Sitting around the fire

Kali helped TJ pick up sticks in the yard while I went to work for a few hours the other day.  She's such a big helper outside!   She loved it.

Such a big helper!

 Last night, we decided to have a little bonfire in the yard (with the fire pit TJ got me last year for Christmas, that we haven't been able to use yet cause Florida is too stinkin' hot!!!).  We had some cardboard to burn too.  Which is my favorite part cause it will turn the flame green! Super fun! LOL! I'm such a kid!

Kali and I waiting for Daddy to get the fire started

(don't you totally love her shirt?! I do!!!)

And...we have fire!

I realized that Kali hasn't been around a fire before (when she could walk) and therefore didn't know fire safety.  So we had to show her how close she could get, and that the fire was hot and not to touch it.  I held her, put my hand out, and said "See, the fire is hot."  Kali then put her hand out to feel the fire with me.  From then on, every time she got close to the fire, she put her hand out and felt it.  She didn't get close to it.  She's so smart, and learns things so quickly! It's amazing!!!

Feeling the fire.

We really enjoyed it! But then...Kali decided she would play on the steps of the porch instead.  It was kinda cute. 

Peace out ya'll!!

~ChRiStMaS 2o11!!!~

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!  We had a wonderful Christmas this year! Kali really enjoyed opening her presents (technically, ripping into the wrapping paper) and was spoiled by everyone!
We made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve and Kali picked out the ones that Santa was to eat...there were about 10 of them! LOL!!!  I'm sure Santa was fat and happy after all those cookies!
I got video of her walking down the hallway, and her first view of the Christmas tree and the presents from Santa! It's adorable (just look at the subject).

Cookies for Santa

SANTA WAS HERE!

So adorable!

Opening the first present Christmas Day

Loving her new Power Wheels!

Look at all the presents!

Giving Tigger some Love!

Thanks Aunt Trin

Relaxing in her new recliner chair

Junior and all his loot

Testing out the 4wheeler

Christmas night, watching Bubble Guppies in her new chair with Bunny.

Her new favorite chair in the house!

Family picture Christmas Day!!

Me, Kali and my Dad

We had a wonderful Christmas!! We hope that everyone else did too! Can't wait for this new year and to see all the great things in store for our family!!!

Happy New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Thanksgiving weekend, we put up our Christmas tree. I normally wait until the 2nd weekend in December, but we had the time and it was nice to have some good family time.
At first, all the nice ornaments were all at the top:

But my OCD wouldn't allow it to stay like that.  So now we have more ornaments at the bottom.  Kali only tries to play with one or two, but normally won't pull them off or anything.  It's kinda nice to have the tree up, makes the house more festive!!!  I'll have to take more pictures of all the other decorations we have up.

Then, as yearly tradition, we attended the Christmas Parade with everyone.  It was great!!!  Last year, Kali was too little, and it was too cold to bring her out.  This year, she was totally into all the floats (and the BANDS) and it was actually pretty comfortable out (gotta love FL's 75 during the day and 50 at night weather!).  



Enjoying some french fries while waiting on the parade.

Sitting in mommy's lap for the parade!

I loved this by the way!!!

My little reindeer!!! :-)

Then on Sunday, we went to the park for some pictures for our Christmas card.  It was a lot of fun, and we got some cute pictures for the card!

Kali playing in the leaves.

This was the first family picture we took, and it was great!!!

Definitely going on our Christmas card! :)

I love this one too.  Her little "Cheese" cracks me up!

Another one that was the best on the first take!

The park is decked out for Christmas, and had these little houses set up.

So we laid out blanket down and brought our little Christmas tree and parked it in front.

I think this is another contender for the Christmas Card.

Kali and her bunny!
She adores this bunny.

I brought it in case she started having a melt down during pictures.

Normally, Bunny doesn't leave the house.

And then she found it in the stroller.

This is the way we usually see her with Bunny.

Holding on for dear life, and running away from us. LOL!!

I saw this pose on Pinterest, and thought it was adorable.

So we had to try it.

Kali seemed to like it (although we always put her upside down like this).

 

Another fun one.  We were swinging her by her arms, but couldn't get the best picture.

So then we just picked her up and took the picture.

I love her smile, cause she was having so much fun!! :)

Playing in the fence.  It's a little blurry (so can't be used for the cards),

but it's so cute!!!!!

Waving Bye Bye!

My precious Baby!

I love her so much!!!

So greatful for another year with this adorable, outgoing, wonderful child!

After we did pictures, we went to the mall to see Santa....yea, Kali was NOT having Santa.  I was holding her, and if I got too close to Santa, she would start crying.  It was funny, but sad.  We tried 3 times, but it wasn't happening.  So, we're going to try again later this week.  Maybe if we got with Jen and her boys, Kali will see that Travis and Trevor can sit with Santa and it will make her sit with him.  Otherwise, we're going to have a family picture with Santa while Kali sits on my lap! HAHA!!!  But every family has some of those pictures, right?! :)

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Shopping

This year, I decided to host Thanksgiving at our house since last year (our first Thanksgiving at our new home, and Kali's first Thanksgiving) we were at TJ's brother's house in Birmingham.  Originally it was going to be us (TJ, me, and Kali) my parents, and TJ's parents.  But TJ's sister and brother in law, were able to come down and join us!  So, we had a full house and some yummy food!
My parents brought the Turkey and my dad's pumpkin and apple pies.  TJ's parents brought some sides of baked beans, deviled eggs, stuffing, green beans, and pecan pie.  TJ's sister brought a sweet potato pie (I'd never had one of those before and it was delicious!!!).  And I made a sweet potato souffle, corn, ranch potatoes, and rolls.  It was all so good! And the best part of having Thanksgiving at my house?! THE LEFT OVERS!!!!! Kali and I just ate Thanksgiving dinner all over again for lunch today. Yummy!!!

It was also great to have everyone over! There are a lot of things we're thankful for this year, and having a wonderful family that loves us and adores our child is amazing! We're surrounded by some of the best people, and I tell Kali every night everyone that loves her and how lucky she is (and remind myself how lucky I am to have her and have all those people in my life as well).

After dinner, I prepared for some Black Friday shopping! My best friend, Jen and I go every year. We were kinda hesitant about it starting so dang early this year (9pm at Toys R Us and 10pm at Walmart), but we headed out anyway.  We got to Toys R Us at 8pm, and the lines was ridiculously long.  We decided to stay in the nice warm car and wait until they opened and the crowd went in before attempting it.  We walked up to the door about 8:50, and found that they were only letting about 30 people in at a time.  Which is actually smart on their part, but that meant that we were going to have to wait in line for 2 hours before even getting inside and then fighting the checkout line.  We decided that nothing we wanted was THAT important, and headed to Walmart.  After searching for a parking spot for 30 minutes (people were parking on the side of the HIGHWAY just to go in there), Jen let me out at the door to scope out what the inside was like.  It was a freaking MADHOUSE!  It went from ridiculous at Toys R Us to insanity at Walmart.  I got stuck by the pallet with the $5 barbies and thought that I was going to die when they started ripping into it and barbies were flying!  I eventually had to ditch my cart just to try and get out of that section and find Jen (who finally found a parking spot).  We got the few things we needed and went to the Lawn and Garden section to check out.  Then we headed back to Toys R Us and got the few things we needed there (like Kali's Power Wheels! Whoop Whoop) and stood in the checkout line for ONE HOUR. Ridiculous I tell you!
We stopped at Target last, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I anticipated.  We were home by 3am and I was asleep by 3:30a.

I was able to knock a few people off my shopping list, and Kali is officially done.  But I'm not sure that I'll do Black Friday shopping next year if they start it so early again.  There were people there that normally wouldn't go if it was at 3am like normal.  But since it was 9/10pm, they figured they could attend and go home and sleep afterwards.  It just wasn't worth that amount of crowd and chaos for me to do again.  But I always enjoy shopping with Jen, and it made for a good story ;-)

NOW, I'm cleaning up the living room of all Kali's toys and putting some of them up to prepare for the CHRISTMAS TREE!!!!!  I think we're going to start decorating this Sunday.  We've had such a busy couple of months, that we never really get a full day on the weekend to ourselves.  So I'm preparing for it to be like that this month again.  And taking advantage of the fact that we have nothing planned for Sunday and going to decorate.  I'm kinda excited to see how Kali is with the tree. Last year, she was only 2 months old for Christmas and the tree really didn't mean anything to her.  But this year, I bet she's going to love the lights! YAY!!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and Happy Thanksgiving!  Christmas tree pictures are soon to come! :)

13 Months

I realized last night after posting my beginning of November post, that I haven't done Kali's 13 month post yet.  I've been such a blog slacker.  I apologize!!!  And the crazy thing is that she's learning so much the past month or so, that I really want to share everything the bug has been learning and doing. 
I don't have any "I'm 13 Months Old Today" pictures, cause I was going to do that for the first year. But now...I kinda miss it. So here are some random pictures, taken from my phone.

My little country girl.  Hanging out in Mema & Papa's garden,

in her overalls.  She looked so adorable!

Sitting in her Bumbo seat (that she used to HATE when she was a baby)

Miss Sassy!

She had her hat, phone, keys and necklace. 

All she was missing was a purse. LOL

Opening her Lawnmower from Aunt Debbie

Pushing it around the house

(she's been doing this for 3 days now.  And it's LOUD!)

13 Month Stats:

Weight: 24.5lbs

Height: 30.5 inches

Eating: You eat anything that we eat (minus shellfish and nuts). You still have your favorites, and I love to see you eat all those fruits and veggies!

Sleep: We're trying to get you back to sleeping through the night.  We're not sure what has stopped that progression, but we'll slowly but surely get back there.  Right now you're only waking up about 1 time per night, but it's still a battle to get you back to sleep.  It's a progress. 

Accomplishments: You have 8 teeth now, and I think you're getting some more.  You're still working on talking more, and have added "Bi" for bite.  But you're getting better with your critters! 
You know what a tiger says (Rawr), a frog says (Stick out your tongue - cause they have long tongues), Dog (growl), an Elephant (Pthhhh with your tongue), and now a cow (moooo). You got a book for your birthday called "First 100 words".  It has pictures of all sorts of things that children
say as their first words.  You can recognize lots of things in the book. All of the animals that you know the sounds of, juice, books, birds, babies, ducks, fish, shoes, and more.  It's amazing all the things that you recognize and know what they are.
You also recently started shaking your head "No".  Especially when you have something you know you're not supposed to have, you'll look at us and shake your head no...but keep whatever it is. 
You have an uncanny fascination with Tupperware.  It's the only cabinet in the kitchen that we'll let you get into, and you will sit in front of it and play with the Tupperware forever!  It's pretty funny.  I could just buy you a bunch of Tupperware for Christmas, and I bet you'd be happy.

This is already a great start to her second year! LOVE YOU MONSTER!
 

Starting November off with a bang!

Although we've been busy this November, I don't have a lot of pictures to prove it.  I'm kinda slackin' on that at the moment (could use the fact that I need a new camera on it...and then make it a HINT that I'd like my DLSR **cough, cough, buy me one for Christmas TJ, cough, cough**)
November started out with a Birthday Party for my BFF, Jen's youngest son.  It was a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Hot Diggity Dog themed party.  They had a train jumpy house, and Kali loved it.  But we had to limit her in there once the bigger kids arrived.  She couldn't handle it with all of them in there.

Me, Theresa, and Jen in the hats that Jen's mom crocheted.

They were so adorable!

I wish we could have kept them...but they were for the kids.

Choo Choo Train!

Kali playing on the slide once the big kids got to the party.

Trevor's Birthday cake

Stephen's sister made this! It was amazing, and tasted REALLY good.

She's for hire!

On Facebook, Sugar Crystals. :-)

Kali enjoying some Puffs with TJ

 Then, we headed up to Birmingham Veteran's day weekend for Addison's 1st Birthday, and the Children's of Alabama benefit ball.  We had a great weekend!!

Singing Happy Birthday to Addison

Ashley made ALL of the food at the party.

Those cupcakes were White Hot Chocolate, and they were FABULOUS!!

TJ and Kali.

Kali thought those balloons were awesome.

THIS DANG LAWN MOWER!

Addison got it as a present.  Someone put it together, and Kali started to play with it

THEN, she wouldn't let it go.  She threw a major fit when I took it away from her.

I've never seen her throw such a fit.

So, I decided I was going to get it for her for Christmas

But Aunt Debbie already sent us one. LOL!!!

 While we were in Birmingham, Debbie and Jonathan invited us to the Children's hospital ball that Jonathan donated money to, and received a full table at the ball.  I was so excited to be able to get dressed up!! And Wayne was excited that we would be going and leave Kali with him. LOL.
Even though I had TJ bring my camera, I didn't take hardly any pictures.  These are actually ones that TJ took.  So I don't have a nice one, but we had a great time! TJ won one of the silent auction items, and Betty won 2.  That was more fun than I thought it would be.

ME

TJ

Me and TJ

Before we were going to head up to Birmingham, Kali was acting sickly. At first, I thought it was just her teeth bothering her. But it never fails, I think it's teeth, and it turns into something worse.
She had been throwing up a little, but not running any type of fever.  But all she wanted to do was for me to hold her and her sleep on my chest.  I felt so bad for her.
Friday morning (since I was off for Veteran's Day) I took her to the doctor's office. Turns out, she had a slight ear infection.  But they tested her for Strep and the Flu.  Both came back negative, thankfully.  She got a shot and I was told she would be fine to travel.  I was really worried about her because as soon as we left the doctor's office she slept.  The ENTIRE morning.  That is not like my little active Kalibug.  So we were thinking that we weren't going to go out of town. But at about 2pm she woke up and seemed to be feeling better.  SO we headed up.  And she's been fine ever since. I sure hate when the bug is sick! She looks so pitiful and I just want to hold and hug her and make it all better.

This year, I decided that we should have Thanksgiving at our house.  We never do anything at our house, and I like having guests over.  So it's going to be me, TJ, Kali, my parents, TJ's parents, and Debbie and Jonathan over for Thanksgiving.  I'm super excited.  And to prepare for such festivities...I made a Thanksgiving wreath for the front porch.  Took me about an hour to put together, and cost about $16.  All of the fall decorations were 80% off at Hobby Lobby.  So I got a fall garland that is originally $49.99 for $9.98.  AWESOME! :)

My wreath! :)

Hanging out on our front porch. 

Looks so festive, right?!

I will be sure to take more pictures during Thanksgiving and post them.  And then we'll be gearing up for Christmas.  I guess I better think about where the Christmas tree is going to go! :-)