Happy New Year

Have a happy and safe New Year! I'll probably be back sometime on Tuesday to do some more posting. I'll hopefully have some pictures to share of our fun New Years party. Have a Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my family and friends! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! I'll be back on Wednesday with some pictures from Christmas. See you then.

Santa was MIA

The day was going perfectly according to my plan. And with a 14 month old- you know that is a rare occurrence.

We spent the morning playing in the playroom. After a quick morning snack Hailey went right down for her nap and slept pretty well. She even ate most of the grilled cheese sandwich I made for her.

I got Hailey dressed in her Christmas dress and off to the mall we went.

We arrived at the mall and there was only one person in front of us waiting to see Santa.

"Things could not be going any more smoothly." I thought to myself with a smile on my face.

I KNOW- I can hear you all laughing at me right now and saying to your computers, "Oh, you poor foolish lady. You know you should never have thoughts like that."

So, then one of Santa's helpers came over and said, "Santa is going to take a little break. He'll be back at 2:00."

I didn't think that was too bad- only a half hour away and I had shopping to do anyways. So, I got some shopping done and at 2:10 we went back to see Santa. But Santa was not back. Well, I figured that maybe Santa was having a hard time finding a place to park his reindeer. I mean can you imagine how difficult that would be? So I decided we'd give him a few extra minutes.

At 2:30 we went back again to check. Still no Santa. So, I asked one of the helpers when Santa would be back.

"We're not exactly sure where Santa is or if he's coming back." She told me.

"Oh?" I responded.

"Here's a coupon for a free 5x7 if you want to come back tomorrow to use it."

We waited around until a little after 3:00, just to make sure. But Santa never came back. (Can you blame the poor guy though? I mean really- can you imagine doing that job all day?)

The next day was much too snowy and we did not go back. We made it back two days later (and- yes the manager did let me use my coupon). Hailey was so excited when she saw Santa. She waved and said, "Hi, O-O-O." (her way of saying "Ho, Ho, Ho")

When we got a little closer to Santa she started to dig her fingers into my arm. And when she sat on his lap..... well- I'll just show you.

Christmas Hoopla

Andrea at Lifesong tagged me to do this Christmas meme hoopla.

1. List 12 random things about yourself that has to do with Christmas.

2. Please refer to it as a 'hoopla' and not the dreaded 'm'-word

3. You have to specifically tag people when you're done. None of this "if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged" stuff is allowed...then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you -- but the more, the merrier to get this 'hoopla' circulating through the blogosphere.

4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it and I'd like to get as many people involved as possible.

5. If you want to -- please give me, Andrea, some link-love as the 'Hoopla-Creator'. I love new blog-traffic.

(I was also recently tagged by Rhonda to do a post about 7 random things about me. Since I've done that about a bazillion times, I am going to count this 12 random things towards that tag too. I hope that's okay, Rhonda!)

And so- here are my 12 random bits of information:

1. I love Christmas time and I always have.

2. When I was little my parents and brothers and I always set up our tree together every year. We had Christmas music playing, egg nog to drink and cookies to eat.

3. We always had an artificial tree (due to my dad's allergies) and I always wished we could have a real tree.

4. I LOVE egg nog, but I do not like it when there has been milk added to it. My dad and Rich love to add milk to thin it out. Yuck!

5. I was always in the Christmas play at our church. Although I'm shy this never seemed to bother me for some reason.

6. We always went Christmas caroling with our church and I loved doing that.

7. When I was little we always spent Christmas Eve at my great Aunt Winnie's house. There were lots of relatives and lots of fun. I remember we always had to eat dinner before we could open presents. The adults would always sit around and talk while they ate dinner- and it seemed like they took forever- I think they were trying to drive us kids insane while we waited to open our gifts.

8. We always woke up bright and early Christmas morning. My dad would read us the Christmas story- the real one, right from the Bible. Then we'd open our presents.

9. Later in the day we'd go to my grandparent's house for more presents and Christmas dinner.

10. Although this didn't happen on Christmas- we always went to visit my mom's side of the family for New Years. Since we never saw them on Christmas- this was our time to celebrate with them.

11. When I was a teenager me and my closest friends would always have a little Christmas get together. We'd exchange gifts and eat goodies and laugh like crazy people. One year we decided to go Christmas caroling- I think there were 4 or 5 of us. Anyhoo- none of us were really spectacular singers- we weren't bad, just not that good. So, it was probably pretty interesting for our listeners. At one house we started our song in much too high of a range. There was no way we could actually hit the necessary notes- so we simply dissolved into laughter.

12.. Now that I have my own home- we have tried the real tree deal. I hated it. About three years ago I decided I was done dealing with the mess of a real tree and we bought an artificial one. It's easier to leave a fake tree up until February or March than a real one.

And so- that is my 12. Now I usually like to break rules and not really tag anyone- but since I like Andrea so much I'm going to follow the rules and tag: KC, Grams, Shaunda, Andrea, and Zamejias.

Christmas Meme

I saw this Christmas Meme over at Regina's blog- and she tagged everyone to play along. It looked like fun, so I decided to go ahead and do this meme.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper
2. Real or artificial Tree? Fake
3. When do you put Christmas tree up? Usually the first weekend in December, but this year we were a week later than usual.
4. When do you take the tree down? Sometime in March. No kidding. That's why we have a fake tree. A real tree doesn't look very good anymore in March. This year, with Hailey we may take the tree down a bit earlier than usual though.
5. Like egg nog? LOVE it!
6. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
7. Favorite gift received as a child? I have no idea- I guess the only thing that really sticks out in my mind is when I got a walkman (do they even call it that anymore?) it had a tape player and a radio. Back in the day...........
8. Hardest person to buy for? Usually Rich and my mom- but this year I had plenty of ideas for both. Actually, Brooke is getting harder and harder to buy for.
9. Easiest person to buy for? Hailey
10. Worst Christmas gift? I can't think of any bad Christmas gifts.
11. Mail or email a Christmas Card? Mail
12. Favorite Christmas movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
13. Favorite food to eat at Christmas? Sugar cookies
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Possibly.....
16. Favorite lights? White
17. Favorite Christmas Song? I love all Christmas music!
18. Travel during Christmas or Stay Home? On Christmas Day- stay home. But, I like to get to travel to see all of our family on the days around Christmas.
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen & Rudolph. (I cheated on this question and just left Regina's answers)
20. Angel or Star on Tree top? Star
21. Least favorite thing about this time of year? The bills that come in January
22. Which one person do you really want to see blessed this Christmas and why? Everyone

This was fun and easy- so if you haven't played along yet you really should! Let me know when you do so I can check out your post!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Love,

Our Happy Weekend and An Apology

Here's the news from our Happy Weekend!

A little while ago I entered the Christmas Giveaway at 5 Minutes for Mom and I WON! And, not only did I win- but I won two different contests. Yay for me! Well, look what came in the mail on Saturday?
It's a cute DVD called My Bedbugs. I let Hailey watch it for a little while in the car on Saturday while we were out driving around do some shopping. She loved it! There was also a poster that came with the DVD.
When I put the poster on the floor so that Hailey could look at it- she laid right down on it. Hmmmm- maybe if I put it in her bed she'll lay down there too. Not likely.

Now, the other contest I won- there were two prizes, but I won't be sharing pictures of those because I am actually going to use those prizes as gifts. And, I don't want the recipients to know I am cheap thrifty and that I am giving them something I received for free.

In other exciting Happy Happenings weekend news..... On Saturday Rich put up the Christmas lights on our house. Hailey stood on the couch and watched Rich working on the lights for a long time. She was fascinated that she could see him right outside the window. (Please do not be offended that I did not clean my windows for you. But, if are feeling a bit put out- please refer back to this post- Excuse The House.)

I think we have quite a few lights on our house and when we were coming home from some shopping on Saturday night I said, "Oh my goodness, look at our house." Rich told me that I can not tell you how many lights he put up because he wants me to take pictures and then have everyone guess how many lights there are.

So, I will be sharing pictures, but not until next week. (Remember that BooMama is hosting the Christmas Tour of Homes, so I am saving my pictures for the 17th. Check out her post if you haven't already- it sounds like lots of fun to me.)

On Sunday we Rich put up our tree.

Hailey offers some assistance in getting the tree set up.

I put the ornaments on our tree last night after Hailey went to bed. And, I'll be sharing those pictures next Monday as well.

So, that was our fun filled weekend. How was yours?

Now, the second part of my post- I just want to say- I am glad you are still here.

Can I just tell you that right now my blog seems like one big advertisement and I really hate it?

I know I have been doing a bunch of paid posts lately and I am sorry for that. I don't want to do it, but we need some extra money right now, so I have to do it. I plan to do several paid posts on the weekends when I know bloggyville is usually pretty quiet and I don't have a lot of visitors anyways.

When I do my paid posts, one of the requirements is that I do not have more than one in a row. So, I have been putting up some comics in between my paid posts. So, I will probably have quite a few posts during the weekends.

During the week my plan is to only do one paid post each day. I will also do my regular posting that I normally do. I will keep my regular post at the top of my blog with the paid post under it. Please feel free to skip over the paid posts like they are not there and go right to the regular Happy Happenings posts.

When I started my blog I never even considered using it to make money, it was just supposed to be a fun hobby to keep my family and friends up to date with our lives. Now it just doesn't feel that way anymore and for that I am very sorry.

Okay, I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Our Happy Thanksgiving

Our trip last week to my parents house for Thanksgiving was wonderful! We drove down on Wednesday night. Remember the post where I said that Hailey slept almost all the way home the last time we were there? And, also, I said I knew I shouldn't be mentioning it, lest I jinx myself. Well, guess who was awake for the entire trip? Well, unless you count the last 5 minutes of the trip when she finally fell asleep. But, actually she was pretty good and I shouldn't complain.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday (and also- Christmas is my favorite holiday). And this year did not disappoint. We had a blast. I was a bit sad though, because my sister-in-law Ellie was not able to come. Ellie and my brother Matt both attend Virginia Tech (remember my recent post about VT? Well, it seems that I made an error. Matt and Ellie are not working on their masters degrees, but rather on their PhDs. So, I just wanted to clarify that- not that anyone told me that I had to or anything.)

Anyhoo- Ellie has a couple of really big exams this week as she is working towards her PhD in economics, so she stayed in Virginia where her dad (an economics professor) was able to help her study for the big tests. We missed her, but understand why she couldn't come. She knew how much Matt had been looking forward to coming, so she insisted that he go on without her.

There were also other aunts, uncles, and cousins who were unable to come this year for different reasons. So, I missed all those people too.

But we still had some great times.

Here is everyone (except for me) at the table saying,
"Enough with the pictures already. Let's eat."

This is after dinner- my parents laughing while
talking on the phone to some of the missing relatives.

And these are the missing relatives. I copied this picture from Beka's blog. I hope she doesn't mind.
I also copied this picture from Beka's blog. Apparently this
is supposed to be my Aunt Ruth dancing on the table.
I don't know who she thinks she's fooling because I
can clearly see that she is not on the table.

This is my sister-in-law Ellie. I didn't want her to feel left out, so here she is last year at Thanksgiving- meeting Hailey for the first time.
And here are the dogs after the feast. Murray, my parents dog, is
on the left and Dottie is on the right. Of course my mom prepared special bowls of Thanksgiving food for the dogs.

My Aunt Gladys and Uncle Dave were able to come to my parents house on Friday. We had a great time with them as well. On Friday and Saturday we did some shopping and Hailey did really well. While shopping on Saturday Aunt Gladys had a craft show that she wanted to go to. Rich griped and complained about going, but we all to wait for him to finish shopping.

On Saturday night as we were playing a rowdy game of Domino's we all laughed so hard that our stomachs hurt and we had tears in our eyes. We weren't laughing at the game, but I can't tell you what we were laughing at because my dad declared it "locked in the vault." And that's all I'll say about that.

So, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with way too much delicious food (made by my mom- an excellent cook), and great times with family.

Wordless Wednesday #28

For more wordlessness click here or here.

Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

I'll "see" you all on Monday.

New Pictures of Anika

Beka has posted some pictures of the gorgeous baby Anika. Click here to stop by and tell Beka and Bill congratulations!

Blah, Blah, Blah & Christmas Home Tour '07

Oh yes- my title is creative today. So, here's the blah, blah, blah part:

Hailey turned 13 months on Wednesday and so I thought I'd share a little of what she has been up to.

Now, I know that parents are supposed to be easily impressed by their own children- but the other night Hailey did something I thought was extra impressive. We were playing in the living room and I started reciting the words from one of her books. "Ducklings like to swim and they say 'Quack, quack, quack.' Sheep have woolly coats and they say, 'Baa, baa.'"

While I was reciting the words Hailey started looking around the living room at her various books that were strewn all over the floor. So, I continued reciting the words and she continued looking through her books. Then she found the book I was reciting from, picked it up, brought it over and handed it to me. So, tell me- is this a normal thing that she did or am I right to be impressed?

While I am bragging telling you about Hailey's latest accomplishments- here are the words she can say:
Da-da
Ma-ma
Da-Dee (Dottie- our dog)
Was sat (What's that?)
See it (If you were to hear her say this word you might think she was saying a four letter word that starts with an 's'. But I can promise you that what she is saying is "see it.")
Ahhh-O (Hello- she says this when she holds the phone up to her ear)
Ba (baby or ball)
She has other jibberish words that she says, but I haven't yet figured out what she is trying to say.

I have also used sign language with Hailey and these are the signs she uses:
Dog
More
Milk
Please
Baby
All done
Eat
Drink
Thank You (she is just getting this one)

And, also for those who are curious- Hailey weighs 21lbs 8oz. as of today. I know her exact weight because she had to go to the germ filled pediatricians office today. When I went to get Hailey dressed this morning to go to story time at the library I saw that her little body was covered in a rash (except her face). So, off we went to expose her to many unknown germs. By the time she had her appointment she had hives as well. Well, it turns out that she just has a virus and the rash and hives are all part of the cold I thought was finally over. The hives do not seem to bother her at all but her doctor said that if she starts scratching I can give her Benadryl. But only at bedtime because the Benadryl might KNOCK HER OUT.

Excuse me? Come again. Did someone say that Benadryl might cause this child to sleep. Oh my goodness- don't tempt me.

Anyhoo- all that to say that I am pleased with Hailey's weight because at her last appointment she had lost weight. Due to the fact that she will not, you know, eat.... ANYTHING. Well- that's not entirely true- she eats cheese and Nutri-Grain bars. I had thought she also ate chicken nuggets- but now I know that she was really just putting them in her diaper. But apparently she's been eating enough as she has gained back what she lost plus a little bit, so I am feeling a bit better about her weight.

So, now that I am done with the blah, blah, blah part of my post, here is the Christmas tour part.

Just in case any of you do not read BooMama (which if you do not- I highly recommend you start today- as soon as you're done leaving me a comment of course) I thought I would pass this on.

On December 17th BooMama will be hosting a Christmas tour of homes. You post pictures on your blog of your Christmas decorations and then sign Mr. Linky over at BooMama's blog. Then you can visit all the blogs of the other participants and they can visit you. Sounds like fun to me! So, if you want all the information- click on this lovely picture to get all the details.

If you didn't see my post yesterday about my cousin Beka's brand new beautiful baby girl, please check it out. She is supposed to be going home today, so I assume she'll be posting pictures on her blog just as soon as she gets home. But really- just in case she's busy being a new mommy and can't get those pictures up right away- I'll be sure to let you know when she does so that you can stop by to say congrats.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Pumpkin Farm and Halloween Pictures

First, I want to say thank you so much to everyone for all of your advice on my To Cry or Not to Cry post. You left me some great comments and also sent me some great emails. I'll keep you updated with how things are going with the sleeping.

I know this is a little late, but I have been so busy that I am just now getting a little time to post pictures from our trip to the pumpkin farm and from Halloween. So, here are some pictures from the pumpkin farm. It rained the day we went, but fortunately they had a lot of things to see indoors.

Rich and Hailey checking out the inside of a tee-pee.

Hailey checking out a pumpkin for the first time.

Pointing and asking "Whaaa saaat?" (What's that?)

Hailey loved the pumpkin farm. She ran all around and checked out all of the pumpkins. There were several pumpkins that received a hug and a kiss.Trying to decide which one to take home.

And now, some pictures from Halloween.

All dressed up and ready to go trick or treating.
(Well, except that she is holding her shoe instead of wearing it.)

Following Rich down the hall (with both of her shoes now off).
I thought this one was cute because you can see the back of her costume.

Hailey with her pumpkin.
(Please ignore me and pretend I am not in the picture.
Thank you for your cooperation)

One more picture of the little Minnie Mouse.

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Hailey's First Birthday

I have been a bit busy this week, but today I have finally had some time to sit down at the computer and decide which of the 400 or so pictures to share with you from Hailey's first birthday.

Since all of our family lives out of town we had decided to celebrate Hailey's birthday in the town where most of our family lives. We're nice like that- we made the long trip so that they wouldn't all have to drive to see us. (Then they would have all wanted to stay at our house. And we wouldn't want that to happen. I'm kidding! Kind of. )

But I digress....

Since you can never be sure what the weather will be like during October we decided to be safe and plan an indoor party. So, Hailey's party was on Saturday afternoon at Chuck-E-Cheese. And, I'm sure you know that Rich was not disappointed in this choice. (See Where A Kid (or A Dad) Can Be A Kid).

Here are some pictures of the celebration (with a special thank you to my dad, who took most of the pictures).

Here's the birthday girl!
Hailey was quite excited to meet Chuck-E-Cheese.
She went right for his nose, of course.
Hailey gets a look at her cake.

"You want me to do what to the cake?"
"Here, would you like some?" Hailey's friend Arianna enjoys some cake too.

Hailey with big sister Brooke,

and cousins Dayna, David & Joel.

Hailey enjoys a ride.
Already falling asleep, as soon as I put her in her car seat.

Since the party was a bit overwhelming for a one year old, we decided to wait until we got back to my parents house and Hailey had a good nap before opening her presents.

Hailey clapping her hands at her presents.

Hailey LOVED her birthday cards.

Normally I think that greeting cards are a bit of a waste of money. But, not with Hailey. She still spends lots of time looking at all of her cards and carrying them around the house with her. And, of course she loves all of her presents too.

Thanks everyone for making Hailey's first birthday so much fun!

And, since I'm not doing my usual monthly posting of pictures of Hailey, I figured I'd just post our monthly pose of Hailey with Tigger today. Hailey is 12 months old!

You can check out the older postings by clicking on the month you would like to see. 11 months, 10 months, 9 months, 8 months, 7 months, 6 months, 5 months, 4 months and 3 months .