Trip to NM

I'm getting behind on updating this. Life seems to get so busy around the holidays. November 12-16th I went to NM for my sister Kim's baby shower and for my grandmas funeral. It was a good trip celebrating the circle of life. I actually forgot my camera card, so I am going to steal the pictures that Kim took off her blog :-) Thanks Kim.
Friday, November 12th, Caroline and I flew to Atlanta and then to Albuquerque. Caroline was NOT happy on the flight from JFK to Atlanta! She did nothing but whine and try to squirm her way out of my lap. Not easy when you are pregnant, but we made it! All the other flights we took throughout our trip were just fine. She had her own seat and I was able to get the laptop running with Baby Signing Time and she fell right to sleep.

Here are some pictures from Kim's baby shower

Caroline really liked this gift that Kim got for her baby. Probably because she has had the same one on her bed for a long time.


She really enjoyed helping open the presents.




Not at all a good picture of me...in fact, I hate it....but it's the only picture I found with me and my two sisters...Jeanine and Kim.


This is the blanket I made for my new nephew...his nursery theme is John Deere. I am also making a bumper and curtains, but at the rate I'm getting things done these days it will be a while before he gets it. ;)


My cute prego sister opening her presents.


We had a couple dinners over the weekend with the family. Since grandmas funeral was also the same weekend my Uncle Ray and Aunt Maureen were in town from Arizona and my brother Robert with his family from California. Robert brought a 40 lb turkey from CA for us. It was delicious! Here are some pics I stole from Kims blog.

Caroline loves "Bampa"! It took her a little while to warm up to him, but they were buddies by the end of the trip. She even learned to say "Bampa" before we left. She saw a picture of him a few days after we came home and said "Bampa Bampa". We will have to not let too long go by before we see him again so she doesn't forget.

Grandpa introduced Caroline to his dog, Heidi. After a little while she warmed up and even fed the dog some treats. Both the dog and Caroline had to be held when they were near each other because they were both a little scared of each other.



She even warmed up to Uncle Ray

Showing us all that she knows where her ears are. It's funny...she can point to a lot of her body parts, but once you ask about her belly, that is it! She is obsessed with her belly and will walk around showing everyone her "ba bu"...belly button. Don't you just love her cute turkey dress?

My daughter is also OBSESSED with shoes! The first thing she does in the morning is look for her shoes. Here she is balancing on her head to get her shoe on. The dress was in the way when she was sitting so this was the next best thing.



I love her bear bottom tights!

That's all for now. Thanksgiving pictures to come! Plus I just realized today she is 16 months so I will have to make a new post for that too :)

Grandma Ruth Frances Kelly Haggard

Grandma passed away this morning at 2:15 am. I'm sure we will all miss her witty personality and wonderful sense of humor. Grandma was 99...and a half. I don't know if I can even count how many grandkids, great grandkids, and great great grandkids she has. Something like 15 grandkids...16 great grandkids with 3 more on the way and 1 great great grandbaby?? Does anyone know the exact #, I'm sure I am forgetting someone? Anyway, we will miss grandma a lot, but I'm sure she is happy to be with grandpa again. I wish she could have held on just one more week for when I come home, but I am glad I will at least be able to attend her services and see more of my family than I had anticipated.

Grandma with Caroline Ruth (4 months old) Caroline's middle name is after grandma. I believe this is the first and last time Caroline met her great grandma.

Me and my Grandma

Tom and I with Grandma. This was when we went to NM for my moms funeral.

Some of our family with Grandma.

Grandma with her great-grandson Allen (6 weeks old).

WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!

PS: If anyone would like the video that Uncle Ray made a few years back on DVD let me know. It is a great video of grandmas life with a video of one of grandpas sermons on love at the end...I plan to go get my VHS copy put on DVD this week and will gladly make more copies if you would like. It's a great way to remember both Grandma and Grandpa.

Another Fall Festival

This is a little out of order (this was 2 weeks ago), but I better post these pics before I forget. They had a free fall festival at Sagamore Hill (Teddy Roosevelts home) so we headed there for the afternoon. It was pretty small and they had really bad food which ended up making my pregnant self puke that night. But, it was a lot of fun for Caroline to just run around and see the animals.

Trick or Treat!

Caroline had three chances to dress up for Halloween...this means I have about a hundred pictures of a very cute little duck. I will try to narrow it down to just a few...like maybe 50? We had so much fun! She actually really loved her duck costume and even learned to say "QUACK QUACK" by the end of the weekend. Although, she will not say that on demand...she will just quietly say it when she thinks nobody is listening. Funny girl!

So in the morning we went to our neighbors, Stefanie and Mikes, house. They have a little girl named Isabella that is just two months older than Caroline and she was also a duck for Halloween. Of course we had to get some pictures of our twin ducks!









Isabella really wanted to hug Caroline....

Caroline doesn't like hugs so much!

Saturday night they had a Halloween party at church. We had a potluck dinner and the youth had decorated rooms and planed games for the kids. Also, each family was welcome to decorate a classroom and pass out candy to the kids. We didn't decorate a room...lol, we just took candy. Caroline didn't really get it but she had a lot of fun just running around and grabbing all the yellow candies and candy that you could shake (like nerds).

Video

Halloween afternoon we went trick or treating and had dinner with her 5 Gounaris cousins! It was so much fun! Caroline was a little overwhelmed when we first got to their house. She's not used to the noise that so many little boys make! Plus, they have two dogs. Even though they were outside Caroline would just look at the back door and then run to me screaming and holding on for dear life. Yes, my child is scared of dogs, cats, any loud noise, leaves blowing, garage doors opening, lawn mowers, toys that make noises...not quite sure why. I've tried getting down with her to play with a dog or cat, but the second they move she gets so scared. Oh well, maybe she will grow out of it? She eventually warmed up and played with her cousins. Christopher is 3 and he really liked to kiss Caroline on the lips, haha. Caroline did not like that so much! I wish I had gotten a picture of it.
Here are some of my pictures of the kids trick or treating. They all had a blast!

I know this is a bad picture...I just wanted to show my belly...can you see it? I started showing much sooner than I did with Caroline.

Our little family....

Louis

Christopher was BUZZ!