Let it snow!

The girls got to play out in the snow!

The first time we went out, it was for the first snow last week and the girls wanted to go out even though we didn't have snow "apparel" out yet. Alaina just adores the snow and the first day, Cami thought it was pretty cool too.

The second snow - well, Cami's just not so sure. She LOVES to look at it and hold little teeny balls of it in her hand, but beyond that - she just cries and tries to get to the sidewalk! :)

Here are some pictures of the fun.

Cami was excited to come inside after the fun and was playing peek-a-boo with the door.

I really think Alaina just likes to play in the snow because she thinks she gets hot chocolate when she comes inside every time! :)

I hate snow. Really. I hate being cold. Is it spring yet?!!!!!

Last week in review :)

So, last week was CRAZY! Alaina had Nutcracker rehearsal every night from 5:30 to 7:30 or later and then a 7pm performance Friday and a 2pm and 7pm performance on Saturday. It was a tiring week for Alaina, even though she loved it - being with the "big ballerinas" and wearing make-up and seeing all the beautiful costumes. But let me say again, it was a tiring week for Alaina. A week later, we're still recuperating!

It was well worth it! :)

We so enjoyed watching Alaina perform in the Nutcracker! She was so sweet - her little mouse head was so big (as seen below) and it didn't get pinned in very well, so it was falling off and she was trying so hard to not mess with it. She was just grinning from ear to ear and was really off in her own little world the whole performance.

As an angel, she was "squinting" (her word) into the crowd trying to find us. She's so dramatic. This was right up her alley.

I used to think she was ballet crazy before the Nutcracker - now I know! She told me (so dramatically and seriously) the other day on the way to school that she just can't think of anything else now and just keeps "remembering the Nutcracker in my head all the time! Mommy, I just keep dancing it in my head!"

What have we transformed her into?!?!?!

Advent

The girls opened a special early Christmas gift this weekend from their Great Aunt Laura and Great Uncle George. They actually received the gift over Thanksgiving, but couldn't open it until Dec. 1st.

It was a beautiful Advent calendar! The girls both love it. My Aunt Laura made it for the girls and it is so sweet! We've wanted to get an Advent calendar for a couple years now because Adam's mom has one that Alaina really enjoys. So when Aunt Laura asked if that would be a good gift, I said YES!!!

The first day Alaina got to chose a "marker" and place it on the calendar, and the next day Cami did. We'll alternate days until Christmas. Both of the girls are really excited and I'm looking forward to talking to them about Christmas and the birth of Jesus.

We have a crazy week coming up - Alaina's going to be in the Nutcracker this next weekend so she has rehearsal each night this week for 2+ hours in the evening. She will be a baby mouse and an angel in the Nutcracker. She's excited and so are we. She keeps pretending to be scared (truly, pretending in every sense of the word - the girl is SO dramatic!) and then laughs and then goes back to pretend crying and nervousness. She's a nut!

We also have been under some "renovation" in our home - a new kitchen! Adam and some friends (Brian Shaffer and Scott Rodgers) have been putting tons of time into our kitchen over the last 2+ weeks and we're almost done! Here are a few pictures of the progress...

Before:

After demo:

After fixing demo:

Getting closer:

I'll post a few pictures of the final results. It's truly amazing how different my kitchen in already! It's actually a kitchen with purpose now! I can USE it effectively and there's ROOM in it with cabinet space and counter tops!!! Thanks so much to Adam, Brian and Scott!!! Now you can all come to dinner and see my new kitchen. It's beautiful. :)

Ghosts say:

Boo!

Cami has learned some new words this week, including "boo" - it's pretty funny.

Our Halloween started off with a parade at Cami's daycare. All the kids dress up in their costumes and parade around the daycare to show off. It was always so fun when Alaina was little and definitely was fun this year with Cami as well!

We then went home to wait for Daddy to get home from work so we could go trick or treating. Even Boomer was antsy! :)

We decided to go out this year with a bunch of families from our neighborhood. It was CRAZY. Absolutely crazy.

Cami loved being in the middle of things (except for the group picture!) and so enjoyed walking, while holding her little spider candy bag.

Alaina had a blast being with her friends and getting candy. We walked too far north, so the walk back was long and it was late. So Alaina rode in the stroller -

And I chased Cami - until she lost it and just sat down in the middle of the sidewalk, about 2 blocks from our house.

We got home just in time to hand out some candy and take some more pictures.

And we can't forget about our carved pumpkins! I did the funny face and Adam did the spider. He likes to be challenged. :)

ZooBoo!

We have always gone to the ZooBoo each year, so that the girls get to wear their costumes an extra time. It's always so fun, seeing them dressed up for the first time!

And the zoo is a GREAT place to go - somehow the weather is always perfect and the animals are so lively when the weather is just a bit cooler. Cami is finally getting to the age where she runs from one animal exhibit to the next because she gets so excited!

Here's a cute picture of the girls together - or should I say my witch and my tiger kitty?

Cami wore Alaina's tiger kitty costume - and dang it, she looked just as cute as Alaina did!! We got LOTS of compliments, just like we did when Alaina wore it. I wish you could see her tail - it's so cute! I'll have to make sure to get one showing her tail on Halloween night.And little Miss Witchy Witch - she LOVED spraying her hair with streaks of hot pink to match her costume. She is really looking forward to Halloween this year!I'm really looking forward to Halloween - we're going trick or treating with a bunch of neighbors. I'm excited to spend the evening walking our neighborhood with other parents and kiddos. I just love our community of friends - nope, family. They're our family. It's just so cool.

Pumpkins galore!

As most of you know, we historically have grown our own pumpkins - great, big, huge pumpkins! Well, this year, the weather messed with our poor pumpkins a bit too much and they weren't so great or huge. We kept them of course, but felt we needed a nice, good pumpkin to carve as well.

So we headed to the pumpkin patch! It was our first time and the girls enjoyed it so much - as did we! :)

The first think Alaina did was run up this HUGE pile of hay - she sank pretty quickly!

We then took a hayride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkin. Cami didn't like the hayride too much!

Wow! So many to chose from!!!

Um, a little help here please!

Finally, we agreed on one...I think we may have started a tradition of growing our own AND heading to the pumpkin patch. :)

sixteen months ago

cami was born. wow. 16 mos. already. it's so crazy how quickly time goes. and even more so with the second child!

see the difference?

i'm truly and completely taken with her. she is the sweetest little thing. the way she smiles at me all the time. the way she looks at me from across the room and just stays put and says "mama, mama, mama" like she's saying "i love you." she's a great balance to the attitude of a growing 5-year old.

god is good. he knew i would want cami once i had her. he knew he had to make her extra special. extra sweet. extra loving. extra snuggly.

extra cami.

i pray for her heart. that when she's 16 years old, rather than 16 months old, that her heart is as loving, sweet and snuggly as it is now. that it is as much in love with god then, as she is with me now.

cami. alaina. my girls. then. and now.

Yea!!!

I found it! It finally came to me late last night. I realized the last pictures we took were of a recent family jaunt to Holiday Park. Then it dawned on me! It had to be in the picnic backpack!

And it was. Whew.

Here are a couple pictures from that trip....

So thankful!!!!

Lost

I have searched and searched. No camera. I can't for the life of me remember where it is, when the last picture I took was (to remind me where the camera was) or where it could possibly be.

Maybe Cami took it.

Pray I will find it.

I'm totally annoyed. I pretty much could lose my head right now if it weren't attached. I wonder what else I've lost...

friendship

it's such a special thing.

yesterday, my friend sarah and i had the same last-minute idea while separately leaving to pick up the kids from school - take the kids to either the park or the zoo after school together. toby and alaina decided on the zoo.

i, of course, left the camera in the car. i'll describe a picture i would have taken:

sarah and i pushing joshua and cami in strollers, look back for toby and alaina. i see them walking, hand in hand, faces lit in pure delight - not because they were at the zoo, but because they were together. we could have been ANYWHERE. delight, simply because they were together.

they have this unique, amazing friendship. it's constant. they run to each other EVERY day like they haven't seen each other for weeks and engulf the other in a huge hug. they just truly enjoy each other.

it's crazy, because when we were both "expecting" these two, we always said: if they're the same sex, they'll have to be the best of friends and if they're not, they'll get married.

i pray for their friendship. that it endures all the crap that's ahead of them. i anticipate it being hard to maintain a friendship like theirs during the age when boys and girls aren't supposed to like each other.

maybe someday i'll turn around to look at the two of them and they'll be walking down the aisle. oh, to have in-laws like the castors... :)

Bouncer?

Alaina: Mom, when do I get to wear the bouncer?
Me: The bouncer?
Alaina: Yes, the new bouncer we bought for school.
Me: Bouncer? I don't know what you mean.
Alaina: (annoyed) Mom, the BOUNCER that I have to wear to school!
Cami: (pointing at Elliott) CAT!

Lightbulb.

Me: Oh, the JUMPER?!
Alaina: Oh, yeah, I mean the jumper!

Oh, the stories we'll have from kindergarten... The funniest thing is that this was Sunday, before school even started, and still, last night at dinner, she's still calling it a bouncer. I can't hardly stop laughing every time she says it. She's so sweet.

I'm not very good at this!

It beginning to be quite clear that I'm not very good at this whole "blog" thing. I sure have good intentions, but when it comes to actually taking the time to write and post pictures, I'm not so timely!

My brother started his freshman year at Purdue this year. (Yeah, I know - traitor.) But the girls love their Uncle Kevin even with his faults. :) Here's a picture of our most recent visit:

I just had to add this picture too - no actual event, just a glimpse into how things really are in our home on a daily basis. :)
This month has brought us many celebrations with Alaina: first, her 5th birthday! We started the day by celebrating with family over lunch. Alaina requested Rice Krispie Treats, marshmallows and M&Ms for dessert.

We then spent the afternoon having some of Alaina's friends (and their families) over to the house for a "spray" party, including the sprinkler, slip and slide, and of course, the trampoline. It was very fun, and Alaina really enjoyed her Disney Princesses cake she picked out.
The day after Alaina's birthday, she started kindergarten at Mrs. Tolbert's house (Laura, a good friend of ours). Here's her first day of "school":

Since Alaina's birthday falls 2 days after the enrollment deadline, we couldn't do public schools (which we aren't fond of here in Indy anyways!). We found an AMAZING school, The Oaks Academy - it's a Christ-centered, classical education school here in the city, just a few short blocks from our house. It's exactly what we want - Christian (truly, in every sense of the word) and diverse (in every way you can imagine). BUT, since her birthday falls 2 days after the cut-off, Alaina was placed on a waiting list for kindergarten. We decided that she would go to Mrs. Tolbert's house to be homeschooled for kindergarten (after a most gracious offer from Laura!) until (if) she got into the Oaks.

A cool update: She got in! She starts her first day of kindergarten at the Oaks on Monday, Sept. 24th. And let me tell you, she's SUPER excited! She can't wait to be in school with her friends. We'll miss Mrs. Tolbert's kindergarten, but she just lives around the corner, is in our small group, and goes to our church - so we'll see her QUITE often! :)

Cami is getting so big - she's not growing as much, but she sure acts like a little girl now. Her laugh is infectous. She just giggles and laughs so much! She really is such a sweet little girl. I'm not sure I've met a sweeter 15 month old.She is talking more - some of her words are: ball, more, Boom (for Boomer), kitty (for Elliott), bubble, mama, nana (banana - though my mom would like to think it's her!), Yaina (Alaina) and her newest, just today, hi. I found SIX, yes 6, new teeth coming in today. Four more on top and two on the bottom, taking her up to 14 once they're all in! That explains the fussiness, runny nose and not so great diapers lately!

Our lives are about to change greatly with Alaina starting school at the Oaks - she'll go full day. So my work schedule will change so that I work while she's in school rather than my 3 full days a week I've been working since Alaina was born! (I'll be working the same number of hours still.) I'll drop Cami off at daycare around 8am, then Alaina at school around 8:15am then off to work. I'll work until about 2pm and then go get Cami around 2:30pm and then Alaina at 3pm. It will be quite a transition for all of us - all working/going to school 5 days a week. Hopefully it'll be smooth.

Busy week!

We had a busy week! Alaina took a trip to the State Fair on Wednesday with one of her favorite babysitters, Katherine. They were there for hours! I should have sent the camera along, because I'm sure we would have some sweet pictures of them from that day. Alaina just came home and went on and on about how much fun they had together!

So, I decided to take the girls (by myself!) to the State Fair on Friday. It was so fun! We were there for over 3 hours taking in all the sights - and smells! :) I, of course, forgot the camera! Ugh - I was totally bummed. But we had so much fun seeing and touching all the animals. Cami just had a blast - laughing and pointing and ooooing the whole time. She kept saying "Baaa" to all the animals after we saw the sheep.

Adam left us girls for a weekend with the guys at a friend's lake house, so we decided to take advantage of the cooler weather and went to the zoo on Saturday morning. Again, forgot the camera! :) Oh well.

BUT, I do have some pictures from our evening together. We decided to have a movie night - our movie nights include dinner in the family room while we watch a movie. This is a rare occurence, so Alaina begs for them! Cami decided when she was done with her plate, she'd get out of her high chair and climb into Alaina's chair to finish off Alaina's food too!

I bet you're wondering what movie we watched?! Well, I finally broke down and we watched "High School Musical" - yes, really. Alaina has been singing those words for WEEKS now after hearing about it from a friend at day care, so I taped it off the tv and we watched it last night. I'm pretty sure I was her age when I started watching "Grease" - which is a MUCH better movie than "HSM." Here's a couple pictures of Alaina watching the movie:

Cami has learned to twirl this week - she hasn't mastered stopping before the gets too dizzy and falls, but it's fun that way right? :) I tried taking a picture and you can't tell she's doing it, but here's a picture of the girls dancing to the movie together:"High School Musical: 2" is out too - it came out on Friday, so we taped that one yesterday after we watched the first one. That's for the next movie night. I hope I haven't created a monster.....

Topsail Island, NC

We spent a week in Topsail Island (southern NC) with Adam's dad's side of the family. There were 17 adults and 6 kiddos! We rented both sides of a duplex right on the beach. It was so great. We don't get to see this side of the family very often as we are all spread out over the eastern part of the US, so it was great quality time together. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the week (yes, I know there are a lot, but Uncle Tom LOVES to take pictures so we had LOTS of pictures to choose from!!!).

Our family

The whole family

Alaina burying Daddy

Cami chillin' in the shade

Sun-kissed Alaina

Mommy and Cami

Flying a kite

Cami, so sweet

Bubbles!!!!! (my niece, Vanessa)

Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, Vogue.

Our last day :(

Sisters

Daddy and Cami

Alaina trying to use a skin board Alaina with Grandpa & Grandma Eva

Alaina's best "Rockstar" face (while singing karaoke!)

We loved our White Family Reunion at Topsail Island. Lots of good memories...