The Bloggy Year In Review

I'm joining in on Jo-Lynne's little Blog Recap Carnival. If you'd like to join, just post the first line of the first post of each month of the past year and publish it as a new blog post. Then go over to Musings of A Housewife and add your link to the MckLinky. I'm going to post the first line of the second post of some months because of the whole "The Baby Belly at Week___" thing.

January- Big Daddy had a spur of the moment trip to Italy for business.
This was the review of the year before. It was lots of fun to look back at what happened so long ago.

February- This is my first ever carnival and it just happens to be hosted by one of my most favorite bloggers, Jo-Lynne at Musings of A Housewife. She's hosting a carnival called, "What I Learned This Week".
I guess this one sort of speaks for itself! I haven't participated lately because things have been busy, but I LOVE this carnival!

March- Eating Oreos
Nothing but pictures of my sweet little Muffin. My how she's grown!

April- Tomorrow is my day off!
I had a midwife appointment, Big Daddy had the day off work and took Muffin along for a lunch date. I haven't had a day off since June, so this one made me smile!

May- I realized yesterday on my way home from Nana & Pawpaw's that we're entering one of the most challenging times of our marriage.
Of course, this is about the challenge of moving, having a new baby and dealing with everything that we and The Muffin were getting ready to go through.

June- I talked to The Mommy this afternoon and got a little update.
This is when Auntie Lisa had taken over my blog. We had just moved from the dreaded apartment and were trying to get settled in... just six days from Ellie's due date. I get tired and feel like crying just reading it over again.

July- Thanks so much to those of you that left kind comments on my last post.
Sharing the joys of two. Two kids and two UTI's that were actually endometrium infections. It seems I was in such a fog that I only thought they were UTI's and didn't actually find out that they weren't until my midwife visit in November.

August- I've been so busy this week with the packing, moving, unpacking and cleaning.
This was the day after my 32nd birthday and the day after our second night in the new house. Moving while juggling two little girls was an adventure. I don't think it was nearly as bad as moving while juggling The Muffin and a 39 week pregnant belly.

September- The official "First Day of Preschool" picture.
'Nuff said.

October- Well, not quite!
The title of this post was "And then she peed in her pants". I won a contest!

November- We had a fun and exciting Halloween weekend, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to write all about it and share my pictures.
Ellie was SO excited about going to our old church (out of my belly) that she woke up at 3 am. So...I shared our Halloween pictures a little late.

December- I have never been a fan of trees with a theme.
So, I had to skip the first two posts of the month because they were another "What I Learned" and a "Wordless Wednesday." This is the post where I shared a few of our Christmas decorations.

This has been such a challenging year! It's been a challenge trying to adapt to all of the changes in our life. We have a new hometown, a new house and a new church. The Muffin started preschool and welcomed a new sister. Big Daddy and I have had to learn how to parent two girls and how to deal with missing our old house, hometown and friends. I'm sure that 2010 will have it's challenges, but I hope and pray that it will be a little easier on us than 2009 was.

Happy New Year!!

The View From Here

The Muffin playing a computer game before bed. This just may become a part of daddy-daughter every night since Big Daddy is about to be busy all evening with school stuff.

"Dorothy" posing for the camera. I think she's doing the poppy scene from "The Wizard of Oz".

Baby Ellie chewing on her fingers and drooling. This is the story of her day!

The Muffin playing with B.arbies.

Ellie always keeps her eye on her Mommy...always.

Muff is always ready to play with Ellie as soon as she wakes up. They had both been awake for about five minutes in this picture.

They moved to The Muffin's room a little later and played a lot more.

We had fun with sand art after nap. It was a gift from "Aunt" Fran.

Baby Ellie smiles most of the time.

And just for fun...here's The Muffin before church on Sunday. She was in the middle of a tantrum and I decided to take video and pictures of it. She thinks that she looks awful when she has tantrums, so seeing the evidence helps her to curb that behavior. And you probably guessed that the tantrum was about this adorable outfit (Callie has one too) that my mom gave her for Christmas. Evidently the shirt "strangles" her and the vest and skirt are "just awful". I told her that there were children all over the world that didn't have clothes to wear. Without missing a beat she said, "you can just send them this awful outfit then". After several minutes of having a fit, Muffin put her boots on and we happily went to church. Her only request was that she could wear the Dortothy dress when we got home.

Christmas Day

The stockings were stuffed

and everything was ready when we all woke up a little before 7:00.

Maggie liked helping Ellie with her presents and was just as happy to see all of her new things.

Maggie wasted no time practicing letters in her new book.

Ellie desperately wanted to get everything in her mouth!

We went to Nana & Pawpaw's a little before lunch and opened a few gifts before eating.

Ellie LOVES my dad!

Maggie & Callie both received Tay.lor Swift B.arbies...that sing...loudly.

One of my favorite times of the day was when Miss Muffin said "Happy Birthday, Jesus" while we were eating breakfast.

She looks like a little strong-willed angel in this picture.

All About Our Week-with lots of pictures

WOW! We have had such a fun and busy week!


On Tuesday, we visited Sanford. We were able to spend time with Gammy Gladys, friends from my old office and on the way home we visited...our friend A. Maggie & Ellie were able to meet Baby T and Maggie spent some playtime with (her future husband) C.It was so nice to spend a little bit of time in Sanford and wonderful to visit our old friends. I wish we could have spent a lot more time there.

On Wednesday, Big Daddy's friend Huu came to town for a visit. He brought both girls a gift. I think you can see that Maggie LOVED her B.arbie horse!

She impressed her Uncle Huu with her effortless cross eyes!

On Christmas Eve, we went to see Big Dady's parents. Maggie & Ellie went for a little ride on the pony that their cousing received last Christmas.

They got a few nice presents and some good playtime in before we headed home. Both girls were exhausted! Big Daddy and I took the long way home and enjoyed a nice, quiet car ride.

Of course, Dorothy made an appearance for Christmas Eve. She left the ruby slippers at home because this is Dorothy when she was in Kansas, a.k.a. Dorothy in black shoes.

We decided to make a quick stop by Nana & Pawpaw's and of course, Miss Muffin had to open a present from Nana. Then, Aunt Lisa came and Maggie opened a present from her, too. She couldn't decide what to play with once we were at home!

Here's Maggie in the gown that Grandma & Grandpa gave her, wearing Baby.Legs and playing the Me.mory game that were both gifts from Aunt Lisa.

Stay tuned for Christmas morning!!

Santa Baby

We're going a little day trip to Sanford tomorrow to visit our friends. The Muffin is so excited about seeing Gammy Gladys and going to our friend A and meeting Baby T. She hasn't talked a lot about seeing her boyfriend (A's son) but I'm sure she's excited about it. I'm excited about everything!!

We're hoping to take Baby Ellie to one of the spots where we spent many summer evenings listening to concerts and where we used to meet Big Daddy for picnic lunches. Big Daddy is already sad at going back to visit and not being able to stay.

The strong-willed child was back with a vengeance today. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for Maggie and for us. She was with Nana & Cousin Callie for most of the day and missed her nap so I know that contributed to her behavior a little. No matter what it's still hard to deal with. I think all of the excitement about Christmas is aggravating her temper too.

We are planning to spend a quiet Christmas Eve at home this year. My extended family always gets together at my mom's for food on Christmas Eve, but we haven't celebrated like that since The Muffin was born. Big Daddy and I have decided that last year was our best Christmas Eve ever and we want to try to copy it at least a little. Last year I made potato soup and then we went to the Christmas Eve service at church and had Communion. Unfortunately, we're having trouble finding a local church with a service on Christmas Eve (and the church is always telling us to keep Christ in Christmas). Neither of the churches we've attended offer a service and my parents' church isn't having one either. (so disappointed)We had decided to go to a random church, but I think we've changed our minds on that. Anyway...this year we'll be having potato soup and looking at Christmas lights. We'll probably watch Prep & Landing again before bed. Christmas Day we'll be at my mom and dad's along with my sister and her family.

Now for the Santa Baby portion of the post...These two love each other SO much!!! Notice how sweet Muffin decided NO to wear a festive dress to church on Sunday. She wore one for about ten minutes, but it was over her head and she was in the floor thrashing around and wailing about how it didn't fit right. It fit just fine last week at the preschool party. Needless to say, we pick our battles.

Snow Day

Each time (well, all three times) I was up during the night with Ellie I could hear it raining and sleeting. When we woke up this morning a lot of the snow from the day before had dissolved. My dad said we had about three inches of snow. Big Daddy had hoped to mow our yard before the storm hit on Friday. Our grass is several inches tall, so it looks like we have only a dusting of the white stuff.

Baby Ellie didn't really pay the snow that much attention. She had a little bit of a hard time standing up because I'd put her boots on the wrong feet! We were only out long enough for me to slide down the hill to the dul-de-sac one time.

The Muffin was able to slide down once by herself (she screamed the whole time) and then once with Daddy.

She enjoyed chasing us as we were sliding down the hill.

The winter weather has messed up our plans a little. Our new church is only having one service tomorrow (they normally have three) and we're afraid that we won't get a seat, so we may go to Nana & Pawpaw's church. We should be getting our new furniture on Monday. Hopefully, we'll be going to Sanford to visit our friends on Tuesday or Wednesday. Big Daddy's friend, Huu, is still home in Philadelphia after a couple of hours of sitting in the plane on the runway. Hopefully, he will arrive in North Carolina tomorrow.

Watching it snow

And then she got coal in her stocking

After the day that we've had, I'm tempted to give The Muffin coal in her stocking. She'd probably just throw it at me, but I am tempted.

She decided that she wanted to wear her Christmas dress to the library party today (she said that it "was a Christmas party"). It wasn't worth fighting over, so I got the entire outfit together last night. As I was feeding Ellie breakfast, The Muffin came in the kitchen wearing only p.anties, carrying her dress, pantyhose and shoes and she wanted to get dressed "right now". I told her that she needed to eat her breakfast (she said she wasn't hungry the 700 times that I'd asked her to eat), brush her teeth and wash er face before getting dressed. She said that I was " a bad mommy". I've probably been called worse (although I can't think of anything worse) but this made me cry the ugly cry. Muff just looked at me and then walked off. A few minutes passed and I realized that she wasn't coming to apologize. She needed help with her pantyhose, so she called me and said, "Mommy, I'm ready for my pantyhose". After several thousand times of her asking I walked into her room and told her that she called me a bad mommy and I asked if she wanted to say anything. She looked at me and said yes. I told her to go ahead and I got ready for the big apology. The only thing that came out her mouth was..."Pantyhose" as she held them out for me to put on her. After a long lecture about respect, appropriate behavior and a few mentions of Jesus and Santa , she apologized. She also told me that Santa would be bringing me "not anything for Christmas". I told her I'd be surprised if he brought me anything since he hadn't for the past several years!

We went to the party and everything was fine. Baby Ellie fell asleep in the sling and I felt like I wasn't that bad of a mommy. Turns out that the sleeping baby in the sling was the sweetness that was meant o carry me through the next couple of hours.

We'll skip over the tantrum on our little visit to Nana's house and fast forward to the big tantrum before lunch.

It was big.

It was long.

It started and stopped and started and stopped.

It was over the Dorothy dress.

Heaven help me.

I grabbed the camera to capture it so that Big Daddy to could see one of the joys of being me. Needless to say, Muff did not like that. She finally hid her head (while yelling, moaning and groaning). after the tantrum ended she asked me not to show her Daddy. I guess it was a special mother-daughter moment just for us.

And on a completely different note it may snow/sleet/ice tomorrow. Of course, tomorrow is also the day that Big Daddy and my brother-in-law are going to pick up our new furniture. I'll be praying that the wet weather holds off until 4:00 or later.

I will also add that I'm setting this post to auto-publish tomorrow, so all of this really happened yesterday and today Big Daddy and our BIL will hopefully be getting our new furniture. I hope that didn't confuse you as much as it did me. Big Daddy will be off of work from today until after Christmas. If you'd like to add our little family to your prayer list that would be great!!! Both girls seem to be a little better when it's just us girls, although they both love their Daddy.

Funny Muffin of the Day

Maggie and I are sitting at the kitchen table coloring, Ellie's in her chair playing with a trilingual phone. (it was a gift)

Maggie- Why did they (talking about the phone) say that for???
Mommy- That's the word for goodbye in Spanish. You know, like if you're from Mexico.
Muffin- I didn't come from Mexico, I came from God.

Family Craft Day

Today was "Family Craft Day" at Muff's preschool. Baby Ellie stayed with Nana and I spent some quality time alone until it was time for the parents to arrive at the preschool.

I went to H.obby Lobby to look at a few things on my wish list. Of course, the apothecary jar of my dreams was 50% off this week. I told Big Daddy that I would not be spending anymore money for a while, so I refrained from buying it. I pretended to hear the jingling of money dropping into the savings account, but I could only hear the apothecary jar calling my name.

I left there and went to the mall for a little shoe shopping. Even though it's a small (crappy) mall, I found no less than five pairs of boots (some 50% off!!) that I wanted and could see myself wearing to church this Sunday with a black skirt and red top. (sigh)

I love saving money...love it. I love having a nest egg. I love having security. And that is what I keep telling myself. It's just no fun being good.

The Muffin's only visit with Santa so far this season.

On The Move

I had left Baby Ellie on the blanket, sitting up while I ran to the kitchen for something. When I walked back into the room The Muffin had to tell me where her sister was. Ellie loves rolling all over the place these days! I'm not sure what I'll do when she starts to crawl!
And yes, the living room is messy, but it is clean once you pick up the toys because I do love to clean.

This picture was taken on Saturday evening. We tend to do a lot of chasing each other around the house when Big Daddy's home. This time, I was chasing The Muffin while holding Baby Ellie. It's one of our favorite family fun games.
I'd like to point out that I don't look nearly as...large (I don't like the word fat) as I feel. The Muffin and I have been looking at old pictures today and I desperately want to lose weight. I'm amazed at how I've gradually grown since having children. Even if I can wear jeans that are pre- both pregnancies, I've grown...and I don't like it.
And, I happen to be wearing this same outfit today that I'm wearing in the picture. I love my black pants and hot pink t-shirt and I dressed out of the clean laundry pile today.

This is our unhappy reindeer. She thought that her surprise from Cousin Callie was going to be a t-shirt and was a little shocked to see the antlers.

Baby Ellie was all too happy to model the new antlers while chasing her sister. I have no idea why her cheeks are so rosey.