handsful

Got some extra time between dinner and bedtime?  Why not do what we did tonight, and have a good, old-fashioned in-home field day.  It helps if you have enough contestants to make it interesting. 

Let’s start with some piggy back races…

past the kitchen, through the front room, back through the kitchen, and all feet on the living room carpet…timed by daddy.

Girls won; they had a slight advantage, given Abbey is so much bigger than Marley – and Marley weighs next to nothing soaking wet. 

Lainey was dying to get in on the fun…

She liked it just a little. 

Someone decided that I had to get into the competition, too.  I held on for dear life…

4-legged race maybe?  We had done the traditional 3-legged races before I thought to get the camera. 

They sort-of carried her, laughing hysterically the whole way!

And, let’s end the evening with the boys dragging ME around, and us collapsing in a heap on the living room floor.  Nope, not sharing THAT picture! 

 

Yes, we’re still here!  It’s been a whirlwind Christmas, with our trip to NC from the 26th-30th.  Once home, we launched into our version of wintertime “spring cleaning”, packing up decorations, making an end-of-year drop off to charity, and re-organizing a little for the new year.  We welcomed 2009 by shooting off some fireworks in the backyard, watching Kung Fu Panda, and then the ball drop at Times Square on TV. 

I tried to keep the number of pictures down, but failed miserably.  You might want to grab a snack and settle in…

Christmas morning…The traditional picture of the kids waiting for the “green light” to run into the family room.  Lainey had no clue. 

Guitar Hero World Tour…rock on. 

A book in my stocking!

It was just what she wanted!

She looks happy, eh?

Mayhem…in a good way.

Air soft guns for Randy…Um…I mean the boys. 

Lainey liked her crawl through tube!

Bright and early the next morning, we head to NC…

Lainey and Granma (D’s mom)

We had lunch at my parents house, with my dad’s whole family…it had been years since I’d seen most of them, so that was a treat.  This is my Uncle Mike, Aunt Gail, dad, and Uncle Billy. 

My sweet grandmom with some of her great-grandchildren…our kids plus my cousin Stephanie’s girls Ally and Avery. 

Grandmom and Lainey have a deep discussion.  Lainey kept taking her walker…isn’t that sweet?

A drive across town and we’re at Randy’s brother’s house with HIS family this time.  This is Randy’s cousin Hope and me (thankfully, I don’t look as tired as I was!)

The sisters…Randy’s mom, Aunt Thelma, and Aunt Mary.  

You’d think Lainey would have been wiped out by now, but she was going strong…

Hanging out with our cousins

The next day…at Randy’s mom’s house.  Caleb and Lainey play all the time. 

All 11 cousins…from just Randy and his brother. 

Switching gears again…opening presents at Nana and Paw Paw’s house (Randy’s dad and step-mom) 

We gave each of the grandparents and R’s siblings ornaments that we brought back from China…here, Lainey helps Paw Paw hang up theirs. 

New Years Eve…the big kids watch the bigger kid shoot off fireworks.

Cool shot!

Nice shot of our tree, from the back patio.

Little Lainey slept in the new year…Happy 2009!

A Christmas tradition that will NEVER end…making Sugar Cookies for Christmas!  And, these aren’t just any cookies.  My mom received a cookie press as a wedding shower gift 40+ years ago, and I grew up making these with her every single Christmas.  She passed the press down to me years ago, and now the cookie making is my job.  The recipe that came with the press is the one we use and they are SO good.  Here are pics from our cookie making day…

Sprinkles galore…

Finished product…all 150 of them!

As you probably noticed, Lainey was absent from cookie baking…naptime. 

signing “night night”

I’ll include her next year, I promise!! 

Really, mama?!?!!  I can’t wait!

 

We went to the mall tonight, to finish our shopping (and we did) and while there, thought we’d attempt a sitting-on-Santa’s-lap picture with Lainey.  She was fine all the way up the line, talking about how she’d sit on Santa’s lap and practicing her “cheese” smile.  She was fine when we walked up to Santa.  Then, I made the dreaded mistake of putting her on Santa’s lap.  She quickly (and loudly) voiced her opinion on the matter, going stick straight and sliding right down off his lap.  She clung to me, no matter how many lollipops we promised her :)  So, we settled for a picture on mom’s lap BESIDE Santa.  The funny thing is, later on we asked her if she wanted to go sit on Santa’s lap and she signed “please”.  Go figure. 

Earlier in the day, us girls made the pretzle candies that we make each year, and Lainey was gung-ho on helping out. 

She had the job of taking the papers off the candies.  And, surprisingly, she always handed the candies to us rather than plopping them in her mouth (like we expected!)

(she had just had a bath, in case you’re wondering about her wet hair!)

Abbey has her serious candy-making face on.

Of course, we did let her try one…her first Hershey kiss.  A monumental moment in any girl’s life. 

Hugging our little Lainey-size tree on our front porch.

And, last night, we snapped a picture as she had her LAST DOSE of meds!  9 months gone!  Tonight, as we sat eating at the mall, the thought occured to me that I forgot her medicine to mix in with her food.  Then, I remembered we were done!  lol…

It feels good to be done with shopping, but now there is the wrapping to finish, the baking to finish, packing for our trip, etc. etc.  Thankfully, we’ve got lots of hands to help. 

Ten months as our daughter today!  Most of the time, it’s hard to remember when she wasn’t here.  She’s loud, stubborn, goofy as all get-out, smarter than we can believe, and all ours :) 

Her speech is improving and her signs are increasing.  She more easily repeats sounds, mostly vowels, and can approximate a lot of words.  She’s also much more “conversational”, relying on approximated words and a lot of signs.  I’ll try and remember her signs:  all done, light, shoes, socks, more, Lainey, all her sibs, mama, dada, Jack, cat, bear, tree, cereal, eat/food, drink, milk, fork, spoon, potty, go/car, wait, book, swim, swing, night-night, sleep, clean, dirty, doll, baby, hot, cold, loud, ball, thank you, balloon, bath, key…there has to be more, but my mind is spent thinking!

Lainey hits a major milestone tomorrow…her LAST dose of INH therapy meds!  Yippee!!  She began this daily medicine, a 1/2 pill ground into powder and mixed in with yogurt, on March 19th – a full 9 months of meds.  She had to take this as a precaution, because of a positive TB test.  Her chest x-ray was clear, but it’s general practice to take the INH anyway.  She’ll likely test positive for TB all her life, but we have a signed letter from the clinic doctor, explaining this to anyone who might need it in the future, to assure them that she is a-okay. 

The kids and I went Christmas shopping today, and I took a few pics with my new birthday Coolpix :)

Have wallet, will shop…

We were too busy power shopping for pictures, so here we are having lunch at Panera. 

The gals…Abbey shows off a Littlest Pet Shop that she bought with some Christmas money

Having a nice lunch, Lainey Q?

The girls get silly!

 

I’m a Christmas baby…born a week before Christmas eve. :)  We had a normal day with schooling and such, and then all went out to Chili’s for dinner to celebrate my I’ll-never-tell-rd birthday.  Between ordering and our food, I opened my gifts.  The kids gave me a beautiful silver necklace with a heart.  On the back, it says “Mom has our hearts”.  LOVE it!!  Randy surprised me with a new point-and-shoot camera, a Nikon CoolPix!  It’s tiny enough to fit in my purse, which I’ve been missing.  My old one is just about dead, and there are times when it’s difficult to lug around the wonderful, but big, D-300. 

Surrounded by my blessings, after arriving home from dinner.  Not such a good shot of me, but the kids are cute :) 

Today, Abbey told me she wanted to make a birthday cake for me.  I didn’t help at all, other than dividing the batter into two pans and helping to make the frosting.  It’s beautiful!  Right after I’m done typing, guess what I’m having a slice of? 

No doubt, I’m a blessed woman.