Election Day 2012

Today, November 6th, 2012, is Election Day! President Obama or Gov. Mitt Romney? Well, in our house, we do have a presidential candidate preference but whatever the outcome, we pray for a bright future for our daughter and our country.

This Fall has been filled with lots of fun. We've gone to pumpkin patches, Fall Festivals, baked all kinds of pumpkin goodies and enjoyed a couple of hay rides. Our maintenance director, every year, does a hayride for the kids. Amelia and her friends had a nice time on a cold morning riding around Concordia's campus on the Concordia Hayride.

Finally, here are a few pictures of Concordiafest. It was a perfect weather day and Amelia tried 2 new things this year....HAMSTER BALLS....

...and the BIG slide....

 Some of her old favorites were the caterpillar and the ponies.

 Happy Fall, Y'all!

Halloween 2012

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Yesterday we celebrated Halloween and Amelia dressed up as RAPUNZEL. 

She had the shiny purple dress, purple flowery flip flops, the long golden hair and even a Rapunzel crown. She was pure royalty. I was off from work, well, mostly. I had a meeting in the morning and then we went to our "Mommy and Me" music class. After music class, I dropped Amelia off at school for lunch, nap and playtime so I could run a few errands. I picked her up around 3:30 and headed to HEB. While we were shopping we encountered a special person she just couldn't take her eyes off of. He was a young man, mid twenties and he had no legs. He was impressively zipping through HEB in his wheelchair and pushing his cart as he acquired all the items on his list. At first sight, Amelia got really still and whispered to me, "Mommy, he has no legs." She was very sweet and discreet about her observation. I explained to her that it was okay and that everyone is different. We saw him several times during our shopping. I also explained to her that I thought he was a hero. Being so young and with his "high and tight" hair cut, I assumed he was a wounded warrior. I told her that God makes everyone different and I assured her that he was a regular person just like us. I think that's all she needs to comprehend in her 3 year old little mind. I'm glad we had that encounter.

We had planned to go Trick-or-Treating at Morgan's Wonderland- "A Place Where Everyone Can Play". 

We brought a canned good for each of us and that was our admission to all the Halloween fun last night! 

Here's our beautiful Rapunzel

We rode the Carousel.  

We scored in the candy department with all of their "Trick-or-Treating" stations. 

We satisfied our sweet tooth! 

I felt so bad for this poor kids. He had to have been so HOT in that parka of a costume! Yuck!

 We got to swing. A Lot. Thankfully, Amelia's daddy never gets tired of pushing her on the swings. 

Here's Amelia posing with some cool friends. 

Amelia and Nathan looking super cute!

Pirate island playground. Very cool!

We rode the train that takes you all around the park.

This is the "Taking Flight" bronze sculpture and its the first thing you see when you walk into the park. 

All done! Whew. We were tired. Amelia is concentrating on eating a piece of candy!

Happy Harvest to everyone from the Carmines Family!

My Princess and Me

Two Sundays ago I took Amelia to a charity event, My Princess and Me, that raises money and awareness for neglected and abused children and it's sponsored by the Aveda salons in San Antonio. It's an afternoon filled with princess dresses, cupcakes, sparkly make-up, hair do's and a dance party. We had a great time and Amelia looked like a real princess!

Here she is before the party. 

 As soon as we got to the event center we saw about 2 dozen pageant "princesses". They were all so sweet and ready to pose for pictures and give hugs to all the little girls. 

 Here's Amelia carefully choosing her make up colors. 

 Holding ever so still for her sparkly make up. Look at those gorgeous eyelashes!

 This is her make up buddy.

 Time for hair...

 The special guest of the day was Justin Bieber! He arrived by limo and sang to the girls. He was about 4'8". So funny! 

 Our last item on our agenda was to get a little face paint. Amelia asked for a unicorn and it was precious. It really didn't look like a unicorn but more like a caterpillar with a horn and some hair. She loved it and she loved her day in princess land. 

KidMin Conference

A few weeks ago I went to Chicago with my co-worker, Emily,
for a Children's Ministry conference. It was AWESOME! KidMin is put on by Group Publishing so if you're familiar with the "big" VBS's around town, you'll know who Group is. They put on Sky VBS this last summer. We attended awesome worship each night and heard amazing speakers like Beth Moore, the Skit Guys and Kevin Carroll. We also had some time for some Chicago pizza and a little retail therapy!

I also got to catch up with an old friend, Bob! Bob used to work at Concordia and now he works for Group. He loves it there and has the opportunity to travel all over teacher and equipping church leaders in ministry.


It was a great trip and really gave us a boost in our passion for what we do!

Amelia 3 years old

Amelia is 3 years old now and she's one smart little cookie! We celebrated her 3rd birthday with a "Hello Kitty" party at what she calls Hello Kitty Kiddie Park. We invited her good friends from school and our families. The weather was nice and everyone had a great time! 

Here's the gang at lunch. We had PB&J and chips with our Hello Kitty cupcakes. 

Here's Amelia scoping out her plan of attack for frosting consumption. She's just like her daddy in that aspect. Why bother with cake when there's frosting?!

 Hello Kitty is a special place. It's older than dirt! I had a birthday party there, I'm sure. My parents went there when they were little, too. For the most part, all the rides are still the same. Even the boat ride. We often joke about the water. The water in the boat ride looks like it has never been changed over all these decades. 

Whenever possible, she loves to get the PINK plane.

Amelia's Favorite things at AGE 3:

TV Show- Dora the Explorer

Movie- Winnie the Pooh

Song- "Days of the week"- song in English and Spanish

Food- Lucky Charms, mostly the marshmallows

Candy- M&M's or anything chocolate

Toy- Fisher Price Little People doll house

Activity- Gymnastics

Amelia, Happy Birthday! We love you so much! We are so thankful to God for your precious life. Your smile, laugh and twinkle in your eye bring so much joy to me and Daddy. We are so proud of you and we look forward to watching you grow and discover all the gifts and talents that make you - YOU! 

Here is a scripture I've been praying over you and it's so appropriate because there are so many things you do and say that crack me and daddy up!

Psalm 127:3 My children are a reward and gift from the Lord, and I will enjoy them.

An example of funny Amelia discoveries- She is so into clippies right now. Those bend and clip hair barrettes. She goes to bed with one in each hand and if she wakes up in the middle of the night, she freaks and we have to go in her room and look in her bed so she can hold it again. Last night, we found her stuffed animal Eeyore has one in his hair! So cute!