Winter Adventures

On Monday we packed up the car and headed south to spend the week with Pop and Granma.  They are adding a sunroom and deck to their house, so Chris decided to come down to help his Pop work.  Nancy Carolyn and I are down for fun.  Everyone else goes to work and we get to stay in and play.  On Tuesday, we decided to take a little trip to Dothan.  We ran a few errands while we were there.  In fact, I took my car to get the oil changed and stuff and the only place to eat in walking distance was McDonald's- so NC got to experience her first Happy Meal.  

We've had a fun week with Granma and Pop!

I'm Dreaming...

of a White Christmas...

Can you believe we had a White Christmas, after all?  I totally thought it would just snow and melt.  But it didn't... it stuck around.  My heart seriously just filled with joy and amazement, as we drove home in the snow.  It was beautiful and so peaceful.  The perfect ending to a wonderful first Christmas for Nancy Carolyn.

Most of you know from Facebook that I was baking the whole week leading up to Christmas.  I baked a coconut pound cake, red velvet cake (yes with cream cheese icing), oatmeal raisin cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, black and white chocolate covered cherry cookies, caramel cake, butternut cake and I even made some divinity.  I had a wonderful time baking and look forward to the day when NC can really join me in the kitchen.

On Christmas Eve, we had our family over for a nice meal.  Chris made the most delicious prime rib ever!  Oh and he made mashed potatoes and asparagus.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  Chris's parents stayed the night with us.  I was so excited about Nancy Carolyn's first Christmas (and so tired from the week) that I had trouble sleeping and was awake about an hour before NC decided to get up (almost at 8 am!)  We had my family's tradition of sausage and biscuits before opening presents.  NC didn't last long though- she made it through the Santa presents and all the ones from Pop and Granma.  While she was sleeping Chris's brother, his partner and his aunt arrived for Christmas brunch.  We had a wonderful brunch and a good time opening the rest of the presents.  After NC's second nap of the day, we headed over to Grandaddy and Nana's house for Christmas with my family.  We had a nice ham dinner, followed by the fun of opening even more presents.  It was the most wonderful day I could have asked for... I'm so very blessed to have such wonderful family! 

 

11 months

On Wednesday, Nancy Carolyn was officially 11 months.  I cannot believe how fast this year has gone and that we are quickly approaching her FIRST birthday!  EEEK!  Where has the time gone?

 So these days, NC is a lot of fun.  She loves to play and crawl around everywhere.  She's discovered the toliet paper and LOVES to unroll it.  (FUN times!)

She absolutely adores bath time and makes a mad dash for her bathroom when she hears the water running.

Nancy Carolyn is definitely "Miss Independent"- she wants to do EVERYTHING herself, which means meals have become even messier than before.  She LOVES to stand and cruise the sofa or with her dino. 




No official stats to report but I think she's between 18 and 19 pounds. 

Santa visit and Pink Pig

 Well, we did them a week and half apart but... the Sunday after Thanksgiving we took NC (and Chris) to ride the Pink Pig at Lenox.  NC wasn't quite sure about it but I think in the end she had fun.  Chris had never ridden either so he rode with NC (I did too, just because).  We met up with Rebecca and her boys (all 3 of them) :) afterwards to exchange some goodies.  We were planning on being there together but it just didn't work out that way.

This past Thursday we took NC to see Santa.  My dad and Sue were keeping Ellis, so they came along too.  We got a picture of each girl with Santa and then one of them together.  NC went first and she didn't know what to think.  She kept looking at him then back to me and Chris with this look like "What is going on and who is this man holding me and why are you standing over there?"  As you can see from the picture, she does NOT look happy but the tears didn't start until Santa had both girls.  She did much better than I thought she would.

Merry Christmas!

Retro Plaid Christmas Card

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Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.  We spent the day with Chris's family.  Our big meal was at dinnertime.  Chris fried a turkey and it was fantastic!  I am NOT a turkey lover... in fact, most Thanksgivings I eat only the veggies and sides... However, this turkey... THIS Turkey was incredible. I gave Nancy Carolyn a taste of everything.  She's such a good eater :)

I did it!!!

So I'm a little late in posting... BUT I DID IT!!!  I completed my first half marathon on November 14.  Last June I signed up to train with Team In Training. We started training in August for the Rock n Roll San Antonio half marathon.  If you remember back in January, I said it was one of my goals for the year... Jury is still out on whether I'll do the Princess half.  I'd like to do it but have decided that I need a treadmill if I'm going to train for it.  AND if you've been to my house, you know we have NO ROOM for a treadmill.  This is where my hope and wish to move to a new (new to us) and bigger home is coming in to play.

So, we trained from August up til the event in November.  I'm so thankful I joined the Team.  It was a little hard at first getting to know people because Chris was training with his Team for the Nation's Tri- which kept me from training with my team.  I did it on my own until his triathlons were over for the season.  I met some wonderful people though.  I did find it hard to train full time during the week, working full time and of course being a new mommy full time.  A lot of times running/walking was put on the back burner... but I got my long miles in on Saturdays or Sundays so I was pretty prepared.  I would've liked to have been more prepared and a little faster than I was, but it was still fun.

First of all, if you haven't been to San Antonio- I HIGHLY Recommend going- especially if you LOVE to eat Mexican.  Tex-Mex is it's own thing and man is it delicious!  We enjoyed our meals, that is for sure.  Our hotel was on the River Walk so we had easy access to some wonderful and yummy restaurants.  NC LOVED the Tex-Mex, as well.

The race was on Sunday, so Saturday we spent the morning at the race expo (we had been the night before too when we picked up my number).  Sunday morning it was odd being the one to get up and get dressed for a race, instead of being the one to take care of NC and get her dressed.  I got dressed and met the team about 45 minutes before the race started.  It started at 7:15, though I did not start til close to 8.  The start reminded me a bit of the Peachtree Roadrace.  I was in Corral 29... When we finally got to the start line to start, it was so exciting.  A lot of you know, I was doing a run/walk method... I had Chris's fancy Garmin on to beep at me when it was time to switch.  He set it for a 5 min/1 min interval.  Being a Rock n Roll Marathon/half Marathon, they had a band playing at just about every mile to mile and half.  THAT was a lot of fun.  Every band I passed was playing a song that I liked, making the run that more fun.  I had a lot of fun running and seeing different parts of San Antonio.  When I got to about mile 6 (or it might've been a little before it), to mine (and everyone around me) delight there was a HUGE blowup of a "Rocker" straddling the street.  It was funny to see all the people that were running with their phones, stop and take a picture.  They did that when we passed the Alamo too.  :)  I was doing good until I hit mile 10... then I started to hurt... my back started hurting, and I was ready for the end.  Luckily I saw Chris and NC about that time and that boosted my spirits.  I was never so happy to see mile 13 though!  AT that point, I could see the finish line and all the people were crowded around and cheering.  The only problem was, it was all uphill... I saved enough energy that I sprinted across the finish line and man what a feeling!!!    YAY ME!  I didn't quite have the time that I wanted, but that's something to strive for next time.  I just need a bigger house so I can get a treadmill so I can run during the week :)

Thankful

I'm thankful for all the blessings God has given me, most importantly His Son and relationship with him.  He's blessed me with a Christian family, the most amazing husband and the sweetest, funniest little girl who just makes my heart sing.  Happy Thanksgiving to all and to all a good night!

10 Months

Nancy Carolyn turned 10 months on the 15th.  We spent the day traveling home from San Antonio, but it was a fun day.


She has quite a personality- very funny.  Her face has gotten quite expressive and we laugh at some of the faces she makes.  She is Miss Independent and LOVES to feed herself.  Her favorite foods are bananas, beans, most any fruit, pot roast, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots... you name it, she'll eat it.

She's getting into everything and LOVES to pull things off the end tables.  Nancy Carolyn loves to play with our ipods and our phones.  She even figured out how to turn Pandora on my itouch the other morning. 

I think she'll be walking soon.  She pulls up on everything and pushes her dinosaur all over the room.

I "HEART" Shutterfly

I <3 Shutterfly and have for some time.  When I first got a digital camera, it was the first site I uploaded my photos to.  Over the years, I've tried some competitors but always end up back at Shutterfly.

The past three Christmases, I have created a family calendar for my dad and Sue. It's on my list to do again this year for them.  I created a share site specifically for the Barden- Hartley- Wyatt clan to add pictures for me to use in our calendar.  The share site has made it easy for me to share the most recent pictures of Nancy Carolyn and our adventures.

Shutterfly has great photo gifts that I'm sure the grandparents will love this year! 

Some of their best products are their photo cards/stationary.  I've done extensive research looking for just the right announcement (which yes, I know.. I never got around to sending one... maybe I'll send a "Look Who's One" announcement instead. :)  And then there's their Christmas cards... WHICH I'm still trying to decide which one I like best.  I like the collage ones like this one.  I also like how FUN this one is...  Then there's the simplicity of this one, that I also like.  But there's also this one that has a "letter" on it... Ah Decisions Decisions!!! 

Halloween!

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend, celebrating NC's first Halloween.  NC was invited to her first Halloween party at her friend Lilli's house on Saturday.  The real fun started on Sunday morning.  We decided to go check out Burt's Farm and get a pumpkin (or two .. or four).  It was a beautiful fall day and we had a wonderful time. I was a little worried that it would be crazy busy but it was actually a great time to go.  We walked around and checked everything out (it was our first visit).  We took some pictures then picked our pumpkins.  And of course, we had to check out the hayride. :)  Unfortunately when we got home, we found out that NC had a fever.  She was a trooper though, carving the pumpkin and putting her costume on (for just a bit though).

9 months

Nancy Carolyn turned 9 months on October 15 (yes I realize that was TWO weeks ago) but we've been super busy.  We had our check up that day and she did really well.  The doctor said she was perfect (OF COURSE!).  Her stats:  16 lb 15 oz, 27 1/4" long, both in the 25%

She is getting to be quite the accomplished crawler.  She LOVES to chase our cat, Bailey too.  She squeals and talks to her (and Sammy too) when they are brave enough to come near.  NC is so funny too.  She makes funny faces and has the best personality.  I think her favorite thing to do  is to mess up the toys when they are all neat.  For instance, if we made a tower or stack up those nesting cups... she LOVES to get them and knock them down.  She's also starting to venture out on her own.  Such a funny, stubborn, brave and independent little girl who lights up our days!!!

again... sorry blogger

I have turned into the lousiest of bloggers.... There just never seems to be enough time.  In fact, I'm just now uploading videos and pictures from... well, a long time ago!  

Things are constantly busy.  We are constantly going somewhere or doing something.  Over the last month, Nancy Carolyn has flown for the first time.  We flew to DC for a triathlon.  She went to her first baseball game (Washington Nationals), her first BRAVES game, first trip to the zoo (Smithsonian National Zoo), has started crawling and is getting her first tooth!  She is one busy little girl!  Her little personality continues to shine and she is one funny little girl!