What's for dinner?

Tonight I asked Helen what we should cook for dinner. I got to the pantry door and said, "Helen, How about spaghetti? I think we should have spaghetti." As I'm reaching for the door knob she says, "No, I want Cap'n Crunch."

Kids.

Not since '93...

...have I been a part of a snow like this. I mean, sure, when I went to Montana I saw some serious snow, but not in the SOUTH! Whoa...what's all that about. Our little city got about 6 inches...how about you?

It was a Sunday, and just about the time church let out it started coming down. The sidewalks had already iced over, but the roads had yet to be covered. We thought it would stop there and all would be well. We were wrong. As you can tell from the picture below it just kept coming, and in sheets!

This is a tree across the street. The "blur" yous see is the snow falling.

Here's a picture of my favorite tree in the back yard. You can tell the "sheets" of snow are really thick in this one. As for the tree, it's always like that. I'm sure I've blogged about it before, but if you don't know, this tree grows like this. I suppose at some point it fell over, but it's beautiful when it blooms in the spring. The only part of it that doesn' still sprout leaves is the bottom limbs.

About six o'clock that evening, the power went out. It might've been a little earlier, but it was out just before dark. My mom was at my house helping me as I was recovering from my car accident **will have more on that later** and she and Helen had fun making paper snowflakes! They are still hanging on the fridge. Helen couldn't get enough of looking at the snow. Like most kids, she wanted to be out in it. Of course it was too late and too cold to get her out in it. We promised her that we'd go out the next morning.

We played Yatzee with Helen that night. She loved it. We let her shake the dice in the little cup. Oh she was so happy--you would have thought we'd just let her run wild on a shopping spree through ToysRus!

Just about 9:25 (we let her stay up late b/c she had a REALLY late nap) I told Brian we should bring the futon matress into the family room, by the fire, and we'd all have a campout. So we got the futon matress for me (brian was a party pooper), Grammie slept on the sofa, and Helen's matress we put next to mine. Here we are laying together watching the fire. It was 9:35 when the power came on....**hmph**



Helen didn't sleep there. She HAD to lay in "Helen's bed" so we moved all her stuff back into her crib and she went right to sleep. I guess it's a good thing the power came back on...or else it would have been a long fight.

The next morning, after a good breakfast, we bundled Helen and Grammie in all the warmest clothes and sent them to venture out into the icy tundra...hehe.

Isn't she cute?

Off they go to the top of the yard, by the street. It's a perfect slope for a nice smooth drop towards the house. Katie, our 3yr old neighbor and her mom were outside. We invited them over to play in our yard. I think they liked our slope better.
Since Brian was having a hard time getting down the road, even in his rent-A-F150, he came back home and played in the show with Helen and Katie. That little red inflattable thing Helen is on is actually Katie's SLIP-N-SLIDE "board."
She fell over a couple of times, but as with most toddlers, she just laughed, got up, and kept going! She's such a trooper!
Here is Katie, in full SCREAM, as Brian gives her a little push. As soon as she put her booty on the card board she started screaming! Girls...

I have to mention Katie and her being a super fashionista even in the snow. Please notice that not only does she have great taste in her pink faux-leopard skin coat with fleece lining, but she's got two different boots and two different gloves. Gotta love it. I am CERTAIN that it was not that she couldn't find the matches but because she absolutely wanted it that way. She's a DIVA!

Here's the two sweeties holding hands and they walk back up the "hill." Ohwe!

I also need to mention how Helen has socks on her hands. They are the waterproof socks Brian wore in Montana...she had fun! Anyway, after 30 minutes or so of play time, helen didn't want to come back in. This is just before she got VERY upset when she found out she was finished. Notice the snot dripping...nuf said.

It was a fun snow day. The next day the road were clear, for the most part. The day after that nearly all the snow was gone, and by Thursday, it was like 70 degrees outside! What's up with that!?

I end this blog with a couple of super cute pics for the g-parents. This is Tomboy Helen in her Mickey hat. She put it on this way and wore it for a while. She put it on to take Jannie (her Cabbage Patch Doll) in her stroller, to the "store." Of course, she never left the house, but circled the family room several times before ditching Jannie for her computer.

Stupid door

There's always some point in our lives as parents when we do things to our children that hurt them and we beat ourselves up for it. Some let their infants roll off the bed, some look away for a second and that toddler puts his little hand on the hot oven door, maybe we even watch in slow motion as they fall down bust their lip open on a toy you should have picked up an hour ago. When Helen was a baby I looked away for a second and she rolled off the couch, and I felt HORRBILE about that, but I found away to get over it.

Today, however, I did another Mommy Booboo and closed Helen's fingers in the door. I didn't realize she was holding onto the threshold near the henge and the door shut all the way before she let out a scream. Bless her heart. She cried....but you knew that. I cried...you probably knew that too. She told me in her pitiful little sobbing cry, "I hold MOMMY! Mommy my fingers! Kiss it mommy! I want my bandaid! I want my Lambie! Mommy, fingers in the door it hurts!"

My heart ached. I did my initial exam and put a bandaid and ointment on the fingernail of her right ring finger. I squished it pretty good....

Knowing Helen and how she normally reacts to pain, she seemed to be in more pain than just a squished finger. I didn't think it could be broken, but it did seem like something else was wrong.

I took her to her doctor and our sweet Dr. Huff said she needed to do Xrays because if the growth plates were damaged, we needed to get her seen by a specialist. The first Xray went GREAT because they didn't have to manipulate the fingers at all. Just put them flat on the film. The second however took me and another nurse to hold her down to get a good shot. They had to see the side angle of the finger.

We waited as they developed and sure enough....the tip of her finger was broken. Thank the Lord God in Heaven that I didn't damage the growth plates. Dr. Huff said she'd be fine in a few weeks, but until then we had to keep them taped up and a bandaid over the finger nail until it heals.

I told Helen as she screamed during the second Xray that if she would hold still, I would buy her some ice cream. So I lived up to my end of the deal and took her to Sonic and bought her a strawberry smoothie. When we went to the drug store to get some tape I got her a new cup too! She had to put her smoothie in it too!

All in all, here's our little patient with her sticker from the doctor, her new cup, and her war wounds.

For Nathan

All of you who know us outside of the blogosphere know that Brian's sister and family lived out here near us for about a year. During that time, Helen and Nathan (Leslie's son) became nearly as close as brother and sister. They were partners in crime and I dare predict that they will continue to do so the remainder of their lives.

The last few time we had the opportunity spend time with them, and we had our camera out, I made sure to capture it. Here are a few things in memory of the time spent with our sweet Nathan.

This was fun time with the sidewalk chalk. This is a drawing depicting Nathan's tractor and wagon. Helen always rides in the wagon and Nathan always drives.

Running around the church fellowship room.

When Helen got her new tricycle, Nathan got a BIG WHEEL! He was so precious riding that thing. He didn't want to pedal it, he wanted to push it. He'll get it soon. If not already...

We miss you Nathan. Helen asked about you this week when we went to church. She wanted to know if you'd be at church. Of course we said no, but that's her way to let us know she misses you.

Trike and Jannie

I know Christmas is all kinda gone, but I wanted to take a moment to note a few things just so I'll have it archieved.

This year we spent Christmas at home, without traveling, but the weekend before, we went to visit the Pendley side of Brian's family. We had Christmas twice that weekend. Once at Eric and Haley's house and once at Deedee's house. The "everybody" get-together was at Deedee's. The more personal, immediate family christmas was at Eric's.

Brian's parents and siblings met early that morning to exchange gifts together and to let the kids open all of their loot. It was really fun because we had a YUMMY brunch and then had presents. Helen got her very first Cabbage Patch doll, according to the birth certificate the doll's name is Bobye Jannie. I thought it was the dumbest name. It just doesn't FLOW at all plus it just really sounds completely back-hills redneck to me. (And I'm from those back hills so I can say that. hehe.)

Here's Jannie. Her aunt Leslie bought it for her and I was thrilled. I loved cabbage patch dolls as a child and I am so glad Helen got one. This was the best shot I could get with her and the doll. She was ALL over the place and wouldn't open one more gift until that doll was out of the box. So Dad got to work on that....

The next gift was a few outfits, both of which she wore that weekend because they were SO cute. Then came the trike. Mimi and PawPaw bought her a Radio Flyer tricycle. It came pre-assembled so she was ready to ride immediately.

I loved this shot. She and Brian were trying it outide on the concrete. She didn't quite understand how to make her feet work to make the pedals go. She's still working on that actually. When it gets warmer, we'll be all over the street working on it. So in this picture, she's just got her feet on the pedals as they rotate....sort of.

A mini birthday

Having a birthday on December 23rd, Helen will never have a birthday party that is not surrounded by red and green, santa claus, jingle bells, and regrets to her RSVPs. This year her big party is mid-January because there was no weekend in December to have her party (because of christmas events), and the preceding two weekends were for traveling.

So in order to celebrate, with her two BFFs (me and her daddy), we had a small party on her actual birthday with just the three of us. She got a balloon and a small mickey and we had little mickey cupcakes! She'd just gotten up from her nap when we had the surprise but she did seem to enjoy it. She did really well blowing out the candles...without spitting on them like some do. :)

I still can't believe that she's already two.

Little American Girl

This is Helen's new coat I told you about in the previous posts, thanks Grandmom!

Catch up

OK. I've just gotten a moment to take a breather from this week. I truly think I've been more stressed this week than I was while working two jobs and going to school full time during college. I thought that was pretty stressful, but MAN, this week has just kicked my tail.

We went to visit my family this past weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday and I loved every second of it. I always miss my family because visits to see my grandparents are few. My grandparents played such an important role in my life and short visits are just such a tease to my heart. From the time I was born until I started high school I remember seeing one or both of my grandmothers every week. During my early years it was nearly once a day! All that being said, I love them and they hold a very special place in my heart, as do most grandparents to their grandchildren. Seeing them all this weekend made me wish we could live closer so Helen can know them the way I know them and cherish them. She had a blast while we were there, so I suppose short visits will have to do! :)

We ate lots of good food and saw an awesome football game! Roll Tide Roll! We even had an early Christmas at my grandmom's house! She got Helen a BEAUTIFUL coat! It's black wool with black fuzzy hem and on the cuff and instead of buttons there are red velvet rose buds! It's even got a cute little hat to match! Go Grandmom! Sunday I'll get a picture of her in it and post it!

This weekend I got to visit my first niece. She's just four weeks old and so tiny. See my next post to read a little more about her. I'm still without more pics but they will come soon.

Helen started saying the cutest phrase this week. When someone says, "See you later alligator" the response should be "After while crocodile!" Well, she says, "After Croc-o-dye-dle!" and in her cute little baby voice she makes my heart happy! Brian tries to correct her, but I love it so much I don't want her to say it right! She'll learn it soon enough...

Something new and fabulous is that Brian and I have started a new business venture. I would go into detail, but it's very difficult to explain in blog format, but I'd like to invite my readers to contact me should you be open-minded and interested in working with us in a fabulous e-commerce industry! It's something we're doing to supplement our income during this very unstable time, neither my job nor Brian's is secure right now and when we found this organization and we saw our potential, it really made good sense to jump on board! We are now able to see the light at the end of the tunnel that is called retirement...yep, I said retirement. I'm on facebook (Kristy Gray - Athens GA network) and myspace (www.myspace.com/bkg1403) or you can email me at bkg1403@yahoo.com. We've even got a website: http://www.grayglobalnetworking.com/ if you'd like to check it out. Come visit us! We've got some great products on our site (for those of you looking for some fun and unique gifts).

I guess that's about it for us for the past two weeks. I know there's more I've forgotten to mention, but it's late. I hope you all have a fabulous week! Be sure to pull for UofA in the SEC Championship this weekend! It's gonna be a goodie!

Cousins

Since Ty and Leslie moved out here last July (2007), these two have become as close as brother and sister. This was at a church function a few weeks ago (just getting the time to post it). Aren't they adorable!

We're going to miss them when they move back to Alabama!

Some exercise

Brian took Helen out for a nice walk this evening. I love when they spend Daddy-time together. His main purpose was to burn some energy, perhaps some calories, but Helen insisted on walking the entire time. Three of her steps made for one of his....so all he did was take a walk, but it was a walk with is daughter. I'd say time well spent! WAY TO GO DAD!

****Check out the next post****

A little crow, a big Mickey, too much Dynamite

During the summer, one day while Helen was swimming in her little pool outside, she and Grammy (my mom) heard the call of a crow. Helen stopped what she was doing and asked what the noise was. Grammy said, "It's a caw-caw bird." Since then, she's been fascinated by the sound and the sight of a crow.


So it was only fitting (an irony) that this year's halloween costume be a scarecrow. Moma and Tom made her a small crow to sit on her shoulder (and in the following pictures it's on her hat). She loved that little crow too! We put it on her shoulder after she shed her hat. Then the bird had to go altogether because it became so cold she had to wear a sweater.

We started at Beth and Duke's house again this year, but instead of spending the evening going door to door with tons of kids, they threw a party for all of the kids and the families. As is usual with the Allens, it was a blast of a party. We had pizza and several people brought games or activities for the kids to do to win prizes or whatever.

Helen found the pumpkins on the front porch very fascinating. She liked ALL the pumpkins she saw, in fact.

Here she is with Nathan. He came as a cowboy! Isn't he adorable. He had real boots and a real hat and all he needed was a holster, some guns, and some spurs to make him a full fledged cowboy! I guess for a three-year-old, what he had on was plenty! :)



(Never missing an opportunity to rock)

Stopped mid-sentence to point and say "LOOK MOMMY, PUMPKIN!" Then she got down and ran over to it!
It didn't take long for her to shed her hat. It was a little small for her anyway. She wanted it on her head, but it just didn't want to stay...especially at full throttle speed all night.

"Daddy hold it?"

Through all the kids, you will notice a very wonderfully crafted bean-bag toss game made by Ty. I don't know if he had any help, but it sure was fun for those kids. Every single child (and adult too) had a go at this thing. Helen saw it and you know what she said, "IT'S MICKEY!" Yeah, she thought it looked like a Mickey Mouse head. Brian told me later that she walked over to it and said "Hey Pal!" Just like Mickey says to Pluto! Isn't that the sweetest! She spent a good portion of her time here.

Such determination!

This was my "booth." I decided to bring the stuff one needs to paint miniature pumpkins. It was SO fun to see all the kids painting and doing. I'll have more about this little venture soon.

This is me....mixed with dynamite. Napolean Dynamite that is. LOL! I look like a ten-year-old. Duke and Beth's daughter, Savannah, came dressed as Napolean. By the end of the night, she had shed the wig and glasses. So I decided to try it out...

This is Savannah after the Napolean. One of the booths was for face painting so she got a nice camo handprint on her face. This pic doesn't show the colors very well, but it looked really neat.

Last but not least, my sweet little angel got to put it on too! HAHAHAH!

I don't think this could be much cuter!

Maybe next year I can get her a red dress and a shaggy dog and she could be little orphan Annie! :)