Getting Ready for Christmas!

I was just going through my Baby Clay December 2009 picture folder on my computer and realized I have only taken 10 pictures of him so far this month... a TRAGEDY, I tell ya!!! Anyways, I'm sure the next few days are going to be filled with so much picture taking, Baby Clay is going to run and hide the next time he sees a camera!

This year we are hosting Christmas Eve dinner at our house for Mark's side of the family filled with turkey and all the trimmings. Then Christmas night, my side of the family will be coming over for the oh-so-traditional Christmas Chili. I'm feeling a little like Betty Crocker right now... I'll be making Pecan Cranberry stuffing (Ok, so it's stuffing from a box... but it's Williams-Sonoma stuffing, so it's gotta be good!), green bean casserole, deviled eggs, creamed corn (yeah, this is frozen) and then some monkey bread for Christmas morning breakfast! Thank goodness my work gave me a smoked turkey for Christmas... I don't think I'm ready to try my hand at cooking one of those. Other than a few things I've got to pick up from the store... we're ready for Christmas!!!

We went back and forth on where to put the Christmas tree this year... with a curious 15 month old, I was leaning towards our empty dining room where no one goes, but we'd miss out on enjoying the tree. So we ended up putting it in the family room. We put non-breakable ornaments on the bottom because we knew it would be re-decorated by a little elf. He's done pretty good with it... he's had to go to time-out a few times for ripping ornaments off the tree, but for the most part, he just looks.

And here is our Christmas tree... It's a little on the scrawny side for the big huge room it's in (it's a 7 foot tree in a 2-story room). I'm thinking we need to get a new one for next year! And you might notice the lack of presents under the tree... Well, Clay has learned how to unwrap gifts, so we decided that it might be best if we left them in a room he doesn't go into to avoid re-wrapping.

Hmmm... someone is plotting their evil plan to rip the ornaments off the tree... (Notice there are not very many around the bottom. You also can't tell from this picture, but the entire strand of lights around the bottom has somehow become rendered inoperable. I'm sure it has nothing to do with ornaments being ripped from the lower branches...)

He's going in for the kill! At least it is one of his ornaments he's going for...

And this is where he ends up after ripping the ornament off the tree. I'm not exaggerating when I use the word "rip"... it's usually followed by an evil laugh and then he runs off thinking he can get away with it if we can't catch him.

In closing, we would like to wish everyone a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! We hope Santa is good to you and puts lots of good things in your stocking...

I'm very fond of our new stockings this year!!! Here's a close up...($15 from Pottery Barn Kids... Love them!!!)

Clay's is the one in the middle and I'm sure it will be the fullest!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

Merry Christmas from Baby Clay!!

Yeah... the Santa thing didn't work out like we had hoped. We ran into Santa at Bridge Street and thought we'd give it a go. He was a REALLY pretty Santa... Clay found him to be a bit frightening! I love Santa's expression!

New Ears!

Baby Clay got some "new ears" this morning... or rather tubes put in his ears. We've been battling many, many ear infections and it had gotten to the point that antibiotics were not putting a dent in them, so tubes were his best option.

We had to be at the Surgery Center at 7:00 AM... throw in 45 minutes to get there... Baby Clay had to be up at 5:45 which is an hour and 15 minutes earlier than he's used to getting up. He was NOT a happy camper. He also couldn't eat or drink ANYTHING, so he was a tad on the grumpy side. Here he is in the car on the way over there. I couldn't get a smile out him!

We got to the Surgery Center and did all the normal paperwork/insurance stuff and were called back for prep. We could go back with him to change him into his gown, but after we spoke to the surgeon and anesthesiologist, we had hand him over, kicking and screaming (literally) and head to the waiting room.

I thought he looked really cute in his gown...

He was very excited that he got his own TV.

Playing with his cars to pass the time.

The surgery didn't take very long... he was maybe away from us a total of 20 minutes. The surgeon said everything went great. He did still have a really bad double ear infection so we've got to put antibiotic drops in his ears (oh, goodie).

While in recovery, one of the anesthesiologists came to check on him and informed us that he was a bit of a challenge to put to sleep... Yeah, doesn't surprise me. I could just see it now... I'm sure it took at least 4 of them to hold him down.

I thought he'd be starving after surgery, but he refused to eat anything. He ended up falling asleep in the car while we went to get his prescription filled and ran a couple of other errands. Once he woke up, he was back to normal... and he was HUNGRY! We took him out to lunch and then headed home. He's been asleep for a few hours, but I hear him stirring.

I'm so relieved surgery went well and I'm hopeful that this will be the end to those horrible ear infections!!!

Flashback Friday - 1 Year Ago

This time last year we were over at my parent's condo in Atlanta celebrating Christmas a little early. Here are a couple of pictures from that weekend:

In front of the big tree in Atlantic Station

Getting ready to open gifts!
And this was he photo I used for our Christmas cards!

And guess what came in last weekend... Clay's Book!!!! I was so nervous to open the box! I was so afraid I messed something up when making them... And they turned out... PERFECT!!! I couldn't be happier with them! It took forever to make, but it was WELL worth it! I took a few pictures of them, but the pictures definitely don't do it justice!

I still won't read the actual posts in the book because I'm so afraid my grammar is incorrect or I misspelled something (even though I did do spell check). :)

This weekend will be filled with finishing up my Christmas decorations, a MOPS Christmas Party, Christmas shopping and wrapping all the gifts! We've got a busy weekend ahead of us!

Christmas Quiz!

Haven't done a quiz in a while and this one looked like fun.

WARNING: Slight Santa spoiler below. Don't let little children who believe read this post!!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate – especially a fancy flavored hot chocolate like Dark Chocolate Mint… with mini marshmallows or whip cream

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I think Santa is has decided to not wrap his gifts this year. He and I bought the same wrapping paper and I would not want to confuse Baby Clay.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Definitely white lights

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, it doesn’t go with the rest of my décor

5. When do you put your decorations up? I started the day after Thanksgiving… and I’m still going! This is the first year in this house and it’s the perfect house to decorate for Christmas.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I LOVE dressing and gravy… I also like green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole. Oh, and I can’t forget the Sister Schubert rolls!

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Finding out what Santa left in our stockings! He would always leave Pringles and Easy Cheese (very good combo – highly suggest it). He still leaves it in our stockings to this day!

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don’t know exactly when I learned the truth. I think it may have been one year when we woke up early and Santa hadn’t come yet… I think his alarm didn’t go off in time. I did go back to bed and waited a little longer for him to frantically put the gifts out (I may not have this story exactly correct – I have a terrible memory!).

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? When I was little, we got to pick one gift to open Christmas Eve. Now we open the extended family gifts on Christmas Eve and then exchange between the 3 of us Christmas morning.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Right now it has white lights, a big, red bow made out of tulle, and most of our ornaments. I really want a tall, skinny tree for next year since the ceilings are so high in our family room.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? LOVE IT!!! Wish we’d get a blizzard, but fat chance of that happening in Alabama. At least I’ll get to see tons of snow when we go to Colorado!

12. Can you ice skate? BAD experience with ice skating. And you’d think I’d be good at it since I was a great roller skater – obviously not the same thing! I think I took out quite a few people my one and only time ice skating.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? The My Little Pony tent that went on your bed – Actually, now that I think about it, I think maybe my sister got this and I just really wanted hers?? (Juli, help me out if you’re reading this.) I do know my least favorite gift I got for Christmas... It was a fake Cabbage Patch doll that "Santa" brought because he couldn't find a real one. I was a DISAPPOINTED little girl that year.

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Spending time with family, creating Christmas traditions with Clay, and reflecting on what Christmas really means.

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? The ever-so-festive Dirt Cake. I guess I could add some green and red gummy worms to make it more Christmasy.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? With family in different places, we haven’t really stuck with certain traditions. I hope to start that with Clay this year!

17. What tops your tree? This year it’s a big red bow made out of tulle fabric.

18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Oh, come on! Everyone prefers both!

19. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? I like a candy cane, but I’d prefer chocolate

20. Favorite Christmas Show? The Holiday with Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet – I know this isn’t one of the typical Christmas movies, but I LOVE this one!

21. Saddest Christmas Song? Why, oh, why are there even ANY sad Christmas songs?? I cannot stand that Christmas Shoes song!!! Every time it comes on, Mark tries to get me to listen to it and it makes me cry. I’m starting to tear up just typing about it! Shame on you whoever wrote and sung that song (And don’t even get me started on the movie this song is about!)

22. What is your favorite Christmas Song? My favorite Christmas song is – I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevy as well as every song on the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas cd. Ahhhh, brings back such great memories. My sister and I would sing along with the Muppets during our holiday travels growing up.

Now it's YOUR TURN!!! Copy and answer these questions and post it to your blog!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

15 Months!

Today, my sweet baby is 15 months old. It's amazing how much he has changed since his 1st birthday. Crawling is a thing of the past and he walks... actually RUNS everywhere. He moves so fast that his little legs sometimes have trouble keeping up with him. Last time he was weighed (which was last week) he was 26 pounds and 10 ounces. This puts him in the 77th percentile for his age. He's gotten really tall and is quickly growing out of his 12 month pants.

He talks all the time... mostly in his own language, but it's so cute! He can repeat things we say to him and is constantly saying "Dada". He LOVES books and pretends to read them. He has a favorite book, Little Bear and Her Friends, and never gets tired of it. He will pull it off the shelf, hand it to me, and sit down in my lap so I can read it to him... many, many times!

He's become a little bit of a picky eater lately. I try to get him to try new things, but he's not very open to many of them. His favorites are still broccoli, avocado, and cheese. He also likes hot dogs (only the turkey variety), Nutri-grain bars, pizza, and Teddy Grahams. He LOVES fruit and would eat it for every meal if I let him. He also loves waffles and veggie sausage for breakfast.

He loves lights and whenever you turn one on in the house (especially one of the chandeliers) he gets excited and says what sounds similar to "light". He really likes the lights on the Christmas tree and enjoys pulling the ornaments off... although, he doesn't enjoy the time out he earns from pulling them off.

He's already developing his own sense of style and really likes to wear clothes that have fun things on them. He gets really excited when I pull out one of his Paul Frank monkey shirts for him to wear and throws a fit when I want him to wear a plain, ole' sweater with nothing fun on it. He still despises shoes and socks and takes every opportunity to kick them off.

He likes it when I sing and loves to clap along to "If You're Happy and You Know It". Whenever he hears fun music, we can tell him to dance and he'll bounce up and down and wave his arms around. He loves his Little People Farm and big dump truck and has recently learned how to stack up his blocks. He's also learning how to throw a ball and roll it back and forth. He hasn't formed a big attachment to any of his stuffed animals, but likes to hold onto his giraffe lovey when he goes to sleep. And speaking of sleep, the boy LOVES to sleep! He goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 and wakes up at 7:00 in the morning. Most days when he's home with us, he takes one big nap after lunch and will sleep for 3 or 4 hours!

And, of course, I have some pictures!!! These are from my 2 attempts at a Christmas Card photo shoot.

This one is my favorite!!! I just love his mischievous little expression!

Happy 15 months old Baby Clay!!!!

First Christmas Parade!

Tonight we decided last minute to bundle up and head out to the Christmas parade. It was sprinkling and we were afraid that the parade wouldn't happen, but by the time we got there, the rain had stopped. At first Clay didn't know what to think about it, but got into it after a while. I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a fun little parade! Here are some pictures:

Bundled up and waiting for the parade to start

The reindeer on the power company's truck

The Home Depot Float

Baby Clay cheesing it up for the camera

Nothing says "Happy Holidays" like a Christmas Panda!

Santa riding in style on the fire truck!

And guess what tomorrow is... It's PICTURES!!! And guess what the weather looks like...

Yes, folks... that's a 90% chance of rain right there. Looks like the photo shoot is doomed for a third time! Hmmmm... looks like we need a back up plan. The photographer we chose to do his 12 month pictures (Yeah... he'll be 15 months tomorrow! So much for the 12 month pics!) only shoots outside, so we are at the weather's mercy! Hopefully something will work out!

And in the midst of all the craziness of the holidays, we've found out that Clay has to have tubes put in his ears. We took him to an ENT last Friday and he said he was a prime candidate for tubes. He is scheduled for the procedure next Monday morning. We've been told that it is a quick procedure and they don't even put him all the way under... just a little bit of gas to knock him out a few minutes. We were told that he would only be away from us for about 20 minutes. Hopefully this will prevent these horrible ear infections he keeps getting!


Have a great week!

Giving Thanks

I meant to post this a little closer to Thanksgiving, but late is better than never!!

I can't tell how thankful I am for what I have in life! This year we have truly been blessed! We have wonderful family... wonderful friends... a beautiful house to live in... jobs... We are blessed more than we deserve and for that, I am truly thankful! I am also thankful for the soldiers that dedicate their lives to give us the freedom to have the things we do! I've got a cousin that is a Navy Seal and another cousin's husband is an Army Ranger and he's currently over-seas. I am so proud of both of them and their dedication to protecting our country. Please pray for their continued safety!

This Thanksgiving we went to my Granny's (my mom's mom) house and celebrated with lots of family! We ate WAY too much! My Uncle Larry fried a few turkeys and my Aunt Carole, Aunt Karen and Granny made all the fixings. My parents, sister and her family came over from Atlanta and my cousins Matt and Blake and Blake's wife were there as well. We greatly missed my cousin Carrie! Her family is usually there, but her husband is in the Army and they are stationed all the way up in Alaska! Clay decided his Thanksgiving meal would consist of a Nutri-grain bar, banana and Cheerios. He did take a really good nap while we all ate and once he woke up I was able to get him to eat some of my Uncle Larry's delicious fried turkey.

I was horrible and didn't even pull out my camera while we were there. I did take a few pictures of Clay when we got home.

Very happy it's Thanksgiving and he gets to stay home with Mama and Dada for a couple of days!

I LOVE those big, brown eyes!!

Friday after Thanksgiving, I decided not to get out with all the crazy people (and I'm normally one of those crazies) and go Christmas Shopping... mainly because we had the Iron Bowl to prepare for. We went over to Emily and Jeremy's house, proving that Auburn and Alabama fans can co-exist in the same house harmoniously during the Iron Bowl. It also didn't hurt that as Auburn fans, we pretty much knew we were going to get our butts kicked. What a surprise when we led for most of the game and had a chance to win in the final seconds!! I'm so proud of our Auburn Tigers for hanging with the #2 team in the nation!!! Clay made it until half time and then took a nap for the rest of the game.

Here are a few pictures of Clay decked out in his Auburn garb...

Wearing Daddy's hat

Ha! I have more hair than Daddy!!

War Eagle!!!

I tried to take a few pictures of Wyatt and Clay in their Auburn and Alabama stuff, but Clay was not having any of it! Wyatt wasn't afraid of the camera, though. Hmmmmm... I wonder where Clay got that cheesy smile he usually does...
Saturday I did brave the mall and was pleasantly surprised! I pulled into the parking lot at 9:45 AM and got the 2nd parking spot from the door. I was wondering if the mall was even open! I guess everyone must have been hung over from the Iron Bowl. I mananged to get a good bit of my Christmas shopping done!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

My Labor of Love

Holy! COW!! I really thought that creating a book from my blog was going to be SOOO much easier than scrapbooking... boy, was I wrong! Although, the nice thing about this is that I don't have to make multiple scrapbooks for the grandparents. The place I uploaded and ordered them from handles all the duplication (Merry Christmas, Grandparents!). I used blurb.com and from that site you download a book making software. It has a "blog import" tool, but I scrapped that after my book was turning into a novel with the gazillion blog posts I did over Clay's first year. I ended up just doing a page (or 2) per month with a few special occasions sprinkled in (like his birth, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.). I finally finished my book last night and got it uploaded and ordered before my coupon ended at midnight! It did warn me when I tried to purchase multiple copies that they "HIGHLY suggest" you buy one copy and check it out before you buy multiple... but no time for that!

Here are a few screenshots of Baby Clay's first book...

This is the cover of the book... it's a hardback book and this is the dust cover.


Can I give a big "shout-out" to Picasa 3 (download it from Google)?!? They have all kinds of great features... like making a pretty collage like the one above. I wore the collage making tool out! I would also like to note that Picasa has a blemish fixing tool... that works just as great as Photoshop's... but Picasa 3 is FREE!!! (and the version of Photoshop I want is like a trillion bucks). I LOVE me some free stuff!!

Here's the "Birth Announcement" page...
And here's the Christmas page...(I know it's a little difficult to see, but I can't figure out how to make them show up bigger.) UPDATE: I figured it out... if you click on them, it will open up bigger. I'm sure everyone but me knew that already!

I'm supposed to be getting them by December 4th... I'm so nervous as to how they are going to turn out!!! I think I'm going to go ahead and get started on his 2nd book since this takes FOREVER! It's a really great idea and it definitely helps us folks that are "creatively challenged". If I even attempted to do a scrapbook, it would start out all pretty... but half-way through, it would turn into just a bunch of pages with pictures thrown on.

Yesterday, Baby Clay and I ventured down to Birmingham for my company's Annual Thanksgiving lunch. My friends at work hadn't seen him in over a year and I thought showing up for the Thanksgiving lunch would be a great time to bring him! Wow! There was so much food! I ate and ate... and ate and ate... I got Clay some food, but he decided he was more interested in my friend, Heather's, tortilla strips she had on her salad. Basically, that's all he ate for his Thanksgiving lunch! We had a great time and Clay was pooped by the time we left. He did manage to stay awake for most of the ride home, but couldn't hold his eyes open for the last half of the trip.

Yeah... he was OUT!

Tomorrow we are off to my grandmother's to get REALLY fat! My aunt sent me the menu... I think I gained 5 pounds just reading the email! There were at least 20 things on the menu and I liked every one of them. I wonder if it would be tacky of me to show up in my comfortable, stretchy PJ pants?? I mean, it is family!

Hope everyone has a Happy Turkey Day!!

Arizona

Last week I had a work trip to Scottsdale, AZ. I was kind of dreading the trip... being away from Baby Clay and Mark as well as wondering what-in-the-world is in Scottsdale, AZ?!? Let's just say... Scottsdale is beautiful!!! The weather was perfect and the hotel we stayed at was GORGEOUS! We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa and here is the view as we drove up... Look at the palm trees!! There were hundreds of huge palm trees everywhere!


This is the view of the front with the fountain. The whole front and back has these big, huge doors that they would slide open so that the whole entire entry would be open. The weather during the day was absolutely perfect for this!
I loved the landscape around Scottsdale... very low maintenance! No grass... lots of cactuses, grape fruit trees, palm trees and dirt! I learned that the big tall cactuses that you normally think of (the ones with the 2 arms coming out) are native to Arizona and only grow in Arizona. These little clusters of cactuses were also all over the place.

The resort had a gorgeous outside area that had these big, comfy bed-like couches along with fire pits and big out door fire places.

The pool was amazing! It was huge and just kept going... and going! Here is a picture of the part of the pool that they made to look like the beach with sand.

And that big Clock Tower is actually a water slide. You climb up the stairs inside and then slide down into the pool!

Here is another view of the pool. See! It goes on forever!One of the cute bars/restaurants that you can "swim" over to.

I would definitely like to go back again next year... preferably more prepared with my bathing suit and suntan lotion (I didn't think we'd have any time).

So what was Baby Clay doing while I was working away in Arizona?? He was at home with his daddy. This was the longest I had left Mark with Clay and he did an excellent job of taking care of him! I got back after he had gone to sleep Friday night, so I didn't get to see him until he woke up Saturday morning. It was so cute!!! When I walked into his room, it took him a little while to realize that I was home! He gave me the biggest smile! I had missed him so much! He had become quite the "daddy's boy" while I was gone, but is quickly returning to being a "momma's boy"!

Tomorrow, Clay and I are making a trip down to Birmingham to attend my work's Annual Thanksgiving lunch. He hasn't seen my good friends at work since I was on maternity leave! I can't wait! I'll be sure to wear my stretchy jeans because I know I'll eat WAY too much!

We Lost AGAIN!!!

This weekend was the big Auburn vs. Georgia game! We decided to stay at home and watch it with Baby Clay. We decked him out in his Auburn shirt, picked up pizza and made some rotel dip! What was looking like a hopeful win, turned bad... real bad! We lost... AGAIN!

Here's Baby Clay already looking like he's had a little "too much"... drool all over his shirt... walking a little sideways...

Come on bulldogs, show us what you got!

Ok, bulldogs... You showed us!

(Actually, he's crying because he's in time-out for messing with the satellite box. A big no-no trying to change the channels during game time!)

Worn out from all the excitement!

And it has been a delight the past 3 years to see what shirt our friend, Christy, makes for Mark. They've got a bet that whoever wins, they get to make a shirt for the other person to wear during the game the next year. However, since they've made this bet, Christy has only had to wear a home-made shirt once (it was gorgeous, though... all decked out with puffy paint and orange feathers! Christy, I wish I could find my pictures from that game!!!)

Here is Mark showing off the front of his shirt - you can't read it that well, but it says "If you can't beat 'em"

And here's the back...
I really liked the glittery silver paint. That added a nice touch, Christy. And he did wear it for almost the entire game. He thought maybe that would bring Auburn luck... AND it didn't!

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Oh, wait... look what I found! Gotta love those online photo hosting sites!!!

You can't read the back, but it says "Tigers Rule, Dogs Drool".

Here's my favorite part... the feathers!

Wow! Can you believe that was in 2006?!? That seems forever ago!

Anyways, we'll get them next year (I hope)!

(P.S. Christy, I hope you don't get mad at me for posting those pictures! I personally think you look really great in orange!) :o)