Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Merriest Christmas



This was the Merriest Christmas I have ever had.  I LOVED being at home and spending a cozy day with my sweet little family. Santa was extremely kind to Neely Jo this year and my floors are proof of it. There is not a square foot in this house that hasn’t been littered with toys, books or clothes. It is a tad bit out of control. 



After waking up and seeing her kitchen set, Neely Jo wasn’t too interested in opening any other gifts. She seemed to be more content opening the cabinets over and over again while Derrick and I unwrapped presents. Maybe we will have better luck next year with her involvement. 










Overall we had a wonderful Christmas and were able to realize how truly blessed we are! Hope everyone enjoyed the Holiday as much as we did!!!





Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Everything from Halloween up to Christmas

Well...once again things have been crazy over here and I have neglected my blog. I have saved up some vacation for the last part of the year so HOPEFULLY I will be better about keeping up with our Christmas. Fingers crossed. 


Our Halloween...
We made a quick trip up to my parents so we could see Katie and the kids before they packed up and moved to Texas. We had a pumpkin, a kitten, a puppy and a Granny with lots of candy. 






Daycare also had a Fall Festival with lots of games for the kids. Neely Jo was a tad bit too little to play most so I thought we would get her face painted. Wrong.




But she did enjoy digging for toys in the sand...





She did not enjoy the taste of the sand...



Our Thanksgiving...
Thanksgiving was a total blur. All I know is Neely Jo slept through the meal, I ate entirely too much turkey and dressing and the tryptophan caught up with me quick. I curled up and took a long snooze on Momma’s couch and missed the whole day. That would be why there are zero pictures of the meal. But we did make it to the Paramount for the Festival of Trees. 





One of my personal favorites...




Now I'm all about Cinderella, but this scared me a little bit...








Neely Jo’s Teeth...
Earlier this month we had to take Neely Jo to the hospital to have the procedure on her teeth. I was a nervous wreck. We thought she would be asleep for two hours but they actually finished up early which is perfectly fine with me. Neely’s dentist, Dr. Barbee, is absolutely one of my favorite people right now. He is so wonderful with Neely and he did a great job on her teeth (that is based on all of my extensive knowledge of teeth - they are are white and in her mouth so what more can you ask for?). And he called a couple of times over the weekend from his personal cell phone to check on her. I love that. The only thing I am disappointed in is that we will not be able to send out the Christmas cards of Neely with a caption reading “All I Want for Christmas if My Two Front Teeth”. I was totally looking forward to that. 





Christmas with My Parents...
I went to Florida last week for work and because Derrick has such a busy schedule with basketball, Neely got to spend the week with my parents. She is pretty much ruined now. A week of having Chewmomma and Dad-Dad in your face 24/7 catering to your every need apparently will do that. When Neely finally saw me she looked at me like I was dog meat and started crying for Chewmomma (who was doing her very best not to smile and bust out into a victory dance, but I am pretty sure she was giving herself high-fives in the next room). After four days of non-stop shopping and errand running, Chewmomma looked exhausted from packing the lil bit-bug all over the place on her hip. Who’s laughing now??? (I’m high-fiving myself). 

This past Sunday, the children were in charge of the church service. Bless their hearts. They were absolutely adorable. Neely decided to really get into the service by running upfront and dancing while the kids sang different Christmas songs. 


This is our cousin Eli. He is seriously one of the cutest and sweetest little boys I have ever been around. Love him!





More cousins (Chase, Abbie, Hannah, Neely Jo and Eli)...

Neely Jo did get to be in the Christmas Nativity this year as an Angel. Chewmomma was in the choir and I am pretty sure Neely was trying to get to her when she decided to jump off the stage and landed on her back. She is actually fine but she screeched like a banshee all the way down the church aisle.  I am sure this year’s video was able to capture her lungs at their finest. And now the family is calling her the Fallen Angel. We are so proud. 









Oh! I almost forgot. Neely Jo had her first Happy Meal and loved it. This was a life event I’m sure. The start of our child’s addiction to McDonalds. 



Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Rewriting a Story

One of Neely’’s presents that I absolutely love is this sweet Three Little Pigs set. 






While cousin Amelia was here this toy saw a lot of action. The pigs were constantly on the run from the Big Bad Wolf, who was huffing and puffing all over the place. Neely Jo hasn’t really paid much attention to this little set but our cat, Winks, seems to be curious. I woke up and found the poor thing with the second Little Pig’s house stuck on her head. She was crying bless, bless her heart. Now we eat an astronomical amount of pork products in this house so I figure Winks just wanted to see what all the fuss was about and was trying to get at that second piggy. So now when I tell the story to Neely Jo the Big Bad Wolf will be replaced by the Pork Hungry One Eyed Cat. 



Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Enjoying a Sick Day

Yesterday I got a pone call from daycare that Neely was running a fever and that I needed to pick her up. Luckily the call came in at 4:45. Since she has to be fever free for 24 hours I got to keep her home with me today. Thankfully she didn’t run a fever all day and she seems to be feeling fine so it will be back to the grind tomorrow. I am very thankful that we had a good day. I would love to be a stay at home mom and I absolutely adored getting to spend the day with my baby girl. And I am sure she adored getting to spend the day with her birthday presents. She made sure to chew on each and every one of them.






I also LOVE to cook so I made chicken and dumplings from scratch. I was thinking Neely Jo would enjoy that seeing how it seems to make everyone feel better when they are sick. Nope. She ate carrots and blueberries. Spit the chicken out and smashed the dumplings into a creamy paste all over her high chair. Seriously. This meal was a process to make. I spent 3 hours cooking it and even went out and bought a dutch oven for the ordeal. The good news is that Derrick ate enough to make up for it.