Sickly

That's a good word to describe our family over the last 2-3 weeks.

It started with Alaina throwing up one time in the middle of the night. Since then, I've had a stomach bug and influenza in the same week. Then Cami got sick on Valentine's night - proceeding to throw up time after time, all over her bed several times, then all over the floor, the couch and me. The next two days were sad to watch - no more throwing up, but also no eating or drinking, with a fever, chills and lots of cuddles. The next week, Adam was home on the couch from 5:30 pm until the next morning with a stomach bug.

It has now culminated with Alaina. I took her in this afternoon with the expectation of hearing "ear infection" because she was crying and holding her right ear all night on Sunday. Well, wrong. After looking at her quickly, the doctor said, "Nope, no ear infection. But I'd bet she has strep." 5 minutes later, her strep test came back positive. He said it explains all of her symptoms over the last 2 days.

I'm sure ready for Spring. But it's sleeting right now with snow forecasted for tomorrow.

A light at the end of the tunnel would be nice...

Have I mentioned that I hate winter???

A bit more motivated...

so i'm feeling a bit more motivated to actually share about what's going on these days. i think i've been refreshed from the norm with my jaunt to jireh to coach tonight. it always helps me get in a better mood. :) especially tonight, as i found out that a young man who used to be a gymnast long ago, corey, is back around the gym and seems to have found his way "home" to jireh. i'm extremely happy. i've know corey for about 6-7 years now and i really cannot wait to see him at the gym again. i can only imagine the giddy smile that will arrive when i see him again. it's been a long time...

anyway, i was thinking about my girls, what i could share, who they are right now. here's where i ended up:

alaina: wow. she's alaina. stubborn, infectous, maddening, beautiful and sweet. she loves her sister and is becoming quite the "mommy" when it fits her agenda. :) she is absolutely smitten with ballet these days. it does make me sad, a bit, to not see her in the gym flipping around lately, but to see her so excited to go to ballet - it's worth it. she doesn't complain. she's excited. she comes out of class invigorated. she adores the "big girls" at ballet, and i'm sure you can imagine, they love her too. she's becoming a graceful little dancer and i could see this being "it" for her. at least for awhile. :) and she's really starting to look like adam. i'm just REALLY seeing it in the last couple months. hopefully her body type will take after him as well!

cami: amazingly sweet, easy, my best little friend. she's also almost 2 and it's coming from all angles. :) she's an emotional basket case from 3:30 until dinner. then at 7:30 she's ready for bed. asking "i don't know" as she lays down if a blanket or baby is missing from her crib. she's beginning to talk real words and putting 2-3 together, though i have to say "i don't know" is my favorite. i ask her things all the time, like "cami, where's your baby?" just to hear her say "i don't know" and lift up her arms and shrug her shoulders. i'll try to catch it on tape. it's too sweet. she has started to say her name - "mimi" - just since saturday. it's crazy how quickly they change at this age. and cami, well, she's destined to be identical to me.

i decided to post a quick video of cami playing on a zebra toy she got for christmas. she LOVES this toy and has quite the hayday on it. hope you enjoy. (you'll have to ignore the annoying noise i make during it though!)

Darn cold.

I'm so tired of the cold weather. Maybe I wouldn't be irritated if I wasn't given glimpses of spring every other week.

Even so, we are managing to still have fun at the White House!

We had a fun afternoon & evening with cousin Vanessa at a party for her adoption day. Here's a sweet pic of Ness and one of all the girls:

Adam & I both celebrated our birthdays last week. I got 30 beautiful roses from Alaina and Cami (Alaina's idea) shown in the following picture.

The girls got an early Valentine's gift from Nana & Papa this weekend - beautiful new matching red dresses!

Here are a few pictures of the girls and Adam playing last night before bed.

Cami's been attached to me for the last couple weeks, getting worse each day. She's still fine each morning going to daycare, but the second we get home she only wants to be right with me. This makes for difficult afternoons - some days I just ignore it and do chores while she cries and pulls on my legs. Others, I give in and sit and cuddle until she's better. This option, of course, is best for Cami, but not for me or Alaina. But how can you turn down this sweet face and crazy hair?

Oh well. This too shall pass.

And move into another issue I'm sure... :)