Thursday, May 29, 2008

Summer Lovin'/ Lovin' Summer

Except for the past two cools days, summer has finally come to Rome, GA! We have spent several days in our backyard pool (Aly picked out the pink one--you should have seen me trying to get it home from Wal-Mart in the Civic!). Caroline insists on trying to pull herself up on the side to reach over and touch the ground. I am patrolling the whole time, but wouldn't you know it that as I am standing RIGHT THERE, she accomplishes her feat and tumbles over-head first!- onto the ground! You'd think that would be enough to learn, but not-so-much!

Chad spoke at a camp this past weekend over in Tennessee, so we packed up and went with him. The camp ground had a water park with a wave pool, so the girls also got to experience that; a little nerve-racking for me, but they liked it! The camp was for 4th-6th graders, and it made my heart hurt a little as we watched these little 8-year-olds run around, and realized that that will be our girls in just a few quick blinks. My dad used to always joke and say that he wanted to put books on our heads to keep us from growing-- I understand that feeling more and more everyday!


Aly and Caroline in 'matching bathing suits' (A.K.A. swim-diapers)

Aly in the cabin at camp

Caroline's favorite toy-of-choice (Aly's shoe)

All smiles with Daddy at the water park

This video is ANOTHER of Aly. Every morning, we dance to Third Day's song, "I Wanna Sing a Song". Aly is so 'multi-talented' that she can dance, play her guitar-thing, and sing ("Holy"). And yes, she is half-nude. We are knee-deep in potty training, and sometimes, naked is just easier!!


Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Pickin' Boyfriends and Strawberries

Due to the fact that I have two brothers, I never experienced having to share with a sister: things like my clothes, friends, and boyfriends were of no interest to my brothers (well, maybe not the friends, but that's another set of stories!). I saw my first glimpse of how sibling rivalry can start several days ago: Aly goes to a little 'school' a few hours a week, and last Wednesday we attended the 'end-of-the-year' party. The kid whom she talks about the most is a little boy named Cooper--she always says his name and talks about how funny he is. Well, I put Caroline down on the floor and who's attention did she immediately attract? None other than the famous Cooper himself came over and was just loving all over Caroline! Aly was oblivious, but I had to laugh/cringe at what trouble the teenage years could potentially bring to the Warner household! Here is a picture of Cooper and the boyfriend-stealer:


On Saturday, we took a trip to a strawberry farm. Last year, we were able to enjoy the trip and escape tear-free. This year was different, however. Caroline was still feeling pretty bad from her bout with strep throat, so she was hot and a little fussy from the get-go (who could blame her?) Aly did great until it was time for a taste of the homemade strawberry ice cream: we bought one and she suddenly became Selfish Aly and was appalled at the idea of having to share her ice cream with Chad and me. Then, she very two-year-old-ly voiced her opinion that she would rather stay at the strawberry patch rather than getting in the car to drive home. It was hot and nearing dinnertime, but did every person in the parking lot have to stop what they were doing and stare at us?! We were able to make it home by singing thousands of verses of "Old McDonald had a farm" (my c.d. player in the car doesn't work), but we won't be taking another trip to the strawberry farm this season. I have to laugh when I look at this first 'family' picture as it brings back memories of the disFUNctional afternoon:


This last picture is that of the girls and Chad on the front porch swing, all in better moods.

The videos are of Aly praying before bed (she's usually very comprehensible until she prays and seems to speak in tongues!), and of Caroline being assaulted by/cracking up at her sister.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

We are family...

With only 5 days to do it, we managed to see every member of our family, survived 2 plane trips, and survived to tell about it! We left on Wednesday and drove to Birmingham, where we stopped in and visited with Aunt Elizabeth (Chad's sister) and the girls' cousins, William and Warner. Aly always loves seeing them, and looks up to both kids so much. From there, we flew to Dallas, and had a whirlwind of a trip visiting with family. We had adjoining rooms at the hotel with Nana and Papa- Aly loved being able to wake up every morning and knock on their door to say, "hello!" (that really beats talking on the phone!) We saw my brother and sister-in-law Chris and Cortney, and met our precious nephew, Ben, for the first time. We then went to the wedding of Matt and Jackie, my brother and sister-in-law, and also met sweet Ava for the first time--she is only 5 days younger than Caroline. Between receptions, bar-b-ques, and just hanging out, we were really able to enjoy some great time together. As emotionally hard as this weekend could've been (we haven't all been together for almost 2 years, and Matt is leaving for his second tour in Iraq in just a couple months), we were really blessed to have had a great time. Since being home, we have all moved our bedtimes up, sworn not to leave the Rome city limits for awhile, and discovered that poor Aly has strep throat... but we couldn't have asked for a better weekend. How fortunate and blessed we are to have the family that we do!

Aly and Chad waiting for our plane


The 'new' Bonner family: Matt, Jackie, and Ava


Several Generations


Nana, Papa, and Ben


Nana and Ava


Sweet Caroline

Aly and Uncle Matt in his fire truck


The cousins: Aly, Ben, Ava, and Caroline


This is just a quick video of Caroline playing "Peek-a-boo"!

Friday, May 2, 2008

My Girls

Caroline got her tubes in on Tuesday morning, and did just a great job. Aly spent the night at Chad's parents' house, so Caroline was an only child for about 12 hours. It was really fun to be able to spend a little one-on-one time with her; I honestly think this was the first time she's gotten that much time on her own since she we left the hospital after she was born! The first picture is of her enjoying the fact that she had the entire bathtub to herself, and the second was some good time with Daddy while we were waiting for the anesthesiologist. (By the way...for those of you who haven't met Caroline, that's a birthmark on her head that should just go away in a few years! I always forget it's there, but I wish that I could count how many people ask me if she's fallen on her head..."No!! I did not DROP my daughter on her HEAD!!")


Caroline started crawling ('inching' is a little more like it!) on Saturday. She moves around the same way Aly did. The crazy thing is that she started "crawling" the exact age to the day as Aly--they are totally different in that Caroline is so active and cannot sit still, so I always assumed that she would start moving around faster than Aly did, so it's just funny to us that their crawling timetable is so similar!




This final video is another of Aly, this time dancing to music from "Boz" (she thinks the beaded necklace is a hoola-hoop, by the way.) I know I put a lot of videos on here of Aly performing, but she is just such a clown, and it cracks me up! When I was little (and still now, I'm sure), I was so quiet and shy; so I love the fact that she has the little performing personality that she does! She keeps us laughing around here. As a side note, Aly announced to me this morning that she does not want to wear diapers anymore. Yikes. I was hoping to really get serious about potty training AFTER our big plane trip next week, but it sounds like we may have to use this window while it's open! Good luck to us all!