Justin and Raluca

Blessing

2010-01-06T14:30:00.004-05:00

If you look at the blogs I follow, you will see the Rogers' Neighborhood, which is Pauline's blog. You will see these pictures on there (sorry Pauline, I needed them too!), but I had to also put them on here, because you need to know my side of the story:) We are so blessed to have Pauline take care of Alina. Alina and Josiah (Jo-Jo), who is 2 1/2, are such good friends. I have such a peace knowing that each day she is going to a place where they can't wait for her to get there. Alina loves the Rogers children and they feel the same about her. She has a great time and even takes a bottle from Pauline, which if you know about Alina, you will understand!

Thank you Pauline (and the rest of the family) for all you do for us!

Merry Christmas!

2010-01-02T22:16:00.004-05:00

To match the snow outside, my mom set up this amazing table with snacks on Christmas day. Justin loves to give her a hard time and kept calling it a cloud, when she kept insisting it was snow. She made great food and we all enjoyed being together!
Alina's first snow experience, she was a bit confused by all the white stuff. I guess she doesn't yet know what it means to not have a white Christmas!
We enjoyed a couple of snow fights in my parents yard. Here is my brother, Mark, about to peg Justin with a snowball. From what I understand, Justin got him pretty good too:)

The snow made for some beautiful scenery at my parents house. We all took lots of pictures and loved having such a perfect Christmas day!

Here is Alina once again surrounded by presents, many of them for her. However, here she is more interested in a toy Major and Macy received because it squeaked!
Nina and Papa Ovi bought Alina a toy to ride on that also plays music and has moving characters. She loves it and has gotten so good at riding around the house in it!
It was a long day for my niece, Lily, who is only 3 months old. Its a lot of work to be so cute! Here she is with my brother-in-law, Justin (her daddy, yes my sister and I have husbands with the same name)
For dessert Alina got to have pumpkin pie on Christmas day. She ate a whole piece!
Ten years ago this was not even in my imagination. Here are my best friend Cindy's kids, Ben and Kinsey with Alina and my niece Lily. Wow, time flies and we may be getting old!

White Christmas!

2009-12-24T18:35:00.003-05:00

Well, Alina's first Christmas will be a white Christmas. We can't remember the last time this happened right on Christmas, but it is exciting. It started snowing this afternoon and by 5pm the grass, houses, trees and even the roads were covered in white. It is supposed to continue snowing and stay well below freezing, so we should wake up to a blanket of white in the morning. The weather did keep us from going to Christmas Eve service, which is our favorite, but we decided it was better to stay safe and warm. So we'll enjoy some hot chocolate and wait for Santa!

This is the backyard at Justin's parents' house.

Earlier this week we did presents/Christmas with Justin's family because his sister and brother-in-law will be out flying. We had a nice time together and Alina loved the gifts, bows, paper and excitement. We are looking forward to having Christmas with my family tomorrow!

Presents taste good too!

Teeth!

2009-12-14T19:44:00.004-05:00

Well, we were pretty sure Alina would be gumming things the rest of her life, but it looks like she will actually have teeth! Her bottom two are about to come through, she must have been waiting to get them when she's with her grandmothers, that way she'll get even MORE attention! She's been a little more fussy and clingy, but the Tylenol helps. We'll see how tonight goes. As you probably can guess, there's no way to get a picture yet, we'll have to wait until you can really see them and get her to smile big. Meanwhile, enjoy another cute Alina picture, with her daddy's Carolina hat on.

On the move

2009-12-13T16:50:00.007-05:00

Alina has been a little slower on the gross motor skills, so she's just starting to pull up. She's getting better and better at it though. She likes to hold on to her toy chest (that Justin made for her) and grab at the toys. She has also started to army crawl. Its amazing how once she gets something, she's gone! Friday she started to move around her room and yesterday, she crawled from her room into my room to our bathroom in no time. She's decided its time to get moving!
Alina has gotten faster and faster at scooting around on her bottom. Yesterday, she was in the kitchen with me and before I knew it she was off. I walked away for less than a minute and when I came back, she had decided to join the dogs as they ate their dinner. Luckily, they are very patient with her and let her watch them eat.

34-17

2009-11-30T21:47:00.004-05:00

Saturday we went to our first Carolina-Clemson game, we've always just watched it on TV, but this year we actually got to go. Our friends, Ted and Sarah, were so sweet to invite us to go with them and we also took Justin's dad for his birthday. They were visiting for Thanksgiving, and Justin was so excited to be able to share this experience with his dad. (Justin's mom kept Alina at home for us, which we are grateful for). We tailgated for a little bit before the game and then went in. While we were there, we realized that we were just a few rows above our friends, Chris and Marcie, who now live in Atlanta, but come in for the games. The game did not start out very promising, as Spiller ran back the kick-off for a touchdown. But it was all Carolina from there! They didn't score again until the fourth quarter. It was great. College football is huge here, and this game is about as big as it gets! We are so glad we got to go and had a wonderful time. Now we get bragging rights for a whole year:)

Yes, Sarah is a Clemson fan, but we love her anyway

Sarah, not happy with Clemson's playing

State Champs:)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-27T20:38:00.003-05:00

This was Alina's first Thanksgiving and we had a blast. Justin's parents were able to come in on Wednesday and celebrate with us. We enjoyed a great meal, especially Alina! She loved the green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. On Friday, Jana and I went shopping with Colleen, which is our tradition, four years running. We got a lot of shopping in, mostly clothes for Alina. They are just irresistable That evening, even Alina got our for a little black Friday shopping! At TJ Max she tried to get toys into the cart as her grandpa Randy pushed her around in the cart. She loves to go to stores, I think we have some fun shopping ahead of us:)

'Boot' Scootin Boogie and More!

2009-11-22T17:09:00.003-05:00

Lately Alina has taken to scooting around the house. She's not much interested in crawling, but has decided that she'll still get where she wants to get by scooting on her 'booty.' She can get from the living room to under the dining room table in no time. Today she decided to explore around the fire place. Luckily we don't have a hearth, but I will soon need to move some of the decorative items that wouldn't be good for her to get a hold of.

Alina also likes to ride on her new toy giraffe. She thinks its so much fun to sit on it and have us push her around the house. A bit spoiled yes, but fun anyway! Alina thinks its especially funny when Macy seems scared of her riding towards her and runs away, she laughs so hard! We are having so much fun with our big girl!

A Girl and Her Dog

2009-11-09T20:43:00.002-05:00

When we brought Alina home, we didn't know how the dogs would react. We knew Major always loved everyone, but Macy was a bit skiddish so we didn't know what would happen. They have really surprised us. Major doesn't care too much about her, to him, she's just there. I think he will love her more when she is older and can play more. For now, he just walks by her once in a while and licks her toes. Macy however, absolutely loves Alina! She seems to want to take care of her by always laying next to her and letting Alina do whatever she wants (pull on her ears, poke her eye, tug on her collar, etc.). Here you can see just how much they enjoy each other.

First Halloween

2009-11-03T21:37:00.002-05:00

This was Alina's first Halloween and we spent it together as a family. On Saturday morning, we drove to Clinton so that Pauline and I could run in our first 5k! We started and finished on the campus of Presbyterian College. It felt good to complete this, we've been training for 9 weeks. Justin and Alina were there to support Mommy!

This is me shocked to find out that I won first in my age group (I think there were only like 3 in the group, but hey I beat someone)

That evening we went to the Fall Festival at church. Below you can see pictures of our ladybug, possibly the cutest pictures ever! We helped out by watching the inflatable jump house things. Alina enjoyed seeing all the kids, music and colors. It was a great night.

Do ladybugs eat grass? Well, this one does:)

Pumpkin Carving

2009-10-31T16:54:00.004-04:00

Last night we had some friends over for pumpkin carving. It was a lot of fun! The kids played and watched, Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Everyone's pumpkin turned out really good, but the pictures were hard to get with the lights.

Buddies

Alina liked dancing to the music in Its the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Jessica and Kim

Josh toasted the seeds for us, they were great!

Serious carving going on!

Burton in his vaquero costume

OUR Pumpkin, it really looks better in person:)

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-21T10:25:00.001-04:00

Sunday we went with friends from church to Harmon's Tree Farm/Pumpkin Patch. It was a beautiful fall day and perfect for this outing! We took a hayride and got a small pumpkin, it was a great time.

Here's Patrick, he's doing such a great job sitting up now. Isn't he cute?

Alina checking out the pumpkins

The hayride was a mile to the pumpkin patch and we got sit in real hay! (the other rides had benches and we didn't want to do that)

Patrick and Alina looking at the sunflowers

She is too cute!

Alina did want to try and eat the small pumpkin we bought.

Justin carried her in the baby bjorn most of the time, which is her favorite way to travel!

Here's the friends we went with, the Brewers, Lindsey, the Michauds and the Clarks

Go Gamecocks!

2009-10-20T16:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday Carolina played Alabama and we got all dressed up and ready to watch the game! Alina has a cute dress from her friend Patrick and we got her a hat to match it. Here are some pictures, of course the babies had to go to sleep before the game started but they had a good time before. Too bad we lost:(

Its amazing how early they learn the "I want that" concept:)

Airplane

2009-10-19T13:38:00.003-04:00

On our recent trip to Texas, Alina got to ride on an airplane for the first time. For the most part she really liked it. It was much shorter than driving 16 hours! The trip to Texas was great. She was awake early, but excited to get everyone's attention on the airplane. She had everyone playing peek-a-boo with her and she flirted with the businessmen. On the way home, she was a bit fussier, because she missed her afternoon nap and just didn't want to go to sleep on the plane. All in all it was a great experience for all of us!

Nina (my mom) bought her a baby doll that she loves playing with!

Cousins

2009-10-09T23:33:00.002-04:00

Alina got to meet her cousin Lily this week. We had a great time hanging out with my sister, Irina, and her husband, Justin and their new daughter, Lily. Alina wanted to grab and play with Lily but we had to show her how to be gentle. I spent most of my time at their house helping out and holding my niece. It was a great trip!

Picture Perfect

2009-10-05T13:28:00.004-04:00

Alina loves to get her picture taken! On Sunday, she looked so cute I wanted to take some pictures in her adorable outfit. You can see below how much she loves the camera:)

Zoo

2009-09-28T20:32:00.003-04:00

Friday I had a half-day so when I came home we all three went to the zoo. It was fun to hang out as a family. The weather was really nice and it was such a relaxing day. Alina is really beginning to enjoy the zoo! She rides in the baby bjorn and looks around at everything. I think sometimes she likes looking at the kids around her more than the animals. This time we spent most of our time looking at the aquarium and the birdhouse. Justin loved looking at all the different snakes, and he would point them out to Alina, who would stare at the glass as the snakes crawled on it. I just kept insisting that we'd seen enough snakes and that I wanted to see real fish. So we moved on to the fish. Alina liked the leopard shark the best, he swam around for her. She was also amused at the lady cleaning the big fish tank. We hope to go again soon:)

Tummy

2009-09-21T13:24:00.000-04:00

Alina has not always like to be on her tummy. She would fuss and fuss. Once she figured out she could roll over, you couldn't get her to stay on her tummy for anything! Lately, things have changed a bit. She's figuring out that she kind of like to play on her tummy from time to time. She even will turn and sleep on her tummy. Sometimes she wakes up mad about it, but the other morning as you can see, she was very happy. She is rolling all over the floor from tummy to back and back to tummy. She creeps around a bit, and who knows, maybe soon she'll even crawl!

Patrick's Baptism

2009-09-15T20:25:00.003-04:00

Sunday, Alina's friend, Patrick, was baptized at our church. We were happy to see his parents commit to raising Patrick in a godly home and teaching him God's word and his need for a savior. We are excited to be a part of his life and also come along side his parents as they raise their son to be a man after God's own heart.
Alina came to big church to see the baptism. She did very well during the announcements, singing, prayer, etc. She really enjoyed chewing on my lip blam (cap on). However, just before the baptism she realized she was missing a nap and so I took her to the back of the sanctuary for the baptism and then took her back to the nursery.
After church we celebrated the baptism with the Michaud's and their family by having lunch at Matt and Jessica's. We are so thankful for great friends that God has put in our lives! Some pictures from Sunday are below, you can also see Jessica's blog by looking on the left at the blogs I follow and clicking on the Michaud Show.

8 Months!

2009-09-09T21:39:00.002-04:00

On Monday Alina was eight months old! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. To celebrate we had some friends over (and because it was Labor Day:). The Rogers came with their kids and Matt and Jessica came with Patrick. At one point Alina and Patrick were both on the floor playing with Riley and Jesse. They loved it! We had a great time.

We can't believe how much Alina is growing up. She is eating all sorts of food I've pureed for her. She loves fruits and carrots and sweet potatoes, but doesn't care for peas too much. She also snacks on crackers, cheerios and "puffs" (made by Gerber to melt in their mouth). We've given her pieces of bananas to snack on but they are very slippery in her hand! Alina doesn't care for crawling yet, she's never been much a fan of being on her belly. However, she loves to sit there and play with her toys. She likes to get all the toys out of her basket and put them next to her. Macy and Alina are very good friends. Alina smiles and laughs when Macy comes and licks her feet:) We thank God for our little blessing every day!

Daddy Fridays

2009-08-28T17:29:00.003-04:00

On Friday, Alina stays home with Justin and they have lots of fun together. Today, they went to the park after they took the trash. Alina loves the swing! This time she even got to go on the slide (in the baby bjorn with Justin of course). I am really glad that they have this time together. Justin is such a great daddy and a wonderful husband. He's been doing a lot of the cleaning on Fridays so I have more time with Alina on the weekend. Thanks Justin for being so amazing!

Hey Daddy! What channel is Noggin?

Go GameCocks!

Wiped out from playing with Daddy! This week and last week:)

My friends went back to school...except Jo-Jo!

2009-08-26T18:12:00.003-04:00

So here are some great pictures of Alina and the Rogers' children. I had to go back to school before the kids went back, so for several days Alina had lots of fun with all four of the Rogers' kids. Joel even posted on his blog about Alina (check his blog out by clicking on Joel's Brain Blog, he's pretty amazing for a fourth grader!). Now its just Alina and Josiah, but I know they have fun together. The other day Pauline told me that when Alina was getting fussy Jo-Jo (Josiah) just kept bringing her toys to soothe her. What a sweet guy!

Jesse, Alina and Joel

Riley, Alina and Joel

Alina with her buddy Joel - thanks Joel for being such a good friend to Alina!

Back to School

2009-08-21T21:34:00.002-04:00

Well, this week I returned to school and teaching 7th graders. The kids came back on Wednesday. So far, we seem to have a nice bunch of kids, but it has only been three days. Its amazing how teachers have to really get back into teaching all day. By Thursday morning we were all talking about how our feet and back hurt and how we've lost our voice from going over the syllabus with each class! I think I must be getting old, my feet are usually sore, but this year my back has really been hurting too. I have a lot less kids than usual this year, only 16-22 per class which is really nice! Since I'm not coaching any more I think it will be a little easier year, even though I will miss the girls and my friends that I coached with. I'll just have to go to games and competitions:) Alina has been going to Pauline's again and she just loves it. It seems she really enjoyed the days when all the kids were there (cause I had to go back before kids did so her kids were home). I think Alina and Jo-Jo will be great friends this year!

Gone to Texas

2009-08-12T21:03:00.003-04:00

We went to Texas this summer like we usually do, but this time instead of two dogs, we took two girls. Alina of course, and Alex. It was great to have Alex come along and help with Alina in the car. We stayed with Justin's parents the first five days and with my family the second half. It was great to see our family and friends and see them spend time with Alina. We also had a chance to go on several dates, since we had so many babysitters! We went to lunch, saw Harry Potter, took Mark and Alex to Fort Worth and spent a day at Six Flags. We also had fun hanging out and playing lots of Settlers and splashing in the pool at mom's house.

Here is Alina with her great-grandmother, Granny Bea

Alex had the opportunity of a life time when she got to get up on this longhorn in the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was fun for all of us!

Hanging out in the pool with Papa Ovi

I was also able to attend a shower, and help throw a shower for Irina. This was at Cindy's house where we had my shower almost exactly one year ago. We are very excited about Lily and can't wait to meet her!

Pawley's Island

2009-08-02T18:25:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we went with Matt and Jessica, and Jessica's family to Pawley's Island. They were staying a whole week, but we just stayed Saturday and Sunday so we could leave for Texas on Monday. It was so nice of the Marshalls to have us!! The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful time. Alina really does love the water, and she just sits in my lap and lets the waves hit us. Its so much fun! We spent time on the beach, played games and had some good food. We wished we could have stayed longer, but Texas was waiting:)

Daddies and babies going for a walk. Patrick is growing so fast! Can't believe he's almost as big as Alina, but four months younger!

I love the beach!

Playing Bocce Ball on the beach, Jessica won!

Justin loves to ride his board on the waves