Christmas and Sickies

I promise to catch up on Christmas blogging when I get back home this week. That's right, we are still in Alabama. We got a little delayed because baby girl developed RSV last Sunday. We spent 2 nights in the hospital and have been recovering since then. She is doing better, thankfully, and we have a recheck with our pediatrician on Tuesday. I will update with pictures soon!

Santa!

We took the trip to the mall to see Santa today. We were supposed to go to the TV station last Saturday, but ended up having the stomach virus (worst I've ever had it I think). Livee likes Santa when we walk by and on TV, but sitting on his lap was a different story. Oh well! Can't have a smiling picture every year!

Sunday Funday

Dave started his new schedule today!!!! He now works Monday thru Friday 3am until 1pm. I know it sounds grueling, but he was super excited because: #1-he is Monday thru Friday and #2-he will get to be home in the afternoons when Hayden is here. So yesterday we had Da-da at home for the first time in over a year. I took Hayden to have his hair cut and then he and I went to Publix and picked up a gingerbread house kit.

Hayden has been very excited about Christmas this year and at school last week they told the story of the Gingerbread Man. They made a Gingerbread Man and then he ran away!!! They looked for him all week (because he left little crumbly clues) and finally found him on Friday in another classroom. Too funny!

All that to say that Dave always wants to build a gingerbread house and this year it seemed like a very good activity for us. The Publix kit was great because all we had to do was decorate the house, not actually build the house. Loved that!

The finished project with a very proud little boy!

We also decided to get a real tree this year. I love the smell of a real tree and wanted a small one to go in front of our stairs. Below the trees is a picture of the dining room. I love having the table set and the poinsettia makes a cheap centerpiece, especially since I picked up the pot at Home Depot and it ended up being free! And we got a new stocking holder this year, so I changed up the mantle decorations. I am all about simplicity and decorating with Christmas cards seemed to be pretty easy. Can't wait to see all of them on there! Hopefully I can get a picture of the outside soon. We didn't go all out, but we did add an extra tree on the porch and a wreath on the dining room window. And of course the kids' trees are up so I'll have to include those in a post soon.







Livee and I spent the morning doing more Christmas shopping and then we had to pick up Hayden at noon because they got out of school early today. It's going to take some getting used to, but I think we are really going to enjoy Dave's new schedule!

Monogram Chick's Giveaway - Day 2

She's giving stuff away AGAIN! Isn't this a handy little bag?

Monogram Chick's Giving Stuff Away - Day 1!

Visit Monogram Chick for all things personalized! She's giving this away today:

The link is on the left!

The Turning Point

As you know, Livee is a little squirt. So little, as a matter of fact, that she still does not meet the full 20 pounds required for this seat.

BEFORE you gasp in horror...At her 15 month checkup she was 19 1/2 lbs, and since that was a full month ago she probably is at 20 lbs by now.

Anyhow, we decided to keep her rear-facing for as long as possible when she went for her 12 month checkup. She was still using Hayden's toddler seat and I knew I didn't want to buy another one like it. I wanted to buy the pretty one you see here because it is softer and cuter. :) The only problem was it was only forward-facing and only for a 20 lb child. You get the point.

In the middle of waiting, though, was our trip to Gatlinburg. Livee isn't the greatest rider anyway, but I could tell on the way there that it was getting to her. While we were riding around Gatlinburg she was fine because my dad and Dave were in the back to entertain her, but once we started for home it was back to cranky Livee. It was slow going anyway and somewhere between an hour and two hours from home Livee started screaming and then she puked. Yuck. We immediately found a Wal-Mart (they're everywhere, ya know?) and I went in with Hayden to buy a new seat. I was NOT riding home smelling puke the whole way. I left Dave with clean-up duty. I got back out to the parking lot to find Dave wiping down the seat underneath hers. That's right, the puke had gone EVERYWHERE. I was immediately thankful that I chose to go inside. Poor Dave. We left the old seat beside a dumpster and hit the road with Livee turned around. She loves it. She says "wheeeeee" every time we go down a hill. Bless her heart.

P.S. The picture is right after we turned her around. That's right, even after puking the "beauty queen" said cheese to have her picture made.