Before and after

Before I get into my bedroom makeover pictures, I just want to share something funny Meredith does all the time now. She puts us on time outs. Today Greg took our vacuum clean upstairs to clean up a mess. Meredith saw him taking it up the stairs and had a fit (she's a tidy little thing and likes to clean). She started screaming in a high pitched voice and screaming real fast saying "No Daddy, vacuum cleaner stay down. Down stairs. Daddy on a time out". Sometimes I can't help but laugh at her little fits.

Oh, and you will be happy to know this blog update got interrupted by a certain someone who was having quiet time in her crib (didn't take a nap today) and decided to take her pants and POOPY diaper off.

Anyway, we are done with our bedroom finally. We got a new bed a couple weeks back so we figured that if we have a nice new bed, we should spruce up our room a little bit. It was pretty bad as you can see from these before pictures.

This is before (obviously). As you can see, we don't even have a bedframe and sleep with sheets and blankets that don't match. Our walls are bare and white.

AFTER

I absolutely love this bed (as I should considering how much we spent on it). It's handcrafted by local Amish folk and was made-to-order.

I have a cord cover that will go over that white cord...don't you worry.

This is a beautiful cedar chest that my grandpa gave my grandma as a wedding gift back in 1942. It looks beautiful with the bed.

And just for fun, here is the inscription inside and original documents that came with the chest.

This one is just another angle.

These are our new thermal curtains that actually fit our window.
Another angle.
This is the best part of the bed and what sold us on spending so much money on it. There is another drawer like this on the other side.
And finally, the ghettoness of our room still. We are waiting to get the matching dressers so we are using our dressers of old for now. The good thing about this bed is that is was handcrafted so we don't have to worry about not being able to get coordinating pieces.

And for those of you who insist on seeing pictures of Meredith, this is what I arrived home to one evening this week. Looks like Grandma had a little fun playing with M's hair. Oh, and remember how I said she was tidy? That's her broom in her hand.

Christmas 2009

Christmas was fun this year. Meredith is really starting to understand things now so that makes it so much more fun for me. We spent Christmas Eve at Ben and Angie's house. We braved the snow and made it down there to have some good food and open gifts. Thank you everyone for the great gifts you gave me, Greg, and Meredith. Meredith loves all her gifts. She got a pack of Elmo underwear which she wore around on her head all night (i'm sorry to say that that pair of panties did not make it. She stretched a hole through the elastic). The trip home took almost two hours - what should have been a 55 minute trip normally.

We were supposed to go to my mom and dad's for Christmas day but we cancelled. It wasn't snowing as much but we just didn't feel like spending hours in the car for a trip that should take less than an hour. So, Greg's brother Scott and my sister Jennifer came over instead.

I don't have many pictures to share. I brought my camera to Christmas Eve but then discovered that I left the battery at home. I am posting some pictures from Christmas day.

I don't really have much to write about. We took all the Christmas decorations down so it's nice to have our house back to normal. We also got a new bedframe so our room has undergone a complete makeover. We have a few things left to hang on the wall and then I will post some before and after pictures.

Meredith goes back to the doctor AGAIN tomorrow to recheck her ear. I have a feeling it's still infected because she occasionally tells me she has a boo-boo in her ear. It's been infected for six weeks now. She's had at least four ear infections since October. We went through this last year too. I really want her doctor to recommend and ENT because I want to get her tubes. Heck, I have a tube in my ear right now as an adult. She needs them. It's not going to get any better.

I'm traveling some in the next couple weeks. Next week I'll be in Houston for a couple days and the following week I will be in Nashville all week. I hope to have room makeover pictures sometime in between.

This is what Santa brought her - a Leapfrog Clickstart.

I think this picture is funny - she's stuffing her face with candy.

She got a neat-o pop up book.

And she got a neat-o springy horse!

And this last one isn't Christmas but it sure is cute. I had just used my 40% off coupon at Gap...and I couldn't wait to try on my purchase.

Florida Vacation

We spent December 12-19 down in Florida visiting Greg's parents Rich and Mary. I was so worried about taking Meredith on the plane considering the awful time we had last year with her on the plane but I will eat my words because she did an AWESOME job both on the outbound and return flights! She even got complimented by a stranger on her good behavior. The only outburst we had was when daddy tried to eat one of her cookies that the flight attendant gave us (we had to ask for another pack to quiet her down). We spent the first night in The Villages and then we all headed down to Siesta Key just outside of Sarasota for three days. We couldn't have asked for better beach weather. It's was in the upper 80's and sunny the whole time! Meredith loved the beach. These pictures are from the first evening we were there. We headed down to the beach before the sun set to take a look.

The next two following days, we headed to the beach each morning. Meredith LOVED playing in the sand and the water and she collected a bunch of seashells. The beach here was like white powder. The sand was so soft and white and there were TONS of shells along the shore. The second day at the beach we had Meredith out playing in the water when all of the sudden I saw a dorsal fin pop out of the water not even 50 yards off shore. I went running down to the shore screaming "there's something out there" thinking it was a shark. But the 20 people lurking in the water trying to get a better look should have alerted me to the fact that it probably wasn't a shark. Then a nice man on shore told mere they were dolphins swimming out there close to shore

We spent one afternoon at the Sarasota Jungle Gardens. Meredith got to see all sorts of birds, monkeys, alligators, crocodiles, etc.

These flamingos just walk up to you on the path and don't let you move. I don't think I've ever been this close to a flamingo. I thought Meredith was going to be terrified but she just walked slow and seemed to like it.

After a few days at the beach, we headed back up to The Villages and spent a few days there. The weather cooled down a bit to the 70's and we had a little rain. It wasn't bad though. We opened up Christmas gifts before we left.

I love this picture - she wanted to read books with Grandpa. And she is wearing her puppy coat that she ALWAYS insists on wearing. She doesn't care if it's 10 or 80. She wants to wear her puppy coat.

Vacation!

This will be my last post until after Christmas. We're heading out of town on vacation tomorrow and spending the week down in Florida with Greg's parents. The plane ride will be interesting...last year we had a great trip down but the return flight was awful. She cried the whole way home. I'm loading up on snacks and Elmo DVds in hopes that that will be enough to keep her quiet for three hours on a plane. I'm looking forward to some warmer weather. This snow and cold couldn't have come at a better time.

My office laid off about 25% of the staff this week. Earlier in the year, we lost about 18% of our staff. So our office has about 55% of the staff we had a year ago. We're both lucky and thankful that we are still employed. Greg's office has lost a significant number of staff too - I think in the 25% range.

I'll leave you all with a holiday photo. A few of you might have received a Christmas card with this picture (we mixed it up this year and used a couple photos). We hyped us Santa like he was the greatest thing ever and she was excited about it. Then when it came time to actually sit on his lap...well, that was a completely different story.

Macy's Holiday Display & Hollidazzle!

Last weekend we made a spur of the moment decision to head downtown to visit the Macy's holiday display - A Day in the Life of an Elf - and go see the Hollidazzle parade. It was adorable BTW - go see it! It was so nice out and we really wouldn't have a chance to do it before Christmas anyway because of my travels to Las Vegas (I'm home now obviously) and we are headed to Florida on Saturday to visit Greg's parents. For the first time in many years, I am finding this stuff kind of fun now. Of course it's because I have a child now and I see all the fun she's having and the amazement in her eyes. All this new stuff she is learning every day excites me. Today she learned what snow is.

She loves these escalator things.

As you wait in line at Macy's, you get a nice tour of their furniture department. I think I have the craziest child ever. She never sits still. While all the other kids are waiting in line, she is the one running everywhere bonking her head on tables.

She was amazed at all the lights and moving figurines. She loves Christmas lights.

We can never get a good family shot.

These are just a few shots of the scenery.

We ate at McDonald's before the Holidazzle. She ate all the chicken nuggets in her happy meal. That's right, ALL of them. For those that don't know, my kid doesn't eat. Look how happy she is!

She loved the lights of the parade.


Look how excited she is in the above picture!