just for fun (aka lots of pictures)

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)

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

much love and much sleep,

c, c, and t

sending love

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

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

this girl loves herself some hummus!

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

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

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

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

c, c, and t

happy birthday daddy!

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

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

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

it tasted as good as it looked!

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

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

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

much love and more sleep,

c, c, and t