happy birthday little!!

wow how time flies! thalia turned 2 on tuesday! i can't believe it...especially when i think that when we moved down here, she wasn't even crawling yet. now she is running everywhere, talking in sentences, and blessing me every day with her laugh!

we had a pretty great birthday for her. i made cupcakes for her class...they're no "tiece of cake" but not bad for 6am! her teacher's made her a pink crown and she loved all the attention!

we had uncle ronnie, martha mama, jillian, mr. greg (he's from work...doing the same year away from his family that i did), and ms. jane over for dinner. and the (second) guest of honor - Chris!! yep, thalia's daddy got to be at her birthday party this year!! yes, i know she doesn't have a shirt on. i had the feeling that a battle between thalia's light colored shirt and chocolate cake would go to chocolate cake. how pretty are the flowers though! thanks martha and ronnie!

thalia got to open presents from our guests (thanks to everyone!), as well as some that had come in the mail...i tell you what, between valentine's day and her birthday, thalia got quite accustomed to getting more mail than the rest of us each day!!

this is one of my new favorites...she's got her crown, her puppy (thanks martin and kisty!) and a smile. that's my girl.

gamma sent this home with chris. she has been putting all sorts of things in it, her "babies", her cups, her shoes, pot lids...

so all in all, we had a great day! and we get to celebrate again when gamma and gampa come visit at the end of the week! we're really excited to see them.

happy birthday, little. you are such a blessing to me...you brighten my life and keep me laughing. i can't wait to see how much more you grow over the next year.

much love and much sleep,

c, c, and t

sending love

hello friends! things are just moving right along...and i have fallen behind in just about every important thing - paying bills, calling my mom, and updating the blog! chris made it home safe and sound from his "it's cold up here" tour. he and martin had a lot of fun. kristy and i were supposed to have a fantastic birthday celebration (for her) while the boys were away, but she got super sick :o( i had my super huge meeting last week (well, i think this post will be dated 2/12, in which case the meeting was yesterday...its actually 2/20). it went really, really well. organizing a meeting for 50 people is not easy, but it was super productive, and i have gotten lots of positive feedback.

anyway, so last weekend (valentine's weekend) we had a lot of fun hanging out with uncle ronnie, martha mama, and jillian. thalia has really started talking like a little kid, so we had a ton of laughs listening to her. jillian and i made everyone firefly martinis (sweet tea vodka with a splash of lemon). she was carrying thalia around and asked "who wants a drink?", to which thalia answered, "ME!!!!" we were cracking up. then we started talking about thalia's birthday. so thalia started running around telling everyone it was her birthday. at one point, she was crying and wanted jillian to hold her again (have you noticed a pattern?) it was like someone flipped a switch. out of nowhere, thalia stops crying, looks at jillian, and proclaims "it's my birthday!" i thought jillian and i were both going to fall over. what a hoot! here are some pictures from the weekend (and some others):
our valentine's outfits

this girl loves herself some hummus!

we went to the outlet mall and thalia wanted to "ride" this. she had no idea who buzz lightyear was and just sat there staring at him.
probably uncle ronnie's proudest moment...all of a sudden, after MONTHS of practice, our little thalia out of NOWHERE has figured out how to do hook em horns all by herself!!!

ronnie's second proudest moment was when thalia told him what was on her paci ;o)

alright, chris is bugging me for the computer. more pictures from last weekend and this weekend to come soon.

much love and more sleep (oh! that's another story i need to share soon!!)

c, c, and t

happy birthday daddy!

thalia's daddy turned 30 last week...and boy, did we have fun! north carolina got it's worst snow in quite a few years. most people holed up in their houses, but NOT US MICHIGANDERS! chris and i braved the first flakes to go to The Pit, a fantastic upscale barbecue place in downtown raleigh. while driving home, we saw the raleigh salt crew: 3 guys in bright yellow suits, riding ATVs with what looked like fertilizer spreaders bungied to the back. it was so funny!

on saturday, the temperature warmed up enough for the snow to turn to rain. this caused an inch or so of ice over the 3 inches of snow. not to be conquered, we bundled up and headed to the carolina hurricanes game. it was chris and thalia's first hurricanes game - and they actually WON! that is not usually the case around here.
thalia was getting sleepy and was curled up on my lap. but when the hurricanes scored, she perked right up and was giving everyone high-fives! it was great.
the best thing about going to the hurricanes game is that the zambonis are john deeres!! thalia calls them ice tractors and she loves watching them drive around the ice.

on sunday, martin and kristy came over for dinner. chris wanted a trifle instead of a birthday cake:

it tasted as good as it looked!

finally, on monday, chris' birthday present finally came. i was disappointed because i couldn't think of anything unique to get him. i had hoped to get him something in seattle, but had no luck. then, all of a sudden...it dawned on me!

a HUGE belt buckle! chris has been looking for a gigantic buckle for months. this bad boy is over 5 inches wide! that's a normal sized credit card beneath it.

now chris and martin are off on another tour..."its cold up here" i think is the name. they are hitting up chicago, grand rapids, ypsi, and pittsburgh. we'll miss him, but we have some great girl time planned with kristy.

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t