Happy New Year's Eve.

Here's the last photo of the girls for 2008. I love it. They were patiently waiting for me to make caramel corn. :)
You know what? My girls look like hoodlums. River is in a summery short outfit. Flower is still in pajamas and hair undone. My house is a mess and I don't care. Like clothes and blankets covering the floor, cloth diapers needing cleaned, floors that desperately need to be swept and vacuumed, laundry to do, Christmas stuff to be put away, dishes to be done. You name it, it needs it. But guess what I'm doing instead? Watching Alice in Wonderland with Flower on one side and River cuddled on my lap. And we are sharing a bowl of caramel corn and eating cheese sticks. And I'm loving every minute of it. This is so much better then ignoring them to clean! It's just more important to me.

We have decided to keep it low key tonight. For the past four years we've gone to the Goodsell's huge party. Adults and kids are welcome. Lots and lots are invited. It's pure craziness. Normally I'm ok with it. This year we want quiet. Calm. We are going to Oriental Express for dinner with the Sturgill's. And then who knows? No plans. Fly by the seat of our pants. That's us.

It's time to get back to my movie and my girls. I love saying that...MY GIRLS. Next we're watching Mamma Mia.

Hope you are able to ring in the new year in a way that makes you happy!
Peace.

Thumb Sucker?

Not sure if she will be all the time but there have been a few times that I've caught her. I think it's so cute! The index finger is sometimes over her nose and sometimes tucked under the nose and under the other fingers...as shown in this photo.
I love that she grabs her face with her hand with the last three fingers.
Cute baby girl.

Family Gatherin'

As I mentioned yesterday, today was set up to be a hellish day and it did not disappoint. Unfortunately I think tomorrow is going to rival it but it may get better sooner then today it. But that's ok, everyday can't be great or I wouldn't appreciate the great ones. I will just leave it at that and move on to the more positive parts.

Tonight KG's family came to the clubhouse. We took a few minutes to take some photos. Both his brothers are in town with their families which meant that his parents had all their grandkids here! We haven't all been together since summer 2007 so this was fun. I'm not super excited with how the photos turned out but what do you do?

I do really like the grandkids photos,

and James' family photo's.

These Boso's made it impossible for me to get a decent photo. They wouldn't quit grabbing each other in the nards long enough to stop laughing. But hey! At least they were having fun! Twits.


Then the great grandparents came and we ate a yummy dinner with the best dessert...GG's chocolate pudding dessert, which we only get at this time of year. YUM!
the kids were glued to Peter Pan while they ate.




I really love this photo. It might be my favorite of the night. It's just so sweet. Great Grandma's are awesome. They were watching Ratatouille.
We wanted to play games tonight. We forgot just how long Redneck Life is so it's the only game we were able to play. It was fun and had lots of laughs but I do wish we had more time for some of the others. I lost miserably and Justin totally skunked us all. :)
Justin was met River for the first time tonight. I adore her little lips. I am a lips person and hers are delicious!
P.S.-I need to make a public apology to my husband. While playing our game, he said something and it embarrassed me and I back handed him in the face. It wasn't intended to be hard but it was, which further embarrassed me and instead of apologizing I got defensive. I felt horrible and fought back tears. It was one of those moments that I really just wanted to call it a night and leave. Those moments tend to be more common when I've had a day such as today and I think PMS is rearing it's ugly head based on my mood and my very swollen hands. Nice. :) Anyway, KG I'm very sorry. I love you.

Curses!

Today we lounged about. We played with Flower's new toys and watched Alice in Wonderland. The girls and I slept in till 10:00! Of course that only made 7 hours of sleep for me but I'm glad they didn't wake up sooner. We skipped out on church. Just wasn't in the mood. I got a call from my sister at 3:45 asking what we were doing. She invited us to my parents so we woke KG up and moseyed on over there. We ate dinner and then played a bunch of new games we'd each received for Christmas. Spencer got Cranium so that was first on the list. Then we played Yahtzee Free for All, Pictureka, Squint, Kooky Kalooki Rummy and finished the night out with Curses. Curses left us wetting our pants. It was hilarious! To give you an idea, you have various curses. At one point in the game anytime someone made an animal sound I had to shout out a lunch meat. Since my mom snorts when she laughs, that happened often. At the start of each of my sister's turns she had to clap and say, "attention class". Well anytime someone clapped my nephew had to bow. Anytime someone touched KG he was electrocuted. He also had to talk like a ventriloquist for most of the game and act like an earthquake anytime my nephew talked. We all had three to four curses in front of us at a time that we had to do simultaneously. Keep in mind that all these things are happening at the same time and usually your curse set off someone else's curse and it was a vicious cycle. Laughter ensued and we could barely get through the game! Super fun. It was a nice end to the weekend.

Kas and Flower had lots of fun together. Part of that fun included giving the rest of us a migraine towards the end of the night. We all started smelling strong fumes of citrus. Upon further investigiation we found the girls in the bathroom. Kas was spraying room spray/deodarizer in Flower's hair like it was hair spray. Tons and tons. Her hair was wet. Nice. The entire house smelled like citrus. We had to open up several doors and windows. Yikes. At least they were having fun.

The reason my sister was at my parents and the one inviting us over? That's a good story. Their furnace went out on Friday. They didn't want to pay weekend rates so they were just using the fireplace all weekend and extra blankets until Monday. This morning my sister woke up and put another log on the fire. Somehow the flu closed and their house quickly filled with smoke! Gregg tried to open the flu and in doing so burned his hand in three places. They took the kids to my parents and went the hospital. They have serious smoke damage so they are staying with my parents tonight. Tomorrow they will 'ozone' it. You cannot enter for 30 hours after that so they'll stay with my parents tomorrow too. If the ozone doesn't work they'll have to file an insurance claim.
Totally sucks! But it's kind of funny too.

Can I just say how much I'm dreading tomorrow. Like bad. If I can just get through the day, the night will be a blast, but I'm not sure I'll make it. It just might turn out to be one of the most hellish days I've ever had. :( Sunday, I'm begging you not to end!

Word up yo.

Five Weeks Old.

This photo of River was taken on Christmas when she turned five weeks old. KG's aunt Lynnette sent the adorable outfit from Colorado.
On that Monday she had a doctor appointment because she's been much fussier the past couple of weeks then she was the first two or three. Her cry sounded very pained. Her breath wasn't smelling as sweet. She wasn't sleeping as much. She would only sleep or lay at an incline. Let's see, that may be it. Oh no wait, she was CONSTANTLY hungry. Anyway, she has reflux. She is now on medicine twice a day and it's definitely making a difference but she still has her times when she is in pain and it's so hard to watch. :(

I wanted to make a note of her currant stats.
Weight=11 pounds 15 ounces=97%
Height=20 inches=90%
Head Circumference=36.5=75%

I also want to mention her ethnicity. I have been forgetting and people wonder but hesitate to ask. Her birth mom is Polish and Irish. Very fair with auburn hair. The birth father is some percentage (1/4 or 1/2) black. We never met him. That is the reason for her lovely olive skin. She has gotten darker since she was born which is usually the case. We are excited to see how dark she gets.

We have all been receiving smiles from her the past week and it's the best thing ever! She's been such a fun addition to our family and we are grateful for her.

We met Truxton!

We had a great weekend. Friday night my friend Amanda came over for a girls night. She came with pizza in hand and hung out with me and the girls and watched Mamma Mia. It was so nice to talk to her. We talked until 1:00 am and she got here at 6:00 pm. :) Love that.

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KG spent the evening at the clubhouse 'geeking it up' with his buddies. They each brought their computers and networked them together to play a game against each other. His night was even longer. He went there at 4:00 pm and didn't get home till 4:00 am! I'm so glad he was able to do this. It's been way too long.

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Today the girls and I played and watched Fraggle Rock. KG gave it to me for Christmas. :) I almost caught River giving me a smile but she stopped halfway through so you get a half smile. :)
We also watched Mamma Mia again.

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The bright spot in the day was meeting baby Truxton! My cousins adopted him just two weeks after we adopted River but he is two months older then she. He is a big ball of cuddles! They are in town for Christmas and came over with my cousin Lisa, my Aunt Carolyn and baby Carolyn who belongs to yet another cousin. :o)
I didn't wake KG up because I knew he hadn't slept much yet. However, he heard us and couldn't pass up meeting the chubby goodness that is Truxton. Look how tired the poor guy looks!
As much as the pictures wouldn't suggest it, KG actually got lots of smiles from him which made the lack of sleep totally worth it!

Hurricane Carolyn is just as cute as can be!
They all were meeting River for the first time as well.
The proud Pappa.
I somehow only managed to get a photo of Jessica's legs and arms but at least it's proof she was here!
It was so nice to hold Truxton because now my 12 pounder feels tiny again! ;) We are so glad they made time to come visit us. We couldn't be more happy for them!

My parents showed up at the tail end of their visit to meet Truxton as well. It was fun to have so many visitors! :)

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After everyone left we watched Mamma Mia yet AGAIN, but this time for KG's benefit. He hadn't seen it yet. Flower and I just can't get enough. While we watched he and I played one of the games I gave him for Christmas, Yahtzee Free For All. It was pretty fun.

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It just won't quit snowing around here. It's sure pretty.

The only time I ventured out in that crud today was to take Barb to work at noon and pick her up at 5:00. I don't much care for being cold and wet.

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Tonight we watched Suits on the Loose. Flower fell asleep by 7:30 due to not having a nap. After the movie I took a bath with River joining me for a bit. That was kind of fun and she loves the water so far.

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It's been a very peaceful weekend so far.

Christmas continued into the night.

Christmas night, when KG woke up, we met some of his immediate and extended family at the church to have dinner and mingle. (Please excuse the bad photos due to horrible gym lighting. Changing them to black and white sure makes all the difference!)
The kids were pretty entertaining. Basketball was played. Good food was eaten. The usual.
I was thrilled to see my three cute nieces that live too far away. We haven't seen them since summer of 2007. Too long.
Meet adorable Journey...
...sweet Justice. I've always had a soft spot for Justice so my heart was happy when she came running with the biggest hug as soon as she saw me. :)...
...and cute Serena.



Pouty McPout.
Uncle Steven decided to sneak up on her.

She wasn't as amused as we were. :)













Flower had a blast with all her cousins. She especially clung to Justice and calls her 'my girl'.
After that we went to KG's parents with them, James Sarah and the girls to play games and have dessert.
We had our gift exchange. We all love our gifts! Thank you.

The girls played and fell asleep watching a movie...except Flower of course. She stayed strong until we were on our way home.
It was a nice close to Christmas and I'm so sad the day is already over.
Hope you had a magical day.