fun fall weekend

what an incredible weekend we had! while thalia is definitely getting tired of only having me around, and misses her daddy, we made the most of the beautiful weather this weekend! on saturday, we went to the museum of life and science with the copelands. what fun we have with them! the museum had a halloween-themed weekend...though aside from getting a plastic spider ring, we didn't do ANY thing that was special to the weekend. a bunch of kids dressed up in their halloween costumes. i at least had thalia in a halloween t-shirt! we went in a butterfly house, and saw a ginormous cow and other farm animals. we saw a space exhibit and a weather exhibit. then we went outside to see the dinosaurs! they have a fossil dig there, where they have a bunch of tiny shells and coral, and kids (and parents) can dig to find them. of course thalia and i found the first shark tooth! then we went on a train ride through the woods and into a tunnel. whew! and that was all before noon!!
chase showing off his "find" our shark tooth!
thalia, benton and chase playing with balls and chutes
we stopped (finally - mr dan took us on an extended tour of the northgate mall parking lot!) at chick-a-fil for lunch, which is always a treat. yes, i know it's really chick-fil-a...but martha momma said it wrong when they first moved down here and the wrong name has stuck. we even have thalia saying chick-a-fil now! anyway, thalia's kids meal came with a waffle fry the size of her head! all in all, a great day with our friends!
oh, and after a slight mishap got her pants went, i put thalia in this adorable little skirt to run to sam's club. she of course didn't want to take her candy corn shirt off AND found one of yiayia's "bedhands"...so this is how we started off going to sam's: by the time we got there, she had fallen asleep so i managed to take the headband off. hey! the shirt and skirt both had orange and pink on them! ;o)

then today, thalia started using her pull-ups box as a stool. she has actually been moving this really old yellow stool all around upstairs (really old as in it used to be mine!) she'll move it from our bathroom to our bed to by the TV. so now she has been doing it with the pull-ups box. she used it to help "scoop" pancakes this morning and to get a drink of water this afternoon. yes, i let her wear the skirt again today!
also today, we went to pick pumpkins! well, i thought we were going to get to pick them off the vine. instead, we just picked them out of a group. but it was still fun taking thalia...especially since the farm is right down the road. she picked out a little one for her, and a big one for me! we also got some great red potatoes for beef stew later this week. yummmmmy!
did anyone else notice this supermodel "copping a lean" pose in that last picture?! if you are the culprit who taught my daughter that move, please step forward. who does that?! what a total clown!!

anyway, that was our weekend. somehow we survived without aunt stephie, uncle barrett, stella, daddy and gamma. not sure how, but we did it! now it's off to bed and prayers for a great day tomorrow.

much love and less sleep (i always have weird dreams when chris is gone for a long time)
c, c, and t

just for giggles

whew! i tell you what - i forgot how hard it was to have thalia all to myself...and i had gamma here to help! i know i still owe some michigan pics and balloon fiesta pics - i promise to have those up this weekend.

in the meantime, here is a little something to hold you over. i think this was before we went to michigan - chris was at the studio and thalia would NOT go to sleep. she had just figured out how to flip her light on and off, so every time i shut her bedroom door, she would wait a few minutes and flip the light on. this went on at least 4 times. i think this is the last time i went in her room. i expected her to be standing by her bookshelf like she was the other 4 times. instead, this is how i found her:

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

we're back :o)

Yes, it's true. I am back and ready for more blogging. I know I mentioned a little bit about this in my last post, but what a tough patch of life I've been wading through lately! September was even worse than August. But the good news is that I have turned a corner and am ready to take on life again with a smile :oD

Just a few quick updates on what we've been up to over the last 7 weeks:

first volunteer experience

a few weeks ago, chris and i took thalia with us to a food bank in raleigh to help pack and deliver food bags for needy people. thalia did a great job helping fill the bags, then carried the bread when we ended up delivering the food door to door! she loved it, and brought a smile to most of the people's faces we saw that day.

first big girl underpants

yep - we are working on potty training. it has been a really interesting experience. we are getting to the point where she knows she is not supposed to go in her pull-ups or underpants, but still refuses to go on the potty. i need to figure out a way to get her past that. she runs hot and cold on wearing her underpants. i think now she knows that when she wears them she might have an accident and it really tears her up. it's so sad! who knew potty training would be so emotional!

first hair cut

after two and a half years, we finally gave thalia her first hair cut. yiayia did it, because i didn't trust that thalia would sit still for me! yiayia of course did a great job, and thalia's hair looks so much better. she loves telling everyone that she got a hair cut. it's really cute.

first harvest

thalia has been helping me "harvest" the garden she planted. she loves picking the tomatoes, but doesn't like to eat them.

more regular updatesto come, including our trips to albuquerque and michigan!

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t