Merry Christmas

My gift to you, is pictures (after 3 seperate trips to the studio) of the best gifts I have ever gotten. Have a Merry Christmas and be safe!

Sure, she looks happy now................

This is Jess minus a few EKG tabs home after being at the hospital this morning. Will it ever end? Does it? Sometime last month at a regular doctos appt. they noticed she had a heart murmur. I guess most kids do. They still wanted to run tests on her. This meant getting her in the car and driving down to the hospital for some tests. About 30 minutes later, Daddy called and asked for my help, as Jessica was NOT going to let this happen. Having just been at the ER and being terrorized, anything to do with Doctors or the hospital completely freaks her out.

Off I went and there she was. Screaming while laying down on the table, shaking her head "no". The nurse gave me the "you better come up with something" look as she was ready to call it quits. Jess was not allowing any EKG tabs to be placed on her. Daddy quickly picked up "Little E", stuck an EKG tab on her belly and then attached the wire...all to prove that even the baby wouldn't cry and this was really "no big deal". Nothing was going to work though. After about 5 mintues of trying to figure out what would work, we pinned her down. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but it worked. After pinning her down and putting 12 tabs with 12 wires hooked on to her, she calmed down. I said anything stupid (yet funny to a 3 year old) I could think of. She was finally able to breath and the EKG was complete. Then it was time for the chest Xray. Daddy was able to handle that one all by himself.

The whole experience made me sad. Not that Jess won't be fine, I'm sure she will be. But it makes me sad for the families that do this all the time because they have to. Because they're child has cancer, or something really wrong. I promised Jess that I would take her to the Wild Animal Park (which I am doing later today) so that she would "work with us". What do parents with really sick children promise? Tomorrow?

We'll find out Jan 17th what the EKG and the chest X-ray reveal. Until then I take Emma to an orthopedic specialist to find out why she tip toes all the time. Good times! Fun stuff!

"Miss Kristy's Best Dancer"

Here's Jess striking a few poses before heading out for the dance recital. She was pretty excitied to wear her little dress. She was happy to tell everyone that she was "Miss Kristy's Best Dancer". While watching the video please know that the woman you hear in the background is NOT me. Mr. Nance had to quickly get up and run to the other side of the stage as we were told to sit in the wrong spot. This means, I got away with blubbering into the back of Emma's shirt, as she was standing on my lap so she could see her sister, and there's no evidence!

Note to self for next year; Do not feed Jessica the lumberjack dinner special before stuffing her into the leotard for her recital. Even before dinner my dainty 3 year old was already squeezing into a size 6X-7. I don't know too many other 3 year olds that wear this size.

Without further adieu... here is Jessica at her Winter Recital.

Mama's going to make it all happen

A week ago we met up with the Teague family and enjoyed Disneyland. This is the PERFECT time of year to go. No lines, awesome holiday parade and a fabulous firework show! It was great to see the Teague family, the girls have changed so much!

Jessica (Cinderella) making friends with Mickey.


Emma having a good time

The very next day Nana and Grandaddy came from South Carolina to visit.

They looked like Santa, hauling their huge suitcase filled with nothing more than endless gifts for the girls!


We had a great time while they were visiting and always kept busy. Here the girls are "enjoying" snow brought in to a local park. You can just read Emma's mind, can't ya. This crap is cold, wet, slippery and just plain sucks! Gotta love her new jacket that Nana bought. too cute!


Jess and Nana made cookies. A special thanks goes out to Jess. Thanks honey, for personally licking your finger and touching every cookie.

One of the highlights was taking the girls to see Santa. Emma just loved him! Wrong. When Jess hated Santa she just sat there and yelled while the rest of the crowd stared at us like we were committing child abuse. Emma decided she would ante up and throw punches, kick, squirm and all but bite the fat man. Poor Jess, she's looking at Santa like, What the hell do you think you're doing to my sister ?

Wow, it's past 9pm and my rump has finally made contact with the couch for the first time in about a week. My knees feel swollen, my feet hurt, my back hurts, my eyes are so tired that they're bloodshot and are trying to cross, I feel like I just got out of a car accident....oh and I just got a paper cut on my tongue. Aren't the holidays a bitch? If I was real smart, I would have planned Jessica's pregnancy better. I would of had her closer to Christmas. That way I would still be in the "planning" mode. Kinda like from her over the top princess party. Only that was planning for a 4 hour event, not an entire season.

Holiday Season. Isn't that an oxymoron? I mean the word "day" is part of Holiday yet it lasts an entire season. Whatever the case, I'm ready to cancel the whole thing, fancy dinner and all and just open a beer and grab a bucket of chicken. I know........puttin' the "ass" in class.

I never knew growing up how much Mama had to do, to make it all happen. The Christmas tree, stockings, decorations, holiday photo's (3 trips to the blasted studio), holiday cards, presents for everyone you've ever met, planning the dinner and who's going to bring what, standing in endless lines, and the holiday parties. And that's just the beginning. Once you have that beautiful child, well....now you've got their parties and the food they need to bring and the blasted goodie bags and can't forget those teachers. Lord knows those poor women have worked hard.

I stood in a 30 minute line just to buy stamps. And then was handed the last stamps in the place...all containing baby Jesus. This meant tracking down "other" stamps as these were to be used for the 120 Holiday business cards I still have to address, and I certainly don't want to offend others with baby Jesus.

And the ornament exchange. I'm actually looking forward to this. I feel like I purchased a nice ornament, which of course wasn't the easiest task either. I mean after all, last thing I want to be, is the poor slob sitting at the party who's ornmanent is being opened and the women opening it, holds it up like a rotting dead fish and then restrains herself from going directly to the trash can to throw it away(which has actually happened to me). I feel like I at least will get the ever so overdramatic "OHHHHH" from the crowd.

And what I am looking forward to the most.......my baby girl dancing away on Friday night. I promise video. Just don't make fun, if once again, I'm blubbering. Can't help it.

Mama can't wait to watch it in motion

Next Friday night Jess will be wearing this adorable item and entertaining us at her Holiday dance recital. I for one, can not wait. Last year was the first time Jess had a dance recital and for those who tried to enjoy the video we posted, you probably found it hard to hear the music over me blubbering into the video camera. Well, just the thought of Jessica's bubble buns stuffed into this outfit fluttering across the stage gets me all misty eyed.

Tomorrow we're off to Disneyland and meeting up with the Teague's . Then on Thursday Nana and Grandaddy fly in. It'sgoing to be 4 fun filled days of seeing Santa, playing in the snow (being brought in), shopping and hanging out.

Anyone laugh while watching the Today show? Every year at Christmas time they have different celebrities walk around the crowd with huge Santa bags and collect Toys for Tots. This morning supermodel Gisele (who's being featured on the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show tonight) was holding the bag and collecting toys and it was hilarious to see grown men searching for anything to put in the bag just to get "that" close to her. Grown men....... can be ....well, so dumb sometimes. Even Matt Lauer was laughing...I think he saw a man throw his wallet or his keys in the bag.