Christmas 2009

Wow! We had a great Christmas. I hope everyone else did too. The girls were so much fun. They each got way too much stuff. I still don't have it all put away. In fact, I'm not real sure where I'm going to put some of it.





Carissa had a great first Christmas. She is so loving and was genuinely happy to see all of her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other family and friends. She is crawling pretty good now and is so proud of herself. Here's a pic of her ready to take off.














We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Coopers at Grandma Sherrel's and Grandpa Clarence's. We had a nice birthday party for Jesus and had a yummy peanut butter birthday cake. After supper and cake we opened gifts. Maleah was so excited! Her favorite gifts were a really cool baby hospital bed for her baby dolls, a doctor/veterinarian dress-up outfit, and a matching M&M pillow and throw. Everyone knows Maleah loves M&Ms. Here are Maleah and Carissa with Aunt LuAnn.

















Here is the cake that Sherrel made.

Carissa had a great time there too. She got a cute little baby doll to play with from Grandma and Grandpa, along with some other things that she didn't really care about at that moment. She also got a super soft little puppy that she liked a lot too from Uncle Craig and Aunt LuAnn. My favorite gift was her diamond ring from Craig and LuAnn. It looked so pretty on her little finger. I hope she wears it as well as Maleah used to wear hers!

Christmas morning at our house was great! Carissa woke up about 7:30 and we finally had to wake Maleah up at about 8:30. She walked into the living room, took a look at the tree, and said "Yep. He was here." She was real calm and matter-of-fact about it. Of all days, she woke up with a runny nose and a little bit of a cold. So she was a little grouchier than usual. Not a good day for that to happen! But after she got to opening some presents she cheered up pretty quick. She loved everything. Santa brought her some Inspector Hector Dirt Detector handsoap and put it in her stocking. She had been searching stores for that stuff for months. She saw an ad for it in Parenting magazine and wanted it. It's kind of hard to find. But luckily, Santa knew where to get it. ; ) She got an American Girl doll that is called a Bitty Baby, because it looks like a newborn, rather than some of their other dolls who look like older girls. She calls it the "Coming Home Baby", although I'm not real sure why. I thought she would be so head over heels over that baby that Mackynzie would go to the wayside. That didn't happen. So far Mackynzie is wearing all of Bitty Baby's clothes and using all of her stuff. Bitty Baby (and a few other cute babies that other people gave to Maleah) is sitting in the corner of Maleah's room looking a little lonely. Why I buy expensive toys, I don't know. Every time I do, it doesn't get played with. The cheaper the gift, the more she likes it.

I didn't really expect Carissa to get into unwrapping her gifts. It's a good thing I didn't or I would've been disappointed. She could've cared less. She wasn't even into the wrapping paper or boxes too much. She did get excited about some of her gifts after they were unwrapped and out of the packaging. She got some bath toys in her stocking that she particularly liked. And she got a baby that looks a lot like Mackynzie (a newborn Cabbage Patch) but is named Shirley. Carissa was always wanting to hold Mackynzie and there was no way that Maleah was going to let her. Maleah is pretty good about sharing but Mackynzie is off limits. So Carissa got Shirley. And she loves her. It is so sweet to watch her hug and kiss her babies. And today she added the word "baby" to her vocabulary. She was looking at a picture of a baby on a box and she pointed at it and said "baby". Then she said it again later when she looked at it so it wasn't a fluke. The girl knows what she is talking about. That makes four words now that she says. Here are a couple of pictures from Christmas morning at our house.

Here are some pictures of Maleah in her doctor/veterinarian outfit from Grandma Sherrel. She looked so darn cute in it. She loved taking care of Carissa. She gave her a shot, took her "blood plessure", and put a band-aid on her. She also doctored her babies and her bears. So cute!

After we opened presents at home, we headed to my mom and dad's for breakfast. Mom always makes homemade biscuits and gravy on Christmas morning. It was so good! Then we opened presents there. Maleah was so happy to see Grandma, Grandpa, her cousin Chloey and Uncle Brad and Nikki, Madison, and Sophia. She got some really cool presents there too. Brad and Nikki got her a very pretty Lee Middleton baby doll (currently sitting next to Bitty Baby) and Grandma and Grandpa got her some clothes for Bitty Baby (the ones that Mackynzie is wearing) and a zhu-zhu pet. She loves that zhu-zhu pet! It's name is Jilly and it is pretty darn cute. So far, she hasn't gotten it caught in her hair so that's a bonus. She got so much stuff that day it would be very wordy for me to list it all, so I won't. But thanks to everybody that gave my girls a gift! We appreciate it and it will eventually get played with. Carissa loved her gifts there too. But I think her favorite thing there was box that had a picture of a baby on it. Oh well. Here is a picture of Sophia, Madison, and Maleah opening gifts.

After we left Mom and Dad's everyone fell asleep. Jason, Carissa, and Maleah were out like a light. So I got to work. The house was a disaster so I got that all cleaned up, toys somewhat put away, and all of the Christmas decorations, including the tree, put away. After that I felt a little bit better and could relax. I hate leaving, knowing that I'll be coming home to a disaster. I also made several dozen deviled eggs and did a workout video in my new Skecher Shape-Ups that Jason got me. Where did all of this energy come from? I have no idea. I haven't had any since. lol. Anyway, after everyone woke up we headed to the Oestreich Christmas. It was fun to see everyone and the girls had a good time. Here is Carissa with her Great-Uncle Timmy. She is crazy about Timmy.

We had a great Christmas. I talked a lot what a nice Christmas the girls had, but Jason and I had a pretty nice Christmas too! He did some shopping at Brinker's, so I got some new jewelry plus my new shoes. I was very happy! And he got a new drill and a new trigger from me. Neither of those things excite me but he was pretty happy about them.

It's hard to believe 2010 is right around the corner. Happy New Year everybody!

Nothing Like a Good Cookie...

It's definitely been busy around here this week. We have finally finished our Christmas shopping (yay!) and I have managed to get almost all of the gifts wrapped. I am very happy about that. I also have a clean house and no laundry at the moment. Woo hoo! That will all change in the morning though, I am sure about that. It's amazing how much can be accomplished if you stay home the entire day and do not go anywhere. Today was one of those rare days when I did just that. Oh, don't think that I did without my Dairy Queen Coke though. Jason went and got one for me. Wasn't that sweet?

Maleah has only one day of school left and then she is on Christmas break. I think she will be very ready to go back in January. Just having Saturday and Sunday off is too long for her. She is very ready to go back tomorrow and will be disappointed when she finds out she is not going to go to school the rest of the week.

Our family is mourning the loss of a friend this week. Al Peacher died suddenly on Friday night. He was married to Juanita, Maleah's babysitter. He and Juanita took care of Maleah when she was a baby while I was at work. Maleah still loves to go there and visit and for the last few years has stayed there about once a month or so when I have the "day off". She loved Al very much and I'm sure the visitation is going to be difficult for her. It will be her first and it will be for someone whom she will miss a great deal. It is going to be especially difficult for the kids who are used to seeing Al on a daily basis. He loved children and was a very nice man. He was like a grandfather to the kids that Juanita takes care of.

On the brighter side of things, we have decided to let our cat Eloise back into the house. She started out as a house cat a couple of years ago, but her crazy sister Eliza Jane ruined it for her and they both got booted out. They have since lived out on the back deck but Eliza Jane recently went missing. Poor Eloise was incredibly lonely and we felt sorry for her and let her back in. She will make a good housecat I think. Maleah is very excited about it and keeps kissing her (ewww!).

Carissa is turning into a wild woman. She is getting a lot more vocal - borderline loud at times. She probably feels like she has to, to drown out her sister. And she is really getting around now. She is army crawling and just almost regular crawling. She is trying really hard to pull up to things too. She got a new crib this week. We found out her old one was recalled so we took it back and got her a new one. Hopefully it will be a safer one. Her stroller got recalled last month. What the heck is up with all of these baby products being unsafe? Makes me nervous. Earlier in the week she found a chocolate chip cookie on the living room carpet that some other little girl had carelessly dropped. She snatched it right up and was really enjoying it. I decided to move her to the couch to avoid her possibly choking on it. She gobbled that thing right up! I think she was thinking "this is the best thing I've ever eaten in my whole life!!". Here are some pics of her and the cookie and the bath that followed.

We had the Weaver Christmas on Saturday night at Round Prairie Church. It was lots of fun. There are many relatives there that we only see at Christmas time each year. This year we got to meet Daisy. She is only a few weeks older than Carissa. Her mom is Jason's cousin and they have been living in Australia for not quite a year. Daisy was born over there and none of us had gotten to meet her yet. She is a cute little thing and her and Carissa sat by each other for a little bit. I can't say they really played with each other. Mostly what happened was Daisy took Carissa's keys and Carissa yelled at her (see? wild woman...) and then Daisy would laugh. Then she would touch something else of Carissa's and Carissa would yell, Daisy would laugh. See the pattern? Apparently Carissa is selfish. The whole thing cracked me up. After our big Christmas meal, we all went into the church sanctuary and some of the kids sang. Maleah was right up there onstage singing away, but only on the songs she knew. If she didn't know the song, she sat down. I think she thought she was pretty big stuff that night.

Santa Claus came to the Weaver Christmas too. Maleah couldn't wait for him to show up and kept asking anyone who was standing next to her at the moment when they thought he'd be there. When he finally showed up, she stood far away from him and watched every other child there (well, except Carissa) go forward, sit on his lap, and wait to be handed a couple of gifts. Finally when it looked like he was done and was getting ready to leave, she ventured a little closer, insisted that I hold her hand, and got close enough to be handed a gift. I told Santa that she didn't want to sit on his lap but preferred to talk to him while standing next to me. That wasn't good enough for ol' Santa though. With that twinkle in his eye, he laughed and said "oh, come here, and tell me what you want". And she did!! The first time ever! She sat on his lap and told him a few things that she really wanted for Christmas. Unfortunately, she had never mentioned those things to me and is not getting any of them. I think she was nervous and just rambling. I'll bet she couldn't even tell you what it is she said that night. He did give her two gifts that night that made her very happy though. On Sunday, just out of the blue, she said to me "Mom, why wasn't the real Santa there?". I was surprised and said "You don't think that was the real Santa?". She said "No, that was just someone dressed up". Then I explained to her that Santa is pretty busy this time of year and that was fine with her. She seemed okay with that explanation. I guess Jason's cousin Brian didn't make a very convincing Santa Claus.

Maleah performed in her school Christmas program on Wednesday. It was so cute! All of the kids lined up and sang Christmas songs. Maleah really got into it. She sang, danced, and was full of expression, to say the least. She looked beautiful and had her new Christmas dress on. She was so excited to see her mom, dad, sister, Grandma Debby, and Grandma Sherrel and Grandpa Clarence there to watch her. Mackynzie was also there watching. In case you didn't know, Mackynzie is her baby doll and she happened to have a matching dress on, just like Maleah's. Mackynzie has sort of taken over Clayton's place in the Cooper household. Remember Clayton? He went everywhere with us for a few months but now he is stuck in the closet (I think that's where he's at) and Mackynzie goes everywhere now. This may all change again after Santa's been here. You might want to take a good long hard look at Mackynzie because this may be the last time you'll see her. : )

This coming week should be very exciting! Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Maleah will be a lot of fun to watch and it will be exciting to see Carissa take it all in too. We are so blessed! Merry Christmas everybody!!

Eleven days 'til Christmas! Say what, say what???

We've had a busy week around here. Or at least it seems like it to me. I can't believe Christmas is less than two weeks away! Where did all my time go? I still have gifts to buy (not many, but a few) and almost everything left to wrap. Wrapping is a lot harder this year because Maleah keeps wanting to help. She is no help. She ends up taking "scrips" (her word, not mine) of leftover paper and taping some ribbon to it. I guess a "scrip" is a cross between a scrap and a strip. That's all I can figure out. I corrected her twice and she told me I didn't know what I was talking about. She is so stubborn! Where did she get that from? Needless to say, I've already made one trip to Walmart for more tape and more ribbon and I've only gotten 10 presents wrapped. I think she needs some fun Christmas crafts to do. (hint, hint, Aunt Angie)

So, Carissa is sort of crawling. She goes backwards pretty good and forwards not so good. She creeps forward I guess, instead of crawling. She still prefers her "roll and pivot" method. I think the gifts under the tree are going to be her incentive to speed up. She really really wants those presents and her roll and pivot method is slowing her down. She is talking now! She has been saying "mama" and "dada" for a while, but now she has added "bye-bye" to her vocabulary. It is so sweet! She says it really softly. "Buh-bye" Pretty good for 8 months old, in my opinion. I think she is going to be another early talker like her sister was.

Speaking of her sister, she never shuts up! My lands! Can that girl talk! When I dropped her off at pre-k today, I was thinking how much she sounded like that girl from The Cosby Show. You remember, Vanessa's friend? She talked super fast all the time. That is Maleah all over! She talked, without hardly taking a breath, all the way from our house to her school. Then she talked all the way from getting out of the car to the front door of her school. I finally interrupted her to tell her that I loved her and to have a good day.

Maleah told me last week that she had helped her teacher remember another student's name. Apparently her teacher had a moment where she got tongue-tied and couldn't remember who she was talking to. Maleah told her "it's Corbin!". The teacher then thanked her and Maleah said "You're welcome. Maybe I should be President of this school." I think me and her teacher got a kick out of that. Later that day at home, she told me that she should maybe be "President of this town or maybe even President of this whole world!!" Wow. She has big dreams and a big ego.

She wore a new outfit to school today and after she put it on she asked me how she looked. I told her that she looked beautiful. She said "Do you think I look like a 1st grader?" I said, "Oh, you're pretty tall and that outfit does look sort of grown-up on you. I think you could probably pass for a 1st grader." Oh my gosh! That made her so happy! Apparently, she really wants to look like a big girl in 1st grade.

Since I'm behind on pictures I've put in a lot this week. I still don't have the picture of me and the girls meeting Gretchen Wilson. Holly still has not emailed that to me! If she reads my blog this week, maybe she'll get the hint. Anyway, here are some pics from my Nashville trip and Jason's big buck that he got. The first one is all of us "playgroup moms" at Buca di Beppos (or something like that) and the second one is all of us at P.F. Chang's. In the top one, left to right, is Leslie Warren, Kate Saulle, Me, Holly Emery, and Deb DuQuaine.

Carissa can sit up and pull up a little in her crib now so before we lower the mattress Daddy decided to take a few pics of her peeking over the edge. You can't tell in the pictures but she has three teeth now! One of the top ones came in on Thursday. They look so shiny in there when she grins.

We had a little bit of snow last week and Maleah took advantage of it. She played and played in it and was disappointed that it was gone by noon. She was able to make a snowman, although not a very big snowman.

Our sorority coat drive pick-up day was held on Saturday and it was a HUGE success! We were able to help so many families. It was really neat to watch the little kids come in and pick out a coat that fit them and a new hat and gloves. Their faces would just light up. We had several that put their coats on and wouldn't take them off while their parents continued to look. They loved them so much they didn't want to take them off. That was really neat. It sure made us all stop and think about how blessed we are and how much we take for granted. Maleah helped on Friday night when we set up the coat racks and she helped Saturday morning too. There was a pink scarf there that she really really wanted but I had told her that she couldn't have it and that it was for someone who needed it. I could tell she was really disappointed. But on Saturday morning she showed it to a little girl that came in and told her "I think this would look really pretty on you." Isn't that sweet? She wasn't told to say that, she just wanted that little girl to have it, since she herself couldn't have it. The little girl wore it out. I took Maleah to Walmart later and bought her an iCarly hat and a princess scarf. Maybe that was her plan all along and I fell for it? Who knows!

Nashville Shopping Trip = Exhaustion

Okay faithful blog readers, I hope I don't disappoint you but I'm too tired to write much tonight. I've had a fun and crazy weekend. We're all tired here. Jason, the girls, and especially me.

I left on Friday morning with my playgroup mom friends, Deb, Holly, and Leslie for a 2 night shopping trip to Nashville, Tennessee. We met our friend Kate there since she now lives in Tennessee. So there were five of us gals livin' la vida loca in Nashville. We shopped and we shopped and we shopped. I got most of my Christmas shopping done now.

We stayed the first night at this super nice hotel in Franklin. It was such a nice area! We ate at some great restaurants there (J. Anderson's, Buca di Beppo's, and P.F. Chang's). Deee-lish!! We spent three hours in T.J. Maxx and found some great deals! It was just so much fun being with the girls and shopping without having to rush. Loved it! On Saturday we went the best mall EVER!!!! It was the Coolsprings Galleria in Franklin. I highly recommend it.

On Saturday evening we checked into our next hotel, the Hampton Inn and Suites Downtown Nashville. Oh my gosh!! It was fabulous! We had a junior suite and it was so nice. One of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed at. We decided to walk downtown and check out some live music and get something to eat next.

I was just sure that we were going to meet someone famous and WE DID!!! While we were out on the sidewalk on Broadway we ran into Gretchen Wilson and Cowboy Troy. They were sooo nice! We had our picture taken with them. That was the highlight of the trip for me. I told Gretchen that we were from Southern Illinois too. She was very friendly and just overall very cool. Cowboy Troy even took a pic of all of us together with his camera. I checked his twitter page today and he twitpic'd us! So if you're on twitter, become a fan of cowboytroy and check us out! I'll try to post some pics on the blog in the next few days but my camera battery went dead Saturday so I'll have to swipe some pics from Holly to put on here.

It was interesting how signs of home kept following us around Nashville. We were in a packed "honky-tonk" listening to this really awesome guy who will probably be on CMT one day and ran into my friend Mandy and her husband who were in town celebrating their 10th anniversary. I knew she was in the city but I never dreamed I would actually run into her. Then the next place we went to had "So. Ill" written on the bathroom toilet paper dispenser when I went to the ladies room. We left there and went dancing at the next place and there was this cool bluegrass-ish/old-fashioned band playing. They said "You've probably never heard of this song but it's about a place called Effingham". Then they sang the "Effingham Song" that they play on the Effingham radio station. I sang along and knew most of the words. The lead singer stopped and started talking to us and couldn't hardly believe that we were from that area. He said "this one goes out to the girls from Effingham!" What are the odds that we would be in that particular place at the same time that he sang that song? Then we saw Gretchen who is from Southern Illinois. And then at the last place we went to, there was this big sign on the wall that said "Alton Belle Casino". Strange. We had a lot of fun. That is for sure.

It was so good to see Jason and the girls when I got home though. I missed them! And they missed me! Carissa was a little standoffish when I got home but she got over it pretty quick. Maleah couldn't quit hugging and kissing me. She is a big time mama's girl and she needed me back. How blessed am I to have so much love in my life?

If I wasn't about to fall asleep I might have more to say. But my own bed and my own pillow are calling my name. Forgive any spelling and/or grammatical errors. I'm too tired to care. Pictures soon, I promise. : )