Beauty Day

My mom has been bugging me for a few months to get Abby's hair cut....so I finally gave in & agreed that it was time to get rid of the "mullet." However, since I haven't found a hairdresser in AL that I'm crazy about yet, I decided to wait until we came back to NC for Xmas, since one of our family friends here is a super-talented hairdresser. She has been one of Becky's friends since high school, and cuts & colors my mom's hair now. And fittingly, her name is Abbey as well! :)

Becky happily agreed to come along & be my paparazzi, because I had a feeling Abby would need to be sitting in my lap in order to stay still. She did a great job, but I was right. And I was happy to hold my sweet baby girl.

Here we are, examining the mullet before getting started...

Abbey is the cutest thing, and (my) Abby loved her silly personality and oversized comb & scissors!

1st dum dum in hand; we're ready to begin...

The first snip! I was so nervous!!! (And yes, I am one of those moms that brought along a ziplock baggie to keep that lock of hair :) It was close to 2 inches!)

Abby's new "cheese" face....can you tell she's liking all the attention!?

Nate was happy to be there for his sister's big day, but he was even happier that he got to have his first blow-pop with GUM inside while we were waiting!

We moved onto dum dum #2 just to be safe. And boy, did Abby Reece enjoyed being "styled" with the brush & hairdryer. Have I created a monster!?

The finished product! My beautiful baby girl and her new little "bob!!"

I think she likes it! :)

After Abby's haircut, we decided to make it a full-on "beauty day" by giving her her first pedicure at home! Santa had strategically placed some Hello Kitty nail polish in her stocking, and of course Abby picked out the pink one.

It was so cute after I finished painting her toes...even though they were dry, she insisted on walking around the house on her heels so that her nails wouldn't get smudged. She is a nut!

**In the two days since we've painted her toes, Abby refuses to wear socks. And when we have taken her footie pjs off in the morning, she points to her toes and says "they hiding!!"

Christmas #2

We are in NC right now with my family, and celebrated a wonderfully blessed Christmas Eve & Christmas day!!

At Christmas Eve service, it was nice to see some old neighborhood friends, and the kids did...okay. We let Nate pick 2 “quiet” toys to bring with us, and of course he chose violent ones...his new Silver Samurai & Wolverine. He tried to make them “kill” each other and had battles during the service. Nice. And poor Abby...she’s never sat through church before (she usually goes to the nursery) and acted like a typical 2 year old: laying on the ground, talking 100 decibels above whispering, fussing, wanting to stand & run on the pews, laying on the pews while we stood to sing and showing her tights and diaper to everyone since her legs were above her head. It was an eventful service to say the least. However, it was very nice and I loved all the Christmas carols, especially the candlelight part at the end.




We had a nice dinner with Deedee (the kids’ great-grandma) that night, and we started the tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve after church. Both of the kids picked Pillow Pets from N&P and loved them!!! Then, it was time to leave milk & cookies for Santa, throw “reindeer munchies” on the roof (thanks Miss Thompson), and have Daddy read the Christmas Story aloud.



Highlights from Christmas Day included:
-A delicious breakfast feast that Bec & Mike cooked everyone, with the highlight being the Paula Deen hashbrown casserole (and I won’t mention the burned sweet rolls)!
-A very underwhelming reaction to the big “Santa” present we got for the kids – an inflatable jumpy house for the backyard

-Abby trying to put on all her new clothes. And not getting one single piece on correctly. Or even close.

(She even wanted to put on Deedee's new pjs!)

-Nate saying the blessing at brunch & dinner...there is nothing sweeter than hearing his angelic voice saying the “Glory Be”
-Greg taking an afternoon nap on the couch, under Abby’s new Princess Snuggie
-Nate tearing through presents as fast as he could, while Abby had to get away from the chaos & laid down on the couch under 2 pillows & blankets for self-appointed "alone time"

-Getting a phone call from Aunt Lora, who’s in Italy on vacation right now!
-The leaning tree

-Seeing Abby prance around in the cutest.Christmas.pjs.ever. (Yes, I bought them and yes that is a TUTU!!)

-Nate’s favorite presents: Leapster Explorer, Golden Power Ranger, and the wolverine claw

-Abby’s favorite presents: Talking picnic basket, Abby Cadabby doll, dogbone game

-Mom's broken foot
-Both kids GRUBBING on shrimp cocktail (totally grossed me out!)

-Deedee ignoring me at Christmas dinner (Bless her!!)
-The beef/oven fiasco
-Mike & Greg taking turns serenading everyone on the piano with Christmas music
-Watching the kids rejoice over such simple gifts in their stockings (Thank you Dollar Tree!!)



Other favorite pics:










We have been blessed beyond belief and are loving all this quality time with our families!!

Happy 30th!!!

Happy 30th birthday to my "baby" sister, Becky!!!! So glad to be able to be in NC to celebrate with you.

You have had many memorable birthdays....
-For your 16th: we had a surprise party waiting for you when we flew home from Michigan
-For your 21st: well, I'm sure you don't remember much of that, but we had fun bar hopping!! And eating lots of bread when we got home to "sober up"
-For your 30th: your awesome (early) surprise party from Mike & Kelly

Love you and can't wait for our bday dinner tonight at K&W!!! :)

Christmas #1

We spent Monday-Friday in TN with Greg’s parents, whom Nate & Abby affectionately refer to as “Mum Mum & Granddaddy.” We all played hard, laughed hard, and got spoiled at Christmas #1.

We didn’t open presents till the middle of the week (after Uncle Kevin had finished shopping!), so the kids busied themselves with some “old” toys before that...Popples, Magic Mosaic, dominoes, horses, waffle ball, stuffed animals, guns, blocks, and the ever-popular stationary bike!

Bless Uncle Kevin – he was such a trooper as Nate (his little shadow) followed him everywhere and wanted to play with him constantly. From Angry Birds to the Wii to Domino Rally and gun battles, Uncle Kevin did it all and Nate ate up every second of it.

Some other highlights from the trip:
-Abby’s first strawberry milkshake from Pal’s. She was supposed to share with Nate, but the poor boy only got about 2 sips! She loves her milkshakes like her Mama!!


-Slumber parties: Mum Mum & Abby bunked together, while Nate snuggled in the big bed every night with Granddaddy.
-Watching Nate spank Mum Mum in Wii bowling

-For some reason, both our kids are obsessed with the smell of Vick’s. They both walked around the house, holding their empty Vicks’ jars and saying how good they smelled. Thanks Mum Mum!
-Playing scrabble
-Grubbing on Granddaddy’s delicious meals: beef stew, bacon grease eggs :) and shrimp “cre-O”
-Watching cartoons in the morning in Mum Mum’s bed, with "appetizers" in hand (dry cereal)

Tuesday night, before Uncle Kevin flew in from CO, we headed out to the Bristol Motor Speedway to see the Christmas lights. I’ve done this once before – many many years ago, when Greg and I were just dating – and it was neat b/c you drive through 4 miles of Christmas lights/exhibits, and then at the end, get to actually get on the race track and drive a lap in your car! And since Mum Mum & Granddaddy are such Nascar fans, we decided to go this year and let the kids experience it. Well, little did we know that every redneck in TN would be there that night too. We had to wait in line for 1.5 hrs, and then it took another hour to drive through it all. Luckily, once we let the kids out of their carseats and allowed them to roam the van, they were happy. Both kids got to take turns “driving” in Daddy’s lap (since we go about 2 mph), and Nate even got to drive on the drag strip and race! The "Mommy-mobile" can go!!




We celebrated Christmas #1 on Wednesday after naptime. Nate woke up that morning and said to Granddaddy in bed: “Mommy said I could open packages today!” :) Love him. He’s been patiently waiting to open something since Dec 1st when I put all the wrapped presents under the tree. (Note to self: don’t torture kids like that next year!) Nate got some great action figures, games & puzzles, and most notably, the largest machine gun known to man. (Uncle Kevin – I can’t wait till you have kids and I can buy them the largest presents as payback!!)



Of course, Abby had to get in on the action!

Everyone (especially Nate) thought it was HILARIOUS to shoot Daddy in the butt!! (Don't worry people, these are Nerf/soft bullets!)

Abby racked up as well...she got a doggie pet doctor set, puzzles, and the most adorable dollhouse. Since we don’t have any miniature dolls yet, Abby improvised and used some small wooden penguins from a new game. She spent hours playing with these penguins in the dollhouse; too cute!




And, as a big surprise, I got some TOMS (herringbone design with fleece lining)! Very excited about those... I can match Abby now! Of course, Miss Priss had to try them on before I even got a chance to...

And then, on our last full day, Greg and I spent a special morning on Thursday with the kids at the Hands On Museum downtown. There was so much to do, and we wore the kids out trying to see it all! Nate’s favorites included the bat cave & headlamp, ghost face game, and slide. Abby loved the bubbles, playing at the bank, and the playground.


We had a wonderful visit with the Givens, and now we are in NC with the Gibbs for Christmas #2!!