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

A pre-wedding hug

The blushing...flower girl!

Sweet girl

Atop a high mountain...

The group atop another high mountain!

Sulphur lakes in Yellowstone

A picnic at the park

Rock-climbing...in the park

Build-a-Bear...

...with Nana and Papa

Warner, Party of 5!!

February has always been my least favorite month of the year, but I think that God is trying to change that. First He gave us Aly in February, and now we have Baby #3 to look forward to!

Yes, we are pregnant again, and although it came as a surprise, it is a WONDERFUL surprise that we are all thrilled with! We are 9 weeks along, and the baby is due February 19th. Aly thinks it's a brother and Caroline thinks it's a sister (this week, at least!) We'll let you know as things progress!

Recent Pics...

No time to write, but here are just a few recent pics of the girls... Happy 4th of July!!

Having a 'party'

Relaxin' with Daddy

Eating "Cob on the Corn" (as Aly calls it)

.

Dress-up

Reading in Bed

Caroline's Turn

"And when I hurt...the hurtin' runs off my shoulders. How can I hurt when holding you?"
-Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline'

The last two posts have been heavy on the Aly-updates, so I wanted to dedicate an entire posting to our Sweet little Caroline. She has really come into her own, and makes us laugh constantly as she is our bulldozer in a tutu. It's so funny to have two girls because it makes it really easy to see very distinct personalities. And the things that I love about Aly I find the complete opposite in Caroline...and love those opposites just as completely!

Here are just a few of the things I love about Caro:
1. She loves to kiss. We call her the "kissy monster".
2. She runs everywhere. Not fast, but runs.
3. She always has a runny nose and drool. Refer to #1.
4. She is super-tough. She runs into things and hits her head all the time, then gets right back up.
5. She loves to cuddle, but can't sit still. This must be very confusing to her.
6. She will sit still at the library for puppet shows, which she LOVES and looks forward to all week.
7. She loves flirting with strangers.
8. She didn't give Chad the time of day until about a month ago and now she can't get enough of him!
9. She LOVES boys.
10. She plays hard, and almost always falls asleep in the car before we get home, even on a 5-minute drive.
11. She dislikes ice cream and loves cookies.
12. She ALWAYS wakes up happy.
13. She has already fallen out of her bed 4 times...and cried less than Aly each time.
14. She taught Aly to go under water in the bath tub and pool.
15. She is just a mess! When she eats, when she plays, when she walks...but she is just such a stinkin' sweet mess!
16. She asks to take a nap when she's tired.
17. She will find the dirtiest part of a public restroom to play with: the sanitary napkin dispenser, chewed up gum on the side of the trashcan, cigarette butts behind the toilet seat...these are all prized toys to her.
18. She loves Aly so so so much.
19. She smiles with her entire face: eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, teeth.
20. Anytime she hears the name, "Jesus", she starts repeating, "Heart, heart, heart" and pounding her chest.

"Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (may take a little imagination!)

Curtain Call, Kind of...

Well, Dance Camp was everything Aly dreamed of, and the final show was Friday. Aly and Lizzy were the youngest in the class, but did a great job holding their own (I'm partial, of course!) Here are a few pictures and videos of the 'recital'. Being the good mom I am, I didn't think to make sure the video camera was charged before the show (it wasn't). Oops. Good thing we have these cool video clips to mark the special occasion. The last picture is of sweet Caroline next to the fairy outside of the dance studio. Before walking in everyday, she ran up to it and pointed and said, "Me, me!" She obviously takes fairy-picture-taking very seriously!



Ballet-"The Clock Song" (she says she likes ballet best!)


Tap- "Whatcha Got-a-Cookin'"

Dance Camp...FINALLY!!

I don't know how long it will last, but Aly's fascination with ballet began when I took her to the Nutcracker back in December. We really went because I wanted to see it and had always gone with my mom... little did I know that it would captivate her the way it did! Since then, she dances everywhere she goes, she checks out books about ballerinas from the library and tries to learn the "moves", she wears her hair in "ballerina buns" everyday, and she wears a leotard and tutu at least twice a week. Not to mention the fact that she has two invisible friends she talks to all of the time -Clara and Fritz- and the only music we are still listening to in the car everyday (in late June) is the Nutcracker. With all that said, we have been counting down the days until Dance Camp. I was secretly a little worried that it would be a let-down after what this girl's vivid imagination must have made it out to be, but the moment we stepped into the studio and Ms. Meredith bent down to these little girls' level and said in almost a fairy-like whisper, "Are you all ready to be beautiful ballerinas?" I could tell in Aly's eyes that we were in the right place. She hasn't been able to fall asleep at night before about 9 or 9:30 in anticipation of camp the following morning, so who knows what her state will be by this weekend... but right now she is in pure ballerina bliss. (and finally some pictures, thanks to Shana who stopped by Monday morning!!)

Strike a pose!

Sweet Sisters (Aly, my nail-biter!)

Aly and Lizzy- Forever Friends!

Ms. Meredith- I love the way Aly is locked in! She told me after the first day, "I love her voice!"

After-Hour Activities

Still no memory card. Maybe after payday! But I do have a picture that relates to the post... Caroline being in a big bed has given the girls a sweet new way to bond. We discovered it one night as we walked by and glanced into the room to discover that Aly was not in bed. We looked over at Caroline's bed to find Aly covering her in stuffed animals as she lay perfectly still, something like this familiar picture:

I asked, "What are you doing, Aly?" She replied, "Making Caroline cozy. I do it every night. She likes it." We walked over to remove some of the animals, and sure enough, Caroline liked it and did not want the animals moved! Aly continued, got back in bed, and it's become a tradition (before bed) from that night on.

And then a few mornings later... Chad got home from working out and walked past the girls' room on his way to take a shower. Again, Aly not in bed. He came into our room, thinking that she must be with me, but she was not. We both had one of those strange shots-of-panics in the 5 steps it takes to get from our room to theirs'. We looked in and found the two girls cuddled in bed together. Aly casually asked, "Is it morning-time yet?" Coincidentally, that is how we have found them every morning since for the past week. We have always followed a pretty strict rule of "once-you're-in-bed-you-stay-in-bed" but we seem to have made an unspoken exception of "unless you want to cuddle with your sister!" I'm not sure what a 3- and almost 2-year-old lay and talk about in the early morning hours, but I hope that they treasure it forever. I know that we will.