Mae & Mommy Mini Trip

Cody has had to be out of town on business a lot more now, with his new job. We love that he has a great job that he enjoys but don't like being away from him. It has really been an adjustment going from a job where he pretty much worked from home, to one where he travels.

Cody had to go on an extra long, two-week trip to North Carolina, so Mae and I drove to Greenville, SC this weekend to meet him half-way.   Mae was an absolute angel the whole trip.

 

I made Maebelle a sweet little dress the night before we left to wear to see her daddy.  I love it on her.  She looks so great in bright colors.

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We arrived 30 minutes ahead of Cody... This is Mae patiently waiting on her daddy. 

 

It was wonderful to have a refill for 24 hours. 

 

We walked around downtown Greenville.  It is really a pretty city, with so much charm.

 

Mae and her daddy have a special kind of love. 

  

We got our kisses and hugs and drove back, just the two of us.  Sad to say goodbye but Griffin was happy to see us!

Having my little girl sure makes Cody being gone a lot easier... and Skype. (:  Mae gives her dada kisses on the computer every night.

A Bad Day.

 Last Wednesday we had a bad day... you see Griffin has lymphoma (a type of cancer) and has been having chemo treatments every couple of weeks.  (That's bad all by itself!) Wednesday we had to bring him in first thing in the morning.  Since Mae sleeps past 9:00 most days, I had no choice but to put her straight in the car, in her pjs and hand her a waffle to go (:  She's always happy when we have Grif along for the ride.  We got to the vet and someone came to take Griffin away... Mae was not okay with that and she completely fell apart.  It was heartbreaking, she didn't want to leave her dog.  She was crying, "Mommy, please don't go", stretching her little arms out towards the doors to the clinic.  PITIFUL!

I felt so badly for her.  We were close by her Nonna's house so I asked her if she wanted to go see her.  She said yes, of course, and so we stopped in for a quick visit...

Poor baby was happily playing tea party when she tripped and fell into their glass coffee table.  It is something that's replayed in my head a hundred times.  She cut her eye and was screaming and bleeding.    We drove her to the doctor to see if she needed stitches... and she did ):  She was so scared and screamed louder than I've heard her scream.  They asked me to hold her down, so I got up on the cot with her and laid down on her.  It was awful, she was so scared.  Hearing her scream was the worst thing I've had to hear.

She got a lollipop, and a strawberry baby smoothie... soon she was back to her happy self.  And after her nap we went to her very favorite place, the Humpus Bumpus book store and then went back to the vet to go get her dog.  She was very happy to see him and Griffin got a good report from the doctor.  So far he's done well on the chemo.

The next couple of days her eye was pretty swollen.

But that didn't keep her from having a fancy day. (This was all her doing.)

On Monday, we had to go back to have the stitches removed .  She has a black and blue eye now that looks like she got into my eyeshadow.

She screamed and cried again... I think she was even more afraid because last time hurt, but it went quick.  Her doctor gave her another strawberry smoothie

 

and she was ready to get out of there!

We went to get a balloon afterward, which made her a very happy girl.  

I hope these were her last stitches!

Sweet Video

Josh Kelley and Katherine Heigl just debuted the song Naleigh Moon, as a tribute to their adopted baby girl. It's a sweet song from a daddy that loves his girl. It is precious watching Naleigh in their home movies of her... I couldn't help posting it.  Mae likes watching this video too, hope you enjoy!

*Christmas*

Christmas day is a whole new thing with a little one, isn't it? We knew it would be. We didn't care about the same things this year.  The things that mattered were much more important. We made some new traditions for our home and tried to make Mae's first Christmas with her family a very special one.

Our traditions are probably like yours: 

I made an advent string of envelopes that Maebelle loved opening every morning leading up to Jesus' birthday. 

We have always gone shopping for our dogs on Christmas eve.  We buy them each a small yummy treat and new toy.  It was fun having Mae's help to pick out something for her buddy. 

parking lot of PetSmart

We have always had family over for Christmas Eve dinner and this year we decided to have a birthday cake for Jesus.  We've heard of many other people doing this and it seemed perfect.  Mae loves blowing out candles too.

Mae got to open one gift (of Christmas pajamas).  This way she got a little practice and cute new pjs to wear.

Christmas morning, one thing was sure different... Cody and I are normally up and opening presents by 6am.   (We get rather excited, plus we always tried to make it up to my mom's for breakfast.) Not this year, Mae was still sound asleep at 8:00 so we had to start making some noise (:  We got her up and she instantly knew to be a little excited... probably just by seeing her parents faces. We took her downstairs to see her beautiful pink kitchen.  She was beside herself, truly.

She is still a little small compared to it but that didn't stop her. 

We had a hard time getting her to open any presents, she was much too busy cooking.  My mom and dad came over for breakfast and we left to go to their house for a whole other Christmas (:

***** Boppy & Nonna's House*****

 Mae got more food and pots and pans for her kitchen. 

Mae loves her Uncle Jon!

The coolest car EVER!  (I now know these are called plasma cars.) This was the best gift by far. 

 As, you can see everyone enjoyed a ride and Mae loves having a companion!!!

Mae makes everyone a kid again (:

 My sweet grandee, sister, Mae and me.  All his girls.

We are so blessed by this family and the sweetness of our darling girl this year.  We love this season of celebration and look forward to a new year.  Happy 2012 friends!!   

Christmas Time

Mae doesn't know what all this craziness is about but we've been trying our best to tell her about Christmas. We've told her all about baby Jesus, snowmen, Santa, presents, and twinkling lights! She has been very pleased with our Christmas tree and she even has her own white tree with pink lollipops, in her room. She also likes playing with her nativity and said "i love you Jesus" while we prayed a few days ago.  precious words!!! We do advent every morning.  She gets a small prize and then we read a verse... this is a routine that she has become very fond of.  I love making new traditions this year for our little family.

She loved having her bestie, Rosemary (and her mom) come spend the night! These precious girls wore matching pjs and played dress up together (:

two sweet tutu bottoms

and in the morning we made Christmas cookies... a tradition we hope to keep with Katie and Rosemary every year!

These precious friends loved it, and did a great job decorating and not eating them!

This year we have seen everything through the eyes of our girl. We CAN NOT wait to see her excitement on Christmas morning! Cody and I have always been a little giddy about Christmas (when it was just the two of us)... But I can guarantee we'll have a hard time sleeping this year! It's all too easy to remember longing for our baby this time last year... how magical it is to share this season with her. 

Merry Christmas dear friends!