Snowmageddon 2011

More snow!


So they called for snow for the second time this winter and we all scoffed... whatever! That doesn't happen here... I wasn't laughing so much when I realized how bad the roads got so quickly and I needed some sinus medicine! So I carefully ventured out that night as the snow came falling down and made it back home safely with my 4 wheel drive with cars stranded all over the road!

We just thought we had snow on Christmas... here is our house the morning after the snow on January 10th! (remember Jarom had pneumonia the entire week before so that is why our Christmas lights are still on the house) We got seven inches of snow!Scott dropped by early in the morning to play for a bit...We took Livy out in the snow for a little while too... she didn't know what to think.

Until it was naptime, then we let her sleep all bundled on the front porch so we could watch her while we played.This time we got out and enjoyed the snow! Mom, Dad, Katie, Bob, and the dog Boggy walked to our house and we played outside for hours! We didn't find anywhere to sled but we made a snowman and played until we were exhausted!

The snow lasted FOREVER and schools here were shut down for an entire week. Jarom only ended up with a day and a half off of work from the snow which meant I had to be carless the rest of the week since his truck doesn't have 4 wheel drive and my car does and he had to drive to Decatur each day.

Sledding and the rest of 2010!

So Christmas Day and night we got SNOW. So unusual for the South. So we had to break off a few gigantic icicles...Livy bundled to go out in the snow. We searched high and low for some "sledding worthy" roads to go sledding the day after Christmas and finally found a way up the mountain so we could sled down the back road of the mountain.

After about an hour we were cold and miserable and still had to hike all the way up the mountain back to the car. Addie was crying and I was carrying her. I realized how outta shape I was/am! So I thought Jarom had it easy pushing the stroller up the mountain so I had him carry Addie while I pushed... not so much. It was HARD going up an ice covered road! We were glad to get back home and warm up with some grilled cheese sandwiches and hot chocolate. After all it was always tradition growing up to have grilled cheese or peanut butter toast and hot chocolate with the first snow of the season! It was always a real treat since Dad didn't allow us to eat that kind of "junk" growing up, haha! So we carried on the tradition and then snuggled in for movies for the rest of the evening. :)

After Christmas I looked through the pictures of us and realized how badly I needed to lose the baby weight. So I joined a fitness website and started counting calories. SO glad I did! I've lost 15 lbs since and am feeling much better!

New Years Eve we decided to go to dinner then to Mom's to bring in the New Year. So Jarom, me, Addie, Livy, Mom, and Dad went to Carraba's for dinner then stopped by Walmart for sparkling cider... they were out. So we went back to Mom's, played Kinect, and brought in the New Year with the family. We made sure to pick Addie up some "bubbly juice" aka sparkling cider for a meal later that week since she missed out on New Years Eve. :)

New Years Day we spent the day at home just relaxing because Jarom was so "sore from playing Kinect" the night before... or so we thought. We had a nice dinner out at Chili's with our friend Ron since Victoria and the family was out of town and then we came home. I got up early Sunday to get us to early church for the new year (8:30 AM!!! AWFUL) and Jarom was feeling BAD. We thought he had the flu and so I sent him to the clinic right away to get tested so I'd know if I needed to keep the girls away from him and so I could get us started on Tamiflu. He had walking pneumonia. He got quarantined to the guest bedroom and had a really rough first week of 2011. It was miserable for him. Just as he was feeling better a HUGE snowstorm hit us! That post next! AND I'm FINALLY done blogging 2010 and the holidays! HOORAY!

Christmas Day

It snowed on Christmas Day. In Alabama. In Huntsville. What the heck??? Addie had told me ALLLLL month "momma, it's gonna snow on Chis-mas" and I kept trying to tell her, "no, baby, probably not". Looks like she was right! We awoke to a white Christmas! What a treat!

Christmas morning came and Addie was SO excited to get up to see if Santa came! She wanted Livy to be happy too.



Addie LOVED all of her presents, Livy could've cared less. Addie opened all of Livy's presents for her since Livy wasn't having it. Addie said when she looked at the wagon "does Santa's arms be tired if he carries this???" Haha! This was the best picture I could find of Addie in her wagon Christmas morning... not really sure what she is doing...Livy was SO not happy to be put down with her presents...Remember this picture of Addie on her first Christmas morning?
Christmas just wasn't the same this year. Christmas Eve kinda stunk due to Mawmaw's ER trip, actually it really stunk. Like STAAAANK. I know it's because we didn't get to keep the tradition of the opening of presents, the ritual that Dad and little Bruce do with "keeping the tree" (guarding the presents in case someone dares to try to steal the presents, which we always do), the laughter, games of Dirty Santa, and feasting on dinner and dessert. It just left us empty. I went to bed hoping Christmas Day would be better. We still had a good day, but Christmas dinner was rushed due to Dad needing to get back to the hospital with Mawmaw and just the overall gloom and uncertainty of the situation really dampened the mood. It really stinks because I had a little bit of a rough Christmas last year with my miscarriage so I really wanted this Christmas to be perfect. I did ALL the shopping early so I'd have time to just have fun and relax through Christmas and it just didn't turn out that way. It wasn't a bad Christmas, just not normal and all I had dreamt it to be. I still think Addie had a great Christmas, she seemed super happy all day, so at least we were able to keep her Christmas special since she didn't know anything was amiss.

Addie got a doll that sucks a bottle and paci, makes baby sounds, cries, and laughs, some other toys, clothes, princess dresses, books, and a dora toothbrush. Livy got a little rattle doll that she really loves to hold now, a bundle me muff for her carseat to keep her warm, clothes, books, diapers, and a cute paci clip. Addie picked out a soft ball for Livy that has Winnie the poo on it, and Livy picked out (with Grandma's help) a soft ball for Addie that has Disney princesses on it. Addie thought it was cool that Livy picked out a ball for her just like she did for her sissy.

I got Jarom a "cooling mattress pad" and some clothes. It got returned after we found out it doesn't do a darn thing. Our new memory foam mattress makes him sweat so after a ton of research I thought it'd be the perfect solution. Nope. So instead I bought him the Xbox Kinect which is like a Wii without controllers and a sports game, and it's been played twice... oh well. I got two pairs of cute shoes, comfy pants, and TONS of the glasses I wanted to go with my plates! Jarom and Addie played in the snow while I made a HUGE brunch, Bob ate with us, then we got cleaned up and headed to Mom's for dinner. We ate a yummy meal with ham, green beans, rolls, deviled eggs, and all kinds of other goodness, Mom and Dad spoiled us with presents, we acted out the Nativity, then Dad and Bob left for the hospital.

I know this picture is blurry but Addie was SO happy that Grandma wrapped her presents in princess paper. Best out of the bunch... at least I tried for a family picture. :)Ohhhh so soft! Livy and some new jammies from Grandma and Grandpa.Jarom REALLY loved his sweater... lol!Addie serenaded us while we got our things together to go home for the night.

It snowed throughout Christmas day some more and some overnight so the day after Christmas we went sledding... that post coming up next. We celebrated Christmas with the Mayfields the next day and had a nice light dinner of deli sandwiches which was a welcome relief after all the bad eating we did during the holidays! The kids played and I forgot my camera. :/

December and Christmas Eve

Yes. I realize it is now the end of March, but I couldn't NOT post Livy's first Christmas! It's been a little crazy in the Haynie household, and I finally have a moment to sit and blog. At least for a minute.

The Tree
This year we had yet another leaning tree... until the last few days... Actually we had 3 trees this season since we killed one and had to buy another plus our fake tree.

I put up our artificial tree in the dining room right after Thanksgiving and had a "white" themed tree in there. Good thing too, because it ended up being a little while before we had time to get a real tree. We usually go to the tree farm with Mom, Dad, Katie, and Scott, but work schedules conflicted, Mom's car was stolen, Katie got walking pneumonia, and then Mawmaw fell and broke her hip (on Addie's birthday which also was the day her newest great grandson was born) so all that we had time to do was run to Home Depot to pick out a tree. We still had a fun time doing so and luckily Addie is still so little she didn't really know the difference. We found a gorgeous tree and brought it home. Our tree was leaning (AGAIN) so Jarom went a bought a new stand. And it still leaned. Then we forgot to fill the new stand with water so within a week or so we had a very crunchy dead tree. So we went to Home Depot and bought another tree 10 days before Christmas and ANOTHER Christmas tree stand, and it STILL leaned, but after some negotiating and pleading with the tree, for the first time in our married life, our tree stood straight! (We remembered to water the second tree) Unfortunately Home Depot and every other store was 99% out of trees at that point so we picked the best out of all of them... and this was it. HAHA! Oh well. Notice later in the post the tree is standing straight!!

Isn't it pitiful with all the CRAZY branches? This was after I had trimmed off about 10 branches and realized I should get a picture of it, haha!

I SO loved the Christmas jammies I put on Livy. They were Addie's Christmas jams for her first Christmas, but Livy was just a wee bit too big for them. I forget how much of a difference 2 months makes in clothes. So I snapped a few pictures anyways since I knew they wouldn't fit come Christmas Eve. Livy was over pictures by this point!
We really cut back on presents this year and actually stuck to a budget... shocking! It made January a lot nicer. Instead of buying friends gifts we all got together and ate a nice meal, made salt ornaments with the kids, and just enjoyed ourselves visiting. We cut back on the amount we spent on everyone and really I don't think anyone missed anything! I had to really bargain shop, but I made sure I had my Christmas gifts ALL purchased by the day after Thanksgiving! Good thing too, because things went nuts after that. (Mom's SUV was stolen and never found- it had my wedding and prom dresses in it because she was going to drop them by my house :(((, Mawmaw broke her hip and spent a month in the hospital/rehab, sickness struck, we had Addie's birthday, a trip to Nashville for the concert, and nonstop craziness!)

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve tradition with the Woody family is to go to Mawmaw's, eat dinner, open presents, and eat dessert. That night right as we were leaving our house to go to Mawmaw's we got a call and found out Mawmaw was having chest pains. We hurried over and she wasn't sure what was going on so while Dad talked with the doctor, we quickly ate, and after deliberations, Dad, Mom, Bob, and Bruce took Mawmaw to the ER. We knew getting together again with everyone's conflicting schedules probably wouldn't happen, so we quickly let the kids open their gifts and then we headed home to await the news. Dad and Bob spent the night at the hospital because nothing was determined until Christmas Day.

Addie opening the "dirty Santa" gift that was specifically for her.Livy was more interested in the plastic on her "dirty santa" gift and Addie was ecstatic over her "dirty santa" dora houseshoes and her kitty that purred from my cousin Becky.

Jarom was on camera duty and forgot to get a picture of Livy "opening" her first ever Christmas present and then snapped this one of me trying to put Livy's headband back on while she ate her present. Sigh. (This is also when I realized I HAD to get serious about losing the baby weight, haha! I've lost 15 lbs since that day and am only about a pound from my prebaby weight! I seriously drank about 6 gallons of eggnog by MYSELF during the holidays (Halloween to Christmas). Gross I know.)Once home I tried to get a picture of the girls in their Christmas dressses but they weren't having it so we got the cookies and milk ready for Santa instead. Addie was SO excited that Santa was finally coming but she knew it meant it was time for Lulu the elf to go back to the North Pole. She said her goodbye's to Lulu and it was off to bed. (Addie continued to ask about Lulu for the next 3 weeks or so and so Lulu left Addie a few little trinkets and chocolates throughout January to let Addie know she was still watching her). Santa did in fact come to the Haynie house and left the girls a lot of presents! The wagon is for the both of them and let me tell you how cool the wagon is! It has the canopy, a cooler bag that's attached for picnic's, 4 cupholders, padded seats, and tons of seating configurations! Lulu left Addie one last gift (some pink ornaments since pink is Addie's favorite color) and Santa finished off the cookies and milk Addie and Livy left him. Mawmaw
Mawmaw spent a week in the hospital and it was determined she has congestive heart failure. Once home, Mom took over nonstop care of Mawmaw for a month or so, while Bob and Bruce rotated nights, then they went to rotating days so that they had Mawmaw for every third day once we felt like she would be okay alone at night. I'm happy to report Mawmaw is doing better than ever with the care. I think all of the attention and home cooked meals have really done her some good. Mom, Bruce, and Bob still rotate days but only spend about 5 hours there instead of 24. Mawmaw really is doing well and has bounced back after such a scare. She is staying on medicine to keep the water off of her heart and it seems to be working well.

Stay tuned for the very belated Christmas day post!