Christmas Morning

I had so much trouble falling asleep last night. Not sure if it was the sweet tea or the anticipation of seeing Carly's reaction to Santa's toys. But Carly slept in until around 8:30. (That doesn't usually happen.) But I let her eat breakfast and play in the tub before she went into the living room. She was so serious at first. She went straight for her toy vacuum and played with it for a minute and then headed for Lacey's toys. She loved all the balls Santa left for Lacey and played fetch with her for a long time. It's so sweet to watch her play with Lacey. For a long time she seemed more interested in Lacey's gifts rather than her own. But she finally came around. She played and played all day long. In fact, around 2:00 I told her she was going to east a snack and then take a nap. Well, she at about 1/4 of a graham cracker and feel asleep drinking her milk in her high chair...priceless.

I wonder what she was thinking when she walked into a living room full of toys. Did she feel like she was in heaven? I really enjoyed this Christmas with Carly and feel that the ones in the future (when she really knows what is going on) will be even more fun! I've been thinking alot about my students today. I hope that they had as good a Christmas as Carly. I worry about some of them so much, but I know that our family resource center has done all they can do to ensure these kids are provided for. My mom and I bought gifts for one of my students and I can't wait to see the look on her face when she tells me about her Christmas. I am thankful that we have been able to give Carly a good Christmas and were able to help a family in need. Merry Christmas to all!

Santa came to our house!!!

Christmas with the Family

Carly in front of Mammaw Hundley's tree

Carly, Carter, and Austin making music!

Carly in her new, beloved rocking chair.

Carly needed a break at Mammaw Hundley's but had share Mammaw's lap with Blake.

Christmas Eve was a fun, busy, and LATE night. First we went to my Mammaw's house, then to my Mom and Dad's. The kids were so cute playing together! The younger ones were crawling around all over the place and the older ones were running all over the place. My cousins little boy said, "These people are crazy." And my nephew starting mimicking him. I have to admit...they are right. But, what they don't realize is that it runs in the family! It's hard to keep up with how many great grandkids my mammaw has. There are 9 and 8 of the are 4 or younger. So, it is a little chaotic when we all get together. But they sure do have fun together.

Carly really racked up at Mammaw and Grandaddy's house. She got the cutest little rocking chair and LOVES it. She loves to climb in and out of it. I think it is her FAVORITE gift this year. She also got the Parents Bee Bop Band drum and instrument set. I just love it. It makes lots and lots of noise so it will be one of those gifts that will be kept in the closet. You know, the ones you ONLY bring out when you feel the need. Carly seemed to really enjoy Christmas Eve and I felt like a kid again looking forward to Santa!

More Cookies for Santa Pictures

Carly and Luke had a good time together!!

Cookies for Santa

Today has been such a great day! Some of the kindergarten teachers came to my house for our Christmas Party. We snacked and chit-chatted...always nice to be able to talk to them outside of school. Oh, and I think they loved Carly...especially Kathy, she was crawling around on the ground playing with her!! It was so cute. I am so blessed to work with such great people.

Then, my cousin brought her little boy over for me to watch for a couple hours and we made cookies for Santa. Carly had so much fun with it. I think she ate about half of the cookie mix. YUCK!! Well, Luke definately wasn't impressed...he barely even touched it...until they were finished baking. Then he dug in! And yes, Carly liked them once they were as well. She has never had that much sweet stuff. I was afraid they were both going to get sick, but she's been fine. With the exception of having a sugar high!! Hope Luke has felt OK too. After we baked cookies I stuck both kiddos in the tub and they had the best time. There were too many cute pictures for one post so I'm going to be making two, just a warning!

Well, after my cousin left I went to visit my BFF, Ebbie. She lives in West Virginia but came in today for the holidays. She is expecting her first baby in April. It's always fun to catch up with her. Hope to spend a little more time with her while she's in.

First Haircut

I took Carly to get her first haircut yesterday, the 22nd. I can't believe she actually sat still. Must be because she was tired. I had to wake her up when we got there. She was so adorable and I love the cut. All they did was trim a little off but it made such a big difference.

First Santa Visit

Santa came to visit Carly at daycare today and, as expected, she was afraid of him. They had a little party with snacks and passed out a couple gifts, one from Santa and one from her teachers. I am disappointed that I missed the Santa visit. I would have loved to see her reaction to the jolly ole' fellow. I love the daycare that she goes t o. Everyone that works with her is great and she seems happy there. They also do some really cute crafts...which I LOVE!! She wore the reindeer shirt they made a daycare today. I thought it was really cute. I couldn't get a picture of her happy this morning because she WASN'T happy. Infact, the last few days have been really hard. She has felt miserable and has been really cranky. I took her back to the doctor today and she still has an ear infection. They are going to try to treat it with another anibiotic. Hope it works! It seemed to help a little because we got to play for a while this afternoon. I miss that, finally got to hear her giggle again...priceless! We played hide-n-seek and tried to color with markers. She didn't do much coloring, but she sure made a mess of herself. She was more fascinated with putting the tops back on the markers rather than coloring. I'm looking forward to hearing her giggle and watching her make a mess of things over Christmas Break!

Merry Christmas BREAK!!!

It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day before Christmas Break. This year has flown by. Most of my students were thrilled with the Christmas gifts they received at school today. There were a few who turned their noses up....that drives me crazy. It's sad to see kids as young as kindergartners being unappreciative. I guess it's actually annoying to see any kid like that. I reread the book "The Crayon Box that Talked" before I had the kids open the book and their new box of crayons. It was so adorable to see them. Several of them said, "OOOOHH, my favorite book!" That was sweet. I have several students who come from low income families and I pray that they have a wonderful Christmas. I plan to send them all a Christmas card over break. I bet they would love to receive a card in the mail...even I like that!!

When Carly and I finally got home from running errands in town we made Rudolph with her handprints and footprint. I plan on putting it in a frame and sitting on my kitchen counter. Not sure if anyone else appreciates this art, but I love it. I am really starting to miss my little bug. It's not that I don't spend enough time with her, because if I'm not working then I'm with her. But she has been sick for the last month. First and ear infection with eye infection, then stomatitis, stomach bug, and now ear infection with double eye infection, plus she's teething. She has been so fussy in the afternoons and has been getting up in the middle of the night. It breaks my heart! I know she feels miserable, but there is nothing I can do for her. I can't wait to see her play and smile again. She'll smile every once in a while now, but it doesn't last long.

Tonight mom came over and we made ornaments for daycare and teacher gifts. I think they turned out really nice. I kept coming up with more people to give them to until we ran out of ornaments. I have 24 to give away and mom has 8. It worked out pretty well, mom tied the bows while I painted the initials. I hope everyone likes them. Homemade, perosonalized gifts are my favorite kind to give....although I know the most important gift of all is the gift of love.

'Tis the Season!!

Well, I faced one of my fears today...and went to the dentist. I have been putting it off and putting it off. But I made myself go. I even thought about calling and cancelling my appointment, but I made it through. I'm proud of myself too. Everyone there was so nice. It's the best experience that I've ever had a t the dentist. Unfortunately, it wasn't all good news. I have to get my wisdom teeth taken out. I've never heard of a 29 year-old having to do that...oh, well.

I'm looking forward our class Christmas Party tomorrow. I just got finished wrapping the gifts that my wonderful aid and I are giving the kids. We are giving them the book "The Crayon Box That Talked" by Shane DeRolf and a box of crayons. It's one of my favorite books that teaches about working together. I can't wait to give it to them. I can see the excitement on their faces already. The kids are so pumped about Christmas that we can barely keep them in their seats...literally!! In fact today, we threatened to duct tape them down...hehe! Today we sent the students home with their parent gifts. We decorated glass ornaments with the kids handprints. I couldn't resist making one for myself. So before I put Carly in the tub, we made one. I also made one for my mom. Mammaw needs one too, right? Now, I just have to make the Rudolph gift bag that the kids made. Guess I should probably try to get some sleep before tomorrow. It's hard working with 19 kindergarteners when you running low on zzzzzzzzzs!!

Look Who's One

Well Carly turned 1 about a month ago...November 20th. I can't believe it went by as quickly as it did. I really enjoyed her party. She was not feeling 100% but I think she still had a good time. I had a small party with my closest family members and neighbors. Oh, and my best friend would have come too, but she had just gotten home with her new baby, Olivia. Which I'm sure will be Carly's BFF. I had to wake Carly to eat her cake and she was not too happy about that. In fact, she threw her cake off her high chair before she even ate it. (No big deal...I just picked it up and stuck her hand in it.) And from then on she did what all 1 year-olds do with their cake. I thought it was funny because Carly was overwhelmed with all the gifts. I expected her to dig into them, but she didn't. In fact, I gave her my gift after the party because she was so uninterested in it at first. But when I reintroduced it to her she loved her little baby doll, Emmy! She pulled it out of the bag and kissed it first thing.

Guess she's feeling better...

I stayed home from work yesterday because my baby was sick. For the majority of the day we cuddled, which I ate up. Once she started moving around the house my cuddle time had been cut drastically :( When we weren't cuddling I was doing laundry. And I'm not sure I've ever done so much laundry in one day...5 pairs of Carly's pjs, 4 of mine, 6 blankets, crib sheet, mattress pad, throw pillow, and then the everyday laundry. She was real sick through the night but seems mostly wiped out during the day. The pictures I posted are from this afternoon. As you can see she is feeling much better.

I've been trying to get pictures for Christmas cards for about a week and am having a very difficult time. Today was the first day Carly seemed interested in the tree. I can't believe it. I thought she would pull all the ornaments off first thing. I even went out and bought shatterproof ornaments figuring my old ones would be broken into pieces. She finally played with some of the ornaments today and I'm hoping I got some come"card worthy" picures of her doing it!

She's seemed to have a good time playing around the house this afternoon. While I was wrapping gifts for my kindergarteners, Carly was playing with the ribbon. I thought that was the cutest thing. She wrapped herself and the ribbon was dragging the ground behind her as she was wandering around the house. I decided that I wasn't going to get much wrapping done while she was awake so I put my gifts away and started playing hide and seek with the little love. Oh, and the funniest thing...as I was running her bath water she threw her baseball in the toilet. Is it terrible that I snapped a picture before I got it out? Now she's sleeping peacefully in her room. Wonder what she dreams about at night...happy dreams I hope!

just getting started...

I have decided to start a blog because I am not very good at keeping up with my journal. I thought it may be easier to journal at the computer. So, here I am. This is completely new to me and I hope I get the hang of it pretty quickly.

With this blog I hope to relay my thoughts and feelings, as a mom, to my little girl. I thought it would be neat for her to know who I am as a real person, not just her mom. This is such a wonderful time in my life that is going by so quickly. I have friends that ask me questions about my pregnancy or about when Carly was itty-bitty and my answer is too often, "I don't remember." There are so many things that I hope and wonder about and so many once-in-a-lifetime moments that need to be written down because time goes by much too fast. That's what I hope to add to this blog. I've added some random pictures of Carly from her first year...a year that flew by! It's amazing (and a little sad) to see how much they grow and change in a year. What a miracle!