Birthday Party

Here are some photos from Caroline's first birthday party - a petting zoo in our own backyard. There were many animals including goats, chickens, turtles, ferrets, and two ponies to ride!!

She was very excited about her cake. All the other kids had their own cupcakes to eat, too.

Morning Coffee

Get the feeling we drink a lot of coffee in front of her??

Birthday Gift from Mom and Dad

For Caroline's birthday, Kevin and I bought her a play kitchen. The whole time we were in Dallas for the hurricane, she played with the kitchen at her older cousins' house. Here are some pictures of her and her daddy putting the kitchen together:This was quite a long process, (as you can tell by the photos, the cleaning up alone took forever), and she ended up going to bed before it was finished. The next morning, she awoke to her own little kitchen space!

Funny, this is just how *my* little kitchen space looks after Caroline's been around it:

September in Louisiana Means Hurricanes

Hurricane Gustave sent us packing. We all loaded up and headed to Dallas. Caroline proved to be a real trooper on the eight hour drive there, which took place in the middle of the night. After two days we were a little stir crazy, so we took all the kids to the Dallas World Aquarium. I think it would have been fun except Caroline was a wee bit young to understand what she was seeing and her two top teeth were breaking through her gums, rocking her world and in turn, rocking mine. Those are brownie crumbs on her face. Sadly, I found myself not above bribery to stop her from screaming her way through the aquarium.

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Check out these photos of our little crew. Notice how Caroline comes up with a surefire way to get Cameron's attention!

Time is NOT on our side...

Yuck. Work. It's no fun. We have all been working hard getting used to being back to reality with back to school. It's not easy. For any of us. How many more days until next summer??

We have been trying hard to spend quality time with Caroline on the weekends because the weeks are just a blur of work at work, work at home, and a never-ending stream of guilt about not having enough time to devote to family. Why doesn't anyone warn you of that? Sure, they tell you about the lack of sleep, but how come no one tells you that your mind will constantly be at war with your feelings, when you're at work you think about all you could be doing at home, when you're at home, you think about all you have to do at work. It's very hard to block it all out and just "be" a mom. Or a dad. Yes, I know we are not the first to face this dilemma, but we are OLD, folks. All this new stuff does not come easy to us! There, that's my whine for the day.

Last week I got a new revelation about how very different men and women are. Caroline and I get home about half an hour before Kevin during football season. I'm a blur of lightning during that half hour, sometimes I amaze myself at how many things I can do at once, all while holding Caroline on my hip because (you guessed it) I feel guilty that I haven't seen her or held her in eight hours. The other night I asked Kevin to put the pillow cases in the dryer and he asked me, "When in the heck did you have time to wash the pillow cases." So I, taking advantage of the opportunity to inspire awe in my supreme domestication, rattle off a list of things to him that I did before he got home, somehow expecting his jaw to drop and him to just proclaim what a wonderful wife and mother I am. You know what his response was...

"Why?"

Yes, he asked why. "Why would you do all of that? Why not just sit and play with Caroline? She misses you all day."

I feel really sure that every woman reading this is saying to themselves (however quietly) "Who's going to get supper started, put a load of laundry in, open and sort the mail.." (You get the idea, here.)

I had to fight the urge to go there myself. Because when I do go there, I get the old "just ask me to do it" to which I always reply "why do I have to ASK you, can't you see it needs to be done" Blah, Blah, Blah. I know that this argument is not unique to our home. In fact, that argument has been done so many times in this house, even the dogs get up and leave the room when it starts.

So, I let it go and I was quiet for the fraction of a second in which I would usually "go there".



It was then that a little tiny light went off in my head (must have been the quiet moment) and I said, "You know, I think when moms get home and have thirty minutes, their minds are always wondering how many things they can get done and how many other things need to be done, and when can those things be done. What would you think as a dad if you got home first?" His response, "Thank God I have thirty minutes to relax." Marriage is God's way of showing his sense of humor.

I don't have any new pictures of the princess to post, we just haven't been very photographically productive lately. But, I do have a picture just for the Begnauds that were over at our house last Friday.

Hope this makes you all happy! See, we do shop.

Getting Her Stride, Tired of Photos, and Very Thankful Parents

Caroline is getting so much better at walking. Her balance has improved and she can really walk longer distances now. Her favorite road to travel is the one between our kitchen and living room!

Today was the first day of school for both Kevin and me. It's always an exhausting day filled with stress, but it will also always be special to both of us because it was on the first day of school last year that we first got THE call about Caroline. Just tonight we both agreed that we don't even remember what it was like before there were three of us. I was feeling all nostalgic on the drive home and was telling the whole story to Caroline in the car. She was so quiet, I was just sure that she was taking it all in. Such a sweet moment, right? When we got home and I opened the back car door, I saw that she had ripped apart the necklace I was wearing when I picked her up and was throwing the beads all over the backseat of the car. Not exactly a "Hallmark" moment, but I did have to laugh.

I think she's ready for me to give the camera back to my sister, don't you?

The Girl Really Loves Her Carbs

Baby food is now pretty much a thing of the past in our house. Caroline really only wants to eat things she can pick up with her hands. And she really, really loves carbs! Here are a few shots of her eating some alfredo pasta tonight.

The green thing on her head is a piece of spinach!

I mean she was really, really serious about this pasta.

In my wildest "mommy moments" dreams I never thought I'd actually laugh at a mess like this, much less take pictures. Caroline has mellowed her mommy for sure. Needless to say, we had to go straight to bathtime after this. She had so much alfredo sauce in her hair the water turned cloudy! I only wish I had gotten a photo of the fingerpainting she made on her high chair out of the sauce.