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Remember Jesus Christ,Somehow, I stumbled across a baby tutu website like I Love U "Tutu" Much that had cute tutus like this one:
And I just had to make one for Alexandra. Silly me should have just googled "how to make a tutu" first, but instead I muddled my way through this first one:
Alexandra liked it and started twirling around soon after I put it on. She didn't want to take it off, but Mama insisted that the tutu must come off for dinner. I tried to get a good picture of her standing, but I realized she doesn't stand. She is always on the move. Here's my cutie with her first tutu:
I was going to write out how I did it, but this video does an excellent job describing the process. I used a spool of tulle so I only had to cut the pieces to length, but otherwise, this is just how I did it:
"Her children arise and call her blessed" ~Proverbs 31:28We had lunch today at Boston Market...
... where we met the Coens, the Schmidts, and the Tennants! We had such a good time with Candy, Henry, William, Susan, Jeremy, Marissa, Annika, Benaiah, Jill, Marshall, and Silas!
Apparently, we Carpenters are famous. It must be so because Jill said so. I guess when you are one of the first families to travel to Ethiopia, your famous by default. We'll take it.
As Susan said, no introductions were necessary because even though we hadn't met in person before, we knew each other. It was like having dinner with old friends. It's such a blessing that God has brought so many wonderful people into our lives through our adoption. It just one more way Josiah and Alexandra have been such a blessing to us.
I think Josiah would have been happy to spend all day just running around a playing with all the kids. Jeremy and Marissa had a good time tickling Josiah.
Josiah is super ticklish. As Jeremy said, "he's the only boy I can tickle from ten feet away." We were sad to leave, but we'll hopefully see everyone again soon.
We would have loved to see the Forrests too, but thankfully, they are on their way to Ethiopia to bring their two little ones home. We're so happy for them and will be blog stalking during their travels.
We then hopped into the car to head for Wilkesboro and my grandpa's. Thankfully and uncharacteristically, both kiddos fell asleep as soon as we got into the car and slept the whole three hours until we arrived at Rose Glen. We had a wonderful evening with "Papa Tatro" and Grandma Judy, full of tales from the last nine years since I've seen them last and ending with this:
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. ~Colossians 3:12-14
My husband is a veritable encyclopedia for all useless facts and all things dairy farming. One night, before we went to sleep he told me about how those pink plastic flamingos became popular. Today, as we were driving down to Raleigh, he tells me that Virginia's tourism slogan is "Virginia is for Lover" and sure enough he was right.
Our trip down was very uneventful and went really quickly, for me and the kids at least. We slept for the first half of the trip. Despite the rain, the last half went quite well. So well that we didn't have to break out any of the toys or a video. Have I said that our kids are the best lately? They are.
One of our favorite parts about traveling south is Chick-fil-A. When the fast food chain was started, the owner was committed to remaining closed on Sunday. Everyone said that they couldn't remain competitive, but they have persevered and continue to be closed on Sundays for the sabbath. It's a testament to the power of trusting in God. So each time we travel south, we seek out a yummy chick sandwich, waffle fries, and a hand-squeezed lemonade. Just not on a Sunday.
We found our Chick-fil-A in the Crabtree Valley Mall here in Raleigh just around the corner from our hotel. After dinner, we stopped by the local ice cream truck and found the cutest vendors in the world there to serve us:
They're pros at cruising the mall. They've got the two basics down. Shopping for sales:
And people watching:
Tomorrow we're looking forward to lunch with the Coens, the Schmidts, and the Tennants! We finally get to meet our blogger and fellow AWAA Ethiopia buddies in person!
I desperately needed a vacation and before I could even say anything, my loving husband suggested we get away for a week. Gabe and I are usually planners, but somehow (aka Josiah and Alexandra), we didn't do much planning for this vacation. Honestly, it snuck up on us. Life with two toddlers makes time fly by.
This vacation is all about seeing people we love. I guess you could say that was our ultimate destination because we don't really have one place we are going. We will be leaving New York early (5am) tomorrow morning and driving to North Carolina to see my grandpa and hopefully some AWAA Ethiopia friends. Monday, we'll be off to Williamsburg, VA to visit some college friends. Wednesday, we head up the east coast to Westport, CT to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thursday, we drive up to Hooksett, NH where we'll stay with the Steigers until we return home on next Sunday. Oh, and we'll visit a good friend in Boston some where in there too.
I just Google mapped the trip and we'll be in the car for about 36 hours! I know, crazy with two potty-training toddlers, right? We'll see. They travel so well. I've also packed an arsenal of activities for them to do in the car. I raided my supply of activity bags that I made last year for our trip to Florida. We're also bringing my computer and our stash of Baby Einstein videos. Lastly, we're planning on driving during nap time as much as possible. I'll let you know how it goes.
My dryer buzzer just reminded me that I have to get back to packing if we are going to leave on time. Yikes, I didn't make a packing list. I hope I remember everything we need.
I hate to admit it and as much as I try not to be, I'm a blog perfectionist. I have been stressing too much about my blog. I have been in the "oh I can't blog now because I need to catch up on these past posts" frame of mind for too long. I have 32 blog drafts from the past few months that I just have to admit may not get finished. So here's to a fresh start and throwing perfectionism out the window.
P.S. If nothing else, I do promise that I will post all those cute pictures that I have been saving. Just give me some time to grieve the lost of the perfect blog.
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