Out-takes and Post-Christmas Mishaps

These are some shots that didn't make the cut for x-mas cards!

As the holidays make there way around, so does the nasty flu virus. Well, it made its way to the family this year. Usually it's George that ends up with it every Christmas. This year, he was the only one who didn't get it. Go figure! I got it 2 days after x-mas. However, I decided to fight it and was determined to go out and get my hair done. I felt a little queasy in the morning but took some pepto-bismol and went on my merry way. I picked up Tanya, dropped off Tara and we ventured out to Target and then to Rochester to the salon. While at the salon, I started to feel sick again. I warned my hairdresser (a high school friend of mine) and she told me she didn't feel good that morning either. She said she took some advil and felt better. So as I was sitting in the chair getting foils put in, I had to excuse myself to the bathroom. I threw up only a little bit had to take my sweatshirt off because I was so hot. I knew that it wasn't over. You are probably thinking "Why is she telling us this?" Well, it get's better, trust me! I went back to the chair and Brooke continued to highlight my hair. A few minutes later, I had to excuse myself again. This time I made it into the bathroom, shut the door, and the next thing I remember is one of the other hairdressers telling me I had to move because they couldn't get in the door and there was blood on the floor. Apparently, I passed out before I could throw up and ended up hitting my head on the stainless steel garbage can! Nice! So the ambulance was called and I was taken to Crittenton hosptial to get stitched up. We were there for 4 hours while they ran blood tests and hooked me to an IV. I kept telling the nurses and doctor that I had the FLU!! Let me go home! But of course they wanted to make sure nothing else was wrong since I passed out. I think I just got up too fast from the chair trying to avoid making a mess of the salon floor! At least Tanya was there with me to ride the 1/2 mile in the ambulance and wait with me and my open wound until George got there. She's such a trooper! She even watched the doctor stitch me up! There's a true friend! The cut is right through my eyebrow so hopefully there won't be too much scarring. My mom and dad ended up keeping Tara over night so I could at least sleep through the night. We did miss our friend's daughter's princess birthday party. (She and I share a birthday so I hated to miss it) Sorry Rylie! I would have rather been there than where I was!

So needless to say I spent my birthday looking like a cyclopse as George kept calling me. I don't usually like my birthday anyway with it being smack dab in the middle of x-mas and new year's. People always forget or they are so tired from all of the x-mas festivities that they don't want to go out. I get that. I usually am also very tired from all of the running around. But it's still my birthday and I can't change that. I am not saying that my birthday has to be a big deal, it's not like I'm 5 or something, just not forgotten that's all.

With that said, as I get older I begin to care less about what people think and more about people. I have learned what a real friend is and more about how to be one. I appreciate the small things. I love my friends and family. I like my job, my house, my car and the people I work with. I love my husband and all that he is and does for our family. I don't tell him that nearly enough. I love my chatty, adorable daughter. I have many things to be thankful for. As 2008 was a tough year, I hope that 2009 will bring good things. I hope that it brings great things for all of you too! Happy New Year!

Uncle Kyle came home from Tennessee with his GF Amy and they spent some time with us. Tara had a blast playing with Uncle Kyle and adored Amy.

'Tis the Season!

Potty time! Okay, so not really. I saw the potty seat at Walmart last week and thought "What the heck?" I let Tara chose between the princess seat and the surfer girl seat. She pointed to the surfer girl seat and I put it in the cart. When we got home, she kept saying "Potty seat? Potty seat?" So I got it out for her and let her sit on it. I even gave her a book! I tried my best to be enthusiastic about it so she would see that it was a good thing. It didn't last long and she didn't go but eventually she will have to. If she knew better, she would probably kill me for posting this picture!!

On to the Christmas festivities...

Every year we attend the Smith's Christmas party at their house Christmas Eve Eve. It is a chance for us to get together with people we don't see often and some we only see this once a year. It was another great party. A little more low key this year as more and more of our friends have kids that keep us from misbehaving and getting out of control like we would have a few years ago! Not a bad thing for most of us! I struggled to stay upbeat and positive with the prego's and newborns that surrounded me. Even though it has been 45 days, I still have thoughts in my head of "What would have been..." I guess it being the holidays doesn't help matters either.

I did get this cute picture of Tara and KJ before we headed off to the Smith's. For some reason, kids love the dog cage!

Christmas Eve brought us together with George's side of the family. The kids had a blast playing together and with their new toys!

Here, Reagan, Katelyn, and Gavin pose for a group shot.

Here is Tara after opening her new baby doll. (the one on her right is Reagan's)

After opening her baby, she wanted nothing to do with presents. She got what she wanted!


Here they are sitting at the "kids" table.

This was the best shot I got. They are all looking at least. Tara was not in the mood for pictures as you can see.

Christmas morning we spent at home putting together Tara's new playhut. She really only liked it when I was going through it. Thank goodness I can fit!

After we opened presents at home and got cleaned up, we headed over to my mom and dad's to have Christmas with them and the Falker clan. Here is a pic with Mila, Nichole, and Tara.

Here are more random pics from the day. Tara getting kisses from Mila and giving them to Audrey. And the last one is her asleep on the living room floor while Mila danced around her to her new Dance Cam. She was exhausted but her nap was short lived and 20 minutes later she was back to join the action.

Hope your holidays were all great!

X-mas pictures FINALLY!

Well, they are not exactly what I had anticipated but good enough for a card. Tara does not sit still for pictures. Anyone who has/had a 21 month old will know what I am talking about. I will have to post some of the out-takes later! They are quite funny! In the meantime, I will share some of the good ones I did get. A few were taken last night right before bedtime. I can't believe she cooperated! Of course, she was bribed with her doggy and paci!

Monkey Business, Ho Ho No!, Model in training

The other day I found Tara sitting on the rocking chair with all of her monkeys! She does have a lot of them!

Saturday we went to have breakfast with Santa and needless to say Tara was not too thrilled about the man in the red suit. We managed to get a quick family picture before child services came for torturing my child!

Today my friend Jenni brought her daughter over for her x-mas pictures and we got some really cute ones! Emmy is a beautiful little girl so it wasn't too hard to get some great shots. The only trouble we had was getting her to sit still! This age is SO hard to get good pictures.




I think this one was my favorite! So precious!

I have yet to do Tara's christmas pictures. I tried last weekend and was all set and ready to go and my lens would not focus. I have to send it in to get fixed. Luckily, George got me a new one for x-mas so he let me open it early. I was going to do it this weekend but Tara has a cold and does not feel good. She is very moody! We were just about to go to a birthday party on Saturday night when Tara decided to have a meltdown so we ended up staying home. I wasn't about to drive a half hour only to turn around and come back because she can't decide whether to be happy or upset. She needed to get her sleep anyway and I didn't want her sharing her cold with anyone else. So I will attempt her pictures yet again this week. I will post them as soon as I do!

Big shoes to fill...

  Tara loves shoes!  I may be to blame I admit.  She does have 3 pairs of tennis shoes!  I really don't think a 21 month old needs that many shoes of the same kind, but they were too cute to pass up!  She loves to try to put on her own shoes and she loves to put on our shoes.  Here her daddy helped her put on his size 13's!  
 Tara is a daddy's girl through and through!  This is her with one of his famous Square Deal t-shirts on!  Too cute!
 We had thanksgiving at our house this year for my side of the family.  Unfortunately we were unable to get together with George's side.  We are hosting x-mas eve for his side again this year so we will see them in a few weeks.  I think this was the best picture of all three girls.  Mila only wanted to sit for a few shots and then she was off!  So Tara stuck around to give Audrey some kisses!   She is going to be a great big sister some day!

 Here is our shining star!  I think my cousin was watching her and she took this picture.  She is so goofy sometimes!  

Tara is beginning to say 2 and 3 words at a time so there is never a dull moment around our house.  I love it when she makes connections like saying "Bless You" when someone does anything that sounds like a sneeze.  She also sings her ABC's and counts to 10.  She is also learning her letter sounds compliments of Leapfrog!  Not that I think kids should be learning from the TV but if she is going to watch something, I'd rather it be educational.  Being a teacher and all, she will have her fair share of educational "stuff".  She does love "The Little Mermaid" and "Tinkerbell" too.  I think the older she gets, the more fun she is!  I love her little voice and her facial expressions are priceless!  George finds it hard to get mad at her when she does something wrong because the look on her face is too cute to scold!  I am sure that will wear off eventually!  I am looking forward to x-mas and watching her light up when she opens her presents.  We'll be getting out the video camera for sure!

Better Days Ahead

Things are looking much better these days. I still have my ups and downs but for the most part it seems to be more ups than downs. It still hurts when I hear of someone new pregnant or someone complaining of being pregnant, which I know first hand that being pregnant isn't all that great at times and I am guilty of complaining myself but now I have a whole new perspective of things. So if you are ever in the presence of someone who has miscarried recently or perhaps someone who is having trouble conceiving at all try to avoid complaining! I could possibly be guilty of doing that as well. I hope not as some of my dearest friends have been in my situation. I can only hope that I did not seem ungrateful for being pregnant or having a child. It truly is great and I can't wait for another chance to have one. I believe that everything happens for a reason and I know that there was a good reason for this unfortunate event but I am hopeful that it will work out next time. To say the least, I am very excited about the "next time".

On a lighter note...

I was fortunate enough to do some Christmas pictures last weekend. I wanted to share some of my little buddy, Tyler. His mom brought him over last weekend so we could cuddle and I could get my T-time! Of course, I always love hanging out his mom too. So here are a few from his x-mas photo shoot!

Anywhere But Here.

I don't even know where to begin. I had thought I would be able to write about it. Instead, I am going to direct you to a page that is very similar to what I went through. (sorry Emily, but you are a much better writer than me, and thanks!) It even happened on a Wednesday. Instead of 5 weeks, 6 days, my ultrasound showed 9 weeks, 1 day. This was exactly 4 days after my ultrasound that showed a heartbeat of 166. http://captainhambone.typepad.com/not_that_you_asked/2007/11/grieving.html
Right now, I just feel empty. I can't get over that there was once something living and growing inside of me and now there's not.

Coming soon May 2009

Yes, we are having another baby! We thought it was time to give Tara a friend to play with so around May 22nd we will be blessed with #2. I am a little nervous about caring for 2 kids as I feel overwhelmed at times with just 1. I don't know how people do it! I guess I will soon find out. We are very excited and hope for a healthy baby. I do not want to find out what it is this time like we did for Tara. I think it will be exciting to have done it both ways. I am sure it will kill me not to find out but I don't mind surprises.

Halloween Fun!

Thursday we went out pumpkin picking. Yeah, nothing like waiting 'til the last minute huh? Tara had a hard time picking since there were so many left. She finally decided on one a little more her size.

Daddy helped her gut the insides. She wanted nothing to do with that part! She is such a girl!

I finished it by carving out eyes, ears and a mouth. With George's claw, it's a little hard for him to do tedious work like that! Tara seemed happy with my work.

She still likes the ones she can hold though.


Tanya, Tara, and I passed out candy at our friend Marc's house. We do this every year and Tara was very helpful and put the candy in the kids' bags without trying to steal any. Next year we will take her out trick-or-treating to a few houses.

She is ready to go in now. She had enough of giving away candy!


Then we went to Grandma and Papa's house to see Mila and Audrey. We tried to get a picture of all 3 girls but it still took some bribing with candy to get it done!

Tara also got a gift from her great-grandma in Georgia. She got her very own sock monkey! We had to give Uncle Christopher's back to him. Thanks for sharing!

Audrey was a bee for her 1st Halloween!


Tara loves to play with Audrey. It's less competition.