O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Last night we ventured down in Columbia in search of the perfect Christmas Tree. This is, after all, Graham's first Christmas, so it must be perfect! Last year, I had to meet Michael at the tree gettin' place and by the time I got there he already had it picked out. It was perfect! He did SO good. It never fails, I always question whether or not we made the right decision and I totally stress about it until we get it home and put up. Only then do I love it. Wellll....this year, we say to Lila, "Time to go get a tree!"
This is the look we get. "What u talkin' about?"

I am telling you...she must have known! She must have known that this trip wasn't going to go so well.
Problem #1: The man who is usually there and has come to know my routine of picking out a tree was not there. Not that the girl who helped us wasn't great, she just wasn't HIM! ( I am a little superstitious like that)
Problem #2, #3, #4, etc. etc....I just didn't love any of the trees.
I was hoping and praying that it was just going to be like any other year and I that I would get it home and it would be perfect.
I muster up a smile for the picture, just hoping it was going to be OK.

Nope, not this year. We get it home and I CRY!!! I cry because I hate it, hate it, hate it. Then I cry because I feel selfish that I hate it and I keep thinking about all the people out there who don't even have a Christmas tree. Then I cry because I know that this is going to be the only tree I have and I am afraid that I have hurt it's feelings so bad that it will be a mean ole' tree to me and die early or something. Then I cry because Michael is mad at me because I am crying so much and mad about the tree. He tells me that I probably hurt the girls feelings who helped us pick it out, so guess what? I cry some more! Then, I cry just because I realize that I must still have some major pregnancy hormones going on since I am crying so much! I admit it, I really and truly was SO mad about this tree. How totally selfish does that sound? Hey, at least I am being honest. It ended up being WAY smaller than our previous trees and I just felt ripped off and felt like it looked super puny. I refused to put lights on it for days. I actually called the people multiple times to see if we could come and exchange it. I only got their answering machine and was too embarrassed to leave a message. Anyway, once I got the lights up, it looked a little better. I still haven't put decorations on it yet. I think that part of me keeps thinking that a new tree will just appear. Michael kept saying that he was going to throw that tree out and go get a new one. At one point I really thought he might, and then I would have been REALLY mad for wasting that money. :)
I will post pictures later of the tree once it is decorated.
In the meantime, this is what Graham thought of his first Christmas tree gettin' experience.


Honestly, as silly as it sounds, this whole hating on the tree situation was actually a good lesson for me. Once again, I was reminded of this season and what it is really about. It isn't about perfect Christmas trees and not enough decorations or presents, or dinners, etc. It is about celebrating JESUS! My prayer is that my children always remember that. What I don't want is for them to remember their crazy momma crying over the Christmas tree!
This season is also about being thankful for miracles, like this one right here.

This week my babies hit milestones. LB turned 18 months. Although she is still a baby she is growing up so fast. Graham is now 2 months. I finally feel like I have been able to spend some time with him. He is just the sweetest thing. We went to the Doctor for their well check ups. Lila despises the Dr. She has been tricked lately because when she has gone with us when we've taken Graham and she hasn't had to be checked out. Well this time she just knew it was for her. She burst into tears as soon as we walked into the room. We decided to not even attempt to take her clothes off for the scale. Actually Michael had to take her without the nurse and put her on the scale. She weighed a whopping 23 pounds, with clothes! The shots were terrible. They really are worse when they get older and they KNOW what is happening and can yell NO. I did a little better with Graham's 2 months shots than when Lila had hers. He was still pitiful and I hate seeing them go through it. Thank goodness Michael goes with me to their appoitments because I just can't watch. Graham weighed 14 lbs 9 oz. I was thinking he might have weighed more, but I am chalking it up to lots of spit up and not eating well while we were out of town the week before. They did discover that he has acid reflux and he is now on Zantac. I am praying that this works for him. I am so tired of being covered in spit up and worrying about letting people hold him in fear that he will spew all over them. Mainly I hate how much pain he is in from it. It breaks my heart to think that it is something in my milk that is doing this to him. Hopefully that is not the case.
I was a bad mom and didn't do their monthly pictures, but here are a few pictures of my cutie pies.
Graham is becoming a lot more alert. He still sleeps quite a bit, but he is starting to focus more on his toys. He loves to be talked to and we are finding that his happy, talkative time is late at night after everyone else has gone to bed. He likes to sleep up against us belly to belly.

Wordless Wednesday

That's AMORE!

Lila refused to wear her hat any other way.

AP

We are always looking for a reason to visit with our dear AP. We got to have lunch and as usual, she spoiled my kids rotten! WE LOVE YOU!

Sweet Miss Ellie!

So many of you have heard me talk about our wonderful sitter, Miss Ellie, so I decided to post some pictures. She has been a life saver for me more times than I can count. I can use her on an as needed basis which is perfect for my line of work. When I entered into real estate, I thought it would be perfect for having a family. Little did I know that having a "flexible" schedule is not so easy with a little one. Especially since I cannot say no to people, my day could change at the drop of a hat and I would have to pick up and go. I could literally call Miss Ellie on my way up to let her know I was bringing Lila. Since Real Esate could keep me slammed one week and not so much the next, I did not want to put Lila in daycare if I could just stay home with her. As usual, I am making this a really long story. The point is, this is Miss Ellie and she is WONDERFUL! She loves Lila and Lila loves her! Lila even starts dancing and squealing as soon as we pull into her driveway. We were even able to call Miss Ellie from the hosptial when I had Graham to have her keep Lila, since she desperately needed a nap.
I kept telling Michael that I wanted to get a picture of Lila and Miss Ellie so Lila would know who took such good care of her! Well, today was the perfect opportunity. I was talking with Miss Ellie and she was holding Lila. I noticed they were both sporting their pink so I asked to snap a picture. Too bad Lila is teething and would not get her hands out of her mouth.
We love Miss Ellie and hope and pray that she is always able to help us out. Right now Lila is the only one she watches, but I just found out that that is about to change. Since I only send Lila sporadically, I obviously wouldn't want to take anyone's spot if they would be going full time to her. Let's all just pray she can still watch her for me.

Oh, and a special thanks to Alana for this precious outfit she gave to Lila. You all will be seeing lots of pictures with her in it because it is just too cute!

This is why....

I still don't have a lot of good pictures of brother and sister!

Harrell Thanksgiving

On Saturday, we packed up and got ready to head home from a long, but fun filled week with the fam. Michael and Clint broke down the crib and loaded up Michael's truck. Since Lila climbed out of her crib(or should I say JUMP), she has been sleeping in her pack n play. Kim and Clint so graciously have lent us their crib, which looks beautiful in Lila's room. Graham will be sleeping in Lila's old crib until he too climbs out of it. (Let's hope not!!)
Anyway, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Harrell side of the family on Saturday afternnon. It is never quite long enough, as the girls only got to stay a few hours. :( We did get to eat lots of yummy cookie cake for Carrie's 11th birthday!! I still cannot believe how fast she has grown. I remember going to her 4th birthday that was Santa Claus themed and Baylee was just a baby! Time flies. Carrie got a fun dancing game for her birthday and I totally got my tail kicked in a dance off with her. Yes, I said it. I LOST at DANCING!! I am still blaming it on the stupid mat because I was totally stepping on the arrows when it showed me too. The girls sure put me in my place and I realized I am way older than I think I am in my head. Lila and Rileigh had a lot of fun together. Lila was exhausted from not having a nap. We tried laying her down so she would be in a good mood for her cousins, but she just wasn't having it. She just knew they were out there and she wanted to join! We can't wait until Christmas so we get to see them again soon! Here are some pictures from our day:

I can't help but laugh at this face!


Lila and Rileigh had a lot of fun together. (I know it doesn't look quite that way here, but they were in a trance watching Carrie dance.) We are super jealous of Rileigh's cute pigtails! Here she is all ready for Christmas.

All the girls!

BayBay and Graham. Both her and Carrie are so good with the babies. I think they actually enjoy fighting over who gets to hold him. :)

We tried really hard to get a picture of all the Harrell grand kids, but it isn't easy with 2 1 1/2 year olds and a baby.


One of my absolute favorites! I love these girls!!!


Since the girls had to go home earlier than we expected, we went ahead and decided to leave thinking we could get home at a decent hour. Let me just say...it was NOT a pleasant trip. Just a reminder for you, we were in seperate vehicles. I think we stopped 3 times before we had gone 1 mile to make sure the crib was ok in the back of the truck. We then proceeded to stop another 3 times before determining that all was ok with the crib. Oh yeah...it is POURING down rain! All week my contact had been bothering me, but as we roll in to Knoxville I thought I was going to have to rip it out of my socket in order for it to feel better. Here it was pouring rain, dark, lots of detour traffic, my eye is pouring water, and Graham has woken up screaming hungry! Not fun. I will spare you all the other details, but lets just say it was a LONG trip home. But you know what? It felt so good to get here!
Even Graham was exhausted from the trip and glad to be home. :) Speaking of...he did not do real well nursing this week. It makes me nervous and I just know that something is going on. He screams and cries right after he eats and constantly sounds like he needs to clear his throat.

But you know what? Even with all the drama of trying to get home, I couldn't help but think of all the starving,cold people out there. The fact that I have my family and we have full bellies and plenty of shelter reminded me of just what this season is about. Happy Thanksgiving All!

Going on a Hayride!

For some reason, I kept saying this all day to the rhythm of "Going on a bear hunt", which by the way I cannot remember. If any of you do, I would be so happy to know, because repeating "going on a bear hunt" over and over and not actually knowing where we are going just isn't that much fun. :)
Back to the reason for this post...every few years, Kim and Clint invite us out to their family property and we do a hayride and ride 4 wheelers over Thanksgiving... SO MUCH FUN! It has become one of my favorite family traditions. This year, we got to ride out and get up close and personal with the moo cows and the deer.

Jayboy LOVED the cows, and Ella wanted nothing to do with them. We were excited to see a little tiny baby one and kept pointing at it, but all Jay kept saying was how he liked the "Big one!" I assumed that being so close to the cows would either freak Lila out or she would want to touch them. Actually, she didn't react either way. She could have cared less about them. We had a great time roasting smores, riding the 4 wheelers, checking out the old cemetery on the land, and Michael and I even went and collected old cow bones for the dogs. Speaking of, poor Chloe tried her hardest to follow along behind us, but when we got to the cows we figured we should put her up with us in case one got after her. We knew she wouldn't be able to get away with her old legs. :(
I don't have a picture of 4 wheel ridin' this year, but here is a picture of me and Michael 2 years ago. I was about 13/14 weeks pregnant with Lila in this picture.


We had a great time and we look forward to the one next year!
Here is part of the gang ready to ride.


Note Jay and Lila fighting over the football!

Gdog doing what he does best: SLEEPING!





Grandmother and her 2 youngest grand kids

I couldn't help but laugh at this:


After a long day out playing, we headed back to visit with Michael's parents. Lila fell asleep about oh, point 5 seconds after we got in the car. After we put Lila to bed, Mamaw and Papaw were kind enough to watch BG while My mom, Karen, Michael and me went to SEE A MOVIE!! I must say, that is one perk for us to go home...FREE BABYSITTER! We don't feel too guilty about it because we know it gives the grandparents time to visit with the younguns. The other perk is that movies are cheaper in Morristown too! We saw Four Christmas's. It was cute and it was nice to get out. Michael LOVES to go watch movies and now that we have 2 small children it just doesn't happen very often. :( Tomorrow we have another day of family eating with Michael's parents. We get to see Rileigh, who we haven't seen in almost a year, and Graham gets to meet her for the first time. I am also anxious to see her and Lila play together now that they are both up running around and into everything!

I'm STUFFED!!

As usual, we ate WAY too much over the Thanksgiving holiday. We enjoyed a great time with the family and for the first time in forever, we actually felt like we got to spend some quality time with everyone while home. I was anxious for Michael to arrive late Wednesday night. We missed him so much since we went on ahead early.
Thanks to Kim and Clint for hosting us at their home. This also seemed to be one of the first years we actually had the meal ready to go on time and were not running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We even had some downtime before eating...AMAZING!
Lila LOVED sitting next to Jay and they just had their own little conversation during the meal. I, as usual, had to scarf down my food because Graham was ready to eat as soon as we sat down. The kids had the best time playing. I am so glad they get to experience this time together growing up. I took a gazillion pictures, but here are a few from our day.