That's the Spirit!

Over the past couple weeks we've gotten quite a few Christmas packages in the mail. Emmalynne has loved getting so many things in the mail and has done a pretty good job at being patient when I tell her we can't open them until Christmas. She thoroughly enjoyed wrapping a few presents with me too. Yesterday a package arrived that I had ordered for Carman. Em asked if it was for me. I told her no that it was for Daddy for Christmas. She was so excited! She said, "we better wrap this!" Along with other things like, "Oh Daddy's going to be so happy!" We dropped what we were doing so we could go wrap it. She was so excited the entire time she couldn't contain herself! Shortly after that a package arrived that had some Christmas presents and also a birthday present for Clara. Emmalynne was excited for Clara to open her present and again did a really good job about not getting to open anything.

Then Emmalynne took the box Clara's gift had come in and ran upstairs. When she came back she presented it to me and said, "Mom, its your surprise!" I opened the box up and inside it she had put her backpack full of toys. For the next couple hours she referred to the backpack (which she happens to be possessive over) as "Mommy's backpack." Finally, after a nap and another hour or two, she brought me the box with my surprise inside and told me, "We need to wrap this for you for Christmas! Its your surprise." And so we did. She chose which wrapping paper she wanted. She meticulously wrote on the gift tag "To: Mommy From: Emmalynne." In case you're impressed, it was just cute little scribbles but she knew what she was writing! After that she wanted to put it in the baby's room where all the other presents are stashed. It makes me so happy to see her excited to give. Don't get me wrong, she is anxious to open her presents too.

The Big 2 Years

Clara officially has a reason to be crabby-she's 2! We had a slightly impromptu birthday party for her on Sunday because we realized it was really the only time we could do it. Hopefully next year we'll be better parents and remember to plan something for her. Clara had a few friends over and got to play her favorite game-the duck game. We had a few other indoor activities planned but all the kids wanted to play outside for the most part. I didn't take pictures of that because in my personal opinion it was too cold!  

 Barely after we finished singing "Happy Birthday" and presented her with the cake, her friend Michael rushed out of his chair and blew her candles out before we knew what happened! It was so funny. He is the youngest of 5 so I guess he has learned to be quick! (We re-lit the candles and let Clara blow them out. She tried real hard and in the end Carman blew them out with her)

 Carman decided that it was her birthday and she deserved a huge piece of cake! She loved it. She ate almost the entire thing. She sat there for quite some time after everyone else was finished and kept eating her cake until finally it looked like more fun to join the other kids.

 Here are a few shots of her getting her presents. Grandma and Grandpa Wallis got her a cool toy phone. Clara's friend Charlotte gave her a night light. I love Clara's face in that picture. Grandma and Grandpa Ragatz sent her money. What I wanted to get her wasn't available so we're still trying to think of something else to get her from them.

Aunt Laura and Megan came as soon as they got out of church. A few days after her party, this cash register from Aunt Laura is the most played with gift.

Megan brought Clara her own gift. Megan even thought to bring something for Emmalynne. Clara got a necklace with beads on it that spell n-a-g-e-m. I think its funny. Clara loves jewlery so she couldn't have been happier-not to mention the cool case it came in.

All things said and done, her little celebration turned out to be pretty good. I'm glad our friends and family were nice enough to join us last minute to have a fun time together!

33 Weeks

Here I am at 33 whopping weeks pregnant! Only 7ish to go...I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable the bigger I get-no surprise.  I'm getting excited for this little baby to join our family. I'm also excited to decorate the baby's room not too long after he/she comes! Maybe sometime we'll come up with a name or two. 

Trying to Keep the Meaning

The past few weeks I've been feeling uncomfortable about the commercialism of Christmas. I don't want my girls to be too spoiled but I do want to give them gifts. Due to my love of garage sales, my kids already have WAY TOO MANY TOYS AND CLOTHES. They don't need anything. I've even had a hard time deciding what I think about this whole "Santa" thing. Emmalynne is old enough that we explained who Santa is. It was wretched. I felt like I was lying to my little girl who completely trusts everything I tell her. It just felt like an unnecessary thing to lie about. Although Carman and I are still trying to figure out what we want to do in that regard, I was able to figure out how to help with the being spoiled thing. 

Thanks for the idea, Mom. My nephews' school is collecting "almost new" toys for children that go to the local soup kitchen. Emmalynne and I watched a video on youtube depicting the type of kids that would use a soup kitchen. I pointed out to Em that they don't have any toys. She said, "Oh, Mom, they're sad..." I asked her if we should give them some of our toys. She was thrilled! We started with books. I showed her how we didn't want to give them the ones that were ripped or "not good." As she went through her books, she would put them into piles and followed my example of keeping the ones that "weren't good." It was cute, I admit, when she came across some of her favorite books and said, "oh, that's not good. We'll keep that one." 

We moved on to toys and she seriously had such a good time picking out toys for the sad kids that don't have any. She said a few times how "we have too much, lets share. Then the kids won't be sad." I was thoroughly impressed with her level of understanding. She knew exactly what we were doing and she loved every minute of it. She even wanted to give away a few things that I had to bite my tongue and let her give it away as opposed to saying, "But I actually bought that toy at the store for FULL PRICE!" This activity was supposed to be for her, so I let her decide. She even gave away a bag full of her favorite-dress ups. 

The next morning we all went to drop them off at the school. I had warned Emmalynne SEVERAL times that we were going to drop the toys off and the kids would get them later. I assured her at least half a dozen times that we weren't going to get to see the kids. Nonetheless, she was still disappointed. She so, so, badly wanted to give them to the kids. It was a wonderful experience. Em was totally wrapped up in the spirit of giving and it warmed my heart. It helped with all the uneasiness I was having. (Clara participated too but she didn't exactly understand what was going on.) 

Here's Emmalynne, Carman, and Clara taking in a load of toys. The amount we delivered literally doubled what was already there. We had A LOT!  

And here is excited Emmalynne with her dropoff.

 For your viewing pleasure, Em took this picture. She has a sweet view of my ginormous tummy!

Its Been A Year and a Half

...since Emmalynne had a haircut. Matter of fact, that was her first haircut. Today was the second. She was pretty excited, too. Here are the before and after shots! She sat so still. I couldn't have asked her to have done a better job. I hope she doesn't get any bright ideas from this experience and decide to cut hair on her own. For some reason, I've been terrified of that.

Some Day I'm Going to...

Run a marathon-just like my sister! Carman, the girls, and I went to cheer her on. We tried to meet up with her at the 13 mile mark but we a few minutes late. Eventually we called her to see where she was. After what felt like a full on sprint, we finally caught up to her, snapped a few pictures, and then Carman ran with her for a little bit. I thought I was going to also but by the time we finally caught up to her, I was plum tuckered out!

I headed them off around the 16 or 17 mark and joined them for a short while. It was amazing to me how tired and sore I was at the end of the day! I was complaining to Carman about my current lack of running ability. He said, "well you should have seen yourself today." I didn't know exactly what he meant so I foolishly inquired. He said I ran like I was pregnant. Again, I foolishly probed, "you mean like you could just tell I was pregnant or I was waddling?" He was happy to explain, "Oh, you were waddling!" I found it slightly funny and slightly embarrassing. 

 The girls made posters for Aunt Laura.

 Here we're waiting for Laura just before the finish line!

 And, here's the awesome shot Carman got of her crossing the finish line. Way to go, Laura!

 Finally, here's the whole gang with the champ after she finished. By "whole gang" I am only referring to my little family. Laura had her family and some friends at the finish line to cheer for her, too.

I've really wanted to run a marathon for a couple years now. I almost did it last year (the same race even) but once I ran 13 miles on the treadmill during training, I decided it wasn't fun anymore and quit. I've officially decided NOT to run this particular race, the Charlotte Thunder Road. Its too hilly. As long as we still live close, I'd much rather run in Kiawa, right by the coast. Nice and flat sounds so much better....

29 Weeks, 29 Years!

I'm 29 all around today! I'm 29 weeks pregnant and I turned 29 years old! Woo-hoo for 29. We celebrated this past Saturday by having my sister and her family over for dinner. Laura and I had previously arranged to go to lunch today (Wednesday) for my birthday gift. I knew what was coming and was, therefor, elated when she brought a surprise gift-a serrated spoon and grapefruit! I wish I had a video of Emmalynne and Megan helping me open it. They were sitting on either side of me and ripped the tissue paper out of the bag like.... crazy women. If I were an author I'd describe it better. 

 I had ice cream for my birthday treat. We also threw in a surprise cookie cake to celebrate my sister's marathon that morning. (hopefully more to come on that later)

 Here is my favorite gift. Carman gave me the money to do a project that I've been thinking about doing for quite some time. Its our family history wall. It was lots of fun trying to acquire all the photos for Carman's side of the family. As a matter of fact, I'm still waiting on one, but couldn't wait to hang the rest up! So what appears to be a picture of his Great Grandma is actually a younger photo of his Grandma :) I've had so much fun doing Carman's family history. Getting these photos when we were in Houston last week really got me going again.

Warning: objects in this photo are much larger than they appear. As requested by my mommy, here's a picture of my tummy. I'll admit, its flattering.

 Last of all, Carman surprised me tonight by bringing me flowers and ice cream cookies home! I was sufficiently spoiled this year.

Flower Girl

Carman's brother, James got married just over a week ago. We drove down to Houston (which was quite eventful). Emmalynne and her cousin, Lexi were the flower girls. We hadn't told Emmalynne much about it before hand and we sincerely wondered if she would actually do it since she can be rather shy. The rehearsal the night before went surprisingly well and when we told her she could wear her new dress the next day, she was ecstatic. On the way home that night she asked me more times than I like to remember, "Mom, I'm the flower girl!?" She did a great job at the wedding and when it was all over she walked down the isle, picked up her flower petals, and did it all over again-and again-and again.... until someone put them away and made her cry! (Not me-they were putting them away because it was time to go to the reception).

Details on our drive: Carman hit a coyote on our way to Houston, just about an hour and a half after we left home. It was still dark out and when we looked at the car all that looked damaged was the fog light that had fallen out of its place. The windshield washer fluid reservoir leaked all the fluid out also. Not too big of a deal, so we kept on our way. A few hours later, when we hit Atlanta traffic, the power steering went out. After some investigation we found out that although only a possibility, one thing could lead to another and we could destroy the car/wreck while driving if we continued to Houston. We also realized the coyote had cracked  the fender up pretty bad. Little did we know we have awesome insurance that paid to fix the car and paid for our rental that we drove the rest of the way to Houston! We were extra appreciative when we picked the car up on our way home and saw the insurance's $1,346 bill! Yikes.

Um, and here Emmalynne is smooching with the groom! (Uncle James didn't act uncomfortable but Carman's family are not lip kissers with little kids so I assume it was a little awkward!)

Ladybugs

We've had a lot of Halloween activities this year! 

Activity #1: Here the girls are at the annual trick-or-treating at Carman's work.

Activity #2: We went to a friend's house who had a little Halloween party. There were quite a few kids there. Although my girls loved decorating a pumpkin and a ghost with stickers, the cupcake decorating and eating was by far their favorite part.

Activity #3: We had a church activity at someone's huge farm. They had a lot going on. Clara has a thing for horses and she was thrilled to pet this one.

 Em enjoyed a "line dance" with Carman. It was more of a circle dance...

 Activity #4: On Saturday we had the ward trunk-or-treat. Emmalynne has absolutely loved wearing her ladybug costume. She adorned it for more than just the festivities.

In the last picture here, Clara has trying to throw a shower puff in the pumpkin. Out of 4, she actually got one! Emmalynne got two of hers, I just don't have any photos to prove it. :)

Don't Take My Picture!

Clara put this shawl on her head and pranced around like a beauty queen. The moment I pulled out the camera she gave me quite the crusty look and ran away! Cute little stinker!

Baby Face

I had a second ultrasound this morning. If you're as ultrasound awesome as Carman and I, you'll think this is a really good picture of Baby #3's little face. It was very active at the time of the ultrasound and we got to see his/her little face snuggling into whatever else is in there to snuggle with.

Talking With a 3-Year-Old

Emmalynne has a few fun things she's said lately. We were babysitting this cute little bald baby. Emmalynne lovingly patted Clara and the baby on the head at the same time and said, "Mommy, these match!" As in, they're both bald. :)

Thanks to Emmalynne, I've realized that both Carman and I frequently say "yah" as opposed to yes and we seem to have put a slight "n" in front of it. Emmalynne now has two responses to a question: "nah" and "no." I'm pretty certain that only Carman and I know that "nah" means "yes."

Her other favorite phrase is "last night." She tacks it on to the end of 40% of her sentences. Sometimes, even though the timing is wrong, it makes sense. Other times it totally doesn't work. A few days ago she told me, "Mom, I'm going to be good last night."

13 Second Ride

Here's a little early morning cowgirl practice at the Ragatz house.

Ultrasound Images

Sorry these pictures are over a month late. And they're not the best images, but its the best I could do. The bottom picture shows the typical "Wallis Pose." For some reason the men in my family think its only a guy thing but, I personally love to relax the same way, with one arm under my head. Emmalynne and Clara can be caught doing the same thing.

Now, regarding this little baby's gender... your guess is as good as mine! We decided it would be fun to be surprised when this little one is born, so we didn't find out during the ultrasound. Here's some official advice to help you guess: "Fifty percent of the time it's going to be a boy, and fifty percent of the time it's going to be a girl -- so there is a good chance that no matter what method [of determining gender] you apply, you'll be right at least half the time," says Masch. (http://www.medicinenet.com) Let the guessing begin!

Crime and Punishment

I'm not sure what this baby did but evidently Clara was keeping a closer eye on her than I was. The poor little baby had to go to the corner several times this morning.

Guess Who

Me: Guess who's coming to play with you?
Em: Grandpa!
Me: Nope, not Grandpa.
Em: Um...my friend!
Me: Yep, which friend?
Em: Kate!
Me: No, not Kate.
Em: Um, a princess!
Me: Well... not a princess.
Em: Jesus!
Me: No, not Jesus.
Em: Corrina?
Me: Yes! Corrina is coming!
Em: Oh! I'm going to play upstairs with Corrina and I'm going to show her my ring and we're going to do dress ups.

I loved some of her guesses. It was so cute I had to share. She's growing up so fast... it was just the other day that she noticed Carman and I's rings match. I told her that its because Mommy and Daddy are married. The next day when she found her ring (which had been MIA for months), she exclaimed, "Mommy, now I'm married like you and Daddy!"

Take This Off

Poor Emmalynne inherited her father's tendency to get hang nails. The other night Carman, Emmalynne, and I were sitting on the couch. She started picking at my toenails. After a little bit she started pulling really hard at my nails and getting frustrated. She said to Carman, "Daddy take this off!" I so did not have a hang nail. She just wanted to take the entire thing off. We laughed at her and told her your not supposed to take toenails all the way off. So, she moved on to her dad's fingernails and proceeded to try to rip them off. She kept sincerely asking us to, "take this off."

21 Weeks

We tried really hard to get a picture of my tummy. Carman laughed after each picture he took because it just doesn't show well. I sware its just the picture-I feel like a moose already. 

I've even had 2 people ASK me if if I'm pregnant. That tells you that I really am showing more than the pictures give it justice.