My Bitty Baby

So just as I was getting ready to write this post, Callie's door opens, and out comes little Miss Missy!  Yes, we've officially entered a new phase of toddler-hood!  We constantly have her baby monitor on (yes, I'm a psycho mom that wants to hear every tiny noise that she makes) but we didn't hear her getting out of bed!  She's still in her baby crib... so she had to climb over the railing and down the side to get out... she's such a spider monkey!  Phillip definitely kept a better straight face and told her it was time to go "night-night" while I was holding in giggles... Phillip's response was "never show surprise in the face of your enemy"... oh Phillip!

 

In other recent news... she can say her name, open any door, and when asked who gave her something, her response is always "Gee" (Grams Urso)... she's such a silly baby!  She started saying her name (which I didn't realize how difficult the letter L is for little ones to pronounce... poor Callie-bug!)... when we got out of Bible Study last Tuesday, yes, we're enrolled for another semester of Bible Study, and the first day, at drop off went perfectly (with the exception that they left my baby in her poopy diaper causing her horrific diaper rash... but if you'll recall, this is the lady I don't care for and I think the feeling is now mutual :( -- Phillip says that the lady probably classifies me as a crazy first time mom... ugh... oh well).  When we got out of the study, we both had on name tags, Callie pulled hers off and said "Cah-yee".... it's ADORABLE!  She's said it many times since then... and I love it!  I'm trying to catch it on video... and if I do... of course I will share it with you!

 

Opening the door was discovered by me (apparently she had done this the entire time we were in Phoenix and she stayed with my parents) when I let Sneebie outside one morning and proceeded to get ready in the bathroom.  At the time, Callie was busy playing and it was just the normal routine.  As I'm powdering my face, Sneebie comes running into the bathroom... it took me a couple of seconds before I realized... I wasn't the one that let him in.  When I ran to the back door, I saw Callie working on getting it closed... what a huge surprise for me!!!  We've since turned the chime on, on our alarm system (it beeps twice whenever a door or window is opened) and learned to deadbolt the exterior doors.  I suppose I should admit though... when I'm in the middle of washing dishes (or any task where I can supervise the door opening) and Sneebie wants back in, yelling for Callie to open the back door is really nice!

 

What a blessing it is that God (and Callie!) breaks us in gently as parents!

 

I haven't taken many photos since Christmas... but my theory is every post MUST have a photo!!!  I believe it's the best part!  So here are a couple of random shots!

 

 

Callie (and Mommy and Daddy) playing with her new bath tub crayons... it's SOOO fun!  She LOVES it! (a gift from Grammie Lou and Grandfather)

 

 

The holidays were exhausting... so Missy had to catch a few minutes of beauty sleep here and there :)

 

Kisses from her Da... and oh my goodness... my baby LOVES her "ball" jammies... she will wear them all day and all night... I literally have to force her out of them!



Love, love love this photo... I just wish I had gotten a smile instead of a paci!

I love the expression on her face when she opened this package.  It was one of her first Christmas presents from Auntie Shelly and Uncle Tony from Boston, Elmo Play doh!  She was SOOO excited!  Thank you!!

 

 

I still have a lot of catching up to do for the holidays... but I plan to do it!  We were to blessed to not share all of the fabulous things and people we celebrated with!

 

Love, Kisses and Sneebie licks...



An Early Meyerful Christmas :)

Because we are blessed with having 3 separate families that all love our little Callie-bug so much (and I suppose they don't mind Phillip and I too much either)... we wanted to make sure we would be able to celebrate with each family.  Our first celebration was with the Meyer family in Derby (that's still weird to say!  They've lived in Rose Hill for as long as I can remember!) on December 16.

We certainly don't get together as often as I wish we would... but life and schedules become so hectic once everyone becomes adults and I was so happy that we were all able to coordinate for this Sunday celebration.

For those that don't know... my dad might be one of the best cooks I've ever met.  And for the Christmas party, I was given the choice of having his amazing tacos or his famous chili (talk about a hard decision!!)  I chose tacos... Mexican food is pretty near and dear to my heart (it's all my mother ate when she was pregnant with me... and about all I could eat when I was pregnant with Callie!) so we all enjoyed a DELICIOUS taco bar.

All my life, growing up, I was so much older than all of my siblings... and it wasn't until college that I began to realize how interesting and fabulous all of my siblings are.  So having the chance to hang out with Lindsay and Koltin is always a treat.  I feel like I missed out on so much of their childhood, because as a high school student, I was fairly self absorbed and just incredibly busy with so many extra curricular activities that I just didn't see them much, and when I went away to college... well... I was just away.  So I'm so glad that they haven't moved too far from home yet, Lindsay is still in Derby and Koltin is in the basement of my parents house... my hope is that as we grow older, we will only grow closer... because I do love them both to pieces!

Anyhow... Aside from the normal Meyer family, my Aunt Denise, Uncle Don and Grandmother Barbara also came to celebrate, bringing along gifts for everyone (we're sooo spoiled!).  I know we received A LOT of things... but maybe one of my favorite gifts, was a quilt from Aunt Denise that my Great Grandmother Rita had quilted for her.  Denise wanted to give it to my sweet baby Callie.  I just love heirloom gifts... they're a treasure money simply can't buy, and I just know Callie will love passing it on to her daughter someday.

Ok, ok, ok... I know y'all are SO over my rambling... so I'll share the photos we got instead... they're all worth a thousand words :)

The Meyer kids and Callie Bug

Callie's super awesome house!!!

A door for Beans!

And a door for Callie!

And enough room for Daddy!

It was a wild and crazy party!!!
We did a lot of drinking! Thanks Auntie Lindsay for the super cute shovel and bucket!

Wowww!!!  I loved her expressions when we opened packages... She was so excited about this puzzle from Auntie Lindsay...

Callie thinks this is pretty cool too... she loves watching the snow swirl around!

Callie was so proud of her "mo" jacket... I could hardly get it off of her!

Gramma Meyer definitely knows how to spoil a baby!!!  With candy of course!!

And forgive me for these two photos... the quality isn't great, but I loved them!  Thanks Aunt Denise for sharing these with me!


The Meyer 4 Generations!

And Gramma and Grampa Meyer with their little Christmas Elf!

We had such a great time celebrating... thank you all for everything!

A fabulous Mommy and visiting "Ho Ho"

And in order of events for the month of December we'll make a quick stop at the Scoular Southern Facility Group annual Christmas party.  This is one of my favorite events of the year, you see, I'm the bosses wife ;), so I feel like it's the best excuse for me to purchase a new fabulous dress for the party.  The party was a success, it's so nice to mingle with Phillip's employee's and to match names to faces, and while I try to mingle with everyone... I tend to find myself among the new mommy's (one of Phillip's gals had twins last February!!) venting, giving advice... and always seeking advice.  Scoular really is a pretty amazing company to work for.  It's so easy to see how well the employees are treated and how happy they are to work for the company.  It helps to keep those super long days of Phillip at the office in perspective!

So We haven't gotten photos of the cute outfits in previous years, but this year, thanks to my sisters Stef and Al for babysitting (and hanging with us for the weekend)... they insisted on taking a photo of Mommy done up.

Now... while I am trying to pose for the photo... with the prompting of my 17 year old sister... screaming next to me is my baby... who just knew I was going to desert her.  When I uploaded these photos and came across this one... I just had to chuckle to myself... this is SOOO motherhood!  Poor Bitty Baby... isn't she clearly abused and neglected?  Don't worry... I cuddled her up and gave her plenty of huggies and kisses before I left for only a few short hours.  She had way more fun playing with her aunties anyways...

A snuggle with Mommy and a few suckles of a "P.A.C" can console anyone... right?

Since the girls decided to stay overnight with us... we all went to see "ho ho!"  Here, I'm pretty sure both Callie and Stef and checking him out!

Stef telling Callie her traumatic stories of sitting on Ho Ho's lap...

 And of course the aunties wanted their photo with Miss Bitty

Love these girls!!!

A rare family photo op!

And finally... the Ho Ho photo... Stef and Al are convinced this was the real Ho Ho... because he knew Callie's age EXACTLY to the month!  Callie has on her stranger danger face and wasn't going to smile for anyone or anything... this was serious business y'all!!

(also note: Nigel, our elf, is in Ho Ho's hands!)

  

Probably the best part of the whole Santa visit was walking through Dillard's and having Phillip tell a sales lady that we had just been to "see Ho Ho"... my sisters about died laughing, while Phillip, stuck in fatherhood (which I LOVE about him!), couldn't even begin to see what was so funny!

And an addition to my birthday!!!  I totally forgot (it's been a long month since that day!)  My fabulous friend Tina Post came with baby Alex to play on Thursday, the day before my birthday, bringing me a DELICIOUS cake and the most amazing brownie bites!

Catching both girls looking at the camera is nearly impossible... so here are the two of them in action... playing outside in Callie's play gym... they don't even have coats on in December!  The weather was beautiful!

Unfortunately I didn't get a photo prior to cutting into the cake... but it looked so yummy I had to dive right in!!!  It was SOO yummy!

And the brownie bites... you'll notice one is gone... I'm pretty sure that's the only one I got... Phillip has a weakness for them!  I wish I knew the secret to her chocolate ganache!  I just can't figure it out!  Her's is SOOOOO delightful!

And surely I've overwhelmed everyone again with photos and my long-windedness... I just truly want to thank everyone for their time and love that they gave us for the month of December... so while this only puts us at halfway through... I'm going to keep plugging away at it.  It really was a wonderful month!

Love, Sneebie Kisses and Callie Hugs to all!

My Birthday Celebration...

Forgive me... it's been over a month since my last post!!!  After recovering from the violent stomach bug that hit us all... and hit my mother even harder (she was down and out for nearly a week!)... I was scrambling to finish Christmas shopping and all of the projects I had in mind to create for family members (not all got done, unfortunately).  Truly... thank goodness for Amazon Prime... and their free 2 day shipping, Christmas might not have happened without them this year!  But I certainly don't want to skip over how wonderful and truly blessed our December was as we celebrated 3 different Christmas' with our amazing families.  I'm going to break it up into several days and posts... because I have so many photos I want to share... and I don't want to overwhelm anyone!

So we'll start with our Christmas Card...

Most of you probably received this... but here's our Christmas Card 2012... we took it amidst the flu bug and shortly after this was taken, our little one got sick again... oh the things I do for a photo!  She'll appreciate it someday... I'm just certain of it!

This face was her "smiling" face... she's such a cheeseball!

Of course, first and foremost was my birthday on December 14... the big 29!!  How is that even possible?!?  It's a little surreal to type that now... but I had a fabulous party.  My parents drove up from Derby with my little sister Alex in tow, and Stef drove in from Manhattan to celebrate with me.  Mother brought a cake that had been baked by the same lady that made Phillip and I's wedding cake (it was DELICIOUS!!) and the biggest surprise of all was that Phillip coordinated my birthday dinner of TACO SHOP!!!!  It's similar to a Taco Bell... with the exception of it being a local chain of Wichita only.  I just LOVE it!  Of course there were the gifts (I'm a very spoiled girl!) and the sparkler candles... it was so fun... and a perfect day in my mind (with the exception of the horrific tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary... Phillip and I did spend a few moments in tears as we watched the coverage on the 5 o'clock news... it was just not believable... and made me want to snuggle my baby just that much closer).

Here are a few photos from my day...

Miss Missy... in her birthday party attire (the same outfit she wore on her first birthday!)... sending a few of her friends some text messages about how awesome her mommy is!

The delicious cake!!!  I love the photo my mother had printed on top! And the fact that she hand made all of the edible diamonds on the cake!  Yummy!!

Another one of my favorites is Welch's Sparkling Grape Juice... I would prefer it probably over any other beverage!  Apparently Miss Bitty does too!  Here she's enjoying mommy's favorite Taco Shop too!

I sure am a spoiled girl!!!

It was as little chilly.... but the candles were sooo fun!!  We were a little worried about the sparklers ruining our wood table... so we sang and blew out the candles outside!

And my husband re-enacting our first bite of wedding cake... apparently he's always wanted to get me back for that...

What girl doesn't love a Tiffany's Turquoise box?!?  My hubby must love me a lot....

"I really hope they're not going to skin  me and make me into a pair of boots for Callie... gulp" ~Sneebie... we were laughing because my new boots matched Beans!

Maybe no one can tell.... but since June... I have lost 16 pounds!  I feel great... and stepping on the scale to see that number on my birthday was a real treat!  I'd love to lose another 16... then I'd be at the weight I was when Phillip and I first met!

I'm not entirely sold on the fact that everyone drove to Salina on my birthday to see me... but instead to get one of Callie's "big squeezy hugs"... they're worth every penny of gas it took to get there and home... trust me!