see, we keep filling them and the birds will empty them in no time flat. It's not squirrels and it's not the pigeons (we finally figured out how the pigeons were getting in there and took care of that) and it's not those mean, nasty Blue Jays... Anyway, it's dark outside so I decided to share my in-trays with you. These are not all of them either. The puzzle here is how can I work ALL day long and there STILL be paper in here?!?!

2. Your Best (Your best what? YOU DECIDE!!) -- My best make-believers, no explanation necessary there!
3. Something '“Old'” -- My picture-taking skills suck, but this was my grandmother's, my grandfather gave it to her in the early 1940s I believe (Mom? Is this right?). I know it doesn't look like much (there IS a diamond there I promise *laugh*), but it has a lot of sentimental value. It's actually a really gorgeous piece of jewelry - there are orange blossoms all around the wedding band. The details of the engagement ring are really amazing. They don't make them like this anymore. The ironic part is that I'm allergic to gold. I can't wear it for long, so I save it for special occasions. This will one day be handed down to Cassie-girl.

Oh, how I detest potty training...

I hate potty training. I want to send my children away for a couple of weeks and for someone to return them to me in underwear, having no accidents, and happy. Yeah, right! I won't go into Jamie's potty training nightmare (he was just shy of 4)... Cassie potty trained twice for an entire week. She had VERY few accidents. Then she just stopped.

This picture is from September 04 (yes, she was like 18 months old, I thought were golden!)

Now, she's in underwear again. She went 2 days without any real accidents. We sent her next door to play earlier today and she did fine. Came back dry. Tonight, she sits down to eat and pees all over the place. #@$#%#$% At least we have the new dining room (no cloth seats) and all tile floor.

Please, someone come get my child and fix her. I say that, but since I did most of Jamie's potty training, Tom has taken on most of Cassie's. She'll go when you put her on the toilet, but you can't ask her if she needs to go because she'll say no over and over and over again. I'm tired of buying pull-ups already.

... and don't give me advice. I've tried it all. I hate Dr. Phil, he can bite me. So can Dr. Spock and whoever else is out there. ... and I don't want to hear how your kid potty trained himself at 9 months old either. So, for now, it's underwear during the day and a pull up at night. Whatever, dudes... she won't graduate in Depends, I suppose...

Man, looking at that picture up there is kind of freaky! She has changed so much! Wow! Too bad we are in the same freaking place as we were back then.

In other news, Jamie finally wiped his own rear the other day... progress... slow, but still progress...
(talk about over-sharing... and hopefully he'll read this one day when he's 15 and be completely mortified that I just told the entire internet that he doesn't like wiping his own butt - he says "it's dirty"... ya think?)

The Meeting Of The Minds...

Remember me telling you guys that the kids managed to pull down one of the planks in the fence so that they could visit with the neighbor girl (who is going to start Kindergarten with Jamie in the Fall)? They sit here, LITERALLY, for hours each day, they now have chairs. Tom and I joke that the "meeting of the minds" is underway out there. It's funny, they go over to each other's houses several times per week, but as soon as they come back home, they are back outside at the fence again. After dinner, they are at the fence or begging us to let them ride bikes outside with her. Seriously, it's crazy! It's like some wild addiction. Her mom tells us it's the same thing at her house... if their car isn't in the driveway, we get to hear them talk about where she might be, when she's coming back, etc etc. It's hilarious.

They are having the fence replaced within the next couple of weeks. Apparently the little girl overheard her mom and had a FIT so now the fence is being built with a gate or some kind of swing out top or something so they can still sit at the fence and talk. LOL. Yes, I'm quite serious!

I walked over after taking the picture above and the little girl had a caterpillar. I guess, at least they are learning stuff. They were all excited that (in Jamie's words) this furry caterpillar will one day be a BEAU-TI-FUL butterfly.


What a great Summer we are having! We took the kids to Brushy Creek sprinkler park tonight after dinner (we didn't know it, but apparently our neighborhood pool is "adult swim only" two nights per week.

Sunday Six: Busy Bees

Each week, Kelly comes up with six questions to ask our kids. I play when I remember or I think my kids might say something funny. I always video tape it because I'm such a nerd. In my defense this week, Jamie is obsessed with money - he also has it in his head that I have more money than Tom - maybe it's because for the past year I'm the only one that knew their pin number to the debit card! *laugh* I remembered to separate them this time since Cassie just parrots everything Jamie says... enjoy!



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Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing
.... and a bonus picture of Jamie and Daddy, yes, sitting in front of the computer... I think I'll title this one "Who Us????"

MOBLOG: Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro...

We mentioned Tres Amigos for dinner... Jamie pipes up and says we cannot go there because there are four of us, not 3! How neat that he knew tres is 3! Thank you, Dora!

Tom is such a fabulous cook....

We had friends over tonight. Tom cooked. He made Bruchetta for an appetizer, this steak that was to DIE for (and I don't much like steak), Creamy Garlic Mashed Potato Casserole, and cob on the corn. YUM! Pics of the Bruchetta and Potato thing below. I'm so lucky, he can seriously cook. Oh, and me, R and D nearly finished off a bucket of margaritas which would explain why I feel the need to post pictures of food on my blog... the bruchetta was REALLY good though... he tripled the garlic and used large pices of sour dough bread. I can die happy now. I'm so gonna pay for this tomorrow... I'd better take a bottle of Advil... I've had entirely too many margaritas this Summer.. maybe I should switch to wine or something...

(A little dirty)... BAD joke... :-)

Johnny wanted to have sex with a woman in his office... but, alas she belonged to someone else...

One day Johnny got so frustrated that he went up to her and said I'll give you a $100 if you let me have you.... the woman said NO. Johnny said I'll be fast, I'll throw the money on the floor, you bend down, and I'll be finished by the time you pick it up.

She thought for a moment and said that she would have to consult her boyfriend... so she called her boyfriend and told him the story. Her boyfriend says ask him for $200, pick up the money very fast, he won't even be able to get his pants down. So she agrees and accepts the proposal. Half an hour goes by and the boyfriend is waiting for his girlfriend to call.

Finally after 45 minutes the boyfriend calls and asks what happened...

She said, "The bugger used coins".

Management lesson:
Always consider a business proposal in it's entirety before agreeing to it and getting screwed!

Best Movie of All Time

Ok, so I'm in a Starship Troopers mood. Candy just bought me the soundtrack..
Here is a little "Tribute" video. You don't get the whole story, but you get shots of all the major scenes.

Tom and I are the dumbest parents on the planet

We meander through life thinking that we will finally get this parenting thing figured out one of these days... yes, we are seriously deluded. So, Cassie gets it in her head that she wants to go ride her bike after dinner. Okay, no problem - except Jamie has REFUSED to get back on his bike since he fell off in October and a car "almost hit him" (it was literally about 30 car lengths away, so much for "near death experiences")... so, we get Cassie on her trike and she's doing okay... she gets going too fast and her feet fly off... typical Cassie.

Jamie is sitting on his bike whining that he doesn't know how and it's too hard and we are fussing at him that he's being ridiculous and to push the pedals and stop it right now... yeah. So, he finally manages to go a little ways, I'm walking beside him wondering why in the heck we got training wheels if I'm just going to push him around... I finally realize that it looks like he IS trying, but not going anywhere, so I tell Tom to get on his bike (I wish I had had my camera at that time)... Tom says the pedals are REALLY hard to push. We don't know why. Anyone know anything about bikes? He rode a bike a friend gave to Cassie and he did just fine. We felt like morons. Again.

Evil child tried to run me over
(of course, if I had people fussing at me for no good reason...)
((or maybe because it's a "girl bike" which means it has cooties I guess))

Yes, safety-concious people, we know her helmet kept falling half way off... not only are we morons, but we apparently can't figure out the stupid princess bike helmet either... and who designs elbow-pads? They keep falling off her... sigh, I see a trip to Target in my future.

... and while I'm rambling, I'm constantly amazed at the differences in my children. If I didn't know better, I would wonder if they are truly related. Jamie is careful, calculating and you really have to PUSH him to try something new, literally sometimes. Once he realizes (and this sometimes takes 3 or 4 pushes) that sudden death is not going to occur, it's all good. He drives me crazy sometimes with it. He's very rules-oriented and will tell you the rules -- repeatedly. Cassie... she doesn't have a care in the world. There are no rules in her world, she thinks nothing of jumping off of anything. She dances to the beat of her own little drummer... we are just along for the ride. She drives me crazy because I swear she's going to hurt herself. The fact that we have not yet ended up in the ER with a broken bone constantly amazes me. She simply must be made of steel.

They're taking the Hobbits....

Here is a funny little video for all my fellow LotR fans out there (yeah, I KNOW there has to be one or two of you).



Thx to my cousin Andrea for hooking me up with the link!

Purdy Pitcher and Tom Funny...

I took this today at a birthday party... I love this picture... she's so freaking cute!

So, we took the kids clothes shopping today... we bought Cassie (well, she picked it out) this bright orange Nemo outfit along with others... we gave her a bath after the party mentioned above. She threw a FIT to sleep in the orange outfit... after we got them down, Tom and I were talking... Tom was asking why I bought such a bright orange outfit and wanted to make sure our Vice President wasn't hunting in the area... ouch. :p

Pics of the kids at the wedding...

Tom's cousin got married tonight and I took some pics of the kids at the reception, this neat little place with all kinds of photo ops :-) Of course, my pictures would have come out better had it not been for my sister-in-law, but I won't go into that here in case someone reads our blog that might get us in trouble *laughs*

MiMi made Cassie's dress... yes. MADE it. Like I bought a pattern and some fabric and ruffles and she did something with all of that and THIS dress came out. DANG... seriously, I can't sew... it's beautiful and Cassie felt like a the princess that we all know she is... she said that this dress was great to twirl in *laugh*
Yes, Kami, I realize her shoes don't match, you argue with a 3 year old diva.
Anyway, I like this picture because of how prim and proper Cassie is sitting - Yes, I see the chocolate all over Jamie's shirt... someone thought chocolate dipped strawberries in 100 degree weather would be a great idea... Jamie agreed. A good mom would have taken pictures BEFORE letting them eat, but they were starving!

I like to pretend I'm a good photographer... I thought this was cute. Jamie informed us (he knows everything, you know, he's 5 after all) that there used to be fish in there, but not anymore... umm... okay, son.

Who peed in her cornflakes?

Tom took this one... I tried to fix it, still cute though!

We got them home, skipped the bath and they were asleep within like 5 minutes... they were dead tired! I have to say, they were SO good during the ceremony, they stayed pretty quiet... but man, it started at 6pm, my kids have like some internal clock. When six o'clock strikes, they both immediately want food... they did pretty good considering we didn't give them anything until after 7pm... one day I'll be able to plan things without worrying about that 6 o'clock rule... seirously, it's freaky... Tom and I can't figure it out...

Stuff Portrait Friday... just cause

Why am I doing this? 'Cause Kristine says... I'm just a follower here folks...

1. Something Sparkly - This is a Good Fortune Buddha that Tom got me one year for Christmas.. it's made of jade and has some kind of stuff over it that makes it all sparkly...

2. Something Colorful - A small part of my "To Be Read" books... I love all the beautiful, colorful spines just calling my name...

3. Dull - Tom's boring computer and programming books in his "office"

Didja play? Well? Didja? Didja?

The Proper Way To Weigh Yourself...

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.
We must get the word out.

Shopping

A few days ago I went shopping (with both kids, yes, I'm insane) and they wanted me to take pictures of them while we were waiting...

The mirrors are kind of freaky... it's like little clones of my brats....

This is Jamie's Zoolander pose or maybe he's just "done" with shopping :-)

Oh...My...God....

Must be seen to be believed....

http://www.jesuspan.com/

I guess I can throw out that bread mold shaped like the Vatican now :o(

Sneak Peek!

A friend of mine works for Photo Texas and they needed some kids to take some pictures of for advertising so I volunteered Cassie, who is the most beautiful little girl on the planet - not that I'm biased or anything... she had such a good time there... they were really great - I know if I had all those kids in a room trying to get pictures of them, I would absolutely LOSE MY MIND. Cassie wanted to keep the dress *laugh* I can't wait until I get to see the final pictures... :-) I was proud of my little Cassie girl, she was very cooperative and only freaked out when they wanted her to take a picture with this "baby" baby grand piano... even then she just said "no" and that was that... apparently the kid before her was playing on it and she informed me it was just too loud... what a diva.