what a day!!

on our first full day in hawaii, we had quite the evening, and i have some big news to share!! if i didn't say this before, we are on vacation with our second family, the sorrentinos. the parents all went to pharmacy school together...and have both been married for 30 years. the dads surprised the moms with a wedding vow renewal ceremony at sunset on the beach. it was beautiful! we were told that we were going to take a family picture, so we went to the best flea market ever and got matching dresses! when we went to meet the "photographer", there was a minister there and the parents renewed their vows. it was really cute. what great marriage role models both couples have been.
THEN...after the minister was done with the renewal ceremony, papou asked if anyone had anything to add to the ceremony. and would you believe barrett stepped up and, in front of a beautiful sunset and all of us, ASKED STEPH TO MARRY HIM!!! it was so romantic and great! aunt steph's ring is beautiful! uncle toby took some pics and i will try to transfer them and post them later today. chris got everything on video too! we are so thrilled for barrett and steph and wish them the very best!
for a thalia update, she spent a bunch of time in the pool with her daddy yesterday. she had the cutest hawaiian surf shirt on. we got her a cute matching dress for the renewal ceremony too. she is just hamming it up out here. we are having a lot of fun. (but we do miss you (o: )

much love and a bit more sleep (thalia has adjusted to the time change amazingly well)
c, c, and t

merry christmas!!

as always, being home has left me strapped for time to update my blog! here is a quick and dirty update...i will write a longer version when i get to HAWAII! :oP

so thalia and i made it safe and sound to michigan last friday...i think we were one of only a handful of flights allowed to land that morning! what weather to come back to! saturday my cousin alexis got married to her sweetie stefan...what fun we had!! i have to get some pics from facebook to put on here. she was gorgeous! and aunt steph and i didn't look too bad either ;o) and since going to a wedding isn't enough to do, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for lunch beforehand and had a mini-christmas with them since yiayia and papou were in town.

sunday we had christmas with papou's family - what a feast! thalia got some wonderful presents from her great aunts and uncles. i'll put some pictures up at the end. the rest of the week has been running around getting ready for christmas! yesterday we went to church and had gamma and gampa and aunt jen and uncle walt over for dinner. thalia got her first tractor! then today we had brunch at great-grandpa denhart's and then dinner at great-grandma betty's. what a whirlwind!!
now, it is 915pm and i am just starting to pack for our trip to hawaii. i cannot wait - i really need the break. i'll make sure to take lots of pics of thalia in her swimsuits and in the sand for you.
being back in michigan has been really great and it has been wonderful getting to see everyone. i have been so busy i have forgotten how much fun it is at home. it will be hard to go back to north carolina in a couple weeks...but we'll be okay :o)

we hope you all have a wonderful christmas, that you got to spend some extra time with your loved ones, and that you have a wonderful start to a new year! thanks again for all your love, prayers, and support. thalia would not be as great of a kid as she is without the influence of all of you! we love you!

much, much love and a little sleep,
c, c, and t


OH..the pictures!! here you go!!
thalia's first christmas present
pretty thalia
thalia's christmas dress
thalia's first tractor
christmas morning

feeling better

what a day i had today! it isn't worth getting into...the important thing is that i am doing much better now that i got to snuggle with thalia for a little bit and that once she went to bed, i got a bunch of chores done.

sharing pictures of her makes me really happy too so lucky you get to benefit from my bad day :o) all of these are from our thanksgiving trip to see aunt dr. nikki and uncle toby in san diego.

yia yia tried to make thalia knee guards so thalia's knees wouldn't get rug burned...as you can see, they turned out to be more like leg warmers. good effort yiayia!

ask aunt steph what happened when she was messing with thalia's cheerios!!

daddy likes to give thalia things she shouldn't have...i think he gets it from grandpa (frosty anyone?)

obviously thalia doesn't mind!
thalia figured out how to pick up two cups in one hand! so proud!!

among my daughter's other talents...we taught her how to wave! although she waves with her arm straight out like she is in a parade! cracks me up every time
uncle toby had fake poop on the ground and of course chris' daughter found it and put it in her mouth. the boys thought it was hilarious

thalia did NOT like the feeling of the sand. i'll have to get the other picture from papou...the water was cold too. i love this picture though! she is so funny.

speaking of papou...they got to spend a lot of time together that weekend. there are some precious pics...

hope you enjoyed that!

much love and a bit more sleep (and almost the end of my week!)

c, c, t

oh my

my poor baby is having a rough couple days. when it rains, it pours, i guess. thalia caught a nasty cold somewhere over the weekend. she is so congested and stuffy. her nose is running and she is coughing terribly! i feel so bad for her. and on top of that, her second bottom tooth is coming in! i think more than just that one is coming in though because she has been chewing on her fingers and her toys for the past few days. you can just see the top of the second tooth. she is so pitiful! last night she didn't go to sleep until almost midnight! i had to lay with her on my chest on the couch for almost two hours. she laid there quietly, but she wasn't sleeping. then she woke up every hour and half!! not a good start to my first day back to work with her by myself! it actually went fine - until i got to work!
mondays are always really tough. in the morning i have overlapping staff meetings from 9-12. today the second one went over so i didn't get out until 1230. then i had to run and pump (sorry guys) before something else came up...lately i haven't been able to pump as often as i would like because my days are so busy. but i don't want "i'm too busy" to be the reason i stop nursing. i just think that is a weak excuse. anyway, once i got back from that i had to catch up on a ton of stuff before my back to back meetings at 3 & 4. then i had to finish a few things that needed to be done today...i didn't leave until 545!! whew! what a day. tomorrow is going to be pretty crazy too. hopefully wednesday and thursday should be better...then friday thalia and i leave at the crack of dawn for chilly willy michigan! yay holidays!
oh, i guess i didn't tell you the great news. i work for the Advair team, and under advair is an asthma person and a copd person. most of the work i have been doing has been for the copd person. well, that person is a contractor who came in to help out when another associate was out on leave. her contract ends at the end of december, but really she was done in the office last week. because i have done such a good job and have impressed everyone, they are putting me in charge of all the copd research!!! that is really an amazing responsibility, and the fact that i get that chance after only being down here for 3 months is pretty crazy. it is a wonderful opportunity for me to show my stuff and hopefully solidify a more long-term position here towards the summer. i really felt the pressure of all that today though. a number of reports and requests and research issues came up today all at once and i was feeling less than adequate. but my team is really supportive and they have been super helpful. it will be a lot of work, but i think it is going to be great!
chris went home yesterday :o( he said he enjoyed his week down here. it was really super nice having him here to help me straighten up the apartment and get caught up on some chores. not to mention thalia adores her daddy and she liked spending so much time with him. thalia did fine back at daycare today...her little friend was home sick so thalia got a lot of personal attention, which was good since she feels so lousy.
luckily for me, thalia fell asleep a little while ago. i know it is early but i am going to tidy up the kitchen and try to get some early rest myself. hopefully tonight will go better than last night. wish us luck!
we miss you all so much. hopefully we can connect with some of you over the holiday. if not, north carolina is about 30 degrees warmer than michigan and indiana right now :o) thalia and i would love some visitors!!

much, much love and very little sleep
c, c, and t

apologies

first and foremost i have to apologize to aunt jelly. when i was listing the entourage of people we had in san diego for thalia's first thanksgiving, i forgot to mention that aunt jelly flew in from denver to join us. and we were thrilled to have her there...and even more thrilled to get to visit with her in the airport when our flights were delayed!!! ;o)

thalia and chris flew down here last friday morning. i must admit that it is weird having chris here. i almost forget where i am sometimes. but i am so excited to have had him here for over a week! we are really blessed to get to spend so much time together this month.

so i started typing this post sunday...its now friday! i really thought this past week was going to be better than last week. yeah right. saturday we had lunch with my college soccer coach. that was a lot of fun! then we were going to "stop by" martha mama's and uncle ronnie's. we didn't leave until after 10pm! chris got some stomach bug sunday then monday it was off to work, flight to dallas, research in dallas from 730 - 5 on tuesday, flight to raleigh, at work at 815 wednesday to watch the FDA advisory committee meeting, left work at 630, back to work at 8 thursday, there til 530, then off to frank and laura's for dinner. that was a lot of fun - but we didn't get out of there until after 10. then back to work at 815 this morning! whew! thank goodness chris has been here to clean the apartment, do the laundry and watch thalia. we have been having a lot of fun together. i am glad i am only going to be here a week by myself before i head home - i am going to be so lonely! the craziness isn't going to stop until probably mid-january. we have three more days of research in the first two weeks of january!! luckily yiayia is going to take some time off to help me with thalia. not to mention in the meantime we are going to HAWAII!!!! i am really looking forward to just laying around and relaxing without having to worry about anything. i am a little nervous about thalia adjusting to the time change but i think it will work out. at least we are going with everyone so there will be plenty of babysitters :o) i may even get to have an umbrella drink!!

here are the latest pics for you. sorry to do them all at once...feast or famine i guess.

chris took thalia to the store. while he was changing her diaper she peed all over herself. she had been throwing up at gamma's house the day before so her extra diaper bag outfit had been taken out! so chris took off his zippie and wrapped her in it! and of course he just kept on shopping :o)
this is another hat yiayia made! you kind of have to look hard but the top looks like an upside down daisy with the stem sticking up!! it is too cute. its still a little big though. it will be great for february or march, if it ever gets cold here. it was warmer here at midnight than it was in dallas during the day tuesday!

thalia got to try cheese and edamame for the first time the other day. she was NOT sure about all of that. she ate it though. chris tried to give her more cheese the other day but she was not having it. maybe she'll be like me! hey - at least i offered it to her!

here is a family pic at the beach in san diego. aren't we cute?!

that's all for now! chris, thalia and i are off to my boss' house for our team christmas party.

much love and a lot more sleep (thalia has only been waking up once the past couple nights!!)

c, c, t

family pics

i can't believe i never posted any of these pics. the pumpkin ones are from a month ago now but i think they are to die for! the restaurant pic is from our trip to see uncle toby's parents in november. ps...i started a poll for all of you based on these pics :o) enjoy!


much love and not so much sleep (since i had to wake up so early today to catch my flight back to raleigh, i did the "let's wake up every two hours to see what time it is" game. i think i got less sleep without thalia last night than i would have with her!)
c, c, and t

Love you!

I know, I know…I am getting coal, or reindeer poop, or snowman poop, or some other lame stocking stuffer because I have been very naughty, not updating the blog in so long. I apologize for that, but it is not as easy as it sounds working from home. Thalia and I headed home over a week ago to attend Chris’ great grandma’s 99th birthday party. After that, we had dinner with my godparents, then headed up north to spend time with my grandparents. Wednesday we had fakes-giving with Chris’ family, Thursday morning (at 430am) we left for San Diego to spend time with Aunt Nikki and Uncle Toby. Our flights got all messed up coming home, so Chris, Thalia and I didn’t get home until 1am Monday morning. Monday afternoon I flew back to Raleigh and this morning I flew to DC for a day of research. Anyone still want to complain that I haven’t had time to update the blog? I didn’t think so ;o)
I guess that’s what I get for taking my daughter and moving to North Carolina. I get to cram a year’s worth of stuff into one weekend. With all the craziness, I was glad that we got to go to Thalia’s great-great grandma’s birthday party. I have pictures from all of our visits but I didn’t get a chance to email them to my work computer. I will post them as soon as Chris emails them to me. The trip up north was definitely worth it too, although it was a harrowing experience. Michigan had some bad snow storms roll through so driving became a bit treacherous. Then, when we were only a couple miles from my grandparent’s house, we saw a car that had flipped over into the ditch. Chris pulled over and had to break the back hatch to get the guy out. Luckily the guy was okay! We waited for the police to show up then we finally made it to the house. What fun Thalia had playing with her great-grandma and great-grandpa!! They don’t call them “great” for nothing!
And we had a wonderful time with everyone in San Diego. YiaYia and Papou drove in, Aunt Steph and Uncle Barrett flew in, and our friends Alex and Eric drove down from LA to spend Thanksgiving together. What a good looking crowd! And they all had a blast playing with Thalia – though it took her a while to warm up to Alex…I think it’s the hair ;o) We taught Thalia how to wave…although she does it with her arm completely outstretched, and sometimes straight up in the air, like she is in a parade or something. It is the funniest thing you have ever seen! I think YiaYia got a picture of it when we got to the beach. Speaking of the beach, Thalia does NOT like feeling of sand on her hands or her feet. We put her on a towel and she crawled to the edge. Once her hands got on the sand, she looked back at us and put her hands out and started crying! It was so cute! I took her to the ocean to see the waves, but that was a little scary. But we did wave to the surfers. I put her down so she could get her feet wet but the water was really cold and she didn’t like that either. Luckily YiaYia was there to rescue her from her terrible mother and they snuggled on the beach as we watched Uncle Toby and Uncle Barrett surf. Well, Uncle Toby surfed…Uncle Barrett kind of paddled around. But he gave it a valiant effort. We were all very proud of him. After lunch at In-n-Out Burger, our trip to the beach was complete.
Thalia is now in Michigan with her dad until Friday when they fly back down to Raleigh and Chris gets to stay for over a week! It will be nice to get to spend so much time together the last few weeks of the year.
Work has been pretty crazy. There are a lot of projects going on and a lot of uncertainty with jobs and responsibilities heading into next year. I knew it was going to be busy working on the Advair team – it is the largest brand for our company. I don’t think I realized how involved I would be in the busyness. The way my interview went, it sounded like I would be doing a lot of grunt work the first part of the rotation and get to be part of some fun projects at the end, kind of like a reward. Instead, I was pretty much pushed into the middle of the deep end without any floaties. The nice thing is that there is a lifeguard – my team. They have been very cognizant of my workload and ensuring I am not left out on a limb by myself. I’m not really complaining…I would rather be in the thick of things than just watching everyone else work. I just don’t think I was quite prepared to be given so much responsibility so early on. I think the bigger issue is that all this travel is eventually going to kill me. It’s important to me that Thalia get to see her extended family and that they get to see her, but I think Chris and I are going to have to have a serious discussion about the travel arrangements for next year. Unfortunately, with the holidays here and trips already planned, it is not going to get any easier in the short-term. Wish us luck!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are staying warm. LOADS of pictures to come in the very near future.
Very much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

boring update

hey all,

not much to report but i know some of you need to read something :o) i will lead off with the fact that it is currently 76 degrees in NC :oP sorry 'boutcha michigan! how's that snow?!

the weather is about the only bright thing going on. thalia is pretty sick. she has a terrible cough and was up most of the night. i guess the good thing is that she has had to cough all week and last night was the first night it kept us up. she is also hvaing a rough time teething. she has been crawling around with her monkey's paw in her mouth all weekend just chewing on it. i have been giving her her frozen teething rings and her juice cup. she likes to chew on the spout and hopefully the juice will help loosen her cough (yeah right).

i had a pretty rough week at work. just a lot of drama and working with outside people that do not share the same intensity or work ethic. the good news is that i have gotten to know a couple of the people i work with really well this week. so even though this week stunk, i am still really happy with my decision to come down here.

that's about all that's going on here. i went to the mall earlier and thalia was not having it. she kept taking her socks and shoes off and flipping around in her stroller...ugh! but we came back and she took a nap and we had some lunch. this afternoon i am going to the dollar store to make shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. its something that my church in michigan does, and as it turns out, the church i found down here does it too! i am excited to do that but we will see how much i get done with thalia crawling around trying to put all the toys in her mouth!

here's a picture for the road.

hope you all are staying warm and having a great weekend! only one more week and i get to spend the week in michigan and then off to san diego. we can't wait!!

much love and no sleep,

c, c, and t

pics from the weekend, etc

you guys get so feisty when i don't include pictures! here are a couple (terrible) pics from bluffton. aunt nikki promised to send the ones she took too.

here are some other cute pics, as a peace offering for my lack of updates last week. maybe you should only look at one at a time so that if i get busy again, you can look at a new pic each day :o)

look at my proper little princess. i was just trying to take a pic of her cute new shoes!
lately she keeps putting her ducky in her mouth and crawling around. i think it feels good to chew on with her tooth coming in.
thalia had to get bundled up the other day when it got down to the mid-30s in the morning on our way to school. isn't she the cutest?!
we are definitely at the point where thalia is between sizes. her six month pjs don't fit but as you can see, this 9 month number is a bit baggy!

two more:

one of thalia's bathrobes came with slippers. she doesn't quite know what to do with them.

this is thalia's new hat courtesy of yiayia. it's her "marley" hat because the top looks like dreadlocks. my mom has made her some fantastic hats! all the teachers at school comment on them. great job yiayia!!

much love and the hope for more sleep,

c, c, and t

truly blessed

oh man, am i in trouble! over a week with no updates!! i am surprised i haven't been getting any nasty emails!! i apologize...work is crazy busy and we were in indiana for the weekend so i didn't even look at a computer. i promise to try harder this week.
let me tell you how blessed and lucky my family is...this past weekend, thalia and i flew home to meet up with aunt nikki and uncle toby and drive down to indiana to see his parents with chris, aunt steph and uncle barrett. yes, it was crazy and i am still exhausted, but it was beyond worth it! toby's family is so wonderful and has embraced the mimikos/phillips/wimer clan with open arms. i swear toby's family loves thalia as much as my own! that little girl is one loved munchkin! even toby's grandma couldn't get enough of her! i feel so blessed to have so many people love my daughter across the country. It makes me happy to know that she is going to grow up with such a great support system...maybe that will lessen the damage done by her mom dragging her across the country to see everyone :o) but truly, we had a fantastic time hanging out in bluffton with all the reeds, affolders, and shulls. and "uncle" luke too! i am still surprised that everyone survived having all three mimikos girls in one place for an entire weekend!
thalia is such a trooper, letting me drag her around all the time. although i am pretty sure she likes the attention she gets everywhere we go. she is such a little ham. we have had some major breakthroughs the past few days though. most importantly, thalia has her first tooth! i am not even going to try to get a picture for you, unless she is asleep. that girl is such a goober! every time i try to get her to open her mouth, she sticks her tongue out! if you have seen one picture of thalia you shouldn't be surprised. i think she may be getting a top tooth too. i thought i saw something yesterday but when i tried to get my finger in there to see she squirmed away. i'll keep you posted.
thalia has also been standing up by herself lately. she will pull herself up to standing by the couch and then let go for a minute. it is so cute, but crazy! i mean, she is so tiny and to see her stand by herself, even if just for a few seconds, is just nuts! she'll probably be walking by the time we go to hawaii. although she will only be 10 months, so maybe not. we'll have to wait and see.
on a very happy note, thalia has been sleeping a little bit better the past few nights. she is still waking up to eat, which stinks. but it is every 3 or 4 hours and i am back in the habit of "sleep-nursing" when i don't really wake up fully. and i haven't had to wake up to put her pacifier back in since last week either. i know she should probably be over some of this at 8 months but the poor girl is still adjusting to traveling back and forth every other week. i think she is holding up remarkably well, and probably better than i am!
things are still going better than i thought they were going to. it is always tough playing the waiting game with chris' music. but chris and i have been communicating pretty well lately, which was not always our strong point. it is hard though having to defend my decision. let me say this...i am not delusional; i know that what i am doing is crazy and most people can't fathom being away from their husbands or wives. but this is an opportunity that God gave us and we couldn't pass it up. and yes it is hard, and yes we all miss each other. but thalia says good night to her daddy every night (along with everyone else in our families) and she smiles every time we talk about him. and whatever happens with my job or chris' music, our faith and love are strong enough to get us through to the other side. i know everything will be better than okay. and please don't minimize the role that you all play in our survival with your love, support, and prayers. we are eternally grateful for the families and friends we have, and like i said earlier, we are truly blessed by all of you.
alright, enough sob story (diane reed - wipe your eyes) we love you all and hope that we get to see some of you with the holidays coming up!

much love, more sleep, and lots of sappy insights,
c, c, and t

what a weekend!

whew! what a weekend we phillips girls had!! we did a lot, but we got some rest in too. nice change of pace.

thalia had a pretty uneventful first halloween, except when her mom kept trying to take pictures of her in her halloween bibs! what a turkey! the girl is a ham every other time. oh well. i think she is still cute!

she would not look at the camera!!

this one says "baby's first halloween" and has three dressed up bears on it

this one has a witch on it and you can't see it in the picture but the witch's feet dangle down and thalia kept putting them in her mouth. it was funny.

now on to what you are all wondering...enough with the bibs! what was thalia for halloween!! well, all i can say is, her last name is phillips...

would you believe chris actually picked this out at old navy LAST halloween and i think he has been counting down the days until she could wear it!! i think she looks adorable and silly and as you can see, she was loving it!

on saturday, thalia and i got bundled up for a "walk to cure juvenille diabetes." while i have no personal connection to juvenille diabetes, i am always up for supporting medical research, especially for kids. plus it gave thalia and i something to do and gave me a good excuse to get some good walking in. i definitely think my hormones have yet to re-regulate after being pregnant because i was so emotional waiting for the walk to start! there were all these huge groups of people with matching shirts walking for kids they knew with juvenille diabetes. some of them had cute team names like anna's angels and luke's lifesavers. sorry to be a sap, but it is so sad that so many people are affected by this. i was definitely glad to contribute my little part. here is thalia getting ready for our adventure:

i know i am biased, but is she not the most beautiful little girl you have ever seen?!

so after our 2.5 mile walk, i had the brilliant idea to meet our cousins elizabeth and sophia at the biggest mall in north carolina to WALK AROUND!!! needless to say i was pooped by the end of the day. but elizabeth and i had a great time hanging out and talking about the babies and life in general. the girls had fun it seemed, though they pretty much just got a free tour of the mall. they did share a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. thalia did really well with it. i tore it into small pieces and she moved it around her mouth a bit. she has a classic face whenever she gets a first bite of something, even stuff she has every day. it's pretty funny.

in case you didn't know, babies don't understand daylight savings time or its end. i did try to prepare for this by going to bed early last night but the texas/texas tech game was so good!! lo and behold at 615 this morning my daughter was wide awake. my body on the other hand can read the clock and was not so bushy tailed. but we played quietly and she took a nap around 9. i laid back down for a while but then the single-mom brain kicked in and i decided i should take a quick shower before she woke up. now she went to bed just before 7 so after extreme home makeover, it is bedtime for me. the good news is that i have to be up around 6 tomorrow am anyway.
ALSO this weekend, thalia got to try out her sippy cup. gamma (aka grandma donna) had given her a sippy cup with some juice when thalia stayed in michigan but i kept forgetting to get "baby" juice. then today i stopped at kroger and wouldn't you know, IT'S THE SAME DARN JUICE!!! my goodness. so i put some juice in her cup and diluted it with some water. i'll have to get a picture of her tomorrow (the camera was in the car). she did the same funny face she always does and really couldn't figure out what she thought about the whole thing. she cracks me up.

i think that is it. hey, i gave you fair warning that we had a crazy weekend. oh, and i think we finally found a church we like. good size, nice people, great worship. i am excited to go back in a couple weeks.

okay, that's it for real. sorry to keep you so long. i hope you enjoyed the pictures. more to come as always. thanks for your prayers and love and support. we couldn't survive like this without it.

much love and hopefully a little more sleep,

c, c, and t

happy update

i felt really bad about leaving such a mopey message last night so here are some pictures to make it better...

thalia's favorite thing to do is play with the dishwasher. i will have to keep this picture until she is older so i can prove that she has always liked doing dishes! the fastest i have seen thalia crawl is when she is in the family room and she sees me open the dishwasher door. it is ridiculous!

thalia and i went for a walk the other day before this cold cloudy nonsense rolled in. i love those sunglasses. and they actually almost fit her now!

also happy update...thalia only woke up twice last night!!!!!!! YAY!!! which meant mom got to sleep for 4 hours at a time! i know that doesn't seem like much but over the weekend when we were in michigan she was waking up every two hours. now, i am not claiming victory yet...but it is a start.

have a great day! miss you all!

much love and SLEEP!!!

c, c, and t

tired

good evening :o) what an evening it has been. i had to go grocery shopping after i picked thalia up and the kroger here is set up in the dumbest way ever so it took me forever to get a couple things. thalia fell asleep on our way home but then woke up when i tried to get her into pajamas. and i have spent the past hour trying to get her to go back to sleep. i finally had to break down and feed her. hopefully that will buy me some time tonight but i am not counting on it. the apartment is a mess but i was up way too late last night and am tired after sitting at my desk all day today. usually i am up walking around, talking with people but no one was at work today! it was quiet and weird...wore me out. not to mention that flying to and from detroit two weekends in a row is just draining. i keep telling myself it is temporary. what can i say? thalia and i are just very popular and loved :o) it was great being home, just not as restful as i had hoped. and now that we are back, its hard getting everything done when i don't get home until 7 or 8 and am worn out. maybe tomorrow will be better. i am going to at least go to bed two hours earlier than last night. and hopefully thalia will start sleeping better soon.
sorry to be such a debbie downer...it's been a long couple days.
on the bright side, i got more of thalia's artwork from school today. they have these roller paints that the infants can use and miss alice drew an outline of a pumpkin and helped the babies color it in. "thalia" didn't do too bad. :o) i really want the "scary feet" they did for halloween. miss alice took black construction paper (why is it called construction paper by the way?) and dipped the babies' feet in white paint and did upside down footprints that look like ghosts. it is too cute! i'll take a picture when i get to take it home. thalia did really well going back to school after a week off. she smiled at her teacher, who was very happy to see us. chris and my in-laws kept her on her schedule for the most part so it shouldn't be too bad of an adjustment.
stayed tuned for halloween pictures...thalia's first halloween is friday and she, as a true diva, has a number of wardrobe changes planned for the occassion. we'll see how she likes it. thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. things are going better than i had expected and hoped...the commuting is just starting to take its toll. but like i said, it is temporary. and next time i go home, aunt nikki and uncle toby will be coming into town so we can all go visit grandma diane and grandpa mark. man...we need to think of new names for everyone. thalia is blessed with MANY sets of grandparents :o)
good night! wish me luck...
much love and slightly more sleep,
c, c, and t

pictures galore!

the latest

hello all,
i must apologize for my recent sporadic updates. work has been busy and thalia and i have been travelling a lot lately. not to mention, it is hard having two computers...i have a desktop at my apartment and my laptop at work. and i am trying not to save pictures on both computers. but then i get into a situation where i don't have pictures that i want to post and therefore postpone giving you all an update. then of course a few days go by and i think, shoot! i still haven't posted an update! so tonight i am updating and tomorrow when i get to work i will post the most amazing pictures!!
so travelling - thalia and i went home to michigan this past weekend just to hang out. aunt steph and uncle barrett and liberty came and spent the entire weekend at our house which was awesome! i was so glad to have them there. saturday we went to ihop for breakfast and we were giving thalia little bits of pancake. we thought she was doing so well eating...then we went to leave and realized that probably half of the pieces were in the highchair!! it was too funny. then we decided to take thalia to the apple orchard and look at some pumpkins. it was a ton of fun! aunt steph took a bunch of wonderfully adorable pictures. thalia had a blast touching the pumpkins and the hay. it was a little chilly but we had her bundled in a cute fall colored hat that yiayia made for her. it matched the pumpkins perfectly! after that grandma and grandpa came over with aunt jen and uncle wj for a fantastic family dinner. i really appreciated that! it was a yummy meal, and it was great getting to spend time with everyone. sunday we went to church for the first time since i had moved. that was quite an adventure of hugs and squeals of delight as all of our friends saw thalia for the first time in over a month. and thalia hammed it up the entire time. it was really wonderful getting to visit with everyone.
now for the big surprise...thalia stayed in michigan! i have to fly back to michigan first thing friday morning for a wedding and with chris' family's help, we decided it was better for thalia to just stay up there and spend time with her dad and gamma and gampa instead of getting on so many flights in such a short amount of time. so i flew back to NC by myself and have been getting used to not having thalia here. the first day is okay because i caught up on some sleep and got some things done around the apartment that i had been putting off. but now it is getting weird. it's too quiet and i keep thinking that i am forgetting about her. just very strange. AND I AM FILING A FORMAL COMPLAINT BECAUSE I HAVE NOT GOTTEN ONE PICTURE OF THALIA FROM CHRIS IN TWO AND A HALF DAYS AND I WAS SENDING HIM PICTURES ALMOST EVERY DAY!!!!!!! so sad!
other than that, work is going better than i had hoped and just keeps getting better. we had our big meeting today that i had been helping plan and it went really well. now i just have a few things to tie up and the project is done! not to worry, i have a lot of things on my plate but i am handling the work well and love the people i am working with. it has been a lot of fun which has made adjusting to being down here by myself a little easier.
only two more days of work and then i get to come home again. i am hoping this weekend will be a little less crazy since we were just home but i am sure it will be nuts again. chris and i didn't even get to spend any quality time together last weekend. i am hoping we can go on a date this weekend. keep your fingers crossed for me.
i promise to post the fall pics tomorrow. they are awesome!! have a wonderful night. thanks as always for all your prayers and thoughts. we couldn't do it without you.

much love and a little more sleep,
c, c, and t

for comparison

i can't remember if this is her one month or two month picture with the hippo but look at the difference!! i can't believe she is getting so big...and is going to be 8 months old next week!!

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t