Summer is..

having a delicious ice cream cone after dinner. Having it match the pink in your shirt ads to the yumminess :)

Got your back.

I can't believe that Big wee one is starting kindergarten at the end of the month. I mean really...she can't be school age already!

Though, to me in this picture, she looks much older than her wise beyond her 5.5 year old self. She's always got her sister's back, and on the occasion when she doesn't, believe me she hears it from me. I'm trying to teach her that no matter what Little wee one is her sister and they have to stay tight.

My goal this week is to blog once a day...here goes :)

Hanging around my side of town.

Recently a friend of mine met the girls and I downtown for a nice morning of walking around, stopping at the candy store, getting a glass of iced tea from my favorite coffee joint and ribs from the farmers' market. We probably spent 3-4 hours just chit-chatting, letting the girls play and enjoying the simple things that our quaint little town offers.

We have been trying to enjoy the relaxing summer days, even though we've been pretty busy. Enjoy your special moments :)

My babies.

Are growing up and I need to deal with it. I can't though. Makes my eyes swell up with tears every time I think about Big wee one going to kindergarten and Little wee one just getting bigger.
I've never felt love the way I do when I look at this face. So beautiful and funny and goofy, and moody and angry and fiesty and happy...everything that I am and then some! A mix of two people who love her more than words can describe.And then we threw in this one. Sweet and gentle, a loner and a silly girl. Not anything like her big sister...a country baby born in the heat of summer who loves a hug and her baby dolls. Who has fought a lot from the time she was born with her funky foot to her ridiculous allergies and asthma now. Both equally make me angry and in love in the same sweep of a second.

Both are super funny and super emotional. One gets angry and stomps her feet, the other gets sad and slumps her shoulders over. But really...do they have to grow up? Do they have to be ok with writing their name and reading books? Coloring pages and drawing pictures? Catching bugs and growing flowers?

I can't take it. My babies, my sweet little angel faces. Now one has purple "highlights" and talks about going to school every.single.day. We go over her schedule countless times a day, with what we will be doing and who we will see...if we will go to a store or have a "stay home day". The other just goes with the flow, no real need for a schedule, just happy to keep on keeping on.

One loves ketchup, the other mustard. One LOVES every fruit or vegetable you put in front of her the other is a "meat-atarian".

Both are super excited about summer and want to go camping, watch fireworks, eat hotdogs and play in our neighbor's pool. Both love to play with our family friends and watch tv when they first wake up in the morning. Both love to be outside and wait for Daddy to open the garage door to pool out various riding toys...though only one rides, the other just carries her "super high bouncy ball" around.
When I get home, I'm going to hug these wee ones...tight! See, I'm heading to the US Virgin Islands for a trip by myself. Celebrating love and photographing my first wedding, but thinking about them and my man the whole time! Go hug your wee ones!

Cause I... I will Survive.

I hope anyway. These kids are going a-wall and I am running on very little sleep...makes for really FUN days. HA! So much to catch you up on...like the one below who can ride her bike without training wheels now, and can only take a bath with her goggles on. Because, you know, she's gotta get ready for swimming and all :)
She's a dork. She get's it from me.

I do plan on updating the 'ol blog soon...in the meantime, have you checked out T. Flo's page (I've heard she's a really cool chick!) ;-)

CA-RAZY!

The last two weeks have flown by. We've been so busy, between lacrosse games, photo-shoots, work, soccer games and life in general...I cannot wait for the weekend! I plan on getting my garden ready for planting and going to the annual MOMS Club Mother's Day brunch. I also plan on watching Big wee one ride her bike...WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS (if you are a friend on facebook, you know this already). We're getting ready for summer....YEAAAAA!!
Peace my peeps...
t.flo

Life {in general}

As been insanely crazy lately. Paul is gone every evening till about 7 pm with practice and later when he has games (which is 2-3 times a week). I don't mind, it gives me a little extra time to work on this or edit these, but those sessions end up going until midnight.

I was thrilled last Saturday to hit the local college with a friend and do some playing with our cameras...I love this image that I got:

After we talked photoshop for awhile, I picked up the wee ones and we hit the road to visit some of our favorite friends! The girls had a blast and the boys drove Little wee one crazy...felt like old times (hehe!)The moms even got to go have mexican by ourselves!! It was a great visit, but a scary ride home...dark mountain roads SCARE me, and for some reason Big wee one would fall asleep and then wake up crying, and then go to sleep, I think she was uncomfortable.

Soon, some of our weeknights will also be filled with this Big wee one being a soccer SUPA STAR! She is SO excited!!

She's been practicing and telling us how fast she is and how "awesome" she's going to be. I don't know if I'll be able to stand how stinking cute she is in that uniform that is tooooo big, her shorts can't even stay up. When she saw the uniform she said, "OOOOOooooo, PURPLE IS MY 2nd FAVORITE COLOR!!" *melting* She's also the only girl on the team!

It's great that the weather is so beautiful, but it makes my allergy sufferers, really suffer! Little wee one has had days where she can barely open her severly swollen eyes, her whole body is itchy (she says), and she can't stop sneezing. I took her to the dr. yesterday and we are now mixing a nice cocktail of meds to help soothe her miserable allergies...poor thing. I just about cried (and I'm tearing up now), when I had to wake her up yesterday and her eyes couldn't open! She was telling me (while pointing to her eye), "this eye doesn't want to open Mommy"...I know you can't understand how sweet and pathetic that sounded, but believe me it was so sweeeeet and soooo pathetic, I just curled her up and my lap and rubbed her back! Poor, sweet thing.

To sum things up, life is good. My big 3-0 is coming up and I am excited for what the 30s will bring me...I've gotta feelin' (ooooohhhhoooooo, sing with me!!) that 30 will be a good year.

xo-T.flo

Busy Bunch

Yup. It's that time of year again...when our visions of Daddy are just like the one below. Him down on the field, us on the bleachers. So far, the season has been great and we have had ridiculously beautiful weather!
Look...the gazelle has spotted us in the jungle of the bleachers!

During lax season we get reunited with long lost friends!

Besides lacrosse, we have been a very busy family! I was gone for 4 days at a photography workshop and I loved every.single.second; and I hope to blog about that experience and some pictures from the event soon.

I'm just so happy with where my photography business is going. Very happy.

But I still can't get this little stinker to smile for me. Or heck, even LOOK at me!
The girl's had off for Easter, and I decided that by golly, I was going to get a picture of Little wee one to hang on the wall if it was the last thing I did that day and sure enough...I have some of the most beautiful images from the girls that day (also in my blog header) and am thrilled that I can order my big giant 16x20 print I won while I was away :)

This is another picture I love. I'm going to have it printed and framed to put in their play room.

Life is busy, as usual. Spring is in the air and we've been spending a ton of time outside (until today when Little wee ones eyes swelled up!). Big wee one starts soccer soon and is very excited about that and Paul will continue to have lax games every week until the end of May.

I have photo sessions booked until the middle of May and can't even begin to express what an amazing time I had and how much information was absorbed into my nugget!

On top of lacrosse, the girls and life the wine shop is flourishing beautifully and I'll be finishing up (I think this will be the 25th label) for a new release coming up. I'm also gathering up materials for T. Flo Photography and getting everything in order. Eeeeeekkkk!! Life is so very good right now :)

Twins?

Is it because they are both girls? Because they both have the same dirty blonde hair with nice natural blond highlights? Is it because they are both sitting in a cart and you can't see how much taller one is than the other? Or for some other reason I just don't know?
Because I must get asked at least 3 times a week if they are twins, and it's not a recent thing, it's been a "their whole life" thing...even when it was way obvious that they were not twins!
Just sayin'...nope, they aren't :)

SNOWMUCHFUN!

It's snowing! The girls were excited to wake up, see LOTS of snow on the ground and "help" Daddy shovel the driveway. I bundled them up and sent them on their way...Big wee one immediately ran into the huge mounds of snow. She didn't get very far, but she tried. She loves the snow and could stay out in it for hours!She managed to get on top of the snow and break free...she was trying to go to the backyard to go sledding.But she didn't make it very far! HA! "No, Mommy, seriously, help me...I'm stuck! MOMMY! HELPME! MOMMY!" All the while I'm laughing at her...hehe, she's trying not to laugh, but she can't help it!Oh look, Little wee one will dig her out! She was singing a very special "digging" song, while she tried to help her sister. It was really stinking cute (but I'm partial to her melodic tunes!)."Diggy, diggy diggy. Diggy, diggy diggy. DIGGY diggy diggy diggy my sistwa out."The infamous snow angel. When doing a proper snow angel, make sure there is a LOT of snow behind your head before plopping down and proceeding with correct arm and leg motions (right Nikkalicious??).It was pretty windy, so I double wrapper the girls. Little wee one decided it was too cold out, and she wanted to go in for hot chocolate, soup, grapes and a nap. Can't blame her.This one though, helped Daddy make an igloo! I remember when my own dad used to make igloos when I was a wee one! Memories...These two were so proud! They look like little bears hibernating...or one big bear and one little bear hibernating, but really they haven't fallen asleep just yet, they were deciding if they should come in for hot chocolate or have their hot chocolate out in the igloo. Round 2 of our winter snowy weather is starting right now. I'm not sure we'll get any pictures in the snow this time, since both girls are pretty sick. I'll keep them warm inside until everyone is feeling top notch. Stay warm wherever you are!

Dance Party 2010

I cranked up the tv on channel 5,462 (90's hit channel) and the wee ones decided that pizza was boring and dancing was the THANG! I agree...who needs to eat when you can dance?!! And honestly, I love it. As a Mom who LOVES to dance, I mean LOVES to dance, it delights me to no end to see these two shaking their groove thang!!

Little wee one was mostly just spinning and jumping, but she was letting the energy go. Feeling the vibe. Letting loose. Look how happy she is!

I didn't even know Big wee one could do the sprinkler!! She just busted it out and of course I had to jump in and join her!

High kicks. Anyone that knows me, knows that I dance. I will dance on demand. I'll dance when no one is looking...I dance for everyone's entertainment and for my own. I've been to the emergency because of my suppa star dance moves...it just makes me so happy to see them dancing :) I love it!

I have a video and I would love to share it with you, but I can't figure out how to upload the video from my flip...I think I need to download the program first...wait, Paul's flip :) hehe!

Peace my peeps!

Sugar Rush

If you can keep your wee ones from eating the decorations, Gingerbread houses are pretty cool. This is our 2nd attempt at making one (and Paul bought an extra one just incase this one didn't work out), the first one just would not stay together. The girls had a blast eating the icing and the candy and I (of course) got anal with perfection...at least I can admit it...hehe! (I get it from my dad!)
A nice warm break after playing in the snow. Stay warm!

Reindeer Sighting

If you are 4 years old (or 5) and you are in Mrs. W's class with Big wee one, then you'll be munching on one of these delicious little morsels of deliciousness on a stick!

If you are 3 (or 4) in Mrs. H's class...you'll have one without a stick. I LOVE cakeballs!! And these are red velvet cake balls (Big wee one insisted).

Happy Christmas Party time of year to you!! I hope to have a little Christmas Tree surprise for you later...hehe!

Love them.

I do. A lot. Even when they whine and drive me crazy and say things like, "You don't like me anymore." I even (kind of) like it when they run into my room first thing in the morning (I'm talking 5:30 am or so) and Big wee one will give me her brown bear and Little wee one will give me a baby and they let me sleep with their lovies. Just because they love me.
Lately, they have been the best of friends. Playing together so well and entertaining one another. We will over hear BWO saying to LWO, "LWO you love your (insert her nickname for the other here)", and LWO will say, "Yup, I do."
So do I.
And of course so does Daddy.
I love this age! I love that they can do things for themselves, but still run to me for a big hug! I love that BWO can be mad at me one second and two seconds later tell me that I'm the best Mommy EVER. DUH! hehe!
I love this picture of the girls...my absolute favorite of them. Thanks for letting me take this picture girls, because later this afternoon (little did we know), LWO will fall on the driveway and scrape up the side of her face. Her poor sweet, teeny, tiny face, now looks like she went into the ring with Mike Tyson (ok, maybe not that bad, but not all that great either!)...there goes our family pictures for Saturday *sigh*

Some highlights from recently:

• LWO had her yearly check up today and she did not do the eye test or pee in a cup, but she did let the nurse take her blood pressure :)
• LWO weighs a whopping 28 lbs :)
• BWO's teacher at school told her she was very artistic and then asked her if she knew that that meant, when she said, "no" the teacher said you are an artist, and BWO said, "I know what that is, my Mommy is an artist" *blush* have I mentioned that I love these kids??
• BWO wants to have a lemonade stand in the WORST way, we will definitely have to do that in the spring/summer.
• Both girls have been picking out Christmas gifts every Sunday when Daddy pulls out the toy inserts from the paper...looks like BWO is still going for barbies and such and LWO is still into babies.

If you want to see even sweeter pictures of these two, go here...my little girls are growing up and getting prettier by the second! Daddy is going to have serious issues when they get older!

Trick or Treat, Smell my feet...

What a busy Halloween weekend! The weather held out for Trick or Treat on Main St, so we were able to go downtown and enjoy our morning/afternoon. As soon as I was done announcing winners for the costume contest, and everyone went their way, rain drops started falling. We made it back home for naps and a late lunch and dinner, then we headed back out for trick or treating in our neighborhood.

Oh goodness...this costume made me laugh everytime I looked at it!

Little Duck and Pumpkin Princess

The girls were pretty lucky that they ran into Batman to protect us and to remind Big wee one to hold on while walking down steps (she fell at one house, the bricks on the man's steps just crumbled under her feet! Do you know that he didn't even ask if she was ok?! Crazy right! Rude man...).

Once the girls started to get tired, we invited Batman over to trade his peanut candy for peanut free candy (allergies and all). He ended up with some good loot and the girls ended up with a lot of delicious chocolate!

We brushed our teeth and hit the sack. Paul remembered to change the clocks back, but that didn't stop the girls from coming in our room around 5 am. Oiy! Don't they know that they can sleep past 5:00 am?? Hopefully that doesn't last.

I had 3 photoshoots on Sunday, so be sure to check out T Flo's Photography blog. I'm hitting the sack, I'm adjusting to the time change, even though we gained an hour, I certainly don't feel like I've gained anything!

It's all Black & White

Because I didn't feel like going through and fixing all of the colors and lighting and what not...it takes work to make a picture THAT much more beautiful...hehe! I've made all of these pictures B&W...easy :)

Let's get started!

We visited Grandma & Grandad at the beach 2 weekends ago and had a very pleasant time. I took the girls to breakfast, its kind of our special thing when we go to Berlin, MD, and then we hit the beach, had crabs and the next day Paul and I got to play a round of golf.

We've never taken the girls to ride the rides on the boardwalk, so we decided to walk the 14 blocks from where we were on the beach. The girls LOVED all the kites, Little wee one fell asleep and Big wee one had a pretty nice ride...LWO actually fell asleep while walking! How does that happen?? She missed out on riding the rides, so I took her place and rode with BWO.

LWO was being so sweet on the way home from the beach, back to Grandma's house...BWO was drooling in her sleep, but this sweet thing was rested from her sleepwalk!When we got home, look what we found!! We've been waiting for these GIANT sunflowers to

This won't happen overnight though, well, actually it does...these suckers sprouted up from teeny tiny seeds we planted...but it took a lot of TLC and this: and believe me, they LOVE watering the plants! Little green thumbs.

Paul's been playing in an adult lax league on Tuesday nights and it just so happens that a local food/fun joint is really kid friendly and kids eat FREE on Tuesday's and get to play putt-putt for $1!! HEELLOOOOOO!! Can't beat that with a stick!

We were lucky to be joined by our friends...they are actually the ones that told us about this hip joint...BWO was being her regular photogenic self :)

The next week I was super busy with Old Market Day. We made it through the week with sick kids, sick kids at the sitter's and life in general all in one piece. I am still exhausted though! This is what it looked like when I got to work in the morning...

And about 5 hours later the streets were filled with people! The weather was beautiful and the crowds were plentiful!

Now that Old Market Day is over and we can chillax for a bit, Paul and I decided to sign BWO up for swimming lessons. This girl is freaked by water. Not the ocean...nope, she loves jumping waves, it's the pool. She just doesn't dig it at all, but she wants to. You can see in her face and her attitude that she wants to jump in and have fun, but she's just a little timid.

First things first...you have to get in the water. Slow & steady wins the race...ha!Notice how everyone else is wet and she's just like, "Um, yea...go right ahead, I'll wait right here."

Atleast she started to blow some bubbles.

Day 2 started out a little better. She had her goggles on, even though she took them off soon after and immediately started practicing putting her face in the water. At one point I walked by her and she said, "Mommy look...(puts her face under, pops back up and continues) Now can I get my ears pierced?" hehe! She's been asking to get her ears pierced and we said that if she passed her swimming and that meant putting her face in the water we would talk about it.

A little floating fun. Her hair is wet! That's proof that she's been putting her face in...way to go big girl!I was so proud to see her do this!! And it's only day 2! I'm excited to see how the rest of the week goes...till then :)