Nana and Papa's Visit

Nana and Papa, my parents, came into town this past week; we had such a nice, long visit. It made me realize that no matter how close or far away they are and regardless of how often we see them, a grandparent is just special, and a relationship that just stands apart from others. From the moment they got here the girls took to them- Aly would walk from room to room commanding, "C'mon, Papa!" and would climb up on Nana's lap as she ate her breakfast.

Caroline was baptized last Sunday, and then we had a belated birthday party for Aly that afternoon. Both sets of grandparents, Aunt Elizabeth, and Warner and William (the cousins) celebrated both events with us. Other than that, we did the usual: basketball games and playing with the girls. Aly practiced her favorite word, "NO!", and Caroline howled in her crib as she would roll onto her stomach and wake herself up. But with other people in the house to talk to, even those things weren't quite so maddening!

The first picture is of the four of us before the baptism; after that are a couple of pictures of the girls with Nana and Papa. The black and white is a picture that I took of Chad and Caroline, and then remembered that I had a very similar one of him and Aly. The video is of Caroline's means of transportation: rolling!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace...

I don't know about the rest of you with kids, but one of Chad and my favorite times of the day is at night when we go into the girls' rooms and watch them sleep. Of course, they amaze and entertain us with the things they do when they are awake, but they almost hypnotize us with how sweet and peaceful they look at night. The rooms smell like baby lotion from the baths they took a few hours earlier, and the sound of their breathing is just beautiful. With Caroline, we love to stand above her crib, feel her tummy move up and down while she breaths, and kiss her little cheek; with Aly, we can't help but climb in bed with her, just for a minute or so. Chad has her so trained that he can whisper in her ear, "Who loves you?" and she drowsily mumbles back, "Daddy". When he goes out of town, I usually take pictures of the girls sleeping so that he can see them on his phone, wherever he is. These are the shots from last week. It hurts me to think that there will be a time when we can't sneak into their rooms and gaze at them...there will be a time when they are staying up later than we are!! Until then, we will take advantage of our late-night viewings in their rooms.

Sweet Caroline


Precious Aly

Happy birthday, Aly!

It's hard to believe, but our Baby Aly is now 2 years old! We had a fun time on Saturday--the four of us went to get muffins for breakfast and Aly was fascinated that the sky was pink!! I took the girls out to lunch and we celebrated with their cousins, Warner and William, who had come into town from Birmingham. We then went to the basketball game and had one last celebration with cupcakes that night when Chad got home. Because of basketball and the SuperBowl, we are post-poning her party with friends for two weeks when my parents will here. Two weeks worth of birthday...not bad!!

Life on two fronts

As is the case with all families (I assume), we have two different fronts in our life that are separate, but also intersect: the family front and the job front. As for life at home, this past week has been great. Caroline is on new medicine, and she (and the rest of us!) have been much happier! It's so great to see her smiling again! It's getting to be close to Aly's second birthday (tomorrow!!), and I find myself so sentimental about the two of them getting older! I can't believe that just two years ago today, I was having crazy contractions and was just 24 hours away from meeting Aly...and now she's helping me make cupcakes for her birthday! Caroline started rice cereal yesterday; the fact that she's eating "solid" foods and sitting in a highchair just blows me away! No one ever told me before I became a mother that I would both celebrate and mourn each passing milestone! The pictures that follow are of Aly reading to 'Baby' (again, we do get out of our pajamas everyday...and we do have clothes for Baby--Aly just prefers the nude!) The next is of Caroline's first taste of cereal.

As for basketball life, we had a good week this week. The national polls came out on Wednesday, and our team was ranked in the top 25 for only the second time in school history! We played again last night and beat a team who made it to the Final 4 last year, so as of today, we're still ranked! We have a tough game coming up tomorrow, but I'm so proud of what the team (and sweet Chad!) have accomplished so far.