Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

its after midnight and it means its officially my baby girls birthday!!! I can't believe she's already 9 years old! Oh how time flies. Right now we are temporarily seperated as she is visiting her dad for a couple of weeks..... and we're both having seperation anxiety. We had a short visit and went out for tea a few days ago and it was hard to tear myself away from her when it was over. It just doesn't feel right being away from her. I feel... weird. I've been throwing myself into home improvement projects on top of my day job (I had 2 for a bit there) and my photography which keeps me busy enough this time of year..... just to keep my mind off of missing her! Last night I cleaned her closet and swept her floors and tomorrow I'll clean out her fish tank and finish straightening..... I painted my dresser today (see I wasn't kidding)......


I'm going stir crazy until this kid gets home!! AGH!!!!

I'm hoping tomorrow while its still her birthday I can get her on the phone! She had this idea to get on the phone at night and each go outside and look at the moon together (sigh).... she is so much like me. I miss my little squishy quirky critter. Happy Birthday baby girl. Mommy loves you more than chocolate.

take time to smell the flowers

Libby did lol.. I got these at the farmers market! SO PRETTY!!

I put them in the front window...... because of the light.. but the front window is also the cats hangout. So after they got their sniffs in and made friends with the flowers they hung out by them. I noticed the flowers matched their necklaces. yes my cats wear jewelry. I made them myself. Because I'm a dork. Libby is the Dilute Calico. Greycie, her sister from the same litter is the big grey kitty. Both girls are snuggle bugs.

play in the rain....

drip drip drip. actually. no. it was more like a downpour! If you were outside, you were going to get wet. Yesterday while walking down the block from her friends house, my kid got soaked while running back home because it came down so quickly. She thought I'd be mad at her. lol. Why do kids think that? I honestly thought it was funny. To prove it I had her go back outside and splash around for me while I shot a few pics with  my phone.

She laughed so hard. I felt like a kid again.

Just a bit ago, and I'm still damp as I type this, again, DOWNPOUR. I saw Abby smirk and look at the window and just as she was about to ask if she could go outside, I jumped up and said "beatcha out there!" She lit up like a christmas tree and we scrambled for the door and started splashing away on our semi flooded one way street! I kicked water on her and she stood there with a shocked smile before she started kicking water back on me. Then her best friend came running down the street in her bathing suit laughing hysterically and we all 3 ran around the house getting poured on, kicking water on eachother, throwing it with our hands and stomping in every puddle we could find. We ran towards the street gutters to catch the deeper puddles and score points. I had to ditch my glasses on the porch because they became more like a foggy moist, droplet drenched blindfold than a visual aid. We took turns standing under a drain pipe that comes off of our roof. I know thats gross. I just didn't care. It was too much fun. Abby was laughing so hard. She was squealing, screeching, you name it. So was I! I felt like a kid again. We played in the rain until it stopped raining. I'm sure my neighbors peeked at me through their windows and are possibly questioning my sanity at the moment. I've been cooped up in this house and at work too long. I'm a mom. I'm about to turn 33. Sometimes you just need to play in the rain. If you think you're too old, or too proper or too mature to play sometimes, then YOU'RE the one with the sanity problem.

For the moment I am back to work. Mostly dry. And my kid and her friends think I am the coolest mom on the block. ;)

I've been neglecting this

life has been throwing a lot of curve balls at me lately..... I've been so busy I haven't had much time to tend to this. But that means when I get the time I'll have a lot of stuff to post. I've had some great photo sessions. I've started a new part time job. I've made some new friends. Did a few more paintings. Did some sight seeing in my local area at places I don't normally visit. That reminds.. I have photos to load from the Thousand Islands from Heart Island and Boldt Castle. I can't believe I went there over a week ago and I haven't even taken my photos off my memory card yet! I wasn't kidding when I said busy y'all. lol.

Let me share a few shots from some of my recent family sessions :)

^^ recognize those guys from last year? we duplicated the same shot ;)