my muse of comedy

Busy Busy!

2011-05-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

alright uncle bobert and diane! time to get off my back - here is your update! ;o)

we have been so busy - i know i say that all the time but it's true. in april, chris or i were traveling 17 of the 30 days. in may, it is 25 of 31. 25! the only time that chris, thalia, and i will all be in our house at the same time in may will be next week, monday through friday. that's it! isn't that nutty?! it's okay though. thalia and i got to spend almost a week in ABQ with yiayia and papou, AND we get to spend 2 weeks in michigan in may, which is fantastic; AND iamdynamite is doing really well on its mini-tour. luckily i am finally starting to feel better! we'll see if it lasts...with thalia there was about a month where i felt great, and then it was back to misery the last two. i guess this would be a good time to give you a coco update:

here is baby coco - 25 1/2 weeks along! time is both flying by and standing still. i was laughing at myself after i took this picture and i realized it still hasn't fully sunk in that i am going to have another baby. i know - duh! probably due to the fact that it took us so long to get preggers - just isn't real yet. i am really starting to feel coco kick and wiggle. i noticed earlier this week that you can see her (oh yeah, did i tell you? we're having another girl) kick - my belly moves now! too funny. as far as i know, everything is progressing fine. i have to do my glucose test next week to test for gestational diabetes - not expecting anything to come from that. OH! on a funny note, it was recommended to me yesterday that i put coco's name down for needing day care in NOVEMBER! apparently the infant room at thalia's school has a waiting list for the rest of the summer, so i need to put coco's name on a list somewhere so that she has a spot when i go back to work 6 months from now! too funny - i feel like i am on a sitcom!!

alright, enough about me - i'm sure you want to hear about thalia. my little ham has definitely been keeping me laughing and on my toes. we have been having a lot of fun, just us girls...but every morning she asks where her daddy is. it's too cute. yesterday we played in the rain:

it has been storming off and on for the past few days and she loves to just stand out there in the rain and run around.

last weekend we went and picked strawberries. what a blast - it actually held her attention longer than i expected! at this point she was just getting into it, but not really convinced she was having a good time. after a few sweet strawberry sneaks, she was ALL about it: if you look closely, you can see strawberry juice running down her arm AND down her neck!

alrighty, that's all i have time to update for now. new hippo picture, and a slideshow of our travels on its way soon!

much love and some sleep,

c, c, and t

we're back!! (again!!)

2011-03-12T04:47:00.000-08:00

not to worry - we haven't gone anywhere. ha! almost literally. most of my days are spent laying on the couch, not moving. i'll get to that in a minute. so many things to update! we'll start with little t-bone...

can you believe little is 3 years old?! we had a wonderful birthday party. let me rephrase...we had FIVE birthday parties. we spent the weekend before her birthday in michigan where we celebrated three times - pics of most of the cakes to come. then we came back down here and i made cupcakes for her day care class, and then dinner with some great friends. it was a busy week, but we felt really blessed to be able to celebrate with so many special and important people!

we took thalia to the doctor this week for her 3 year check up: i HAD to be the dorky mom taking a picture of her kid...just look at how adorable the little blood pressure cuff is!! she was such a big girl - did everything the MA asked her to, even answered questions from the PA. 3 going on 13 i swear. chris and i had been betting on if she would hit the 30lb mark. the official verdict - close but no cigar. 28.8lbs and 36" tall: about 25% for both. guess she got my genes :o)

aside from birthday parties and check ups, t-bone is nearly fully potty trained! just like everyone said, after all the time and methods we tried, one day it just clicked. we still put her in pull-ups at night, but i think most of that is because we had just bought a ton. she usually wakes up dry.

we've also been spending a lot of time with our friends greg and jacquie and their boys andrew and ryan (ryry). they finally got relo'd and are settling in to a great house that is almost right around the corner from us. we went over there for dinner the other day - thalia had a ton of fun playing with the boys...and being a goofball for mr. greg and his iphone app.

the following weekend we took them to the museum of life and science in durham. this place is so cool...i've posted pictures before.
one of thalia's favorite activities is this volume exhibit. she loves putting the beads in the different containers and dumping them everywhere!

then we went outside to the farm and thalia and ryry held hands. it was so adorable!!

other than that, i got a new job that i started on february first in gsk's epilepsy marketing department. i really like my new team and i get to combine what i was doing before with some really new and innovative fun projects. it's been going very well and is usually less stressful than my previous job, which is a good thing.

oh yeah...and there's that little thing about FINALLY being preggers again! it took us so long to get here - and no time at all for me to feel worse than i did with thalia. for those of you who were around then, you know that means no fun. hence the laying on the couch most days. i am 16 weeks and due on my birthday (just like stephie)! i have my next check up on thursday, and should schedule the ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby after that :o)

ps...i definitely "popped" way earlier this time this is from a few weeks ago during a first trimester screening. look at it kicking its legs out!! by the way, this fetus' nickname is coco. thalia still wants to call it sarah, but i told her we needed to name it something else in case it is a boy. her response: "how 'bout chocolate milk?!" so aunt stephie shortened it to coco and that's that.

alright, that's enough for now. more pics and more frequent posts, i promise. much, much, much, much love!!

c, c, t, and coco

ready for christmas!

2010-12-21T08:25:00.001-08:00

it was so much easier updating this thing when i only had one computer that all my pics were on! oh, the cons of actually living with your hubbie ;o)

anyway, we have been getting ready for christmas, and thalia is loving the decorations. it's hard to get her to keep her hands off!

we've also put up the advent calendar that yiayia made...gosh, i don't remember...i think the date on the bottom of the calendar is 89 or somethign like that. thalia has had a blast putting the ornaments on...although she hasn't quite got the hang of the word ornament. so last night she said "can we put another christmas on?" took me a few tries to figure out what in the world she was saying.

we've gotten a few gifts that have come wrapped in bubble wrap...which thalia LOVES trying to pop. i love the look on her face!! papou taught her how to jump on the wrap which she also does. surprisingly we haven't had any major wipe outs doing that!

a few weeks ago we took thalia to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Love that show! we had great seats, and we took thalia's "ears" so it wouldn't be too loud. she's been telling everyone about the singing and lasers and "it was really, really, really loud!" :o)

We also had our first snow of the year...which is ridiculously early! We've actually had 2 snows this month already! this was the first one. i of course was taking the snow for granted because i had things i needed to do. thalia on the other hand just wanted to stand in the driveway all day. so i bundled her up and we stood in the driveway. it was a really great reminder of the wonder of a child...and how happy snow still makes me...even if i am a grinch about it sometimes!

we had a lovely thanksgiving with everyone in town. unfortunately, those pictures are on my desktop at home and i am avoiding work at work :o) i'll put those up tomorrow. i'm also going to try to put up pictures from our trips to michigan tomorrow. almost all of those are on the desktop too. there are some sweet, sweet pictures of thalia, me and stella! just wait! (i know, i know...you've been waiting for MONTHS now!)

oh, one more christmas story - the other night we went out to eat at a mexican restaurant. the waiter said "feliz navidad" when he gave us the bill. thalia replied "fee-leaks mommy-dad" chris and i were dying! then yesterday i asked her to say it again and it became "fee-leaks mommy-and-dad" you can't make this stuff up! what a true blessing she is - hopefully there aren't any doubts out there that she won't live up to her name (inspiration of comedy!)

i hope you all have a wonderful week!

much love and less sleep (stupid night terrors AND chris setting off the house alarm!)

c, c, and t

happy birthday kelsey!!

2010-12-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

many of you probably remember thalia's dear first friend kelsey. they were in the same class when thalia and i first moved down here. kelsey has since moved to a different school, but amy and i try to get the girls together often. well, a few weeks ago kelsey turned 3, and we got to go to her birthday party. the two munchkins were SO excited to see each other. it was great. in fact, after cake, kelsey kept asking thalia to help her open her gifts! talk about sweet friendship! i don't think my best friend would EVER let me NEAR her gifts ;o) (love you jillian!)
the girls have been sharing silly bands...this is them showing how many they have on their arms while playing with kelsey's new art set.
what a cheeseball i have for a daughter
thalia helping open gifts
ha! i just realized these pics are in reverse order! we were trying to get a pic of the two of them in birthday hats but they weren't cooperating.
thalia eating some Cars birthday cake. kelsey is a girl after my own heart - she couldn't decide between butterflies and Cars, so she had butterfly decorations and a Cars themed cake!
kelsey also wanted thalia to help blow her candle out. adorable!
we had a great time. i am so glad that the girls remember each other and have such fun together. it's really incredible to watch.

while i was typing this post, i noticed i had a draft post in my box. wouldn't you know it - its from our playdate with kelsey and amy at the park over the summer. who knows how it didn't make it to actually be posted, but these are some of my favorite park pictures!

they LOVED this tire swing. they were cackling and squealing. it was great
there are about 15 of these - me trying to get them to stand together for a picture and them blowing me off
this is my favorite. look at her pigtails! this was a really big slide and a tunnel the whole way down. but she climbed up there and went down like she was a big kid. we spent most of our time here.

anyway, we are so blessed by kelsey and amy. more pics to come as they grow older together.

as for a real update - we have been super busy. who knew that being home together could actually make you MORE busy than when you travel! this weekend i'll do a big november update. and who knows...maybe i'll eventually get the pics from october up here!

much love and more sleep (now that thalia's night terrors have stopped!),
c, c, and t

trick or treat!

2010-11-07T04:37:00.001-08:00

the trick is that this is the longest post ever! the treat is you get lots of pictures of thalia. i think that's fair ;o)

wow! i had way more pictures from last weekend than i remembered!! what a fantastic halloween weekend we had!
thalia and i carved our pumpkins on tuesday night before chris got back from texas. she jumped right in there and started picking out the seeds! i was so surprised. we baked them and she was eating them hand over fist. again - totally surprised. it was fun doing that with her, and then she even posed for me with both of them.
she's actually kind of smiling too! yet another shocker :o)
on friday afternoon, thalia's class at school had a little halloween "party" for their afternoon snacks. i took some time off of work and we took thalia. this is a picture of thalia and om. they have been in the same class for almost the entire time we've been down here. it's been really great watching him grow up with thalia!
we were lucky enough that thalia got an orange frosted cupcake! most of the kids got black (i don't know who thought it would be a good idea to bring a bunch of 2 year olds black frosted cupcakes!!). she basically licked all the frosting off and handed me the cake.
that night, we went to a work party, and had a blast!
now for those of you who haven't heard the story yet - i did NOT plan on us all coordinating for halloween. halloween is usually not my thing, so when jillian was in town the other day, we went shopping to find thalia a cute costume. nothing was really speaking to us...they were all kind of generic. but then, we turned the corner and we saw it. a hamburger! to any other family, this would have been pushed aside for the fairy princess. but not for the phillipses!! chris and martin had actually found a mustard costume at this thrift store back in september. they bought the matching ketchup outfit and took it on their fall "tour." when i saw the hamburger, i knew we were going to be the best dressed family ever!
my friend denise brought her daughter morgan to the party. thalia wore her out! she had these purple fishnet arm socks that thalia loved.
then on saturday, we went to see the carolina railhawks pro soccer team try to win their first ever championship.
i was surprised how well thalia did. we stayed for just about the full game! the railhawks unfortunately didn't win - but we got to eat some great hole in the wall barbecue and support the local team anyway! if you look closely, you can see that thalia's lips are totally purple. turns out she gets the same purple goatee as aunt steffie and aunt nikki when she is cold! we busted out the blankets after we took the picture and she was great.
finally sunday came! yes, thalia has worn her candy corn shirt about every other day since we got it :o)
thalia was so excited to have lollies to pass out to the kids - even though i'm not convinced she really knew what we were doing.
i couldn't help but take a picture of this! she took her pumpkin bowl, went to the pantry, and put ramen in it! only my daughter!!
you'll notice in this picture that chris and i have switched costumes. i could not find my other yellow tshirt to save my life. (couldn't have anything to do with the fact that we hadn't done laundry in over a week!) so chris got to be mustard and i was ketchup.
this was actually chris' first halloween with thalia. usually the band has a show, but since they had just gotten back from texas they decided to take the weekend off. so i sent chris trick or treating with thalia and stayed home to pass out candy. good thing chris had cargo pockets on his shorts! he had to keep dumping out thalia's bag so she could get more candy!
whew! what a weekend! we had a great time as a family though! and wait til you hear what we did this weekend!

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

quick catch up

2010-11-01T04:39:00.001-07:00

i just sat down to check on today's weather forecast and stumbled across some pictures i am pretty sure i never posted...so here ya go :o) don't worry - all the halloween pics AND the pics from our fall trips are coming soon too. consider this a small victory :o)

as you may remember, chris spent most of september traveling. mahoney played two fall music festivals on consecutive weekends. so thalia and i had plenty of time to ourselves. usually i feel bad when chris comes home to a messy house and nothing fun done. i know, it's a crazy thought. i mean, i'm watching thalia for pete's sake! how much can i do?! ;o) anyway, one weekend i saw an ad in bed bath and beyond's circular for bar stools. we have had our bar for YEARS without any bar stools. and of course, i decided it would be a good idea to build them (all 3 of them) while thalia was still awake. she actually was pretty good at turning the allen wrench. then she lost interest when her movie came on. just this weekend chris made a comment about "how many pieces could there have been?" - implying that i just magically picked the fully assembled chairs out of some ginormous box! i then explained to him how the entire thing came in pieces - i think i counted 10 pieces for each chair.

HA! i literally just remembered the funniest part of this whole story. when i was taking all the pieces out of the box, thalia grabbed the instructions. i asked her to read them to me and honest to god, this is what she said "it says 'build me a new chair'" oh my gosh, i was crying i was laughing so hard. anyway, here is thalia on "her" new chair

the following weekend...well, i guess the same day i bought the chairs, i also bought some window treatment things for an idea i had. i was only able to get the chairs done the one weekend, so the following weekend, i braved hanging curtains all by myself. i waited til thalia was taking a nap this time! i basically bought "tie backs" that are supposed to go on the sides of windows to hold curtains open. instead, i put them up top and used them to drape this beautiful fabric that has been floating around my and yiayia's possession for years.

thalia woke up just in time to have yet another shirtless picture taken of her! :o)
anyway, hope you enjoyed those. now it's off to work. hope you have a great week!!

much love and less sleep (i'm still adjusting to having chris home and taking my covers!)
c, c, and t

fun fall weekend

2010-10-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-22T10:13:00.001-07:00

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)

2010-10-15T05:48:00.000-07:00

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

And 29 hours later...

2010-08-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have a new NIECE!!! Stella Grace Wimer was born on Thursday, August 26 (my birthday!!) at 10:52am by c-section! Poor Aunt Stephie followed in my footsteps with having a terrible labor! Shockingly, Stephie went into labor unexpectedly on Wednesday morning. We weren't planning on leaving until Wed night, so Chris hadn't packed or anything. I was at the chiropractor and missed Stephie's phone call. So while I was on my way to work, I had to call Chris and tell him to get out of bed and get packed ASAP! We finally got on the road around 1030 and the way stephie was progressing, we totally thought we were going to miss the birth! Yiayia and gigi hopped on a plane, chris and i were FLYING through the mountains...it was quite the experience. luckily (for us) we made it to the hospital in record time, and stephie had just had her water broken. we spent the night at the hospital...ask chris about where he slept some time...and when we woke up in the morning, aunt nikki had surprised everyone by catching a red eye flight!! so all of us girls got to be at the hospital for baby tini! long story short, after 29 hours, the baby hadn't really come down and she had only dilated to an 8. on top of that, tini's heartrate would drop periodically. so the doctors decided enough was enough, and called for a c-section. to EVERYone's surprise, stephie and barrett had a little girl! they came home on saturday and are adjusting to nursing, and pooping, and not sleeping :o) here are some pictures from the hospital and home.

yiayia made a little baby coozie cocoon for stella!

this is my favorite pic i think. i also think she looks a lot like barrett

papou wasn't there for the birth but he got to the hospital later in the afternoon.

aunt nikki looking fabulous after a red eye flight

the birthday girls! stephie took a GREAT picture of us with a happy birthday sign i stole from work - more on that to come. wait til you see what my friends at work did to me!
how precious is this picture?! poor thalia is a bit confused and sometimes calls stella her baby sister. :o)

yiayia and her grandbabies

tini stella sleeping

we are having a blast getting to know the newest member of our family, and helping stephie get acclimated to being a new mommy. so far, she is doing fantastic! more pics and stories to come for sure...especially some from the rest of our trip to michigan.

much love and little sleep (we've been rockstars this trip!)

c, c, and t

fun at jordan lake (and the cousins) - aka we are BLESSED!

2010-08-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

we are so lucky and blessed to have a fantastic lake just a few miles from our house. i say a few miles because our favorite lake in michigan was four hours away...so 20 minutes seems like it is at the end of our driveway!!

we have also been lucky and blessed to have spent a number of summer days at the lake this summer, with many of our friends and family.

at the beginning of the summer, we went out with our new friends, the copelands. dan and i work together, so we decided to introduce our families at the lake. thalia had a ton of fun with chase...and riley, chase, and dan had a blast on the boat!

over the fourth of july, gamma and gampa came down to visit. we had lots of fun digging in the sand!

unfortunately, we had forgotten to bring a swim diaper with us this time. so thalia sucked up half of the lake in her diaper!

finally, just a couple weeks ago, we had lake day with our church. it was gloomy, but we did a baptism in the lake, and had a really nice time fellowship-ing, and getting to know some families better. there are a lot of young families at our church, so we fit right in.

this is a picture of chris with thalia, pastor mike with hannah, and brad with ellie - aka daddy/daughter moment :o)

i mistakenly thought that thalia was done swimming. so i changed her out of her swim suit and into her cover up. of course, since we didn't leave the lake, she decided to walk deeper and deeper and deeper into the lake until she was basically swimming in her cover up. the sun had gone down, and it was starting to get chilly. unfortunately, the only thing we had that was "dry" was chris' shirt! of course, everyone at the boat launch thought she was just adorable - and she ate it up!

i'm sure i told you a few months ago that chris' cousin elizabeth had her second baby girl, emma ruth. we have also been blessed to spend a lot of time with the kruger-weathers girls lately. and thalia just LOVES baby emma!

emma was sleeping, so the bigger girls decided to "sleep" too. this was on the porch of cracker barrel today...my first endeavor to eat a meal other than breakfast there. what a success!! i think i may actually like the lunch menu better than breakfast!

ok, this is a totally random thought...i don't know if i have posted this picture or not. apologies if i have, but i just love it! i saw it when i was scrolling through my ginormous file looking for the picture of the girls fake sleeping.

on that note, we head to michigan for Tini's grand entrance on wednesday night. so if you don't mind saying a couple prayers for us since we'll be driving so late. we can't wait to see everyone and meet this little person who thalia swears is a boy. she hasn't faltered since christmas! we'll see who's right in just a little while!

thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers. we love and miss you all!

much love and little sleeping in,

c, c, and t

i'm back!

2010-08-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

i have a confession to make...i've been avoiding my blog updates :o( i know, i know...it's a terrible crime, and i'm sorry. truth be told, i've been really going through a rough patch lately, and i had a hard time bringing myself to post upbeat, happy updates when i felt so lousy. on top of that, we have continued to be wicked busy lately. but we have been having fun, and i finally have some good news to report. plus, my pictures are really backing up...so that combination has led us to this post!

hanging out

she loves wearing these "bedhands" that yiayia made her. unfortunately she has been stretching them out, but she put this one on all by herself.

chocolate goatee from eating ice cream

wearing her new goggles and john deere shirt from gamma and gampa (or gampa and gampa as she says lately)

gardening (aka weeding)

i HATE weeding as it turns out. i can only ever get around to weeding this one little corner of our landscaping. i just got brave enough to look around the side of the house, and well...i'm going to be spending a lot of time outside today. here is thalia sweating it out with me the other morning.

the pants were her idea.

swimming at kristy's pool

chris keeps trying to get her to go underwater but she laughs too much.

going to bulls games (go bulls!)

it was SO hot the other night. the sweat in her hair was after only being at the game for 15 minutes!

on top of all this excitement, i was offered a permanent position on my team last week! :o) that means we really get to stay here, and that there is no chance of me going back to the field. it also means we won't be heading back to michigan, but that was kind of the idea. i get to work on the same team, but won't be doing the same job. it's kind of hard to explain, but it is a great opportunity to expand my skillset, get to know new people, and build my own responsibilities. it is a huge weight off my shoulders. and i get a raise! which also takes a weight off my shoulders.

chris is also doing well. he picked up 5 new students, which essentially doubles how many he has! he is also working with a management company on a contract for his band, and is getting ready to do a lot of traveling to different fall music festivals in September.

finally, aunt stephie is almost ready to have her baby!! i can't believe her due date is only 2 weeks away! stephie started her own blog, where she has really cute pics. so you should definitely check it out! stephieloves.wordpress.com

more to come soon, i promise! also, check out our pics from our camping trip last weekend!

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

catching up

2010-07-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

let me tell you...teething all 4 eye teeth at one time does not make for a happy baby or a happy mommy. add to that me not sleeping well and you have one tired gal. so here's some catching up for ya:

a few weeks ago, chris, thalia and i did the Komen Race for the Cure with some of our church friends. it was another scorcher this year! poor thalia was soaked in her stroller. so chris took her out for a while and let her ride on his shoulders.

after we finished, we were walking around the campus and of course had to go see the helicopter. the medics let thalia sit in it; of course they thought she was adorable since she was so excited to see the "hepticopter".

later that day, we went over to kristy's apartment to use her pool. thalia LOVES being in the water...but still isn't into her picture being taken. guess i pictured her out when we were down here by ourselves.

we ended our weekend adventure with a trip to sonic for a slush, which thalia calls a "surpee"

thalia has definitely gotten into a movie phase. we were so excited when she started watching them, and now we can't get her to stop. this is her watching a movie in our bed.

to distract her from yelling she wanted to watch another movie, we started playing "airplane". she loved it!

just after this picture was taken, we realized that our A/C had gone out upstairs. hooray for no A/C when its 100 degrees outside!

needless to say, we spent two nights in our family room, camped out. the cool thing was our air mattress is the exact height and dimensions of the square of our couch! so thalia got one side, i got the other and chris got the air mattress. we were kind of hoping the unit was busted so we could get a new one under the home warranty that came with the house. alas, the thing was just disgusting! i have never seen an A/C unit look like that before! so a guy came out, cleaned it a bunch of times, and now we have cold air again :o)

we have also entered a phase of little miss "i can do it all by yourself (myself)", as well as little miss sassy pants. case in point: this is a picture of me chasing thalia into our neighbor's yard when she wanted to walk to the car by herself on her way to daycare. walk to the car turned into walk down the grass...complete with her hands on her hips.

she also likes to have her own "buggy" at the grocery store. of course this trip all jillian and i needed was a couple packs of beer!

finally, she likes to carry her own backpack on water park days at school. the thing is still about as big as she is, but she carries it to and from the car every week. what a goof.

in another post, i'll tell you all about our fourth of july adventure. it's a doozie! i'm waiting for some pics from gamma before i post the rest.

i hope you all had a great weekend!

much love and not so much sleep,

c, c, and t

happy father's day!

2010-06-24T10:54:00.001-07:00

on friday, thalia's class had a luncheon for all the dad's. how cute is this picture?! one of my favorite parts is chris' knees being up to thalia's ears because he is sitting on a toddler chair!

we had a lovely lunch at school and then on sunday, we spent all day with jillian - so chris got to spend almost the entire day in a recliner. not a bad father's day if you ask me!

chris - thanks for being a great dad to our daughter, for loving her and showing her a great example of a great man. we love you!

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

well, maybe...

2010-06-19T04:26:00.000-07:00

for as long as thalia has been alive, people always have asked who i think she looks like. the really nice thing is that since almost all of her immediate relatives are blonde haired and blue eyed, she basically looks like whoever is holding her. although, i must admit that i personally don't think she looks a lot like me. i think she looks like papou...well, a fair version of papou. i think she has his eyes. at least, that was what i thought before these were taken:

wouldn't you know it, my daughter likes haagen-dazs coffee ice cream too. anyone else starting to see the resemblence? you're probably welcoming me to the party with that at this point huh? these pictures just crack me up.

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

on thursday...

2010-06-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

just a quick post about how ridiculous my daughter is...shocking, i know :o) i have NO idea where she gets it from!
being european -
somehow, over the past week or so, thalia has started kissing us on the cheek. no big deal, really. except she kisses each cheek about 3-4 times. first the left one, then the right one, then back to the left one...it is so funny. and if you don't cooperate by turning your face, she grabs your chin and turns it for you. by the end of the kisses chris and i are all slobbery, and thalia is laughing hysterically.
on thursday -
one day, a number of weeks ago, i overheard thalia saying the names of the week. i had no idea that she knew them. well, it turns out her favorite day is thursday..."daddy, you got me wet." "when?" "on thursday!" (that happened tonight after dinner). "thalia, are you ever going to pee-pee in the potty?" "yep" "when?" "on thursday" you can't make this stuff up!
my favorite -
thalia's new favorite (no pun intended) phrase is "it's my favorite." her pink water shoes: "these are my favorite." her sonic slush: "strawberry is my favorite." blue m&ms: "it's my favorite." (this is actually a lie, because i am pretty sure orange ones are her favorite (o:) she says it in such a petite voice. cracks me up every time.
those are the two most common phrases, but thalia is really talking a lot. we had our first "parent-teacher conference" last week - weirdest thing ever by the way. anyway, thalia's teacher said that by her age, thalia should know 50 words and speak in 4 word phrases. um, have you met my daughter? i'm pretty sure she could recite the gettysburg address! i asked her the other day if she was a smarty pants and her response was "yep!"
i'm going to try to post pictures tomorrow. you'll see i finally got the ones up from our trip to albuquerque a couple weeks ago. what a great time! happy birthday gigi!! it was so nice to get away, do some hiking, have some good food...of course, i came back to work from hell. but this week appears to be a little bit better, finally. it's really hard having work suck all the life out of you. not so good at all, really. but like i said, this week is better...and for the first time this year, neither chris or i are traveling this month. think about that for a second!
alright, enough rambling from me. enjoy the abq pics, and i'm hoping to have more up by the weekend.

much love and some sleep (stupid stress dreams! plus waking up early to use my free gym pass)
c, c, and t

more baseball!

2010-05-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, we went to the 2009 AAA national champions Durham Bulls game. We had SO much fun! This was the first sporting event where Thalia had her own seat, and she LOVED it!

we got a snowcone right away, among other sweets. we ate so much sweet stuff, chris and i felt sick on monday!

you'll notice some clouds in this picture...more on that to come. mostly it was really warm and sunny, but there was some bad weather in the forecast.

thalia had a lot of fun playing with daddy...until this: now, you'll notice the clouds getting darker here. chris went and got a swedish fish slush. :o( it definitely tasted like you were drinking swedish fish - it was just WAY too intense!

this is how intense the slush was...our tongues were bright red. again, let me draw your attention to the even darker clouds. about this time, i am telling chris that i think we should leave. he, of course, wants to tough it out. about 30 seconds after the picture of our tongues was taken, this is what happened:

thunder, lightning, sideways rain! it was a crazy storm. everyone tried to cram under this small covered area, but with the rain coming in sideways, it was useless. the rain was SO cold. so we went up towards the suites, and an usher was letting people with kids go into a suite that was empty. so we watched the storm go through from a suite. when the rain started to die down, i told chris i thought we should head back to the car. at this point, chris asked thalia if she wanted to go home or watch more baseball. of course, thalia's response was "more baseball!"

we got to watch the grounds crew clean up. you can see in this picture that thalia's hair is soaked! after about an hour and a half, the game started. so many people had gone home that we got to sit right behind home plate in the first row! it was great. as we were walking out, we saw Wool E. the bull, so we set the camera on the bench arm, and timed this picture of ourselves. not bad huh?

what an adventure! we had a lot of fun, and thalia is now a baseball fan. chris got her a pink foam finger that she thinks is the coolest thing ever. i am thinking we'll be spending many more afternoons at the DBAP.

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

Joy comes in the morning

2010-05-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

Even though we miss Father Jerry dearly, we know that he is happy, and wants us to be happy that he is in a better place. So in honor of him, here are some pictures of Thalia that I know he would have loved.

this is Thalia's new pool. She loves sitting in it, but is very particular about what toys can be in there with her.

after the pool, we had spaghetti and meatballs. even though she is 2, she still can't seem to get the food only in her mouth :o)

Thalia's New Hobby

when we were in michigan, gamma gave us some tomato plants. after nearly killing them, we finally got around to planting them in our barrel pot. Ms. Thalia was all too excited to help, in her "princess gloves"...pink gardening gloves with the Disney princesses on them.

of course she insisted on doing it herself. so she poked at the dirt, and then helped dig holes for the plants.

oh, that reminds me...i have another picture too. anyway, here is our little green thumb, with her poor wilting tomato plants. after the deluge of rain for 4 straight days, they are looking much stronger and perkier. i'll post more pics when we get back from new mexico.

here's the other picture. thalia and i walked up to Ace on saturday morning and she helped me pick out a basil plant. She held it the whole way through the grocery store, and when we got home walked around holding it like a baby. it was her basil! such a funny girl. so now the basil is planted with the tomatoes, and all we need is some fresh mozzarella for a great salad! :o)

more adventure pictures to come. with father jerry passing away, and a lot of announcements and stress at work, it's taken a lot of energy just to get up every day. now that i am feeling better, you get lots of pictures :o)

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

another sad day

2010-05-25T04:28:00.000-07:00

Almost exactly a year ago, I had a post honoring my grandpa. It has been a tough year without him, and now almost to the day, I am writing to let you know that our dear friend Father Jerry has gone home to be with the Lord. Jerry was the priest at the church I grew up in, and he married all three of us girls. He has been a great friend for over 20 years, and his smile will always be missed. But with our sorrow comes the joy of knowing that God called him home, and the peace that when he got there, he was greeted with "Well done, good and faithful soldier." He was an amazing man of God, and a great example of walking in faith.

We love and miss you Jerry. Say hi to God and grandpa for me!

c, c, and t

Not my fault!

2010-05-18T09:44:00.000-07:00

I have so many pictures to share, but I can't let another day go by without showing you this one!!
My little princess, enjoying her OWN seat in first class on the way back from Detroit! I usually get bumped up to first class since I flew so much over the past 18 months going back and forth from RDU to DTW. We got bumped up on the way up to Michigan, but there was someone next to us (sidebar - for last weekend, Thalia's birthday was 5/23...ha!). On the way back down, no one sat next to us. So she climbed in, buckled herself and her new mouse (courtesy of uncle barrett and aunt steffi. uncle toby asked if it was a girl or a boy, to which Thalia replied 'it's a mouse.' Too precious!!!) in, sipped some complimentary water and had a snack. Not a bad way to go for a two year old. Look at her smile! She was loving it!

Now, don't go thinking this is all my fault, spoiling her. I'm pretty sure that papou and uncle ronnie are the real instigators of all of us girls having high tastes and expectations!

More pics to come, including the lovely cupcakes I helped decorate! Tiece, you would be so proud!

much love and lots of sleep (if i could just get to sleep),
c, c, and t

just for fun (aka lots of pictures)

2010-05-01T18:41:00.000-07:00

after being gone for a whole week in phoenix and dallas, chris took off to chicago for this past week. needless to say, it's been a pretty tough week. work always seems to be worse when chris is gone. anyway, i've realized from having this blog for so long that posting pictures of my (usual) angel makes me feel better, so it can't hurt you guys any :o)
a few weeks ago, we got to go to the gsk suite at the last home hurricanes game of the season. it was fan appreciation night (since the hurricanes stunk this year) and as a thank you for all the support, every fan got a cool hat...even thalia! so this is the three of us at the game. thalia did so good - she loves hockey! couldn't possibly be in her blood huh?

we went to the park with our church for lunch

we finally let thalia open her potato head set. this is her design!

this is how she wanted to go to school...it was 65 degrees but she wanted her bucket hat with her mittens

while i was in dallas, chris happened to find a parking lot fair that had a fire truck. so thalia got a hat and got to "drive" the truck. she talked about it for days after.

kristy and uncle martin have been coming over a lot, and thalia loves swinging with kristy.

in addition to her love of hockey and coffee ice cream, thalia also shares her dad's love for slushes, which we of course have taught her to call slurpees

for as many frustrating things we have had to deal with with this house, i am really happy to have the playset in the backyard.

aunt susie and jess came to visit, and they spoiled thalia to no end! i love this picture of the girls though.

more pictures to come. i have a bunch i forgot about from easter, plus some funny videos of thalia.

much love and little sleep (don't ask)

c, c, and t

why i love NC (and miss MI)

2010-04-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Lovin' NC
happy monday! let me tell you about the most fabulous weekend we had! it all started thursday when we went over to the joyner's for dinner. they have twin girls, claire and ava, who just adore thalia! and thalia loved chasing them around too. after a lovely chicken with pink sauce dinner, we took the girls outside to play on the jungle gym:

we had such a nice time...really great people to have as friends!

we followed up thursday night with a trip to the lake on friday afternoon. it was about 90 degrees, so on april 16, we had our bathing suits and sunblock on for an afternoon of sand and water! it is amazing having such a big lake so close by. now that our boat got fixed, we can't wait to take it out there and let it fly! uncle martin and kristy came with us and we took some fun pictures which will get put up soon...as soon as chris gets them off the camera! we grilled out at the lake and uncle martin and thalia stalked a blue heron for a while. pretty cool! not so cool were all the buzzard-looking birds flying around. martin thought they were going for our chicken!

speaking of birds, thalia is taking right after her mom and great-grandpa by getting to know all the birds in our yard. the other day i pointed out a female blue jay. since she was a muted blue, thalia corrected me by calling it a "white jay" :o)

on saturday we got to hang out with uncle ronnie, martha mama, jillian and jeff. we had a lot of fun just catching up and chatting.

so that's why i LOVE nc - bathing suits in april and some great new (and old) friends!

Missin' MI

ladies and gentlemen - introducing the soon arriving new addition to the family:

look at aunt steffi's adorable bump! i'm calling the baby "tini", thalia calls it "steffi's baby". even though aunt steffi and uncle barrett aren't finding out the baby's sex, thalia's official prediction is boy. (sidebar: although lately she has been calling herself a boy! for week's now she has been calling herself a girl princess. now all of sudden, daddy is a princess girl and she is a boy! what am i, you may ask? apparently, i'm just mommy). anyway, seeing steffi all grown up and preggers is really making me miss her! i was also hoping that we may get to be preggers at the same time, but that dream is quickly fading :o/. oh well, the way i see it, steffi can get all the attention on herself now, and hopefully by the time she delivers "tini" i'll be starting to get big and then I can have all the attention :o)

spending time in michigan for greek easter also made me miss it more. funny how spending time with people makes you miss them more, not less!
and yes, we had our obligatory lamb on a spit. for the neighbors' sake we did it in the backyard though, not the front! what a trip!

chris' family came with us too, so we had a lot of fun with uncle wolt (as thalia says it) and malynn (also per thalia!)

other than that, we are just living life as happy little clams! i got to spend an entire week at home, which was amazing! the joy is quickly waning as i have to head out west tonight through thursday night. i was hoping to be able to be in town for cousin elizabeth's labor and delivery of her new baby girl, but baby girl is being stubborn and i'm likely to miss it :o( but i'll get to spend plenty of time with them when i get back at the end of the week. then chris leaves for nashville and chicago for a week. so the next couple weeks are going to be crazy. i think i will have traveled 7 out of 8 weeks, and that's not including stuff that hasn't been planned after our trip to michigan! so prayers would be greatly welcomed as we live life together in pieces. it could be way worse though! i am so grateful to have chris down in NC with me!

alright, back to work for me! hope you have a great week! and don't forget to check out the pics from boston on the right.

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

more ups

2010-03-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

i remembered more "up" stories!

moving up -

thalia has moved up to the 2 year old class at school. this isn't her first adjustment to a new room, but i was a sobbing mess anyway ;o) mostly because when we dropped her off, they didn't have any breakfast left for her. then my brave little trooper sat down at the table to eat (they eventually tracked down the cook who gave her breakfast). well apparently they have assigned seats in that room, and thalia unknowingly sat in this one girl's seat. this little (i use the term lightly) girl towered over thalia. i was so concerned that thalia was going to get pushed around :o( but now i guess the two of them are good friends, and thalia is fitting in just great. her new teachers really like her (of course). the only problem is that not all of the kids nap, so we've been having a cranky thalia on school days. hopefully it will get better.

finishing up -

we've finally gotten most of the house completely repainted! Actually, it's been repainted for a bit of time but i never got around to posting pictures. you may remember the kitchen was still yellow in the first picture i posted. now it's this great sage-y green. it looks like a whole different place! i love it.
i also love how our bedroom turned out. this room was alos yellow, with a maroon-ish accent wall. it made the room like so tiny. now that we painted the accent wall this little blue color, it's really opened up that wall. plus, i really love our new bedroom furniture!

all that's left now is touching up the bathroom downstairs and painting our water closet. nothing major there though.

i'll have to go take a picture of the swingset outside this weekend. when gamma and grampa were here, grampa and chris fixed it up. we still need to get a new swing, but i'm feeling better about its safety for thalia.

lightening up -
many of you (maybe) know that i have been growing my hair out to donate it to locks of love. i did this when i was pregnant with thalia and haven't really cut my hair since then. lately, it has just been on my last nerve. it is so thick, and would take so long to dry in the morning. plus thalia started playing with it. so i had had it...and i finally got to the salon and had it cut...

11 inches later...

i like it...although it is taking some getting used to. at least it doesn't take as long for me to get ready in the morning!

speaking of getting ready, i have to bounce to work. i'll get the slide show up this weekend hopefully.

much love and better sleep,

c, c, and t

...ups

2010-03-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

i know...i'm fired. i have an excuse, but i'm not sure you'll buy it :o) we've taken so many great pictures of thalia over the past three weeks. i keep waiting to update the blog until i can get around to posting pictures. but i've been so busy that i haven't had time to get them off the camera. so i'll give you the most important picture, that is already a month late. and then when i get back home, i'll put up a slideshow with all the pictures.

growing up -

here is thalia's 2 year picture with her hippo. can you believe how big she is?! and look how long her hair is! she has been such a funny little person lately. but if you tell her she's funny (or whatever other attribute you choose) she'll scowl at you and say "no! i'm a girl!" it is so adorable!

check up -

we took thalia for her 2 year check up. she is still a little peanut: 34.5 inches tall and almost 24lbs, putting her in the 10th percentile for both. i was concerned about her falling so quickly in height but the PA wasn't concerned.

work up -

work has been so busy. i have been traveling a ton. and chris has been doing a great job with thalia while i've been gone. they actually came and met me in boston last weekend. we had such a fun time! we walked ALL OVER boston; we saw curious george at the children's museum; we saw a farmer's market explode; we had the best dessert ever; we went to the park! we got some good pictures that i'll put in a slide show. it was really nice just spending some time together with nothing to do but have fun :o)

seat up -

thalia has started "potty training". i put it in quotes because it's been quite a funny start. they help her try to go potty at school when she's there. so when she's at home, she'll say she wants to poop on the potty. so we run to the bathroom, take off her diaper, sit her on the potty. this is where it gets funny. she'll push really hard, of course nothing will happen (although sometimes she toots) and then she'll say "all done!" so potty training for thalia is trying to toot while sitting on the potty. i haven't decided yet if i am frustrated or think its funny. usually i think its funny.

those are most of my updates...all the ones with "up" that i can think of anyway. i'll have more with some of the pictures. it doesn't look like things are going to calm down any time soon, but i promise to do more updates.

we love and miss you all so much. i always get the most homesick when i am traveling. seeing gamma and gampa the other day didn't help either! while it was great to have them over for the weekend, it was really hard to have them leave.

back to sitting in a dark room and watching through one-way glass.

much love and some sleep,

c, c, and t

happy birthday little!!

2010-02-28T04:26:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-12T13:33:00.001-08:00

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!

2010-02-05T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

a quick video

2010-01-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

here is a quick snapshot into our trip to seattle. i am working on collecting all the pictures and will put them in a slideshow today. i also have another post i started over a week ago that i promise i will try to finish today.

in the meantime, enjoy thalia and her new friend desty :o)

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

the mitten monster and other stories

2010-01-23T08:56:00.001-08:00

this post is so late in coming! i think the date is going to say 1/23 even though today is 2/5! i know i seem to say this all the time but we have been SO busy. About two more weeks though and then we should be able to calm down...i'll explain that more later.

in the meantime, here are some silly pictures from recently. i have realized my problem is that i have taken too many pictures and want them all on here. (i'm sure most of you feel this same way!) unfortunately, it appears too much for me to be able to even get a minute to write a post. i suppose i could just start attaching photos ;o) maybe you are all bored by my ramblings anyway!

thalia found my gloves and was running around saying "rar!!" to us. we named her mitten monster...now she calls herself that whenever she finds these gloves or the pot holder ones.

she is chewing on a blue finger tootbrush. i just think its crazy how long her hair has gotten.

yiayia, papou and EVERYone (stephie, nikki, toby, jenny, jillian) came to visit us a few weeks ago. lately, thalia LOVES putting her hands in her pockets. in fact, aunt nikki bought her a cute pair of pants that have stitching like pockets, but no actual pockets. thalia was getting really upset that she couldn't get her hands in there. this is probably one of my new favorites.
thalia helped papou paint the bathroom
thalia's christmas program
thalia's cousin sophia came to visit
eating pizza and peas on big girl chairs

ok, so i pinky promise more regular posts! much love and a lot more sleep!

c, c, and t

i'm behind...

2010-01-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

i just realized i never posted any of these...

anyone think they look alike? this is after thalia's christmas program at school. chris has the funniest video, but we can't find the converter cord to put it on the computer. stay tuned for that.

on our way to michigan

christmas jammies and ugg slippers

"driving" daddy crazy :o)

we found a tractor store on our way back to NC...we were there for quite a while. but it was a nice break from being in the car

someone is happy! must be her "new" hat

ready to go to school!

thalia and i had a WONDERFUL weekend with so many people we love. everyone took advantage of really cheap southwest airlines tickets and came to visit us. we went shopping, and ate and drank a lot. it was fantastic. now thalia and i are trying to adjust to an empty house. chris and uncle martin left for their texas tour. we're very proud of them...but kind of lonely. not to worry though...in a few days thalia and i are heading to seattle to see my good friend christy. i can't wait!! what a fun adventure!!

thanks for your prayers and love and support. we couldn't be doing this well without you!

much love and hopefully some more sleep,

c, c, and t

not for the faint of stomach...i'm serious!

2010-01-16T04:59:00.000-08:00

some of you know this story, and are therefore forewarned. those of you who don't know this story, it is gross. G-R-O-S-S, bleh gross. so if you think you have a weak stomach, i recommend skipping this post. i'm sure your morbid curiosity will prevail, but i might say "i told you so" at the end :o)
so after our lobster adventure, we came home to find a foul odor in our house. it smelled like someone had left raw chicken scraps in the trash. the short version of the story is that chris and i stuck our nose in every piece of everything in our house, and couldn't find anything. the trash was fine, the lizard tank was fine, the bathroom was fine, we couldn't find any misplaced dirty diapers. one day after we came home, about a week after the smell began, we decided it was literally the air that smelled. sometime just after that we noticed that the smell seemed to go away if the heat wasn't on...and got worse when it was on. so my brave, knight in shining armor, hubby jumps on a chair to skip his nose in the heat vent. (all of our registers are in the ceiling...which makes absolutely no sense to me). since he had stuck his nose in countless other things that hadn't smelled, i don't think he was expecting anything different. but as he got his nose up there, and took a HUGE sniff, he almost puked in the sink. the smell was definitely coming from the air ducts. we guessed that something had died in our walls. what to do? i don't know who to call if my air smells. so we left a few messages for some air quality folks, and one for a duct cleaning guy. the duct cleaning guy called and asked if we had an outdoor furnace. this is another thing that makes little sense to me, but truth-be-told, our new house has two furnaces. the upstairs one is in the attic, and the downstairs one is outside. the duct guy said he could almost guarantee that a mouse had crawled in the duct outside and died, but that it would be at least $500 for him to come look. (some service call fee!!! i'm in the wrong business!) anyway, chris asked if there was anything he could do, and the duct guy told him where to look. he also said that mice usually take 2 weeks to decay, so we could wait if we wanted to. um, no thank you. chris, you're going outside! ;o)
it was late in the afternoon when chris got the call, and it was too dark to go looking outside. he would look the next morning. meanwhile, we had invited friends of ours over for dinner and were mortified to have them come to a really smelly house. however, i think the worst part is that after a while, you started to get used to it! that just grossed me right out...that i could be inhaling such a putrid smell, and not notice it after a while. now, the great thing was that the smell was contained to the downstairs. so at least we could sleep in peace. i digress. so the next day, chris prepares for his mouse hunt. he gets some gloves and an old broom rod that the previous owner had left behind. now, the outdoor furnace looks like a big industrial unit - i'm pretty sure its both a heater and an air conditioner. there is a large flashing-sort of cover that bridges the gap between the unit and the house. this is where the duct guy told chris to look. also, the furnace has a lot of landscaping around it, which hadn't been tended to in who knows how long. so chris was clearing out leaves and pine needles and such. the flashing part is a pretty big part, so chris was using the broom handle to dig underneath it. as he was doing that, he hit something squishy. the guy had told him to look for a mouse, so that was what chris had expected to find. he managed to get the "mouse" close to the edge of the flashing...only to find an 8 pound hairy ball of liquid and mucus (i told you it was a gross story). between the way the animal looked, how big it was, and the intensity of the smell after chris disrupted it, my poor knight jumped over the bushes, around the meter and gagged until he puked :o( he went into the house and googled dead animal removal. he found a local place called "trapper dan".
chris tried to call from the office, but the furnace is right outside the office window...so the office was starting to smell terrible. trapper dan told chris he would have someone there right away - and chris got out of the office as quickly as he could. when the trapper dan guy got there, chris was explaining to him the problem. turns out the "mouse" was really an opossum!!! an opossum that had gnawed through the caulk, crawled in my duct, and had been there at least 2 weeks! (gross!) the thing had crawled so far in that the guy had to use some special 90-degree grabber. in the meantime, chris had to excuse himself from the scene...he just couldn't take the smell anymore. while chris was standing in the garage, all of a sudden he heard gagging. THE TRAPPER DAN GUY PUKED!!! he said it was the worst dead animal removal he had ever experienced...and this was a veteran remover! he asked chris for an extra grocery bag AND a yard bag! so my poor knight had to help his guy put the dead opossum in the bag...poor thing! after both guys had collected themselves, the trapper dan guy only charged chris the removal fee, even though he re-caulked our duct and was supposed to charge us for labor. he said that it was such a horrible experience that he couldn't bring himself to charge us full price. sweet, until you really think about it.
all of this happened around lunch time. by the time thalia and i had gotten home after work, the smell was almost gone!! it was amazing to walk into the house and not gag, or be really frustrated. unfortunately, chris was not as easily remedied. he couldn't get the smell out of his nose or his head. he was up sick all night! my hero!
i really think this event, or rather the fixing of this event, means the tide is turning on our frustration with the house. so many little things that have gone wrong, and really get under your sink and make you start to second guess your decision. but now, almost all of the boxes are gone. i still owe you a few pictures. but the house is really starting to feel like our home...and not a big piece of junk.
i hope you made it through without getting sick. i tried to warn you. i have some pictures on my laptop that i'll try to post later. and gamma sent me some "before"pictures from the house. i may re-post some of the house pictures so you can see before and after.
bleh...not a good story to start my morning. but like i usually say, if i have to know it, so does everyone else!
much love and more sleep,
c, c, and t

my new favorite picture

2010-01-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

her shirt says "born to rock"

new year's adventure

2010-01-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

check out what we were up to at uncle ronnie and martha mama's!

it's kinda of a long story...the short version is that one of the grocery stores here has a live lobster tank that is essentially on the floor. so chris took thalia over to see the lobsters. we then went to ronnie's house, told him that thalia saw the lobsters, ron mentioned he wanted to cook one, we mentioned they were on sale, and chris, thalia, and ron went back to the store to get two for dinner. well, for an "appetizer"...ron had already made barbecue beef for dinner! nugget wasn't all that impressed, but poor thalia was totally scared. she wouldn't get off my lap. it was a riot! after we played with them, ron boiled them and we had buttered lobster tail for a snack. it was pretty good!

i also found time (and lighting) to take a picture of thalia's room.

yes, it looks shockingly similar to her old room. but i loved the way it turned out and gamma had already made her pink elephant quilt. you can just see it, but the heart above her closet door is this beautiful metal piece from gigi. it has a teal glass square and a hummingbird. it is one of my new favorite pieces!
you'll also noticed that i finally got around to taking thalia's 22 month hippo picture. isn't she cute?!

more pictures to come...i have them in too many places!

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

new house

2009-12-30T09:09:00.000-08:00

two weeks without a post! i'm surprised i haven't been getting hate mail!!! things have been super crazy here. between career work, house work, and trying to get some sleep, we have been so busy!! but the house is finally starting to look fantastic...so i thought i would share a few pictures with you.
this is the upstairs guest/thalia bathroom. thanks to papou for painting!
chris working hard in our new office. after i took this picture, he set up a drum set in here...its a bit more crowded

this is the master bath...thanks to gampa for painting the vaulted ceilings!

this is the "little" bathroom on the first floor
here is our living room...probably my favorite room in the house - mostly due to the fact that our sweet bar gets to be on display!
this is our kitchen. yes, it is yellow...we haven't repainted it yet. the previous owners updated it...we have hardwoods throughout the first floor.

this is our dining room. pretty close to the old one. but the chandelier is black...not sure why it looks gold in this pic.
and this is the front! now that most of the stress is done, we are really happy with it. more pics to come as more rooms get finished (or have enough lighting for a good picture)

off to dinner with uncle frank and aunt laura and baby greyson! more thalia pics to come this weekend...new year's resolution ;o)

much love and some sleep,

c, c, and t

fun with yiayia and papou

2009-12-17T19:28:00.001-08:00

my how time flies! i will say from the get that this has been a much better week. i was getting really tired of feeling junky and stressed and blah. but this week has been slightly calmer and chris has been doing a fantastic job putting things away...and over the past few days he has hung most of our pictures, which is really helping this place feel more like our own.

last weekend, yiayia and papou came to help us. what a joy! we moved the wall bar and got almost all the painting done! (i say "we" but mostly what i did was leave and go to work) i'm really starting to feel very good about living here. so many funny things happened while yiayia and papou were here...i'll have to try to remember all of them.
this is us having lunch at sam's club...fancy, i know! thalia is wearing a new outfit from her favorite gigi...with her ugg boots from yiayia. i think its adorable! while we were here, thalia showed yiayia her soda game. basically if i ask thalia if she would like some soda, she says "no! pop!" but if chris asks her is she would like some pop, she'll say "no! soda!" it's hi-larious!!
thalia also got to open an early christmas present from yiayia - real john deere boots! they are the cutest things. so this is thalia showing them off. how awesome are they?! i guess this is our second official house picture. this is our new playset. the weather was somewhat warm so yiayia took thalia out and they swung on the swing. thalia is getting much better about swinging. she likes the bumpy slide too. i think we need to replace the roof...but we can wait til spring.

i just realized i don't have many pictures of papou and thalia! we'll have to work on that in january when everyone comes back down here.

after quite the rough week last week with thalia's fevers and sleeping with us almost every night, we are heading into day 3 of sleeping through the night without even a peep! actually, we are still working on a better night routine. right now she still wants to stay up and play with daddy. but the nice thing is that i have been able to get ready for work and leave without having to worry about waking thalia up and getting her ready. i think chris has taken her to school every day this week. what a huge difference that has made! mornings are so much easier with chris here. thanks babe! love you!

alright, its already late and i need to go get my car inspected tomorrow. totally lame...but we are saving over $1000 a year in car insurance! so i guess it evens out.

much much love and much much sleep,

c, c, and t

our trip to the doctor

2009-12-10T11:44:00.001-08:00

i'm not sure if i mentioned this the other day, but thalia had been having some really high fevers. so after being sent home from school for the second time, we decided to take her to the doc. chris was painting so i went...and of course her temp was normal and after we got home she was running around. so apparently, all you need to do when your kid can't break a fever is mention going to the doctor, and everything goes away!

anyway, the doctor (well, nurse practitioner) decided to run a flu test - just to be sure since she couldn't find anything else wrong. while we waited for the results (15 min) i was trying to keep thalia entertained. then the madness began!

everything started out fine...

papou showed her how to trace his hand once...now she just touches the pen in between fingers and says "all done"

mommy mistakenly turned her back to text everyone that the NP couldn't find anything. while my back was turned, thalia knocked the picture off the wall. you may be thinking, 'no big deal!' except all the paintings in this office are hand-painted on unfinished canvases. so when it dropped...

the wood frame bent. this is the best i could do...pretty obvious considering the mat is painted on the wall. although, probably the funniest part of this picture is little's face! totally on her own!

sigh...such was our trip to doc. she still isn't quite herself but her fevers are gone. we think she is working on at least her two top eye teeth, so i think that's part of it. she also missed her nap yesterday, went to bed late, was up at 630 this morning, cried until 830 when i dropped her off at school - late just because that is my life these days, she technically missed breakfast but her teacher saved her a bowl. what an angel!

needless to say, it has still been a rough week. but we are making progress...thanks for your prayers and support!

much love and a bit more sleep (after 4 nights in bed with us, thalia spent the whole night in her own bed!)

c, c, and t

Pictures Galore!

2009-12-08T06:25:00.000-08:00

helping daddy make pudding for our trifle

new sassy leopard print pants

two ponies, and she loves vernors (that's my girl!)

on our way to the hockey game!!

people mover heading to the bakery

thalia found her crown in her toy box at the new house. she hasn't been into having her picture taken as you can see.

i also finally got around to taking and adding thalia's 21 month hippo picture. as you can see we converted her crib to a big girl toddler bed! she was doing pretty well in it, but the fast few days she has had a high fever (103.5) and has slept in our bed. good thing chris convinced me to get a king bed! she felt much cooler today, so hopefully she has fought off whatever bug she had.

gamma and grampa headed back to michigan on sunday. we were very sad to see them go. they did so much help on the house, and we really truly appreciate and love them. as soon as we can get stuff put away, i'll start posting pictures of the new place. its finally starting to come along and i think its going to be really great.

off to another day of listening to phone interviews. wish me luck tomorrow...i'm talking to some folks about a full-time job. and even though i am guaranteed my current role for 2 years, it would be nice to have something firm.

much love and not a lot of sleep (thalia is starting to talk in her sleep...AND she kicks)

c, c, and t

Still going...

2009-11-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

This will (maybe) be a short post...just wanted to give everyone a quick update on how we're doing. We closed on our new house last Monday at 11am, and met the carpet installers at the house at noon. The movers came on Tuesday morning, we realized they had ruined a bunch of our stuff (there was a HOLE in the roof of the truck - I couldn't make this up...so there was water damage to a number of wood pieces). After they were done, we drove through the night to Michigan. On the way, we witnessed a roll-over accident and Chris pulled 5 people from the car, 3 of which were children, NONE of which had their seatbelts on. Thank God the injuries were only to one person. We pulled into Gamma's at 8am, Chris and Thalia went back to bed, I was swamped with work. At 3pm we left to take the baby to Gamma so Chris and I could go to our friends' wedding (Congrats to the new Mr and Mrs Lee!). By the time we got to the reception, we had hit our wall. I only made it halfway home before I had to pullover and let Chris drive. Luckily we didnt' have to go anywhere for Thanksgiving - everyone came to us! It was really wonderful to spend time with Chris' family. I missed mine, but Chris' family has really taken me in as one of their own and they are fabulous people. We tried to play "Christmas Story" the game - what a joke. I swear a bunch of drunk college kids came up with it while watching the all day marathon! Friday morning Chris and I went shopping - we actually were given a hard time by a friend of ours who works at Kohl's because we showed up at 11! We got a lot of great deals on stuff we needed for our bedroom and the bathrooms...plus a new pair of boots for me! :o) That night we went to GiGi's for pizza with Aunt Lori and then took Thalia to her first Red Wings game! The game stunk, but we had a great time riding the people mover and cheering. Thalia was a bit freaked at first but then started clapping and dancing. It was great - a perfect night (except the Wings lost) topped off with a trip to Astoria!! Saturday Chris and I were lazy bums and literally sat on the couch most of the day. We were supposed to go to my 10 year reunion but I couldn't get the energy to drive 90 minutes just for a drink. So Aunt Steffi and Uncle Barrett came down for dinner and we had a lovely time. Sunday, we packed up and hit the road at 730 am. We made it home at 1030pm...I have never seen such traffic! Needless to say, I am tired and distracted today. Gampa came down with us to help paint and unpack. Yes, I actually left Chris and his dad with the task of picking paint colors. I'm sure they'll do fine. Sigh...so here I am at work, exhausted and wishing I were on a beach somwhere. I keep telling myself it will all be over soon...although i've been telling myself that for quite some time now ;o)

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

ps...pics of our weekend to come soon

my own baby einstein

2009-11-21T17:56:00.000-08:00

today thalia counted to 10

maybe that's not spectacular to some of you folks...but to me, that is wicked awesome! i mean, she's not even two! maybe lots of kids can count to ten before they are two...but i'm still impressed! we were putting her crayons away and i got the brilliant "teachable moment" idea to count the crayons as we put them in their bag. i started saying "one, two, three..." and thalia would repeat the number i said. then after four, she started counting and i repeated. all the way to 10!! then of course we had to show off to martha momma...and she's been counting to 10 the rest of the day!
earlier this week, thalia and i got to stay home from school and work because she had a fever. while i was on my computer, thalia pulled all her books from the table onto her lap:
(i love her ponytail in this pic!)

the following day, thalia was running around uncle ronnie's chair and she tripped on her new shoes. she planted her face right into the corner of this same couch...not only into the corner, but this couch as rivets up and down the arms. if you look close, you can see a round bump on her eyebrow, a round bump on her left cheek, a cut on her nose, and if she didn't have her paci in a fat lip :o( she was fine...apparently the next day at school, she was a little chatterbox - despite a banged up face and hardly sleeping that night.
finally, last weekend we got to spend time with elizabeth and sophie. we went to a craft show where martha momma had her jewelry (marthamaryjewelry.etsy.com) and then we found a Steak n Shake for lunch! even better...the girls got to eat for free!! although i was a bit disappointed to see they no longer have triple berry ala mode. thalia wasn't in a super good mood, as you can see: but she put her steak n shake hat on and had mac and cheese and applesauce. applesauce is thalia's current favorite food AND word. she says it all the time. applesauce and orange. the other day i said "what can i do for you?" and her response was "applesauce?" unfortunately, chris and i have had to literally deposit every dollar and penny into our checking account for our closing on monday, so we are out of applesauce. i'm such a bad mother! ;o)
i hope you all are having a great weekend. this past week has been one of the hardest in my life...but God has brought us through, and i think everything is really finally going to work out. we found out at 445pm friday that we were cleared for closing on monday. nothing like the last minute! chris should be on his way down any minute. he stayed in michigan for his great-grandma's 100th birthday party. thalia and i were really sad we couldn't be there...hopefully chris gave our love to everyone. if you were there and you didn't get loved on, you let me know and i'll smack him :o) happy birthday grandma touse! what an amazing life you have lived! thank you for your love and your humor!
wish us luck as we finish out this month of craziness. thank you for your prayers and love and thoughts. you are ever so appreciated!

much love and hope for more sleep,
c, c, and t

happy tuesday

2009-11-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

as promised, here is a picture of our soon-to-be house. i am working with the mortgage folks today...apparently there was some miscommunication and we didn't have all the papers in we needed. please pray that this will get straightened out and that we will be able to keep our closing for next monday!

i also had to share this picture with you. this is from thalia's and my road trip to grand rapids a couple weeks ago. check out this reading pro! my favorite part is her leg on her knee. how precious is that?! i am so blessed to have such a goofball for a daughter. i know i couldn't have made it through the past year without her and the smiles she brings!

off to figure out what else the lenders need...its going to be a long week. but hopefully things will start to calm down after we close.

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

bye bye kelsey

2009-11-13T11:29:00.000-08:00

i don't think that i have spoken much thalia's friend kelsey...at least not lately. kelsey is essentially thalia's longest and best friend. she was at childtime when thalia and i first moved down here over a year ago. then when childtime closed, we decided to keep the girls together. they have seen each other almost every day for the past 19 months! they are too funny together, and they get into plenty of mischief! for a while, thalia would only share her toys with kelsey; and kelsey would only give thalia a hug good-bye when they left in the evening. when they were younger and still crawling, they would chase each other around the rooms and just giggle the entire time. it was precious!

well, last week, kelsey turned 2...and moved to a new daycare :o(. thalia and i were very sad, but we know that there are many playdates in the future. here are some pictures of the girls, and one of kelsey's mom amy. it has been great having amy and kelsey in our lives and we wish them the best! but it is not a good-bye...it is a see ya later!

here are some other pictures i just got from thalia's teachers, while we are talking about school :o)

what a fun summer the kids had...i can't believe how quickly time flies!

now to the elephant in the room - chris and i are officially homeless! we closed on our house in michigan about half an hour ago. the movers came on monday, and by wednesday afternoon, the truck was loaded and rumbling down the road!! it was a very emotional experience - and quite exhausting! but chris and i made it through...we got to see a ton of family and friends while we were home, and we are ready for our new adventure of being a family again in north carolina! i have been very hesitant to talk much about the houses...just nervous that something might fall through. and even now...saying that we have closed on our michigan house is so surreal! i can't believe we really don't have a house any more!! AND i literally JUST got word that our loan money came through for our down payment for the house down here! Praise God for relief!! i thought i might be able to copy and paste a picture of the new house, but it won't work for some reason. i'll head out this weekend and take a picture so you can all see it.

what a day! thanks for all of your love and support!

much love and hope for more sleep,

c, c, and t

some random smiles (and lots of parentheses)

2009-11-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

the movers came today...it has been a very surreal day. so here is yet another post that is really just an attempt to make myself smile :o) hopefully it works for you too!

this is thalia and i trying to have fun at my new home-away-from-home: Baltimore-Washington International Airport:

i'm not sure if i've told this story before, but we have been on so many flights (one of these days i am going to try to count them) that my 20 month old daughter knows what to do when we get to the airport. as soon as we get close to security, she holds her feet up and says "shoes, off". part of me thinks its adorable...the other part thinks its totally sad!

thalia's second favorite thing to do with her cousin madilynn is rub her head (her favorite thing to do is to poke her in the eye...)

among all the other things aunt jillian taught thalia last week, putting on makeup was thalia's favorite. good thing it was halloween!!

chris' new way of babysitting...give thalia a remote without batteries, and tell her she is playing video games!

since we are going to be leaving (very) soon, we have been saying goodbye to lots of people:

this is great-grandpa and great-grandma denhart (anyone else notice that chris, thalia and i are all wearing green, and jen, wj, and madilynn are all wearing burgundy? totally UNplanned!!)
and of course great-grandma busch (also known as GiGi)

and finally...just in case you didn't believe me:

thank you again for all your prayers and support. we love you all and couldn't be doing this without you!

much love and more sleep (surprisingly)

c, c, and t

long lost pictures

2009-11-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

some of you may remember an adorable picture of thalia in her pink swimsuit and life jacket, looking on as her daddy jumped into hubbard lake to try to save our camera that fell in. well dear friends, with a combination of the memory card drying out and gamma bringing over her camera for us to use, here are the lost lake pictures!!!

if you blow this one up, you can see they are both laughing
sunnies!

the last two are my favorites. great memories of one of my favorite places in the entire world.

wish us luck, we are going continuing to go through our belongings to see what we can pitch and what we can donate. we are making pretty good progress though!

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

halloween part 2

2009-11-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

sorry for the delay...work is crazy! here are more pictures of thalia in her chicken costume!

thanks to yiayia for the (repurposed) candy bag! and to aunt jillian again, for showing thalia how to roll her tongue. and to madilynn for staying in her pumpkin costume for a picture...even though she didn't like it. :o)
hope you enjoyed the pictures. we had a really great time. now its off to michigan to help the movers and to say goodbye to warwick dr.

much love and more sleep
c, c, and t

halloween part 1

2009-11-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

here are some pictures from thalia's first (second) halloween. i say that because last year, she was only 8 months old...i put her in her hot dog costume, took a picture, and we went to bed :o) this year we (aunt jillian and i) actually took her around the neighborhood in her outfit! she was SO adorable!! she said "trick or treat" at almost every house, and said "thank you" at every house. everyone thought she was so cute. aunt jillian told thalia after the first house "let's go get more candy", so after every house thalia would say "more candy?" i was cracking up. she did really well...although i must say: we need to pick thalia's halloween costumes a bit more carefully next year. in michigan, it snowed on half of the halloweens i experienced. well here, poor thalia was sweating to death in her chicken outfit, because we went start trick or treating, it was 75 degrees!! some snotty neighbor lady made a comment...but we didn't let her ruin our night!

we also learned a lot about thalia this weekend. she likes candy corn, AND chili cheese fries...and her new things are "i do it" and "i see". i swear she is turning into a toddler right before my eyes!!

other than having a fantastic weekend with aunt jillian, i am feeling much more sane the past few days. this moving stuff is way harder than i thought it was going to be. i mean, i didn't think it was going to be easy...but definitely not this hard either. on top of that, work has been really crazy busy. the next week or so is going to be the calm before the storm for sure. i was going to say that i wouldn't get into the details...but that wouldn't work for most of you, would it? :o) so here is the run-down of the next 6 weeks (or so):

nov 3 head to michigan to help get ready to move

nov 7 yiayia and papou in michigan

nov 9-13 movers come to pack and load

nov 16 close in michigan

nov 21 great-great grandma touse's 100th birthday

nov 23 close in north carolina, hopefully install new carpet

nov 24 movers come to unload, hopefully drive to michigan (yes, it will be late)

nov 25 andy's wedding

nov 26 thanksgiving

nov 27 thalia's first red wings game

nov 28 my 10-year high school reunion

nov 29 back to north carolina, with gampa in tow

nov 30-dec 4 repaint house, complete 2 research projects

dec 2 gamma comes down

dec 9,10 gone for more research, yiayia and papou come out
dec 14 final day of research

whew! anyone else tired? ;o) at this point, i am trying to get through one day at a time. your prayers will be most coveted over the next month or so.

anyway, since the time changed last night, thalia is about ready for bed. without further ado, here are the pictures...more to come tomorrow when i get to work. enjoy!

ready to go
first trick or treat from joey

putting the candy in her bag

cheese!

trick or treating with aunt jillian and nuhnit (nugget)
three blue-eyed beauties
i told you she likes candy corn...i'll tell you a funny story about it tomorrow
"thalia, what'd you get?"

more to come! thanks again for your love and prayers! i know its the only reason i am still standing!

much love and (hoping for) more sleep!

c, c, and t

one for the ladies

2009-10-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

aunt nikki enjoying a laugh with thalia...courtesy of aunt jillian

had to share!

2009-10-24T05:47:00.000-07:00

thalia, chris, and i met up with aunt steffie and uncle barrett and went out to dinner with our aunt and uncle in royal oak last night. we had a really nice time. throughout the meal, thalia was taking her napkin and wiping up water that she had spilled on the table while she was drinking (she is a mini papou!). toward the end of the meal, she turned and saw the wall was dirty (quite scuffed and nicked), so barrett turned her high chair around and she started WIPING THE WALLS of the restaurant!!! in this first picture she is very concerned about the condition of the wall:

then there is this one...i told her to say "cheese" and this is the face she made while she said it!

i can't stop laughing looking at it! hope it brightens your day too!

here is one from our flight home the other night. somehow all of thalia's lovies ended up in the car...well then of course we had to take them ALL on the plane!

monkey, kitty cat, and blanket...all along for the ride

much love and quite a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

one for uncle tobes

2009-10-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

so that uncle bar doesn't get all the attention...here is some face time for uncle toby

update

2009-10-20T11:33:00.001-07:00

just wanted to let everyone know that chris and thalia are both feeling better from their health scare last week. thalia got new antibiotics and her swelling is completely gone. the bite site is still a little red, but not too bad. now that that is over, we get to work on more molars! chris' leg continues to be quite a bit swollen but he is pretty sure the overall swelling is starting to go down. apparently the three bite sites look like huge pimples, which i told him not to mess with. he went to our primary care doctor yesterday for a flu shot...she swabbed one of the sites that had burst to see what kind of infection it really was (the ER docs just figured MRSA). both of them are continuing their antibiotics as prescribed to ensure nothing comes back.
thalia and i had a relaxing weekend watching football:

and what a great day it was: Michigan and Texas won, Notre Dame and Ohio State lost!!! AND Butler won, making them 6-0 for the first time in almost 20 years!! It's pretty neat seeing that, because when i was there, our football team wasn't very good. I'm still a Bulldog through and through though!
Aside from football watching, and still trying to teach Thalia how to do "Hook em Horns" with her fingers, we have had some big milestone moments over the past week. Thalia put her own socks on this morning. Last night, she helped me unload and load the dishwasher! She is also starting to speak in sentences (Thalia sit down and color; Walk Nugget outside; Martha is downstairs...its really quite impressive).
Tomorrow Thalia and I head back to our ypsi house for the last time. we are going to be spending a few days there, trying to go through most of our stuff and get rid of what we can before the move. when we do move, after thanksgiving, i am going to be swamped with work, so i am trying to get a lot done before then. let me know if you are in need of dishes or silverware!
we had the inspection on the house in NC yesterday...it went well but there are some things that need to be fixed. while i was there, i got to figure out where most of our furniture is going to go! that made me feel a bit more at ease about the whole thing.
alright, back to work for me. thanks again for all your love and prayers...it has been a long road, but i can see the light. hope you have a great week!
much love and not much sleep (molars)
c, c, and t

just crazy

2009-10-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

well, what an adventurous couple weeks we have had! i think i mentioned that i was in orlando most of last week for a national business meeting. it went really well...my team played a pretty big role in the meeting and we were well received. may not seem like a big deal, but we have one of the few teams that is able to do things like this to help our brand teams. it was great getting to be a part of it.
then after being home for less than 6 hours, we hopped on a plane to go to the balloon fiesta in albuquerque. what a group we had! i think there were at least 21 people with us everywhere we went! what a sight! but we had an amazing time with yiayia and papou and the aunts and uncles...even "uncle" dom came in from phoenix! pictures are soon coming of all the balloons and people. one morning we got to go down to the "field" and be right next to all the hot air balloons as they took off...hundreds of them! it was quite the experience!!
while we were there, we found out that we sold our house in michigan!! it was only on the market for 4 days!!! we close on november 16...which is just so close! since we sold that house, we made an offer on a great house in cary that we loved. it is right by martha momma and uncle ronnie, and it has a huge yard and a playset! we close on that house on november 23. the next few weeks are going to be quite the whirlwind! but i have chris, who is doing an incredible job of taking care of things in michigan, and a ton of people who are helping us every step of the way.
then when we got home, chris and thalia both got bit by something...maybe a spider. i don't know, but anyway, both of them ended up in the urgent care because of the swelling! chris had three bites on his shin, thalia's bite was up by her temple. the doctors gave them both antibiotics and we are hoping the swelling will go down. this morning, thalia's eye was pretty swollen. but she seems to be in a good mood, and was running and laughing with her friends at school. i'll keep you posted...just another crazy thing happening in my life these days!
here are some pictures from the past week or so...
aunt jenny got thalia this great cheerleader outfit. it comes with a white turtleneck, but it was too warm for that. thalia is mad because texas was losing.
not to worry...texas won!
she has been loving wearing this hat for some reason
this is thalia's new friend nugget (aunt jillian's dog). thalia has been taking nugget out for walks with martha momma...she'll hold the leash and everything. its quite the sight. not to worry...if thalia wants to get a dog, she can go over to most of her aunts' houses to visit!!!
that is about the best update i can give at this point...i am emotionally exhausted. but it will all be over soon, and we will be a family again! thanks for your continued love and prayers. we couldn't do it without you!
much love and little sleep,
c, c, and t

quick update

2009-10-11T16:06:00.000-07:00

hey friends,
my apologies for my lack of updates. things have just been a whirlwind lately! after spending three days in orlando, chris, thalia and i all hopped on a plane and flew to albuquerque for the balloon fiesta. what a fun time! it was even better that so many of our family and friends got to join us. it has been a wonderful weekend of adventures and laughter and food!
things are going surprisingly great on the home front. i'll let you know more when things become more finalized...but God definitely has been listening and answering our prayers!
stay tuned for more updates and lots of pictures. in the meantime, check out the 19 month hippo!
much love and some sleep,
c, c, and t

from the vault

2009-09-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

i was going through my pictures and found this gem...
uncle barrett is reading his favorite story to his favorite niece...precious!

i guess we need to just call this the "all about uncle barrett" post! here is another one of him and aunt steffie from the red carpet run in royal oak. THEY RAN IN THEIR WEDDING OUTFITS!! aunt steffie got 4th place for best dress!

a few for the road

2009-09-28T13:09:00.000-07:00

this about sums up our weekend:

well, that and a killer migraine for my monday morning. thalia is still working on her two molars and has been chewing on her fingers non-stop for the past week. now she has obviously picked up a cold, which i can guarantee she will pass to her mommy.

still no real update on our relocation, other than migraines don't help ;o) the michigan house should be on the market this week...tell everyone you know! we need to sell this baby!

i swapped out slide shows for our trip to pittsburgh...there are some cute ones of thalia in there. also, some not so bad ones of my rocker hubbie...who i am excited to say is coming to see us on friday! yay for daddy!!

here is one of my favorites from our pittsburgh trip that i wasn't able to put in the last post. its blurry but i think its great. thalia sure loves her papou.

stay tuned for more updates, and hopefully a happier disposition!
much love and little sleep (teething + coughing + migraine = no sleep)
c, c, and t

just for fun

2009-09-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

to end this week on a happy note, here are some random pictures from the past few weeks. enjoy!

martha got stickers in the mail and thalia stuck them all over her shirt!

we went to see aunt steffie at work

thalia's new turtle sandbox that we got from the neighbor for $5

for those of you who haven't seen us for a while, this is how long thalia's hair is...well sort of. this picture is probably already a month old, so its even longer!

my little (not really) niece madilynn, six months old and apparently outgrowing her bouncy seat!!

thalia eating corn at the cob! she ate ribs off the bone in reno too!
more pictures and updates to come. so far the house still isn't on the market but we are working on that. we found a house we like in cary, where we want to live but its too early to put an offer so we just have to sit and wait and hope it doesn't sell. work is crazy, and i am starting to think i am too.

much love and more sleep
c, c, and t

quick update

2009-09-18T06:53:00.000-07:00

i am officially overwhelmed. thalia is working on two molars at the same time. we moved out of our apartment and into uncle ronnie and martha's. i have been scheduling brokers, and appraisers, and inspectors, and showings, and on and on. whew! luckily, we get to spend this weekend in pittsburgh with most of the family. hopefully that means i can have a bit of a break!

anyway, back to happier things. there were just too many great pictures from tahoe, so i put them in a slideshow to the right of the posting. i also wanted to share with you some sweet pictures from uncle bob and aunt lori's a few weeks ago...

aren't these great?!

we had a great time over the weekend getting to see gigi with the kids (ie, nikki, toby, stephie, and barrett). even chris got to come. we had pizza and just got to visit and have a great time. her new apartment is really cute...her bedroom is HUGE! she is starting to put some personal touches in it, which is making her feel better. of course, a visit from all of us doesn't hurt!!

that's about all i have for today. we are adjusting to molars and our new home. and are looking forward to seeing everyone in pittsburgh. hopefully i'll have some good news next week for a change.

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

one year

2009-09-09T04:07:00.001-07:00

i know, i know...i owe you more tahoe pictures. and i have some great ones from the weekend we spent with gigi and great uncle bobert and great aunt lori. those will come, i promise!

in the meantime, we are 3 days shy of thalia and i being in north carolina for one whole year. can you believe it?! i keep going back and forth. sometimes it feels like so long along that i moved in to this apartment...other times it feels like not that long ago. but when i start to think about all the changes thalia has gone through, it is amazing...

for example, she didn't start crawling until about 10 days after we moved down. now, she is running all over the place. she was just starting to babble when we moved...now, she is saying things like "scuse me" when she wants you to move, and "bless you" when someone sneezes. the little voice that has emerged from her is so adorable! then there is the hippo. here is the first hippo picture taken in north carolina:

and here is her 18 month picture...her last one that will be taken in the apartment:

speaking of last one taken in the apartment, i have some big news. i apologize that some of you have to find out through the blog, but that is kind of the entire point of having it (not only delivering pictures of my princess!). friday is technically my last day of my one year rotation. but thalia and i will not be coming home to michigan. instead, gsk will be relocating chris and all of our stuff down to north carolina! while it is really hard to tell our family and friends that we are leaving, this is really exciting news for me...working at the "home office" was my goal when i signed on as a sales rep; and it was a big part of why i wanted to do the year rotation - to get down there and see if i like the office world. and i love it! so the fact that i get to stay and continue working with a great team of people is really a blessing. and while it will be a big adjustment for chris, he is also excited about the opportunity for new things down in NC. we aren't moving right away...while the company is helping us sell the house, it has to be on the market for at least 60 days before we can accept a buyout. so we are looking at early november to be permanently moved down. but not to worry...we have plenty of excuses to come back to michigan to visit.

thanks again to all of you who have kept up with us over the past year. thalia and i could not have done so well without the love, support, and prayers from our truly amazing family and friends. since we aren't coming back to michigan, the blog will remain as our way of keeping everyone up to date on thalia's new milestones. we love you all so much...and hope you are receiving blessings for the way you have blessed us.

much much love and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

tahoe baby!

2009-09-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

so i'm not sure if i mentioned that chris, thalia, and i are on vacation this week with uncle ronnie, martha mama, and jillian, jenny, and joey...but we are in GORGEOUS lake tahoe!! and we are having a blast! i seriously can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is here. i still haven't adjusted fully to pacific time, so i have gotten to watch the sunrise outside our bedroom window every morning. the sunsets aren't bad either. we have had a lot of fun adventures over the past few days...we went on a boat cruise of the lake and learned about all the fun history (like the fact that the tour guide thinks jimmy hoffa is at the bottom of it!).

we went on a hike down to "vikingsholm" which is a famous house built on the lake. i carried thalia in my hiking backpack down the mile and chris graciously carried her the mile back up. i tell you what...the sierra nevada mountains are not hills! we also had pedicures...even chris! his first one ever! uncle ronnie is definitely rubbing off on him! today we drove out to reno for a rib cookoff. it was pretty fun...kind of like ypsi heritage festival meets barbecue pit. and thalia LOVED it! you should have seen her going to town on the ribs! (among her other food exploits this week are guacamole)

tomorrow we are going on a bike ride! you can rent the little carts to pull behind the bikes for thalia. many more videos and pics to come...just wanted to give you a taste of what we are up to.

much love, and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

yay pictures!!!

2009-08-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-20T07:42:00.001-07:00

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...

2009-08-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-05T03:51:00.000-07:00

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

17 months (aka hello?)

2009-08-05T03:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

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

so sorry!

2009-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

ok, so i totally apologize for not having posted any pictures, or even updates, in the past couple weeks. my life has been totally crazy. thalia and i headed to michigan for a week of weddings and vacation. ever since we got back on sunday, work has just been crazy. by the time i get home at night, the apartment is a disaster, i have no food, which is fine because i have no clean dishes to eat the food on! not to worry though, i got the apartment clean this morning, the dishwasher was run this morning, and i have pictures for you!

at the nashville airport, excited to head home!
at a beautiful church in grand rapids at joe and amber's wedding

splashing in hubbard lake in northern michigan! the fact that it was only about 70-ish degrees outside obviously doesn't bother her. i think the water was actually warmer than the air that day

this is my favorite picture! look at her face!! decked out in all pink ready for a boat ride. i did NOT mean to coordinate her outfit this well. in this picture, thalia is watching her daddy jump in the lake to fetch our digital camera that decided to take a swim. so all of these pictures are from my phone (wow!) because we still aren't sure if our memory card is trashed, or just our camera. thalia is excited to have a new shiny play toy with lots of buttons!!

sitting in daddy's kayak. she liked it when chris rocked it back and forth. as it turns out, they actually make kayaks with a CHILD SEAT!! isn't that crazy. chris is maybe going to go look at one in saline for me! that would be so amazing. family kayak trips!!!

obviously not taking after her daddy with her piano skills. isn't her posture great?!
note to self...fountain ponies stay in way longer than pigtails! this is at chili's last night. we went out with a friend of mine from michigan. thalia was excited to get her picture taken...which is a rarity lately. she has been running away from me the past couple days.

so for those of you keeping track of thalia's milestones, thalia put her own jelly shoes on today. she even got them on the right feet! she ended up walking out of the house in a red outfit with pink sparkly shoes, but i didn't have the heart to take them off.

keep us in your prayers still...we should find out in the next week or so about my future. its not so much that i am worried about it. i just need to feel like i am on stable ground for once. thanks for all your love and support. now that i have most everything caught up, it should be easier to keep you updated.

much love and much more sleep kinda (thalia slept through the night, no peeps even every night since sunday...except last night. neither of us slept very well)

c, c, and t

big thalia update

2009-07-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

in the craziness of my life the past couple months, i feel like i haven't really given you a solid update on my little lady's amazing abilities! so i am going to try to run through all the stuff she can do, and just how much she is growing up!
thalia can pretty much repeat anything you ask her to (if she is in the mood). most of the time it is pretty clear too! my favorite is "all better", but she'll say anything. the cutest thing was the other night when chris was on the phone. i put the phone to her ear and said 'say hi daddy' and clear as day thalia said "hi dat-tee". it was so precious! she also said uncle ronnie and martha over the weekend, so they are both happy! other favorite words include bottle, uh-oh, blanket, batty (pronounced bah-tee) is her version of binky, cracker, spoon, cup...and HOW COULD I FORGET elmo! of course every kid needs to know how to say elmo!!
aside from words, she is very good at mimicking. she knows that i inhale my Advair. when she sees it, she takes a deep breath in! she knows that i put mascara on my eyes and qtips in my ears in the morning. she gets her shoes in the morning, and is starting to say "diaper" and running to our changing spot when she poops. this latest development is ironic because just this past weekend i told aunt jillian that thalia was not indicating that she was ready for potty training! thalia also likes to brush her teeth and her hair, and wipe her own hands, face, and nose.
in addition to all of these mental developments, she is getting taller. she can now reach the cabinet drawers. she can't reach in them, but she can pull them out. she can lock and unlock the dishwasher, and she can reach the doorknob on the outside door. luckily she can't turn it yet, but i bet i am going to be investing in some of those knob globes before i know it!
thalia is also eating very strange things. because of our crazy schedule, thalia has now tried and enjoyed black beans, guacamole, cherries (see below), baked beans, spinach dip, sweet potato fries, ketchup (oh that's another funny thing! when everyone came down for memorial day, we grilled hot dogs. when chris was feeding thalia, he would ask her if she wanted "dip", ie ketchup. now any time she has something that is bite size she asks for dip. cracks me up!)

thalia is also very particular about how she eats. for example, if there is a cup-holder where she is (high chair, stroller, etc) her cup MUST go in the cupholder. if i put her cup on the other side of the tray, she will stop what she is doing and put it in the holder. if she is in her stroller, her cups usually don't fit in the holder and she gets really frustrated. also, she prefers to use a spoon now, instead of just her fingers. the other day, i put her in her high chair and put her dinner plate down on her tray. i turned to get her milk and as i did, she said "spoon?!"
i tell you what, if i didn't have this little adorable monster keeping me laughing and on my toes every day, i don't know what i would do. she lightens and brightens my days and my life and i am so truly blessed. now we just need to get daddy down here and we can be a family again.
so i was going to try to have this just be a thalia update, but since i brought it up, here is a quick update of my situation...everyone i work with wants me to stay down here on a permanent basis. the problem is, it is unclear if there is a position for me. what that means is i would have to continue doing what i am doing (living in two states). this is wholly unacceptable for my family. so some people are trying to convince other people that a position needs to be created, and that they want me to fill it. unless that happens, thalia and i are coming home september 12. if you could please continue to pray for us, for thalia as she misses her daddy, for chris as he misses his baby and his wifey, and for me, as i come to the potential end of my time here; that i may be patient for God's plan to work out, and that i may accept his plan with grace. there are some big life decisions that are going to be made in the next few weeks, and i want to make sure that God is helping us make those decisions.
thank you for all your love and support over the past 10 months, and for your continued love and support these last 2. thalia and i are very homesick and hope we can see many of you soon.

much love and little sleep (i still am having a hard time falling asleep at night)
c, c, and t

videos

2009-07-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

update overload!! this first video is of a guy playing a didgeridoo, which is an aboriginal instrument. the funny thing is that this guy had a stereo system what was playing club music! it was hilarious. also hilarious is his white sidekick playing clapping sticks!

this video shows off yiayia's pride and joy...she taught thalia how to throw away her own diaper!

enjoy! i'm going to try to go to bed!
much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

16 (and 1/2) months!

2009-07-08T17:12:00.001-07:00

i tried to take this picture on monday but my camera died. it took me until today to get batteries. this is as close as thalia would get to her hippo today. no worries aunt seffi - usually when i say let's get a picture with your hippo, she runs to it!

i am including a picture of my girls from june too. aren't they adorable?!

one more update to come!
c, c, and t

funny outfit

2009-07-08T17:08:00.001-07:00

i totally forgot that i had this picture stuck in my camera! this is what thalia wanted to wear one day. she refused to put her clothes on...she kept asking for a bib. then she found her shoes...and her hat (all words she can say now). she walked around like this for at least an hour. i was cracking up!

much love and a little more sleep,

c, c, and t

funny story

2009-07-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

ok, no sydney pictures quite yet...i am working on it though! but i had to tell you a funny story from this afternoon. needless to say my first day back at work was crazy. thalia transitioned back into school much easier than i transitioned back to work. there are a lot of things going on both actually at work and potentially at work. these two things, plus still not being caught up on my sleep, led to a very grouchy claire. oh well, not many people were there today to witness it.

anyway, i get to thalia's daycare and walked into the playroom where thalia usually is in the afternoon. today she happened to be on the other side of the room. as soon as she saw me, she yelled "MOMMY!!" and started running toward me. now, i must interrupt myself to tell you that thalia just started saying mommy and daddy right before we left for vacation. before then it was just mama and dada. so today was the very first day that i was greeted with an enthusiastic MOMMY! anyway, as i walked in, so did another mom. so her son starts running for her. the two of them met at a bottleneck of toys and bam! ran right into each other! they both slid onto the carpet and looked up so bewildered! then they each got up, brushed themselves off and ran to each of us. it was the cutest, funniest thing i have ever seen. i wish i had it on video. just the "MOMMY!" itself was enough to brighten my whole day.

hope you had a bright day. pics to come soon, i promise.
much love and a bit more sleep,
c, c, and t

home sweet home!

2009-07-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

hello my long lost blog buddies! we have finally made it back to north carolina!! what a wonderful and amazing vacation we had! we have literally just walked in the door, so updates and pictures will have to come later. but i did want everyone to know that we survived two 14-hour plane rides and everyone in new mexico thrived with thalia, and vice versa. i can't wait to tell you all the new words she learned!!
ok, off to dinner and an early bedtime. more to come soon, i promise!
much much love and very little sleep,
c, c, and t

aussie update

2009-06-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

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!!!)

2009-06-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

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

i know...shame on me!

2009-05-22T06:03:00.000-07:00

how dare i say i am going to post more pictures and then make you wait two days! at least it was only two days and not two weeks!! gamma and grampa and chris all made it safely down to morrisville (late) last night. we have quite the holiday weekend planned! barbeque for dinner tonight, wilmington and the ocean with elizabeth and sophie tomorrow...it will be a lot of fun. To get the weekend started off the right way, here are the promised pics:
first, some more wedding pics:
chris and uncle wj taught thalia to hug madilynn, as opposed to gouging her eyes out!
this is thalia's new boy-toy garrett
the rest are from a couple weeks ago, when elizabeth, sophie, thalia and i were all in michigan for a weekend. aunt jen got the girls the most adorable matching outfits...needless to say, it took quite some time to get a 2 month old, a 14 month old, and an 18 month old to all be in the same place looking in the same direction!
good thing grampa was there with a story!

silly gamma put thalia's swimmie diapers on as a hat. thalia loved it!

and by the way, i forgot a few words that thalia can say now: duck, dog, woof woof (kinda), elbow, daddy, bye bye, and socks :o) gotta do my little one justice!
love you all...have a wonderful weekend!
much love and not much sleep (air mattress)
c, c, and t

5 days!!

2009-05-20T03:59:00.001-07:00

so i left michigan last sunday...only to return the following friday. meaning i was gone for all of 5 days, while thalia stayed in michigan with her daddy so she didn't have to fly so much in such a short amount on time. when i got back on friday, all of a sudden my daughter has 3 new teeth and like 4 new words!!! what the heck! daddy also taught thalia how to give double high fives. needless to say she had a great time with him. since many of you can't see us all the time, i thought i would run down the list of words thalia can "say"-
apple, shoes, hot, hot dog, tractor (chris and grampa are VERY proud of those last two), apple juice...those are all the ones i can think of. i am sure there are more.
thalia is very bright though. she knows where her eyes, ears, hair, nose, teeth, and toes are. and you can tell her to go get something in the room and she'll look around, find whatever object you asked her to find, and bring it back to you! she is also learning how to ride her scoot-around bike. such a big girl!!!
i have more pics from the wedding, as well as some adorable pics of the phillips cousins. i will put them on here when i get to work.
much love and little sleep,
c, c, and t

the good, the bad, and the beautiful

2009-05-13T06:22:00.001-07:00

the good...

uncle barrett is officially uncle barrett!!! and aunt seffi is officially the new mrs. wimer!

the bad...

thalia was not the only sickie last week...turns out grandpa, aunt nikki, yiayia, aunt seffi, martha mama, me and probably chris all got some kind of something last week. chills, fever, cough, sore throat, aches, pains. what a big mess. yiayia completely lost her voice the day of the wedding! isn't that awful?! aunt nikki was sick almost the entire week, including the day of the wedding. martha, chris, and i all got sick after the wedding. what a mess!

the beautiful...

by the way, thalia LOVED holding her little bouquet ball! she put that bad boy on her arm and was ready to go. look at her adorable bow (and dress) that yiayia made for her!! she actually kept it on for the whole wedding!

congratulations barrett and steph! we love you and are so happy for you guys! have a great time in greece!!!

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

poor little sickie

2009-05-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

after an amazing weekend filled with visiting family and friends, my little one has come down with an ear infection. while that doesn't sound too terrible, i should tell you that she got the ear infection because she picked up a stuffy nose from a new friend at her new school, which turned into a runny nose, which turned into a fever-runny nose, which turned into a fever-runny nose-cough, which turned into a fever-runny nose-barking cough-ear infection. i mean, look how pitiful she looks!
my poor baby. good thing yiayia and papou are here to save the day and fill an antibiotic prescription!! (yiayia is good for cuddles too!)
hopefully she starts to feel better so she can be the second star of aunt steffi's wedding (aunt steffi will obviously be first!!) yiayia made her a lovely dress, and even a headband - with a barrette backup. more pics to come including some from saturday with thalia's two cousins, before the evil sickies go to her!
much love and very little sleep,
c, c, and t

oops!

2009-04-28T05:50:00.000-07:00

so, in my attempt to save you from all the drama that happened last week, i kind of forgot to tell you the biggest thing that happened...

some of you may remember that last summer chris and i were able to go to panama for a week because i had gotten first place in my region in my sales job. well friends, you are looking at another first place trophy!! my team was the best performing team in our region for the second straight year!! and where is the trip this year you ask?

SYDNEY, BABY!!

can't wait!

picture overload

2009-04-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

so, i'm sorry for the delay in updates and new pictures. last week was really tough - but instead of boring you with the details of my trying week, and making ya'll worry about me, i have decided to leave you with a bunch of pictures and a couple updates.

here are the rest of the pictures from easter...

doesn't she look so big and old in these pictures! lately i have really noticed that she is quickly turning into a little person! she just cracks me up lately, shaking her head "yes", running all over the place, saying more words, finding objects you ask her to find...it's pretty remarkable!

this is daddy playing the piano with thalia's feet. she loves walking over there and pressing the keys. it's not nearly as obnoxious as i thought it might be.

thalia spent her second first day with the 1-2 year olds today. after "more observation" AND another bump to thalia's head, the director decided that kelsey and thalia are advanced enough to move up with the big kids. duh! and of course she did fine (again). it is funny though watching her sit in a circle with the other kids and do what the teacher asks. she is so attentive and really likes the big kids' teacher. i am already feeling more comfortable with her being in this room and not the "transition" class. her teacher told me a funny story today: apparently thalia's nap cot was around the corner from a few of the other kids. when she woke up, she sat up smiling, and waved at her little friends who were already awake. isn't that adorable!? i wish ya'll could see her wave. it is the cutest thing!

these are the most beautiful flowers down here. apparently they are azaleas, and they come in the most vibrant shades of pink. i guess they are like lilacs though and don't last long. in this picture they are already beginning to wilt :o(
isn't this the cutest outfit?!
this is the egg-bunny martha mama gave thalia for easter.

that's about all the updates i can stay awake for. i hope you enjoyed the picture updates. hopefully i can get through this week relatively unscathed and then we get to head home for aunt seffi's wedding!! can you believe it!? we can't wait.

much love and a lot of sleep lately,

c, c, and t

calming down...

2009-04-17T08:24:00.000-07:00

so i spoke with the director at thalia's new school, and her new teacher, and i feel better about her being there. i will be keeping my eye out though! especially because her finger looks awful...she got pinched where her finger bends, so the scab keeps opening :o( i think she will survive though. it was funny though because i told my marketing team about the whole ordeal and two of them have kids, and they flipped out! "do you need to leave right away to go take care of this?!" it made me feel good knowing they care about thalia. but like i said, after talking to the director i feel better about the whole thing.

to send us happily in to the weekend, here are some inital easter pics, as well as a funny grampa pic from gamma. as soon as i get back to michigan, i will post the ones i took. enjoy!

grampa is reading the boys' favorite book..."everybody poops" their expressions are priceless!
that's chris' old easter basket!
thalia behaving... and misbehaving

this is one of my new favorites
can someone tell me who my daughter looks like? especially in the two with madilynn, i have a hard time figuring it out.

we got to spend last night with martha mama and uncle ronnie. they got her a huge easter bunny that i promise to take of a picture of. their friend jane came over for dinner and took an adorable picture of thalia. i will start bugging martha to get it from her.

heading back to michigan this weekend...it's insanity.

much love and some sleep,

c, c, and t

3:2

2009-04-15T17:18:00.001-07:00

that is the ratio of thalia's days at school versus how many incident reports she has!! is that crazy?! i mean, really! 2 in 3 days!! what the heck! yesterday i wasn't as happy as monday. she is in this 'in-between' class, i guess to help her transition...and i just don't like the teacher as much. plus i feel like she is going backwards. she did just find hanging out with the big kids all day monday. when i got there after work yesterday, the teacher told me about thalia's finger (when they were outside some kid ran it over with something) and it looked a little pink and scratched but no big deal. YEAH RIGHT! tonight i looked at it and she essentially has a hole in her finger!! her poor tiny finger has this huge scab on it! it looks awful!!! not to mention that when i picked her up today she had ANOTHER incident report. apparently no one was watching her outside and she was by some steps, missed one and ate the pavement. so now the poor thing has a huge raspberry on the side of her forehead! good grief! she did better with the big kids!
i don't think she is going to be in this 'in-between' classroom for very long. she DEFINITELY won't be in there much longer if i keep picking up an incident report every time i pick up my child. in 7 months at childtime she had ONE incident report and its because she scratched herself!! not only is all of this happening, but i haven't seen the director all week. maybe she is on vacation. i am really feeling like i need to talk to her. hopefully she will be back tomorrow. i swear...if thalia gets hurt again tomorrow, i might flip out.
sigh...stayed tuned for an update on thalia's medical records! ;o) i need to clean up and go to sleep. its been a long day and tomorrow is destined to be even longer. at least we are going to go see martha mama tomorrow! and then we head back to michigan on saturday. i know...i'm running myself into the ground. at least i'm young...for now. until i am done with this rotation and i have aged 10 years!!! i'll be okay, i promise
much love and a bit of sleep,
c, c, and t

all grown up

2009-04-13T11:10:00.001-07:00

so thalia survived, actually thrived, on her first day at her new school. i think she must have done better than i did. i was pretty anxious for her. i mean, not only was it a new school, but it was her first day with the bigger kids too. but she made a lot of new friends, and her friend kelsey from childtime will be there tomorrow. i bet thalia will be excited to see her. her new teachers were all very impressed that she adjusted so well. that's my girl. it was weird walking out this morning after dropping her off...i was all nostalgic about how complicated it used to be taking thalia to school. at first i just brought bottles. then they started feeding her breakfast, so i would measure out her cereal and her fruit and make bottles. then they started feeding her dinner too! so i had to make breakfast, dinner, and bottles. a few months ago she started eating lunch there, and then lunch and breakfast - long story short, i didn't have to pack as much stuff. now she doesn't even need bottles made. i walk her into daycare with only her in my arms instead of a bag of food and bottles!
other than the anxiety of thalia's second first day at school (i know...i have many, many more of these to come!) the pollen has finally calmed down around here. it was the weirdest thing i had ever since. it was like someone clapped yellow chalk dust out of a million erasers! it was everywhere! you could see it in the air, it was on everyone's car, it was tracked into the office. it was so bizarre...then it rained and it was swirling around in all the puddles. gross! it was like super mutant ninja turtles slime!! thank goodness it didn't trigger any allergies!!
here are a few new pictures for you...apparently my daughter has a knack for sitting in things...
i like the action shot of her kicking her feet! so silly!!
we had a wonderful easter weekend. we got to visit with a lot of family (mostly chris' side but greek easter is this sunday so we'll make up for it). thalia is learning how to kepp gamma's attention when madilynn is around. we are trying to teach thalia about "gentle" but i don't think its working. we tried taking some pictures of the girls in their easter dresses...i think jen got a good one. as soon as she sends them to me i will put them on here.
until then, we love you and miss you all. this back and forth travel is getting really old. keep praying for us.
much love and much sleep,
c, c, and t

sad day...

2009-04-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

today was thalia's last day at her daycare :o( her center is closing next week, and chris is taking her back to michigan with him on monday. so today was her last day with her dear teacher, ms. alice... thalia loved her ms. alice...she went right to her every morning and could always get ms alice to laugh. ms alice took great, great care of my little one and we will miss her dearly. i have her email address though, so i think i may set up some playdates with ms alice, thalia and her little friend kelsey. speaking of kelsey, she and thalia are switching to the same new daycare. it is only a few dollars more a week, which i think is very much worth having the two of them stay together.

ms alice got thalia a few going away gifts, so to show ms alice how grateful i am for her, i made her this... the funny thing is that i bought the wrong kind of marker, so it wouldn't dry! even overnight!! so yesterday morning i ran to lowe's (thank goodness it opens at 7am!!!) and bought a can of clearcoat spray paint. luckily it worked great, so the notes on the front and back of the vase won't rub off. hey, my friend leticia may be able to create beautiful cakes, but i think i can put together some pretty good floral arrangements and gift baskets!! maybe tiece and i should go into business together!...may require us to live in the same state though ;o)

by the way, thalia has cut THREE new teeth, not two. now she has three on the bottom all in a row, and two on the top with a space between them. it is so funny looking. the good news is that after almost a week of not sleeping, thalia has slept through the night the past two nights in a row! and even better, thalia's daddy flew in for the weekend and tomorrow we are heading to the lake for a picnic lunch with elizabeth and cousin sophia! eat your hearts out phillips/krugers!! :oP

much much much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t

no news...

2009-03-29T06:12:00.001-07:00

so i don't really have any news or updates for you...i guess i should tell you that thalia has two new teeth coming in - one on the top and another one on the bottom. she has been chewing on her fingers a ton this weekend so i am wondering if she is working on some molars too. she hasn't been sleeping well either which is unusual. i'll keep you posted.

so the original plan was to take a picture of thalia with her hippo every month of her first year and then on her birthday each year after that. as i was thinking about it though, i thought that you all have gotten accustomed to seeing a new hippo picture each month. plus it would be an easy for you to see how big she is growing each month. so without further ado...thalia's 13 month hippo pictures!

i love this one! she is sitting on the hippo's lap!!

and here is a random pic of me and thalia...since i am always the one taking the pictures, there aren't many of the two of us. i took this picture for the photo directory at our church down here. i don't think it turned out too bad considering it was on a timer and thalia actually looked at the camera!

we hope you have a wonderful week! we miss you and love you all!

much, much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

pics galore again!

2009-03-26T13:57:00.000-07:00

i hope ya'll don't mind me posting all of these pictures. there has been so much going on lately - 10 days in michigan, 1 year pictures, madilynn's arrival. i hope you enjoy!

gamma is feeding her ice cream...apparently the bowl grandpa fed her wasn't enough!
'nough said :o)

grandpa just wanted to brag to everyone that he has two grandbabies now!
madilynn at home with her daddy
what a goofy girl!

what a smile!

my little angel 0:-)

as promised

2009-03-22T17:49:00.000-07:00

ok, so still no pictures from my camera. but i did sneak onto uncle wj's computer and email myself some of his pics of his new baby girl... isn't my little niece great?!

and here is my little one, tromping around the apartment. i must admit...it's definitely different seeing her walk around here, than it was seeing her at our house in michigan...

much love and hopefully some sleep tonight,
we love you all so much!
c, c, and t

she's here!!!

2009-03-22T06:26:00.001-07:00

i am officially an auntie!!! little madilynn rose church was born just before 10pm on thursday. i have been many things in my life...a sister, a cousin, a godmother, a mommy, but never an auntie. i must admit that i am still getting used to the idea. but madilynn (or mad dog as her daddy is already affectionately calling her) is a sweetheart and is so cute! jennifer is doing really well after a tough delivery. and wj is already a great dad and is very protective of his girls!
now, i know you are wondering where the pictures are. well, that is a bit of a long story. we have pictures on our digital camera. however, the usb cord that connects the camera to the computer no longer works. so we bought a docking station. well, then our computer blew up. so no computer dock and no usb cord. but, gamma is coming to the rescue and is going to let me borrow her usb cord in hopes that all kodak cords are universal. stay tuned!
thalia is doing much better with madilynn than she was with xavier a couple weeks ago. friday night we were at the hospital and madilynn started crying. thalia walked right over to the bassinet and tried to peer inside. i picked up madi and brought her to jennifer and thalia followed us over to the bed. then she was on her tip-toes at the side of the bed trying to see the baby. it was precious.
so i promise, pictures of madilynn rose, and a video of thalia walking. pinky swear!
oh, and by the way...we cancelled our glider order from target (it wasn't going to ship until april 20!!!) and surprised jen, walt, and madilynn with a similar one that i picked up from wal-mart! it was waiting for them in the family room when they arrived home from the hospital last night.
much love and more sleep,
c, c, and t

baby watch '09

2009-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

the watch continues...thalia's little cousin was supposed to make his/her appearance over a week ago, and still we are waiting to meet him/her. the names are picked, the nursery is ready...the stupid glider we ordered for them still hasn't arrived, but we are all eagerly anticipating the new addition to the phillips/church family. maybe BC is waiting for the glider to arrive! stupid target back order!!
the great news is that while we wait, thalia and i get to stay in michigan!! i work on an amazing team and they are letting me work from michigan for the whole week so that we don't miss the birth of BC. i am really grateful for them, and for the technology that allows me to really work from anywhere (even our deck - as i found out yesterday when it was 70 and sunny!)
now for a confession - i was going to wait until i got back to north carolina so i could upload a video, but alas, we are "stuck" in michigan for the week. so you don't have video proof, only my word...thalia starting walking on friday! it was like a lightswitch went on in her head and she realized she didn't have to crawl! she has been tromping all over the house ever since. the even better part about the whole thing is, not only did she wait until we got home to michigan to walk...she walked right over to chris! it was incredible. she just cracks me up. at least we are all entertained while we wait for little BC!
hopefully i will have some big news for you in a few hours. keep your fingers crossed for aunt jen and uncle wj!!

much love and much sleep (thalia slept through the night last night!)
c, c, and t

the cupboard adventure continues...

2009-03-12T04:05:00.001-07:00

maybe she thinks there is a hidden passage back there...maybe there really is! ;o)

much love and not so much sleep...we had a rough night
c, c, and t

more birthday pics

2009-03-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

thalia is so blessed to have so many people loving her...she got two birthday parties! here are pics from martha mama and uncle ronnie's. i don't know who had more fun...thalia or martha :o)

pizza crust for dinner

showing off her "booger face"

her beautiful birthday candle

enjoying her cake...what i don't have is the video i took on my phone of thalia sharing her cake with martha. thalia would take a bite, then get more and give it to martha. it was hilarious!

all cleaned up with her birthday hat on

thalia likes to play peek-a-boo around things where she can see you on both sides, like this door. she would look at you through the glass, then step to the side and look at you around the door. what a goof!

i hope y'all (yes, i said it) don't get sick of seeing pics of thalia! keep us in your prayers tomorrow. neither thalia nor i have been quite ourselves lately, and my team at work finds out if they have jobs tomorrow. i will get to stay regardless but my role will most likely change, as will the people i work with potentially. it's been a rough couple weeks and i think it has been taking its toll on me, and thus thalia. at least we get to go to michigan on thursday.

thanks for all your love, support, and prayers. we wouldn't be us without you!!

much love and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

the year in hippo

2009-03-07T05:57:00.001-08:00

thalia at 2 weeks
thalia at 1 year

incredible!!

more birthday blessings

2009-03-05T12:29:00.000-08:00

what a weekend turned into what a week! i'm not quite up for going through all of it now, so instead - i'll leave you with some great pictures from thalia's MEGA first birthday party. enjoy!!

soaking in the attention as we all sing "happy birthday" (isn't that a GREAT winnie the pooh cake?! thanks gamma!!)

handing gamma her "1" birthday candle
she was just poking her cake, so yiayia gave her a spoon...and she started scraping off all the frosting and eating it off the spoon! must have gotten her "clean gene" from papou!!

aunt seffi gave her a beautiful tiara for her birthday. she left it on just long enough to snap the picture. you can see that her pooh cake is pretty naked since she scraped all the frosting off with her spoon :o)

about 15 minutes after everyone left, thalia was passed out on the couch - along with grandpa! (note to myself: don't show this picture to people at work because they think that this is a picture of MY mom and dad. must be the blonde hair!!)

hope these brightened your day!

much love and little sleep,

c, c, and t

happy birthday sweet girl!!

2009-02-23T19:13:00.001-08:00

one year ago today, i was finally in the mother-baby ward relaxing after 36 hours of labor...and chris was asleep on the floor of our hospital room because the chair was just a chair and not a pull down bed like he was told it would be. luckily at 4am that night, the nurse realized he was down there and brought him in a chair-bed...which apparently was no more comfortable than the floor. but all that was worth it to get our baby girl. happy birthday sweet angel! we are so happy to have you!!

more birthday pictures to come! stay tuned!

much love and not much sleep,

c, c, and t

last weekend

2009-02-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

so i still owe you a telling of our adventures last weekend...so here you go:

thalia and i headed home last wednesday for a long weekend. i took a couple vacation days so thalia and i could go visit her great-grandma and great-grandpa up north. so we got home wednesday, had dinner with chris' family, and showed off some of thalia's early "walking" skills. thursday we headed up to west branch and spent the day playing with thalia's great-grandparents. we spent the night up there and friday morning went to big boy for breakfast so great-grandparents could show off their great-granddaughter. then thalia and i headed back towards ann arbor. we stopped by the VA hospital to have lunch with aunt steph. then we went to st. joe's hospital to meet little xavier scott bishop (picture of the bishops' new addition as soon as mr bishop emails them to me!). what a doll he is! he was born 2 weeks early but weighs exactly what thalia did when she was born. holding xavier after carrying thalia up to the 3rd floor of the hospital was ridiculous! to think that just a year ago, thalia was that tiny and fragile and flimsy!! he is a cutie pie though! after that, we went to u-m hospital (have you noticed a key word yet?) to see thalia's grandparents-by-proxy cathy and wes. get this - wes needed a new kidney and he didn't have to look very far to find it because cathy was a perfect match for him. so the day before valentine's day, cathy donated one of her kidneys to her husband! is that not the greatest story?! we didn't end up getting to see grandpa wes but we got to spend some time with grandma cathy and even though she was in a bit of pain and a tad groggy, she was really excited to see thalia.

saturday, believe it or not, we didn't end up going to any hospitals!! instead, we went to aunt jen's baby shower for "BC". the boys all went bowling and jen's nieces had fun playing with thalia. after we got everything cleaned up, chris and i took thalia home and all three of us crashed on the couch. we had already had quite the weekend! the fun wasn't over though - 10 of us went out to dinner for valentine's day while aunt/grandma susie and uncle/grandpa mike watched thalia and sophia. i think i told you in the last post that gamma donna and grandpa mark got the flu and weren't able to watch thalia for us. that's why it pays to have lots of family around!! it was really nice being able to go out with our family and friends and have an adult beverage (or 2!). we were causing quite the scene but none of us minded.

we got home and went to bed. we had planned on going back to u-m to see wes, since he hadn't gotten a chance to see thalia yet. we had also planned on going to church since i hadn't been home since christmas. that plan was short lived when we found out that gamma donna was in the ER because she was so sick! so we went on another area hospital tour on sunday!! i think we spent more time in a hospital than we did any other place all weekend!

even though things were crazy, and i didn't expect to spend so much time in the hospital, it really was great to get to see everyone. being gone for 6 straight weeks was tough - even though chris got to come down here twice...it just isn't the same. no worries for me or anyone else living in the ypsi-arbor-detroit area...with steph's wedding and jen's baby coming soon, thalia and i will be back on our every-other-week visiting schedule. it will be hard doing all the traveling with thalia but it will be well-worth it.

well, there you have it. our weekend adventure! hopefully this weekend will be a bit more uneventful! as a send off, i'll include some pics of thalia opening her early birthday present from yiayia and papou! thank you so much for the beautiful and adorable boots!! and look - thalia likes them AND the box ;o)

much love and a bit more sleep,

c, c, and t

yep...

2009-02-17T18:01:00.000-08:00

that's my daughter...in the cupboard

catching up

2009-02-15T14:07:00.000-08:00

thalia and i have had less than a relaxing weekend...i'll fill you in on that later. but i found some pictures from christmas that i don't think i posted, as well as some cute pics of thalia from this weekend...

thalia saw fishies!!
thalia trying to eat an apple
thalia and aunt seffi in the pool

this one is my favorite! she is totally passed out with her foot propped up! chillin' like a villian!!
the phillips' first new year's
thalia is going to make sure aunt seffi is awake for the festivities!
**************************************
now from this weekend...
thalia and her cousin sophie (grandma susie and grandpa mike volunteered to watch both girls so the big kids could go out for dinner!)

we got to see uncle barrett!!!

hope these brightened your day. as soon as i catch my breath, i'll fill you in on the weekend adventures!

love you all!

c, c, and t