Thursday, December 31, 2009

Ringing in the New Year

We are in Gatlinburg (we being Devin, Chatham, Amber, Weston, and I) living out the end of 2009. What a WONDERFULLY, AMAZING year it has been...
Time now for resolutions, first birthdays, and SO much more.... New pictures of Chatham are coming next year!!! haha

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

White Christmas

Poppy was in HEAVEN pulling the boys around the front yard on their sleds
and the obligatory Family picture....



And then we went inside for some more play time....

Christmas Card


Our cards FINALLY came...and they are FINALLY in the mail....

So now I can share it with you.....


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

Monday, December 21, 2009

Santa's first trip--

Thomas and Chatham had "Santa Round 1" this weekend at Gram and Poppy's...

Lots of boxes and tissue paper.....
And Granny Hokie came to visit


So did Ali and Curtis....
They got me this cute puppy hat...and LOTS of toys!!! (THANKS GUYS)

Mama and Daddy pushed me around the living room in my new tricycle stroller....

It got going pretty fast- I had to hold on TIGHT!

There are MANY more pictures...but you'll have to come back later to see all the other fun we had....
I'll give you a heads up though...we got EIGHT INCHES of snow- and I rode on a sled!!!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Excuse me......

but I think you've made a mistake....






This just drives me up a wall-- can someone please explain to me the purspose of an upside down Christmas Tree???

Friday, December 18, 2009

Who Moved My Cheese??

So I know that this is the title of book- and No I haven't read the book-
but the title could easily be a book about my office for the last several weeks.

As many of you know we've rearranged several offices in the building- people are moving to the opposite side of the hall, around the corner, or just next door (literally). No MAJOR moves- but just far enough to piss everyone off.

So, MY office (which is not moving) has become everyone's dumping ground and everytime I go to look for something it's not there or it has 14 other things piled on top of it.

So now anytime I can't find something on MY OWN desk I am going to poke my head out into the hallway and scream WHO MOVED MY CHEESE?!?!!?

Thanks for letting me vent.

SHOES!!!

So anyone that knows me, knows I LOVE shoes!! Well, MannLand5 is giving away a pair of Robeez....and I REALLY want them, I thought I should be nice and give you a chance to score a pair as well- so go check them out and I'm going to sit here with my fingers crossed.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Chatham's Favorite Things...

This is after all Chatham's blogs, and I don't want him getting jealous of Mama's wishlist...

so here are some of Chatham's favorite things:
The learn n groove table is at he top of his list- this is the only object Chatham even attempts to pull himself up on. And he will play with it for hours if we'd let him
Another new favorite, Duplos by Lego-
This peeked Chatham's interest while shopping online with Mama- I think he has a few years before this will make it on to any list for Santa

Tupperware is quickly topping the charts in our home- they can be drums, cymbols, hats, goggles, or even shoes- depending on which way the wind blows up any particular day.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I've been FEATURED!!!

So.....

I know I've blogged before about Pass it on Baby- and how wonderful and helpful they are to those in need-
well apparently, they think I'M pretty cool too!!!

Check it out...

http://passitonbaby.blogspot.com/

I'm the Dec. 15th article!!!
Come on guys- I know we all have a little something we can give- let them know- or let me know and I'll include your stuff in my next shipment to them.

HAPPY HELPING!!!

In true Oprah Fashion

Here are a few of my favorite things...

Romance Perfume by Ralph Lauren- I wear it everyday! Although it still lasts forever, I get some every other year for Christmas

Hartman Bag- this isn't the exact one I am getting- but I want this ENTIRE luggage set!!!




I also want the Kris Allen CD-
I know- NO ONE buys CDs anymore, but I totally called him winning American Idol from the get go and want to support him .

and lastly...

Victoria Secret Jammies....

They're the BEST!!!

Sorry if you look under your seat- there's still nothing there!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Promises...Promises...

I made several promises not to talk about Tiger Woods and his whores transgressions... I have been told I have a lack of sugar coating when speaking on this subject.



So here.....






I never said a word!!!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Friday, December 11, 2009

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho

It's off to work we go....

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

He ate WHAT!?!?!?

That's right folks.... Chatham ate his paci, or tried to at least.



So now ALL of the cute green soothies are in the GARBAGE!!! I was sitting on the couch reading "The Kissing Hand" to Chatham and heard him gage- I looked down and his chubby little checks were a bit extra chubby.
I took a deep breath so panic wouldn't set in and pried open his mouth. Something green had filled his mouth and as I reached my finger in to get it out he threw up ALL over me, the couch, and himself.
He had managed to stick the ENTIRE thing in his mouth and there just wasn't enough room for my finger so he choked!

No fear it was removed, we're all clean, and NO MORE PACI'S in the Donley home!!!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas Spirit

I have some how slipped out of the Christmas Spirit- I mentioned this to a friend last week and I recieved this in the mail yesterday (from said friend) and wanted to share it:

As A Baby Jesus Came

As a baby Jesus came
From His home above
He left His throne and who He was
To teach us how to love

As a baby Jesus came
Wrapped in swaddling cloth
Willingly took on humanity
Though He was one with God

As a baby Jesus came
To one day grow to be
The saviour of the human race
People like you and me

As a baby Jesus came
As God’s eternal light
That will never be extinguished
But forever shine out bright

As a baby Jesus came
The hope of eternal life
Reconciling us back to God
Giving meaning to our lives

As a man Jesus died
His blood poured out for all
Cleansing and forgiving us
For to this He was called

We thank Him that He came a babe
And grew to be a man
And for His sacrificial love
His nailed scarred feet and hands

Through it all we can live on
With Jesus Christ our Lord
The babe that came that first Christmas
Is what we thank Him for

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Getting to Know you...Husband Edition

So I saw on another post about how we all ready each others blogs and "know" one another and our children..... but how did the Husbands get lost in the mix???

Here is my getting to know you..... HUSBAND EDITION

Enjoy...
1.What is his name? Devin
2. Who eats more? We probably eat about the same, sadly.
3. Who said, "I love you" first? He did
4. Who is taller? we are the exact same height.
5. Who is more sensitive? Me
6. Who does the laundry? Me
7. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If we are laying in bed, I am on the right side.
8. Who pays the bills? He does
9. Who cooks more? It was pretty even, but I'd say Devin does a bit more than I do these days. (That's why I married a Chef!!!)
10. Who is more stubborn? probably Me....but he's a CLOSE second
11. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Neither one of us-haha
12. Who has more siblings? We each have one sister- but he has 4 step siblings and 1 half sister- so if those count then he wins
13. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I'd say Devin; He'd say Carrie
14. What do you like to do together? Anything
15. Who eats more sweets? Devin... I'm more of a salty snacker
16. Guilty Pleasures? Golf, Heavy Metal, or Cops
17. How did you meet? At Rock Barn Golf and Spa (we both worked there)
18. Who asked whom out first? I asked him to go to a girlfriend's 21st birthday with me, and he bailed on me the night before the party...then he asked me to go grocery shopping with him two months later- if that's a date?!?!
19. Who kissed who first? He kissed me first...
20. Who proposed? He did, on a cruise for my 22nd birthday
21. His best features and qualities? best feature is his teeth/smile/voice- quality is how passionate he is about things.

22. Tag you’re it. Who do you tag?

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Welcome....

DECEMBER.....and.....RSV.....

That's right our trip to the doctor today came to the conclusion that Chatham's "cold" is actually RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). So he is at Gram's for the rest of the day and out of daycare for the rest of th week.
As always, my sick little boy, is VERY bouncy and playful. Other than the wheezing and gunky nose you'd never know anything was wrong.

I hope your December is starting off a bit healthier than ours. I just hope the antibiotics kick this before the weekend- tomorrow is Caden's 1st birthday; so his party is Saturday AND we have rescheduled our family pictures for that morning.

My tummy was FULL!!


I had turkey, black olives, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans out of the green bean casserole, some vanilla ice cream, and a few carrots.
I LOVE THANKSGIVING!!! I can't wait until next year when I have more than two teeth to work with.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Turkey Stories Part II





Ali came to Gram and Poppy's for our Chili and Cornbread Thanksgiving!
I love hanging out with her!!!



Turkey Stories Part 1

Watching the trains wtih Daddy




Rolling around with Sarah


Watching the trains with Uncle B and Cousin T



We are just SO handsome- I think the paparazzi were at our Thanksgiving
There was a camera in our faces at all times.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Words

Chatham said MAMA!!!!! He's been saying DaDa for about a month now, and Saturday night he said MaMa (twice) and we had company over so I have witnesses!!!
He also says "Ut" which of course you know means "Up"!

His two teeth are halfway up and he is just as funny as ever. I think he's going to be a very creative boy and play a lot of make believe. He already will sit on the floor with no toys around him and move his hands as if something is there and he'll just LAUGH!!!!!

Well other than that we didn't have a lot to report this weekend- we were supposed to get our Christmas pictures taken but the photographer stood us up. So we're having them done the 5th now with Ashley (she did my maternity pictures). I can't wait!!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

What do you mean it's not FRIDAY YET......

I was blog browsing today and stumbled upon My Little Life and she uses McLinky for some Friday Fun.....

I know, I know it's not Friday- so yes you'll see this little intro again tomorrow when she posts this weeks questions, but this is my kind of stuff- the first question is about Thanksgiving and while I've already bombarded you with Christmas Chatter; I wanted to take a break and think about Mr. Turkey for a week or so....


Questions for 11/13/09: (Thanks to Sandy for her question and to Liz for inspiration--I tweaked her question a bit!!)


1. What is your favorite "eat" on Thanksgiving?

My favorite dish is my Aunt Ma'am Corn Pudding. Everyone knows to eat what they can on Turkey day because the leftovers come home with ME (although she has been known to make me my VERY OWN dish to take home for the rest of the week) and I don't share!!!

Also, the years that I go to my in laws and don't get to have any of Aunt Ma'am's corn pudding- my mom and Aunt swap Marg's Fruit Salad for Carrie's Corn Pudding- and of course mom savings some for me!!!

2. What is the name your best girl friend and the best trait about her or how you met (or heck, both!!) My best girlfriend is Katie.... also known as Smoochie (no I didn't give her that name- it's her childhood nickname) Her best trait is her BIG heart- she'd give you the shirt of her back- or in MANY cases she gives me the straightener out of her bathroom- haha!!!

We met while I was crying on the front steps of Jamison Dorm at UNC-Greensboro my freshman year after finding out that a friend was in the hospital- Katie came over and asked what she could do for me!! We haven't gone a week without talking since!!!

3. What would you say is one of your "weirdest" quirks?

I have too many to count!!! Maybe that I don't like my food to touch on my plate. When I was little I would have four bowls instead of one plate. (sometimes I still do if it's a "runny" dish)

4. What is your favorite genre of music? (Hip hop? Classical? Rock? etc.)

I like rock, oldies, country, and pop

5. Are you a Night Owl...or an Early Bird?

Night Owl- although now with Chatham I go to bed by 9 and am up by 6- so I guess I've become an early bird- but I am a very angry, non talkative early bird.


Feel free to check out The Little Life Blog yourself or just copy the questions from me.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Give it to Chatham - - He'll eat ANYTHING!!!

Nana took us to dinner last night- we went to Geppetto's and Chatham had a BALL at the salad bar!
Well actually I took his little orange take n toss bowl up to the salad bar with me and putt in two olive slices, a pepperoni, a small pickle chips, two TINY pieces of chopped tomato, a quarter of a pear, a few shreds of cheese, LOTS of mushy diced carrots- and a partridge in a pear tree! I was AMAZED at how well (and how much) he ate!
I guess with these two little toofers he has decided to expand the menu a bit- looks like I'm doing some grocery shopping this weekend!

Also, Chatham has a new FAV- spaghetti noodles, VERY small, with NOTHING on it! Peas, Broccoli, and Apples are quickly topping the list of likes.

What do you're little ones like to eat? I need to think outside the box to get Chatham a wide variety of new treats....

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Pop Pop and Jo Jo sent me....

TISSUE PAPER......

It's GREAT!!!

It's even GREEN! My favorite color!!!!

Mama said to tell them thank you for the outfit.....does that mean I can wear tissue paper to school?!?

Monday, November 16, 2009

Snaggletooth is a cry-o-saurous!!!

Well we went from one tooth to two over the weekend (and they are giving Chatham a FIT!)
He isn't sleeping well, gets up at 5 AM and then won't nap- the boy DID NOT sleep on Saturday- he got up at 5:15 AM, took a 20 minute nap at 9:30 and then didn't sleep again until 8 PM!!! What the HECK!?!?!
I am SO excited for this milestone, but my heart just breaks to see my baby so miserable. I do enjoy the snuggles and couch time I've gotten, but I like to snuggle with a happy boy- not a sweaty fevered boy.

Any advice??

Friday, November 13, 2009

Just call him Snaggletooth!

That's right we have our FIRST TOOTH- Chatham won't let me take a picture of it- every time I open his mouth he sticks out his tongue so I can't see a thing- but it's there; and it's sharp.

So I thought I'd google babies first tooth and see what cute stuff I could post on here- SERIOUSLY- this is all I got!!!

or a bunch of tooth diagrams that look like something that would line the hallway's of Dr. Spencer's (that's my dentist) office.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Better Late then Never

So Halloween was A LOT of fun this year- here are some of the pumpkin painting/carving pictures...
Here are the daddy's with their babies at the Barry's Christmas party!


The Cook's


and last but not least....US.... We sadly didn't match this year- it was a bit of a last minute search for a costume. I ended up as Olive Oyl (and wanted Devin to be Pop Eye) he opted to match Chatham and go as a lion tamer.
We'll try harder next year!




Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Prayers Needed

I don't have much to write about today-
Chatham flipped himself over from sitting up down to laying on his tummy; and then proceeded to log roll ALL OVER the living room.
But I just can't bring myself to brag too much about his accomplishments when I need to use every available moment to pray today.

A blog that I dearly love to read written by MckMama, needs all the love, prayer, and support they can get. Stellan, their youngest son is in Boston in the CICU and things are a little rocky right now. There is a Praying for Stellan button on the right side of my blog if you'd like to know more about Stellan's condition and/or what is the current status.

While we're praying for babies hearts, I have another request a high school friend, Lyndsi, has a little boy Luke- if you're from my town you've probably seen ALL the HUNDREDS of TEAM LUKE shirts around- but Little Luke had a heart transplant on Halloween Night and is doing VERY well. His chest has been closed and they are weening him off the sedation meds. His mama and daddy got to see his sparkling little eyes the other day for the first time in weeks!!!!

Both families are in Boston in the same hospital- so lets all take a moment and channel our prayers toward Boston and particularly toward little Stellan and little Lukes hearts and family!!!!

Monday, November 9, 2009

I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy

I went to an EOP conference for work and one of the ladies speaking, spoke about JOY! She is a middle or high school drama teacher and really spoike my language, 'crazy'! She was SO energetic and just bounced from one topic to the next and back again in a single breath.



She told this story about her kids in class and when she noticed their eyes starting to glaze over or someones mind beginning to wonder she would stop what she's doing and MOO! and they class would pay attention agian.

Then if people were talking to each other, or doodling on their papers and not listening to her she'd stop and BAA!

I don't know why I found this so humorous, but I must say I tried it with Chatham the other day- no not to get him to listen, he's a bit young for that. But to take a picture. I needed him to look at the camera and all of my usually songs and dances just weren't working so I began to moon, and baa, and cluck- and check this out......

IT WORKED!!!!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Christmas Songs 24/7

So we are home from Winston-Salem; after a LONG night with Devin's coworkers. It was SO much fun, but a VERY late night. The auction was fun as always and we got a TON of stuff- if fact about 60% of my Christmas shopping got done there, and that put me in the Christmas spirit, so when we got home yesterday I decided to go knock out some more of it. I now only have to find gifts for my sister and brother-in-law and I'm COMPLETELY done. On the way home I'm flipping through the radio stations and found a station playing Christmas tunes ALL DAY LONG- REALLY?!?!?! I thought. I am SO in the Christmas spirit and REALLY excited that Christmas is getting closer but it's not HERE, not even I am ready for this yet.

On the upside, Devin got a Kitchenaid food Processor at the auction this weekend- and he is ready to make ANYTHING I come up with. So this weekend he made homemade cheesecake- and I have a whole list of what we'll be bringing to Christmas dinner this year!!!!

Unfortunately I forgot the camera at home, so there are no pictures to share of the auction, but Chatham is quickly mastering the art of holding his own sippy cup and MANY pictures of that are coming shortly!!!

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Second Half Is Missing-

Well we are going out of town this weekend, for Devin's annual work retreat! I am SO looking forward to it, as I was pregnant last year and couldn't partake in ALL the festivities!

I am going to post twice to day and twice on Monday to make up for missing this Saturday and Sunday- but will get back to regularly scheduled blogging next week!!

So here is my post! I just don't get it! on Oct.2 I took Chatham to the dr. for his six month appt. and got the first half of the flu shot we were told to wait four weeks and come back to get the secong part.
So I called this week to let them know we were coming in and the nurse informs me that they are out of flu shots....
how are they out, I'm wondering- aren't they sent a specific number of shots? You know you gave us the first half, wouldn't you hang on to one knowing we're coming back (you TOLD us to come back after all!!!)
The nurse I spoke with just told me to continue to check thier website to see when or IF they get anymore in....


We are sorry. We are temporarily out of FLU VACCINE. Please check back later for an update.

That is what I see everytime I check the website, and I don't know what to do. Will Chatham be ok with only half a dose?? Can we go to a different doctor and get the second dose? How long do I wait to see if our dr. gets more shots?
What would you do in my case? Has this happened to your kids??