Thankful Tuesday......

Today I am thankful for my nephew Robert Lee. We call him Lee. He is 12 years old today. Happy Birthday Lee. He has changed so much and his voice is getting deeper. It seems like yesterday that I was holding him for the first time. He lives out of state so I don't get to see him much. The picture below is with his dog Mija (spanish for daugher). My brother named her. Isn't Lee cuuuute?

I am also thankful for antibiotics. I have an upper respiratory infection and pharyngitis (sore throat). I have started on antibiotics and hope to feel better real soon.

Tomorrow we will be going to church for game night. It is always so much fun.

Jocelyn's First Christmas.....

Finally I remembered to post pictures of our Christmas tree. Jocelyn and I made one of the four paper chains on the tree. She got bored after we got one done so mama did the other 3 and put them on the tree. I know you can't see it real well but the white heart ornament between the 2 chains is a rememberance ornament for my dad who passed away in June of 2007. I know he was there with us.

Christmas Eve after Jocelyn had gone to bed I brought up the presents from their hiding place downstairs and put them under the tree.

We decided to open one present on Christmas Eve and Jocelyn opened one of the presents she got from Aunt Betty and Uncle Phil. It is a doll that coos and fusses until you feed it from it's bottle or put the pacifier in her mouth. Jocelyn LOVES it. She has been giving her kisses, hugs, and rocking her. She doesn't let her out of her site for very long. She is such a good mama.

Here we are Christmas morning at 6 am. Yes 6 am. Jocelyn decided to wake up at 5:30. We have a tradition at our house that we eat breakfast before opening presents and we usually have cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. Sorry this picture isn't the best.

After we read the Christmas story from the Bible we then open our stockings. We use decorated Christmas sacks. Jocelyn loves goldfish so we made sure that we had some of those in her stockings.

Jocelyn loved tearing the wrapping paper off. Of course she put it in a neat pile next to her. Who she learned that from I don't know. It definitely wasn't me.

I got a Little People Barn. Whoo-Hoo!!

More presents to unwrap. She had more fun ripping the wrapping paper off the presents than what the present was.

I got the best present of all. Just look below.

What a busy day we had. Jocelyn fell asleep in her highchair while we were eating lunch. She was exhausted. She slept for 2 hours.

My mom is the best that there ever was. She looked for about 4 months for a special gift for Jocelyn from her Grandpa Bob. My dad always talked about how he thought Jocelyn would have long, straight, and black hair that could be braided or put in pony tails. So my mom bought Jocelyn a sterling silver comb, brush and mirror set. She had her initials engraved on each piece. She then bought a card for a grandaughter and said how happy he was that she was here and how much he wanted to meet her but that when he knew that he wouldn't live long enough he asked Grandma to make sure that she got the set and let her know that her Grandpa Bob loves her and always will. I cried for about 5 minutes and am crying as I type this. Praise God for my wonderful family.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

Thankful Tuesday....

Today I am thankful that I am off work for the rest of the week and so is my mom. We will be able to enjoy the holiday as a "family" of 3 this year. Of course we have some errands to run tomorrow but that is ok as we will be able to go at our own pace and not be stressed.

I am also thankful that I will be celebrating my first Christmas as a mama. I still have to pinch myself when I say that to make sure that I am not dreaming.

I hope you all have a safe and happy and healthy holiday season.

Mommy's Bra.......

As you can tell by the title of the post Jocelyn found my bra one day and decided that she needed to wear it for a while. She kept putting the straps over her head and taking it off. She did this for quite a while and it was so cute that I had to take at least a couple of pictures. (Blackmail for later you know). She would get so upset if she couldn't get the straps over her head. I had to help her a couple times.

What a workout. I need to sit down and relax. Maybe push the buttons on the toy next to me and listen to some music and just chill.

By the way happy belated 9 month gotcha day anniversary to all of travel group 132.

Please pray for us tomorrow as the weather here is freezing rain and the temperatures are below freezing so the travel to and from work tomorrow will be dicey. Please pray for the safety of all of the people who venture out and for Jocelyn and I.

Thankful Tuesday...

Today I am thankful for Jocelyn's and my safety. It was snowing heavy and bitterly cold outside today. Traveling to work was scary and very stressful. The roads were slick and some of them hadn't been treated with sand and snow before I went to work so I was sliding in some places. To drop Jocelyn off at Dee's I have to go up 2 big hills and 1 small hill. Let me tell you that I was praying the whole way there. I was able to navigate my way to Dee's house with a minimum of sliding.

The trip home was just as bad although they had treated some of the roads by then. I ended up driving most of the way home going 40 miles per hour when ususally I am able to go 65 to 70 mph. I ended up having to go down to the next street and back tracking to get to Dee's house. We arrived home safely. Praise God!!!!

Jocelyn's first snow....

Last Tuesday (the day of my mom's surgery) it started snowing when we left the doctor's office and snowed most of the day. It was quite a mess on the roadways later that day, but it sure made the landscape beautiful with everything having a layer of white covering it. The first thing we did after I got home from picking up Jocelyn from the babysitter is to play, play, play outside. She wasn't sure what to make of the snow at first. She touched it with her bare hand and it was cold. Then we put her glove on and she tried touching it and that was better. She just kept running around and smiling.

Unfortunately the snow was mostly melted when we got home the next day. We only got to play that one time and as you can tell by her rosy cheeks it was COLD!!!!

Can you tell my favorite color is purple??? By the way my winter coat is PURPLE too.

20 months old today....

Jocelyn is 20 months old today. It can't believe how fast she is growing up. We are still working on the tree as tonight we had the final choir practice for our church Christmas Cantata that we are performing this coming Sunday. Jocelyn was able to stay in the nursery with Aunt Betty and Mrs. Linda. She had so much fun playing.

Aunt Betty has a Christmas tree in Jocelyn's Sunday School room and last week she was able to help decorate the tree. She loved it. She kept trying to put all of her ornaments in the same place though. Here she is getting an ornament that had fallen off after we had put it on. Thank you Aunt Betty for letting me help decorate the tree.

Thank you Betty for taking and sending me the wonderful pictures you took of her last Sunday.

Thankful Tuesday.....

Today I am thankful that my mom's surgery went really well. They only had to take one specimen and it was all clear so she then went back and had to have 13 stitches put in. They way that her skin cancer grew made the doctor have to make a larger incision so he had to take so many stitches to make a skin flap which will leave a smaller scar. Thank you all for your prayers. She is in some pain but the Tylenol is helping reduce that.

We have put up our Christmas tree tonight and have started decorating it. We have a small prelit tree that we have put some red and silver shatterproof bulbs on. We have also put some M & M ornaments on the tree. Since our last name sounds like M & M and a lot of people pronouce it that way I buy the tubes of candy with the character on top and we then keep these and use them for ornaments. Since they are plastic they are ok to put on the tree with Jocelyn around. I will post pictures when Jocelyn and I are finished decorating it.

Dressing Myself ??????

A week ago today we went to a party at my moms work for the children and grandchildren of the employees of the hospital. This is the picture that we took just before she went in. She was able to decorate a sugar cookie, glue a snowman on a placemat, play some games and win prizes.

After we got home she needed her diaper changed. Since it was so close to bed time I decided not to put her jeans back on. She found them while I was disposing of the diaper. I had to run and get the camera. I couldn't stop laughing. As you can see she is putting them on backwards. She was getting frustrated that she couldn't pull them up.

Maybe if I stand up I can finish pulling them up. Probably not since I am standing on the jeans.

Maybe this is as far as they were supposed to go. I think that I will quit and watch some television. It sure is a lot easier than dressing myself.

A praise. Jocelyn has not thrown a real temper tantrum for 2 days now. It has been wonderful. Thank you for all of your prayers. I'm sure that I will need to call upon my prayer warriors again.

Compassion and Love...

Yesterday at around 3 pm central time I started getting sick. I ended up having a case of food poisioning. I threw up 5 times and finally quite at midnight and also had some diarrhea. Jocelyn came in the bathroom with me and patted my arm and gave me kisses. I ended up laying on the bathroom floor for a while and she came up to me and shoved her blankie under my head for a pillow. My mom ended up watching her for most of the day so I could go lay down and rest. I have the best daughter and mother alive.

I am feeling much better (still tired) tonight.

Tonight we had our holiday/20 year anniversary dinner at church. There were people there that I hadn't seen for more than 5 years. They loved Jocelyn and were so happy for me. I loved being able to say when I was asked who she was that this is MY DAUGHTER. It felt fantastic.

Please pray for my mom. She has an area on her cheek that has been found to be skin cancer. We are going on Tuesday the 9th for surgery to have it removed.

This and that.....

Jocelyn has learned some new words in the last few days. od grl (good girl), it (sit) this is said as she is pointing to our dogs. She has also learned to point to things or people when we name them such as mama (she will point to me) grandma (she will point to my mom) and we can do this with our dogs also. Two days ago my mom said piano and she went and pointed her finger at the piano. We then said tv and she went and pointed to the tv. She soaks up everything like a dry sponge that is in a swimming pool.

We are still throwing the temper tantrums every day now so please be in prayer that my nerves can hold out and that my patience can be quadrupled for the next "little" (I hope) while. Also pray that I can find the right way to handle the tantrums that she and I will be happy with.

My mom talked to my grandma yesterday and she stated that the memorial service for my grandfather was the family sitting in the living room telling stories and reliving memories of my grandfather. My grandmother stated that they were able to even laugh at a few of the memories. We have started the process of healing. Thank you again for all of your prayers.

Bathtime and Tantrums.....

"Not more bathtime photos mama PLEASE." I can't resist though. It is the only time when her hair isn't sticking straight in the air. She is so adorable and smells so good after her bath.

Jocelyn doesn't like to have her hair (what few hairs that there are) washed. She is finally starting to make the shampoo lather after I put it on her head. This only lasts about 5 seconds. Progress I know.

Jocelyn has had some pretty good temper tantrums the last 2 days. We have had to use many time outs. I think she has hit the terrible twos early as she won't be two until April 10. I was hoping for later rather than earlier. Maybe this means I will be done with the terrible twos early (Well I can dream can't I).