A Window into Warnerland: August 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

Once upon a time...

Tonight was a night that has been marked on the girls' calendar for weeks, and anticipated each day: Princess Night at the Chick-Fil-A. Every eligible young lady in town was there for hair and make-up, a jumping castle, pictures with real-live princesses, and best of all: free chicken nuggets! Of all of our beautiful dress-up gowns, Caroline chose the pink one with the gaping holes on each side and Aly chose the very...dare I say 'gaudy'...hot pink and purple ensemble! The family listened to princess music all the way to the restaurant, pulled up to see oodles of beautiful princesses, and made our way through herds of pushy moms and excited kids! We had a great time, and the girls are dreaming sweet princess dreams in their princess nightgowns as we speak. (they're actually singing right now, but at least singing in bed!)

A nice calm dinner with no distractions--yeah, right! The girls with Tinkerbell, aka Mary Burke

My princesses with "real-live princesses"

The not-so-brave Aly on the slide... (look at the bottoms of her socks!!)

...and the classic princess pose by Caroline!

We didn't stay for hair and make-up (partly because the line was forever long and partly because it was already past bedtime!), but I thought I'd include this picture from Chad's hair up-do session this weekend. What a Prince Charming he is!

Friday, August 28, 2009

The Warner Kids (Kind of!)

Our little baby is 15 weeks old, and the size of an apple! So here is the first portrait of all 3 kids!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

A Week of Firsts

This first week back from our long vacation has seemed a bit like a whirlwind. I guess you have to get back into real life at some point, but I feel like between the big birthday and a week of orientations, meetings, and firsts, Chad and I are looking forward to sitting down on the couch tonight to do NOTHING!! But it's been a fun week back, and very exciting for the girls.

Aly's first day of 'school' was on Wednesday. Here she is loaded down with her new lunch box and show-and-tell:

She cried while getting out of the car last year, but this year seemed to be an old pro:

Caroline has been asking for a haircut for the past month, so I thought that Wednesday while Aly was enjoying school, Caroline could embrace her first haircut!

Look how grown-up she looks!!

And after waiting for a year while her big sis talked about school, Caroline finally got her chance on Thursday! She was so excited, and picked out her own dress!

I think that the actual "going" to school was a bit of a shock, but the teachers assured me that she stopped crying by the time they reached the door!

She had a great time, and when she and Aly got into the car on Thursday and were all buckled up, I asked how the morning was. Aly said, "When I was getting in pick-up line, I saw a little girl with flip-flops on her dress and I knew that was my sister. So I walked up and gave her a hug and then we sat next to each other in line." That in itself warmed my heart. Then I looked in the back seat and saw the two of them holding hands across their carseats. Absolutely precious.

Friday morning, I think that it was a relief to all of us to spend a morning in pajamas with no schedule, nowhere to go, and nothing to do but relax:

Monday, August 10, 2009

Our Baby is 2!!

Little Caroline turned 2 on Friday! As keeping with tradition (well, a TWO YEAR tradition!), we celebrated with my parents at their house before we returned home, and then had a little party at our house for the actual day. She loved getting sung to (several times throughout the day!), and really got into opening presents this year.

She is truly an absolute ray of sunshine all day, everyday. She is a source of entertainment to all of us, especially Aly. She loves to love, kiss and hug, and her biggest concern is that everyone (including inanimate objects like forks!) are happy. What a blessing she is and I look forward to every wake-up we have with her!

Sweet amazement! Blowing candles (at my parents')

I LOVE this girl!!

I love the way Aly's eye-ing Caro here!

Annual Birthday Breakfast at the 3 girls' favorite: Panera

Opening Presents (the ribbons were the highlight!)

Private Birthday Party

Aly in Minnie Mouse ears

This picture is sooo Caroline! The messed up hair, the crooked hat...and absolutely loving life!

Playing with new dollhouse and dolls (well, furry little animals)

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Tour de America

While Lance Armstrong has finished up yet another Tour de France, the Warners are are still in the middle of our month-long trip around at least a little bit of this country. It all started at the end of June when I had the chance to go to Houston for my friends' college reunion. These are the six girls that I spent almost all my time with in college, who try to get together every year. Due to kids and moving, I haven't had the chance to see them for the past several years. This year, however, they were generous enough to go in together and make sure I came. We had a blast doing what we do best: hanging out and talking!

Shortly after my trip to Houston, we loaded up and headed to Louisville, KY for the wedding of our good friends, Blake and Bennett. It was a gorgeous wedding, the girls stayed up dancing to the band until midnight, and Aly was convinced that she was the bride (although she was actually a flower girl!)

Two days after returning from Louisville, Chad headed to Orlando to recruit while I took the girls on our annual trip to my parents' house in Syracuse, NY. The difference this year was that I left them with my parents for almost an entire week on their own!

Chad and I then met in Montana and spent the week with 30 college kids from his college for a Christian leadership camp. We had a blast hiking, visiting Yellowstone, and tubing down a cold river. I did not have the best attitude going into the trip (mostly because I had never left the girls that long!), but it was really a great time. And it was great hanging out with all of those kids in Montana.

Chad and I then returned (on lots of separate flights!) back to Syracuse, where we've gotten to spend a ton of great time with my parents and the girls. They had a blast while we were gone at the zoo, the beach, a petting zoo and more. Luckily, they barely seemed to notice that we were gone! We'll be heading back to Georgia tomorrow, but have loved every minute of our busy month away!

College friends in Houston