Christmas

Okay, seriously? Christmas is 4 days away? Are you kidding me? It totally doesn't feel like it. Sometimes I do a double take at our Christmas tree thinking - surely not! I'm so excited though! I don't know if I'm more excited about Christmas itself or about having over a week off from work!! Today and yesterday were Christmas parties at Kaitlyn's school. She has had more sugar than she (or I) can handle! It's been so much fun talking with her about Santa coming, seeing family, opening presents... but last night when I was putting her to bed we talked a lot about Baby Jesus - the real meaning of Christmas.

She loves her tiny white bible that she got when she was born. It is TINY, and has no pictures, but she loves to "read it." Last night she "read" to me (her bible was upside down). She said, in one long sentence, "Mary and Josep are baby Jesus Mommy and Daddy he was borned in a manger with all the cows and he looked up and saw a big star and then he went back into his tent." How precious is that. Her favorite Christmas song is Away in a Manger. She sings every word and it is so cute to hear her sing the higher notes. She loves to turn on the Christmas tree lights and make sure all the ornaments are in the right place, and that all the presents have bows on them so that "Santa doesn't get sad."

I'm so excited about starting Christmas traditions with her. This year we are going to about 4 different houses over a 2 day period. Crazy!! Next year we will probably stay home and start new traditions within our family.


Kaitlyn has also learned the words to Aretha Franklin's "RESPECT." Not even kidding. For about 2 weeks now in the bathtub she will just say, "What you want momma?" For some reason when she said that it made me think of that song, so I would just sing back "Baby, I got it! What you need..... and continue throughout the song." Oh the things you will do to make your kids laugh. Well, last night she again said, "What you want Momma?" This time I didn't respond, and she proceeded to sing the entire song with LOTS of "Sock it to me's." I laughed so hard.

Pictures

Here are more pictures from the weekend. The recap is below!!

Roommates!!!

I had such a FUN weekend with two of my dearest friends - Sara and Sara. Two roommates from college that I have not seen since they have had babies!!! Sara H. I never even saw pregnant!!! Insane... you should not let that much time go by without seeing friends!! They both have the absolute sweetest boys. Chase is 5 months old - and I swear never stops smiling. Cooper is 2 months old - SO fun to hold and love on a newborn baby!!

We just hung out on Thursday night - and by the time we got all 3 kids to bed it was close to 11:00 pm. We then watched a little Christmas Vacation, they helped me wrap some presents, and we just sat up and talked. How did we stay up late night after night in college??

On Friday we got some Christmas shopping done at the mall - then back home to feed and play with babies!! Let me just say right here how IN LOVE Kaitlyn was with these boys!! She loved them - constantly patting their heads, and giving her "baby brothers" hugs and kisses. She will be a good Big Sister someday.

Friday night Sara W. went to Body Step with me!! Her cousin Holly teaches the class - it was so fun working out with her. This was her first time to do this class and she did not miss ONE step. Don't get in her way, she will kick your booty.
What better way finish off a work out than to go eat Abuelos?!? Yum, yum!!

Another late night Friday night... I told James to go put Kaitlyn down at like 10:00!! Well, around 11:00pm, Kaitlyn comes into the living room - and James is asleep. Nice. When Kaitlyn gets really tired, she gets VERY talkative - and very scatterbrained. She just went off talking about 100 different things. I can't even remember what they were - I just remember laughing really hard.

Saturday we all had to say good-bye until February!! I am so thankful that they came to visit!!! I can honestly say that those two girls would do anything for me. They are the kind of friends that I will have my whole life. Love you girls!!

Saturday afternoon I braved the mall and finished up shopping. That place was a mad house!! But, I am proud to say that I have all but 2 Christmas presents bought. They are all wrapped and under the tree. Is Christmas really this weekend? Wow!!!

We went to lunch with some friends on Sunday after church and then home to take a nap. Ladies and Gentleman I took a 3 1/2 hour nap!!!! You read that correctly. I haven't done that in FOREVER!! (Thank you James!)
Our small group Christmas party was Sunday night. We hung out, had a fun gift exchange, and played Cranium. That is a fun game - and of course the girls won. Was it really even a competition?

James hasn't sent me pics yet of the weekend - but hopefully soon they will be up so you can see for yourself how dang cute Chase and Cooper were.

But here are a couple from our party last night. I am so blessed with such fun friends!!



I love pictures of people laughing. Especially Stephanie. That girl cracks me up.














Kaitlyn getting in on a little Cranium action:














The guys tried numerous times to cheat, but the girls won - of course.














Fun friends!!

Let Down

Wow. I'm pretty disappointed. I'll just cut and paste Sam's comment about it - he said exactly what I thought when I watched Alias last night:

MAN! What an incredible let down. They brought him back in a glorified dream sequence! Emille called it in the first five minutes. I was very disappointed. I just knew that when Jack and the lady rounded the corner and acted shocked it was because they were looking at vaughn in a hosptial bed, not some stupid baby nursery. They better bring him back for real for the Finale, or I'll never watch the show again! That will teach em!

I totally agree. The only cool part was seeing Sydney's mom. We'll see how it all comes together in March, but I'm not holding my breath.

Okay - so here is the random post/question of the day. Anyone who reads this please feel free to comment - all views are welcome!! This is another one from Sam. He asked me to ask this question on my blog b/c he doesn't think anyone reads his...whatever. Again, I'll just cut and paste the question, and you can leave your comment. It's a good one:

Recently I have had a few conversations with christians about drinking alcohol. Obviously, getting drunk is wrong. But what about having a beer or a glass of wine now and then? Can a christian do that? I would ask this on my blog but the only person who reads my blog is my mother, and frankly, I already know her opinion on the subject.

Watch the Pilot if you Have It!!

This is for all of my Alias fans out there. I know this is kind of last minute - but pay attention if you watch! This is from Chad Darnell's blog. He was a casting director for Alias - tonight is the last episode he did. It's also the last new episode for 3 stinking months!!!! Anyway.. here is what he has to say about it....


It all comes down to this.

After five years, my last episode of "Alias" airs tonight. Wednesday night.

DO. NOT. MISS. IT.

Even if you've never seen it before, watch tomorrow. It's one of those episodes that brings the entire story full circle in a lot of ways.

Fortunately, the ending has not gotten out. (Come on, you know there has to be a twist... it's going off the air for three months!)

I can not WAIT to hear what you have to think. I'm so excited. I'm having a party just because I want to see their faces. West Coast people - do NOT talk to East Coasters or read ANYTHING during the time change.

You know what I think I might do right now... I might watch the pilot... Yeah. I'm going to rewatch the pilot. You know. Just to rewatch the pilot. Cause it might be fun to rewatch the pilot.

Weekend rundown...

Pretty boring post, but here's what we did....

Friday:

I left work promptly at 5:00, ran home to get my workout clothes and went to the gym. Did Body Step with my good friend Rene.. and had some seriously sore calves by the end of the hour. (Body Step is not one of my regulars, but I LOVE it).
Went back home to get James and Kaitlyn and went to Wal-mart to get Kaitlyn a princess dress for a birthday party she was going to on Saturday.
Had a nice, healthy dinner from Arby's. Riiight.
Went home and watched Kaitlyn's new Leap Frog video. She was addicted to her Leap Letter Factory video and learned all the letters and their sounds pretty quickly, so we thought it was time for an upgrade to the "Storybook Factory." 2 years old is not too early to learn how to read, right? :) It's a cute video none the less.

Saturday:

Got up and made some biscuits for James and Kaitlyn - and I went back to the gym for more Body Step. I tell you that place is so addicting.
Came home and got Kaitlyn all ready for her friend Emma's princess birthday party. Kaitlyn looked so cute in her dress and tiara. I need to be better about posting pictures.
Emma's parents went all out for this party. Their house was decorated so cute and there were fun games in every room: duck pond in the bathtub, magic carpet rides, face painting, crown decorating...
The best part about it was - all the parents left! We totally expected to stay and join in the festivities - but she had it all planned so the parents could go out and enjoy a morning of Xmas shopping, or whatever else... how fun is that?! (That hour and a half went by WAY too fast)
We picked Kaitlyn up and took her home for a nap.

James went to the Abilene High/Pierce basketball game. Our friend Justin Reese coaches for Pierce, so he and his wife Hollie and their precious daughter Riley were in town. He had fun seeing him and a bunch of other people that went out to support Justin!

When he got back, it was off to get more Christmas shopping done! We went to Toys R Us and took turns watching Kaitlyn and picking stuff out for her. We had so much fun! We, or Santa, ended up with an awesome doll house, the Dora version of Candyland, a pink baby doll (that is the only thing she has asked for), and some dog who's nose actually gets cold when it gives you kisses. (James picked this one out.) We also got her some "big girl underwear" - James hates the other word. My goal is to have this girl potty trained by New Years. I have one whole week off of work, so that is my plan. Wish me luck!
For dinner Saturday night we went to James's favorite - Texas Roadhouse. Yummy.

Sunday:

Kaitlyn had a hard time getting ready for church on Sunday. She's lazy like her Mommy in the mornings. I mean, who really wants to put a dress on at 8:00 in the morning?
After church, we were invited to Jim and Jody Reese's house to join their family for lunch. This was probably the highlight of our weekend. It was so much fun to be a part of that awesome family for just a couple of hours. James and I enjoyed visiting with Justin and Hollie - and Kaitlyn always loves going somewhere new to see what she can get into.

After lunch all the Reese boys came over to our house to play poker. They chose our house so that Kaitlyn could take a nap while I did some more shopping. That didn't work out so well. No nap for Kaitlyn! But James was the big poker winner so that was nice!

We ended the weekend with our small group and dinner at Joe's. I didn't cook all weekend! Wait.... I never cook.

Monday morning - back at work. Campus is dead b/c all the students are gone for 5 weeks of Christmas break. So, it's pretty quiet around here.

I hope everyone had a fun and safe weekend!

A much better day...

Well, things have been better for Kaitlyn the past 2 days. (We'll see when we pick her up today what her note says though). I went yesterday during my lunch hour and talked with her teacher. I just needed to feel better about it - which I TOTALLY did when I left.

I just wanted to make sure that Kaitlyn wasn't turning into one of "those kids" that every teacher dreads having. Sharyl didn't feel this way at all. She said if she had time to write notes about all the good things the kids do, she would - but unfortunately all I hear are the not so good. She also said that (and I'm not saying this to be one of those braaaaagy moms) Kaitlyn just talks so well, that the other kids can't communicate back with her, and that frustrates her. She can't figure out a way to express her frustration. Of course, this isn't the only thing that makes her mad - 2 year old's just fight with each other sometimes!

Anyway, Sharyl had Kaitlyn help her make something that she could take her "anger" out on. This is hilarious. She decorated an empty 2 liter Coke bottle and put a bunch of rocks and stuff in it. Whenever K gets mad, she can just go get it and shake it or something. I totally didn't think K would understand this concept - but she gets it! Sharyl said she uses it almost every time she gets upset. I can just picture Kaitlyn growling at herself, walking over and furiously shaking or hitting the table with this bottle. Hilarious.

Anyway, she had a MUCH better day at school yesterday - and a great morning this morning, so we will see.

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This weekend Kaitlyn is going to a birthday party for one of her new friends, Emma. It's a princess party - so we need to go out and buy her a little princess dress today. It should be fun to see all her little friends all dressed up.

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We just had a Christmas party with the University Relations department here at ACU. They gave everyone gift card to the mall! I'm so pumped about that!

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It is supposed to get in the 60's on Saturday!!!! What is with Texas weather. I mean, seriously. No wonder everyone has sore throats and runny noses.

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Today is finally Friday!! I'm looking forward to a weekend at home with no major plans. I feel like we have been going and going on the weekends, it's nice to just hang out and relax.

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Last night when Kaitlyn and I were laying in bed she just cupped my face in her hands and said, "I love you Mommy... you're so pretty." That was by far the best part of my week.

Christmas Lights and Santa

Kaitlyn had an especially hard day at school yesterday. She has been really temperamental, bossy, and moody lately at home, so I sort of expected this to happen at school. My precious, beautiful, smart, funny girl was sent to the office yesterday. Twice. She was sitting in there when James went to go pick her up. Apparently she had a problem with scratching other kids AND her teacher. This is the worst feeling as a parent. This is when I hate having to work the most. How am I supposed to discipline her consistently and get her on the right track if I only see her for 3-4 hours a day? My heart is seriously heavy about this and I just cried and cried this morning when we were getting her ready to go. Any full time working moms out there with any advice???? I could really use some.

ANYWAY... since she had a such a hard day, we decided to go do something fun. We drove around and looked at a bunch of Christmas lights and then we drove out to Celebration Park. This is about 10 minutes outside of Abilene. It's like $15 per car load and you drive through literally a million Xmas lights. It's really fun to look at. They added something new this year - the Igloos. One of the enormous igloos is a fun gift shop and snack area. Outside of it is a big fire pit and you can buy the stuff to roast marshmallows. Also, Santa is there. This Santa looked so real! The real beard and everything. Kaitlyn was pretty shy at first and would not go near him, but once she saw other kids do it, she was a little more brave. (Especially when she noticed that you get a toy if you go sit on his lap) She sat there with her head down most of the time, acting totally shy. He guessed that she wanted a baby doll and that made her perk up a little bit. That is ALL she has asked for so far - a pink baby doll with pink hair. She lifted her head up and smiled long enough for a picture. It turned out pretty cute - but not worth the $7.50 we had to pay for it. Rip Off!!!!! She was also pretty proud that Santa had a beard "just like Pappy!" (I'll scan the picture in when I get home - so check back)

The other igloo was a lazer show. It was pretty fun too. Again, she seemed terrified at first going into this huge dome that was dark, but she warmed up to it. The lazers were just pictures of angels, Mary and Jesus, stars, wise men, etc. You could buy the 3D glasses, but we didn't and it was just as neat. It was so sweet to hear her little voice say over and over, "There is Mary and Baby Jesus!"

We spent about $25 bucks - but we were there for well over an hour and she had a great time.

It is FREEZING today!!!! Yikes! Too bad it is supposed to be like 60 degrees again by the weekend. No wonder everyone is getting sick.

Have a great Wednesday! And if you think about it, say a prayer for Kaitlyn, Rainbow School, and her frustrated Mommy. Thanks!

Arbonne, Movies, and Naps

I don't think I can stress enough how tired I am this morning! I don't know what my deal is. Just the fact that it's Monday I guess.

We had a pretty good weekend. Kaitlyn started to perk up about the middle of Saturday. She was pretty weak and lazy for a good day and a half.

This weekend was my Arbonne launch, and the best part about it was getting to see Meredith!!
I am so thankful that she drove the incredibly boring drive to Abilene to do this for me. What a great "sponsor!" Both of the "parties" went really well. It was good just to let people know this new venture that I'm getting into and enjoying some good food at the same time! This also allowed James and Kaitlyn some quality time together.



On Friday night James took Kaitlyn out to see Chicken Little. She LOVED it. She sat and watched the entire movie. James said it was so much fun to watch her get into it, laugh, and get to know the characters. I wish I could have gone too! On Saturday during the party they went to Chucky Cheese. She was excited about giving that big "chucky mouse" a hug.

Saturday afternoon we just hung out. James and Kaitlyn took good long naps - I snoozed a little bit and watched some TV.
When Kaitlyn woke up we enjoyed some time outside with our neighbors. They have a little girl that is just a few months older than Kaitlyn. Her name is Kelly and they love playing together. (When they are not arguing over who's bike is who's) So we went out in the 80 degree weather in our flip flops and talked to them while they put up their Christmas lights. There is something wrong with sweating and putting up Christmas lights at the same time. It's December people. (But is sure is cold today!!)

It was good to be at Highland yesterday. We've been out of town the past 2 weekends - so it felt good to be back at our church.
Last night at our small group we discussed the idea of splitting. It's really large right now, and it kind of defeats the purpose of a SMALL group. I immediatly thought back to our group in Dallas when it split. I really think it is so important to meet with a smaller, more intimate group. Everyone seems really excited about it, but we are just not sure on exactly who goes where. In Dallas it was easy to just split by location. In Abilene - you can get anywhere in 10 minutes. Anyway, I'm anxious and excited to see how it ends up, and I look forward to seeing how God works in the changes ahead!

I hope everyone had a good weekend! If any of you get a chance, go read www.canon.webhop.org. This little boy's story is amazing. He just received a liver transplant, and the way it came about is nothing short of a miracle. James and I went to school with Chandra - his mom. Her journal entries are amazing to read.

Have a good Monday!

Poor Kaitlyn

I hope this blog makes sense. I am going on about one hour sleep from last night.

I knew something was wrong right when we got Kaitlyn from school yesterday. She was complaining of her tummy hurting. She is NOT a complainer, and she is a pretty tough girl, so I could tell she really wasn't feeling well. We had to make a quick run to Sams, and she just wanted to be held the entire time. When we got home, you could tell she was just really uncomfortable - she didn't want to be held, she didn't want to lay down, etc.

James and I had plans with my work to go listen to Lester Holt speak at a dinner (MSNBC anchor). My office had spent good money on a table, so we had to go. My cousin Brenna came over, but when it was time for us to leave Kaitlyn just cried and cried. Broke my heart into about a kagillion pieces. I told Brenna that if she got sick to call us and one of us would come back.

Ten minutes later she calls. I wanted to go home so bad, but felt that I needed to stay b/c we're sitting with my boss, his wife, and like 8 other people. The dinner was on campus so it wouldn't take me long to get home if I needed too. James called once to tell me that she had thrown up again, and by the time I got home she had thrown up 6 times.

The rest of the night is history. She didn't sleep hardly at all and threw up probably 5 more times. We tried Pedialite during the night with no luck.

The morning she looks horrible and just kept saying, "Because I'm so thirsty." "Because I'm so thirsty." As I was getting ready for work (I'm only here for 2 hours then going back home), she had gone to the kitchen and grabbed the huge jug of Apple Juice and carried it into our room saying, "Because I just NEED this!" Sweet girl....

I gave her about half a sippy cup of half apple juice and half water. She drank it in like 2.3 seconds. Bless.

James said she has kept that down and seems to be a little more cheerful - so hopefully this won't last for long!

There is nothing worse than seeing your baby sick.

AHHHHH!!!!

This is how hard it is to get a 2 year old to actually look at the camera while trying to take Christmas card pictures.






Fortunately, our friend Hannah did a great job and we got some really cute ones too.