Christmas Pics!

Emma's Gifts from Santa!!


All of her gifts from Nana and Papa and Everyone Else!


Playing with all of her cousins! I wish we could
see them more often!

Four Generations: My Grandmother, My Dad, Me, and Emma

Pictures and Advice

How do I type in between pics??? I am so awful at this!!! HAHA

Fantabulous Christmas and amazing photographer!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas holiday and have a blessed New Year! My dear husband is a New Year's baby and we will be celebrating like we always do every year....in bed by 9!!! HA!!! We have had an awesome Christmas and Emma loved everything that Santa( along with a few other elves) brought her! We had Christmas with my dad's side of the family on Wednesday afternoon and then headed back to J-ville to open presents and wait for Santa to arrive. We got up early Christmas morning and Emma loved every gift she got! She played so hard with ALL of her new toys! Mom and I made a huge breakfast and we all stuffed ourselves silly. Then Justin, Mom, John, and I played Scrabble Upwards! I highly recommend it! But read the directions first....HAHAHA....That's another story! My amazing neighbor and inspiring photographer ran by here and took a few family pictures before they headed to their family gathering. I will post those as well. I can not tell you how good she is. She was here for maybe 10 minutes and the pictures she got were fantastic. Justin, Emma, and I stayed here while the rest of the family went back to the home front to get ready for the next family gathering Friday morning. We drove up early Friday and had breakfast at the house with mom's side of the family and then played the Wii!!! So fun!!! We spent the rest of the day being lazy and then went bowling that night! I must say I bowled pretty dog gone good, but I didn't win. Dad took both games....as usual! We stayed the night last night and Hayli was heading home today, so we said our sad goodbye's and we headed home. We got home and have been playing ever since. We took a quick walk with the amazing neighbor and then back here for more playing. I called mom and dad to check out how the drop off of Hayli went and they told us that her flight got cancelled due to fog and they are heading home. She will leave at the same time tomorrow. Please pray for her...she misses us when she's away!

So that was our Christmas...I hope yours was fun too!!! I hope you enjoy the pictures and I will post the amateur pics that I took of Christmas morning later!!! :-)

God Bless,

Kelli

Welcome Home Hayli!!!

So my brave little sister who joined the Navy and has been in Great Lakes, Illinois since August got to come home for the holidays!! We have been so happy to have her home. There is nothing like having everyone together for Christmas. We have had the best few days just talking and telling stories and mainly playing with Emma! Emma loves her Aunt Hay Hay! This will be a short post because we have more family gatherings to attend but I wanted to let everyone know that not only is my sister an amazing lady who is in the Navy, but she has created herself a blog!! :0) Here is her link...check her out. She is a very talented and insightful writer!!! I am so proud of her!! Oh Yea... and I will have Christmas pics and stories up soon!!! Merry Christmas everyone!!!!
http://sailor-hayli.blogspot.com/

Someone really reads my blogs!! HAHAHA

So I was scanning through my blogs that I read EVERY day and I noticed a dear friend of mine had given me an award!! Can you believe it!! Yes 9 other people got it too, but hey, I am thrilled to be among the other 9!! The deal is, I have to now return the nominating!! I have to pick 10 of my favorite blogs and let them know they have the coolest blogs. But, they have to do the same...so don't let this go or I might get my award taken away from me!! HAHAHA

Here it goes....

1. Lisa at www.thepreachers-wife.blogspot.com is the first blog I learned about. Last year we were told our baby had cancer and we were devastated. She posted my bulletin about Emma on her blog and the outpouring of love and prayers flooded her page. We then went to church where her husband led a prayer service for Emma. Two days later we were told Emma did not have cancer!!! I have been praising the Lord and reading her blog ever since! We love you and your family so much. Thank you for being a shining light for God.

2. Deedra at www.nspiredbyfaith.blogspot.com is an amazing mother and an inspiration daily to me through her blogs! What a Godly woman and mother!! Her blogs CRACK ME UP every time I read them!! We love you and Emma is waiting on that kiss from Carter!

3. Brittany at www.crazykidteacher.blogspot.com is such an amazing example of a teacher!! She cares so much for her students and it is obvious in every post! I have known Brittany since she was a little girl. Her and her family mean so much to my family! We love you.

4. Brooke at www.alaskalovestory.blogspot.com has quite the love story and the amazing pictures to go with it!! Again, this girl is an old family friend that I love like a sister and I am so proud of. She is an amazing person who has an amazing future ahead of her. I can't wait for the wedding pics!!

5. Amanda at www.amanda-leanne.blogspot.com is just an amazing young lady. I have been keeping up with her and her baking skills for a while on here and WOW is all I have to say. I know who I'm putting an order in with on Emma's next birthday! And what a shining example of a young Christian woman who loves the Lord.

6. Deb at www.miss-corinthians.blogspot.com has been a wonderful friend to my mother and I love to read her blogs. She is a Godly woman who loves her children and guides them through the word of God. What an example for young mother's like myself.

7. Jennifer at www.jmparris.blogspot.com has become a friend from my new church home! She has a little boy Emma's age that is adorable and her stories entertain me. They remind me a lot of my own home! She too is a shining example for young mother's who want to raise their children in the word of God. Congrats to her on her wonderful news....another baby on the way!! Pray for her and her family during the pregnancy.

8. Holly at www.hollyhchapman.blogspot.com is my dear cousin who has two beautiful girls and a silly husband and TONS of hilarious stories. Her blog keeps me rolling with every new post.

9. Gwen at www.pattonsplace.blogspot.com has become a best friend of mine. She is a neighbor, a mother, a friend in Christ, and just a wonderful woman all around. She also takes AMAZING pictures!!! The wonderful pictures that I have posted of my child have all been taken by Gwen and she is fantastic!! If you need a photographer and you are in my area, please let me know and I will get you her info. Emma and her son Bryce are the best of friends and future girlfriend/boyfriend if I have anything to say about it! HA!

10. And finally Whitney at www.littleliza-jane.blogspot.com is #4's little sister. She has just started her blog, but wow is she good. And I must say, she is a cutie pie with a great head on her shoulders. Did I mention she sings like a bird!! Amazing!!! And the best thing is that she sings for the Lord!

So there they are...my ten!!! Visit their blogs and give them some love!!! Hope you enjoy!!

Kelli

Justin....just give her the stinking lolly pop so she will be still!!!

O.K. so I really do try to be patient with my husband and my child, but when it comes to trying to get pictures made, well let's just say the patience leaves the room!!! I swear Emma has known from birth what a camera is and has acted up every single time one is brought out!

My amazing neighbor who just happens to be an amazing photographer came to the house Friday night to take some pictures of Emma in her adorable Christmas outfit. So, I picked Emma up from the AMAZING babysitter after work and when I got there, they had her sitting in their sink, and they were rolling her hair with a curling iron! I can not tell you how adorable it looked, and unfortunately I can't show you either because my wild child ripped the adorable bow out of her head before we got down the driveway. The babysitter did send her curling iron with me so I could fix anything that needed fixing, but I didn't do as good as she did! I should have know Emma was going to be in rare form when I tried to get her to take a nap on the way home, thinking she would be in a better mood (wrong.) I asked her to close her eyes and take her nap and she shook her head no at me. I continued to ask her to close her eyes, and I continued to get a NO! So I just mentioned maybe getting a bottle and taking a nap, and what did I get?.?.?.?.. She turned her head, closed her eyes, and pretended to snore!!! HANDFUL is an understatement. So we did take a nap, but she was NOT in a better mood. My precious neighbor had the patience of Job and took about 150 pictures. There were about 5 or 6 that we "might" could use for a Christmas card picture. There were more than that, but she was absolutely awful!!! She screamed and ran around and at one point I just said...JUSTIN...give her the stinking lolly pop so she will be still!!! Nana and Papa came in right at the end, but it was all over by then. That's when she got in a good mood though.....OF Course!!!! Here are a couple of pics from the WILD photoshoot! I hope you enjoy them!!

With Love,

Kelli

Emma last Christmas

Here is the picture from last year. She was so tiny and so cute! She looked like a little scrooge who was tired of NaNa taking her picture!!

Santa Claus is coming to town....SOON!!!

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all doing well. It has been quite the past couple of weeks around here! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and it was so nice seeing the family! We got to spend a few days with my parents and Emma loved every minute of it! SURPRISE....She is so spoiled when she is with them!! We are still on the job hunt around here. Still no luck for Justin but we are praying that the right job come along. We have all been sick. I got my wonderful dose of it last night and all day today. I am finally feeling a little better, but I am achy all over. It is so hard to stay away from Emma when I am not feeling good, but because she had RSV when she was a baby, we can't take any chances. She is more likely to get sick because of the RSV, so I have been quarantined in my bedroom while Justin kept her in the living room. It's so hard because she would come to the bedroom door and bang on it yelling "mama, mama, mama!" Wow, that will tug at your heart strings!

We have our Christmas decorations up and Emma is finally old enough to really get excited about the lights and decorations. SHE LOVES IT!!! I can't wait until Christmas morning! She is such a stinker! I will put a pic of her on here from last Christmas. It was just too cute! I am having her picture made Friday for our Christmas cards. YES, I am WAY behind. I usually have all of my shopping pretty much done and under the tree by now. I am really starting to stress about it. I do not have 1 present under the tree and the sad thing is I haven't bought anything either! It's so crazy! Can you tell it's getting to me just a little bit???? AAAHHHH!!!! We are probably not going to get to go to Rhode Island for Christmas this year. We are just not able to do it with one income right now. We are going to miss everyone so much. Emma had grown leaps and bounds since they have seen her last! She wasn't even walking yet. I hate that we are so far away from them and don't get to see them very often. Emma loves to be around kids and there are about 19 cousins in Rhode Island that she would love to play with! We are hoping to go to Rhode Island this summer for a couple of weeks.

To all of my fellow blogger's....So am I the only one out there who hasn't bought a single gift???

Hoping your having a blessed Holiday Season!