My last blog post

....last post of the year! Wow, this has been a great year for us! Last January I went back to work after being home with a sick baby for 9 months. I was so happy that the surgeries were behind us and we could live a normal life, but it was hard to go back. I didn't want to leave my baby and I had lots of anxiety about leaving her. After that first day back, I knew I was right where I needed to be. We adjusted to our new "normal." Alan and I also began Dave Ramsey's "Money Makeover" in January. My mom wanted to buy the book for all three of her daughters for Christmas but never got around to it. (Mom listens to his radio show every afternoon and thinks he is the greatest) so Alan and I spotted it at Target and bought it. Neither one of us could put the book down. That may have been our smartest purchase of 2010! Jane Baird began preschool at the beginning of March and loved it. I had a lot of anxiety about sending her to preschool, but I didn't have much of a choice. After about a week, I realized she was right where she needed to be and I was so thankful! Jane Baird turned 1 March 26th. Everyone told me that the first year would fly by and it did indeed! We celebrated her birthday with family and close friends. Jane Baird and I enjoyed our summer together. We spent most of it at home and had many pajama days...too many! Our summer flew by as it always does. School began in August and Jane Baird went back to preschool. She was the only baby the previous year, but this school year Mrs. Jenny opened a one year old class. Jane Baird enjoyed having classmates to play with. She got a new teacher, Mrs. Stacey. She LOVES LOVES LOVES Mrs. Stacey. And I must say that I do too. She is so sweet to the children and treats them as if they were her own. JB even calls her Mama sometimes. Knowing that preschool was going well and that JB was happy there really made me feel that everything was falling into place and I could not stress about things so much. I needed to focus on my new class of 1st graders! I got such a wonderful group of boys and girls and I loved them all from the 1st day of school! In September, JB was having some issues with swallowing and choking so Dr. Harmon recommended that she have her esophagus dilated. She had that procedure on the 29th and it really seemed to help. Jane Baird celebrated her second Halloween at Boo at the Zoo. She dresses as rainbow bright and she looked so adorable! I just loved her costume and I spent many hours on it. She had a great night! We went to Mississippi for Jane Baird's 2nd Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house. She of course didn't eat a single thing at Thanksgiving dinner. She was too busy running around...and crying when it was time for pictures. We ended up stopping at McDonald's on the way home for a happy meal. December arrived so fast...and went by just as fast! Jane Baird had her fist dance recital on Dec 3rd. It was horrible! She woke up from her nap with a fever 30 minutes before show time. It turns out that she had bilateral ear infections. She cried almost the whole 2 minutes that her class was on stage. Jane Baird was terrified of Santa this year so we didn't have her picture made with him. We did try a few times and Santa even made an appearance at her preschool, but she would have nothing to do with him. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with our families. Jane Baird got tons and tons of toys and she loves playing with all of them. Alan and I have spent the last week purchasing items for our home to help get organized. We are re-doing our master closet and trying to get Jane Baird's playroom organized. We've given tons of toys to charity, put some aside for a big upcoming consignment sale, and now we are working on making room for all of the new toys. 2010 has been very good to us and I look forward to 2011! Jane Baird's latest obsession is playing "Ring Around the Rosie"

She will come up to you and grab both of your hands and say, "Ashes, ashes!" And its so cute that you just have to drop whatever you are doing to play with her. She LOVES it! And she knows its more fun with more people. Alan was out of town this week so she would have her doll in the circle with us. These pics were taken the night Alan came home from Jacksonville. JB made him play like 20 times! Daddy was dizzy after playing over and over. But look how much fun she is having! Jane Baird and I played beauty salon and I got out a curling iron and curled her hair. She would be still enough for me to curl all of her hair and then she wouldn't be still enough to get a good pic, but it looked cute! I hope you all have a happy new year!!!

Christmas 2010

Christmas break began Friday, December 17 at 3 pm. We spent the weekend with my grandmother in Mississippi. Monday through Thursday I enjoyed being home with my precious little girl. Reagan and her family arrived in town on Wednesday so we spent every evening at my parents and had dinner with the family. Friday Alan was off work and we spent the day getting ready for Christmas, wrapping presents and cooking. We went to church Friday night and enjoyed a beautiful Christmas Eve candle light service. Christmas morning we were up bright and early. We had to be at my parent's house by 8 so all of the kids could open presents together.

It was total craziness! Cameron, Jack, Hayes, Davis, Reese, and Jane Baird were all opening their presents at the same time. Paper was flying, boxes were being ripped open, and the kids were screaming, "Look what I got!" Jane Baird just didn't know what to think. She opened about 3 or 4 of her gifts and then decided that she would walk on top of all Jack's boxes. After all the mess had been cleaned up, I tried to get JB to open more, but she just wanted to play with her new shopping cart that Grandma and Pops got her. She pushed it all over the house. We had our breakfast, home made cinnamon rolls and Mimosas (that's our tradition on Christmas morning) and then Jane Baird was ready for a nap. We headed home for a nap. I wasn't feeling all that great so I rested as well.

Back to my parents house for lunch at 1:00. We ate a fabulous lunch prepared by my mom, the greatest cook ever. After lunch we headed back home for more rest....none of us were feeling great. (My nephew Hayes had been throwing up all morning so I was sure I had the virus too...) We had Christmas with Alan's family Christmas night. After we got home, JB opened a few more presents and played with her new toys before bed.

Sunday morning we all slept late. Church was cancelled because of the snow so we were lazy...we didn't eat breakfast until 12! It took 2 days, but JB finally finished opening all of her presents. She LOVES everything. I have spent the day playing with her and watching her play with all of her new things. She has been making me laugh and smile all day. I just love that kid!!!

And of course I have hundreds of pictures to document Christmas 2010. Here are a few...

JB with one of her favorite presents

Another one from Grandma and Pops

She loves to color so Santa brought her a Crayola "Color me a Song"

Bath tub crayons!

Bath time Baby

a broom and dust pan to help Mommy!

Playing with Hayes' toy

Food for her kitchen!

Girly cars! She loves to play with Jack and Hayes' cars and trucks. Now she has her own :)

Eating Grandma's cinnamon rolls. My mom makes the BEST! We look forward to Christmas morning cinnamon rolls all year long!

Snow!

Playing in her new tent

Christmas with Alan's family

Singing school bus!

Dress up shoes!

A Wocket!

Dora ball!

Dishes for her kitchen!

Chillin with Jordan

Back at home Christmas night to open more presents from Santa...

Wrapping paper stuck to her booty!

She LOVES her puppy!

Her very own computer

A doll that walks and talks. It can sit and stand and walk a little toy dog. It plays peek a boo and cries. JB LOVES it. She is so sweet to that little doll!

Bath time with the crayons

More pics that got out of order somehow...