Stuffed Jesus

Tonight, Alaina was making her Christmas list. She ran into the dining room and said "I want a stuffed Jesus!" My response of course was that they don't make stuffed Jesuses (which of course Adam said we could probably find one.)

She said "I want Jesus!"

So of course my response was "Alaina, you have Jesus - in your heart all the time."

Her response: "But I want Jesus in my bed!"

Adam and I laughed until we cried.

almost traumatic

today i saw cami's short little life flash before me.

i'm still weak and shaking.

we were leaving the hair salon from alaina getting her hair cut. cami was the first out the door - i stayed to hold the door for alaina and saw out of the corner of my eye cami start running.

i automatically yelled "cami! stop!" and started running after her. she was running - no, sprinting - out onto delaware st. delaware is the street we live on. it's also one of the main exits north out of downtown at rush hour. it was now 4pm.

i was able to grab cami about 1/2 way into the street, but lost my balance while trying to grab her and fell - making her hit her head on the cement street.

as i sat in the middle of the street staring south to make sure no cars were coming, the women ran from the salon to help as well as another who had JUST parked her car on the street to go to the salon. they helped me up with cami and ushered me to the sidewalk.

i still see her getting smacked by a car racing home at 4pm to beat rush hour. i see her laying in the street.

it's crazy how quickly life can be taken.

it will be a long time before i will forget this. seeing her run so quickly into the street and being totally unable to help her in time. it was a chilling site.

i'm so thankful god was protecting her.

Camping & Halloween!

Adam and I used to go camping before we had kids. Quite often actually, and we loved it. Then it was just too hard to figure out how to go with kids. So we didn't. Until a few weekends ago!

Adam's cousin Julie and her family were going to spend part of fall break at Brown County State Park camping. So we joined them for a day and night! It was a great time. It was cold, but good fun and exposure for the girls. It has definitely proven to me that it's possible - but would be better with a pop-up camper! :)
Halloween was once again a ton of fun! Alaina was a beautiful Snow Princess and Cami, well, Cami was supposed to be a purple dragon (that was Alaina's old costume). She loved it! Tried it on and was excited about being a dragon. And then one day in the car when we were talking about what Alaina was going to be, Cami said "Mommy, I be kitty cat." I said "No, Cami remember you're going to be a purple dragon!" She said "No, Mommy I be kitty cat." Well, she stuck with it, so guess what Cami was? :)
We have really been enjoying this beautiful weather! And are sad that it's finally coming to an end. We're looking forward to camping this spring though!

Worth mentioning

I thought I'd share some fun news from the White House:

(nope, Katie's not pregnant)

Cami has now graduated to full-time panties! She has been out of pull-ups for several weeks at nap-time, and staying consistently dry at night-time. Last night she wore panties to bed and woke up dry this morning!

Yea for Cami! :)

It is hard to believe though that my baby is now not a baby at all anymore. They grow up so quickly...

Beautiful weekend

We had a great weekend - a long one too! Alaina and Adam had Saturday School this weekend - this is where the parents join their kids in the classroom for a 1/2 day of school and then the kids don't have school the following Monday. I was able to take today off, so the girls and I enjoyed the long weekend together!

The weather was so pretty! Nice and chilly at the beginning of the weekend and just a beautiful, warm fall day today. We spent the majority of the weekend outside, of course snapping tons of great pictures!

Here are a couple pics of the girls on the new playset they got for Alaina's b-day.

And eating tomatoes from our garden...

We decided to go to Apple Works, an apple orchard in Trafalgar, IN (about 45 minutes from Indy) with our good friends Sarah, Toby and Joshua. The kids had a great time - here are a few pics from today.

You may see the last picture again - at Toby & Alaina's wedding! :)

Obsessed now...

Now that Alaina learned how to ride a bike, she's obsessed and wants to go to Herron's parking lot every night she tells us.

We went back tonight so she could work on starting by herself and turning. Pretty funny, but she soon got the hang of them both. Here's a quick video. (Her helmet is almost covering her eyes here!)

Here are some pictures of our summer too. The girls had a great time, especially for the time Daddy was out of a job from 8/1 through 9/15. They got to spend good quality time with him! (Thankfully, Adam started a new job on Tuesday with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as their Controller - don't let him tell you he's playing the recorder.)

Visit from the Woodward's (from Malaysia!)

Annual trip to the farm to say good-bye to the Hern's (this time to Greece!)

Cami's crazy "I'm thinking" face

Alaina at ballet camp

Girls hiking in Holiday Park with Daddy

State Fair

Alaina's first day of 1st grade

Alaina's 6th b-day

Sweet sisters (this day at least!)

Hope you enjoyed the update. I promise it won't be another 2 1/2 months before I write again! :)

Another milestone!

Tonight, Alaina learned how to ride a bike! We've been trying to get her to learn all summer. Finally, after hearing that her and another friend were the only two in their first grade class who didn't know how (and seeing Toby in action at the park today), it lit a fire.

So we hopped in the car with the bikes (of course we had to bring Cami's too!) and headed to the parking lot at the school I work at. After about 10 minutes of total frustration with Alaina's normal lack of confidence and desire to really try, I told her we were leaving and that I was disappointed in how easily she was giving up.

That did it. She decided she wanted to stay and try harder. And what do you know, she got it 5 minutes later!

I can't believe she's big enough to ride a bike without training wheels!

(I don't have pictures or video because we've done this so many times that we really didn't think she'd do it. I know, bad parents, but we didn't bring the camera because we didn't really think it would happen! So we'll take some pictures the next time we promise!)

another stage in life

tonight, cami sat at the top of our stairs for nearly 45 minutes in only a tank top and her crocks, crying the whole time. according to adam, she had an accident and then wouldn't put on clothes afterwards or come downstairs. so she sat there bare-bum and cried.

as i was getting out of the car, he was standing at the door saying "i need your help."

ahhh, two...

(i have to say that i left this "note" on a friend's blog, and then realized it really was so cute that i had to share with all of you too. maybe "cute" isn't the best word...)

Myrtle Beach 2008

On Friday June 13th we set out for our annual trip to Myrtle Beach (my 16th year!) with my mom's side of the family (though this year it was just my mom, dad and Kevin who went). We all look forward to this week with great anticipation starting the day we leave for the next 51 weeks!!! Here are some pictures of our trip.

Alaina & Cami sleeping in the car

Cami's 2nd birthday! sweet sistersdaddy and his girlsour little family

cami putt-putting (this is one of the 3 times she actually tried hitting the ball!)

alaina taking a putt-putt break (she was tired from all her putts!)

alaina asked adam to make her a mermaid...

three generations

my family

awww...

adam and the girls playing in the sand

my baywatch beauty

alaina trying to body surf!

the annual picture

my bro kevin & his adoring nieces

cami in her bikini

me and cam

alaina going underwater (she did this and swam for the first time this week!)

adam playing in the ocean, doing back-flops into the waves (he's crazy)

with our extended Myrtle Beach family (us + the Moloney's)

alaina and molly

Now back to reality... ugh.

Summer's here

Wow - I can't believe it, but summer is here! Alaina has completed KINDERGARTEN (!) and will be moving on to first grade in the fall. But before school was over, she had "Spring Fling" - a celebration of the year in her class. The entire school (pre-K to 8th grade) participated in a parade...

and then we moved into the classrooms. It was really nice to see all the things the kids prepared for us, including nursery rhyme skits (Alaina and Brant did "Little Miss Muffet")...

and songs sung in class...

Cami is doing great being a "big girl" - she's transitioning into panties and doing well. Isn't she cute? :)

She's also becoming quite the dancer - she has a big sister to keep up with, ya know?! She has started moving her hips while dancing now and it's the cutest darn thing!

Alaina is still fascinated with the outdoors - and insects! She found this caterpillar this weekend, which both of the girls were enamored with for the entire afternoon and evening!

Alaina has now been out of school for over a week and she's attending a summer camp each week for 4 weeks. She's having a blast! She really enjoys the time there, which makes it easier on me. I want her to feel like she has a summer vacation from school, but with working parents, that's hard without spending boatloads of money on pricey camps.

I have 3 weeks off in July, so we'll be spending some fun time together, just us girls, for those days. Alaina will be in a ballet camp for 2 of those weeks, though only for 4 hours/day, so we're excited to sleep in and slowly get ready those 3 weeks and head to the pool each afternoon when the weather cooperates. There's a GREAT public pool about 6 blocks from our house that a ton of people from our "community" go to almost each day. It'll only cost me and the girls $3/day to go! So I'm definitely looking forward to those fun afternoons in the water.

We're hoping to make it there tomorrow for a trial run. :)

I've neglected you.

Sorry. :)

I get so caught up in "relaxing" in the evenings after the girls go to bed that I don't post on here very often. I'm seeing a pattern though, that's for sure. Lots of posting, then no posting, then I feel bad, so I post a lot again, and the circle continues.

We've been busy I guess since Spring Break. We've been spending a great deal of time outside in the yard, getting it ready for the spring and summer plantings. Adam's been working like crazy and we've accomplished quite a bit.

With all the digging in the yard, Alaina has learned that she LOVES worms. She tries to keep them - she quickly learned that keeping worms in potted soil makes them die, so that ended quickly. Cami just throws them (literally) back into the dirt when she's had her fill.

Adam ran the Mini Marathon again this year. (I opted out because I learned last year that I'm a very poor runner and that my knees hate me for running.) He beat his time by more than 11 minutes! He ran 13.1 miles in under 1:51. Pretty impressive. The girls and I had fun waiting for him near the end to cheer him on the last 1/4 mile. Here's the unimpressive (and only) picture I took (I can't get Blogger to post it the right way).

This past weekend was Alaina's Spring Ballet Concert. It was sweet - she did a great job. (She just loves ballet.) We had quite the section with me, Adam, Cami, Nana, Papa, Uncle Kevin, Grandma, Aunt Jenn, Vanessa, Aunt Clea (Jenn's mom) and Grandpa and Grandma. We cheered loudly for her! :) (she's on the far left below)

Alaina is nearing the end of kindergarten - just 2 more weeks of school left. Can you believe it?!?! She's going to be in FIRST grade! Craziness I tell you.

And Cami - she turns TWO in 1 month and 2 days. Sorry no pictures of her - I haven't been very good at taking pictures lately unless it's an "event". She is doing good on potty training though - she's still in pull-ups, but making it through awake times with just 1-2 times per day of wetting in the pull-up. She doesn't like wearing panties, which is weird to me, since they HAVE to be more comfortable than pull-ups, but she always says "no" to them. We'll keep trying. I think it's the only thing that'll get her dry all the time. We had to do the same thing with Alaina. I sure am happy not changing as many diapers!!

And she's talking much more - still struggling with complete words, leaving consonants off the beginning or end. But I'm also comparing her to Alaina, who spoke very quickly at a very early age. Cami is putting more words together though and I can almost always understand what she's saying at least.

Well, off to watch American Idol. I think Syesha's getting kicked off tonight, so I must go see! :) You know, the night Alaina was born Kelly Clarkson and that other guy with the afro were singing in the finals. It was turned on right after Alaina was pushed out. I have a sweet spot for the show. :)