Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving from the Cains!  I hope that all of you are making wonderful memories with your families and friends today.  What a special time of the year.  2012 has been quite a year for the Cains - but honestly, who hasn't had quite a year?!

I'm always grateful for Thanksgiving - it always seems to fall at the time of the year that I need it most - the beginning of the holiday season when all the fun, parties, family gatherings, friends and chaos seem to fill up the calendar quicker than quick.  I'm grateful that Thanksgiving is the kick-off and a reminder to SLOW down and take it all in.

So here are just a few of the hundreds (if not thousands) of things I'm especially thankful for this year:

• My Lord and Savior - is He good or what, y'all?  
• Husband - he's my partner in life, the only person I'd ever want to be in trenches with.  I'm thankful that after 10 years of partnership, love, good times and bad times that he's still in the trenches with me.  Love you babe!

• Daughters - Catherine Ellis and Caroline make my life complete in so many ways.  I didn't fully understand life until children.  What a joy they are!  And equally what hard work they are!  The payoff is mighty though - unconditional love.  Thanks be to God for these precious blessings.

• Family - immediate and extended.  I have the best Mama in the whole wide world, if you know her you know this is true.  Thank you Lord for blessing me with her.  Our family wouldn't survive without her! My brother and sister-in-law, my aunt and uncle, my in-laws and my sister-in-law and all the Cain/Ellis clans.  Thank you for supporting us!

• My job - for the challenges it brings, the way it works my brain, the money I am paid to provide for my family and the passion that it stirs within my soul to make this tiny piece of the world a better place.
• Health - can I get an amen?!?  It's been quite the year for me health-wise and I've never been more thankful for good health.  I'm back to full-capacity and praising the Lord every day that I have my life back.

• My Village - I say it often and mean it more - I have the best village.  I have friends that I consider family that love me in spite of my flaws, co-workers that embrace me and all my crazy antics and people that step up to the plate time after time to help my family live life.  I'm forever grateful.

• My goddaughters - what special blessings Pailet and Frances Grace have been in my life. May I never fall short of the job that their parents have given me to make sure they are part of a Christian community and know God's love for them always.

• Failures - I wouldn't know how to live life if I didn't know how to embrace and learn from failures.  Like most every other year of my life, I've had many this year, but I'm grateful for every one.  

• Mercy, Forgiveness and Grace - Thankful every single second of each day that I receive mercy, grace and forgiveness.  What wonderful gifts.

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.  Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits 

Psalm 103: 1-2

Playtime is the best time!

We spent Saturday morning with one of our favorite one year olds and his Mommy - Archer and Ms. Amanda!  It was a gorgeous day for outside playtime - a little chilly at first, but it warmed up nicely and we all had a blast!  Birmingham has a city full of great parks - it's something that I love very much about living downtown - we have lots of parks within walking distance or short driving distances.  We ventured out to Avondale Park this time and it was a hit.  Not only does the park boast wonderful play areas for children, but a pond with ducks!  Oh the fun!

 Archer driving his car

 CE and A playing the piano

 CE giving A a squeeze

 

 My resident monkey - she's a great climber!

 Spinning the wheels

 A hugging Caroline

Bridge running

Sweet C sliding 

(look at how effortlessly she wears her hat AND gloves!)

CE climbing, climbing!

Here come the ducks

"Heeeyyyyy du!"

CE, Archer and Caroline taking it all in

Big teaching the littles about ducks and ponds and such

Readjustment time ... everyone needs it from time to time

Archer being bombarded by the little ladies - 

he was such a good sport!

Did someone say "snack"?

Group photo - thank you CE for cooperating!  

The other two were very busy eating - I agree that it's much more fun:)

Archer and Caroline swinging

CE teasing C 

(y'all she's almost too big for the baby swing!!)

Sweet baby C

Joy!

We had a wonderful time!  Thanksgiving week often reminds me to take a step back and ENJOY.  I am guilty of getting too wrapped up in the day-to-day chores of life and it's time likes play dates at the park with great friends (who are family!) and beautiful weather that remind me to SLOW DOWN.  I hope you all have some time to slow down this week and remember just how thankful you are.  What a blessed life we live!

18 months

Caroline is 18 months old today!  What a fun age - there isn't a day that goes by that she doesn't discover something new or teach her family a new trick she's learned.  David and I are big lovers of this age - our favorite time has been the 10 month - two year age range.  It's a wonderful time - they are little sponges, still small enough to be a baby, but big enough to be able to function a little without Mommy and Daddy making every move possible.

November 15, 2012 - 18 months old

Here are some fun things you've been up to this past month:

• you have officially used the potty!  You were just sitting on it, but within the past week you've started using the potty at school and from what your teachers report - you love it:)  
• you've got a mouth full of teeth - you've still been a great teether.  Baltic amber people - best.invention.ever.
• you weathered the "fall back" time change well - we're still knocking on wood, but you haven't missed a beat and still have been our 7-7 baby for the most part.
• mischievous! You love to do all the things you're not supposed to - for instance not tear the blooms off the mums.....

you are saying more words this month - you've added: heeeeyyyyyyy!, Daddeee (he's overjoyed that you've stopped calling him Mama) and mine.  You say: no, stop, uh oh and bye-bye well.  

you're a monkey - you climb the playground like you don't have a care in the world.

you give the best hugs and kisses - we ask you for them all the time just to receive them.

your hair is flipping up in the back - so cute.  Just like your sister at this age, you barely have enough to cover your sweet head.

A very happy baby!

• you're still seriously into mothering your baby dolls.  You wrap them in blankets, lay them down for naps and tell them "no" often.
• your face is so animated .. you have a million different expressions and they are all pretty hysterical.

Your look that says "Well I'll do it anyway!"

• you love your passy.  You sleep with it (nap and night) and it's probably the most exciting part about the end of the day when Mommy picks you up - you point immediately to your cubby where your passy is.  
• you still get a bottle of milk in the morning and at night.  We will cut the morning milk out soon, but we will allow you a few more weeks of the bottle. It's just too sweet.
• you love hide and seek with Daddy and Cat Cat - you're pretty good at it too.

• you're getting good at navigating steps and you LOVE to run.  It's still the waddle run that we love.
• you can point to your nose, eyes, and belly button.  Ears you point to sometimes but mostly you get distracted by Mommy's earrings in her ears.

We love you sweet, sweet girl - we're so proud of the fun, spunky little toddler that you are.  We can't wait to see what the next 18 months have in store.

 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.  Psalm 32:8

Down on the Plains

We took the girls to Auburn for Homecoming two weekends ago - it was our first trip with Caroline and Catherine Ellis had not been since she was 16 months old.  We were long overdue!  We headed to Alex City first for some time with Meme and then spent Saturday in Auburn.  It's been a lackluster season for the Tigers, so there was very little traffic, no parking issues and seats galore in the stadium :(

Catherine Ellis attended her first Auburn game that she can remember (she was 6 months old the very first time I took her) and had a BLAST!  I was worried that she would not want to sit still in her stadium seat and we'd hoped to make it to half-time.  Instead we stayed until the 4th quarter and probably would have stayed the entire game if she hadn't been getting sleepy.  She cheered her little heart out and danced and enjoying see Aubie and the marching band.  Thank you to Aunt Kim for the tickets!

 

  Gearing up for the game!

 

 Aunt B and Sweet C

Homecoming cutie pies!

 

Hanging with Uncle C during the game

 

Me and my girl at the game

 

War Eagle, HEY!

This was Caroline's first trip to the Plains and let's just say the girl LOVES a tailgate.  She actually fell asleep on the way down and snoozed in the car for 45 minutes or so - that gave her a burst of energy and she was up and at em'!  David stayed back with Caroline while Catherine Ellis and I headed to the game.  He managed to get her to nap again (unheard of!) and by the time we made it  little mama was ready for some tailgating.

 

Food was her theme for the day - 

what's a good tailgate without awesome food, right?

 

She was the tailgate joker - entertainer extraordinaire!  It's so fun to watch her little personality come to life.  She kept the tailgate in stitches and managed to eat enough for three toddlers all at the same time! Tailgating was a hit for sweet C!

When she wasn't eating she was entertaining

Little ham in action

Cheessee

 

Little sister love ...

 

Maybe not!  

These two can turn it on or off in a flash! 

CE still wakes with the craziest hair!
(note: she slept for almost 2 hours in the RV! Amazing!)

Aunt B and CE

Mama and her girls

We had a wonderful time with Aunt B and Uncle C and the Bendingers post game - it's always so wonderful to go back "home" for a little while.  I only wish we'd be able to stay longer and see more friends - but we'll be back soon enough! 

 CE, Caroline, Dalty and Hello Kitty

Bottoms up!

 Sweet girls! 

It was such a beautiful day - we tried to capture the late evening light around the Ham Wilson Arena - it's such a pretty area to tailgate!

 Mama and her little Tigerettes

 Aunt B with the girls

 Rare family photo (Daddy was a good sport wasn't he?)

 One of many outtakes - I love this one!

 A framer I think!  The Greats with the greats!

Wouldn't be a thrilling day if Daddy didn't do a few air tosses - I love the lighting and if you can see their little faces you can tell they LOVE this - adrenaline rush for them, mini-stroke for Mama!

 Sweet C

 CE

Pure joy! 

 What a wonderful day!