Happy New Year!

Today was eventful! We drove to little rock, hung out at the mall with Alecia, went to a new years party at Alecia's mom's and had a short hospital trip with Alecia. It looks like everything will be allright and Alecia, Alex and Felecia were all able to make it to the party in time to celebrate the start of the new year. It was a great year and I am a very happy and optimistic person going into the new year!

Hanging out with Friends

We went to the library today with Emma and Robyn and some other kids from their church for a special reading time.  Then we went and had pancakes. It was fun and a bit of s workout because Lilly was running everywhere. When I put Lilly down for her nap I was so tired I took one too!

Chillin' with my Puppy

Back to Normal

I felt a little overwhelmed after Christmas with all of the decorations and the sudden influx of about a gagillion new toys so I took Christmas down today. I normally wait until the new year but I feel so good knowing that it's all taken care of. Now I can relax for the rest of my break!

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

Ummmm...mom went a little crazy on gifts this year. :)

Sick Derek

I drove half of the way home because Derek wasn't feeling well but then I started falling asleep so Derek took over. He looked so silly.

Chocolate Cinnamon Rollls

Lilly likes them.

Christmas with the Barton's

We had a great time at the Barton Christmas this year. Lilly enjoyed visiting with everyone especially her cousin Reid. He was one of the only people, other than us and DD that she would actually ask to hold her.

Chinese Food Loving Lilly

Lilly enjoys Chinese food. We got her some vegetable fried rice but she decided she would rather eat my lo mein and spring roll. And of course she wanted a fortune cookie"

Christmas Break

My two week Christmas break started today when I left school! I had students do this worksheet and then place them in the hall. I managed to remember to take this picture before I ripped them all down. Did I mention that I had 40 students fail overall this semester? Yeah, I did. That is out of a total of 140 students. Isn't that ridiculous? They all failed due to their complete and total laziness.  Next semester is going to be very different and smaller.

Ernie and His New Toy

Book Swap

Derek was reading "Olivia" a children's book and Lilly dove right into the 4th book in the  "Dune" series. She's only 1 year old and already a geek.

Cookie Fest

We had a great time this year. We ate and drank way too much. There was some drama between Alex's dog and Booshie. And we made a selection of very interestingly decorated sugar cookies. All in all, we had a blast and now I have a ton of cookies left over. Just what I need! I guess I'll have to double up on my gym time.

Sleeping Lilly

She was really tired after she fell back asleep this morning. We even tried to gently wake her up and she was still snoring.

Happy Holidays!

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Tolerance and Desire

The cats wanted to be on the bed but, the dog was there. They decided to give him the, "I'm gonna put my butt in your direction and act like you don't exist", treatment. Because that's how everyone deals with things they don't like. Right?

We are the champions!

Derek and I won 1st and 3rd places at our friends tacky sweater party this year. I made the sweaters by sewing on hideous things to two goodwill sweaters.

Baby Alfalfa

Adiós a Justo

Today was Justice Lamas' last concert on tour in the U.S. at Nettleton. He's been touring and performing at high schools for over a decade. I even saw him perform when I was still a high school student! He is such a great Guy and we're sad that he won't be performing anymore but, I'm also happy for him because he will now be able to spend time with his family.

Surprise Snow

I woke up this morning to 4 inches of beautiful, fluffy snow. It was surprising because they said we might only see a few flurries. I wish I could have stayed home and played with Lilly and Ernie!

Story Time

This was Lilly's first experience with the wonderful world of Eric Carle. She liked it and so did Ernie.

Getting Acquainted

I hooked up my heating blanket and Oliver just couldn't resist; even if there was a dog on the other half.

Ready for Christmas

All three of us have silly headbands. Derek and I both have reindeer antlers and Lilly has mistletoe.

Lilly with a Banana

Introducing Ernesto Alejandro McFurrpantalones

Yeah...we got a dog. He's super cute and lovable. It was a surprise to all of us but it was a happy surprise. Derek has always wanted a dog and Lilly LOVES him. He will actually let her pet him which is a new experience for him.

Kiss Me

Here you can see Lilly being adorable with a mistletoe headband.

The Day After a Freak Snow Event

This is what our house looked like the morning after the snow. We all had to go to work so we didn't get to play in it. Hopefully it will snow again so we can get out and play!

Snow?!

I didn't even consider this a possibility today. It's actually sticking to roads. This is crazy!

Emma and Lilly

We went to Barnes & Nobles with the Whitehead's. Emma and Lilly had fun reading together.

Barton Thanksgiving

We got to visit with my brother or "Uncle Al" to Lillian. I love my brother.

Success!!

We have been having a horrible time trying to keep Lilly's teeth clean. She has about 6 teeth now and it is definitely necessary for us to brush them. However, she throws a ridiculous fit every time we do it. It literally takes both of us to hold her down to get them brushed and I know we aren't doing a very good job because she clamps her mouth shut and shoves the brush out with her tongue. Plus, we only do it once a day because it is so stressful for all three of us.
While we were out shopping I thought it might be the "toothbrush" we've been using. I quoted toothbrush because it is a finger brush that you slip onto one finger that has bristles. So essentially, you brush her teeth with your finger. I figured it wouldn't hurt to spend a few bucks on a children's toothbrush. So, I debated over a light-up brush and a different one that looked a little smaller and said it was a starter/training brush. I ended up with the training brush.
Well, I don't know if Lilly understood that I had bought that just for her and that it was HER big girl toothbrush or if she remembered me spending time picking it out while she watched from her perch on my back (I was wearing her in the baby carrier on my back.) but, she LOVED it! Derek came up to her with the brush in his hand and made a big deal about asking (which he has tried before) and she just opened right up! She even tried to brush her teeth by herself and also tried to brush our teeth. She was so happy! She was just walking around carrying her toothbrush and occasionally trying to brush things. It was fantastic and not stressful at all. Hopefully we will see a repeat of tonight for many nights to come. Now if we could only get her to enjoy bath time!

Shopping

Alyssa, Derek's sister, and I went shopping today, Black Friday. However, we were not the crazy people who were out at midnight until the sun came up. We didn't venture out until about 2:30pm after I put up all of the Christmas decorations. It was very calm and pleasant because all of the crazies were probably recovering at home in bed. We could see remnants of the terror that the stores saw earlier in the day such as messy stores, big empty spaces where supposed deals had been located and the evidently harried sales clerks who looked completely exhausted and a little appalled at the condition of their workplace. We didn't really find many deals but, we found a few and I managed to get a little Christmas shopping done.
This picture was taken in JcPenney's. They had these ridiculous hats all over the place. Apparently they are "in" this year. I don't really understand why. I think they look super stupid. I think this was supposed to be a monkey but I couldn't really tell.

Thanksgiving with Friends

Yum!

Teeth

Lilly has a ton of teeth noe but she doesn't like to show them. This is as good of a shot as we could get.

I am an Awesome Teacher/Mom

I taught Lilly to do this. :)

Thankful Tree

I had my students write about what they are thankful for in Spanish on leaves. This was the result. I thought it was pretty neat.

Lilly on a Leash

Lilly takes after her Daddy and Uncle Alex. She thinks it's fun to run at full speed away from Mommy. So, she now has a leash. This comes from my horrific she shopping event yesterday where Lilly thought it was hilarious to run down the isle, look back at me at take off around the corner giggling hysterically as I chased her down. She thought it was great fun, Me... not so much.

Family Photos

We got all of our family photos this week and I am finally finding time to post a picture. If you go to my facebook page you can see all of he best ones. This is my favorite because I look pretty. :)

Wax Paper Leaves

I thought this was a cool and simple craft idea. You sharpen crayons over wax paper, put another sheet on tip, iron them together, and then cut out shapes of leaves. Well, it was NOT worth the effort. It took forever to sharpen them, forever to cut them out and FOREVER to hang them. Although they are pretty they are not pretty enough for all of the work it took to make them.

Carrots

Derek gave Lilly a whole carrot to chew on. She was being really cute.

More Photos from our Weekend Trip

We had delicious food at several restaurants. Here you can see Derek enjoying some bread pudding.

While there we made a trip to Brandon to do some shopping and I snapped this photo of the surrounding hills. The picture doesn't do it justice.

On the way home the sky looked really neat and was full of puzzle piece shaped clouds. I attempted to snap a photo from the car while moving this is what I got.

Oh, and Derek bought a tophat.