Carinna

One of the girl's newest tricks is to make a terrible face when she is finished eating or drinking. It is her non-verbal way of telling us that she couldn't possibly eat one more bite!



It cracks me up... which is a good thing since half the time I feel like pulling my hair out by the time I am finished feeding the persnickety thing!!

In the mornings... oh the mornings... she insists on pestering her brother to death! She will NOT stay away from him while he is snacking on his breakfast and trying to watch his cartoons. This is what it looks like...



What you don't see is that immediately before I took this video I had moved her across the room for the 3rd time. She is fast when she is on a mission. I didn't even have time to get the camera turned on before she was back to his bean bag chair pestering him again. I hear "MOMMY, please move sister!!!" about 6 million times every.single.morning!!

8 months old!!

I had to bribe her with the lens cap to my camera to be able to get a picture with the sign!



It worked for a few minutes! You may notice that she only has one sock on... I can't keep up with the socks. This girl is BUSY and all over the place in a flash... keeping socks on is the least of my problems!


You may also notice something else about her...
For the first time she FINALLY has enough hair to hold a little bow. It has to be right on top of her head... but it is at least a start! That is just pretty darn cute!
She has also started pulling up to things... thankfully she is only getting on her knees and not her feet!
Her brother is really starting to enjoy playing with her... well, except that he finds her to be his excuse to do all the things he isn't allowed to do. Now he just blames it on her! He hasn't realized yet that I don't buy it. For example, today he opened the door to the a/c closet and she bumped her head on the door and started to cry. When I went in there he tried to put the blame on her focusing mostly on the fact that she had the nerve to bump her head... NOT focusing on the fact that he had obviously opened the door.

This is how the sign looks after she has had her hands on it for a bit. Don't worry, I recovered all the pieces of paper... I think.
This is the pitiful face she makes when you take her sign away. Pretty sad...

Happy 8 month birthday Carinna!!!

Our little surprise...

In mid-November Randy and I were shocked to discover that we were going to be having another baby. We had not been trying, or even thinking about getting pregnant at the time. We laughed at the idea that for a short while we would have 3 children under the age of three... and I began to strategize (is that a word?) on just how on earth I would work that out! We were excited. I felt like our family was becoming complete! We started to fret a little about where a new baby would fit in our 3 bedroom house and I decided that as soon as the morning sickness subsided a bit I would start a massive clean-out of all unnecessary junk to either make room, or get our house ready to sell! I went to my first OB appointment and had a sonogram and saw the heartbeat. We even excitedly told our families over Christmas... and greatly enjoyed the shock on their faces!

Last week at my 12 week appointment my doctor was unable to find a heartbeat. She did another sonogram and sadly informed us that the baby was no longer alive. She believed that it had probably passed away sometime around 8 weeks due to the measurements. As though this were not enough, the worst part was that my body was obviously not recognizing the death of the baby. Over the next few days Randy and I were faced with some very tough choices... impossible choices.

Last Saturday we said goodbye to our little surprise baby.

We are sad. I am sad. It is hard to understand things like this, but I know that God has a plan that is greater than anything that my little human brain can possibly understand... and I trust Him. It was a blessing to have that time, no matter how short, to nurture and love that little baby and I am grateful for it.

I don't know what God's future plans for our family are... and I am trying really hard to be okay with that... which is hard for me because I am a planner! We are so grateful for our wonderful family and friends that have showered us with love... and food... over the last few days. We will never forget your kindness and generosity! Thank you for the prayers and words of encouragement and for the space to mourn the loss of our baby in private.

Just for fun...

One of the boy's favorite movies is Madagascar 2. There have been several occasions when he has thrown a quote out there in the middle of a conversation and Randy and I have practically doubled over in laughter. This kid is funny! The other night, after a particularly terrible day, I was running his bath water and he came walking up to me and did this...

Alex the Lion Face


I laughed so hard I cried. I needed this laugh that day! I love this kid.

The girl discovered the game of peek-a-boo the other day. It was the cutest thing I have ever seen! Since then I can't get her to do it like she was that one day. Occasionally she will throw a peek-a-boo in there, but for the most part she just smiles at me when I try to get her to do it. Thank goodness I got a video that day!

Peek-a-boo