Count Your Blessings....

I somehow came across this blog yesterday, and the Whitt family (not to be confused with the Wild Whitts) has been on my mind ever since. I don't know what to say, except I'm sure they could use all of our prayers. Check out their blog if you have a few minutes, but make sure you have a box of Kleenex close by.

'Old McDonald had a ... Babysitter??'

Here's a cute video of Brylen and her new babysitter. This little activity thingy (I don't know what else to call it) can buy me at least 30 minutes of uninterupted cleaning time... if I can stop watching how cute it is when she gets so excited and 'talks' to the animals. Thank you Fisher-Price!

Birthdays and Bowling

Last night was our nephew Jacob's 5th Birthday Party at the bowling alley. This was Neeley's first time bowling, and she was hilarious. She would roll the ball so slow that it would take FOREVER to make it to the end of the lane. Sometimes it was so slow that it would hit a pin, the pin would wobble a little bit, but it wouldn't fall over. If she actually knocked some pins down, she would do the longest, funniest victory dance. It involved jumping, woo-hoo-ing, and a lot of booty shakin'!

And here's what happens when you don't want to wait your turn and you have a mean mom that won't let you knock all the older boys out of the way to budge to the front of the line:

I felt bad for about half a second. Then I realized I was missing out on a great photo-op and starting snapping pictures. Like I said, I'm such a mean mom.

Here's the Birthday Boy making a wish and blowing out the candles.

I distracted Grandma Annie by taking a picture of her perfect technique. Hey... I'll do whatever it takes when I'm losing. (yes, I really was the loser!)

The crazy party gang

Happy Birthday Jacob!

My Mondays and Tuesdays are full, but I've got an opening on Wednesday.

Being a stay at home mom comes with a few perks, besides the obvious 'I get to stay home and take care of my two beautiful daughters' reason. You can stay in your pajamas until noon (or 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:00 pm), you don't have to wear makeup everyday if you don't want, it's an 'all-you-can-eat buffet' of mac-n-cheese, chicken nuggets, and fruit snacks, and you can search the dish network program guide all day long and set all your favorite programs to record.

Yep, I'll admit that I'm turning into a TV junkie. When I was still getting up with Brylen in the middle of the night, I could watch bits and pieces of the shows on my DVR. Now that the little sweetie sleeps all night, I have to try to watch all of my programs during the day. That's not working out so hot since my TV is either permanently set to the Disney Channel or Noggin.

My Monday's are pretty full; 'Bromance', 'The City', and 'Daddy's Girls' on MTV. And my ultimate fave show, 'Medium' will be back in a couple of weeks. I'm not sure how it's going to fit into my DVR schedule, but I'm sure I'll make it work.

Then on Tuesdays I've already had a few conflicts; 'The Biggest Loser', 'American Idol', and 'The Real Housewives of Orange County' (gotta love those fake, gold-digging B's). Oh, such a hard life, I know.

Other than that, the rest of my week is pretty open. And Brian thinks that I play on the computer all day...

My Blue-Eyed Babes

Here's my blue-eyed babes 'Hangin' Out'. They are precious! My little Brylen is getting so cute and chubby. Check out her pollywog belly... isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen?! And I think Neeley is making her "Yo Gabba Gabba" funny face. I could just kiss their little cheeks off!

In Honor of Inauguration Day...

So I am hoping that this post won't offend anyone. I think it's just plain funny. For Christmas, Santa brought Neeley the "Loving Family" Doll House. Good ol' Santa must have been having a bad shopping day at Toys R Us (and Santa's sister was even helping out), because Neeley ended up with the dark skinned 'Loving Family'.

Dale and Annie came over Christmas morning to watch Neeley wake up, and Grandpa Dale commented that her doll house was so big it looked like the White House. Then I told him that it even came with the new "First Family" -- the Obama's.

Just ask Neeley ... the mom doll's name is Michelle, and the dad is Obama. It is so stinkin' funny! And she doesn't forget! Just today I could hear her saying, "Obama, where did you go? You need to come and eat your dinner."

The best part of the story is not one kid that has played with her doll house has even noticed that there is anything different about the family. It just goes to show how innocent and unprejudiced little children are. They don't notice color of skin ... they just see a dad, mom, and babies. It's too bad that adults make such a big deal out of it. I guess this is one of the many lessons we can learn from our kids.

Here's a picture of Neeley laying her "Loving Family Twins" down to play with Brylen. So Funny! She even put little blankets on them.

A little ray of sunshine ...

I love pictures... especially if they make my heart happy. I had to share these ones. I just can't help but smile.

Oh, sweet Brylen Jean! (Neeley NEVER calls her just 'Brylen. It's ALWAYS 'Brylen Jean.) She still just eats, poops, sleeps and smiles. She's only 2 1/2 months old, and for the last two nights she has slept for nine hours straight (don't be a hater)! Couldn't you just kiss her cheeks off? And her sweet baby breath smells like heaven! (*SIGH*)

And then there's the artist, Neeley Ann. The other night I was a little too sucked into TV. She kept saying, "Mom... Mom... Mommy.. Yook (look) Mom... Mommy... I drew a duck." I finally looked over and she had really drawn a duck. I had to hurry and grab my camera so that I could get a picture. I wish she would draw on paper so that I could save her 'masterpieces'.

First of all, I know what you are all thinking. Yes ... Neeley is 2 1/2 years old AND YES... I still put her in the high chair to eat most of the time. It's so much cleaner and she can't escape. I know... I know... I'll make her sit in her booster soon enough. But it still melts my heart when she falls asleep in her high chair. The little tornado looks so peaceful.

Our Lil' Genius

Now I know that every mother thinks her kid is the smartest, but I'm not just being a delusional (or proud) Mom when I tell you that our little Neeley Bug is stinkin' smart. She's been able to sing her ABC's (forwards and backwards) pretty much since she was in the womb, and I think we'll just skip Preschool and Elementary and start her right in Jr. High... maybe even High School. he,he.

OK... OK... I'll stop. In all the honesty, Neeley is smart, and she loves learning new things. She especially loves to draw and color. She recognizes most of her letters, and can even write a few. We've been working on her name the past couple of days, and she's getting pretty good. Well... I guess it's downright awesome for a two-and-a-half-year-old.

She still has a hard time remembering what order the letters go, but she can write them without any help. I just wanted to cry tonight when I realized how big she's getting.

Here she is practicing her N's. She just learned how to write them last night.

"Maybe she's born with it..."

No, it's not Maybelline. I was just admiring how pretty my girls eyelashes are. They got them from their daddy - so dark and thick it looks like they are wearing mascara. And they look even darker since they both have such blue eyes. It's not fair to those of us that work so hard to make it look like we even have eyelashes. Beautiful ... but not fair ... sheesh ...

2008 ... Down in Flames

Here's how we started out our New Year ....

New Year's Day, Brian went out in the garage to rearrange vehicles (our yard always looks like a used car lot), to find that the Ford had caught on fire. He had the block heater plugged in, and I guess it somehow caught fire and burned and melted the entire front of the truck.

You can kind of see all of the melted rubber hanging off what's left of the bumper.

Here's the scorched front license plate in a pile of ash.

It truly is a miracle that the entire garage didn't go up in flames. We would have lost the four-wheeler, the Ranger, the truck, and probably our fifth-wheel parked four or five feet away, not to mention all the tools, gas cans, and other crap that's in there. It seriously could have exploded or caught our house on fire.

These pictures are just showing how close the trailer sits to the garage.


And I saved the best pictures for last: Brian's Baby getting loaded onto the tow truck. I guess it's kind of funny (if you have a warped sense of humor) ... not that it caught fire, just that it had to be hauled off on a tow truck.

I really am so thankful that we didn't lose the entire truck or garage. I guess 2009 can only get better from here .... RIGHT????