Clara's Birthday and Dancing

Clara isn't very good at eating popcorn but Emmalynne wanted to share SO bad I couldn't tell her no. Perhaps I should have.


Clara had a little help opening her presents!

Even though it was bedtime and she just finished a really good dinner, she loved the cake.

Messy hands.



Emmalynne loved it, too!


Carman loves to dance with his girls. Emmalynne has a hard time sharing daddy-dancing time with Clara. Emmalynne was down for a nap and Carman took advantage of the time and had an uninterrupted dance with Clara. I got a short clip towards the end. The way Clara snuggles in melts my heart.

I LOVE...

...GRANDMA!!!
Grandma made a quick little trip to NC. We didn't tell Emmalynne she was coming. We drove over to Aunt Laura's for a visit with Grandma. At first Emmalynne didn't know what to think when she saw Grandma standing there. After 10 seconds, she gave her this big snuggle and pretty much wouldn't leave her sight for the rest of the day.

Emmalynne fell asleep on the way home and I snuck her right into her bed. When she woke up I went into her room to get her and she asked me, "Where'd she go?" Over and over. She has the habit of calling everybody "she." No "he's" around here yet. So I told her Clara was sleeping, Daddy was sleeping. I thought I had everybody covered but she kept asking me, "where'd she go?" Then I realized and asked, "where'd Grandma go?" She enthusiastically responded, "I want to see Grandma." She ran downstairs, grabbed her shoes, and was seriously ready to go. It was hard to explain we weren't going to see Grandma again. She cried and cried. But she was thrilled a few hours later when Grandma surprised us and met us at the church.

I don't know what it is, but this little girl has a BIG thing for her Grandma.

Say the Prayer

Clara loves Louie!
We put the Christmas tree up on Saturday. That little brown thing in the tree is the manger from the nativity set that goes under the tree. Clara added as an ornament.

Emmalynne was excited to open this year's ornament to add to the tree.

The morning after Thanksgiving. Clara=exhausted

Thanksgiving dinner!

Clara surprised us all tonight (Sunday) when we were getting ready to eat dinner! I grabbed the video camera and was surprised again when she actually did it for the camera! Good girl.

Not Even a Year...

and these two are true sisters! They make each other laugh. They make each other cry. They get on each others nerves.

Seriously, this past weekend we had the girls sitting next to each other in the car. Clara was screaming. I thought she was just tired. Then I looked back and saw Emmalynne pinching her. 2 minutes later they were holding hands. 2 minutes after that Clara was grabbing Emmalynne's carseat and yelling as she pulled at it. (hard to explain but she was actually trying to make Emmalynne mad) And 2 mintues after that Emmalynne tried grabbing Clara's arm and Clara clearly and forcefully for the first time said, "NO!"

Meet the Marshalls!

These are my good friends, Steve and Christine, and their two daughters, Belle and Sopie. They're some of the nicest people I know and in honor of National Adoption Month, I want to share their story with you:

Like so many couples out there, it became apparent after 4 years of marriage that we probably would not be able to have biological children. Many people told us that "miracles happen" or "once you start the paperwork you'll probably get pregnant", however, we knew inside that wasn't the case.

So, in the spring of 2004 we contacted our local LDS Family Services office and got all the paperwork. We did some praying and decided it would be best for us to save up the money that was needed before we turned everything in. So we spent the next year and a half working A LOT and saving as much as possible.

At the end of September 2005 we finally had the money saved up, all the paperwork completed, and we met with our caseworker. We Officially began the process. It takes some time... there are background checks to be completed, references to be contacted, and information to be verified... including a letter from your employer talking about you, and from the current bishop giving the "ok" that you would be good parents.

Everyone involved was so kind and made sure they completed everything in a timely manner. On December 5, 2005 our caseworker called us and said we had been approved by the LDS Family Services board, and our picture profile would start getting shown to potential birthmoms.

We also had the option of putting our profile on their website. For some reason, that took longer than it should have, and went up in mid January. During the "waiting" I looked at those profiles every day, sometimes more than once a day, seeing who the other couples were, watching for some to "disappear" meaning they had a baby. The waiting was so hard. It seemed like every day that went by meant we would never be placed with a baby.

I had a doctor's appointment at the beginning of March. I hate going to the doctor! In my prayers that morning, I told Heavenly Father that it would be a good day to get "the call". (I said that on a lot of days in my morning prayers!) While I was at the Dr., my phone rang. It was Steve. I thought for sure he had heard something, and I called him back right away! He was telling me that he had to go run some errands for work. Poo. It wasn't the call I was hoping for.

I went back to work and moped around for a while, then decided to suck it up and just enjoy my life the way it was. Then, Steve called me again. This time, he had heard from our caseworker! There was a potential birthmother who wanted to meet us! I couldn't believe it! I was saying a prayer of thanksgiving soooo fast!

So, on March 17th we went to the caseworkers office and met Belle's beautiful birthmom. She is such a beautiful, gentle woman. We had a great visit with her and her mom. She was even having contractions! (She was 8.5 months pregnant). They had to go after an hour and a half to a Dr. appointment. We were amazed at the love we felt for her. We truly felt like it didn't matter whether she placed her baby with us or someone else, we loved her and prayed for her!

Well, we knew she would be having her baby soon, but no one had told us whether she had actually decided to place with us or not. They said it was about an 85% chance. So we didn't do any shopping, we just prayed and waited. Five long days went by, then on March 22nd, 2006 our caseworker called us and told us Belle's birthmom was in labor! She would call us with any updates. That night, she called us back and said the baby girl was born and we would be picking her up on Monday (it was a Wednesday).

Hooray!! We were going to be parents!! It seemed like sooo long to have to wait to see our new baby and hold her and hug her wonderful birthmom. So, we finally went shopping and bought everything we had been longingly looking at for 2 years.

Then, on Friday, our caseworker called us again and said we would be picking up our beautiful baby the next day, Saturday, instead! Holy moly! That was quite a surprise!!

So we got up bright and early Saturday, March 25th, put our brand new car seat in the car, nervously packed a diaper bag with bottles, and formula, and diapers, etc. and drove 25 minutes to bring home our adorable daughter.

We are so blessed to have Belle and for her birthmom. We still talk to her occasionally and send her letters and pictures twice a year. She is an amazing person and we love her like family!

For more great information on adoption, check out Christine's blog.

Family History

I've been having a fun time doing some of Carman's family history lately. There is so much to be done and I feel like all I actually ever get done is transfer information from one place to another instead of finding new info. As in, I have a ton of info in a book and I'm transferring it to the computer. I want to be done with that part of the project so I can start looking for people that aren't in the book yet! I stumbled across two possible ancestors to add but I need to find more information first. There is just so much to be done!

Grandma's House & Halloween

The pictures here go in reverse order but, the girls were spoiled enough to go trick-or-treating 4 times this year. Once at the zoo w/Grandma, trunk-or-treating with my friend Melanie, desk-or-treating? at Carman's work, and trunk-or-treating at church! Whew!

We went to IL for 2 weeks and didn't get many pictures w/Grandma or Grandpa. Em had fun riding the train at the zoo w/her cousin Ashley. Clara LOVES apples. Emmalynne wishes we could have adopted Uncle Jason's kitty.

Clara learned how to walk for Grandma. And promptly forgot. She spent about 20 minutes practicing at my moms house but hasn't done it since. She even took 8 steps in a row. The last video is how she let us know she was done!

New Accomplishments

Clara is a stair-climber:

And a stair-descender (or so she thinks. This is the most she's done) Right after the click of the camera was when I caught her and saved her life :)

Emmalynne is a milk-pourer:

The following 2 videos show my children's walking skills. ENJOY.

If She Doesn't Scare You No Evil Thing Will...

Cruella, Cruella DeVil.

I'm watching some friend's kids for a few days. Their 4 year old is Claire. She's a great kid but has the hardest time pronouncing/remembering Clara's name. You'd think it wouldn't be too hard since its almost identical to her name. But, maybe that is what confuses her. The name she most frequently (and lovingly) calls her is Cruella. Cruella. And everytime she says it and I laugh on the inside I'm glad thats not what I really named my little baby!

This last picture is Emmalynne blowing raspberries on Clara's back. Obviously, Clara thought it was hilarious.

Good Cop

A couple days ago I was getting onto the interstate and noticed a motorcycle cop sitting on the on-ramp. I automatically figured he was checking to for tabs. Thats when I remembered that altough I had renewed mine, I hadn't put the sticker on. I immediately got nervous and was relieved when he didn't seem to be following me.

It was a few miles later when I caught myself going 80 in a 60 and slowed it down. At some point I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the cop pointing to the side of the road. A little bit of panick set in since I had no idea what speed he may have caught me going. I wasn't too worried about my sticker since I knew it was in my purse. I had 3 lanes of traffic to get across and I got by the first two with no problem. But that last one...

I guess I didn't check my blindspot soon enough. When I did look in my blind spot I saw the guy that was swerving off the road to avoid being hit by me. He threw his arms up at me in disgust until he saw the cop behind me. I guess he felt a little more sympathetic.

So when I was finally safely to the side of the road and the cop got to my window he looked in the backseat at my sleeping baby and said, "ohhh, you've got kids...." Which was shortly followed by, "You almost took that guy out!" "Yah, I know." What else was I supposed to say? He said,"You scared me half to death." "I scared myself half to death," I said back. With a big smurk he said, "I think you scared that guy half to death too!"

He confessed that he was pulling me over because of my tabs, said he believed me that I already had the sticker, and told me to "be careful pulling out of here..." He had a couple of good reasons to give me a ticket but didn't. Thanks cop.

That was when Carman, on his way to class, passed me on the interstate, called me on my cell phone and said, "BUSTED!!"

A New Pair of Shoes

I've been running in shoes that I've had for 5 years. It was ok to start with but I've been having issues lately and I finally decided to get new shoes. I got expert help and went to the Run for Your Life store for my big, exciting purchase. I found out all sorts of things:

Most people pronate to some degree when they run (running on the inside of your feet). According to the lady, "its not that I'm weird but I do the opposite and run on the outsides of my feet." I have fat toes and a medium arch.

After I tried on the first pair of shoes she brought out, she watched me run in them and asked how they felt. Compared to what I was used to, anything would be heaven. She went to get a new pair anyway. When she got back I told her that although the first pair were really nice in the toe area, they felt kind of funny. She said, "like there's space between the arch of your foot and the sole of the shoe?" Exactly. Then she said, "Yah, I noticed so I brought out a pair that should have a little more support."

How do you notice that there is space in someone's shoe?

Anyway, I got what seemed like the perfect pair of shoes and now I can't wait for tonight's run! Seriously, I'm so excited!


On a more interesting note,
Clara has 3 teeth now. She has her 2 bottom front teeth. On top she has one of her side teeth and the next one that looks like its going to pop through is on the opposite side. If her 2 front teeth don't come in soon and her fangs get to grow out all by themselves, she is going to be the cutest vampire-looking baby ever! She also crawls all over the place, loves dog food, and pulling herself up on anything. She has also taken a liking to being naughty and laughing about it.

Emmalynne has really started talking a lot. She loves to visit her friend Corrina, whom she calls, Rarrina or Rima. Very cute. She likes to ask me what I'm doing all the time. Right now she is knocking on her door because she just woke up from her nap. (We lock her in :)

Mowing the Lawn

When Carman is in school & work at the same time he's so busy. Even though I'd rather him be the one in charge of mowing the lawn, I totally accept the responsibility so that when we have time to spend together (ie: he's not at school or work) he doesn't have to be doing chores. Well I probably should have mowed Saturday but I didn't. Thus, my lawn was looking pretty bad by today. Well, I had an HOA board meeting tonight. Our management company was talking about getting real picky about the appearance of the homes and how they're going to start fining people if they don't mow, edge, and blow their lawn. Of course that made me feel worse about not having mowed.

So, after a long day, I come home, put my kids to bed, and started mowing the lawn. It was about 8, which means it was getting dark quickly. My neighbor came over and I told him about my meeting and stuff. Then he went home and I continued mowing the lawn. Not 5 minutes later he came walking across the street... PUSHING HIS LAWN MOWER! I wish I could paint a better image of how awesome it was. Mowerman to the rescue! Its like a superhero that deserves his own logo and everything. It was seriously the best part of my day. I couldn't have been more thrilled. So, he took over the front, I went to the back, and he even edged for me! Little did he know I happen to thoroughly hate edging! By the time we were done, it was dark enough that come morning, we'll see how many patchy spots we left... If every day I could make someone as happy as he made me, I'd consider my life a great success. Thanks, Mowerman.

Back Again

Well I can't decide if I'm ready for another semester. When Carman's alarm went off at 6:30 this morning I realized I wasn't going to see him again until 10:30 tonight. Every day. For four months. How did I do this for 2 years strait? I feel like the little engine that had to keep telling himself, "I think I can."

Dog Lover

Nope, the title of this post does not describe me. I borrowed the movie Marley & Me from a friend. She warned me that it was a sad movie. When she saw it in the theater people were sobbing, not just sniffling. I happen to be a fan of sad movies so I was pretty excited. I assume most people have seen it since its a few years old, but if not, beware, you're about to read a

****MOVIE SPOILER****

Its a very realistic movie. They pretty much only show how annoying and obnoxious the dog is. Chewing everything up, peeing on the floor, being loud when you or your kids are trying to sleep, etc. As the end of the movie is approaching I'm thinking the dogs got to do some sort of Lassie type of rescue and then die. They didn't do anything in the entire movie to make us love the dog, so it wouldn't be sad if he died unless he did something amazing first. But I was wrong. The dog got old and just died. That was it. Not sad. So I'm not sure if that makes me a non-dog lover or what. Now if you want to see a great dog movie, watch Hachi. That's good. And don't worry, I won't be offended if you totally disagree with my post. :)

Imaginary Friends

I've heard of kids having imaginary friends. It always sounded a little weird. But it sure was cute when my niece, Megan would play with "Annie" all the time. She gave her rides on her shoulders, scolded her, shared snacks, etc. That was really the first time I saw a little kid actually have an imaginary friend.

So I'm sure that's what made me realize how cute it was when my friend told me that her daughter runs around playing with "Emmalynne" all day long. And, get this-she even includes "Emmalynne's Mommy" sometimes. So, Em and I are officially imaginary friends!

Today we actually have her over to play. She's a little older than Emmalynne. I'm sitting here listening to them play and I think I understand why she turned Em into an imaginary friend. This is what I heard:

Corrina: If you see Swiper the Fox, yell Swiper!

Emmalynne: (silence)

Corrina: If you see Swiper the Fox, yell Swiper!

Emmalynne: (silence)

Corrina: (pointing down the hall) Swiper!!!

Emmalynne: (silence)

Corrina: Turn around Emmlaynne. Go the other way! Here comes Swiper!

Emmalynne: (silently turns and walks the other direction)

Corrina: (runs with enthusiasim while shouting) Quick! Run! Swiper!

It seems like Emmalynne wouldn't be much different as an imaginary friend than she is in real life!

Little Bit of Everything

I've been trying to decide if I should really sum up the entire month that I haven't blogged. I've even contemplated putting links up to all my siblings sites since they covered much of what we've been up to. But... I'll give a few bullet points instead and hopefully get back to a little steadier blogging. I didn't blog for so long that my background disappeared!

*We had a Wallis family reunion in Wisconsin and had lots of fun being with family and splashing it up at the water park.

*My nieces from Illinois got to come visit for a week. Ashley absolutely LOVED playing with Clara! I loved it too..

*Clara got her first tooth and is now working on her second. She also switched to bottle feeding-a major thing around here.

*Emmalynne started using more sentences than just ones that start out with "I want"

*Emmalynne regularly calls me, "mom mom." It is distinct from when she calls me, "mom," "mommy," or "momma."

*My mom & dad came to visit for a week. I convinced my mom to help me paint my front room. (I pretty much didn't end up doing any of it...thanks mom)

*My favorite neighbor moved out :( Some friends from church moved in :) Bittersweet.

*Carman and I got cell phones.

*Clara started a little bit of an army crawl. She pulls herself up to her hands and knees, lunges forward onto her tummy and repeats until she gets where she wants.

Little Bit of Nothing

Emmalynne and Clara are entertaining themselves in the dining/playroom. Its really cute and it makes me happy to have 2 wonderful girls.

Lately, we've discovered that if we don't put Louie in his kennel at night he is less hyper in the morning. We'll probably stick with it until he starts destroying stuff. Or maybe we'll just put a muzzle on him. That ought to keep him from chewing on things!

I've been either a little buiser or a little more absent minded lately and decided I needed a better way of keeping track of things than "I'll remember." So I convinced my brother to send me his old PDA. Now, I might be 5 years behind the technology world, but I think it's awesome. It came loaded with the scriptures, church pictures, and I added some other books from lds.org (all by myself w/a little bit of Carman's help....) Essentially, in another 4 years I might be ready for an iphone. I figure by then something way cooler will be out & I'll stay consistently 3 steps behind the technology world!

Em's New Nose Blower

Grandma & Grandpa Ragatz are here! We're having lots of fun. Emmalynne has learned that Grandpa always has a tissue in his nose to blow her nose. Really, its for his nose, but he shares. A few minutes ago I told her to go the bathroom and get a tissue for me to blow her nose. She always does it. Except for now. She just walked over to Grandpa and stuck her nose up to him. And he knew just what she needed. In addition, every time he gets it out to blow his own nose, Emmalynne offers her nose too. It doesn't matter if she needs it or not, she doesn't want him blowing his nose without blowing hers. Sorry, no pictures. I seem to have lost the charger to my camera battery...

This whole dieting thing is going good too. I told Carman I was going to do it and he jumped the banwagon & here we are, almost a week later. We have 9 days left until we get to have some carbs. I can't wait. I haven't weighed myself because I don't want to get discouraged and quit! I'll be sure to let you know how successful it is for us later!

Big Fatty Momma

Man! I feel so fat lately. I can't get rid of the weight I gained when I was pregnant with Clara. I feel like my arms are fatter than most women's thighs. Somebody help me or its death by South Beach Diet tomorrow...

Here's What's Up

So, June seems to have gone by fast! Here are some highlights:

Emmalynne turned 2! She had a fun little party with a few of her friends. We did water play outside, which was a toddler hit. I made Emmalynne a cake with little dora figurines on it. It might have been cooler to me than it was to her. She liked it, but I was perhaps too excited about it. I even ventured to 4 stores to find the little figurines.

Clara gained a pound! Good job, Clara! She's not quite on the charts for weight but the doctor isn't worried anymore because she's gaining weight now, so that is a big relief. She now eats baby food 3 times a day and so far is not a fan of jars of meat. They all smell like tuna, I don't blaim her. We fed her seaweed for the first time. FYI: when I worked at a daycare years ago there was an asian family that brough seaweed for their baby and all the other babies liked it, too. I think its because its krinkly, like paper. When Em was a baby I told Carman about it and he wanted to give some to her. She still likes it.

Clara learned how to scoot backwards. Its sad though. She stares at a toy infront of her that's just out of reach, then scoots back trying to get it.

The girls and I drove up to PA for a week to visit my friend Melanie while her husband was on a business trip. I'm excited for her potential move to KY. That'd take drive time down to 6 hours! We had lots of fun. Emmalynne spent most of her time torturing Melanie's son, Lincoln. He's just 2 weeks younger than Emmalynne. She made him cry by doing mean things like look at him. We were all sleep deprived and I think that was the real issue. I'm not sure why it wasn't easier to squeeze 2 adults and 4 children into a 2 bedroom apartment. :)

Memorial Weekend Camping

Here are some of my favorite pictures from camping over Memorial weekend. We went with my sister and her family. I'll post about Emmalynne's birthday next!
Carman had a good time playing frisbee with our nephew Jared. I tried getting a good action shot but eventially gave up.

Emmalynne and Megan had fun playing in this little stream for awhile. Emmalynne politely refused to look at the camera.

Megan had no problems looking at the camera! The goggles are, of course, the funniest thing ever!

Clara loves riding in the baby carrier. Can't say that I blame her. I'd love to be hauled around in one too.

Emmalynne had a hard time sleeping our first night. She woke up several times and I kept telling her to go back to sleep. Finally I let her crawl right in between Carman and I. She was awake for hours. Seriously. Probably 2 or 3. The good thing was that she was as happy as can be. Crying would have been awful. My favorite part of that LONG night was when Emmalynne was laying extremely close to me, our faces touching. She pulled her blanket over her face and said, "peet-a-boo!" She did it about 4 times before I finally told her to be quiet. It was just cute. Even at an insane hour. Carman's favorite part of that night was when she touched his shoulder, and then, moved her fingers down his arm like a spider, grabbed his hand, and wrapped it around her tummy. The next day she had a great nap.

Emmalynne caught her first fish!

So did Megan!

Mike caught some zzzz's.

When we were playing in the stream Carman was throwing the frisbee for the dog. Since Louie had to be on a chain, Mike ran with Louie while he fetched it. When they got back to Carman (who had Clara strapped to him in the baby carrier), he would lean down and get the frisbee. Sometimes Louie gave it up willingly, other times he kind of played around with it. Clara thought it was funny and the following is a video of her laughing. They played frisbee for awhile and Clara never stopped laughing when Louie brought it back.

Potty Training & Haircut

In case you're not aware, Emmalynne's potty training. This morning we were all eating breakfast and I got up to go to the bathroom, which happens to be located close to the kitchen. When I came out of the bathroom, Emmalynne clapped her hands and said, "Yah! Pee pee!" Carman and I thought it was pretty cute. Then she pointed to the pantry and asked, "Want treat?" Too cute.

Yesterday we took Louie to the groomer. When we dropped him off and started to drive away Emmalynne said, "I want Louie." (Which really sounds more like Ion Ooie) She kept asking for him for a good five minutes. I tried telling her Louie was getting a bath but she wouldn't accept that answer. Then we went into a store for 30-45 minutes. The second she got buckled back into her carseat she went back to "Ion Oooie." It was so cute and reminded us why we got our crazy hyper dog.

Dear Unknown Followers

I recently had a couple people "follow" my blog and I have absolutely no idea who you are. In some cases, we don't even speak the same language. In another case it seemed like a business instead of a person. I chose to delete you from my follower list. If you are a legitimate friend, leave me a message and I'll consider unblocking you. Too many creepy people will make me go private...

Picture Overload

These first 5 pictures are of Clara rolling over. She rolls in this manner on occasion and I finally got it on camera! Today she started by playing with her feet.
And then the roll. Still holding her foot.

Which lodged her arms under her tummy. Instead of immediately pulling her arms out...

She lifts her whole back end into the air! Carman thinks she looks like a breakdancer.

And, finally pulls her arms out.

Sometimes Emmalynne is really in the mood to have her picture taken with Clara. This was one of those moods!

Carman's graduation wasn't nearly as long as I was afraid it was going to be. This is when he was leaving the auditorium. That's one happy guy!

You better believe I'll be showing this picture to future boyfriends.

Here's our family shot.

Flying Clara

We went to Ray's Splash Planet yesterday. Emmalynne thought it was the coolest place ever! The have a huge playground in the middle of the pool area.

Clara loved the lazy river. She was talking rather loud the entire ride!

Emmalynne was prone to drowning so Carman put a life jacket on her. Even though she could stand in the water she still fell over sometimes. I was trying to take a picture of Carman and Clara when I looked over and saw Emmalynne (in her life jacket) stuck on her back trying to stand back up. This is Carman rescuing her. You can tell from the look on her face that she was not tramatized in the slightest.

Cute Clara after her first swim.