Geek Squad to the Rescue

Well, it's official. I'm GOING CRAZY!!! My computer is fried and the internet isn't working. I really didn't realize how dependent I am on the www, but now it's very apparent that I'm a hopeless addict. With all that's going on in our house on a daily basis, I have very little (if any) time to call my own. But when I do get that short break I make a beeline for the computer. It's my escape into someone else's world being I'm pathetically engrossed in everyone's blogs. Not that I want to escape my own life, it's not that at all, but it is nice to forget things for a sec and become enthralled in all of y'alls stories and pictures and whatnot. Anyway, I've spent a total of five hours in the past two days on the phone with Charter AND Dell trying to resolve my ailing computer. But no such luck. So now I've sunk to an all time low and have come to the library to get my internet fix. How sad am I?! Hopefully we'll be back up and running ASAP, but until then I'll be a familiar face around the Decatur Public Library....

Oh, and CONGRATS to Ginny and Hunter....they just found out their bambino is a little BOY!!! "Jr." (his name until a proper one is selected) will be making his grand entrance into a sweet and loving family, that's for sure! What a blessed little boy already! I know his grandparents can't wait (to spoil him rotten)! When Towns was born and I went home to Andalusia for the first time, David and Nancy (Ginny's parents) each took turns on their lunch hour to come to my parents' house and hold her. For a SOLID HOUR. They're pretty serious about this baby thing and have begged for a grandchild, so I'm thrilled that Ginny and Hunter are giving them what they've wished for! :)

A Happy 3 Months!

HAPPY 3 MONTH BIRTHDAY, CATE!

(Almost 2 weeks late!)

Just as the title of this one says, it's been a very happy 3 months since we've had this new person living with us! She's such a sweetie and we're so thankful we got her here without major complications (a story for another day). She's already brought us so much joy in the 14 short weeks, which have flown by way too quickly! I think we've got a little genius on our hands. At 3 months she's almost mastered sitting up and will scoot across the floor like a little inchworm. It's THE cutest thing ever! She smiles and laughs all the time which puts me in the best mood! I've gone a little picture happy here...bear with me! :)

These are all of her sitting up with her Boppy around her (she still leans a little so she needs a little help every now and then). She's such a little ham for the camera!

These both were taken last Sunday after church. I find myself taking pictures of her in all her pretty outfits because I want to always remember how sweet she looks in them. Sorry for the picture that's a little off center! I'm not a pro by any means!

These pictures are all a product of Towns' handy work. The first two are from New Year's Day when she thought Cate needed a tutu since it was a festive holiday. And surprisingly enough, Cate didn't mind it.

The last picture here was when Towns tried putting her sunglasses on her sister and that, on the other hand, did NOT go over very well.

These pics were of her first trip to the park in our neighborhood. We bundled her up and strolled over to let Towns and Bethany play. She was pretty excited about it to start with, but soon enough it put her to sleep!

The next few pictures are random ones I think are pretty sweet...

Christmas - Take 4

This one will be short and sweet. I'm about Christmased out after all this! :) My Dad and his girlfriend Laura came up the day before New Year's Eve to do our Christmas together. We usually end up in Childersburg to see my grandmother and all the extended family, but we kept it simple this year. We layed low until New Year's Day when they had to head back to Dothan. We watched the Alabama game that Sunday night (Jonathan and my Dad are avid Alabama fans, and Laura and I are Auburn Tigers all the way) and New Year's Eve we were glued to the Auburn Game (War Eagle, by the way!). Time with my Dad is always relaxing for me because he takes over and lets me have a little time to myself. Usually that translates into time to get things done that I usually don't have time to do. But, that's fine too! He's the most organized person on the planet (he'd probably kill me for this, but he numbers his socks with a Sharpie so they'll always match up!!!). And I really do have that Tubbs gene in me somewhere deep down, but it's SO hard to keep my house organized when a certain two year old who shall remain nameless is constantly pulling things out of her closet and off the shelves and putting them in special places where they don't belong! It's pretty funny because I can sense that it drives him crazy to be here in the midst of all the chaos and see how my house is a complete 180 from his. But then again, he lives alone so he's already one-upped me right there! He walked into Towns' room as soon as he got to our house and the first thing he said was "did anyone get hurt?" which left me puzzled. I didn't have a clue what he was talking about until he said "you know, when the bomb went off in here?"...such a comedian. Anyway, here are a few pictures from while they were here...

Pawpaw and Towns play with the Play-Doh she got for Christmas...

Laura's the official new best friend to Towns thanks to the Cheeto's. She'd eat Cheeto's for every meal if I'd let her...

Pawpaw engrossed in the Alabama game and holdind Cate while she takes a little snooze...

Pawpaw holding Cate up so she can look out the window (which is her favorite thing in the world to do)!

Funny, Funny Girl

I've still got two more parts of Christmas to post before I'm officially done with it and I've been working so hard to finish, but this is one of those moments where I have to write this down (in this case blog it) before I forget. The following are some funny conversations I've had with Towns in the last few days...

Towns: I don't think I want to call Cate Cate anymore.
Me: Really? What do you want to call her?
Towns: Harper (her middle name)
Me: Ok, well you can call her that if you want.
Towns: But we've got to go to the doctor first.
Me: Doctor? Why do we have to go to the doctor?
Towns: Because you can't change her name and call her something different without going to the doctor first. Me: Why's that?
Towns: You know, Dr. Khouri (the pediatrician) has to do it.
Me: So that's how it works, huh?
Towns: Yep.

In my post yesterday about the Lowe's trip I mentioned that I put Cate in the front of the cart beside Towns. Towns has always loved to hold Cate when she's sitting down, but it lasts for about two seconds and then she says "get her Mommy, she wants you". Well the shopping cart episode was no different, but she did spice up her request for me to move Cate....
Towns: Mommy, can you get Cate and put her back in her car seat?
Me: Why?
Towns: Because my nose hurts.

All during the Christmas season we read a book just about every night about the real meaning of Christmas. It goes through the story of Jesus' birth and she always gets really into it. Even last Christmas when she was just a year old she could tell you who Jesus' parents were, that they rode on a donkey, and could even tell you that He was born in Bethlehem. Except to her it was "Betbehem". Anyway, after reading this book so many times she can tell you what it says word for word, page by page. So when my dad and his girlfriend Laura were here this past week she felt compelled to read it to them. I was halfway listening to her while doing something else, but she really caught my attention when she said "and Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the clubhouse." Aka, the stable.

Being that she's potty trained and very independent these days, Towns would rather go to the restroom by herself when we're at home and not have me help her. The other day I heard her yell "Mooooommmmm" so I went running thinking she'd fallen in the toilet or something. I get to the bathroom and she says "all I need is some toilet tennis shoe paper." Some WHAT? I said. You know, sweetie, some toilet tennis shoe paper. (She's gotten into the habit of calling me sweetie) After some thought I realized that she put toilet tissue and tissue paper together (she's always called tissue paper - tennis shoe paper) and come up with toilet tennis shoe paper. Now there's an original!

Going along with the independent theme, Towns has gotten kind of bad about trying to pick up Cate on her own. Don't get me wrong, she's VERY helpful with her. But sometimes she's a little TOO helpful. I've tried to correct her and explain why it's best to wait and let me hand Cate over to her if she really wants to hold her. So the other day when I see her trying to take Cate out of her baby papisan seat I had to get onto her. To which she replies in the most calm voice I've ever heard "DON'T lose your head, it's OOOKKK. Just don't worry about it. It's FIIIINE." I mean, have you ever?! She's two years old!

One more really quick one. This doesn't really apply to a specific incident, just something she does in general. Every single time she gets in trouble she looks me dead in the eyes and says "Mommy, you sure do look pretty today". Already a little con artist! :)

Christmas - Take 3

Christmas with my side of the family was celebrated at Aunt Melissa's house in Montgomery. It's a central location for everyone and she has enough space for all 14 of us! Melissa and I are very close and are more like sisters than anything. It's rather funny because I'm so much like her and her daughter is so much like my mom, so we joke that my cousin Mary Catherine and I were born to the wrong mothers! :) When I graduated from Auburn I moved to Montgomery and lived with Melissa & Mary Cat for about a year while I worked at Enterprise. We always had a blast together and it was really a great thing for all of us. I miss them so much after moving to Decatur and not being able to drop in anytime. That just makes our time together now that much more special! Anyhoo, here's a picture story of the Jay Family Christmas Spectacular....

When we arrived, Towns went straight for Mary Catherine and Aunt Jane got her hands on Cate immediately!

Uncle Max (yes, he's 3 years old) then escorted Towns outdoors to the trampoline where Bethany and Anna Grace were flipping up a storm. Bethany nailed her back tuck that day! Yay!

Meanwhile, MC took Cate Bug over and barely let anyone else have a turn at her! MC will be 16 on January 15th which is unbelievable. She's already got a little white BMW 325i sitting in her driveway...Santa was GOOD, GOOD, GOOD to her this year! She'd obviously been super sweet all year long to get that kind of Christmas present! :) The older she gets, the more fun we have together. She's phenomenal with my children and they love her just the same. We were at their house less than 48 hours after my surgery and out of all the women in the house (mind you, everyone there besides MC has had children but yet the 15 year old is the one mothering me more than the rest of them), she was the one who was attached to my hip the entire time wanting to know how she could help. I can't say enough about how sweet that girl is! LOVE YOU, Mary Cat!

Anna Grace finally got to spend a little time with Cate and she was SO good with her! It's really her first time to be around a baby (besides Towns and Max being babies, but she was only 5 then) and she passed the test with flying colors! I quizzed her on what to do in every situation possible while Cate was in her lap just to make sure she knew what to do with her. I suppose it's the neurotic mother in me!

Towns had her fill of the trampoline and spent a little quality time with Granny...

We had a superb late lunch (sorry guys for taking this picture, I'm sure I'll hear about this later on!) but the kids were chomping at the bit to open presents!

Melissa's pretty tree before everything underneath it was ransacked!

Let the present opening begin!

Aunt Jane and Uncle Charlie gave Max a cowboy hat, but Towns had her own idea about who needed to take it home!

But once she opened the princess dress Melissa & MC gave her, it was so long cowboy, hello fancy! She let YaYa sport the western look...

Pappy entertained Cate since the poor thing was too little to get involved in all the action!

Granny, Janie and Charlie....The adults stayed out of the kids' way as best as possible...you could lose a limb if you weren't careful! It's funny how the children get so into all the presents. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, and everything else imaginable was flying in all directions!

Towns' princess dress was a little too big, but never fear....Aunt Melissa to the rescue with safety pins to do some quick alterations. Because there was no way in this world Towns was thinking about taking that dress off!

Anna Grace played some Christmas tunes for us (with the help from Maestro Towns). She just started taking piano lessons from Mary Clyde Merrill (the BEST piano teacher ever)...she taught me for ten years in Andalusia.

That about sums it up....now I've just got to get Christmas with my dad's side done and we'll call it a rap on Christmas '07! My apologies for the terrible narrations! :)

Christmas - Take 2

After our Christmas morning festivities, we headed to Selma to see Jonathan's family. We met Bethany there and did our Christmas with her. She always comes back home with us to spend some time here while she's out of school, but she's rather impatient when it comes to presents so we take hers with us. This prevents her having to wait a second longer than she has to!

I made Bethany open the "boring" presents first...clothes! I was saving the best for last!

After opening all her clothes, onto one of her big presents...an iPod Nano 3G (love the reaction!)...

Her other biggie this year was something she didn't have a clue she was getting. Bethany is notorious for figuring out what her presents are, but this was one I was bound and determined to keep a secret! She can sing like no other, write songs and melodies to go with them, and dances like a champ so it's no wonder she wants to be the next big star. I mean, the girl's got talent. She's so very into Miley Cyrus (see previous post on it) and Miley plays the guitar, so obviously Bethany wants to learn. So we got her a guitar for Christmas and sent her on a hunt to find it...

First clue: "Look here where you get all nice and clean, with this gift you'll every little girl's dream!"...she's a smart one and went straight to the shower.

Next clue: "You can sleep on top or hide underneath"...can't remember the rest!

The next clue was in the dryer: "This gets your clothes all warm and dry, hmmm, you or Miley Cyrus, it's a tie!"

I couldn't think of anything that rhymed with closet so I was very uncreative when I came up with this one: "You'll find your next clue where every pop star keeps their fabulous wardrobe!"

Now she's looking in the pantry as a result of this clue: "Here you'll find cereal and chips, when you play this _____ (blank) you'll be so hip!"

She's gone outside now and is about to find her prize. Here's the clue: "This held you when you swung from the roof, you can be a star and here's the proof!" Background story is as follows....this oak tree in the picture has a huge swing that hangs from one of the branches, and the last time we were there Jonathan talked Bethany into climbing up on the roof and swinging off of it. I nearly had a heart attack the first time I saw her do it. And pretty much every time thereafter.

She's found it!

Here are a couple of other pictures from our visit of Towns and her cousin Keaton...

Keaton was so sweet to help Towns open all her gifts! Towns absolutely adores him!!

Finally, CHRISTMAS!

After many attempts at trying to get my Christmas post together, I've decided to forgo the monstrous details and just get down to it...

We had to wake Towns up Christmas morning because Miss Lazy Bones wasn't at all worried about seeing what Santa had left for her. Finally she rose from her beauty rest and this is the precious face I captured as she walked into the living room to see what she'd gotten...

After the initial shock she entered crazy-kid-on-Christmas-morning mode and tore through everything...starting with her Barbie jeep...

And next, the 4-in-1 doll center (complete with a bath, a sink, a highchair, a cradle, and shelves and cabinets underneath...well worth the $39.99 at Target for those of you with baby doll loving gals)...please excuse the blurry picture...

She then discovered her Hannah Montana/Johnny Cash stage and everything else...

I could have saved all our money and just bought her this microphone which turned out to be her favorite gift of all time. Once she opened it, she never put it down. She opened the rest of the presents with microphone in hand!

Next up was a trial run in her new blue rocking chair (it's one of the only things she asked for...I took my dad's old red rocking chair from when he was little, painted it light blue, and covered the seat in pink cheatah fabric). Turns out Cate wasn't a fan of rocking, but they sure did look cute in their matching pj's! Note the microphone is still there...

Santa left her some pretty cool Holy Kitty (aka Hello Kitty, but she's always been Holy Kitty to Towns) slippers in the Christmas tree. Still hasn't turned loose of the microphone...

Since Bug didn't like the rocking chair, Towns wanted to see how she felt about the jeep...the ride didn't go over too well either...

Cate really wasn't trying to be a scrooge, she was just really sleepy...she slept through the rest of our present opening. I had to open her gifts for her....it'll be better next year!

While Cate napped through Christmas morning, Towns tried out her new stage and guitar. A star is born!!

After she tore through the presents, we had to see how the jeep handled on the open sidewalk...

Forgot to include this picture in my Christmas Eve post. This is Towns getting into Santa's cookies while we weren't looking. She got quiet and I found her sitting on the hearth digging into the chocolate chip cookies!

And last, but not least, this is the reaction Christmas morning when she realized "mean old Santa" as she called him had eaten all the cookies without saving her any. We had one fired up chick on our hands! She still hasn't forgotten it either! Every once in a while she'll ask me if I remember Santa eating all the cookies without sharing! :)