Christmas!

Ok so with Marleigh arriving in one week, I figured I better get Christmas posted!!! Here is a peak at our Immediate family Christmas parties! It would take a year to post our other 4 family get-togethers!


Davis absolutely loved The Magical Nights of Lights!!! Thanks to one of my students whose sweet mother works at the Islands, we got a free pass!!! Here is Davis telling everyone what he sees! He was our little tour guide this year!

On to our Christmas parties!


First we celebrated Christmas with Tim's family on Christmas Eve Afternoon. Unfortunately, Troy, Tim's brother was admitted back to the hospital on the Friday before Christmas. He wasn't able to join us to celebrate, but thanks to his mom he was enjoying the best decorated hospital room ever! We were able to go up and visit him afterwards while D was napping. We met at Red Lobster for lunch and then headed to Nana and Poppa's house for the goodies!


Here is Davis enjoying his gift from Uncle Troy! The expression says it all! He loves his horsey!

Next, Davis shows his excitement over his very own keyboard! Davis LOVES music! (I think he gets that from his uncle Troy!)

Davis was excited to find out that Nana and Poppa had got him a Smart Cycle! However, he wasn't very excited that Mommy and Daddy wouldn't let him "open it" at Nana and Poppa's house!
Here is a picture of Tim and Troy at the hospital later in the afternoon.

After leaving the hospital we returned to my parents (where D was napping) for our Christmas together. Mom and Dad had cooked steak, oregano potatoes, and had a salad ready. For those of you that know my mom --- this is a BIG deal! ;) The dining room looked perfect and our places were set with her fine china and flatware. We should have known this was "too good to be true!" As soon as we arrived D threw the biggest "fit" "tantrum" whatever you want to call it that he has EVER thrown! Pops was trying to grill the steaks and D wanted no part of that! He wanted Pops all to himself, and he wanted Pops to go down to the "jungle." This is what D calls their TV room in the basement as it is decorated with jungle decor! Pops finally caved and Tim finished the steaks -- guess where the dinner was served???? You got it! In the jungle! Fine China and all! Nothing like sitting with plates in your lap or on the floor/coffee table while watching Mickey Mouse! We had to laugh about it! It was quite humerous! Just goes to show you how life changes with a toddler!!!




A quick glance at our fine dining experience -- D is a happy camper though -- as he keeps Pops in the floor.

Here is D going through his stocking at Mimi and Pops' like a Pro! We were afraid we would have to bring the gifts downstairs -- he totally cracked us up though -- Mimi was like "Davis, would you like to go upstairs and open some gifts!" Davis stands up not too excitedly and says, "I guess so." I about pee'd on myself! Where did he get that from?

Davis is becoming a professional gift opener! His words of the evening were "Oh!!! Wow!!! Look!!! Thanks!!! Thank You!!!" At least he is polite!!!

Have I EVER mentioned how much Davis LOVES books?

Davis and Pops putting together his Discovery Channel Jungle Treehouse! How exciting!

One more suprise for the road! His expression in this picture is PRICELESS!!! He is still a little timid as this will move up to 5mph I believe -- which is fast for a little guy -- we practiced some outside but it was dark and cold!!! Davis had too much fun outside taking to the lit reindeers!!! Hopefully once it starts warming up he will be use to it and ready to go! I don't think I will be letting him drive Marleigh around anytime soon though!

Leading up to Christmas!

We could tell this was going to be a fun year for Davis! He loved the Christmas lights! "Ooooh Mom . . . look . . . pretty!" He enjoyed looking at Santa Claus! "Santa Claus, Ho . . . Ho . . . Ho . . ." he would say! Mimi and Pops started a yearly tradition of giving him a little something Chistmasy at Thanksgiving this year, and this year it included a jumbo stuffed Santa for the fictitious side and some board books about baby Jesus and Christmas. Have I ever mentioned how much Davis likes to READ!!! (or I guess I should say be read to!) Lets just say Mr. Jumbo Santa did pretty much everything with Davis, and Davis was not happy at all when we packed him up today!

Well one of Davis' most memorable outings for the month took place on Tuesday, December 11th. Tim was out of town on business, and Davis and I tagged along with D's twin cousin's, Cooper and Charlie, and their mutual friend Hayden. We took the kiddos to ride the Pink Pig at Macy's at Lenox Mall. After the Pink Pig we headed to pick up some food at the CNN center and then took the kids to see the lights at Centennial Olympic Park. Let's just say their favorite thing about the park was running free in the sweltering 75 degree weather!!! Is it Christmas or what?

Let's talk about the Pink Pig -- first of all I had the hardest time finding clothes for D to wear -- I mean here it is mid-December and you can't breathe outside! I wanted him to wear something festive but most of his Holiday attire wasn't suitable for summertime weather! Let's just say that I pretty much packed the house making sure we had adequate attire should the weather dip at night fall!

The famous Pink Pig

Davis absolutely LOVED it! We rode it twice, and he is still talking about the "pink pig" on the "track!" As you can see, I couldn't even get a good picture of both of us on the ride! He wanted no part of the camera, he had too much too look at, listen, and take in! PS -- they didn't consider pregnant momma's when designing the pink pig! I could hardly bend my swollen and achy legs enough to get them inside without totally squishing Marleigh to death!

Here is one of the many photos that I snapped of D -- in a trance like state! LOL! It was great! I was so happy that he enjoyed it! Cooper enjoyed it too! Charlie and Hayden weren't too happy about riding it a second time! I was just thankful D didn't pitch a perfectly normal 2 year old - tantrum when I told him we weren't riding it again!

Here is a look at the twins with Kristi and Rodney!

And last but not least, Hayden! (I didn't get a shot of mom and dad with him during the ride! Sorry!)

After the Pink Pig it was time to head to the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park! Boy, I had no idea what I was in for -- being 7-8 months pregnant and chasing a 2 year old around Centennial Olympic Park! I should have brought the monkey backpack along so I could have kept him on a leash! LOL! One thing that we quickly learned upon entering the park -- is you never know what you might come across on the benches in the dark corners of the park! LOL! Don't ask, but it was very suitable for small children!!! How many hotels are there in walking distance from the park? Go figure! Anyway, Davis enjoyed watching the people ice skate at the ice skating rink! I think his favorite part was the music, he was showing off his dance moves from the stroller! :)

Here are the lights of choice! The kids had a ball with the lit figure of a man and woman ice skating! It was in the center of the area we gave them free range, and it literally took all 5 of the adults to keep up the 4 little munchkins! Bless their hearts, they were all sweating up a storm in this crazy weather!

Don't get your hopes up, Davis is not posing for the camera! This is Davis playing his favorite "I seeeeeeeeeee you!!!!" game!

A worn out Davis telling me that he sees me again! I am thinking that is a good thing that he can see me in this crazy as all get out park! I sure hope I could see him with all the wierdos that were around every corner!

(Above) Literally, my only shot with all 4 kids in it! From L-R: Charlie, Hayden, Davis, and Rodney holding Cooper!

Mommy holding Davis in front of the beautiful Christmas tree, this was right after D got away from me and headed straight for the rode right behind the tree! Needless to see he was not a happy camper about being sweeped up after running free! I have NO idea what in the world caused this hilarious expression on his face!!! He was really as happy with me as he looks here!

Well I think I can honestly say that we have a new yearly tradition! I don't think Davis will let us forget about the pink pig! He brought home a cute little stuffed pink pig and a pink pig ornament that I put his name and year on! What can I say mom is a sucker to make her little one happy! Next year we hope daddy can join us! We almost took him again, but I don't want to spoil him more than he already is, so he can wait until next year and introduce his sister to the pink pig! He is quick to tell Daddy that the pig is on "tracks" though!

Where does all my time go?

Marleigh Update!!!

Wow! I am behind again! What else is new? I can't even imagine what lifes going to be like in just a few short weeks! It doesn't seem like I should already be working on 33 weeks!!! Here is a few quick updates about what has been going on the past month or so with Marleigh! Check back in the next day or so as I will have an All about D post!!!

Tim had to travel the first 3 weeks this month, so last Sat. we decided to go as a family and get another quick peek at our soon to arrive new addition! We did find out that Marleigh is breached, but that could still change. She has 8 more weeks! Here is Marleigh waving and flashing a quick smile to all of you!!! I was very torn at whether or not to go back again to Baby's First Images, but I knew if I didn't that I would have wished I would've, and I am SO glad we did! The pictures and our dvd are AWESOME!!! It was worth every single penny and then some!

The above "video" is not really a video -- it is just a progression of shots of Marleigh -- but I still thought it was sort of neat. As you can tell by pictures and videos she LOVES her hands near her face! We even watched her open and close her eyes a few times and she even at the end began sticking her tongue out at us. That was pretty funny!

Here she is acting silly and sticking her tongue out at us!

The last few weeks have been VERY busy!!! Marleigh has been blessed with 3 wonderful showers!!! My best friend Lindsey gave us a shower here at the house for my close friends, Tim's cousins gave us a shower at his mother's house for both sides of our family, and my incredible school gave us a shower! I am really liking all this "pink" stuff! I have already begun washing her things, but let's not talk about the nursery! LOL! Tim is off work the next two weeks so the plan is as follows: finish putting the wood floors down in the new office in the basement, put in 2 doors, and the moulding. Move the office downstairs. Paint the old office and get Davis moved in his new "fire truck" room. Paint Marleigh's nursery and get it ready! Luckily I will have some help! In January one of my neighbors is going to take care of the decorating of Marleigh's room. She is going to help accent in D's room, but she has already got a great design for Marleigh's nursery. I am so happy that she is helping me out, and I am sure it will look GREAT!!!

My "Friend" shower was perfect! It was so great to spend time with my closest girl friends and their kiddos! I had to add this picture of Davis taking care of and standing guard over his future wife, Ms. Jamie Partin!The food all looked great and TASTED great! Lindsey went with a dessert theme, and I don't think anyone at all had any objections!!
Some of us made these cute as all get outs -- bubble gum babies!!! I am so going to do this at the next shower I throw!!! Of course my Mother In Law added the blanket for brownie points, so Lori deemed her the winner!

We had to do the all time embarassing: How Big is Mommy Game! My neighbor and good friend Heather took the prize for this game! It was quite close between my mother and Heather. Here is mom giving her ribbon one last fit!

I dont' have that many pictures right now of my family shower. My camera battery died, so did my mother in laws and my brother in laws, so I am hoping that I can get more to post real soon!!! The food was scrumptuous and the cake was absolutely adorable!!!

My work shower was a lot of fun -- It was a joint shower with me and another fellow teacher, also named Amanda, and also having her second, a baby girl!

Me and my "roommate" aka Job Share Partner, Sandee! I don't think I looked too bad considering I had spent all day with Kindergartners! I LOVE my job!

The cute table my creative K-buddies set up for our goodies!

Yummo - great food and a beautiful cake!

My buddies making fun of me and my disappearing body!

All in all things are going well! I have been very sick this month with it coming/going. I have been to the doctor 4 times and was admitted to the hospital this past Monday. This cold is putting strain on my heart and lungs - causing my heart to race at a resting rate and my O2 satuaration levels to be low. Luckily Marleigh seems to be uneffected! The new meds are helping, and I haven's used the inhaler. I go back to the doc. on Friday after Christmas, and we are hoping for all to still be well! The doctor has not made his final call on whether or not we are looking at another C-section or a VBAC. I have quite mixed emotions and Tim is 100% for another C since all went so incredibly smoothly last time. My doctor is going to do at least one more ultrasound at either 35 or 36 weeks to do measurements, etc. If she stays breached, then we will totally go for the C! :) Keep us in your prayers as we have a lot to accomplish in the next few weeks, and I am already feeling the strain of being miserable. All I can say is that carrying a girl has been MUCH harder for me!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Fall 'Yall!!!

Ok -- so I have SO much to post and so little time! You know I really thought Part-time work would allow me to stay caught up! I guess I am learning that that's not the case! :) I am going to attemp to recap our October! Bear with me as it might get LONG! On a side note, Marleigh is growing like crazy or at least I am! She is making it difficult for me to sleep at night because she is VERY ACTIVE at night! I don't ever remember D really keeping me up! Things are progressing fine, and my glucose test came back perfect! The only stumble has been my iron level which is low. I had low iron in college as well, so I guess it is to be expected! Besides the nasty "big" pills, things are great!

Our month started out bittersweet - on the morning of October 2nd we were able to go the doctor and see our little Marleigh! Our doctor/ultrasound tech confirmed once again that we were having a little girl! However, during our appointment Tim's brother got a call from his doctor asking him to head to the hospital -- to make a LONG story short, Troy's cancer has come back, and it is/was more aggressive than ever expected. Troy was in the hosptial from Oct. 2nd and was finely released on Nov. 2nd after a very "rough" and "overwhelming" stay! We are excited he is home, but we have not been able to see him due to the fact that he has lately developed "Shingles," which neither Davis nor myself and Marleigh need to be around right now! We are hoping to see him within the next week or two!

This is Davis with Carlton the Cat! Carlton is Uncle Troy's middle name! Since Davis hasn't been able to be around or see Troy much we thought it would be nice if we could get him a stuffed animal named after his uncle! Thanks to Ashely and Baby Copeland who gave Davis a gift card to build-a-bear for D's birthday! We were able to use that to allow Davis to make Carlton the Cat! We took some pics and framed one for Uncle Troy to keep in his hospital room!

Here is Davis at Uncle Shuck's! We went with our neighborhood gang earlier this month! This year he actually enjoyed the pumpkins! For those of you that follow -- last year he cried everytime he was left with one! LOL! I guess he is just "growing up!"

Here is Davis with his friends Jack, Hunter, and Ally. Drew and Eva Claire were missing in action. Davis' expression cracks me up in this picture. I guess that was do to the fact that the sun was glaring on him! I am just excited that he is actually paying attention! He HATES letting Mommy take his picture! He is TOO cool for that! :)

The kiddos had a blast -- we played with and looke at pumpkins for a while, then the kiddos went through the kiddie corn maze, next we all went on the hayride -- that was a lot of fun! We finished up with the trip with everyone going through one of the big mazes, which we (the adults) totally screwed up LOL! even with a map! So once we made it back to the "entrance" we decided to throw in the towel!


Here is Mommy, Daddy, and Davis (oh baby Marleigh is along for the journey, too!) on the hayride!

Another October happening, Tim's cousin Chandler married Grace this month! They got married in Athens and had their reception at the Georgia Center. Everything was perfect -- oh except for the part that the preacher forgot to tell them they could kiss! :) So, the classic line of the evening was Grace saying, "Can I kiss him?" :) Too cute!

As for the wedding, Davis was pretty good! We sat with him in the back, and he was able to stay for most of the wedding. Everytime one of the femal attendants entered, Davis would point to them and say "WOW -- PRETTY!" It was quite precious if I do say so myself! Davis LOVED the reception because there was a DJ, dancing, and a dance floor where he could get his grove on! The cutest event of the evening was when I was sitting by the dance floor taking pictures and Davis comes running past me. I jumped up to see where he was going and by the time I got my pregnant self up in heels, he had went to a table back by the buffet grabbed the hands of two young ladies who were eating and began pulling them to the dance floor with him. They thought he was so cute that one of them actually got out there and danced with him.

Davis with one of his mystery dates! What can I say - he's a ladies man!

Here is one of my favorite pics of the evening - Daddy and Davis! Oh, Davis wore part of his birthday outfit from The Royal Family! It looks SO cute on him! We wore khaki's instead of the jeans to the wedding! :)

We went to many Fall festivals this year. We visitied Turning and Burning in Gillsville, Mule Camp in Gainesville, Martin Elementary's Fall Festival, Oakwood Elementary's Fall Festival, and our church's HallowHim Festival! Davis had a blast at all of them. Here is a quick recap of a few.

Pops took Davis into the little petting zoo set up at Mule Camp. Davis kept returning to this big gobbler! I think it was his favorite -- he just couldn't quite figure it out!

Davis' favorite attraction at Martin's festival (Mommy's school) was this firetruck! I was so excited since we are doing his big boy room in fire trucks! (oh and guess what -- the same petting was there, so D got to visit Mr. Gobbler and his friends again!)

Here's our little tiger taking a breather from jumping heaven at our Church's annual HallowHim Festival! You would never know that he's had a little bit of a cold. He was ALL OVER this thing! (and more than once at that!)

Ok, now for the biggest mistake of the month! Don't EVER, EVER, EVER go to Burt's Pumpkin Farm 2 Sunday's before Halloween! It was beyond MASS chaos! After the haul we were hoping to enjoy some time looking at pumpkins, trying their treats, and riding the hayride. NOT!!! It was over an hour wait to get tickets to get on the hayride! We had a good time though! We went up after church on Sunday with my Mom's side of the family. Cousin Conley and Aunt Sabrina had a birthday party to go to, but Davis enjoyed hanging out with his cousin Kristen!

Davis LOVED the gigantic pumpkins, and I think Daddy did too! I had to put my foot down about not bringing home a $100 pumpkin! How ridiculous is that! NO WAY! Davis liked to go around acting like they were all big drums! He did stope once and found a leaf that captivated his attention while he would hold it up and let it fall to the ground!

We discovered that if you hold D upside down, then he can't but to smile at the camera! Hey, you mom's out there know -- you do what works!

Trick or Treating in the Neighborhood!

Daddy came back from Louisanna right before all the fun began, so Davis was happy to see him! Due to our procastinative tendencies, we had to carve the pumpkin! Davis wasn't too into that -- so he mainly watched. At first it sort of freaked him out, but I was able to get a quick picture once he started getting excited about his pumpkin! On a side note, Mimi got D a Mr. Potato Head Ninja Pumpkin kit. When we stayed at the first of the week, D, Mimi, and Pops put the Ninja together -- it was SO cool. I didn't have my camera with me though -- Hopefully Pops will send us a picture. Maybe next year we can add a new Mr. Potato Head pumpkin!

Here is D out front wit his pumpking before the "treating" began!

D and Hunter in the wagon on the way to meet Jack and Eva Claire!

Here's our Trick or Treating crew! They were just too cute! I guess this is an ok picture considering their ages! :) Here is Hunter, Davis, Jack, and Miss Eva Claire in th e center! Too cute!

Davis was exhausted by the time we headed back! He just sort of got cozy in his wagon and was saying "pibby!" No pibby here baby D! Wait til we get home and ready for bed! We came home and got to see Pops and Mimi for a few! Cousin Kristy called and asked to head over to Tim's great aunt's house to visit for great Memaw for a few and the twins! He fell asleep on the way, but he was pretty good while we were there! We finally got home a little after 9:00! :) What a Halloween! :)

Last but not least! Here is a picture of Tim's grandmother with great grandson's Charlie, Davis, and Cooper.