yay pictures!!!

pictures always make me smile! the weeks are getting long as i await to hear about my work life, well whole life actually, post-rotation. plans are in the works but no official word yet. waiting without being able to do anything is killing me. but like i said, pictures of my muse always make me smile...so i thought i would share some with you!

most of these are from gamma's camera. if you'll remember, one of ours took a dip in hubbard lake...and i keep forgetting to bring the one i have in NC up to michigan with me. so thanks for the pics gamma!!

these are from the dairy farm they took the girls to:

this is one of my new favorites. this is still an innocent smile, but my little one has definitely been working on her stinker smile. i'll try to remember to email myself the picture i took on my phone the other day!

these are from a few weeks ago when thalia and i were in michigan, and thalia got to play with her favorite cousin:

super precious!!

i think these are great too!!

finally, the girls are in their matching dresses that i bought for them. thalia's is really quite short so i didn't let her out of the house in it! as you can see, thalia was a) not in the mood for pictures and b) not in the mood to share gamma's lap with madilynn!

thanks for enjoying these with me. and thanks for all the prayers you have prayed for us over the past 11.5 months! we could not have survived and thrived without your love and support! its really nice knowing that i have an extended family out there that cares about me and thalia and chris so much!!

much, much love and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

what a month!

is it really august 20?! i mean, that is just nonsense! where has the month gone?! i feel like it has just passed me by. it doesn't help that i have done research in 5 cities in 4 weeks. that was where i was last week, which is why i didn't have time to post any updates. then i went back to michigan to fetch thalia and this week has been pretty rough. but chris comes down tomorrow, and we have a fun weekend planned...so i am excited!

even though i was crazy busy last week, gamma and grampa had a ton of fun with thalia. they took wednesday, thursday and friday off and took both thalia and madilynn to the zoo...

come on grampa!!

the two girls also spent a lot of time together at gamma's house. thalia is doing a lot better with being gentle with madilynn and giving her hugs and kisses. the hugs and kisses landed madilynn (and mommy and daddy and gamma) with a cold but at least she isn't biting or hitting! there is still some cousin rivalry though. it will be interesting to see what happens when madilynn gets bigger (isn't she getting so big already?!) and can fight thalia back!

thalia also had lots of fun outside with grampa...

yep...she's drinking out of the hose. apparently she thought it was the best thing ever!

how about that chaise lounge?! thalia is such a spoiled princess!!

so i hope you enjoyed a trip through thalia's week last week. i'll try to put more pictures up over the weekend when chris can keep thalia occupied - and when my internet works! for some reason it wasn't working last night.

anyway, i hope you all have had a better week than me...and that you have a great weekend!

much love and some sleep,

c, c, and t

selfish...

so this post is really for me...although i am sure most of you will find joy in it. i am really struggling with being homesick lately. and it is only worse this week because thalia stayed in michigan with her daddy, and her gamma and grampa (which she can say now! it is so cute...but both donna and mark are grampa!! we'll have to keep working on that!) anyway, if i survive this week of travel, i'll fill you in on what it looked like. but in the meantime, i needed a picture of my baby girl to make me smile. so here it is for everyone. i guess i'm not as selfish as i thought!

my little girl will suck down anything that is in a big cup...sweet tea, slurpees, sodas. we end up having to buy bigger sizes because she ends up drinking so much! i mean, the cup is near as big as she is!! but i do love how her hair is starting to flip out now...just too cute.

thanks for sharing in my selfishness. i wish you all a happy week.

much love and much sleep (sorta),

c, c, and t

happy (belated) anniversary hunny!

just wanted to take the opportunity to wish my hubby a very happy 4th anniversary! it has been an amazing ride so far...and i can't wait for all the rest of our adventures! thank you for always loving me and supporting me, even when i took our daughter and went to NC. you have been an incredible rock and i couldn't have done any of this without you!!

(sorry its fuzzy)

my favorite things

17 months later...and my baby's feet are still my favorite thing

17 months (aka hello?)

can anyone believe that thalia is 17 months old?! i mean...that is almost a YEAR AND A HALF!!! time sure does fly when you have a precious little one.
anyway, this is really just a post about fun stories. we'll start with the hippo pics:
i'm not exactly sure what she is showing me here...probably a booger!
lately, thalia has not been her usual photo-genic self. in fact, i chased her into the corner of the kitchen the other day trying to take a picture of her outfit! really, i was trying to capture how silly her outfit looked (different outfit, coincidently). this jean short and yellow shirt combo is courtesy of the fact that she got her real outfit messy at school - so they put her in her "extra clothes." well, i learned early on to put clothes that are a bit too big yet in her bins, because otherwise, she outgrows the outfits while they sit and wait for her to get messy. the shorts hang off her butt and go past her knees! and the shirt could be a dress! i just thought she looked silly. anyway, so i tell her i want to take a picture of her, and she runs over to her hippo, throws her pink bunny (who unfortunately was in front of the hippo) to the side, and sits down in front of her hippo...ready for her closeup!! i cracked up. of course, then she wouldn't look at the camera...so the booger picture is the best one i got.
next we have the boppy. when we first moved to NC, i was still nursing and thalia had just learned to sit up (crazy, i know!) for the past few months though, the boppy has been hanging out under an end table. i pulled it out to consider packing it and it got left on the couch. well miss independent climbed up on the couch, put the boppy around her waist and thought it was the funniest thing. then she noticed that it was fun to tip over in the boppy - which she thought was even funnier...until she bopped herself right off the couch!! this picture is taken after that wipeout (which is why she has her paci in). i had put "the incredibles" in, and this was the first time i ever saw her sit and intently watch something on tv. kinda crazy/kinda cool.

next, we have "hello." this is thalia's new favorite word...although she has been starting to try to say her name a lot too. it kind of sounds like da-da, but she sticks her tongue out for the "l". which is what she does when she says "hello." obviously you lose something in the transcription but it cracks me up. so any time the phone rings, thalia will say hello. and lately, whenever she finds my phone (usually by digging it out of my purse) she'll hold it up to her ear and say hello. well, this time, she found my ipod. so she took my ipod, put it up to her ear and just started walking around saying "hello, hello" i about died! i mean...how grown up does she look?! if she is like this now, what is she going to be like at 13?!?!?!?!

this is one of my new favorite pics i think!

the final funny story is about our new routine of leaving the apartment in the morning. all of a sudden, thalia figured out which button turns the tv off. as an aside - she really is quite smart...and picks up on things i do really quickly. anyway, she won't touch the button if the tv is on, but as soon as i say "let's go", she puts her blanket on the couch, goes and turns the tv off (right button every time!) and holds my shoes up for me. once i put my shoes on, she waits by the door. when i open the door, she trots down the sidewalk, and waits at the curb with her arm up (for me to hold her hand). it is the cutest thing in the world! i wish you all could see it.

ok, so maybe one more story...have i told y'all about thalia's shoe fetish? little aunt seffi, i swear! she will bring me (or anyone) my shoes if she sees them on the floor. and i HAVE to put them on. if i don't, she gets really upset!! and if i don't, she usually ends up trying to put them on my feet for me. it is ridiculous. she is very bright though and if you show her one shoe, she can find its mate. its pretty incredible!

ok, enough babbling from me. hope you guys are having a wonderful day!

much love and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

adorable

here is the outfit i was talking about yesterday. i just think she looks too cute. i think its because she looks like a tomboy and not a pretty-pretty-princess like she usually does! this is at martha mama and uncle ronnie's house. martha has this bizarre looking foot massager that thalia loves. so she stands on the massager and leans against the chair for balance. so funny.
oh, i forgot to tell you all about martha mama's adventure! on tuesday, i had to do research in miami. chris wasn't able to keep thalia in michigan, so i asked martha if she could take thalia to school and then pick her up in the evening. meanwhile, my dumb butt flew to miami and back in one day! it was crazy, but worth it for my baby girl. i just didn't want to put martha too far outside her comfort zone with keeping thalia overnight. but now that she watched her for so long, i think i could. anyway, so thalia made it school and martha remembered to pick her up from school. but then martha had to ask her friend to stop by the store for new binkies because thalia's got left at school! so we kept them at martha mama's in case of any other such emergency. when i got home at midnight, thalia was passed out on the couch, with martha! too cute. THANKS MARTHA MAMA!! what a true blessing to have my second set of parents so close by.
hope y'all have a great weekend! loving and missing you all!!
much love and lots of sleep (i slept in til 7:50 this am!!!),
c, c, and t