Christmas Eve 2010..And A Little Bit of Catch-Up!

Ok, so first off, I must say that I've not done such a great job of staying on top of the blog during Bailey's birthday season.  I have lots to share from this year, but for now, I'll give you this:

Bailey,  You have gone from this......

to this....

to this......

I have to say that I did not spend this birthday season thinking back to the days leading up to and the events of and after Bailey's birth.  But, rather, I spent this year being thankful for a growing, smart, witty, beautiful, loving, healthy 2 year old.  Oh, how my heart aches for that new born we had 2 years ago and that some what of a still a sweet baby we had last year.  But this year, we have a life unlike any we could have imagined two years ago.  No, I did not dwell on the hurtful beginning we started off with, but instead chose to celebrate what Bailey is to us today and the sweetest that she has brought to our lives.   Bailey, your dad and I love you so much.  We remind each other daily that you are what true love is all about and we are so thankful for you. 

Ok, so I will post birthday pictures from both her parties soon.

For now, I want to journal what we have done this Christmas season and what is to come!  Our Christmas break started off on a rather sad note, with the passing of Sid's first cousin's 9 year old daughter.  Allison was born with some physical and mental challenges, was not able to feed herself or talk, and eventually taking care of her became more a daily challenge than most parents can handle.  Her family made the best decesion they could and decided to place her in a home type facility.  Allison lived there for 10 months before she went to be with Jesus.  Yes, sweet Allison had challenges here on earth, but this Christmas, she is in Heaven singing Christmas carols for the first time in her life.  She pain free and whole.  However, she left a whole family on this side of Heaven who are very sad to be here without her.  We celebrated her life and life and laid her to rest on Monday, December 20th.  The message of her service is one we all need to remember:  We cannot bring Allison back, but we can prepare our hearts and our lives to go be with her in Heaven someday. 

The weekend before the funeral, we celebrated Bailey's birthday with her Alabama family at Mimi and Poppy T's with a sweet little party put on by them.  On Sunday, we went to Beauty and the Beast play in Birmingham with Mimi, Poppy T, Erin, Aunt Maggie and Uncle Bo. Monday, we celebrated the life and death of Allison Paige Grey.  On Tuesday, we celebrated Christmas with the Whitehead family (Nene, Jerry, Sid, me, Bailey, Ben, Kylie, Brady and Mason).  Once again, the children had a blast, the food was wonderful, and us adults got way too much!  That is because we are spoiled rotten.  And have great parents!  That doesn't hurt too much either now does it?? Wednesday, we had a party here at our house to celebrate Bailey's birthday with her Mississippi family.  And finally, here we are on Christmas Eve.  We did not go to Alabama like we normally do this year.  Sid had to work until after 4 today and it would have just not been worth it to make a less than 24 hour trip over there and back.  We had hoped to work something out for me and Bailey to get there earlier and have more time and Sid even said we could go on without him.  Needless to say, we are home on Christmas Eve for the first time since being married.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at church.  And now my little Christmas elf is all snug in her bed and santa has visited.  We will go to Jackson in the morning to see Sid's grandmother, which we've not done since we've been married, either.  It hurts to not see my part of the family during this time of year, but at the same time, I am so thankful for what I have here and for Sid and Bailey.  All that matters to me tonight is that I have the Christ candle buring deep inside my soul, I am thankful for my freedom tonight, and I am so in love with my family that is piled up in this bed next to me, sleeping.

And so, tonight, I leave you with these pictures from today.  Christmas 2010.  We tried to take some pictures before church, but Bailey spent the day with Nene and didn't get a nap, so she was extra cry'ie, as you can tell. 

Do ya'll see Santa up there?  Speaking of which, we sure did see Santa after church tonight.  I will always remember coming out of chruch from the Christmas Eve service after having lit a candle and sang, looking up at the sky as a child, looking for the star and for Santa.  Well, tonight, I don't know what we saw, but you'll have a hard time convincing me it wasn't that Jolly Old Man!

And last but not least, couldn't you just eat this sweet thing up in her new Christmas pj's??? I could!!!

Don't be fooled too much by the sweetness though!  She cried for about the whole hour before church and after church.  She just thought it was funny at this moment that I took that Buzz Lightyear from her and said "to infinity and beyond'.  She was giving it a try!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 Christmas

I probably should wait until these are mailed out, but I know a copy you can hold onto is way better than this picture of a picture.  I recieved a code for 50 free cards this year and I do not think that I will be disappointed.  I was able to get a little better quality of a card this year because I got them for free.  Shutterfly has soooo many neat things on their site now.  I really don't see how they don't put local Christmas card places out of business.  It's easy to use the site and you can make sure your pictures are just so so.  I was even able to make several different cards, save them, and show them to Sid so he could have the final vote.  That's just pretty cool if I do say so myself.   Shutterfly will even address and mail and out your cards for you, for a small fee of course.  I didn't choose that option but I was able to create the perfect card for our family this season and I cannot wait to get them so I can get them out in the mail to you!

Best Gift Ever American Lung Association Holiday 5x7 folded card

Create photo new year's cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

And, in other news, this Christmas will go down just like the past 2 Christmas's have, with our sweet girl battling some sickness.  Our Christmas parade was last Monday and it was the first night that the temp dropped very low.  We bundled up our ball of energy and off we went.  On Tuesday, she had a pretty bad stopped up nose, and on Wednesday when Sid picked her up, he thought she just sounded way more congested than she should have.  He took her own to the doctor, but it was too late for a walk in so they made an appointment for Thursday afternoon.  When Sid took her, they decided to test for the Whooping Cough because it's apparently go around in places it shouldn't go around in.  The doctor told Sid that it usually takes a while to get the results back, so she went ahead and treated her like she had it because the antibiotic used would treat her stopped up head regardless.  Late Friday afternoon, I got a call from the State Health Department informing me that Bailey's test came back positive.  Can you imagine the freak out I had?  Sid and  I are being treated, and thank goodness by that time, she had already had 2 of her 5 days of doses.  She has slept alot this week, and especially today, but other than that, she has just ticked right along.  If I didn't know better, I'd say the test showed a false positive.  The bad thing is, I didn't really think she was that sick, so I sent her to daycare Friday and to Kylie and Ben's on Thursday night so we could go to Sid's work Christmas party.  I hope and pray nobody else comes down with it. 

Sid and I have some shopping to finish up and were planning to go tonight, but the weather is terrible here and I have just been dragging myself today.  We are going tomorrow when Nene gets out of church. 

Well, enjoy the online version of our Christmas card and have a safe and warm night!!!

When You Try To Create Your Christmas Card

But your child is 2 this go around, what happens? 

THIS:

 She finally got tired of posing and decided she'd try her hand on her daddy's new netbook.  I'll have to tell you the story of Christmas laptops, but just know that this is part of his Christmas that he already has.  It's the perfect size for Bailey, but we don't let her touch it often.  Just thought these pictures were funny!

I asked her who she was writing to and she told me she was writing to her Mimi and Poppy T to tell them that she misses them very much and wishes they would come to see her very soon!

We went to Jackson this past weekend to spend some time with his grandmother.  The plan was to pick her up and go finish up some shopping that we had and then go back to her house and hang out for a bit.  Let's just say that isn't at all how it went, but we did get to go to the Christmas parade near her house.  This was the first one for Bailey and she absolutely loved it.  I've not seen her enjoy something as much as she did this in a long time.  The bad thing is we still have tons of shopping to finish up because we got none done this past Saturday like planned.

I snapped this picture before the parade and if you look closely, you'll notice a green blob of gum in Bailey's mouth.  Gum is her new kick and the child amazes me with it.  Sometimes she makes the mistake of swallowing it right when she gets it, but most of the time she will keep it.  She kept this piece for a good two hours on Saturday.  AM-A-ZING!!!!

Tonight was Philadelphia's parade and it was freezing cold.  Bless her little heart!  But Sid got her a minnie tobaggon in the style of a ski mask.  Nothing but her eyes and nose showing!  When I saw it I swore up and down she would never wear that thing on her head.  But she did.  She wore it the entire time she was out in the cold.  Her big down coat that Mom and Dad got her last year for Christmas still, ironically, fits so she was very warm in her layers of clothes and all that.  But it was just so cold!  To end the day, we all went to eat Mexican becasue we needed supper, but also because Brady found out today that he made the varsity baseball team for this year.  It was a big deal to him and lots of his friends didn't make it, so we wanted to honor him and let him know we were all proud of him.  He's a great little ball player.  Reminds me of the time and effort my brothers put into ball and how time consuming it was. 

Well, I'm off to see if there were any Christmas cards pictures took the other night that are usable.  If not, enjoy our sweet girl in her show off mode in the cutest Christmas outfit of the year!!!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Finally, I have found the time to post the pictures of the Christmas Tree.  Next on the list:  upload, sort through, and edit the 75+ pictures of Bailey that Sid and I took tonight in front of the Christmas tree.  I'm  hoping to have gotten at least one good one to do a Christmas card and a card for her teachers at school.  I did that last year instead of a traditional Christmas card and they loved it!

This is my most favorite tree ever but I can promise that I highly doubt we will have a full size tree next year.  We didn't want one this year, but we couldn't find anything eles that suited us.  Bailey is so enjoying her tree and that's all that matters to me. 

Some too funny's that she's done:  She's started pointed to things saying "rite der" for "right there". 

Tonight, Sid pulled into a parking lot and was parking.  He either ran up on the curve or swung the truck way out to turn in and made the truck bump a little, I can't rmember.  Bailey plopped that paci out and said "whoa doc!" 

Tonight at supper, she got down from her chair and said "I be rite back Mama".  I said oh no you won't be right back, don't get up.  Did she listen?? Not so much! 

She is making this season of our lives to something that we never dreamed it could be.  My heart could just burst I'm so full of love for her and her daddy. 

We are going to see his grandmother in Jackson Saturday and hopefully do  a little more shopping.  We'll see how that goes!

I Suppose It's a Great Weekend

To say:  WAAARRRR EEEEEAAAAGGGLLEEE!!!! Hey! 

And....

Who Let The Dogs Out?  Ruf! Ruf!!  Go! Dogs! Go!

Althought I'm a little disappointed in how the Tigers originally presented themselves at the start of Friday's game, they did pull it off!

For some reason, blogger is not letting me upload anymore pictures to this post right now.  So, for now, AGAIN, you get a sneak peak at our Christmas tree now that it is finished!!

Anyway, we have had a great Thanksgiving week and it is (fastly) coming to a close.  We went shopping with Kylie and Mason on Monday.  On Tuesday, we spent most of the day in since it was raining, working on the tree.  I went that night and got my hair done.  That would be the hair trip in which I walked away looking like I had never looked before.  If you see me, please don't comment, I didn't mean for it to look this way, but in light of the impending long weekend holiday that was starting the next day, my hair dresser couldn't get me back in to fix it before she was closed for 4 straight days.  So I'll go back to school looking like this, and then from there will probably forget that Sid called me a zebra and I called myself a skunk and my mom said it "yeah, it's just different".  Maggie and Dad said they liked it.  Ok, I've now dwelled for 3 mintues longer than I ever expected to over my hair.

On to bigger things... Wednesday we did laundry and packed a few things and headed out that afternoon to Alabama.  We spent the night at Mimi an Poppy T's and had Thanksgiving with the fam on Thursday.  Here who was present:  Me, Sid, Bailey, Maggie, Bo, Will, Chris, Erica, Erin, Andrew, Mom, Dad and Papppaw and Macy.  It was perfect, as it always is when Mom's in charge.  We had a great 24 hour trip and headed home late Thursday afternoon. 

Friday, Sid went to work, only to return about 2 hours later with permission from his boss to go home.  They didn't have any funerals, so we sent Bailey on with Mammaw and Pappaw to see Big Mammaw and we headed out to do some late Black Friday shopping.  Let me stop here and tell you that I physically made myself sick ver the $198 laptop that WalMart had on sale from 5-10 Friday morning.  I knew there would be no way I could go get it with Sid having to go to work at 7 and everyone else had better things to do besides stand in line for 8 hours for me. (how dare them! Hahah! NO, really I totally understand that!)  And I went to bed feeling bad that he wanted it and I couldn't get it.  I'll tell you more how that story ended in a minute, but for now I just want to tell you that Kylie and Ben were there for 8 hours just to get one $90 thing.  It is not understatement when I say that I dread the day Bailey asks for something that WalMart will only have 4 of during the middle of some random night. 

Ok, back to the weekend:  We headed to Jackson about noon on Friday, and actually had a great time.  We didn't go in too many stores, but were able to find just about everything I would have wanted for Bailey had I been there at 4 when their doors opened.  Target is my kind of store though.  They had a 3 day sale before Thanksgiving and then had a 2 day sale after Thanksgiving and granted, it's while supplies last only, but at least they don't want some random housewives getting arrested in their store at 2 a.m. over some $1.98 towels that they will have on sale for approx. 33 seconds.  Or as Maggie says, 40 women standing in line and only 20 sets of sheets to be had.  No lie ya'll, in Jackson, two women were arrested fighting over the towels. 

Anyway, after some alone time shopping, we made our way to big Mammaw's house and visited and rounded up everyone and went to the mall close to her house so I could do some shopping their and hopefully Bailey would see Santa.  Maybe when she's 12 we'll have hope of seeing Santa, but not this year.  She did blow him a kiss and wave, all the while crying with her eyes closed tightly so she couldn't see how close we were standing.  haha!  She doesn't even want to talk about it now that we are home!

Sid worked today and we've just hung around the house.  He did go hunting for a little bit while Bailey went to see Mammaw and Pappaw again.  But nothing major.  Tomorrow we'll go to church, I'll hit the lesson plans hard and we'll get back in the swing of things for Monday. 

Only 3 more weeks until Christmas Break and I ...cannot....wait!!!  Maybe tomorrow, I can upload the pictures of my tree since I've teased you all twice now!!!!

All Things Christmas-Try Shutterfly This Season!!!

WEll now that Turkey Day is behind us, Christmas is in full force.  And the top priority on my mind is getting our pictures taken to make the best Christmas Card yet.  And for our family, Christmas not only brings the birth of our Savior, but also the birth of our first born (and probably only) child.  Which means not only are we planning for Christmas and cards to go along with it, but we are also planning birthday parties and invites to go along with them.  So where do I turn to for all my card and invite needs?  I personally turn to Shutterfly!    Shutterfly has all kinds of neat things you can do with your photos to make your very own personal card for the season! 

Looking for something else this holiday season?? That's perfectly fine!!  Shutterfly has all kinds of neat gifts, such as this precious desk calendar, that is sure to delight the hearts of family both near and far!

What about after Christmas??  Do you ever send out New Year's cards???  Shutterfly is the place to visit.

One of the coolest things I personally love about Shutterfly, is only can you design your own cards and invites, but you can also desgin family keepsakes such as photo books.  One of the most meaningful moments of being a Mom was the day my husband and I had Bailey Christened by my Pappaw.  A few short weeks later, we recieved the best keepsake from that.  A photo book from Shutterfly that my mom had made using pictures that she took that day.  She was able to upload as many pictures as she wanted, edited the photos, add text to the pages, and make a hard bound book for us.  The book even has a picture of Bailey and Pappaw on the front cover along with a title and the date this all took place.  This is a book that we love to look at and will be something that we cherish, and Bailey will keep forever.  Mom didn't have to leave the house to get this done, she did it all right from the comfort of her own home, and she was even able to print out mulitple copies - so we all have one!!!

While browsing the Shutterfly site, I came upon this card, in which my heart is set upon.  Can't you just see my sweet Bailey's smile right in the middle of this card, complete with the year's date...

Don't let this holiday season get past without visiting SHUTTERFLY and having family keepsakes sent right to your door!!!!

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Christmas!

Sid has let me buy 3 new Christmas CD's in the past week or so and I'm loving it!  We don't have much room for the big tree that we used last year (due to a new addition that I haven't blogged about yet) and decorations and mesh just don't mingle well with a real tree and small fake trees are just, well, not cute.  So after about 2 weeks of looking for a 6 foot tree with no luck, we decided to go with the big 7.5 inch tree we have from last year.  Bailey has loved every minute of looking at trees and Christmas trees are going to bring her so much joy this season so we decided to do it up right. 

We started decorating yesterday and when Sid brought the tree in she literally jumped up and down yelling "my tee, my tee, my tee daddy!"  She helped me decorate some yesterday and then showed me she was jealous of the time I was spending with the tree by biting the blood out of my leg - it's bad to have to stop decorating the tree and spank your 2 year old!!!  Before her nap yesterday, she kissed the tree telling it night-night!  She's in love, what can I say? 

Here's a little teaser of what we have this year, but I've got one more thing to add before I show the entire tree. 

Hopefully I'll have the whole tree done before night fall tonight!!!

***Scroll down for another post with pics of my sweet one!

So, WOW!!!!

It's really been more than a month since I've blogged. But, there has been great reason for me to not do so!!! LIFE!!!! It sure has been just moving right along. I've thought about this blog often, and how much I have time sitting down to write and journal. And you...the people who are still here looking for a post. I know you're here because I get a report of how many clicks a week my blog gets. I still get about 40 clicks a week from ya'll looking for an update. Well guess what??? I have lots to say, lots to update on. Can you believe my sweet Christmas miracle is about to be 2 years old??? We can't and it makes us so sad, but very happy all at the same time. Sad because she isn't a baby and we miss the baby stage, but happy because she is growing and thriving and so dang smart!!!! I used to think that Erin was the smartest thing I knew, and she still is, but to not even be 2 years old yet this little girl of ours knows so much. Well, she's calling me to get down from her high chair. But I will be back with lots of pictures, pictures of the tree, the story of what our life has been like the past month, and what's to come!!!!!

So silly!!!

 We get this look alot around here!!!

I was uploading some other pictures and realized I still had this picture from right before Halloween that never made it on here!  So sweet!!!

18 Days of October

Well, it's looking like I'll only post once or twice in a month these days.  Work and Family have just taken over my life.  We've had much to celebrate this month, especially in the past week.  October 5th was Poppyy T's birthday.  October 13th was our 3 year anniversary.  October 14th was Mammaw's birthday.  And October 15th was Sid's birthday!!  These pictures were taken last week.  I'll show you how we celebrated Sid's birthday in a minute.

She just refused to sit down and let me a get a picture these days.  Although, when I said let's go get a picture by our pumpkins, she did pick up her white rocker and take it outside, because that's how we always take a pictures outside.

I decided to get crafty this fall, but I'm not so sure how I feel about how it turned out.

Of course Bailey and Daddy had to go on a ride around the yard on the 4-wheeler since Daddy had it out and all!  I'm not sure how I feel about this either!  There are still two peas in a pod aren't they!

Not only do we have smell goods inside for fall, but we also have pretty smell goods!

And, for our anniversary, Sid got me these beautiful flowers!!!

I was off of work on Friday for a short fall break and we decided Sid should have the day off as well.  We went to Jackson to the agri-cultural museum pumpkin patch.  It was a beautiful day and we had lots of fun!

Three generation picture of Sid, his grandmother, and Bailey, on his birthday!  Mammaw lives in Jackson so she met us Friday to enjoy the fun!  This was on the hay ride and once again, Bailey was way more interested in everything but the camera.

This is probably the best picture I got this year at that pumpkin patch.  It was so easy last year to get her picture with the pumpkins and looking all cute.  Not so much this year!

We went to eat Mexican Friday night with Sid's cousin and her family for his birthday and her daughter's birthday.  Bailey looked so cute before we went,I just had to get some pictures.  Once again, when I mentioned getting a picture, she got her white rocking chair and took it to the door.  She's so darn smart.

Don't let the sweet look fool you!   She's all rotten underneath!

The many faces of Bailey!

Ok, so I started this post on Sunday night and since then, two things have happened. 

#1 - Bailey got sick in the middle of the night Saturday night.  We thought it was just a combo of things and that she would be fine.  Ten minutes later, it hit again!  Sunday morning, the bad diapers started.  It's one of those things that you think nothing is really wrong because she appears to feel fine, but it just won't stop coming.  We went to bed Sunday night thinking she was fine, but she soon let us know that she was not.  I stayed home with her today and they would have for sure been calling us by 9 am if we had gone ahead and sent her.  I'm sad she's sick, and I'm disappointed that I had to use a sick day.  This is the start of the 10th week at school and I was doing good not having to take any days yet.  I was the only one on my grade level who hadn't need at least a part of the day.  Oh well, the life of a working mom.  It just happens.

Sid's grandmother was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday (not the one shown above) and as far as I know she is still there.  Something about a urinary tract infection that was causing her to have congestive heart failure.  We sure hope she gets better and is able to come home soon.  But that cut out two people that could ordinarily help us.  And we should have known the minute that Sid took off on Friday something like this would happen.  Once again, just all being a part of a working mom.  I wouldn't trade it for a million days off!

And #2, I FINALLY got a BlogHer check in the mail.  That means that I finally had enough views of my blog for the advertisements I have on here to pay off.  You have make $25 before they will pay your first check.  It took me from February to September to get my $25, but that is just incentive enough to keep on blogging.  It could eventually pay off.  At least a new pair of shoes or something!

So, this concludes the blog post in which I combine everything that has happened the first 18 days of October.  Hopefully, I will. be back within the next few. 

Once again, Happy Birthday to everyone and Happy Fall, Ya'll!!!