Christmas

This Christmas we went on another road trip - to Brandon, MS. But before we left, the girls got a new kitchen to play with as a Christmas present from us. S loves making food for her babies. Then she sometimes puts the babies in the oven. Good thing it's a pretend oven.

On the way we stopped in Tuscaloosa, AL to take a stroll down memory lane. Here's Sadie and me on the steps of my old sorority house. We went in to look around and see how it had changed. Pretty weird to be there with my kids
Also, on the way home we stopped in Birmingham where I got to visit with my friend Jennifer who I grew up with and we stopped in Greenville, SC to see a friend, Heather who used to live in Chapel Hill a few years ago. That made the trip home more fun.

So, now we are in Greensboro for the 6th year in a row for our winter conference. The girls love playing in the hall of the hotel with their friends and going to the pool. I get to connect with other moms that i don't see very often and this year i've been helping with childcare some. We have 110 students here from UNC. Tomorrow night I will spend my 6th New Year's Eve here in a hotel room, but at least I'll be with good friends. I have 2 other friends here who are also pregnant and we are due within 2 weeks of each other.

the little gym

this video is really short, but here are the girls jumping on a big air mattress at the little gym. they love it.
S in the black and C in the pink with pink pants...

9 Dancing Princesses

here's a video from the birthday party last night. i think the video says it all about what the party was like.

birthday girl

Can't believe she's 5 already. Here she is trying out some presents from Gramma and from a friend.

Thanksgiving road trip

Celebrating Camryn's 5th and my nephew John's 10th birthday at Chuck E Cheese.

Here is John's usual crazy face for the camera.

And visiting with my friend Julie who was my best friend when i was a little girl. I have so many good memories or our childhood. We did everything together back then and now we both have 2 daughters who got to play together for a little while.

Driving from North Carolina to Alabama always feels like a trip around the world in terms of time spent in the car, hotels, restaurants, etc. It just takes so much longer than it should b/c the girls don't last that long in the car just sitting. It had been close to 2 years since being there, Russellville, AL where i grew up, seeing family, friends, and the places i used to frequent.

Miles went on a trip

Saturday night miles returned from a 8 day trip to moscow and to kyrgyzstan to visit a team of Campus Crusade staff that live there. UNC has a partnership with a city in Kyrgyzstan and we send students there for summer trips or for year long trips. It's a cold, dry, desolate city and is a hard place for Americans to live....... but a funny thing happened while he was in moscow, they boarded a plane to a city in siberia by mistake and didn't realize it until they got all the way there. They were supposed to be flying to kyrgyzstan but bought tickets to a city in siberia that had a similiar sounding name. a very costly mistake but a memorable experience...... still can't believe none of them noticed until they got all the way there. how does that happen?

trick or treat

22 out of 40 weeks.....

This is how i look at this point. 5 months pregnant isn't so bad, but i'm starting to get a glimpse of the uncomfortable days ahead. It's just starting to get hard to find a good position to sleep in and a little hard to bend over and pick things up or put shoes on because actually i think i'm a little bigger than i look in this picture. Camryn took this one. Anyways for those of you who are wondering how i look, now you know. The most asked question i get right now is do we have a name for the baby and the answer is no. On most days Camryn wants to name him Sam or Charlie which are names of kids in her preschool class. Sadie wants to name him B.J. which is a character on Barney. I don't think miles ever thinks about baby names. Maybe i should ask him to think about it some b/c it would be fun for the girls to be able to start calling the baby by name.

Halloween Carnival 2007

Here's tinkerbell lining up for the neighborhood halloween parade

More fun at the carnival.....tinkerbell got a flower painted on her face and has been holding a little mirror all day so she can regularly check to make sure it's still there. They were both excited that i got to work the tattoo booth and have been telling people all weekend that i'm the lady that gives kids tattoos.

No Hands!

The girls are loving life with the new power wheels Barbie jeep that the neighbor gave to us. Lucky for us, their kids outgrew it.

Seattle

here's a few pictures from our trip to seattle so far. C and S love spending time with their gramma and papa. we love being here too, but the 30 degree temperature drop was a little shocking yet a nice change.

i'm swiming

I love the first few seconds of the girls getting into the pool. Sadie gets so excited when she realizes what she's doing. i've tried uploading this video before, but tonight it finally worked.

it couldn't have been more obvious....

and i couldn't have been more surprised to see that it was a BOY!!!!
I was shocked and had tears in my eyes with feelings of "what in the world am I going to do with a boy"??? I really really expected a girl, so I was truly shocked, but we are so happy. Camryn and Sadie have been saying all week that they want a brother, so they got their wish!!! WOW!!

just so you know....

on thursday of this week i'll be having an ultrasound which means 2 things.... 1) that i'll know if the baby's brain and spinal cord and all that stuff is developing well and 2) if the baby is a boy or a girl. The biggest question i get about my pregnancy is "are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" but I think every time that question is asked people assume that I want a boy since I already have 2 girls. But it's not that simple for me to answer b/c there are times when I do think i want a boy and some good reasons for wanting one, but at times i want another girl. After having 2 girls it's a little scary to think of having a boy. They are so different from girls and I feel like i wouldn't know how to relate to a boy. On the other hand a change from princesses and barbies would be nice. And I know having a boy would be fun for Miles. He's (by the way) convinced it's another girl. So, i don't think that i will be disappointed either way on thursday. I just think in general it's exciting to find out. I have no idea how some people wait until the baby is born. Anyways, stay tuned and check my blog thursday around 5 p.m. to find out the ultrasound results.

house update

it's been a while since i put a picture of our house on here. this past week our new family room suddenly came together when the carpet was installed on thursday, so then we could move stuff into it. Thursday night just hours after getting the room ready we had about 90 students (mostly freshmen) over after the weekly meeting. we do that every year this time to make the freshmen feel welcome and so they can get to know the staff and miles and me. But this year it was sooooo much better b/c of our new space and our kitchen being bigger. It flowed nicely and was much easier to move around with so many people. Miles still works very hard on weekends to finish projects. so far the family room, kitchen and laundry room are pretty much done. I like my new pantry which was our old laundry room and everything just seems to fit in our house better now. His hard work is really paying off.

just some pictures

Our 2nd weekly meeting outside in "the pit" on campus



sadie napping in her big girl bed for the 1st time

princess sadie

for the past 3 days sadie has been wearing this cinderella dress when we are at home. She's never really been interested in wearing it before. A couple of weeks ago we went to a wedding and since then she has been wanting to dress as a bride or a princess and walks around saying "you may kiss the bride".
Also, she's been using the potty for about 3 weeks now which is soooo great. She announces to everyone when she needs to go. And when she's finished, she always tells Camryn. She loves getting Camryn's approval.
Here's a conversation they had the other day.
S: "Hey Camryn, I am go potty"
C: "okay, what number?"
S: "number 32"

The Hoe Down

Sadie talking to her friend Molly

Every year we have a hoe down the first Friday after classes start here. We smoke 2 pigs and have square dancing in a big grass field. We usually have about 400-500 students come. It's fun but was way too hot today. I'm ready for a break from the upper 90's.

Garden City Beach, SC

Our first trip to the beach this summer!

funny prayers

here's a picture of the girls with their friends at a park by the river where we went a few times to play and have a picnic. I miss the dry weather there. It's too hot and humid here!
And here's someting else random I just thought of....
Camryn and Sadie like to pray for the baby in my tummy sometimes before bed. They take turns and put their hands on my tummy and say things like.....
"Dear God, I hope mommy has a great baby, Amen"
"Dear God, I hope mommy's baby is a boy or a girl, Amen"
Actually, it's just Camryn that comes up with these one liners and Sadie copies them word for word. She copies most of what C does.

bathtime

Since we only had a shower in our apartment in Fort Collins this summer, this is how the girls took a bath....in a plastic box. They loved it!

Here are my symptoms.....

1. jeans getting tight in the waist

2. waking up nauseous

3. always starving but not sure what I want to eat

4. one minute i'm craving something the next minute the thought of it makes me feel sick

5. emotional

6. can barely stay awake past 10 most nights

7. watching lots of Bringing Home Baby and A Baby Story on TLC



hmmmm.....must be pregnant.....10 weeks down 30 to go

The County Fair

Pony rides, snowcones, funnel cakes. It's ust like a county fair except it's just in the parking lot of Moby the big Gym where we have our meeting.

CSU 2007

Whenever I come to our bi-annual conference here in Fort Collins, CO I realize that I really like what I do. Even though my days are mostly spent staying at home with C and S, I am still on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. At this conference we get to hear some very inspiring speakers, some of which are CCC staff members and some are not. But the first few days of the conference are ministry days where we meet as a campus ministry and all the other 40 something ministries within CCC have their own separate meetings. Our leaders do a great job of reminding us of the millions of students around the world that still need to hear the gospel. Today we heard stories of the student missions conference in Korea that was just a couple of weeks ago and the impact it's having around the world. 16,000 students attended from 120 countries. Another great reason to be here.....all the friends i get to see that live all over the world. I love coming to CSU.

Camryn's first pet

For a while now Camryn has been asking for a pet fish. She really wants a puppy of course but i told her we travel too much so we can't have a dog and miles is allergic to cats. So the other day we bought 2 goldfish. Camryn named her orange one Lily and Sadie named her white one with a red spot Sissy. Sadly though, today Camryn's fishy died. She was sad and cried a little. We said a little prayer for Lily then sent her off to fishy heaven via the toilet. Then we spent the rest of the day answering lots of questions about where the fish is now. So, that was her first experience losing a beloved pet. Luckily they only cost 28 cents at Wal-Mart so tomorrow we will buy a new one!

Hiking in Wyoming

Eating freeze dried spaghetti for dinner

Hiking at over 11,000 feet isn't easy carying heavy loads, but we did a shorter hike so it wasn't too bad. There were so many lakes and they were really beautiful. Camryn did great hiking and Sadie loves riding in the back carrier.