Curious Little Girlie

Lily has been curious right from the moment that she was born. She loves to stare at lights and colors and she especially loves to study faces. Tonight she spent quite a long time just staring at her daddy while he was holding her. I can tell already that she's going to be a huge daddy's girl just like her big sister.

Amanda & Greg's Wedding

Yesterday I went to Amanda & Greg's wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful day followed by a really great dance. In fact, the dance was so good that Shawn and I didn't end up getting home until after two o'clock this morning. Needless to say I didn't do my blog post yesterday. I went to the wedding with the intention of taking plenty of photos to post here. It turned out that I took some photos at the ceremony, but when I got to the reception I sat in a spot where I couldn't get a very good shot so I ended up putting my camera away early in the evening. I really regretted that decision right around the time that Greg did his strip tease for Amanda. It was priceless! When I sat down today to edit the few shots I did get at the ceremony, I realized that none of them even come close to doing Greg & Amanda's day the justice it deserves, so I won't be posting them here after all. That means that, sadly, I don't have any photos to post for yesterday.

Bedtime Routine

I am a huge scrapbooker, although I seldom have time to sit down and scrap anymore. Quite a few months ago I saw a scrapbook layout in which a mom documented her son's bedtime routine. I thought it was a great idea but never got around to doing it myself. Tonight I finally took the photos. It may be a while before I get to scrapbook them, if I ever do, so I decided that I would post them here until that time comes. Here is a little peak into Ella's usual bedtime routine.

Step 1: Watch "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse", or as Ella likes to call it, "Hot Dog"

Step 2: Brush teeth. Shawn or I brush them for her first, then she insists on having her own turn.

Step 3: Choose a book or two to read before bed.

Step 4: Get tucked into bed with blanky and baby. This is a must!

Step 5: Sing a song. Lately she actually wants two songs. Specifically, "Hush Little Ella" and "Patty", which most of us know as "This Old Man". Since I can't take a photo of myself singing, I took one of Ella rubbing her eyes while I sang.

Step 6: Turn on her bedtime cd

Step 7: Water and a tissue. I'm not sure how this developed, but Ella asks for them both every single night right before we leave her room. Then we say our goodnights, shut her door and she {hopefully} goes to sleep.

Our Family's Shoes

On day two of this project I almost forgot to take a photo. The girls and I spent the whole day out shopping for birthday gifts, wedding gifts, and groceries and now that we're home, we're exhausted. I had already put Ella to bed when I realized that I still needed to take my photo for today. So as I was wondering what to take a photo of, I saw Lily's sweet little sneakers sitting on the table. Someone had already given me the great idea to line up a pair of shoes from each member of our family and take a photo to document the size difference between us all at this time (thanks Ruth!), so I decided to try that out.

Making Time to Document our Life Together

Those who know me know that I am a photo taking maniac. I have been carrying a camera around with me since I was a child. But since Lily was born, I have been seriously slacking in the photo taking department. Before she was born I vowed that she would not be the second-born child who has so many less photos than her older sibling. So far, I haven't been doing a very good job at keeping that promise to myself. So because I want Lily to have just as many photos as Ella does and because I want to force myself to continue improving with my photography skills, I have decided to start taking at least one photo a day.
I am creating this blog for a number of reasons. I am really wanting to document a little bit of my girls' every day lives. I am looking forward to having somewhere where I can come and see a little piece of every day - so that at the end of the year I can look back and see what our life has looked like over the year. I am also hoping that by creating a photo a day blog I will have someone (or hopefully many people) who will hold me accountable and make sure that I stick to my goal. Some days there may be just one photo to post and other days I may have many. I am sure that most days the photos will be of my girls, but I am also going to try to take photos of other aspects of our every day lives so that Ella and Lily can have photos of all of the little things that they may not remember some day.
So if you are reading this blog, feel free to follow me and look in on a little piece of my family's life. I promise that not all entries will be this long winded!

Finally, here are my photos for today. My two favorite girls, Ella and Lily.