My New Camera Toy

Since I can't afford an external flash, I went online and found something that was cheap and worked great. For the life of me, I can't remember what the attachment is called, but I love it. It was about $30. Just look at these before and afters.

This new toy, takes the usual harsh light that is usually known with the on camera flash and bounces it on a ceiling or wall, illuminating a whole room instead of just the subject in front of it.

with my plain camera flash

with my new camera toy

with normal camera flash

with my new camera toy

normal camera flash

camera toy, bouncing the light off my white dishwasher

again, with my new toy

My Girls

 Jalee and Kenna spend the night for a photoshoot and I took pictures of Addison and Charlene of course. They are, in fact, adorable. Addison wanted to do everything that her aunts did, copying everything from their poses to the faces they made. I admit I loved that.

loves these chunky legs and cheeks!

trying on Jalee's glasses

Addison

how cute is this? she fell asleep on our way to visit grandma and papa mckay's so we let her finish her nap in her carseat. she is so precious.

Brown Family FHE: Chuck's Pool

One FHE every summer is at Chuck and JuDene's house. We look forward to fun in the pool, yummy food, and chatting up with family.

Charlene loved the pool. The temperature took a bit to get used to, pools are not nearly as warm a baths! She looks so cute in Addison's old swimming suit. Look at all that chunk!

Loving her some Heidi.

Addison is getting so big. Look at that long hair!

Of course I didn't think to get pictures of anyone else besides my girls. WHY???! I love looking at pics of family in years past, hopefully I'll do better in the future. Cute Kenna below.

Addison and Caleb

While we finished painting grandma's house, caleb and addison played in the mud made from the previous irrigation. as you can tell, they had so much fun.

 i don't usually let addison get this dirty, and she took full advantage of my leniency this day. below: my dad took a break from painting and tried to get several pictures of addison.

 drinking from the water that leaks out of the spout. sooo cute!

 love this girl, she's beautiful.

 perfect picture to end with: kerstyn worked with charlene and they both fell asleep.

New Hair-do and Yummy Treats

the girls are starting to interact with eachother more and more. so cute!

 i french braided addison's hair for the first time, and i fell in love. it was tough for her to hold still, but i threatened and bribed her. i think it looks adorable. lots more of this look to come...

 ...and of course charly. always adorable, even with nothin' done to her hair.

 some yummy things we made lately:

homemade salsa

 kyle canned some of it and took it took his home teaching families. it was soooo good.

lately, i've been saving pictures of ideas (foods to crafts) from the internet onto my computer. yeah, i pretty much thought of the idea that it might be cool to collect and save ideas into groups. too bad someone else also had the same idea and came up with pinterest. i could be a CEO earning lots of  $$$. all well. these (found online) were still good.

Oh the Joys - Mommyhood

poor charlene has thrush (and guess who she shared it with). so until it clears, i am pumping. nursing has been a roller coaster with this one. she started to wean herself at two months - who does that? she only nurses during the let down and then doesn't want to work after it stops. is anyone elses' baby like this? so for the past month and a half i have been nursing as often as possible, then pumping immediately afterward for 15 minutes. which by the way is so hard to do with a toddler and baby needing your attention. plus, now i am washing bottles and pump equipment. before the thrush, we were trying something called a sns. what a hassle, but it has stretched nursing out this long. i wish my babies were good nursers. so frustrating!

purple mouth girl:

then there is this stinker. isn't she beautiful?! at dinner with kyle's family she got a balloon nemo (her FAVORITE movie). she loved it.addison got into my makeup before church. "how i look mommy?" ahhhh perfect addy. i love her face!

Dinner at the Park

carson and jen recently moved and are now in our stake. we have visited them a couple of times since they moved, and the other day decided to have dinner at the park in their neighborhood. addison loved getting out of the house (when you only have one car, and it's hot outside during the day, you don't really leave the house.)

for dinner we decided to make hawaiian burgers. if you know me, you know i can't eat classic hamburgers - kyle says i'm unamerican with all the foods i don't like. so to get around this, we make hamburgers with a twist. tonight's twist includes: carmelized onion, bacon, mango, pineapple, and a mango-pineapple sauce. it's totally awesome!

our setup:

cute huh? well, so is this girl, who slept for quite a while...... and this awesome griller. super cute. and yummy.looks awesome right? they were loved by all.
cuddled with my girl while kyle and addison played on the playground. fun family time.

Two is Better Than One

charlene napping. this kid cracks me up. i have no idea why she loves to grab the side rails of her rocker, but it cracks me up. she fell asleep like this. i think i text this pic to everyone i know. her and this pose of hers made my day.

i took all these pics with my kin phone. it has an 8 mega-pixel camera, and i'm pretty sure it's the only camera phone with that many pixels - the new iphone coming out this fall is suppose to also have an 8 mega-pixel camera. not that i can get it (would love to), but i was informed of this by my dad.

addison is adorable in her $1 sunglasses from target huh? she loves them and thinks she is so cool. she totally is.

rockin' the alfalfa hair-do. poor girls, they both have the mccleve elf ears! charlene is more like dopey though with that bald head! they love bath time. charly already knows what it is and gets so excited when she hears the bath water running. her wrists and ankles go crazy with excitement.
addy almost poked out her eye the other day. you can't tell from the picture, but the hole is triangle shaped and her skin is puffy. she was so tough and i know it hurt!
the girls love my once-in-a-while mid-morning runs. with this free double stroller we picked up before charly was born. so nice to have.

charlene is really starting to take an interest in addison, and addy loves her little sister. i love having two girls. i hope when michelle has her first, that she has a girl. girl cousin parties would be so much fun.
and yes, that is a huge bump and bruise on addison's forehead. she seems to always be getting hurt, and i have to tell her constantly to slow down. poor girl!