Santa Came to Town

Senatobia has an Open House tradition every Christmas. All the local storefronts run specials, have finger foods, draw for door prizes, and have everything decorated for the holidays. Two years ago a new place in town opened (GLIS) and started hosting Santa Claus. Santa comes in on a horse drawn carriage and while he is inside taking orders from all the kids the carriage is available for everyone to take turns riding around the block. It’s quite the adventure for a 3 year old!

Sweet horses! So glad Scott is home and can enjoy these times with Suzy! 

Suzy was a little timid of Santa when we first arrived at GLIS. She told us she didn’t want to sit in his lap unless someone sat with her. Well, this Santa would have been super upset if I would have hopped my lard butt on his lap along with Suzy’s chunky tail. When it was Suzy’s turn Santa said, “Well, hello Suzy!”... From then on she thought he was the coolest person ever. She was so impressed that he knew her name. He also told her that Scott was very naughty when he was a boy and that he didn’t get any presents one year. She thought that was hilarious! She informed him that she only wanted a Barbie Rainbow Hair Girl. I wish that was all that was on the list she gave me! She finished up with Santa and headed outside to take her turn on the carriage. She had to make two trips around the block, because she wanted to ride with Mrs. Charlotte after she finished the first round with us.

He was probably talking about Scott being naughty in this picture.....

She was a happy girl!

Big Sue and Little Sue

Garbage Cans and Elastic Bands

Since Christmas is right around the corner, we have all been asking Suzy for a list of things she may want this year. She gets presents from so many family members, that I try to make a big list and let the grands know what she wants from Santa, and they can tackle the rest.

The following is a list of items that she has asked for: 

- crazy hair Barbie (some kind of Barbie that has hair that changes colors?) 

- rain boots, rain coat, HHHHummmberella (umbrella) 

- rolling suitcase

- garbage can

- house coat 

When she told me she wanted a garbage can, I just had to ask questions. She says she needs one for her bedroom. The child seriously does nothing in her bedroom besides sleep. She never has trash in there. She plays in the playroom or den, so I cannot for the life of me understand why she wants a garbage can. She told Mimi that she wanted a rolling suitcase, so she can take it to the lake house and the beach. I can totally understand that item, but a garbage can?!

This girl had a bad case of the "wild hair don't care" blues that morning! 

She just melts my heart when she sleeps. Those "picking blankets" have just about worn out. I don't know what is going to happen when they are completely demolished! 

Things got quiet the other day while I was getting Christmas stuff out.... I looked in the bathroom and found a sink clogged with toilet paper. Her response, "My animals needs a safe place to swim! And, I needed the soap.... they wanted a bubble bath!" I didn't have my phone on me at the time, so the bubbles had disappeared by the time I remember to take a picture. 

The past few weeks have brought some changes to Mama's body. I am officially 20 weeks pregnant, and I have a very visible "baby bump". So, I don't just look like I have totally quit working out and abandoned any sort of diet. If I am going to be pregnant, I want to immediately look pregnant. I don't want to look like a big fluffy lady. I had only gained 3 lbs in the 5 week span between my last two appointments, so that is great. I am hoping that maybe I gained all my major weight the first two months of pregnancy, and I will just gain small increments from now on? I am sure that I am not that lucky, though. I got massive with Suzy, so I am sure this time around won't be much different. I am certainly unable to wear any of my britches that don't have elastic waist bands, and the only shirts I can wear that I owned pre-pregnancy are my huge/tunic style tops and tee shirts. The worst part of this pregnancy has been the terrible acne that it has brought. I look like I am pregnant and going through puberty at the same time. It is horrendous. Feeling Sally's little movements and flutters have been the exciting part of the pregnancy the past couple weeks.  My sweet Sally is definitely a mover and a groover. She is very active. Her favorite thing that I have eaten lately has been chocolate pie, I believe.

JoAnne introduced me to this drink SEVERAL years ago..... It is 1/2 cappuccino and 1/2 hot chocolate. Sooooo good! Left the Shell and went for Chinese take out. Major pregnant cravings that night! 

This was in November 2011. I was 8 months prego with Suzy. 

Had a training at NWCC Thursday. I walked out of the bathroom stall and really got a major glimpse of this body! I sent, Renee and Kalon a text that said, "feeling pretty prego today".... Definitely looking HUGE already. I was exactly 20 weeks when I took this picture and have gained exactly 30 lbs. This weight gain doesn't have anything to do with hot chocolate/cappuccino and Chinese take out,does it? 

3 Year Old Works Mama

Today when I picked Suzy up from school the Gingko tree was looking so beautiful. I try to take her pictures with the tree every year, because us Senatobians look forward to the tree changing colors each fall. I had to find a way to get Suzy dressed and pumped about pictures.......She is not a fan of taking pictures. I think we (Gigi) ruined it for her when she was younger! She was so dang cute that it was hard not to overtake pictures, in my opinion!

Mimi ran by Special Daze today and picked up some dresses I purchased on Facebook this week. It just so happens that one of them was perfect for a potential Christmas Card! I told Sue her that I wanted to take her picture this afternoon wearing her pretty new twirly dress. She agreed, but on a few conditions.... She said she would take pictures IF I would take her to Wal Mart to buy some Shopkins and a Blind Bag.... Thanks to Harper, she is now obsessed. I caved, and she won.

If only I could figure out how to edit pictures well enough to open those eyes...

Here's her loot she won for taking a few sub-par photos!

This is the little creature that was in her "Blind Bag"

look at that concentration...

She's quite pleased with herself, isn't she?

These little minis are the Shopkins! She worked me over big time today! 

Trick or Treat!

I made a very large mistake and told Suzy that FBC was having their Trunk or Treat event Friday night. I found out that I was terribly wrong Friday around lunch. I texted Ms. April and asked her to tell Suzy that I was wrong. As a reward, she requested her Pops pick her up for Coleman's BBQ. Pops quickly headed to save the day. One of her favorite restaurants is Coleman's because they make sausage patties for her anytime of day.

When Suzy woke up Saturday it was raining. It continued to until late afternoon. The weather finally cleared up around 4/5pm. Mimi went to Gigi's house to scoop her up, and I met them at Mimi's house with her costume and such. Suzy was devastated that it was raining and asked, "Why would Jesus let it rain today". The pure innocence of her question just melted my heart. I mean, what do you say to that?! We promised her a trip to see Oakey and KK if it was raining, and that perked her right up.
After getting Suzy dressed we headed over to Mimi's neighbors' house, Jon and Lakay Moore. It's a tradition to take pictures by their pretty mums every year, but the weather made it nearly impossible this year. I'll get Suzy to dress up again and take pictures one day soon, though. I hate to break the tradition. They are fun comparison pics. Jon and Lakay always have a fun, special treat for Suzy. We headed to Papa and Memaw's house next. They loved seeing their little mermaid!

Headed to Jon and Kay Moore's door... She was pumped.

She loves her Jon and Kay Moore... And, yes she calls them "Jon Moore" and "Kay Moore". LaKay is actually "Kay Moore's" name.

FBC was next on our agenda. We literally got there like 5 minutes early, and were the fifth or sixth group in line. By the time we finished our rounds there was a line a mile long. We definitely got there at the perfect time. Becker had Suzy a very special treat, as well. She did a great job saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You" to the adults/groups giving out candy. Last year she was too shy to say anything to the people she didn't know.

Suzy and her friend from school, Kaitlin.

Daddy's first Halloween to ever be home. So proud!! 

Why can't the child look at the camera?! And, gracious, I just realized she was "letting it all hang out" up top! :) 

Becker had to have a special photo after giving Suzy her special prize. 

This little gumball machine stole my heart. Ava Beth is a Drew and April's baby and I could just eat her up! 

Even though the rain had cleared, Suzy still demanded we go see Oakey and KK. Oakey is Suzy's boyfriend. She is literally obsessed with him. I think he's probably a bit obsessed with his Sue Baby too! KK has been around so long that Suzy doesn't know life without her. After scoring another special treat from them, we went over to Richie and Mary Ayers' house. They were having a soup dinner and group trick or treat social. We hadn't planned on staying, but I am so glad we did. Suzy had a blast. The big girls (Lilly and Kate) took over Suzy and helped her to the houses for candy. They made her night! This was the first year that Suzy actually seemed to enjoy/understand the holiday. It was a great night!!! So great that we ended up leaving Mary's house with hand me down clothes because Suzy was demolishing her costume playing with the kiddos. For those of you that know our Suzy.... you know she has come a long way with the whole "being social" thing. To see her play and laugh with other kiddos is such a relief. We worked really, really, really hard to get her more comfortable around other kiddos over the summer. So far things are much better! Small victories :)

Such a great pic! 

The big girls were really helping Suzy get in the spirit of Trick or Treating! 

We may need to get another cart next year! 

Kate and Suzy tackling another house.

So lucky to have Kate :) 

I think they were all on sugar highs. They ate their candy as we ventured through the neighborhood.

Lilly and Kate saved the night! Suzy thinks they are absolutely awesome! I need them to live with me.

When we got home, Suzy crashed five minutes into her nightly show. She was beyond worn out! A great night with great friends!

Gosh, time flies by too fast! I can't believe we just had our 4th Halloween with our Sue Baby.

Suzy's Wish!

 We always tried to refer to the baby as a brother in hopes that it would talk Suzy into the idea. Most of the time we were immediately corrected and reminded that it was a sister... not a brother. To our surprise, we were discussing the baby one night and Suzy agreed that it was probably an ole stinky boy. We both looked at each other with a completely shocked expression, and moved right along with the conversation. She said, "well,  it's going to be a stinky ole brother.... that is solved." Where she gets her language and vocabulary from baffles me. What does she know about anything being "solved"?! I was talking to Mimi about the revelation the following day, and she informed me that Suzy had told her the same thing! Finally, we had talked her into a sibling other than a sister.

Here's the crew for Suzy's gender reveal that Laurie and JoAnne did for us! 

Scott and I struggled with the option of taking/not taking Suzy to the gender appointment last week. We went back and forth weighing our options, but finally decided that we would take her with us. I wanted her to see the baby on the screen, so she would understand more of what was going on with this ever growing belly of mine. We were very hesitant about taking her, because she had been so headstrong about it not being a boy. We figured that she would have a complete meltdown in the ultrasound room if Julie told us it was indeed a boy. 

Scott and I took off work last Wednesday, and Suzy stayed home from school. We slept a little later than usual, and got ready to head to Oxford to find out if we were actually having a Sally or not. On the way to Oxford I drank some orange juice, because Suzy didn't want to cooperate when we went to find out her gender. I thought I would make sure that this baby was not sleeping when we tried to find out if it was a he/she. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait a long time to see Julie (ultrasound girl), so Suzy was pleased. As soon as she started the ultrasound she said, "do y'all want to know the gender today?"... OF COURSE WE DO! The baby's booty was straight up and flashing all it's glory for the world to see. As soon as I saw it I told Suzy that I thought she was going to be a very happy girl. A few seconds later Julie confirmed... It's definitely a GIRL! Suzy's wish came true! Suzy and I were thrilled. I asked Scott what he thought, and he informed me that he had known it was a girl all along. After finding out the gender Suzy was done with the dark, quiet room. Scott took her to Rebel Rags to find himself a new hat while I completed the appointment. We left the doctor's appointment absolutely thrilled!! While we were having lunch, Papaw called to see if we had any news yet. I told him that we did know, and then he started asking questions. I wouldn't answer any of them, so he asked to talk to Suzy. She was so good about keeping it a secret, too! Scott was next in line. Papaw didn't get any information out of us, so he would have to wait along with everyone else!

It seems like it was just yesterday that we found out Suzy was a girl! This was September 2011. 

We decided that we didn't want to have a big gender reveal party or anything this time. We wanted to experience the news together and have time as a family to let it sink in. I am so glad we did. We were on cloud nine all day long! I had our family come over that night for pizza and we told them at the same time. I didn't want anyone to have their feelings hurt if they simply got a text or found out a few minutes later than another person, so the only way I knew to solve that would be to tell them as a group. 

We took pictures of Suzy and had them printed as quickly as possible. I framed the print for the family. They would find out the gender by Suzy's picture.... It was a very casual get together. Pizza, cupcakes, and a picture! I wouldn't have changed it for anything. I am so glad I got to see their faces and hear their comments about the news! I think everyone was pretty surprised except Kalon and Lauren. They told me they could tell through my texts that I was too excited about everything, so they knew it was a girl..... UGH, I seriously didn't think I was giving anything away!

We cannot wait to get our hands on Sally Scott Smith!! Hurry up April!

Suzy didn't want pink and blue items, so she picked out red and purple instead! Hers and Papaw's favortie colors....

She may or may not have eaten some red icing... 

Look at their faces!! Laurie and Mimi look a little excited! Papa and Memaw may still be trying to see the picture... I just noticed Memaw didn't have her glasses on. KK looks like she is laughing at Laurie! 

Laurie was wishing for another girl too! 

Hormones + Sick = Crazy Mama

The week of Fall Break I ended up getting really sick. I was only able to work Wednesday. I laid in bed from Thursday-Sunday. I am sure all I had was a cold or sinus infection, but not being able to take medicine made the sickness linger forever. Every time I would try to lie down I would end up coughing until I had completely worn myself out. I caught up on all my Netflix shows that I hadn't been able to watch due to watching Paw Patrol nonstop. I also did some serious thinking…..  

Seriously, I have been freaking out since the day I found out I was pregnant. Everyone probably thinks, "You weren't taking birth control, you should have known what was going to happen". Well, I seriously didn't think it would happen due to the problems I had trying to conceive Suzy. Getting pregnant was seriously a major shock to me. I blame my mood/depression/anxiety on hormones, but I have no clue if that is what the true problem is or not. I am sure that I am just freaking out because this was never in my life plan. 

Our sweet CinCin sent this book to Suzy! She loved it.... 

After lying in bed for four days, I had a complete meltdown. I finally told Scott what I had been feeling, and begged him not to think I was mental ward material. Here are some of the things that I have been thinking.... 

 - I don't ever want Suzy to feel left out or like she is being replaced. 

- Raising Suzy was a challenge, so raising two is going to kill me. 

- Holy shit.... I have already gained 22 lbs.!!! 

- We just got to a point in our lives where things are normal, and we can go/do as we please... now we have to start all over. 

- If I almost went crazy after Suzy's birth, I am definitely going to be on mental ward watch after this baby. 

- I am terrified of going back to the newborn stage. 

- Everyone tells you to rest while the baby rests... I did that with Suzy, and I was still tired. I won't be able to do that with "Sally" because I will still have Suzy to take care of. 

- If it is a boy, Suzy is going to be so upset. 

- I really wish this belly would start looking pregnant instead of just fat. 

-  I need to love on Suzy more than normal, because I know I won't have this 1-1 time with her much longer. 

Gaining all this weight so quickly has been extra hard for me to accept. I have still been doing CrossFit (modified), and actually ran the Cooper Young 4- Miler with Kalon and Shauna a few weeks ago. I had worked so hard to get off the baby weight from my pregnancy with Suzy, so seeing my almost flat stomach turn to mush and start expanding really was hard to get adjusted to. I know that I shouldn't be so vain and worry about my body. I know that my body is doing exactly what it is supposed to in order for "Sally" to be comfortable, but it is just hard to look at a closet full of awesome clothes that don't fit. I finally broke down and drug Kalon and Renee maternity clothes shopping last weekend. I had been wearing my pre-pregnancy jeans with ponytail holders stretching from the button through the button loop. They were getting pretty dang uncomfortable to say the least. My belly is just now starting to look pregnant instead of fat. I can actually see some baby bump definition, so that makes getting bigger a little easier. 

Starting to see the baby bump here..... 

Kalon and I at the same race last year.

At Jathan and Haley's wedding.... 

I have been overcrowding Suzy lately and caving to her every request. We usually let Suzy watch one or two TV shows at night before she goes to bed. When she watches "her channels" we are usually catching up on chores or getting ready for bed ourselves. One night Suzy yelled for me to come to her room way past bedtime, and way past the normal two show limit...... (I had caved and she was watching a movie). She wanted me to braid her hair. I would have never normally allowed her to be up that late or talk me into braiding her hair (it was just a plot to keep her from going to sleep in her mind). I caved again and braided her wet, tangled hair so she could stay up an extra five minutes. I soaked up every minute of her wanting/needing me. Her hugs and kisses melt my heart more now than they ever have. I just don't want her to resent me or ever feel like she is second to "Sally". I worry how I will ever juggle my time well enough for both of them to feel like they are both equally important to me. 

She had to take a picture of the finished product after modeling around her room looking in mirrors :) 

It did me absolutely no good to be so sick and unable to do anything but think of crazy depressing things, did it? 

Since the meltdown, I am doing a little better…. I am starting to get over the little things that have been driving me bonkers. I am actually getting giddy about having another little one. It has taken quite some time to get excited. I have always felt blessed to be given this opportunity again, but also wondered why He would think I could handle another baby. I have always prayed and thanked Him for this sweet baby, but never prayed for guidance and help with my inner battles. I realized that I should just ask Him for help. Since then, I smile more when I talk about “Sally” and have been stressing less. To say that all my fears are gone would be a complete lie, but things are getting much easier to cope with. So, keep me and my sanity in your prayers if you don’t mind. 

Pedicures always help too!! I was tired of trying to bend over and paint my toenails.... I treated myself!