Say Cheese

Lee got me an awesome camera for Christmas. It is a touchscreen digital camera and very cool. Below are some pics from the past few days. More to come!

Merry Merry!

We had such a special Christmas!! Kylie really had so much fun and got so many wonderful gifts. On Christmas Eve, we headed to Demopolis to eat supper with my grandparents on my mom's side. Several of my aunts and uncles were there and we had so much fun visiting. That night, my parents came back with us to Selma and stayed at our house so they could see everything Santa brought Kylie. We cooked a big breakfast and all opened gifts together. Then that afternoon we headed back to Demop again for a late lunch with my dad's side of the family. More eating and opening, haha. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family! Thank you all for making Kylie's 1st Christmas so special.
Santa came to town


Even Dolly and Porter got treats from Santa

So Excited!


A little over stimulated


Playing in our new walker in Demop

Christmas in Demop

Adorable rocking horse from Uncle Kevin and Aunt Debi (it is so cute, you press one of its ears and it will make galloping noises, you press the other ear and his mouth moves as if he is eating hay and his tail moves back and forth, so cute!!!)

All I want for Christmas...is an Ear Infection????

Yes that is right. An ear infection, in fact make it a double right in time for Christmas. Yippee. We went to the Doc 2 weeks ago and Kylie was diagnosed with a double ear infection, never ran a fever or anything. Though she still does not sleep through the night, when she was getting up four and five times I had a feeling that was it and sure enough I was right. So when I took her in 2 weeks ago she got a 10 day round of antibiotics and we hoped that would clear it up. Well after day 10 she was still fussy and not sleeping well so Lee and I took her back in this morning. And unfortunately she still has a double ear infection as we approach Christmas. Our regular Doc is on vacation so we saw another Doctor who we love as much as our regular and he said we needed to up the antibiotic. So he gave her a shot and we start our second round of "the pink stuff" tomorrow. I hope baby girl will feel better on Thursday. And I have to report that last night she slept from 8 pm - 3 am. I know that is not great, but that was huge for us. Lee and I are still praying for sleep for Christmas!!!

Christmas in Tuscaloosa

This past weekend we had Christmas at Honey and Paw-Paw's house. We had such a good time. This Christmas is so special given that it is Kylie's 1st Christmas and Olivia, Christian, Daniel, and Vica's 1st Christmas with us. Needless to say, things were much more fun given that there are now 5 kids to share the excitement! We had wonderful food and such a good time visiting with Amanda, Jerry, Honey, Paw-Paw, and Maw-Maw (Lee's grandmother). We even managed to get in some last minute shopping while we were in Tuscaloosa. Thank you so much to Honey and Paw-Paw for a wonderful weekend and all of the amazing gifts!

Christmas Tree @ Honey and Paw-Paws

Olivia, Daniel, and Vica concentrating hard on opening their presents

Daniel with his scooter that Baby Kylie gave him

Kylie was very excited about her presents too!

Daniel and Vica...please notice her purple sunglasses. She is so funny. We gave her a pink scooter like Daniel's and she would put on her sunglasses and purse and be gone in a flash. Too funny!

Olivia got a fancy camera from Honey and Paw-Paw so she no longer has to use mine to do this. haha.

Someone's excited - I think this was taken around 6:30 am on Saturday morning. haha.

Lovin the Laugh and Learn puppy!

Kylie's 1st Christmas

I thought I would put some pics up of our Christmas decor so one day I could show Kylie. We don't have much this year since we moved into a bigger house. So I am planning on buying lots of decor after Christmas and next years post should be bigger and better.
Tree in our den

Some of our fav ornaments:
Kylie's 1st Christmas ornament

La and Lin gave Lee and I this ornament when we were engaged. It is so cute!

Mer- remember these?? I got these at Brookwood mall when I lived in Birmingham. They were more than I would normally pay for ornaments but I love them and I will always remember having them on our little tree in Homewood.

And of course we have some doggie ornaments for the canines.


And a tree would not be complete without some surprises underneath it

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care

And I just love these. My grandmother sent me a box of some of her old Christmas decor and I found these candles that are snowmen carolers. I think they are cute!

little tree in our living room

Front door, which does look pretty at night. We have never put up outside lights before and I think Lee really likes it. Maybe the next up and coming Clark Griswold..uh oh.

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Goodies

Last weekend, MomaBrown (my grandmother) came over and we baked lots of goodies! We had a really good time and I think we will make this a yearly thing since I live so much closer to her now. We baked tons of cookies and candies for neighbors, friends, and relatives. When I say we baked a lot of cookies, I am not exaggerating. My counters were full.

A long time ago there was a bakery in Demopolis that used to have cookies called Turtleback cookies. They were my favorite. I can remember sometimes Mom taking me after school to get a cookie. Instead of picking out the cute little decorated ones, I always would choose the turtlebacks. So that is what MomaBrown and I made and they turned out really good. All of my neighbors have loved them.
Here is the recipe that we used (I doubled the recipe):
1 box Duncan Hines spice cake
2 eggs
1/2 cup Wesson oil
2 T. water
Mix these ingredients together for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup chopped pecans. Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees.
For the icing on top:
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar (I used both light & dark)
3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
5 T. whipping cream (or milk...I used a can of evaporated milk because I had that on hand)
Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil and then simmer 2 minutes. Add confectioners sugar and cream and blend with wire whisk or blender. As you ice cookies, keep stove eye on lowest temperature to keep icing from setting.

The finished product ready for delivery!

Picture Fun

I saw some people doing this on their blogs and thought it was quite funny. Actually I am doing this b/c I want to see what our friends will post as their picture. I know I have some random pics some on my computer from forever ago that are pretty funny.

The object of the picture tag is to:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

NO CHEATING!

HAHA! This pic is Honey (Lee's mom) with a cute little pup the day I went to pick up Dolly from the breeder in Tuscaloosa. Honey fell in LOVE with this little man so I had to take a pic. He was sold but his new family had not come to pick him up yet. If he would not have been sold, who knows we may have had another little weenie dog running around!
Now I tag - KINSEY, MEREDITH, LAUREN, & MORGAN!! Remember no cheating!
And since I was looking through that picture folder I could not resist posting a pic of Dolly from that same day. Look how little she was!!

The Gingerbread Man

Every year I have always wanted to purchase a gingerbread house kit or train kit to decorate. But have always saved that $10 b/c I figured it would just fall apart. Well this year, I gave in and bought one. Last night I decide to get it out and give it a try. Next year I think I will have to buy 2 houses b/c someone took over decorating for me :)



His audience

The finished product...don't laugh :)

Counting down till Christmas...only 15 days

We are so excited about Christmas this year. This year is extra special to us with it being Kylie's 1st Christmas, now having 4 new nieces and nephews to share the holiday with, not having to travel so far to see everyone, and so on and so on. We are getting READY! We are having Christmas with Lee's family next weekend in Tuscaloosa so this week/weekend is the last chance I will have to get everything done. Surprisingly, I do not have much left to do and that is kind of driving me crazy. I always want more to wrap, decorate, bake, etc. haha.
-Christmas Cards are in the mail as of today (let me know what you think, I think they turned out really cute!!!)
-Only have two things left to purchase (stocking stuffers for Lee and a little something for my mom) Any stocking stuffer ideas for hubbies?
-Everything that I have purchased so far is wrapped and under the tree, wrapping is my favorite part!
-Purchased goodies for Kylie's babysitter and nursery workers
-House is decorated
I guess the only thing left to do is enjoy!!

5 months!

Kylie turned 5 months on Sunday. She is doing great. So far she has tried sweet potatoes, bananas, carrots, squash, peaches, applesauce (her fav), pears, and even sweet peas. She does wonderful with food, in fact she would rather have food any day over her bottle. Honey says Lee was this same way when he was a baby. SHe is still on the Nutramigen formula, but we are hopeful Dr. Hammad will put us on regular formular at her 6 month check-up next month. She is really responsive these days and LOVES for us to talk to her, make funny noises, and goofy faces. She discovered her feet a few weeks ago and diaper changes are not as easy as they used to be b/c she always has her feet up by her head. She is such a smiley little girl and everyone at nursery loves her. She is infatuated with all of the other babies and children. And when she is at home she is in constant search of Dolly. Our biggest challenge is that we are still not sleeping through the night and in fact she gets up more times than ever. I am not sure what to do about that???? Suggestions? I let her cry it out but 30 minutes or more will pass and she will still scream. How long do you let them cry it out?? We are desperately hoping for sleep at our house for Christmas. haha. Any ideas on sleeping would be appreciated. I have tried bathing during the day, bathing right before bed time, rice cereal in her last bottle, etc. Kylie does not want to miss out on anything and sleep is not on the agenda. We have been to see Santa twice this month and both times she giggled and stared. She really liked him, I doubt it will be this easy next year. She is still pretty long and lean. She is in 6 month clothes, but bottoms still seem to fall off her waist and one-piece rompers will barely snap in the length. We are all excited about her 1st Christmas and cannot wait to wake up Christmas Day with this cutie!