Amelia turns two!

Amelia is two years old!  She has settled into the twos rather nicely.  Good thing she is a cute one!  Happy birthday, Little Pumpkin!

Preachin' it

As said by Ally while playing with her new magnetic Easter figure set:
"Do not pick these flowers.  For THESE are the FLOWERS of the LORD."

Preach it, girl.

More snow!

No kidding; we had about 6 or so inches last week!  Second snow fall this winter!  But in typical NC weather fashion, most of it has thawed and temps are heading into the 60s this week.  In any case, here are my little snow angels.

Snow!

Finally, the first real accumulation of snow since probably 2010!  Ally and Amelia had a great time, until they got too cold that is.  Ben fashioned a sled out of a cardboard box and off we went!  Here are some pics to recap the experience. 

Amelia's first sentence

Amelia loves to brush her teeth.  I think it is because she sees the rest of us doing it.  That, and her toothpaste tastes good.  Amelia's vocabulary has really taken off, both with English and Spanish.  Most of the time she mixes them together.  Case in point:  after brushing teeth last night, I told her that we were all done.  As we made our way back downstairs, she said, "No mas brushing teeth." (No more brushing teeth)  I said, "Hey Amelia, that's your first real sentence!"  Pretty fun!

Life got really busy really fast

I kind of almost forgot I had a blog!  That is how busy things have been.  We are about 4 weeks into the Fall semester and things just hit the ground running.  It is amazing how we can go from the quiet of summer to the rush of the semester in the blink of an eye.  Ben and I are both teaching substantial course loads, so between prepping classes, teaching classes, grading for said classes, and meeting with students, we have become a bit detached from the real world.  Oh yeah, and did I mention we have 2 young kids?!  That definitely adds a little spice to life!

Lots of good things are happening though.  Probably the biggest news is that Ben submitted his application for tenure and promotion a few days ago.  Decisions don't get handed down until March, but we all have really good feelings about it.  I am almost finished preparing my 2 dissertation manuscripts for journal submission.  Ally is doing great in preschool and is involved in gymnastics and soccer (the former at a gym close to our house and the latter at preschool).  Neither program has any competitions or games to participate in right now, but I think that's totally fine because it's just about fun and learning some skills.  And Amelia is toddling around, trying to do what Ally does.  Ally seems to like having an understudy, and it is pretty cute watching them chase each other around and play together.

So all in all, life is running along, and we're trying to keep up!  Happy Fall!

A funny poem

Written by Roger, my church music director, upon reflecting on his puffy face after experiencing a tooth infection:

"My face, I don't mind it
Because I'm behind it.
It's the people in front that I scare."