Finally!

Sorry for the huge gap in posts. The holidays have been keeping me busy and I finally had a chance to download all of my pictures (since Thanksgiving) last night! I had almost 400 of them...lots of pictures! I only included about 40 in the slideshow, though!

These are pictures from Thanksgiving (we stayed here and enjoyed time with the Holmes Family)...some random pictures of Meredith in this cute poncho my friend Laura made for her...pictures of the primary christmas party...and pictures of christmas tree shopping & decorating! I love the last picture of the slideshow...we were up late decorating the tree and as you can tell, Meredith was ready for bed!

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! I can't believe Christmas is 2 weeks away...if I don't post again for awhile, it is because I'm trying to get all my christmas shopping done! I haven't even started yet! Wish me luck!!

Dog days of summer?

The last few days have been so warm...it has felt like summertime again! Here is something I've been trying to catch on video for awhile, so thanks Elise for taking this video! Our little Meredith is a bit crazy when it comes to the sand...you'll see why I gave this post the above title!

Apples 101

Yes, more eating pictures! I can't help myself! It is just so cute to watch her try to eat like a grown-up. She no longer wants her food cut-up and she no longer wants help eating...she wants to do it all on her own, like a big girl! So cute, right? Anyway, here are some pictures of Meredith eating an apple (a WHOLE apple) for the first time! As you can tell from the pictures, she really enjoyed this eating experience! :)

First couple of bites!

The End!

#2

So, I have a little announcement to make. I think many of you already know, but for those of you who don't...I'm pregnant! #2 is expected to arrive June of next year! We are all excited, even Meredith! She is already happily claiming the title "big sister"!

Tag...

My friend, Felicia, tagged me over a week ago and I'm just getting around to posting now! Sorry, Flicka!

Okay, so here are six facts about me you may or may not all know:

1) I'm a bit of an introvert. I love people and I love chatting with friends, but I do better one on one...I don't really like big groups!! I don't know why, I've just kind-of always been this way. Guess I'm a tiny bit on the shy side sometimes.

2) Even though my hair is SOOOOOooooo dark these days, deep down inside...I'm a blonde. I've always been a blonde and I will always think of myself as a blonde. Whenever people ask me where Meredith got her blonde hair from...I think..."hello...me!" I forget that I'm not blonde anymore! In fact, whenever I look at recent pictures and see my dark hair, I can't believe that I'm actually a brunette! Weird!!!

3) I love to clean! Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a maid and all, but I really do enjoy cleaning. There is something so satisfying about cleaning...it is such a good feeling to walk around your house knowing everything is in place and in order. I enjoy cleaning even more now that I have a kid. I love it when Robert takes Meredith away and lets me have time to clean at home. Even though I'm stuck cleaning, I love it since I am actually doing what I WANT TO DO FOR ONCE!!!!!

4) I miss my friends! I have some of the best friends in the whole world. I really mean it! Throughout my life I have always been blessed to have at least a few really good friends. I have been thinking about all of these friends that I have collected throughout the past 30 years recently and I realize how much I miss them! Life is busy and it seems that the bigger our families all get...the less time we have to keep in touch. I wish I got to see my friends more often or at least talk to them more often...but I love them and always will...no matter what! You know who you are...XOXOXOXOXOXO!!

5) I have a love-hate relationship with computers and the Internet. At this point in my life, I don't think I could ever live without them...I'm so addicted. However, sometimes I'm so bugged at how many hours of our lives are stolen away from us...wasted on these evil little machines each day! In an effort to spend more time with Robert, I keep trying to make a rule about no computers after 7 o'clock. Hasn't stuck yet, though! :(

6) When Meredith wakes up every morning, she comes into bed with us and drinks her milk and snuggles. It is the best part of my day, especially if she doesn't get up too early! She is so sweet and I am so in-love with the girl...my favorite is when she puts her head on the pillow right next to mine...puts her nose against mine...then says "hi mama" and giggles. Priceless!!

Okay now for the tagging part:

Beth, Laura, Sarah, Julie H., Heidi Shirley and Rachael...you are all tagged! Have fun girls!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Now that Meredith is almost 2, Halloween was a lot of fun this year. She loved dressing up as a ladybug, especially because it meant wearing a fluffy tu-tu. She's such a girl, I love it. She also loved treak-or-treating...it didn't take her long to figure out how to say "trick-or-treat" and it didn't take her long to realize that when she said it, she got candy! I've always tried to limit her on sweets, so she has gone a bit crazy with all the candy around. I better eat it all before she does...ha ha!

Anyhow, here are some pics from our ward trunk-or-treat party! Note that the majority of the pictures have Meredith with her hand in her mouth eating popcorn or candy!

SeaWorld

We hit SeaWorld last Friday with my sister and her family. I haven't been since I was little and it was such a treat. The animals are amazing!...and all of the shows are so fun to watch! Out of the animals, my favorite is probably the walrus...I never realized how big a walrus actually is. Seriously, this walrus weighed as much as a couple of cars put together...he was HUGE! He would swim right up by the window...and seeing that big guy so close-up pretty much took my breath away. It was crazy!! The picture of the walrus in the slideshow doesn't do him justice!!

FYI, I'm pretty sure Robert or my sister took all of these shots. I was busy chasing Meredith around the whole time! :)

The Pumpkin Patch

We hit The Pumpkin Patch last Thursday night. I have been living in Huntington for 6 years and had never gone before, so it was fun to finally check it out. Meredith and the other kids, of course, loved it! Meredith (my little animal lover) was particularly excited about the petting farm and the pony rides!! She is my little cowgirl in the making...check out the pictures of her on the pony ride. She's a natural...

Sunny day at the beach

My sister and her family came to visit this past week. We had so much fun just hanging out. Meredith was so happy to have some cousins around to play with!

Ellie & Meredith diggin' a hole
cute little feet!

The Anderson's
Porter eating sand...yum

Spaghetti Eating 101

Grandma Holmes' Birthday!

October is a big month for the Holmes' family. I think there are 9 birthdays in the month of October...the most important being...Grandma Holmes! Happy birthday! We had grandma & grandpa over along with Mark, Marie, Lucy & little Thomas.

Mental health update...

So, I thought I'd share a quick update on M. She actually took a 2 1/2 hour nap the other day, which was seriously a miracle. However, she is continuing to fight her naps. Ugh!!! Everyone always says to just let them "cry it out"...which I totally get, but at this point I wonder how many thousands of times I have let her "cry it out"...without permanent success. It's getting old, but I'm trying to stay positive. It is just hard when she cries for 30 minutes straight...then starts crying about going "poo poo"! I had to get her up and change her diaper and now she has been crying for at least 20 minutes and she is still not asleep! I just hope that our next child is a good sleeper, or there may not be a #3!!

On a positive note, she is such a sweet girl and she has been so much better about sharing lately! Yeah! Now instead of beating up her friends when they play with her toys, she actually gets excited when friends come over and shows them all of her toys. So much better than hitting. :)

Here are some cute pics of M from my last photography class at the park:

Mentally unstable?

I don't normally go off in my posts, but I am so frustrated right now. I am just so tired...soooooo tired...and I've had it with Meredith's sleeping issues. You would think dealing with a baby getting up 3-4 times in the middle of the night until she was 14 months old, would be enough for one mom to bear...but NO! I feel so pathetic saying this, but it seems like EVERY time she actually starts to sleep better and nap better and I am feeling SOOOOOOoooooo truly grateful that I finally don't have to deal with the stress of trying to put her to sleep and the stress of wondering how long she is going to sleep...she relapses into her terrible sleep habits again!!! I really wish I didn't have to deal with this anymore!! It makes me wonder if she is ever going to be a "good sleeper"...

I realize that for some reason I have very little patience when dealing with this issue, but I am literally SO TIRED from the last 20 months that I don't think I will ever feel "normal" again. I look at so many of my friends whose kids sleep until 8 and take 2-3 hour naps every day and I feel like such a failure. I have the cutest little girl in the world and she is such a good girl when she is awake, but for some reason I have done something to ruin her whole sleeping thing. I spoiled her when she was little or something. Who knows??????

Right now as I'm writting this, she finally just fell asleep after 30-40 minutes of crying and the stupid dumptruck is here. She is going to wake up screaming any second and I can hardly think about it without feeling like I'm going to have a complete mental breakdown. You may laugh, but I'm not kidding...at all. I am so sick of this stupid garbage truck waking her up and so sick of my stupid neighbors that all have loud obnoxious trucks and anything or anyone else who has disturbed M's naps or sleep. Now that you have heard all of my pathetic ranting and raving, do you understand the title of my post?? I had all of these ideas in my head of what a great mom I would be before we actually had Meredith...and today as she kept screaming and crying and refusing to go to bed...I just wanted to smack her bum so hard. Ugh!! I didn't, but I was seriously angry. So much for the great mom dream.

By the way, she actually didn't wake up from the garbage truck, luckily it was one of the quiet recycling trucks...but unfortunately, I'm just sitting her feeling tons of anxiety waiting for the moment when something else will wake her up. With my recent luck, I'm sure this much needed nap will not even last an hour.

Sorry for the sob story. Promise I'll stop feeling sorry for myself now and try to cheer up. :) At least she is the cutest thing and sweetest thing about 95% of the time. It could be worse, right?

Surf City

At my photography class today we took pictures at the cool "Ice House" that has been around since 1945. I usually only take pics of people, so it was fun to try something new. There was also this really cool old car next door to the ice house...I snapped a few pics of that as well. Look at the hood ornament on the car, isn't that the hugest thing you've ever seen! We went to lake park and took a few pictures there, too!

I love the park!

We went to the park on Friday with Sherri and her kids. It was seriously such a perfect day for the park! The weather was perfect and it was so fun to watch the kids all play together.

I also stuck in 2 pictures from my photography class for fun. We went to the beach and the first picture of me walking on the beach...my teacher took, pretty cool pic. The other one I took...I love the way all the lights are lit up so well and I also love the people walking on the beach (you can hardly see them...they look like little blurry ghosts).

My sweet Curious George lover

Some of the best pictures I took of Meredith when she was a baby were when she was watching her Baby Einstein videos. Now that she is older, Curious George is her FAVORITE...I had so much fun taking pictures of her while she was watching George. If you can't tell from these pictures, Meredith is such a sweet girl. I love these pictures so much because the captured her sweetness so well!