she wore an itsy bitsy teeny weeny...

ali knows how to have the perfect day at the pool:

first you MUST apply sunscreen.

and you can't forget the shades,

they are an absolute necessity.

and it never hurts to get in a little last minute work out to tighten those abs.

testing out the water to makes sure it is a perfect temperature is a good idea.

and it's always good to let the boys know you know how to have fun.

and that you are a happy and approachable gal.

after you have reeled them in you strike the perfect pose and rock that bikini.

of course you have to play a little hard to get and pretend that you are oblivious to them.

a good way to do this is to go lay out in the sun for a while and work on the tan.

all the while keeping an eye on them.

when you are ready to reel them back in, you have to make sure you give that protective older brother the slip,

bat your big blue eyes,

and beckon them to you.

and wham, you got 'em. it's all pretty simple really.

all in a days work at the pool.

being a girl is fabulous.

music to mama's ears

This little lady made me very happy yesterday when I officially became "mamamama".

I know this is kind of a weird picture of her, but I thought it was appropriate since this post is about talking and here I caught her mid-talk. This is from the pictures I took for the last post, but it worked perfectly so I didn't subject ali to yet another camera session.

Yesterday I had ali all ready and in her car seat set to go. I walked out of the room to put something away and when I came back I heard in a please-get-me-out-of-here mumble "mamamama". It made my day! I have heard that sweet sound for a while now from Cole of course, but it seems to be no less wonderful the second time around. Lest you think it was a fluke she has been calling me that for 2 days now, so I think it's official. She has been saying "dada" for forever now and while I think it's adorable, I think Justin was worried I was feeling left out, so he has been working with her on it for a bit now. She also says "baba" and "haaa" for hi. She mimics any sound she hears and we can tell she is going to be our little chatter box. Ali is also quite the accomplished singer, she just loves hearing that voice of hers...and so, quite obviously, do we.