The car ride was fairly uneventful. There was a light rain for about the first two hours of the drive which always sets me on edge. Thank goodness Jonathon loves to drive because I hate it. About the last hour of the six hour drive, Bailey started yelling, “Help! I’m trapped in this chair! Somebody let me out!” we were trying so hard not to laugh!

She was beyond excited about staying in a hotel room. It was the first time that she was really old enough to enjoy it, and there was an indoor pool so we got to swim several times. We had a suite with a separate area where we put her bed (we brought her toddler mattress from home). It worked out really well and she was much more comfortable sleeping in her own bed/mattress on the floor. She ran around the room like a crazy girl for about the first half hour after we arrived.

The first night we were in town, I went to the bachelorette party/lingerie shower. It was a fun and relaxing girls night at her house. I was glad to be able to just put my (extremely swollen) feet up and hang out and catch up. Faith is the type of person who blushes and gets embarrassed easily so it was fun to watch her open the gifts.

She got a really cool set of products from her sister in law. There were all different bars of soap and bath oils and fizzies and stuff. Apparently everything was natural and preservative free. Her sister in law was telling us all about the company and I might have to go check them out. They even have something with top fat burners in it.

On Friday morning, we got up and went to the church to help decorate and set up. Bailey met the other little flower girl who was NOT friendly at all. There were a few other kids there for her to play with, though and she stayed pretty busy with the toys she got from the nursery.

Bailey also got to see Faith for the first time in about two months. She was so excited. On the drive there, she told us, “I can’t wait to see Aunt Faith! And Uncle Bryan! He’s her cousin!” More like fiance, but anyway…

Friday night we had the rehearsal at the church. We all sat and introduced ourselves. I was getting ready to introduce Bailey when it was her turn but she spoke up and said, “Hi, my name is Bailey. I’m a flower girl!” She always surprises me- I mean she’s really outgoing, but I didn’t know she was capable of making an introduction like that to a group of people!

Bailey cooperated for the most part. She took her job of walking down the aisle very seriously and practiced twice. The other little girl started crying, so Bailey walked down by herself. At first her flower basket just contained some Little People…

She was given a Dora house for her flower girl gift. She carried it around with her all weekend and then ended up losing Dora. So we are currently looking for a small (like two inch tall) replacement Dora figurine, if anyone has one or knows where to get one. She’s about the height of Little People, but thinner. You know, to fit through the narrow doorway in her house…

I’ll try to get the pictures from the actual wedding posted soon! Need to go make some Avon phone calls now.

Under the tree she had a new sled, some books, and her stocking filled with presents. She was a little tired and overwhelmed at first…

but she woke up and got excited quickly!

The first thing she got out of her stocking was the Reeses Pieces candy cane. It was the only candy we put in there and she was pretty sure she needed to eat the whole thing right. that. minute.

She opened all her stocking presents in about two minutes- necklace and bracelet, tattoos, sunglasses, water colors, bath paints, chapstick, stickers…

Then Jonathon and I took turns showering and getting ready, and supervising her with her new paints.

By 8:30 a.m. we were all dressed and ready to head to Grammy’s house!

More later!

Afterwards we didn’t get to have the Jesus Birthday Party because my parents decided to go to the late service instead. We came home and ate snacks and let Bailey open a few presents. We decided that as a tradition our kids will get a new ornament and pajamas on Christmas Eve, and that we will get a “family gift” like a game or something we can all do together.

This year she opened the Mr. Potato Head (one of her favorite gifts) that our neighbors brought over for her. She became almost irrationally obsessed with him, wanted to keep talking to him and hugging him and bring him to bed.

Her ornament was a princess castle, all pink and sparkly, with her name and the year on it. I thought that would be a good representation of this year and this Christmas, since she has been asking for “A castle with a princess and a princess and a princess and a princess and a king and a dragon and a dinosaur!” She has also recently gotten really interested in her Beauty and the Beast book, her new Tinkerbell room decor, and playing dress up in general. I have been looking forward to this stage!

She got a Disney Princess Memory game which we attempted to play. Really she just wanted to keep stacking and organizing the cards- but at least it was something we could do together! I know one of my friends got her daughter (who is a few months younger than Bailey) the Candyland game for Christmas. I’m wondering if they had any luck with that.

These are her new snowman jammies that she got to open and wear to bed. I don’t know that I am going to do any sort of matching jammies for the kids in the future, since we’ll have one boy and one girl. I might just try to get ones they will each like. I knew Bailey would love the snowmen and I was happy to avoid “character” pajamas this time. She has one pair of Dora jammies and they are enough for now!

The one regret I have about Christmas Eve is that I completely forgot to read the Christmas story to her! I was going to read it from her Jesus Storybook Bible and then we got all busy at bedtime and she was so wound up and kept running around her room and jumping from her bed to the beanbag chair. It completely slipped my mind. I am going to have to be more intentional about that next year because I don’t want this to just be a “gift holiday” and nothing else. We have been talking about the Christmas story and Jesus’ birthday etc but I was just disappointed.

Just a cute one of Bailey with my mom (Grammy)

We didn’t think we could do all 84 candles on a cupcake

I am so thankful to have my grandparents living here in town with us. I know I complain sometimes about having to “help” with them… but it is nice to spend time with them and I am glad they have gotten to know Bailey. And that they will get to know Baby Boy. Whose middle name will be the same as Papa’s middle name.

Bailey got some cool new stuff for her birthday. One of her favorite gifts was the monkey play-dough set from her friend Mackenzie. She got a little obsessed so we (I) made a rule that she only got to do play-dough with Daddy!

Speaking of her friend Mackenzie- here they are at church. They see each other every week in the hallway outside the nursery and get so excited! They were rolling around on the floor and laughing.

Then I decided I should try to get a picture of her with Grampa, but she wasn’t really into it.

And at home watching Barney after church, wearing her sunglasses, OF COURSE. Because she likes to wear them ALL THE TIME.

This is a Dora nightgown that Grammy gave Bailey for her birthday (or Easter, maybe). She loves to wear it around the house but she WILL NOT sleep in it. She thinks it’s a dress and I haven’t been able to convince her otherwise. But it works well for a comfy play-around-the-house outfit.

I don’t remember if I posted this one before but she was putting puzzle pieces all over Jonathon. He let her do it for a long time… that man has much more patience than I do! It was pretty cute though.

And just one last one of her playing… if you look on the table you can see some Weebles stuff. I found it at a yard sale in our neighborhood and she was with me at the time. She thought it was Little People and started yelling “Peeeeepole!” One of the best $3 purchases I have made lately- she can interchange a lot of it (size-wise) with Little People and she just adores any type of little guys/cars/houses/animals like that right now. This set came with a house, swing, about five guys including Santa and a snowman, a motorcycle, and a car. Hours of fun.

As for me- I am winning a new prize for my Avon recruiting. We are getting two new gold iPod mp3 players in a few weeks! Jonathon was SO excited about this. I will have to figure out how to use it now…

Finally Jonathon got tired of playing it too. Bailey kept walking around the house asking us both… “Match? Please? Beelay’s Match!” Then if I said, “Do you want to play your new game?” She’d nod really enthusiastically and smile and say “Yaaaaahhhh.” Really, how can you say no to that? She also convinced Teddy and Pinky (her stuffed guys) to play “Beelay’s Match” with her when a sub was needed. Honestly, I am glad she loves it so much. She was in need of something new and fun. And it’s even educational. Check out the look of concentration-

-Bailey loved to pass out the packages to everyone, and watch them open. Much more than she liked opening her own gifts. She is so generous and did not have that “I want it all for me” kid mentality. She was content with one gift and was almost annoyed when I wanted her to open more.
-I tried to read the Christmas story to her from her Jesus Storybook Bible but she wanted nothing to do with it. I had all these visions of us having this family storytime… right….
-She does not like sleeves with elastic in the cuffs.
-She will eat any kind of cookie, sometimes ice cream, never cake. She will not eat watergate salad or ambrosia even if I tell her its ice cream.
-My grandma was coughing all day and finally went to the hospital on Friday to be diagnosed with pneumonia. I am glad she wasn’t contagious!
-Jonathon got me a GPS, my parents got me a tennis bracelet (white gold to replace the yellow gold one I have from college graduation), my grandparents got me a sewing machine.
-Jonathon forgot to buy anything for my stocking.

We took it out that night and used it to find some houses where we wanted to see Christmas lights. One of them was Christmas On the Hill, which I recommend going to see if you live close enough. The lights themselves aren’t that spectacular, but they have the whole thing set to music (you tune in on the radio) and it’s a cool show to watch.

My grandma got me a sewing machine. I have been wanting a sewing machine for a long time, even though I basically have no idea how to use it. Jen, we are going to have to get serious about sewing classes! I don’t even know how to thread it. But I am really excited to learn how to sew! I have a bunch of things I want to try and make.

Jonathon got a digital picture frame (from my parents) for his office at work. It holds up to 4000 pictures and can also do video and music. He had been wanting one of these for a while. I got him a grill light and grill cookbook from Avon, hamburger storage containers for the freezer, a cd, and some Best Buy gift cards and guess what he did. He has been griping that all of his hard drives are full so he went and bought another freaking hard drive. And a card reader thing for an SDHC card he got for his birthday. So now he can boot his computer off a memory card or something? I’m not really sure but he told me all about it.

I baked a lot before Christmas. I made five kinds of cookies and a loaf of banana bread. This is the first time I have ever made a loaf of bread (I swear) and I didn’t even use a mix! I am trying to learn how to cook more.

It’s the Step 2 Lifestyle Partytime Kitchen. Try saying that five times fast. Originally, I was going to get her a much smaller kitchen. But we decided that it made more sense to get something she could use for a long time instead of having to replace it in a year or two. This one is a little too big for her now (she can’t really reach the microwave, etc) but there is plenty for her to do anyway. Also it’s big enough to have a friend play too. It’s so sturdy that I think it will hold up well, and it got good reviews. We got it on sale and it seemed like the best kitchen for the price.

Bailey’s favorite things to do with the kitchen are to cook her Little People and to cook an ice cream cone. We just got her a small set of food for it. She also likes to warm up her baby’s bottle- my mom showed her how to do that. The burners even light up and make different bubbling/sizzling noises depending on what pot you put on them. The microwave makes noise and you can press a popcorn button to hear popcorn popping.

No kitchen is complete without a phone! It has more realistic ringtones and stuff than some of her other play phones. She will only call Grammy (Geenay), Grampa (Popock) or Santa Claus (Kee Claush). Her conversations usually go, “Hallo. Hi. Good. Toys. Bye!” She also paces while she talks- it’s funny the stuff you learn about yourself from watching your kids!

She also loves to explore all the cabinets and drawers and stuff. There are little slots for the plates inside the top cabinets. I tried to show her how to put the silverware in the drawer but she thinks it is for “binks” (a.k.a. her binkies, which she would NEVER use as a baby but is now obsessed with playing with them).

Thank you, Santa Claus!

The pictures in the blue striped dress were taken on Memorial Day. She was opening a belated birthday gift from a friend of my mom’s. She was fascinated by the bag and tissue paper, but then when she found out it was a dress inside the bag, she lost interest. Unless it’s a toy or shoes, forget it. That girl knows what she wants!

If you click on the individual pictures it will enlarge them. I was just being lazy uploading

Also I should probably say that my husband and this kid’s dad talk a lot and they came to Bailey’s birthday party and stuff. So they aren’t just random neighbors, we actually know them fairly well.

Bailey with my mom and our neighbor Jeannette

Friends Amy and Kaitlynn

Opening presents

See the little flower thing she has in her hand? She’s obsessed with it and takes it everywhere with her. That and the wand for the bubbles that Kelli gave her.

Bailey loves balloons. She has started trying to say “balloon.” She points to them and says “Buv!”

Sharing her toys with AJ, my friend Jen‘s little boy

With my college roommate, Sarah

Birthday cake

We stripped her down to her diaper just in case she decided to eat her cake…

But she didn’t! She wanted nothing to do with it and cried until I got her out of her high chair.

Here she’s signing that she wants out

She’s glad all that nonsense is over so she can sit by herself and play her xylophone!

Happy birthday, sweetheart. We’ll try the cake again someday. If you’re anything like your mama, you will love cake with buttercream icing!

I delivered Mae’s Avon order and she gave Bailey her birthday present since they couldn’t make it to the party. Remember the really cute pink shoes with bells on them? She got them for Bailey in a bigger size! I love them so much and I had planned on cramming her squished toes into them until she turned thirteen, so she is very thankful to have some bigger ones.

Here is a shot where I actually managed to get all three of the babies. That’s Avalon on the left, crying Juna is in the middle, and Bailey is on the right.

She also got a Disney Princess cell phone. Just what every toddler diva needs, right? She’s busy texting in this picture.

My grandparents contributed more money to her college savings account, and gave her this little guy from Kohls who she just loves every time we go in there.

Jonathon’s parents sent her two books. One of them is this Elmo music book that she is obsessed with right now.

My friend Faith got her this cute swimsuit from Target, and a matching coverup and towel. Hopefully we will get to the pool a lot more this summer.

She really likes this zoo that she got from her Aunt Jen.

Here is a Children’s Place dress she got from my other friend Jen, that I managed to find a picture of. Because I am way too lazy to actually get my camera out right now.

Some of her other favorite toys are a set of wooden alphabet blocks and a circus that you can take the animals in and out of. She likes to put the wooden blocks inside the circus tent. She got so many nice things. Lots of cute clothes and fun toys. We are going to wait and introduce the other toys maybe one every few days so she can enjoy the “newness” for a while.