Big Baby Room

Since Suzy got so much stuff for Christmas we had to declutter her room. I had a twin size bed in her nursery along with all her other furniture. I only used it when I nursed and when she was sick. I would sleep in her room with her. I am very strict about her not sleeping at night in our bed. She can nap with us, but not sleep in our bed IF I can help it. I didn't get much use out of the twin bed so I moved it out and put in a shelf. All of her toys that had been scattered throughout my house are now in her bedroom on her shelf or in the floor. She loves the new "big baby room". She plays, plays, and plays some more.

She immediately starts pulling stuff out, but that is okay.... It is her room after all.

I had gotten an iPad after Thanksgiving for Suzy and me (an early Christmas present).  I thought the present was more for me than for her, but I was wrong. She looooves it.

 

My pal, Jill, and I went to have some pampering done this week too. Suzy went to Tattle Tales and her boys stayed at home with Mrs. Ann. We had a large time. It was fantastic. Nothing better than being spoiled, but it makes it even better when you have a friend with you.

I'm having my toes painted after a quick pedicure and Jill has a mask on her legs. Little did I know.... I had a delux pedi and didn't tell the lady. Jill did. She got star treatment.

Suzy has a fierce diaper rash these days. It is absolutely horrendous. I think it may be from her stomach adjusting to the transition from formula to whole milk. I know some of the reason for the raw booty is partly my fault. I forgot to take more diapers to daycare and they had to let her borrow  one of Tinsley or Easten's diapers.... Suzy wears Luvs and they don't tear her bottom up, but Huggies get her every time. She must be allergic to them?? Every single time that she pees or poops it brings her to tears. I have let her go around the house without a diaper as much as possible. She has peed and pooped in the floor. I just Clorox it up, and move on. It is just seems better than torturing her with the diapers. We are medicating and I hope it passes soon. I will be sure to take diapers to daycare next Thursday. Poor Sue Baby.

She is content playing....

Still content...

Probably pooping at this point...

Absolutely hysterical because she had pooped and it was hurting her so bad.

I was sitting around the house being lame tonight and my sweet friend, Taylor, sent me a text along with a picture. The picture was from delivery day. She was at the hospital that day. I am so glad she saved the picture. I had not ever seen it. Almost a year later I get the chance to see it. It is a priceless picture. I am so glad she shared it with me.

 

Suzy's First Christmas

This holiday season has been one like Scott and I have never experienced before. Last year I was complaining about being huge, tired, and miserable. This year was pure bliss. It truly was the best Christmas that I have ever had. Sharing Christmas with a child is nothing that anyone can ever prepare you for. I now know why my mom and dad always seemed so happy on Christmas Day. They saw how excited Casey and I were. Seeing happiness in a child's eyes is absolutely priceless. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Sweet baby girl.

 

Christmas Eve night Scott and I prepared for Santa to come visit Suzy. We had to make sure that the house was clean for his arrival. We told Santa not to go overboard this year. Santa didn't listen too well. He did better than I had expected, but he still probably brought too much. We got Suzy all dressed in her Christmas "jammers" (we adopted that name from Kalon, Suzy's KK). She looked absolutely adorable. We pumped her up about Santa coming and put her to bed.

 

Christmas morning Mimi, Papaw, Gigi, and Pops came to the house to wait on Suzy to wake up. Everyone wanted to see how she reacted to Santa's presents. Suzy woke up about 20 minutes after everyone had arrived. She walked around the corner and was shocked. She was shocked at all the cool stuff that He left, but she was as confused as to why all the grandparents were there. She knew that both occurrences were not normal.

Checking everything out!

She loves her "bug" rocking horse!

Why put blocks in the wagon? You can ride in it instead.

Suzy loved all her presents that Santa brought. She is one lucky girl. She has been very good this year, so Santa may be excused for bringing her all the goodies.

Our house after Santa made his stop.

About five minutes after Suzy woke up. The dogs even had something from Santa! He left them bones!!

We had lunch at Gigi's house. Suzy racked up there, too. Nanny gave Suzy a doll that cackles in this crazy voice. You would think it would scare Suzy, but she loves it. When Baby starts cackling Suzy cackles too. It is the cutest thing. Her "big" thing at Gigi's house was a Cozy Coupe.  It took Scott and Pops half the day to put it together, but they got it assembled and Suzy loved it. The weather has not permitted us to play in it as much as we would like to, but hopefully it will dry up around here soon.

That's the cackling doll!

 

Her Papaw taught her early to love cars.

Opening her car!

 

No, it is not a cigar that she is chewing on.

Uncle Will.

All three are cackling!

She loved the box most of all, I think.

I can see it already.... She will be texting and driving before we know it.

She was too busy to stop for a bottle break.

Usually every picture she takes she has her mouth wide open. Scott and I thought we could get a funny family photo. Suzy didn't participate.

We had supper with my family at Mimi's house. Suzy was spoiled, yet again. Memaw got her a wagon and Mimi got her tons of toys that make lots of noise. We are thrilled (oh if you could hear the sarcasm in typing).

Papaw was happy to have Sue Baby! He had to put bows all over her.

Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled.

A phone and a hammer. Two of Papa's favorite things.

She is making Papa proud using her little tool box. We love our Papa.

Mrs. Suzanne and Melissa Boyle gave Suzy this sweet sucker. They are too cute.

After all the festivities were over we came home to a fiasco of a night. We were all exhausted, and ready for bed. We got Suzy to bed and then it all went downhill. I felt bad for Bernice and let her inside, because it was so cold. She brings her happy tail inside and goes in my room and pees on my bed. That cat really needs a new home. Bella had gotten a hold of a dead animal some how and eaten it. It made her sick everywhere in the house. It was quite the night. We had to change all the bedding and clean carpets. Dang animals.... Can't live with them, can't live without them.

Bella has been around a loooong time, so she knows better than to eat dead critters! Pretty girl on Christmas morning watching her Sweet Sue. Hers just didn't feels good.

 

The Introduction of Wanda

“Why on Earth did you agree to let Scott get a BACC membership? Really, Amy… Are you an idiot?” I like to ask myself that question every month when they draft his membership dues from the checking account.

BACC was all fun and games for the first two weeks for me. Scott included Suzy and me, we rode with him while he played some afternoons, and I was even invited a couple times to play on the weekends. I thoroughly enjoyed my golf outings, but they were quickly nipped by the boss man. He apparently doesn’t enjoy my golfing skills as much as I like to show them off. I am terrible at golfing, I will admit that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t go to the course does it? Yes, it obviously means that I am an embarrassment. I was the redneck at the country club. I was “that girl” that used foul language, slung golf clubs, and indulged in a few beverages. Who wouldn’t want to be with me? Someone could have written a great Country/Western song about me on the golf course. I bet I was quite the spectacle. Scott put a stop to my golfing career this summer and he is slowly weeding me out of all other extracurricular activities that we used to enjoy together.

Now instead of playing in the sand traps she gets to play in dirt holes.

She tripped running full force across the driveway and bumped her little head. It left quite the mark.

Who needs a golf cart? We have a tupperware box.

Another little outing we used to do together was hunting. I really don’t care about shooting any animals, but I liked to use it as an excuse to get out of the house and spend some quality time with the boss man. He even went out and bought me my very own gun one winter. (Speaking of a country song…. Now, this is Country/Western song material.) He bought me that gun and a couple years ago and I have shot it a couple times. Those few shots were just to sight the gun in. That was the end of my hunting career. Now, he goes hunting every single chance he gets and leaves me at home.

After her fall she needed crutches.

 I got a little aggravated by all the hunting that he does and showed my redneck side last week. My dad likes to blame my redneck side on my mother, but I think it might be a combination of my mom and the fact that she grew up in Byhalia! But, anyway, I said some pretty ugly things to Scott about his extracurricular activities that I probably shouldn’t have said, but seemed very valid at the time. I was just a tired, ill, and alone time deprived Mama. I think it was pure jealously that heated the argument. The argument didn’t last long, Scott realized how I felt about hunting and golfing, and he spent more time at home with Suzy and I this past weekend. The spat may have been started by me. My redneck side (which deserves a name) sent him a really rude text message. I think I will name my alter ego Wanda. Wanda told Scott that she and her two friends were going hunting next weekend and that they would be leaving town Friday and not returning home until Monday. She told him that he would need to make arrangements for Suzy and for himself. Wanda thought this little message would hit home with Scott. Wanda was wrong. Scott replied, “you better go get signed up for a hunters education class”. The boy had no idea that she was even trying to be a smarty pants or that she was trying to prove a point. He totally missed it. Finally, after about an hour of this texting conversation he figures out that she is being facetious. Wanda failed to prove her point until later that night. Then, Wanda let it all out and got the point made.

Suzy acts a little bit like Wanda sometimes, too. Easton is acting like Scott here, "Please make her stop screaming!!".

E is still trying to get away from her!

I think it is safe to say that Suzy does NOT like Santa.

Wanda went "hunting" this past weekend with two of her redneck friends, Jesika and Laurie and got A LOT accomplished. They stayed at the lake house without the kiddies and had a very eventual weekend "hunting" down Christmas presents. Wanda hadn't even started shopping for her family. It was a chrisis. Every last Christmas present was bought Saturday at the malls in Birmingham! Her redneck tail even went to Bass Pro Shop. She fit riiiiight in.

My non-redneck friend, Jill, came to school to make Christmas ornaments with my kiddos and brought Ford and Chevy. It was fun times.

Me and my sweet Chevy!

Gingerbread Men

Over the weekend I did absolutely nothing but cook/bake/prepare treats for Christmas happies. I wanted to make some easy snacks for my special education students to give their homeroom teachers. Those homeroom teachers deserve way more than some homemade candy, but I thought it would be a nice little treat to get them through the day. My SpEd kids have to go to homeroom class with a RegEd teacher 20% of the day. A few of my kiddos are known for giving the RegEd teachers a hard time, so they needed to do something to make them happy at least one day out of the year.

Pretzel Hugs

· Circle or square shaped pretzels

· Hershey’s Kisses Hugs

· M & Ms

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread out a layer of pretzels on the baking sheet. Place an unwrapped Hugs on top of the pretzel. Bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and promptly place an M&M on top of the Hug (to squish it down).

Let them cool completely and ENJOY!

I made a few more little things, and then it was time to make the “big daddy” of all the projects….. The Gingerbread Man. Jill passed along this recipe to me, and she made it sounds SO easy. Of course, her and Ford whipped it up like it was no problem at all. Me, on the other hand, will never make one of these things again. The recipe wasn’t that hard. It was just a mess to make and very time consuming. After the mess was made and my time was spent, I got the gingerbread men out of the oven. After they had cooled I tried to get them out of the pans….. They turned into a big crumbly mess. The good news is that icing is a great for gluing things.

Before the "glue" was added.

Taaaa Daaaa! Thank goodness for icing.

I invited Easten and his Mama and Daddy over to decorate the little fellas with us. Since I had to ice the men to keep them intact all the babies would have to do is make them pretty. They had a ball. They ate all the stuff that was supposed to go on the men, fought over sprinkles, broke the legs off the men (which wouldn’t have been tough to do), and destroyed my kitchen. All the time I spent making the crumbly men was well worth it. I think we had more fun watching the babies than anything. After they had finished their creations we bathed them and let them play some more. It was a very fun night.

Didn't Take E long to break the glued together legs! All Suzy wanted to do was eat her candy, and all E wanted to do was play with it.

Ahhhhh. Sugar sprinkles! Yaaaay.

The final products. My kitchen hasn't been the same since.

They definitely needed baths. We will use this picture at their rehearsal dinner.

The Hershey Kisses didn’t agree with Suzy when it became bedtime. She was up until about ten o’clock. She is usually dead asleep by 7:30-7:45, you know, so she will NOT eat chocolate that close to bedtime ever again.