In 2010....

I plan on spending LOTS of quality time with my family!

I plan to make more homemade items (i.e. cookies, knit, sew and cook more).

I plan on eating healthier.

I plan on getting organized.

I plan on trying to keep the house clean.

and I plan on trying to be more 'earth-friendly'.

Happy New Year to everyone!

In 2009.....

Lorelei had her first birthday and her second open heart surgery.

Lorelei saw her parents hometown of Auburn, NY for the first time.

Lorelei learned how to walk, then run!

Lorelei went to Charleston for a sedated ECHO and her second surgery AND was in her very first wedding!

Lorelei saw her first snowfall in SC.

Lorelei grew up into a toddler before our very eyes.

She now has a large vocabulary but you have to ask her to say things sometimes. She has so much energy since her surgery and I thought she had a lot of energy BEFORE her surgery! She is still on the bottle and I know I need to get it away but....

Her hair has grown 3 inches and I need to get it cut but.....

Lorelei says "MAMA" loudly all the time and John gets upset because she doesn't say "Daddy" but someday he will understand when Mommy says "NO" to something and she goes running to him!

2009 brought us so many different things, I can't wait to see what's in store for us in 2010!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

'Mon

My Aunt Sharon and Uncle Les got Lo this tent! Isn't it cool? Lo loves it and says "'Mon" and swings her arm or pulls you so you can get in the tent with her! So I sit and squeeze in the tent and she squeals with delight! I love that squeal!

Christmas at Memaw's

Aunt Jeannette, Uncle Marc, Lexi and Jack got Lorelei the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It sings the Hot Dog Dance song and we have to play it over and over and over again! :O)She loved playing with it!
She also stole Aunt Jan's Mother in law's glasses and just had to put them on! Doesn't she look studious?

Christmas day we went to my mom's house where we opened presents with mom (Memaw), Uncle Walt, Aunt Jan and Uncle Mark and Mark's parents, Eileen and Chuck. We had a great time and a wonderful dinner of ham, turkey, potatoes, seven layer salad, asparagus, and macaroni and cheese. For dessert: green cake, grasshopper pie, and mincemeat pie. It was really good! We had fun!

Oh, What a Whirlwind!

It always seems to me that the holidays go by way too fast! You spend all this time getting ready for it and it just seems like a second! This year was so fun with Lo. She still didn't know what was going on but when she went to bed the tree looked like this:

And when she woke up the tree looked like this:She was cute and the first thing she saw was her baby doll stroller and we played with that for 20 minutes before we even started to open presents. She got a little tired after a while and I helped open some presents. We skyped John's parents and they were able to see her open her Mickey Mouse Choo Choo. She was too cute! (We saved it for last since we knew that it would be all she wanted.) All she said was Choo Choo and moved her hand up and down like she was the engineer! It was too cute. She had fun and we got the best present ~ Lorelei's face!

7 Things You Didn't Know about Me

So I've been tagged by Rhonda and Shannon to do this, so here are 7 things you might not know about me!
1. My husband, John, and I dated for 2 years in high school, broke up for almost 7 years and have now been back together for 9 years and married for 5 of those 9 years.
2. I grew up in NY state (not the city) near Syracuse and we had tons of snow each winter to play in and I miss it at Christmastime.
3. I went to school to become a psychologist and now work in a pharmacy BUT I love it and wouldn't change a thing.
4. I'm addicted to coffee!
5. I am NOT a great housekeeper.
6. I used to be on the swim team in high school and I miss swimming ALOT!
7. Christmas is my favorite time of year and I love the shopping, wrapping, baking and stress that comes with it! I love being with family!

Ok, now I am supposed to tag people so here goes:
The Mullen Momos
The Porfirio Family
The Fandreis
Seventh Smith
The Roberts in Cola Town


So we've been getting ready for Christmas around here and I am finally done so that I can enjoy the week ahead.
I've wrapped, baked 4 different kinds of cookies and finished projects. Lorelei really doesn't know about Santa and the whole story of whats going on but she is still crazy wild and it just must be this time of year!
I will post pics of Christmas Eve and Christmas in a few days (of course)! We are looking forward to our first Christmas Eve night putting toys together and being Santa! (With many more to come!)
Christmas Eve we are going to my mom's house where my sister, Jan, and brother-in-law, Mark, and his parents are going to be. We are going to attempt to put together a gingerbread house and train! It should be fun.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Card

This is how our Christmas card picture turned out! She is such a mess! This weekend was pretty rough on us. Saturday night we were up all night with Lo, she woke up with her night terrors again. I hate it when it happens because you cannot comfort her at all. She just screams and cries and nothing will make her happy. I hope she forgets all about whatever is making her scared too! Most nights, though, she does really well.
We had a new stove delivered on Sunday and the left front burner doesn't work so tomorrow we will have another new stove delivered! I can't wait because sandwiches and microwave dinners are not so good anymore!

I have 3 projects left to do before Christmas and I hope that I can get them done by this weekend. We have my work Christmas Party on Saturday and a friends Christmas Party on Sunday! I also need to get going on my cookies! Plenty of things still to do before Christmas! I can't wait to see Lo's face light up Christmas morning!

Trying to get the Perfect Shot

This is how taking the Christmas Picture went, we finally got one good shot, BUT you will have to wait to see it ! :O)

New Fashion Statement

I think her pants may be a little too big, what about you?

'Tude

Enough said!

Thanksgiving Traditions

John and I have decided to start our own holiday traditions this year since Lorelei is old enough to start enjoying them, so I made our own family Thanksgiving dinner the weekend before Thanksgiving so that we could just be together as a family to celebrate and give our thanks!
Pumpkin Cookies, they are THE best!
Banana bread.
My apple pie that the crust didn't bake on the bottom, it was ok for my first attempt and yes, I did follow the directions :O)!
Our feast!
For Thanksgiving, John, Lorelei and I went to my Mom's house. It was a small party this year, just us, Mom, my Uncle Walt and his friend Kenton. I've know Kenton all my life and he makes THE best bread! Hopefully he will give me the recipe soon! Lorelei even kept her hairbow in her hair until dinner. I was very impressed!
Trying to eat Memaw's decorations!
Now, we are trying to throw them because they are "balls"!
Staring out the door to check on the dogs. My mom adopted a lab mix and she's an old lady, so her name is 'Old Girl'. She can't hear and moves slow but when we went for our annual after meal walk, she was the most excited I have ever seen her. Mom was also watching her friends dog, Molly. She is also a rescue and I am not sure what she is but think she is a mix. Lorelei had tremendous fun with the dogs!
My mom also has a fun Thanksgiving tradition that she has been doing ever since I can remember. She gives everyone that has come for dinner a little gift right before dinner. I don't know how it got started but I think it is to thank everyone for coming together. I love that tradition along with watching the parade to see Santa! I can't wait to have Thanksgiving at my house to continue that tradition! I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are starting to decorate for Christmas. While Lo napped today we cleaned and put up the Christmas tree. When she woke up to the lights on the tree, her expression was priceless! She was so excited. If I don't get anything else for Christmas, that would be good enough for me! Oh the joy on children's faces at this time of year!

Busy, Busy

I know I promised pics of dinner I made and I will post them. I have just been really busy this week getting ready for Thanksgiving and all. I will get everything together this weekend and post, I promise! We are having a dinner with family tonight after I get off work at 7 and then this weekend we are putting up our tree so there will be plenty to write about! Just wanted to check in and let you know that I will be back soon! :O) Hope everyone had a safe holiday and if you went out shopping this morning, you were safe!

We saw Dr. Shuler today!

Went in for her 1 month check up. No ECHO. Dr. Shuler said she looked great. We got a "see you in 3 months." we were hoping for a "see you in 6 months" but we will take what we can get! So we go back in February and probably will have to have another ECHO. Now I just have to find out when Lorelei can go back to her pediatrician to get her 18 month shots and her seasonal flu and H1N1 shots.

Looking forward to this weekend when I am making the three of us Thanksgiving dinner. John and I went to the store and got what I needed today. I am so excited! I love Thanksgiving dinner! Pictures will be taken after everything is made!

Don't Laugh but...

I am done Christmas shopping. Of course, since there are several weeks left before Christmas, I am sure that I will find more things to buy people but for right now, I'm done! Now I just have to wrap the packages and send them on there merry way! This weekend is going to be a quiet one for us as Lo recovers from her walking pneumonia. John doesn't have to work this weekend so we will be watching football (Go Gamecocks! Go Irish!), eating pizza, laundry and cleaning! I am looking forward to next weekend though. John and I are making a Thanksgiving dinner just for us and Lorelei. It's something we do every year and we just make sure that we give thanks to each other before or after Thanksgiving when we are with other family. I am going to attempt to bake my first apple pie. I will take pictures! Don't worry. Then we will have the real Thanksgiving with my mom and family at my mom's house. Then it will be time to put up the Christmas tree!
Christmas is my absolute FAVORITE time of the year. I love the meaning of it all, the smells, the sweets and goodies and the family! We are hoping to be in NY next year for Christmas because by then Lo will REALLY understand what's going on and I think it would be fun for her to have Christmas with her cousin Jack! Hoping that everyone has a great weekend!

Twist Ties and Walking P

So last night when we got home from Urgent Care I took a peek at the x-rays (I didn't know what I was looking for just thought it would be cool to look at) and what I saw made me laugh. Lo has 4 "twist ties" around her sternum from where they closed her up. I thought it was so cool! You can feel them through her chest but to see them was interesting.

This morning we braved the rain and cold and went back to the Dr. She didn't hear any wheezing and she looked at the x-rays and didn't see anything significant (of course Urgent Care didn't send the report like they were supposed to so they are going to call me to let me know what the report said) so diagnosis is walking pneumonia/bronchitis. She said we don't need to continue with the breathing treatments unless she gets short of breath and gave Lo an antibiotic. So John is home today because of Veteran's Day and I go to work at 2. Whoo Hoo!

18 months and Sick

Today we went for Lo's 18 month well check up with Dr. B. I have noticed her nose being runny and she has a slight cough, just a normal cold, I thought because every kid at daycare has the snot! WRONG! Dr. B looked at her throat and said "That's a lot of puss in there!" and I said "Awesome!". So then when he listened to her chest he heard some wheezing. So he decided to do a strep test and a breathing treatment. C. came in a did the strep test and Lo started screaming and I was supposed to give her a breathing treatment. I am not sure how much of the treatment she got because she was NOT about it at all! Apparently we are having an adversion to doctors offices now. She cried everytime someone came in the room! So after the treatment was done Dr B came in and listened to her again. He said she sounded better but we needed to continue with the treatments over night and get a chest x-ray. The strep test came back negative (it always does). So now I have John meet me at Urgent Care for her chest x-ray. That was fun! They put her in this little device that kept her in 1 spot but it sort of looked like a torture device! All she kept screaming was "Maaamaaa, Maaamaaa!" with snot coming out of her nose. So at 7pm we give her her next treatment, hope she sleeps tonight and go back to the dr at 10:15am. I will post an update tomorrow with what is going on! She has had no fever so I totally didn't think anything of it. Am I a horrible mom? At least its not the flu! And hopefully it won't be pneumonia! The life of a mom, it never stops! :O)

Sleep and the lack of it

So this is like the umpteenth morning that I have had no sleep because Lo doesn't sleep through the night anymore. Since her surgery, she will go down at her normal time (8:30pm) but wakes up about 10:30pm each evening and then will wake up again between 2 and 3am. She used to be a great sleeper! I just don't know what to do. I don't want to let her cry because it breaks my heart. We get up to get ready at 5:30am and she will sleep then. Ugh! Enough about me...

I have a few people that need prayers this week. My friend Emily (The Mullen Momos) is having an amnio done Friday morning at 8:30am Denver time and if the girls' lungs are almost mature or mature they are going to do a c-section that afternoon at 1pm. Please pray for Emily as she goes through surgery and for the girls (Charli and Lili) that they will be born healthy. Also please pray for Stellan as he is going to Boston to have another ablation to help try to stop his SVT next week. If you want to follow his story look under the Blogs I read section on the right hand side of the blog and click on Stellan.

Halloween Part 2

My new sweater that Miss Brenda made me. I LOVE it!
This is how I put my crown on!
Hanging in my wagon going up and down the street!
Waiting to go trick or treating.
Getting ready to go to daycare in my costume.
This is what I came home to last week. She had her 'Lorelei' shirt on and I guess at daycare they didn't want to get it dirty so they put a bib on her. John tried to take it off when she got home but she wouldn't take it off. I guess right before I got home from work she put her tutu on and that's the outfit I came home to. She definitely knows what she wants. I might have a fashionista on my hands.

Prayer request

Please pray for one of the Heart Babies I read about, Stellan, he has gotten very sick last night, did better today but is sick again. If you want to read his story look under Stellan in the right hand column under blogs I read.

The New Way to Eat a Brownie and Then Some....

I made brownies on Sunday and I gave Lorelei hers in a bowl. This is how SHE eats a brownie! I thought it was too cute!

She's a clown!
Her "What?" look.
This is what I saw when I came into the bathroom after John had told me she 'fell in', which she didn't, she CLIMBED in. Big difference. Yes, she is in the tub clothes on and all with the water going!

Yesterday was her first day back at daycare. Her teachers were VERY excited to have her back and she was a little fussy when I left but I think she was happy to be back. She went to sleep like normal last night but still woke up at 2:45am but went back to sleep about an hour later. At least she wasn't wide open! She went to daycare today as I did some errands and such. Hopefully we will be back on a schedule soon.

We will be getting ready for Halloween this weekend then on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't believe it is that time of year already! John and I put some things on layaway for Lorelei today for Christmas. I can't wait to see her little face when we put up the tree and when Santa comes!

Not Me Monday!

I did not get Lo a bath ready and turn around for 1 second and then have John tell me that she was in the tub WITH her clothes on! Not Me! I would not do that, I watch her every second!

That teaches me a lesson to close the bathroom door when getting a bath ready if I have to go out of the room!

Any suggestions?

I was just wondering if any of my readers could give me advice about how to keep a hairbow in Lo's hair? She won't keep a bow or a ponytail or anything in her hair. Her hair is in her eyes and I don't want to cut it. She looks so cute when its up even if it is for 1 second!

Some more pictures

I love Mickey, Minnie and Daisy!


Trying to be cool in my Camo!

I'm coming for you!

My first cupcake from Cupcake in Columbia!

The way I like them both: SLEEPING and quiet!

CHEESE!


He are some pictures from the last week or so that I was home with Lorelei. Back to the grind tomorrow!

Colds and Prayers

So, I go back to work on Monday. I am looking forward to it but I am also not looking forward to it. I loved spending the time with Lorelei but we also need money too! :O) This week we will be getting ready for Halloween and trunk or treating. Then we will be moving on to Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't believe Christmas is only 2 months away! John and I have a lot to do!

Also, I am sitting here with a cold, at least I think its a cold. My head is stuffy and I am coughing my head off but I don't feel bad otherwise. I guess it doesn't help that it goes down into the 40s at night and is in the 70s during the day.

I also need my prayer warriors to pray for a couple of people. My friend Nan's mother is in Arizona and dealing with 2 blood clots in her lungs. They have called in Hospice and are not sure what will happen. Please pray for Nan and her family that they will have strength during this time. Also, my friend Emily (blog: The Mullen Momo's) is in the hospital with twin girls. She has been on bedrest for 8 weeks now. They are coming upon the time to make a decision on when to schedule her c-section (they can't be delivered vaginally because they could strangle each other). Please pray that she will know what to do when the time comes.

Our heart friend Derrick gave his parents a little scare this week too. They were in the hospital for 2 days after his sats dropped into the 60s. They have determined that he had a UTI but Shannon and Justin aren't sure that is the case. Cardiology checked him out and said that he was ok. Pray for them as well as they get through this little bump and prepare for D's second surgery soon.

Today is watching football and relaxing as a family before we get back to work and daycare and the everyday ins and outs.

18 months old!

On the playground, looking for trouble!
















Finally, something I can climb on without getting yelled at!

















Grampa bought me these last Christmas and they finally fit! Now I'm reading to go hunting!













Peek-a-Boo!













Boy, I'm tired of all my baby dolls! (She has 7 of them and really does play with all of them!)