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...

Saying goodbye...

It's so hard to do, and unfortunately, the members of the White house have had to say too many this summer.

The first weekend in July, we had to say goodbye to two families we are really close with. First, it was the Hern's - Kevin, Amy, Jackson, Luke and Emmitt. They moved to Indy a few years ago and lived two blocks east of us. They were transferred to Puerto Rico for Kev's job. They were in our small group and Amy was a really good friend of mine. Their boys and our girls were good friends - Jackson (5) and Luke (3) were playmates of Alaina's and Emmitt was born just 3 days after Cami, so they're destined to be life long friends! :)

I took the girls down to Amy's mom's farm in KY to see her and the boys one last time. We had such a great time and Alaina had a BLAST at the farm. Amy's brother and his family live down the street from her mom and they have 3 boys as well (the same ages) so the kids had such a good time together. Alaina, as the only big girl, definitely pulled her own weight!

We came home from trip to the farm to turn around and say goodbye to our friends the Woodward's - Doug, Tracy, Reeve (5), Gabi (3) and Rania (1). They moved to Malaysia (!) to teach there. Again, sad times. We did get to take some great pictures of the kids before they left though. Here's one of the kids jumping on Reeve's bed and one of Rania and Cami too!

We have such an amazing community of friends here in Indy - they are definintely our family. And now we have family living in Peurto Rico and Malaysia! It sure is fun getting to read emails and seeing their blogs about life in another country. We miss them a ton, but know they are where they should be right now. God is good.

Just not very good at keeping my friends in Indy. :) I sure do miss them...

I have some competition I think!

Adam has uploaded tons of pictures to the following website:

http://picasaweb.google.com/acedog2475/

The pictures include Myrtle Beach, Cami's birthday, Alaina's soccer and swimming, and the Mini Marathon/Rookie Run.

I think he's competing with me for viewers... :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll post later this week about the last week or so's events around here.

Love you all.

Myrtle Beach 2007

Our annual trip to Myrtle Beach was quite fun this year! Last year, we had to move our trip to the end of July, because Cami was due right around our Myrtle Beach week - Cami was only 6 weeks old when we went last year. She fell asleep the moment we walked outside - EVERY time.

This year, wow. What a difference. Cami started walking easily a week before we left, so she was all over the place! EXCEPT for places with water. When you're staying on the beach with a pool between the condo and the beach, that means Cami was unhappy quite a bit. We arrived on Sunday, June 17th and she cried - not wimpered - cried, the ENTIRE time she was in or around water if she thought she was going in until Thursday morning. Man, those four days were so frustrating!!!

Thursday morning she was okay. She didn't enjoy being in the water or the sand, but tolerated it. :) I did take her out into the ocean a couple times, and each time (even the time we got completely dunked!) she fell sound asleep in my arms while we were jumping in the waves. She's so funny. She LOVED being inside the condo though and was a hoot to say the least!

Alaina, on the other hand, was a fish! She was in the pool and the ocean the whole trip. She just LOVED playing in the water and did such a great job in both waters. She really enjoyed playing in the waves with Adam (she was FEARLESS!) and making sandcastles or burying her and Daddy. It was really fun watching her at the pool and beach. She was really helpful each morning, taking down her things for the day. On the days that Adam played golf, she really helped me out with Cami and making sure we got everything down to the beach and pool for the day.

Here are some more pictures of the girls and our trip. Those girls sure do love each other... it's pretty cool to see how in to each other they are.

Cami's first morning on the beach (on Nana) Adam made Alaina into a mermaid at her request!
Cami finally on the beach (look at those legs!!!)
Alaina loved her friend Molly's intertube!
Um, Cami - you just turned ONE, not TWENTY one!
Yea for sisters!!!!

This is an annual picture we take.

Mommy's girls!

Four generations - pretty cool, huh?

The girls and their Uncle Kevin

Our family. Awe. :)

Ahhhh! Behind!!!!

Crazy how things change the 2nd time around... :)

Cami's FIRST birthday was almost 2 weeks ago now! Things were a little off because we left for Myrtle Beach for a week on her birthday. Because of that, we had a small party for her in FW the weekend before after Kevin's grad party (yes, he has graduated high school already!!!). It was fun - Cami didn't really like her cake - my dad finally pushed her hand in it and she just looked at it! She tasted a little bit, but was way to tired to really enjoy. She cried more than she ate or smiled. BUT, on her birthday in the hotel in Hendersonville, NC, Cami chowed on not only my piece of her birthday cake, but my mom's also! Mmmmm, icing.....

I'm at work right now and don't have the ability to post pictures here, but I'll get some pictures up this weekend I promise! I'll also have pictures from our trip to Myrtle Beach too. There are so many great ones - Adam's trying to find a place online where we can store them, but Yahoo doesn't offer that service anymore (which is what he used to use) so now he's searching for another. I'll try to send a link out over email to Shutterfly, but may miss someone!

Looking forward to another fun year with Cameran. Our next birthday is Alaina turning FIVE. Man, time flies....

Getting sad...

So, I'm sitting at work right now, with nothing to do (finally, a breather!) and starting to think about Cameran's first birthday on Saturday. We had a small party for her with family and some close family friends last Saturday in FW - it didn't really hit me until Monday that my little baby is not a baby anymore.

The daycare called me at work on Monday and said that Cami would be transitioning into the Toddler room the last week of June and would be in there for good starting the first of July. Wow - not in the infant room. She'll be in a room with other little KIDS - not babies in bouncies - and napping on a COT - not a crib - and eating meals and snacks at a TABLE on a CHAIR - not a highchair, buckled in. I really swear she was just born and we were just in the hospital taking our family picture right before leaving.

It didn't go this fast with Alaina - I feel like Alaina was a baby for so long. I'm sure part of this is how little Alaina was and how Cami's walking a couple months before Alaina did.

It goes beyond Cami turning one - Alaina will be FIVE in 2 1/2 months. She may be starting kindergarten in the fall. Sniff. Sniff.

I feel like I've lost so much time with my girls by being so busy. Where did it all go? Why didn't I cherish all the little moments Alaina wanted to snuggle with me yesterday instead of telling her I had too much to do? Why didn't I just sit back and delight in Cami's insanely happy quacking instead of smiling and going around her to pick up the books she just pulled down off the shelf?

Part of my sadness, is fear of them getting older. That something will happen to them. That someone will hurt their feelings or make them feel inadequate. That someone will take advantage of their sweetness and love.

I know it will all happen on some scale - it just scares me that I can't protect them from it happening on a larger scale.

I guess that's why I have a God who loves me - and more importantly, who is a PERFECT father to my girls. Who will protect us and will not forsake us. Even if something does happen, it is in God's plan (which is ALWAYS better than mine) and He will see us through it and build us up. He does so EVERY day.

We are a blessed family. And my girls are truly amazing. :)

Lots to report!!!

I've been getting emails about waiting to see new posts - sorry!! It's hard to remember to update this blog at night once the girls are in bed. I'm so tired at that point!!

We have had a busy couple weeks since my last post. Alaina participated in the Rookie Run - it's a "race" for kids sponsored by the Indy 500 during their month of May events. Since Adam and I ran the Mini, Alaina also wanted to run a race. She was SO excited for her race, counting down the days every day. She had her face painted and then ran 2 blocks for her race. She did GREAT!!! Here are a few pictures of the Rookie Run:

Getting Ready...

During the race...Proud finisher...

Cami's thoughts...

This weekend was full of fun. Saturday mornings are Alaina's soccer games. She's the youngest and smallest kid on her team. She has an amazing team - they're so good! She'd rather be on a winning team than play a lot I think. :) Here's a picture of her during practice.After soccer, we came home and while I was making lunch, Alaina yelled "Mom! Come here and see Cami!" So I walk in and here she is -All by herself, she decided she wanted to look outside, so she climbed the mat and up she went.

Later that afternoon, we decided to take the girls to the spray park - it's so great because the kids just run around the area while water sprays up from the ground! Alaina LOVES this place, and so do I since it's easier than the pool - plus it's free! :)

Alaina - running through...

And sitting on! Cami - didn't enjoy so much... Preferred Daddy's arms!

One last thought for the night: Alaina went down to the basement after church today to change into play clothes (not sure why she went to the basement rather than her room). Here's the outfit she came up in: My first thought: I don't think those shorts are Alaina's. The more I looked at them, I realized that they weren't Alaina's at all - they were a pair of Cami's capris!!! They were Alaina's when she was a baby (size 12 months!!!) and now of course, are Cami's. But Alaina's little bum fits into them perfectly like they're shorts!!!! Too funny... sharing clothes already...

Love you all!!!