So Long 2008.....

I am truly astonished that another year has just flown right by us ~ again I ask "where has it gone"? If it weren't for digital cameras that dated the pictures I fear I might not be able to separate year from year as they seem to just be coming faster with each passing one! A look back at 2008 with the help of said digital camera ~ thank god for technology!

January ~ We were busy re-learning the ropes of having a new baby in the house, getting settled in and learning to operate as a family of 4 rather than 3, and watching the dogs scope out their new 2 legged sister and all of the cool new stuff that she came with (dirty diapers included!).

February ~ The start of T-Ball practice and all of the Team Mom "duties" (good thing they gave us a manual for that!), Maisie's first shot experience (she really could have done without it), and watching as our little girl started to develop her own personality and give those first real, not gas induced, smiles!

March ~ Maisie discovered that her fingers were good for more than just hanging off the ends of her hands, T-Ball season officially opened, a beautiful growing little girl, my 32 birthday (ugh!).

April ~ Relay for Life in honor of my dad, still playing T-Ball, the return of the ice cream truck, celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary at Disney World with our kids (the same place we honeymooned)

May ~ Maisie added a little bling to her ears (she's all about sparkle), Hunter and Scott got their new ranch ride.

June, July, & August ~ Hunter's days were spent having the time of his life attending different summer camps, spending a couple of weeks at my parent's house, having water balloon fights, and going swimming. He learned to swim without floaties and without someone standing right there just in case he sank. Maisie learned to eat solids and Pumbaa learned that he liked that Maisie learned to eat solids!

September ~ Unfortunately September brought Hurricane Ike to our front door on Hunter's 5th birthday (obviously caused his pool party to be cancelled). We packed up and evacuated to Dallas where we celebrated his birthday at Chuck E Cheese and bowled on the Wii until my hips hurt! A week after we arrived at my friend Cindy's apartment our electricity came back on and we packed up and moved out! Thank you Cindy!

October ~ We packed up and headed off to Disney once again because we had extra points to use and hated to let them go to waste and Scott had vacation to burn! What a lovely relaxing trip is was - we attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party while we were there - how fun! Our thanks to Southwest Airlines for running a cheap fare! Hunter FINALLY got his birthday party 1 month after his birthday!

November ~ 5 short weeks after returning from Disney we packed up and headed back again! 3 trips in one year is a little extreme don't you think? This was a trip with my parent's and included getting to see the space shuttle Endeavor launch - that was AWESOME! We also attended Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party - too bad I left early because I got food poisoning! Nothing like barfing in the bushes at the Magic Kingdom - nothing real magical about that is there?! This month also brought a great Thanksgiving - we went to the parade with my dad - something I have been doing with him for about 30 years! Hunter learned to roller skate and ride a 2 wheeler! Maisie discovered the self filling dog bowl on the back porch (of course when it's cold!).

December ~ We had 2 birthdays to celebrate this month - Maisie turned 1 and the next day Scott turned 36! Christmas was wonderful and crazy as always! I love watching Hunter as he comes into the TV room on Christmas morning checking out what all Santa has left for him - seeing the excitement on his face is the best thing in the whole world! Even Maisie noticed there was some new haul in there that morning!

So 2008 goes out with a bang ~ literally ~ there are fireworks popping all around me! I look forward to 2009 and the adventures it holds! Happy New Year everyone!

Maisie's 1st Birthday Party

Okay, so I am a little late posting about Maisie's 1st Birthday Soiree, but you know it has been a little busy! All part of the trials and tribulations of being born 1 week before Christmas! The party went well ~ a much smaller gathering than our usual birthday parties ~ there were only 15 kids in attendance (and 2 of those are 2 months old so they really don't count) as opposed to the usual 22-25! It was actually quite nice not having the usual zoo if I do say so myself ~ made loading up and heading over to see Santa a much easier accomplished task. Her party was a "Winter One-derland" theme ~ originally I thought I would do a Princess party (since she is one) but then decided that this would be her only chance EVER to have a "Winter One-derland" theme so I took that and ran with it. Now the original plan was that my brother was going to don a Santa suit and show up at the party and let everyone sit on his lap for some final Santa pleading, deal making, etc., but something came up and he wasn't going to be able to attend so I had to find a replacement and fast! Fortunately for me there is a section in my neighborhood that hosts their own Santa gathering every year so I contacted them to plea my case and hope that they would be willing to do a private Santa viewing for Maisie's party. The deal with this group is that you donate a toy in exchange for sitting on Santa's lap and then they donate all of the toys they collect to an organization of their choice. I had asked that gifts not be brought for Maisie but instead be brought for a child who wasn't going to have a Christmas so this really worked out perfectly ~ the Santa group agreed to do a private showing for us and in return we donated all of the toys brought to the party to their group instead of where I was going to take them ~ it was a win win situation for all involved.
So for the party the older kids played and jumped for a while and then we had pizza (which Maisie LOVES by the way ~ she is a real junker), cake (ate it like you wouldn't believe), and then headed off to see Santa. After they sat on Santa's lap, Mrs. Claus gave each guest their party favors ~ a make your own snow globe kit, and a reusable hand warmer ~ and then everyone left. Maisie got a few gifts ~ apparently not all of our friends can follow instructions! ~ so she did get some practice in unwrapping presents before the Big Day that was soon to follow! All in all it went very well ~ this will be her first and last December birthday party ~ I am all about 1/2 birthdays! When she turns 2 we will celebrate with the family and have cake and a present or two, but as far as a big party goes, we will postpone that until June and celebrate her turning 2 1/2! A birthday 1 week before Christmas is just too much ~ maybe when she gets old enough to just be having a couple of girls over for a slumber party we will move back into December soirees, but we've got many parties to go before that happens!

Here Comes the Bride!

We got some VERY exciting news on Christmas Eve ~ we have once again managed to marry off my sister! My dad is happier than a pig in shit and my mom says she just wishes that she could have been this happy about the upcoming nuptials the first time around! My original brother-in-law was a real ass and nobody but the bride was happy about that wedding! I guess since Wilson (my soon to be brother-in-law) is going to make an honest woman out of her I will stop referring to him as her "sugar daddy". We are all very excited for her as he is a really nice guy and will make a lovely addition to our dysfunctional little family! Hell, if the trip to Disney World with us didn't scare him off he must be in it for the long haul! No date has been set ~ my brother and I are trying to convince her that this should be a "destination" wedding ~ a lovely Caribbean destination that is! I have personally selected the FDR Pebbles in Jamaica mon ~ you get your very own vacation nanny along with your room ~ how cool is that! Now of course if it was just Maisie I would never in a million years leave her with a stranger, but figuring that Hunter can advise me of all of the ongoings that certainly helps to calm the fears! I don't know that out "wishes" for this blissful occasion will be granted however ~ my first tip off is that Lee informed us that she doesn't need a "village of idiots" to plan this for her! My only request is anywhere but Vegas! Congratulations Lee and Wilson!

Dear Santa

Gotta love this and having kids makes you truly appreciate it!

Dear Santa,
I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor, sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find any more free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:
I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the
breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint
resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a
refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding paymentas if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always, MOM...!

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Happy Birthday Scott!

Scott's 30th Birthday party ~

it was a redneck theme! He has advised me

never to rent a mechanical bull again!

My brother, sister, & I making my parent's proud!

This should have been our Christmas card picture

that year!

Today Scott is officially another year older ~ 36 ~ yikes! He's almost old enough to have been around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth! He was really hoping that Maisie was going to share his birthday with him ~ I guess she decided that since she is the princess, she deserved her very own day! Score for him though, as there will always be birthday cake around on his birthday now ~ okay so maybe it wasn't necessarily for him, but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit! With every passing year Scott's forehead gets a little larger, and the hair that is still remaining gets a little grayer ~ a sign of extinction, I mean distinction (at least that's what we tell him)! He likes to blame me for all of his gray ~ funny my mom does too ~ maybe there is something to that theory? So Happy Birthday my sweet baboo ~ we love you!

Happy Birthday Maisie Mouse

Let me back in! Let me back in!

One exhausted mama!

One proud daddy!

Your biggest fan!

Spoiling's our game!

An unheard of moment ~ dad holding a baby?!

My perfect beautiful little princess!

I love you!

Happy Birthday my Sweet Baby Girl! It was 1 year ago at this exact moment that she finally decided to make her debut ~ a mere 16.5 hours after my water broke (obviously I am not a fast laborer)! I walked a million miles around the hospital floors trying to coerce her out in a more timely manner ~ she didn't want any part of it! I would have been perfectly happy to accommodate her within up until my due date and even longer if she so chose, but that wasn't in the cards! I don't think she was at all ready to come out ~ must have mistakenly broke my water while she was stretching or something because I went a good 7 or 8 hours without so much as a contraction ~ when Hunter kicked my water out I was having contractions within an hour and was doubled over within 2 hours! She weighed in at a tiny 6 lbs. 12.2 oz. and was 20 1/4 inches. I just assumed she would be the same size as Hunter ~ a full pound heavier and another 3/4 inches ~ let me tell you a pound makes a HUGE difference when you are talking about little people! Maisie was so small that I had to go buy her a new wardrobe of the newborn size clothes the day after we came home from the hospital ~ all she had was 0-3 months and they completely SWALLOWED her! Her little tiny legs didn't even make it into the leg holes of the footed sleepers! I had told my mom not to buy any of the newborn size stuff because that was a "stupid" size being that the upper weight limit was 8 pounds ~ I figured she was going to be pushing 8 pounds when she crawled out of there so it was really just a waste ~ obviously I was wrong! Teach me to call it a "stupid" size ~ but in my own defense Hunter would have gotten virtually zero use out of that size.

I can't believe an entire year has passed us by ~ where has it gone? I'm really very sad that she is turning one ~ I have actually shed tears over this ~ she's not my little baby anymore! Scott says she is still my baby and her turning one means that I have done my job and kept her alive for the last year ~ guess he has a point there. I have said it before and I still maintain that she is the most perfect and ideal baby specimen you could ever ask for! If I knew that all of my kids would come out like her I would be like Michelle Duggar, only from Texas! I know that while she is currently a real joy, she too will get to the point of pushing her boundaries and making me threaten her life, but for now she remains perfect!

Before I was pregnant my mom would tell me "I hope if you have another one you get a girl because you need to have one of each ~ they are just so different to raise". Man, mama knows what mama speaks of! Hunter and Maisie are complete and total polar opposites ~ they couldn't be any more opposite if they tried! Hunter was a good baby ~ he was very happy and easy going, and as long as you kept him on his tight military like schedule for being asleep by 7:00 he was good to go ~ he didn't have to be in his bed at 7:00, but he needed to be asleep by 7:00 even if it was in the car, otherwise I was going to pay for it for a week! This luxury sleeping didn't start until he was about 4 months old, the first 4 months of his life he liked to have killed me getting up all night long to feast! His daytime sleeping though left A LOT to be desired from the get go ~ his version of napping was in the form of three 20 minute power naps a day, and at about 9 months he went down to two 20 minute power naps a day, at about 14 months down to one 40 minute nap a day, and was completely done with napping by 2.5! Maisie on the other hand came home from the hospital only getting up once a night and for the first 3 weeks of her life slept about 22 hours a day ~ I'm not joking when I say that either ~ I was really concerned that there was something wrong with her ~ she wouldn't even open her eyes to eat, I would just get her out of bed, feed her, and then put her back to bed. At about 3 weeks old she quit sleeping for 22 hours of the day and went down to about 21 hours ~ but by that point I had decided that there was nothing wrong with her that's just how she is ~ the girl likes her sleep what can I say. She plays with things that Hunter never gave a second look to, and there is no such thing as telling her "no" twice ~ you just have to say it once and she is in tears (guess that's the whole girl drama thing). Hunter on the other hand you could be screaming "no" at the top of your lungs while jumping up and down on top of him and it wouldn't have phased him ~ still doesn't for that matter.

Maisie is such a wonderful addition to our family and I thank god for her everyday ~ she is truly a blessing. Before she was born I wasn't at all sure what the hell I was going to do with a girl ~ let me just say I have figured it out! Little girls are so much fun ~ I highly advise everybody get one! I know why god gave me my Maisie, and I know why he made me wait so long for her ~ she is truly a gift worth waiting for.

Happy 1st Birthday my little Princess ~ what an amazing year it has been!