I love the days when Scott's at home. It warms my heart to see his girls climbing all over him and sitting on his lap.

Now that the girls know where belly's and "buttons" are, the are constantly lifting up my shirt (or pulling it out from the collar) to see what's under there. It's amazing to see what fascinates them at this age because believe me, there's nothing under there worth gazing at! :)

Some days it looks so beautiful out - until we step outside and immediately start to sweat or find it hard to breathe. I feel bad sometimes when the girls daydream out the window as if to say, "mommy, can we pleeaaaaaase go outside?!"

The girls get a case of diaper rash now and then, prompting me to let them run around in the buff. Lauren finds this interesting, hilarious and Whitney's bum highly entertaining!

Whitney now knows what her belly is...and her "button," ie: her bellybutton. It's very exciting to run around with no shirt - if only mommy's belly were this cute.

Lauren loves her "bankie"...



...really, REALLY, loves her bankie...



Linus has NOTHING on Lauren and her bankie!

After reading the instruction manual that came with my camera (genius!), I was able to adjust the settings and get just the images I want when I take pictures of the girls. I love their faces - I see them even when we're not together - and I want to preserve them with pictures the way they are ingrained on my brain.

There are SO many moments where I'm watching the girls - when I don't have my camera handy. Or when I run to get it, the cute, fun thing they were doing is now much less fun than trying to wrestle the camera away from mommy. On occasion I'm able to snap a few pictures with my phone - and while I do capture the moment(s) I really, REALLY wish I have my good camera with me at all times.

"Of all of our inventions for mass communication, pictures still speak the most universally understood language.”
~ Walt Disney

On Saturday, the girls finally got to experience the Cincinnati Zoo for the first time!


Whitney is getting so good at walking, she had a blast walking around the children's section of the zoo...



We played in the turtle shell...


We stopped at the Safari Shack and shared Icee's...


Lauren ate some of mommy's Icee with ice cream in it...


It was pretty hot and humid when we first got there...


...so we cooled off by standing in front of the Monkey Mist machine...


We stopped for an occasional photo op...




Aunt Elissa and Aunt Meshawn helped SO much!


Dexter the Cow decided to let out his LOUDEST moo, when we were standing right in front of him!



The Billy Goats sure were curious about us...


We were very tired at the end of the day...


...but we had SO much fun! Thanks Elissa, Meshawn and Greg (our photo extraordinaire) for making our first zoo trip so wonderful!

"Sister, I hear you laugh, my heart fills full up
Keep me please. Sister, when you cry
I feel your tears running down my face
Sister, Sister keep me." ~ Dave Matthews

When Whitney wakes up from her naps, she's not upset, she doesn't cry, she doesn't hollar for me to come get her. She plays. She has grown quite fond of her "bankie," just like her sister has, and loves to just sit in her bed with the blanket over her. I wonder what she's thinking?!