Time to catch up....

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, but my work schedule has been crazy busy and I have just not had time. I'm still busy, but told myself, I need to make time, as I have lots to post and if I don't do it now, I will never do it.

So, I will try to post the last few months and get you all caught up. This post will start with Jetta and her two visits with Santa Claus. She had 3 visits this year and didn't seem to confused by it. I was really sure how that would go, but she seemed to not care that Santa was if different places at different times.

The first was at the Mills Mall, which I posted some time ago, which was the Santa from last year, who even makes me believe. I was hoping she wouldn't be afraid and if you remember that post, she was not at all and nearly knocked others over to get to him.

Her second visit was at our house just a week or so before Christmas. We have a very dear neighbor, who loves kids and he and his wife offered for him to play Santa. He used to work at the Federal prison in Greenville for years and he has a Santa suit and always played Santa for their Christmas party. After he retired from there and moved away for a few years, he kind of retired from playing Santa and really missed it.

Last summer they moved back to this area and they now live across the street from us. They are very sweet people and Jetta is very fond of both of them. So, when they offered. I was excited to accept. However, as mentioned in the beginning of this post, I was very busy with work and was worried I waited to long to accept and was afraid he may not be available. However, when I went over to ask if he was still available, he was more than happy to do it. So, we made arrangements for him to come one night after work and were all excited to see how she would react.

His wife came over a litte before he came, brought some cookies over so she would be here and then he came over, ringing his jingle bells and brought his big red bag, all dressed up and came to the door. Jetta's face lit up, she was so excited, she said, Santa is here. She was running around, hiding behind me and was not quite sure what to make of the fact that Santa was really at her house.

He came in and they sat down together in the chair. He told her he had her she was a good girl and told her he had heard what she wanted. She was very excited to know that he knew what she wanted. She was smiles from ear to ear. He pulled out a barbie and she was thrilled. Then he gave her a train, that to made her happy. He then gave her a Curious George book, a gift that he and his wife wanted her to have. He gave her some M&M's also, which of course she was thrilled with. They shared some more stories and then we snapped some pictures. It was all very sweet and she had no idea it was him.

After a little bit, he said, he better be going, he had many other little boys and girls to visit. She gave him a big hug and he said goodbye. She watched him leave and was just smiling. His wife asked if she could have a hug as well and said she best be going as well.

Jetta asked where his reindeer were and we said, he must have already flown away. She was very happy for the rest of the night. He had told me he would not accept anything for doing it, that his payment was seeing the kids and how much they enjoyed it. So, I decided to frame a picture of him and Jetta together. I scrapped it with special paper and tried to let him know just how much it meant that he did this for us. He and his wife are very special people. They don't have any grandkids yet, but know that they will be great grandparents when they do. I will include a few pics from his visit.

Then her next visit was at Grandpa Denny's. We traveled to Peoria on Christmas Eve as we always do. Denny always has Santa Claus and this year was no exception. While the group of kids was smaller, it was still a very nice day.

As we waited Jetta was patiently waiting for Santa to come. She wondered if he would read a story again, like he did last year. I was surprised that she remembered that from the year before. She always surprises me with what she remembers.

It was time. We gathered downstairs and then we heard Santa coming, ho, ho ho, down the stairs he came. Again, she was very excited and she jumped in my lap. As he came down, he rounded the corner and she got even more excited. I was glad to once again see that she was happy to see him. You just never know how they will react.

He sat down and he talked with all the kids. He remembered Jetta. It was very sweet. I think he remembered her because she climbed up in his lap last year and helped him read the Christmas story. They read a few trivia questions and then it was time to hand out the presents. She was very excited. She and Olivia got baby dolls. They played side by side and had a lot of fun.

Then it was time to read the Christmas story. This year she wasn't as eager to get in his lap, but she still was eager to listen and help. She still enjoyed the whole experience. Overall she had a great time and am glad that Denny does this for the kids and am just sad that all the kids didn't get to enjoy it this year.

After Santa left we all had dinner together and then opened presents together, of course something Jetta enjoyed.

I'm going to include pics from Santa and from opening presents, as we have some good ones from both. Hope you enjoy all of them.

Multi-purpose Tree Skirt....

This year decorating the tree brought about a whole new meaning to decorating. Me being me, and me being OCD and having to have everything on the tree just right, having a 2+ y/o, well that wasn't going to happen the way it used to.

My first concern was, is the tree going to stay in an upright position. You would have thought we had a cat in the house, because Jetta was completely enamored with the tree and pulling on the branches. When we first brought it home and put it up, she kept wanting to pull on the branches and give me the needles. After getting sap on her hands, oh a hundred times, she finally lost interest in that.

Then it came time to start decorating. We put the lights and garland on first and that was all we had on for a couple of days. She thought that was very pretty and decided to take a few swipes at it with one of her toys, just to watch them swing. I thought to myself, maybe this is all the more we should decorate this year, as the ornaments we have are glass...yep glass and those won't just swing! As we started to take on that adventure she kept wanting to hand me the ornaments. Shannon would slowly hand them to her and tell her to give them to mommy and she would, only to tell me, mommy put it here and she would attempt to hang it and I would have to quickly grab it before it would fall to the floor, since it was not hanging on anything.

By now I was stressed, so we just started to give her the smaller, plastic ones that we have and the bows. She was very cute, but it was very stressful. Each time I would put something on, she would tell me "good job mom". I guess she got that from me, cuz when we read at night and do flash cards, I always tell her good job. Sometimes she wants to be a big girl and do both parts, mine and hers all by herself, so she'll do the flash card, say what it is, lay it down and tell herself, good job...it's very cute.

So, fortunately, without incident we got the tree all decorated and put our Santa on top. She was very excited. The only thing left was to dig out the tree skirt. So, I pulled it out and laid it on the floor. I guess it caught her attention. I left the room and came back in and there she was, all in her glory, she had it all unfolded and around her neck like a cape, dancing around with it, telling me, "look mommy, I'm Cinderella". So, precious. I just smiled and told her to let me tie it on her. Needless to say, Shannon hurried off to get the camera. So, she just smiled and said cheese. She kept taking it off and asking me to tie it back on. So, that is why I titled this....multi-purpose tree skirt, cuz now I will never be able to look at that tree skirt again without remembering the year she picked it up and put it on and danced like Cinderella!

These are the memories that I will never forget and what Christmas is truly about...not all the presents, not all the hustle and bustle. I can't wait for Christmas morning and hopefully a few more Christmas memories.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Cow princess...

These pictures are of Jetta being a cow princess....a cow princess you ask? Last year my friend Tiffany's mom, Nana, gave Jetta a tuta and flower headband for Christmas. Up until recently it was too big and Jetta really wasn't much into being a princess.

However, ever since she put on her ladybug costume for Halloween and it had a tutu and I pulled out her pink tutu from Nana, she has decided she wanted to wear it and be a princess. So, recently she had on her cow pj's and she and I were in her room and she said, "mommy, shhhh, I was surprise, daddy, I wanna be a princess" and I was like okay, why not, you go right ahead and you be a cow princess. So, we put on her tutu and headband and out she went, all in her glory, and there she was a cow princess.

Shannon had to get pictures. She was just dancing around and having a blast. She has a bit of time keeping on the headband, but she just loves wearing the tutu. Lately, she has been pretend playing more and will go off and play a little more by herself, but you just never what that might bring.

Some days that might be a trashed bedroom, some days she'll fix her own hair, which I'll include a couple of those pics and others she'll just play and call me in there to play with her. She's growing up so fast. However, it's amazing to see how she's growing and to see her little personalty come out. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures. They are rather precious and I know Nana will appreciate them...thanks Nana for the tutu....she loves it.

Jetta and Santa Claus....

A few weeks back we went out to the Mills Mall in hopes to see Jetta at the local Babies R Us. After we visited the store we went over to the mall to shop a bit and get a bite to eat.

Shannon's Dad and stepmom came down for the day to hang out with us and wanted to see if they could see Jetta as well. As we were walking through the mall, we came across the Santa display. We had no idea that he was even there yet, as it was before Thanksgiving, so wasn't even expecting him.

However, Jetta realized it was him and she took off. Thank goodness no one else was in line or I think they may have gotten ran over. She was gone and I couldn't even catch up. She was up there and in front of him in no time, stopped and said "hi". It was so cute.

To my surprise it was the same Santa as last year (the one who could make me a believer). I was very happy, cuz maybe it will make her believe that there truly is a Santa.

Up she went, she climbed right up next to him and sat down. She didn't set on his lap, but she was just a smilin' fool. They were snapping pictures, pretty much before they were even sure I was buying a package.

Needless to say, dollars later and a happy child, she had her visit with Santa and we didn't have to wait in line. I'm going to attach a couple of the pictures.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year....she is really excited and seems to be catching onto the concept. When she is bad, I keep saying "do you want Santa to come" and she says "yep" and I say "then you better be a good girl" and she will behave for a little bit....wonder how long that game will last!

Our trip to Souf Dakota

Well, here it is, another month has gone by and I haven't posted. I can't believe it's already been a month since we visted Souf Dakota. The times just flies by way too quickly. I can hardly believe that today is December 1st.

Our trip to Souf Dakota was very nice. Both the weather and our time there. We arrived on Thursday, November 4th late afternoon. We left St. Louis late morning and the weather was very nice. We weren't sure how it would be once we got to Omaha so we packed for cooler temperatures. Much to our surprise when we arrived it was in the mid-50's. We got our rental car and headed north, expecting it to get much colder. As we got into South Dakota, it was unseasonably warm. It was near 60 when we arrived. I was hoping it was going to stay that way for our whole trip.

When we got in Jetta was very happy to see that Grandma had kitties. For whatever reason, Jetta seems to really like cats. Not sure if it's because we don't have any or if she truly is going to be a cat lover. Not sure how well that is going to work out for her, considering both Shannon and I are dog lovers, but since she pretty much runs the house, I can see that one day we may well have a cat. We could barely get in the house fast enough and she was wanting to go right back outside. Since my mom lives on nearly 13 acres, she has quite a few farm cats. Fortunately we were able to distract her for awhile with enough inside that she forgot about them until Grandpa got home.

After we got settled and Jetta got familiar with Grandma's house Grandpa came home and we had dinner. After dinner, Jetta remembered that there were kitties outside and wanted to let them in. So, Grandpa being a kitty lover himself, he couldn't say no. So, they brought in one of the more tame ones and Jetta was in heaven. However, I'm not so sure the kitty was....beings Jetta hasnt' really been around them too much, she wasn't really to sure how to hold it and so the poor kitties neck was where she choose to hold it vs around it's belly. We finally convinced her to sit down with Grandpa on the floor and hold it there. That was a much better fit, both for her and the kitty and I think the kitty was much happier there. After awhile I finally got her to give up the kitty and put it back outside. However, this event became the desired event for the weekend. I will attach pictures showing just how much she enjoyed this and how much the kitties did not!

Friday was a day of shopping in town. Much to our surprise it was another gorgeous day. I truly wasn't convinced I was in South Dakota. I thought possibly I was somewhere else. Here I had packed our winter coats and here it was nearly 70 degrees. Not that I was complaining, but I was shocked. It was great! It was nothing like I remembered from growing up. We had a great day of shopping in town. Of course the day went by way and it was time to head home. We drove back and couldn't believe that it was after 6 and it was still light, another thing I miss about home....if we were in St. Louis, it would have been dark more than a hour earlier. While I like the hustle and bustle of the city life, there are definitely things about home that I do miss....long days, beautiful fall days, my family and I'm sure there are other things, I just can't think of them right now.

My mom cooked us an amazing dinner that night and then we played Yahtzee. It was like old times. Jetta tried to play too, but that didn't go so well, but the one time she did roll for me....I got a Yahtzee....so I wasn't gonna complain about that.

Saturday was going to be a big day. Jetta was going to pick her first pumpkin and Saturday night we were going to have a party so that Arland's family could meet Jetta, as well as some of mom's and Arland's church friends. Additionally, my uncle Tim and his wife, Jill from my home town were coming in and I couldn't wait to see them.

So, first thing Saturday morning, Jetta, my mom, Arland and Shannon headed out to pick the pumpkins that my mom had been saving for Jetta. Jetta was excited once she realized what they were going to do. Shannon snapped some great pictures. My mom saved some of the best pumpkins for her. The pictures are great. So, now she has picked her first apples, her first pumpkins and before long we'll go get our Christmas tree. We got a real tree last year, but she really didn't understand, so hopefully this year it will be more fun. Once they were done with that, well, I'm sure you can guess....she was distracted and off she went....to the kitties....again, the poor kitties didn't have a chance. She was holding them by the neck and was just as happy as could be. Again, Shannon got some cute pics, which I will attach.

Then we hung out a bit and then got ready and headed into town. We went into the water falls and again it was another beautiful day. Jetta, Shannon and Arland went down to the rocks and again Shannon got some great pictures of Jetta. He also took some before we left the house, out on my mom's farm. And, again Jetta's chasing the kitties....so maybe we won't be getting a kitty, cuz she just wouldn't leave them alone.

Now it was time to head to the party. I was very excited to go and for my mom to introduce Jetta to everyone. It was a great turnout. I think there were better than 50 people. I was happy to see so many people come and support us and want to meet Jetta. We all ate and then told them a little bit about Jetta and our journey to getting her. People were very generous and gave Jetta some wonderful gifts. When my uncle Tim and Jill arrived I was very emotional, it was great to have family come and to come from so far away. It really meant alot. It has been quite some time since I've seen them. It was nice to have a part of my family to be there. We visited quite a bit and it was hard to tell them goodbye. I really appreciated my mom putting together such a nice party and for everyone coming out and wanting to meet Jetta it was a very special evening.

Sunday, Arland's sister and her family, as well as Arland's dad, Russell came over for lunch and we all hung out. It was nice to see them and to be able to spend some time with them. They had to head back to Minnesota that afternoon, as the kids had school the next day. It was great to see them, as I only get to see them when I'm home visiting my mom. I'm glad they were able to make the trip. Again, we had another very nice day.

Now the trip was coming to an end. Monday was just around the corner. Unfortunately my mom had gotten sick on Saturday night, so she wasn't feeling the best. I hated to go, but we knew the trip was going to be short. However, we had been fortunate enough to have seen each other twice in the past 2 months, so it was nice that this had made it 3 times. Hopefully we'll be able to see each other again soon. Our trip was great and am glad we were able to make it before the weather turned bad.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and again sorry for my delay in getting this posted.