Black Bean Goatee and recent pics

A serious moment:

Sweet time with Daddy & the Wiggles:

What a day!!!

We had quite a day today! It will be such a wonderful memory for years to come. About a week ago my friend Karen told me about an open casting call for Pampers. They were looking for babies about Caroline's size and so we went to the call and had our picture taken. We couldn't believe that we got a call back on Monday!!! I thought that this call back would be another round of snapshots, but found out last night that it was actually a full scale commercial photo shoot! We went to the location this morning at 8:30 and there was an entire crew of production people there... this crew included a make-up artist (thank you from Mandy) and a baby wrangler (thank you from Caroline) plus about 15 other people. The photographer is a well-known artist from Austin (http://www.toscaradigonda.com), and when I went to her website to see her work I realized that I had a piece of it on my bedside table... a cover of Wonder Time magazine (my favorite!) Needless to say, it was an amazing blessing just to have her take photos of us at all!!! I got to see some of the images on the computer monitor during breaks and I just hope that someday I can have a couple of prints but for now the pictures are locked in my memory. I was so proud of Caroline and was thankful that God gave me peace throughout the day.... I was tempted several times to become anxious and not enjoy the moment for what it was. We're not sure when or if we'll hear if the images are selected for Pampers ads or packaging, but for now we're just happy for the fun day and experience!!!!

Time to catch up

I haven't posted a new blog entry in so long that I'm stalled since I feel the need to "catch up" on everything so there aren't any annoying blog-gaps. As if this is going to be published or something.... regardless, there have been a few milestones in the past 2 months since Caroline's bday.

Started walking: (her first steps were on Thanksgiving day, and she really got good on Christmas day. Thank you Caroline for making this easy to remember.)



First time Mommy & Daddy left her for more than one night: We actually went to the other side of the world for 10 days.... I don't think she even noticed since she had so much fun with Grammy, Aunt Mary and Mimi!!


First Trip to the ER: Casey (our 85 lb lab) and Caroline got into a tight squeeze and Casey knocked Caroline into a wall. She got glue stitches and the "bonk bonk" is healing nicely.


First Haircut: It was time to cut the mullet-- I did it impulsively one morning while she was eating her breakfast. It's really hard to cut hair... I have a new appreciation for my stylist!! It's not a professional job by any means, but I like to think it looks like the "Posh Spice" bob. Bye bye for now, pigtails :)
Before:

After:

Happy Birthday Caroline!!!

We had an amazing time at Caroline's first birthday party on Saturday!!! Caroline was a trooper and really enjoyed her first taste of cake. The lime green icing was all over the place and made for some great pictures. The weather was 84 degrees and just cloudy enough. We had a bouncy castle for the older kids and a sandbox for the little ones. It was such a fun day!!!
Here are some pics:

Christmas Photo Shoot

My friend Elle and her little boy Hunter (1 month older than Caroline) came over today for a fun Christmas photo shoot :) Here are some favorites:

Pigtails & Personality

With her 1st birthday approaching this week, Caroline's personality is coming through more and more :) Here's her latest "trick"... feeding Casey his dog food by hand :)






Our mullet dilemma is solved! Pigtails!!!!

Caroline's also found out how to climb through our kitchen cabinets:

Thanksgiving!!!

We had a great visit in Little Rock for Thanksgiving! On the way back, we stopped in Dallas for a wedding and to see family! Here are some pics from the trip:
Playing in the leaves with cousins Cameron & Ashlyn! Our first Thankgsiving meal together... Caroline ate as much as we did!!!
Mimi, Anne, Mandy and the girls:
Caroline got to spend a whole day with Aunt Mary & Uncle Kim-- she had a blast with them!!!
Jeff was the guest preacher at Allen Bible Church--we were so glad to be there!!! Here he is with Mike & Buddy:

An incredible week!

We just got back from our week-long trip to North Carolina! It was one of my favorite vacations ever!!! We got to see some of my dear friends and spend the weekend at a beautiful family camp in the mountains. The camp completely exceeded my expectations! Not only did we enjoy fellowship with friends, we were completely refreshed spiritually. Jeff and I didn't know how much we needed this. The staff led us in worship, encouraged our marriages and walks with the Lord, and babysat our kids during the sessions so we could really engage with the message. I am looking forward to going back year after year. Here are some of our pics-- I took over 300 this week! North Carolina is so beautiful!!!
Holly Leider Parker-- one of my friends from my Camp Ozark days!!!!

We visited Betsy Swoboda and her amazing family in Knoxville-- here are the girls: Mandy, Caroline, Bessie Mae, Maggie, Lily, and Betsy

The whole gang-- the Fritsche's and the Swobodas!

An unexpected surprise-- we got to visit Pepaw and Dee during our layover in Chicago!!!!

Biltmore Mansion-- incredible!

Our reunion group: the Clark's, Fritsche's, Corson's, Michaud's, and Svejda's

Happy Halloween!!!

What a Halloween!!! Caroline joined her good friend Hunter for a photo shoot with him in their costumes! Then we went to visit some neighborhood friends, and finally off to the church Fall Festival! What a fun first Halloween we had!!!

Pumpkin Patch!

Happy 30th Bday Daddy!

We had Jeff's birthday party at Ski Shores on September 14th-- it was so much fun!! Caroline went on her first boat ride and seemed to enjoy it! We celebrated Jeff's actual birthday at Taylor & Gayle Clark's lake house-- it was such a nice vacation for us!! Enjoy the pics :)