Peek a AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Taylor has put a fun new spin on peek a boo, check it out, and yes, this went on for a sum total of half an hour before any of us got bored and moved on. Entertainment is kinda scarce around here!

Merry Christmas!

This year we had a big Christmas celebration series. We started with our personal family Christmas on the evening of the 23rd (Since Jody and I were in work clothes, and Taylor was still wearing her pajamas from the night before we opted out of taking any pics. Trust me, you didn't miss much). This year we really didn't go berserk on Christmas presents, Taylor is still young enough that we can get away with not having to spend our life savings, so we just got her a few little things, a pillow pet, an Elmo microphone, an elephant thingie that shoots balls out of the top, etc.

After we unwrapped our goodies at home, we piled into the car and headed to Gruver to see Jody's folks. We arrived to the greeting of most of Taylor's cousins playing and having a grand old time. Now, my child usually goes to bed no later than 9:30, and that's pushing it pretty hard. Yeah, she stayed up till around 11:30, and still woke up at her usual time the next morning. And as an added bonus, she refused to nap. Guess who was in an awesome mood? But crabbiness aside, Taylor enjoyed Christmas eve playing with her cousins, aunts, and uncle. And in keeping with holiday tradition, I once again left the camera in the diaper bag and didn't get a single photo of our time in Gruver. I swear, Jody really does have a family, I can just never remember to take pictures of them :(

And last but not least, we came back home and spent Christmas day with my dad's bunch. This, I did manage to get pictures of. And to make up for the lack of pictures at the other Christmas events, I'm posting generously of this one. Taylor had a lot of fun chasing Kadey around and mimicking her every move, until about 6:00. Then the demon came out, and the aftermath of not sleeping worth a darn the day before finally caught up. She was a peach, let me tell ya. But all in all Christmas was a great time (Even though Jody and I hate Christmas, it was fun to see all the kiddos opening up their presents and playing together.), but thankfully I get to take the stupid tree down today and get my living room back in order!

Kadey's a pro at opening presents. However, she didn't seem to believe us when we kept telling her this was a jacket (it's upside down, Bug!).

Two-ton-Tessie had to help Taylor with her presents. As is common at this age, someone was waaaaay more interested in the paper than the stuff inside.

Wow! I got a Buzz Lightyear!

......and the fit-throwing begins. Mommy had to finish opening her presents because she refused to participate any more.

Trying out the awesome new chair from Papa Val and Gigi.

She would watch Kadey, and try and do exactly what she was doing.

Uncle Jered just wanted to play with the toys.....

What are you lookin' at?

Trying out the new trike from Aunt Stacy and Uncle Frank. Her legs are barely long enough, but she started to get the hang of it pretty quick!

Oooh, what do these do?

This Time, I'm Going Energy Efficient

I remember when I was pregnant with Taylor, I was still finishing up school, busting my hump in clinicals 3 days a week, and studying to take my national registry. And amidst all of that I still had time to plan a wedding (albeit it wasn't a fancy wedding or anything, but dammit it was a lot of work!), do prenatal pilates every day, and still manage to suck down a few O'Doul's at any social gathering that happened to come up.

Yeah, this time, not so much. Seriously, I'm doing good to bathe and put on clean clothes every day. I am averaging once a week for actually styling my hair (the rest of the time you can see me sporting a Steven Segal ponytail), and I honestly can't remember the last time I shaved my legs. I'm surprised Jody hasn't already moved out due to that last point alone.

This kid might be part vampire, because it's truly sucking all of my energy from me. I don't know if it's because I'm actually working full time now, or the fact that with a toddler in the house the chores and picking up never come to an end. But either way, the thought of doing anything other than laying on the couch until bedtime (or until I pass out on said couch and wake up in a pool of my own drool at 3:00 a.m. because my darling hubby knows better than to wake the sleeping beast) absolutely does not appeal to me. It's a miracle we haven't all starved to death seeing as how I'm not much of a cook these days, thank god for frozen pizza.

Random Pics From Jody's Camera

The only thing that sucks about having two cameras it that one rarely gets used, that folks, would be Jody's camera. I hate using it because it is NOT user friendly and my pictures always come out crappy, and Jody usually doesn't use it because he knows that I'm too lazy to dig for the eighteen cords you need to retrieve your pictures once you've taken them. However, that said, sometimes my sneaky little husband will pull out his camera (usually when a certain short person has carried mine off to god knows where), and snap a few pics. The downside to this is that my dear husband forgets all about them once he takes them, and I don't find out they even exist until a month or two down the road (for those of you who know Jody well, this will not come as a big surprise). Anyhoo, here are some fun pics we found on his camera yesterday, enjoy!


Sometimes it's fun to wear your best friend as a hat. I'm pretty sure my best friend would be pretty pissed if I tried this with her though.......


She kept him on her head for quite a while......


I think she may have forgotten he was even there.


Scaling the fortress of chairs at Grammy's house.


Weird new face that she's been making a lot here lately. Really?


Awww, look at those choppers!

Oops, We Did It Again

So, I have noticed in the last week that I've had PMS from hell. Moody as all getout (I know my head has done Exorcist style rotations at least three times in the last few days), bloated, crampy, you name it. After 3 days of waiting patiently for Mother Nature to give me a little reassurance, I finally took the plunge on Friday and peed on a stick. You can see the results below.


Yep.

*By the way, you're not reading this post in real time, I'm actually writing this on November 14, actual publish date still to be determined. I just thought it would be fun to write this now while I'm still kinda in the moment, vs. later when pregnancy brain takes over and I can't even remember my name.

Needless to say, Jody and I are a little stunned, kinda apprehensive, and also pretty damned excited. We were planning on waiting until January to start trying, but apparently I accidentally washed our pants together at some point and here we go again. But back to the whole pregnancy test thing - why in the hell do they only come in a minimum of two per pack? I mean shit, how many times do you pee before you concede that you're really prego? And I want to meet the idiots that buy the bulk pack of six. Really, why is that necessary?!?!? So, for $13.95 I used only one of the two included tests, and now have a leftover for who knows what purpose. Maybe Taylor and I can use it for arts and crafts?

But enough of that, the real excitement is that we're having another baby! Holy crap! I really questioned whether or not we were qualified to have one, and now the powers that be have decided we are apt enough to give it another go. The irony is that my due date is July 19. So not only will my kids' birthdays be a few days/weeks apart, at least my existing maternity wardrobe will be weather appropriate for another round. As far as the rest of the thoughts humming in my head, "Where will we put this kid? On the roof maybe?" or "Holy hell, we'll have TWO kids in daycare. What organ am I going to have to sell on the black market to afford that?" At least we have some time to sort that all out. In the meantime, any well wishes and/or cash donations (not really, I'm just being a smartass on that last one) are always appreciated.

Best Text Message, EVER

The other day while I'm at work I receive the following text/picture mail from my husband:

"New feat, she finally conquered Mt. Craftsman, then descended its back slope."





And that folks, is why I love my husband.

On a different note, we took Taylor to have a follow up visit with the ENT about her ear tubes, and one has already come out, and the second is almost out as well. As long as she stays ear infection free for the rest of the winter we won't have to put new ones in, hooray! I'm seeing a lot of swimming in our future this summer!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Today I took Taylor to have the obligatory photo with the local mall Santa. It seemed like a great idea, she was in a good mood, had just finished eating lunch, and we were well ahead of the afternoon crankies that set in around 3:00. Yeah, I was dead wrong. She did great all the way up until we were waiting in line. Then my little darling started screeching louder than Axl Rose all the while arching her back and swinging at anything in her wingspan. Literally the child could not be consoled, we were those people. I know the main problem was that she wanted to be loose to run a muck as opposed to being confined by either the stroller or my arms. But still its always a little nerve wracking to be the parent of that kid when you're in a public place. Especially a public place where good behavior from the kiddos is constantly brought to mind by the big guy in red. Fortunately, she was unsure enough of what was going on when I plopped her down in a total stranger's lap that she didn't have a chance to react in terror before it was all said and done. Here's our $20 "Santa experience" below.


Mom? Who is this guy? And where are you going? You're coming back, right????

We Wish You A Gaudy Christmas!

Well I finally broke down and put up the Christmas decorations yesterday. In years past we've really struggled to hit the sales at all the right times so that we could have enough ornaments to make our poor tree not look so bare and Charlie Brown-esque. This year however, Jody's grandmother passed down some of her hand made ornaments to add to our collection, and even though I tried to cram as much on our little tree as I could, we still have a TON that didn't get used. I don't know why, but I almost feel a little guilty, like I'm wasting if I don't put them all out. So, as it stands, our tree sorta looks like it came from Liberace's estate sale, but who cares, I can at least say that we're using all of our resources.

Also, please be sure and note our super awesome stocking hanger that's waaaaaay too long for the bookshelf on which it is perched.


Our cramped and gaudy Christmas corner. I had to totally rearrange my living room to cram this little bit of stuff in. And no, that's not a painting of Jesus looking down fondly at our beer-can tree topper, it's the Dude from "The Big Lebowski."


The first picture had to be taken very quickly, because I could hear the stomp-stomp of spud feet behind me making a beeline for my finished work.

Gobble Gobble!

Ok, as with all my posts these days, this is a little on the late side. But I am happy to report that we survived another Thanksgiving holiday relatively unscathed! This year we continued in our tradition of making the road trip to Ft. Worth to hang with my mom and do the big DeWitt Thanksgiving extravaganza. Unfortunately for us, this year Taylor has decided that she is not riding in the carseat for more than two hours, period. Each way we were serenaded with her screams (literally, the child screamed at the top of her lungs) for two hours non-stop. Now, I know what you're gonna say - give the kid a break, she needs to get out and stretch her legs. Well, I can tell you that we did indeed try that several times to no avail. Finally she would wear herself out and crash for a little bit, during which time Jody and I drove like banshees. You need to potty? Tough, you're gonna hold it.

But once we arrived we had a great time playing with Lovie and Poppie, and all the rest of the wild crew that I claim as my family. This year's turnout was a bit smaller than usual, but we were still happy to get to visit with everyone. And as my cousin Zach mentioned, the lower attendance meant that you didn't have to knock anyone down to get the side dishes that you wanted.

After a couple of days in the metroplex we headed out again to see Jody's crew in Gruver. Taylor has grown quite attached to her Grandpa, and followed the poor guy all day wanting him to carry her around and to stare intently at his mustache whiskers.

Finally, we made it back home, only somewhat the worse for wear. I have vowed that we are not taking a long road trip again without the assistance of a DVD player to keep Taylor entertained in the car. Stay tuned, hopefully I can get our Christmas tree up and get some pics of it posted before New Year's.

Wow, Lovie. All that boxing you've been doing is really paying off.

Playing fetch with Great Grandpa DeWitt. Yes, my kid will fetch. I told you, she's gifted.

Trying so very hard to climb up on the furniture. Don't worry though, she mastered it about five minutes later.

World's biggest sippy cup.

Playing with Grandpa on a spare mattress. See, this is where Jody comes up with his creative ideas for toys (i.e. - giving Taylor rides around the house on the hand-truck).

Taylor and her cousin Kaylen working very intently on making a "meal" out of play dough.