so much to blog about!!! part b

So there is so much to say and tell, but you know as soon as I sit down to do it, it all just goes nfwu;agbRuib.
I think the most exciting thing is that O'lena is walking....really good now...just like a pro. She is also not easy to take formal picture with anymore. We went and got our one year old pictures done yesterday and they didn't turn out so hot. Partly because of her and partly because of our photographer (he wasn't that good.) Here are the good ones...yeah there are only a few.









Wasnt her outfit fun? I know it was a bit weird but I didn't want the same old pictures and I have been waiting for her to be able to wear that skirt for a while now. I think the family ones turned good. It has been hitting me lately that I have a my own family. I have always just been one of the kids in a family, but now I have my own section. My own little family. I dont know what that is just hitting me now. Maybe because she looks like a little girl tottering around all over the place now. I love it though. I think I was finally ready for her to walk. I am glad that she doesn't change much this year. (physically...compared to last year) This year is all about intelligence...that should be interesting....
Well I am going to quit now. Believe it or not I did 4 of the postings this evening and i am tuckered. I know there is so much more to tell about but I need to go to work tomorrow...oh I have told you about that yet hu? well I am just going to have to wait on it...it is not that fun and I will just complain. Maybe next time I will give you a full dose of what is happening in the world of work Whitney....until then.....

Christmas fun

It was a very nice holiday season...a bit crazy but defiantly fun. I had (much needed) two weeks off from school. The first week I had a list that was five miles long to accomplish. I got about 3 miles of it done, which I thought was pretty good. I felt really bad sending Leeny to school, but I was paying for it anyways and it also allowed me to get some of my stuff done. I was in the doctors office three times that week too. She had double ear infections and the doc decided that she needed antibiotic shots this time. They seemed to have worked.
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This is daddy and O'lena making the snowman pinata. Derick was very excited about it. He did an awesome job.


I did manged to "Cook for two weeks" and fill the freezer. I really enjoy doing that. I realize I just dont have it in me to cook after I get home from work but I can reheat. I just make my own frozen meals. Here is the full freezer. We are so blessed.

Derick's sister Jessica and her family came down to share Christmas with us. I am was so excited! I love it when they come. This is Tighe with his new best friend...Sebastian...though I'm not sure The Don was always putting the effort into the relationship. Tiggy would just follow him around and pet him real nicely.
Derick really got into the spirit. He made the pinata, eggnog, and even popcorn balls. Those are my new favorite things to eat! (The popcorn balls)
Here is aunt Jessica with O'lena and Tiggy-Tighe
You know how hard it is trying to find a Christmas dress the week before Christmas? Well it isn't easy...I had actually found one in like October, but I didn't buy it because I thought it would be ridiculous to buy a Christmas dress in October, but do you think it would be there when I went back to get it?! NO! Then of course I cant find anything that I like not alone LOVE like I did that other one. I did eventually find this one. I thought it was pretty and O'lena look very lovely in it.
Christmas morning opening presents....I was very excited to have my nieces and nephew over because for her birthday O'lena didn't get the present thing, but for Christmas I thought she might get it better with them there showing her the way. I think she did get the hang of it toward the end. I also think she ate about a roll and a half of rapping paper that day. She just LOVES to eat paper. Any kind of paper...

This quilt was made by our friend Linda Miller. Isn't it AWESOME!! She made Oleeny a birthday one too that is now hanging in her bedroom. She is so talented it is amazing!
Cousin's hanging out getting ready to be fed.

More presents for O'lena. She really made out like a bandit. My excuse was that I kept putting off buying the things we needed (ie clothes) until then so we have something to give her. Welllllll....she got a lot.
Oh man! The snowman pinata!! This was the best!! This is a tradition that Derick and his family did every year. I have to say I would like to incorporate this into all our Christmases festivities from now on. This was so much fun and everyone enjoyed themselves. Here is D with his master piece before we destroyed it to pieces.
Tiggy-Tighe getting a good whack at it.
Kevyn was the one who busted it open....after A LOT of tries, but he got the job done.
All the kiddies going for the candy. O'lena got in there too. She was grabbing anything that she could and just sticking it in her mouth. It was too cute.
So we have a smart one! Natalie grabbed the bottom part that was broken off and started collecting all her goodies into that. I thought that was very resourceful!
Daddy, O'lena, and Snowman. Oh there is Leeny with her pile of goodies she collected.
I loved this. Here is Natalie and Ashtin with one of their Santa presents...a sleeping tent. It just fit on the bunk bed, but it worked. They slept in it all night.
It was so great having everyone here. Christmas morning was s much fun with everyone running around and enjoying themselves. I had a blast. I hope everyone did too.

North Carolina

Right after Christmas my mom, brother Kevyn, O'lena, and I headed to North Carolina to visit my grandma and the family. It was really cool because all of my mother's brothers and sisters were there. There were many of us cousins too. It was fun to see everyone. We were originally going to drive up but mom found cheap ticket from the Punta Gorda airport with Allegent Air. It was a tiny airport and the airline wasnt bad (even though they tried to tell up we were only allowed to have one carry on, not a carry on and a personal item. I had to argue about that.) The issue was when we landed into Greensboro we had hangout on the tarmax for two hours because there was no one there to get us off the plane. It was a bit more complicated than that but I wont bore you with the details. After two hours and with the help of the fire department we were finally allowed off the plane. Everyone on the plane were great about it, but I think if the pilot had to come on one more time and say "we dont know where anyone is" I think they might have had a mutiny. O'lena was great. She slept the whole flight and just played while we hung out in limbo on the tarmax.

Otherwise we had a great time. O'leeny even got to see snow! Even though she hated it, didn't want to have anything to do with it, and wont remember a thing, mommy like the experience with her. It was interesting too because this was the first time I have had her, by myself, for more than two days. Of course my mom and family were great, especially my cousin Kady, helping me out, but it was an experience being mom without daddy around. I really enjoyed the time with her.

Here are the pictures from our trip.....Here is O'lena holding her dolly at the airport. She was so stinking cute!

This is her in her cousin's cool socks. We were getting ready to go out in the snow and wanted something to go over/under her pants. They worked great and i think they fit her personality that day.

This is her all dressed and ready to go out and play in the snow. I think we went a bit over board. It really wanst that cold outside. I think she might even have enjoyed it better if she didnt have so many clothes on.
They had the sleds out too. It was good fun. This is mom doing her gracefulness.... She was fine. We got it on video too.
This is O'lena and I heading down the slope. I think she subconsciously like it. She let me go down with her a couple of times so I think she was enjoying herself. Like I said I think she was just freaked by all the clothes.

Here is most of us cousins (and Uncle David) with the snowman my aunt Les and cousin Christine made. My aunt Lesley was just so giddy about all the snow. She was a like kid seeing it for the first time. I really enjoyed watching her enjoyment :)
Like I said she really wasnt having it. She was like "I dont want to touch that weird cold stuff!"
Me, O'lena, and Mr.Snowman. I think they were just about the same height. After we all got pictures with the man he did take his turn done the hill too. He didnt fare so well...he lost his head.
O'leeny and mommy
O'lena with her new friend. My Uncle Ron really took to her. She like him. yes, her hair is in a pony tale on the top of her head. I think it is cute.
Since all of my mother's brothers and sisters all were there they wanted to get pictures. From left to right- Uncle David, Mom Lynn, Grandma Lee, Aunt Lesly, Aunt Lori, and Uncle Jeff. (She Lee and her five little Krumbs.) It was alot of fun hanging out with everyone and playing with the Kinects.
We had to get our four generation picture too. It think it turned out nice.
So this is my favorite picture of the trip!!! Isn't she the most adorable thing you ever did see!!!! I bought that hat at Walmart of all places. The walmart there was really nice. It was like the Target here. There was stuff I actually liked there.
Yeah it was good fun going. O'lena was just perfect on the trip too. She was very well behaved and just fun to be with. She was just getting over ear infections so she was feeling good so I think that helped.

so much to blog about!!! part a

So much to fill everyone in on...There has been a lot of things happening. Some actually monumental i just haven't had the time or the effort to blog it all, though if I did it a bit of at a time I wouldn't have to spend so much time catching up.

Well here we go....well the pictures are in backwards order too so we just do this the easy way. Whatever comes next is what I will talk about. How about that?

O'lena's birthday!! Yeah she is ONE!!! (and a couple of weeks now) We finally got teeth too! She got her first one on the bottom about a week before her birthday. We were excited. I didnt think she would get one before her first birthday.

This is a pictures were taken on the morning of her birthday. She was so stinking cute that morning with her "Birthday girl" shirt on.

Here she is opening her presents. She didnt quite get what to do. She was getting tired too.
This is her favorite toy that she got. It is her Mr. Lion. I think he was very instrumental helping her learn to walk. Before she got him she would use all chairs and stools as her walkers and push them around the house.
This is O'leeny eating her banana cake that her daddy made for her. She is a banana eating monster! It was an awesome cake.
O'lena with her pretty cake.

Picture of the birthday girls. :)


We have been talking about what to do with the outside of the house. All I want is to put up ferns so Derick was awesome and while I was shopping pulled out all the shrubbery around the house, but a couple of birds of paradises. It looks better already with nothing there.
We are going to paint the outside too at some point....sometime in the furniture....In some galaxy farfar away...

We went to a baby shower for Derick's best man's wife Kristin. they are having a baby boy here in a couple of weeks! ooooo I am so excited!!...anyways...here is O'lena eating a pickle there. She was stinkin' cute.

The rest of the picts are from Thanksgiving. We went camping over the break. It was really nice out and a lot of fun. We really enjoyed ourselves...Well the acorns bouncing off the roofs of the campers...constantly....I could have live without (it kept me up at night. I kept thinking they were guns shots or something. they were really loud!)
O'lena sporting her glasses. She loves though things. She knows she is cute when she wares them.
Oleey and I sitting out buy the campfire.
We had to rig something for the camper so she wouldn't roll off the bed. Before we just used bins but she learned how to move them and push them off, so we had to come up with something better. Derick took the (I can not think of what they are called) board to keep kids from rolling off the top bunk...and fastened a way for them to be useful in the camper. It worked...until she tried to climb out, but she only did that once.
Uncle Brannon and Leeny taking a nap. Arnt they cute?
Mommy and O'lena eating. This is actually the day after Thanksgiving and her eating Turkey...finally...she wouldn't eat it fresh the day before.
Uncle Brannon and O'lena again.
Here is O'lena with her first Thanksgiving Dinner plate and like I said she wouldn't have anything to do with it. She just threw most of it on the floor. She did eat it the next day so I'm not sure what the issue was at the time. You can see it in her face...she is like "What do you expect me to do with that!?"

O'lena IS WALKING!!!!!!!!

SO I haven't blogged about Thanksgiving, getting her first tooth, her first birthday, Christmas, or ever her first time seeing snow...but I had to get this us ASAP!!!!!
She has been taking one or two steps here and there, but she is just now getting it all together!!! She is do big and mature! I cant believe it!!!!!! I will get the others up soon. Im not sure how soon, but soon...ish....