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... :)

Okay, I think this works now.

So, I shortened the video to 30 seconds. Here's a "snippet" (for Tracy).

That's our girl. :)

Extra Christmas Footage

Christmas wasn't quite over after going to bed that night. Not for the White House!

This past weekend we traveled to Adam's dad's to have "Christmas" with him and Eva. We had a great visit with them and took several pictures of the girls with their new "babies" they received that day.

Adam's dad and stepmom have birds. Big birds. Birds that talk and make you laugh because of the things they say - like yelling "Jerry!" (Adam's dad's name). Here are some pictures of Alaina and Casey.

After we spent the afternoon at the lake, we drove down to Ft. Wayne and went to the "Straub Christmas" party (Adam's mom's side of the family). We always have a great time at these parties - there are so many of us the same age range and all have kids the same age as well. It's pretty crazy, but so fun. I remember those days in Evansville as a little girl at holidays with my dad's side of the family so I'm very happy for my girls that they'll have all those memories too.

Here are some pictures of the evening.

Christmas is here!

Well, was here. I'm a bit late on posting, but better than never I guess! :)

We really had a nice, relaxing Christmas. We went over to Adam's brother's house for brunch on Christmas Eve with his mom and the girls had great fun with their cousin Vanessa! Especially after opening all the gifts - Adam got a grill for Christmas/Birthday and all three girls LOVED being on top of the box! Here's a picture I stole from Jenn's website. :)

That evening, the girls dressed up in their fancy Christmas dresses for our Christmas Eve church service. I remember getting a fancy dress to wear for that one special night and know that our girls will too - especially after this year, when they just LOVED their dresses!!! (It truly is next to impossible to get a good picture of the girls together now!!)

Alaina was very excited to get up on Christmas morning - which made Cami excited, though she didn't know why. :) Here are a few pictures of the girls opening gifts.

After our crazed morning, we quickly got dressed (the girls wanted to wear their fancy dresses again - yes, both wanted to wear them!). My parents and brother drove down for the day and we had a nice feast of ribs and other yummy foods and desserts! And of course, more unwrapping of gifts!

It really was a nice day. A great day to remember what we were celebrating - the birth of our savior, Jesus. Alaina got to put up the baby Jesus on the last day of our Advent calendar and it was a nice reminder of what this day is truly all about. What a thing to celebrate!!!

Alaina's Christmas Program

On Thursday, Dec. 20th, The Oaks Academy (Alaina's school) had their Christmas Program. I just had to give you a couple glimpses into our life with Alaina...

Well, I tried uploading the other one and it won't work because the file size is too big. If I could figure out how to shorten it, I'd upload it. It's priceless. :) Better than the one posted.

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?!!!!!