Kalee's pre-birthday and a quick trip to FL!

We took a "spur of the moment" trip to FL last weekend. Rich was missing his bro so we decided to head on down. Since it is so close to Kalee's b-day (my baby turns 8 on the 23rd) we decided to have her b-day party while we were there. Aunt Betsy took Kalee for a "girls day out"...just the 2 of them. It was a surprise for Kalee and she had so much fun. They got their nails done and then spent a little time shopping...the hit of the day was the shoes pictured above. Kalee loves them (what a shock!)!!! Most of all, Kalee loved spending some alone time with Aunt Betsy - such a treat!

Well, the blog isn't letting me upload any more pics, so I'll have to finish this post later!

Kalee's Christmas

We had a very nice Christmas Day. Kalee was so shocked when she realized that she had gotten an American Girl doll - it was definitely the hit of the day. She wasn't sure what was in this box...

Still not sure, but she read the name, so she was hoping...Her first glimpse of the doll (a book had been covering her face)She's in shock...can't believe it's really the doll she wanted!!!Her second favorite gift was from Grammie T, who sewed matching nightgowns for Kalee and 'Rosalina'.Her third favorite gift was from Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Anthony. She has wanted to grow these "beautiful" gems for some time...and stares at the box every time we go to the craft store!Rich and his "of course I'll wear it" look! Kalee picked this "super cool" shirt out for her daddy.My look is saying "Really??? You bought me a medium???!" Oh well... :)Our favorite present was from my Grammie...our very own Joker board. We were super excited!Kalee's 4th favorite present, from Nana and Papa. Everyone (except for Grammie) took a turn riding this thing...very fun!I only caught Papa on camera, though...And here's a pic of my cute, feisty grammie, with her new bird feeder that we gave her.

We had a great day and also had a lot of fun over New Year's when Donnie & Luv-Ann came to visit. Somehow I managed not to snap a single picture of the visit...not sure how that happened!

Merry Christmas!

I can't believe it is Christmas already! Here are a few pics of my beautiful little girl...

Midnight is sleeping with Kalee at night now and it is really super cute! I took this pic when Rich was out of town a few weeks ago - Kalee always sleeps with me when Rich is out of town, but this was the first trip he has taken since Midnight started sleeping with Kalee. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, because we don't really let the dogs on our bed - but when I walked into my room and saw Midnight snuggled all up to Kalee I decided to let it slide. Too cute!

Surgery and Recovery

My surgery went smoothly - removing the gall bladder took about a half hour and the endometriosis mass took about an hour. Recovery in the hospital wasn't much fun, but I survived! :) Rich has been awesome - waking me up every 4 hours to give me the pain meds and doing whatever else needs to be done. He even built me a super nice step to help me get in and out of bed, since it is so high. Jade has rarely left my side, since I came home - even shooing Midnight away...it's pretty funny. I have a pic to post of Midnight trying to snuggle up, but Jade wouldn't let her...

Midnight has been very calm, overall, and realized quickly that she couldn't hop up on my lap, so she settled for 2 paws on the couch and 2 paws on the floor and stayed that way until I got up to go back to bed. The cool step Rich built - otherwise I would be on the couch!!!

November fun...

We've had a very busy November and a wonderful Thanksgiving. The Hanley's came up for a few days and we've had a lot of fun. This is a long post, but watch the video of C at the end of the post...too funny!

Kalee and Rich got on the roof a couple weekends ago to start our Christmas lights...hopefully we will put the finishing touches on the lights this weekend!

The whole family went to Kalee's Thanksgiving Feast at school. The food was super delicious, as usual...ha!!! Kalee has a new friend, Elizabeth, who joined us for lunch.

Grammie and Nana

and Papa...

and Momma and Daddy...

We've had a very laid back visit with the Hanley's...we haven't strayed too far from home this trip. Shellie, C and I have watched movies every night - some have been great (The Proposal), some not so great, but a great way to end each day! Shellie has always wanted to shoot skeet, so we brought out the shotgun today to see how eveyone would do...

Cierra shot the clay skeet on her first try! Rick connected with a couple, too...

Then we moved onto the rifle...

and then we moved onto the handgun...

Rich gave us all good instructions on the proper way to handle the guns and everyone really enjoyed the target practice.

Ok, so after the initial freak out moment we have all had quite a few laughs watching this video tonight. C did a great job of keeping everything under control and even kept the gun pointed at the ground during the excitement. I missed some of the funniest moves, but I was pretty sure she was about to rip her shirt off, so I figured I should not record it! We've all decided that she has been quite the sport for letting us laugh at the video all night...

Butterfly fairy, another Fall Fest, and the end of Cheerleading!

Kalee couldn't decide what to be for halloween this year...then finally settled on 'Butterfly Fairy'! She was super cute, as usual...her favorite part of the costume was the fake eyelashes - they were purple and black and had rhinestones. Halloween was also the day of the Florida/Georgia game, so I was a little scatterbrained in getting Kalee ready and forgot to spray the glitter spray in her hair. We remembered about halfway to our friends house and I told her that I was really sorry that I forgot and she said "that's ok, momma...I didn't really need it anyway!" Such a sweet baby girl!We also went to a fall fest at church. We invited Kalee's friend Emma and the girls had a good time!Kalee's Cheerleading 'banquet' was last week and she got her trophy. This years trophy, while super cute, is quite smaller than what she received last year. Kalee was very excited about getting a trophy, but a little disappointed that she could hold it in one hand!!! Coach Lauren wrote all of the girls individual notes on what she enjoyed most about having them on her squad. Kalee just beamed when she read her note!

I told Kalee to not even ask me to do anything this weekend! This is my weekend to veg, after a ridiculously busy October...and then we'll have to get on the ball. I am scheduled for surgery on Dec 1st and will be out of work the entire month - super excited about being out of work, but not so excited about the surgery! Anyway, my goal is to get all my Christmas shopping done this month - we'll see how it goes!!!

Last day of Cheerleading!

Kalee can't believe cheerleading is over already...and neither can I, really. Kalee had a lot of fun this year (even though you wouldn't be able to tell from the end of each cheer - see videos below!). Our poor football team didn't win one game - not that we were there to watch football, but, poor kids! We also went to Kalee's fall festival at school this weekend and then to Atlanta so Rich could strip the brick floors at Crystal and Kelly's - I'll post those pic another day, since we have the slowest internet service in the world and I have posted enough for one day!

I got the perfect pic of Kalee's great 'high' kick. She said "Momma, please don't post that on facebook...the blog - ok, but not facebook!" So, for the blog only...ha!

The girls and the coaches, after the last game...

Grammie T comes to visit...

Grammie T stopped by for a couple nights on her way back home from FL. We were planning on going to Watkinsville's fall festival, so Charley and Crystal came over to go with us. BUT, it decided to rain on Saturday...and rain and rain...so we decided to stay home. Here's a couple pics of the cute girlies!

Grammie T kept our fire going all weekend, since Rich was out of town. It was a good weekend to have a fire!

I recovered the dining room chairs - they turned out really good, I think!