Christmas Memories

Gosh!  I really didn't mean to go so long without updating my blog.  I could say it's because of the exciting things we were doing but the truth is I just got lazy. :-(

Things have really been rather peaceful here the past week or so.  The hubs and I have both been home from work due to the holidays (bonus of being teachers) so we have been able to spend some time with Babycakes.  While I think she has enjoyed having us at home it's really thrown a monkey wrench into her schedule.  Naps and bedtime are completely out of whack.  Even I'm having trouble sleeping at night.  In fact, I may go lay down and take a nap after updating this!

But I wanted to share some pictures of our Christmas celebrations...

After reading the Christmas story from the Bible and The Night Before Christmas, Babycakes posed for a picture in her Christmas pjs by Santa's cookies and milk.  She has a wise man in her hand from her Nativity set that she refused to leave behind.  He joined us as I rocked her to sleep that night.

The next morning (after a wardrobe change due to a night-time accident) Babycakes and her Daddy were able to check out the loot that Santa left behind.

Grammy gave her some Elmo pajamas.  As you can tell from her expression, they were a BIG hit!

 Grammy seriously got carried away with the gifts...

 But the Elmo book was a gift she loved.

 I'm not sure who had more fun, Babycakes or Grammy.

Ole Girl loves kitties...

After opening gifts, we got dressed and went to spend some time with my in-laws.  Where Babycakes opened MORE presents!

Like this jewelry box from her Uncle Larry.

I am so grateful for all of the gifts that people gave to our little angel, but seriously, what do I do with all of this stuff???  We live in a 2 bedroom house that is bursting at the seams as it is.  I don't want to seem as if I am not thankful for what we have because I truly am.  But it makes me a little sad too because I know there are children in this world who have nothing while we have so much.  

This makes me think we need to reign in our Christmas gift giving so that we can teach our sweet girl the true meaning of the Season - the birth of our Savior.  Any ideas on what we can begin to do differently next year?  I'd love to hear your ideas! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving has come and gone and hopefully everyone had a great time with friends and family.  I know we sure did!
It was unseasonable warm here on the east coast on Thanksgiving Day - in the 60s!  Since Babycakes hadn't been outside to play in the leaves, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to play for a bit while waiting for our dinner to digest.

At first she wasn't sure what to make of them...

Since leaves are more fun in big piles I went and got the fan rake and pushed all of the leaves into a big pile. Since Babycakes is really into copying everything we do, she decided she wanted to rake all of the leaves in a big pile too (with Grammy's help, of course!).

Then our neighbor came over for a quick visit with her little dog, Molly.  So Babycakes got slightly sidetracked.  Here she is watching Molly go home.  She is so in love with animals!

Grammy took this picture of me and Babycakes.   Not a great picture, but at least I can prove I was there!

I saved the best for last.  I love this picture of Babycakes walking through the leaves with her Grammy.  She LOVED the sound of the leaves swishing under her feet! 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

1st Haircut!

I have been putting off getting Babycakes a haircut.  I just couldn't bring myself to have her sweet baby hair cut  trimmed.  But finally I had to give in and take her to get it cleaned up.  She was starting to look like she had a mullet!  So I called my mom and asked her to come along for Baby's first haircut and she happily obliged!
Since we went to Hair Cuttery (I always get my hair cut here.  They do a great job and you can't beat the price!) And no, they didn't pay me to say this.  We had a bit of a wait (my least favorite part about my favorite place to get a cut) so Babycakes had some time to check the place out.

I was able to get a "before" shot of the back of her hair.

 And yes, that's a double crown.  That will be fun in a couple of years!  

See how sweet she looks and why I drug my feet to get her hair cut?

But I digress,  she did a great job sitting in the chair (don't have photos uploaded for that yet!) and got a lollipop for being a such a good girl.

The new 'do...

 

So she would have time to eat her lollipop we went next door to the pet store where she made a new friend.

On Sunday we traveled north to visit my Grandmother.  While we were there, I saw this cute little card holder on the door of one of the residents...

It looks pretty easy to make if I can find the time...

But before we left, I was able to get a multi-generational photo of me, Babycakes, my Dad, and my Grandma.  There are somethings more precious than gold!

 Before I end this post I wanted to share a couple of (unrelated) pictures.  One of the things I love about Babycakes growing and developing is her new interest in books.  She now sits long enought for me to read her a (short) story.  This was taken one night this week.  It's one of her favorite books.

 Finally, I wanted to post a picture of my furry "baby," Cleo.  She found this plastic shoebox to be just the right perch to watch the comings and goings in the house.

Hope you all have a great week!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Catch-Up!

With all of the illnesses Babycakes has been through this fall it has been really difficult for me to update my blog on a regular basis.  So I thought I would use this time that she is napping to catch everyone up on what we've been up to the past few weeks months...

At the end of September, we headed to my hometown to celebrate my "baby" brother's 35th birthday.  I really don't know how that's possible since I'm "only" 21. (wink! wink!)
We met at a great local Italian place with the whole family.  As you can see, the little one was not shy AT ALL about her spaghetti.  Ole girl can EAT!!! And spaghetti?  Loves it!

The remnants of her dinner...

After dinner we went back to my brother's house for cake and ice cream.  I mean, what's a birthday without cake???  Anyway, I wanted to get a photo of Babycakes with her Uncle and I did...sort of...

In early October we took a family trip to see my best friend and her family.  They live about two and a half hours away which I HATE but always love seeing them and catching up.  She is Babycakes' Godmother and I am Godmother to her 2 beautiful babies.  It was her youngest baby's 5th birthday and we went to celebrate.  Here is a picture of me and the little one.  Love the picture - just wish she was looking at the camera!

While Babycakes wouldn't go to her Aunt Chrissy, she did enjoy all of the attention...

she was definitely worn out by the end of the day's activities.

Not long after out trip we had to take Babycakes to the doctor (this was to be one of the first of many so far).  This was when she had roseola and it wasn't until she broke out in a rash that the pediatrician determined what it was.  Thankfully, it wasn't something more serious.  And yes, we did take her to the doctor in her pjs.  While she doesn't look it in this picture she was a sick little girl.

In late October, Babycakes got dressed up for a date with her Uncle.  See the cute bow in her hair?  It lasted about 10 minutes.  When she saw her reflection in the glass of the front door she realized she had something on her head and had to remove it.  Immediately. Despite the bow removal she and Uncle had a good time.

At the end of October we were a part of the millions of folks impacted on the east coast by Frankenstorm/Hurrican Sandy.  The hubs and I were off work for two days because of the storm (not that I'm complaining!) but we were also dealing with a sick little one (again!)  What started out as the common cold grew into an ear infection and upper respiratory infection.  Here is my sick baby sleeping through the storm...

The morning after the storm we awoke to assess the damage.  Fortunately this was all we found...

This is a pear tree in our front yard.  We (used to) have railroad ties around the base of the tree.  You can see one of the three ties in the distance near the railroad tracks.  I'm not sure how much one of those things weighs but I know they aren't light!

Fortunately, this fall hasn't been all about freak storms and sick babies (although it feels like the sick baby part may be a little bit true).  We have found time to find joy in the ordinary.

Like doing laundry,

 

 creating a masterpiece with crayons,

 

 

discovering belly buttons (my personal favorite!),

or just playing toys with Daddy.

While we are not rich in money, I believe we are rich in the things that matter.  We have each other, a relationship with Christ, and so many things that can't be bought.  And while Babycakes has had a rough couple of months for illnesses, they are so minor in comparison to what other families are facing.  So in this season of Thanksgiving, I am truly thankful for all that I have been provided.

Sometimes Life Happens

So I really didn't mean for so much time to pass between posts but somehow, life just happened.

For instance, the week my mom went on vacation (she watches Babycakes 3 days a week) Babycakes came down with an ear infection and an upper respiratory infection.  So instead of going to daycare as planned me and the Hubs had to take turns taking off work to care for our sick little one.  Not long after that WE got sick. :-(  Mommy and Daddy are not allowed to get sick at the same time ever again!

I am in the process of writing my dissertation precis so I can turn it in November 30th.  I met with my academic adviser on Halloween and told her I really needed a deadline so I could stop procrastinating.  While I'm still (sort of) procrastinating, I know I need to get myself together and get the blooming thing written and turned in so that I can start my proposal in the spring semester.  I NEED to get this completed!

Well, duty calls - sick baby is awake again. :-(

Will try and post more again soon! 

Riding Out the Storm

Here in the Valley, we are riding out the remnants of Hurricane Sandy.  While not my first hurricane, it is definitely one for the record books here.  Even though I haven't really slept for the past 2 nights because Babycakes has been up with a nasty cold, I am wide. freaking. awake. 

The wind is howling and beating the rain against the windows.  The hubs is in the basement with the shop-vac trying to suck up the water as it seeps rolls into the basement.  He really is the best.  He had to roll up the rug, and move all of the furniture (it's our family room) so that he can fight to keep the water at bay. (No pun intended)  All the while he comes upstairs at regular intervals to check on me and Babycakes.  Seriously, how did I get so lucky?

Ugh! Now the lights are flickering and I fear we are about to lose power.  I hope everyone is staying safe and dry.  I will post pics as soon as I can!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so I'm a week early.  But since I will be in class on the actual day we celebrated with Babycakes tonight.  Since the Hubs works at a high school (my alma mater) the students in one of the clubs hosts a Halloween party for the children of all the staff members.  It was wonderful!  There was costume judging, games, pumpkin painting and trick-or-treating  We had a great time watching Babycakes celebrate her first second Halloween. She was so little last year and she had a cold so we didn't really participate in any Halloween activities.

While I had the cutest ladybug costume my sister-in-law had gotten her last year, I looked high and low for that thing and never did find it.  It's a 2T and she's in 18 months now so maybe she can wear it next year (if I ever find it!)  

Anywho...I thought I would share a few pictures from our celebration:

Before we left for the party I wanted to get a picture of me with my favorite girl!

Babycakes loved her pom-poms!

 

 A little pumpkin painting...

Some fun Halloween games...

And Babycakes' favorite activity of the night - the rice bin!  She kept going back over and over.  She seemed pretty focused in her play.  I may need to come up with one of these for the winter.

Here's wishing everyone a Halloween as awesome as ours!

This past summer my father-in-law passed away after a courageous battle with cancer.  While it was difficult to watch him pass away, it provided us with great comfort to know that he has merely left the earth and that we will all meet again one day.  One of his favorite places to go was to a place know simply as, "The Cabin."  

"The Cabin" is located on the side of a mountain not far from where he spent his time as a boy.  We had made plans to have a family get together in mid-August so we could all spend some time together.  Sadly, my father-in-law passed away a few weeks before the scheduled gathering. Rather than cancel the event we got together anyway so we could celebrate his life and enjoy being a family.  

This was Babycakes' first trip to "The Cabin."  It is definitely rustic (no indoor plumbing, just an outhouse) but it is wonderful to escape the modern world if only for a few hours. I think she enjoyed her first visit...

One of the Hubs' cousin's brought his dog which was a HUGE hit with little miss!

Some of the kids went mushroom hunting.  While I'm not a fan of mushrooms, the Hubs is and he enjoyed them...especially since they were deep fried!

This was Babycakes' first slice of watermelon!  She loved it!

 

Just like her Mama, Babycakes enjoys a chocolate dessert at any opportunity.

While this took place nearly 2 months ago, it was one of the more memorable parts of our rather rocky summer.  I hope to make many more trips to "The Cabin" with Babycakes so she knows the mountains near where her Grandpa grew up.  :-)

WOW!  So much has happened since my last post.  I really wanted to try and blog more, but time is just not something I have a lot of these days.  So I thought I should start with what has been going on in the most recent past and work from there.
Yesterday we found out that Babycakes has Roseola.  She has been sick for more than a week now but it wasn't until the rash really popped out that we found out why she had been so sick.  We had been to the doctor twice and I had been on the phone at least as many times before we finally got (what I feel) the correct diagnosis.
Here is my sweet girl on Sunday afternoon...

We were watching the Redskins (FINALLY) break their losing streak at FedEX Field.  Poor little thing was just feeling rotten. :-(
Apparently once the rash pops out she is no longer contagious and will begin to feel better.  She was a lot more interactive today than she has been so that's a good sign.  I think this knocked her out of commission for a bit so it may be a while before she is back into her regular routine.
Looking forward to posting some pictures of recent adventures soon!

Winter Coat Update

With fall in the air I thought I would do a quick post on the SUPER cute coat I got for Babycakes. 

A few weeks ago I stopped at a yard sale on my way home from the Farmer's Market and found a cute little red coat for $1!!!

While cute, I felt it needed a little "something" for my sweet girl.  It really looked like a boy coat but for $1 I really couldn't pass it up!  Enter the fun flower buttons...

As you can see from the picture they were $.78 at Wal-Mart.  I looked at a fabric store (I really wanted ladybug buttons) but couldn't find what I wanted (read - could afford).  I found some really nice bamboo buttons, but to buy enough for the coat it would have been $10!  I only paid $1 for the coat!  So I settled on the Wal-Mart buttons.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about it but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Take a look...

I think the model is beautiful!  I decided if we are blessed with another little one down the road that I can always change the buttons if needed.

Let's recap:
Coat $1.00
Buttons: 2 packs @ $.78
Grand Total: $2.56 for a "new" winter coat.

What do you think?