Christmas

It was a fun filled holiday, and Emily will even still sleep in her own bed after we got home. She got to spend time with cousins, meet a couple second cousins that are her age, and all in all a busy week! The cutest thing was how much Blaine adored her. He had to hold her a few times and get his picture made, although I used Mom's camera and so I don't have all of those. Here are a few pictures of the weekend.

White Christmas??

There is a 25-50% chance that there will be a white Christmas in my part of the universe, although earlier the weatherman said it would only be enough to cover the ground and be pretty...exactly what I mean when I say white Christmas. I'm hesitant to even think that would be nice because I remember the Christmas of 2002, driving up 65 along the beautiful Buffalo River and in the Ozarks. Beautiful, and very dangerous in icy turned blizzard like conditions. There is this motel there...one I'm not sure I would give rave reviews to. The only heat is a window air conditioning unit that didnt really work. The only TV got one channel and everyone was blue on it...not blue like sad, blue like in Smurf colored. That is the only night I've spent along the Buffalo that I havent really enjoyed. I woke up early to the drip, drip, drip of melting snow....melting snow so I crawled out of bed (I was fully dressed, even in my coat!) and went out to my car and continued on. It started snowing again about the time I crossed the state line...but 22 hours (normally a 4 hour drive) after I'd convinced my boss I needed to leave before the snow, I safely arrived home. Now tomorrow they are predicting a nice assortment of weather...if it looks bad, I'm simply staying put. Its not like I'd be alone this time around...I have my husband, my daughter and of course my funny looking puppy. (she's had half a haircut...yes, half...she looks like my Barbies that I gave haircuts to when I was little....good thing I didnt become a hairdresser!)

I am waiting on an inspector to come...he said sometime on MOnday but he didnt know what time...I assumed by 4, after all he works for the state and I'm sure will be heading home before it gets too late! And then later this evening I have a lady coming by to check out my daycare...so pray that both counts go well! And since chances are slim that I'll post again before Christmas--Merry Christmas to all! and in the words of Tiny Tim "God Bless Us Everyone"

Videos

I finally got these on the computer...its hard to catch her grinning on video when I'm home by myself. Kendall doesnt know how to use the camera:)
This was last week

cute baby

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Sisters

Ok, so when I was growing up, especially as a teenager there were certain things I felt expected to do because my sister had done them. For instance, she worked at KFC, so I worked at KFC. Don't get me wrong, we were VERY different, still are, but when it came time to pick a college, I wouldn't even consider going to school where she was at because I wanted to make sure I was doing something she had never done. Then I fulfilled many dreams I'd had...spending an entire summer in Yellowstone, three total out west, somewhat living out the song, "Wide Open Spaces" forgetting that I ever felt like everything I did was because my sister had done it.

I have a lot of time to think of these things and got to thinking about the irony of it while feeding Emily late last night. The ironic part. My sister had gotten married on May 19. When we were deciding on our wedding day (which was based almost 100% on the date of departure for the cruise we wanted before prices went to summer rates) fate once again put me back in my sister's footsteps, however the marriage part seems to be working out much better for me. And then we decided to have a baby. And her birthday is the same as my sister's oldest. Strange how things work out isn't it?

And now that wonderful little girl I have is sound asleep...I'm missing my opportunity so I need to go.

Daycare, anyone??

As I've written a few times before, I am (hoping) to open a daycare and stay home with my daughter. I had another inspection today...almost have all the requirements met. The final stage is starting out to be quite a challenge. I need some kids to watch or it isnt a very successful daycare. And the lady that does the inspection doesn't recommend any of the current providers in the raymore area. So.....that is my current predicament. Now I need to get my little one laid down and the spitup off my shirt.

Bedtime on Christmas Eve

Ok, so I've been saving this story up since I started my blog to share with you. I've got to preface this by saying a year before, my mom, my husband and I went outside the windows of my sisters house and my mom said "Ho Ho Ho" I think she was supposed to sound like Santa. My husband and I had to do everything in our power not to laugh so hard that the boys heard us because it was so funny a Santa sound. That was two years ago. Ok, so last year, my oldest nephew was 6 and they lived next door to my parents. It was Christmas Eve. My dad was working. The boys had spent the day down at Mom's with us, and from breakfast, the guys had been checking on Santa's progress as he made his way around the globe. Everything was going well until about 7 o'clock. That's when Santa made it to North America. Now, when you are 6, you don't have too great a concept of distance, the only thing you know is that you are supposed to be asleep or Santa won't come. So, we are having fun sitting around when my husband says, "Hey, Santa's getting close, he's in New York." If you've ever wanted to see two little boys go from hyperactive to traumatized in an instant, that is the sentence that did it. He's close, how close is that. Panic sets in because they are at Grandma's wide awake and not at home asleep. A geography lesson of how Santa had to cover the east coast and south America too, using anything we could find as a globe, and the boys tried to act brave but you could tell they were worried. So we decided we would have to call Santa to confirm that the boys had at least an hour before he would be arriving. Remember my dad, who is working at this time and doesn't have a clue about the events that have taken place. The kids are sitting right there, we couldn't explain to him what was going on, but when he answered the cell phone, Grandma said, "Hi Santa" initiating the conversation. Luckily "Santa" caught on very quickly and put on his Santa voice to talk to the boys and assure them they had time to get to sleep although they shouldn't wait too long. So, confident that Santa wasn't going to miss them, they headed home, and along the way the 6 year old said, "You know, Santa sounded a lot like Grandpa, but different. He didn't sound sick like he did last year." Oh, the innocence of children.

Yes, Santa did arrive with lots of gifts!

And yes, they do realize that Christmas is really about Jesus. We were going to Silver Dollar City three years ago on Christmas and talking about what we were celebrating and Blaine wanted to know why we celebrated for so long and everyone put up all the lights. Then he said he knew why. It was because it was Jesus's birthday and since He was God's son we needed to celebrate it for a whole month and that was why we did everything we did in December.

What will this year bring? I guess all we can do is wait and see!

More Cousins

Emily has now met all but one of her cousins. The boys got to come see her this weekend, and although she doesnt do much right now, Cameron said she was awesome. I kinda think so too. Soon, I will be putting up a Christmas story about bedtime and Santa Claus. Stay tuned, it is very funny--although don't let your kids read it, it will give away Santa's "tricks":)

Emily's first trip

Last week we loaded up the car with nearly everything but the kitchen sink and went to Texas to visit family. Emily's aunt and cousins were very excited to get to meet her and hold her. She got held all day and got used to going to bed between 11 and 12. So now guess what time bed time is? Anyway, it was definitely different travelling with a baby, but she did great, only crying when she was hungry and needed to stop and eat. So here are a few pictures from last week. Lauren and Emily

Playing with Daddy

Andrew and Emily

addition

trying to put olan mills pics on here, let me know if you can see them