aussie update

g'day mates!  just wanted to let you all know that chris and i are having a wonderful time in sydney.  we have gotten to enjoy a number of adventures, and have even tried kangaroo!!  yiayia, papou, and gg (great-gram) are having a wonderful time with thalia!  yiayia has renamed great-gram "gg" because thalia can say it.  apparently she has learned a number of new words since we have been gone, but of course yiayia couldn't recall any of them!  all of them took a trip to san diego to see aunt nikki's new house.  we had a great time while we were there, by the way.  chris helped lay tiles in the bathrooms and i made numerous trips to lowe's for the boys.  we head home in a couple days and we will be sure to post lots of pictures!

much love and getting more sleep (14 hours difference is rough!!)

c, c, and t

on our way! (happy father's day!!!)

so we are officially on vacation! chris came down on friday, then yesterday morning we left for albuquerque. it was quite the adventure. we had to sit on the tarmack for an hour in baltimore because of a big thunderstorm. then thalia had a HUGE poopy diaper i had to change in the airplane bathroom. that place is completely not conducive to changing diapers on a quiet child, let alone one that was squirming and screaming. luckily her pacifier didn't fall in the toilet! but the good news is we made it and thalia is already having a great time with yiayia, papou, and great-grandma. here are some pics:

this is outside of thalia's school...chris has on the tie thalia made him for father's day!
thalia was wearing daddy's hat at the airport
its fuzzy, but this is thalia hitching a ride at the airport on our carry-on!
thalia at yiayia's house playing with the cat toys. (the cats don't play with them)
these are hot air balloons starting to take off from the end of yiayia's street. i don't know that i have ever put balloon pics on here before. every weekend, a bunch of balloons take off from here. if you are up early enough (read: chris and thalia missed it!) you can watch them go up. sometimes we walk down there and talk to the crews. it's really neat!

the alien head is my favorite. you can see all the balloons that have already taken off in the background
daddy-daughter walk for father's day. daddy taught thalia how to throw the rocks (there isn't much grass here). she then started moving rocks from one side of the sidewalk to the other. it was very entertaining!

we hope all the fathers have a wonderful day honoring them! we leave for LA tonight, then sydney on tuesday. i am going to try to explain to yiayia how to post messages on here...but don't be upset if you don't hear from us for a couple weeks.

have a great week!

much love and soon to be lots of sleep

c, c, and t

what a joy!

i tell you what...there is nothing like the laugh of a 15 month old to really lift your spirits. i really don't know what i would do without thalia keeping me company. last night she went to bed really early - she was wiped out from her first day back at school in almost three weeks! of course, since she went to bed early, she was up at 6:24 this morning! much too early for mommy. I brought her into bed with me, which i have hardly ever done. I was hoping she would fall back asleep for half an hour. Nope. Instead, she just snuggled and cuddled with me. she would get all tangled in the sheets, work her way out, then crawl back to me and put her head on my chest. it was really sweet. definitely started my morning off on the right foot!

before she fell asleep, she was being so silly at the apartment! i asked her if she wanted to take a picture with her hippo. (I am a few weeks late because thalia has spent nearly every day since 15 months in michigan where the hippo is not!) she nodded yes and then tackled the thing!! it was so funny! she just kept wrestling with it! at least she is at the point where she can move it herself...but it is still bigger than she is when she is under it. i wish i would have had a video camera...ya'll would have been rolling on the floor.

thalia's daycare had "wear yellow to be mellow" day on thursday. of course we didn't know about it since she hadn't been there in three weeks. when i went to pick her up, i figured she would be easy to find since she would be the only kid with pink on. instead, i saw a room full of yellow t-shirts. apparently, thalia's extra shirt was yellow! so her teacher changed her after i left, and gave her the "pebbles" ponytail with the yellow bow. talk about being my ray of sunshine!!

thalia has been growing up so fast lately! i feel like she has gotten super tall, and her hair has definitely turned into a true mullet! and she has been repeating more and more things i say. we had her 15 month check up last week and the doctor asked if she said 3-5 words. psh! please!! she says all sorts of words! the funniest thing lately is when she can't put two sounds together, she separates them. so bath becomes bah-th. or chris' new favorite buh-tt. (this is what i get for leaving my daughter in michigan for nearly three weeks!)

anyway, like i said before, i am so grateful to have her here with me, cheering me up. it has been quite the week, month, season, whatever. but all i have to do is get through 7 more days and chris and i are on our way to a two week vacation! there is nothing wrong with that!

thanks to everyone for your prayers. please continue to keep us all in them. it is going to be a long ride.

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

it's a sad day...

i have some very sad news to share...thalia's great grandpa busch passed away today. he was a wonderful man, and an amazing example of love and strength and protection. he is already missed, and was truly loved. please keep yiayia and great grandma and the rest of the busch family in your prayers this week as we say goodbye. today is bittersweet though, because we believe and trust in jesus christ, who died for our sins so that we could live with him forever.

we love and miss you grampa! keep a good eye on us! :o)

c, c, and t

lots of sun...and even more pictures!

a week late, here is a rundown of the amazing weekend thalia and i had with chris and gamma and grampa. everyone came down to visit us on thursday night. friday gamma and grampa got to see where i work and where thalia is going to school. friday night we had eastern north carolina barbecue (read: chili vinegar). saturday we decided to take an adventure out east to the atlantic ocean and carolina beach. we went to the state park for an amazing picnic...grilled hot dogs, big shade trees, peace and quiet! it was wonderful. thalia experience ketchup and mustard for the first time...wasn't quite sure about either one. also, apparently thalia knows the difference between sand and dirt! she plays in the sandbox at school all day; but heaven forbid she falls at the state park and gets actual dirt on her hands!! she kept running up to gamma with her hands held out. it was pretty funny.

we had an awesome time at the beach. it was crowded, but not crazy. we had so much fun standing on the shore, letting the waves hit our feet, and feeling the water rush back out to sea! thalia's feet kept getting buried up to her ankles. then she and grampa built sand castles...well, grampa built sand castles and thalia destroyed them. they had a great time! then we went to the outlet mall for dinner and a walk. cousin madilynn got a few things but none of the rest of us did. apparently there is a new princess in town!

i LOVE this one...two tough guys and their little princess!

sunday we went to the church thalia and i have been attending. then we went to this great local spot for lunch with some friends i met at church, jen and jay and their daughters claire and ava. (of course i have to be friends with anyone who names her daughter claire!!) grampa had his second catfish sandwich of the weekend...then we worked off lunch at the apartment pool! thalia looks so cute in her little nemo hat and her turtle floatie. we tried to get arm wings from the dollar store, but of course they broke because we got them at the dollar store!

we had many firsts this weekend too! as you can see below, each of thalia's first pigtails! aren't they cute?! it took about an hour to get them in, and about 10 minutes for thalia to pull them out. we're working on it!


thalia also had her first playground experience...so many toys, so little time to sweat to death in the 90 degree, 80% humidity day!

all in all, it was a great weekend. we were very grateful that everyone came down to see us, especially since we have been traveling so much. alas, the travels are not quite over...one more weekend and then chris comes down here so we can head to sydney!! seriously, i cannot wait! two full weeks without work will be a much-needed reprieve. lately my manager is trying to talk to me about extending my stay down here through the end of the year. i have many qualms about this...that i don't feel like getting in to. it has been too crazy of a weekend and i am not in the mood. one of these days, i will use this as a venting tool. but today, it is all about cute pics of thalia at the beach!

we really love and miss you all. these days it is tough being away. but know that you are all in our thoughts and prayers - and i hope that we are in some of yours.

much love and much sleep,

c, c, and t