Merry Merry and Happy New Year!!

Goodness gracious, I have seriously been neglecting this poor blog! It is New Year's Eve, I have been in the bed all day with strep throat, and in the spirit of turning 30 this year, I am ringing in the New Year in true old woman fashion. PJs, watching a movie with the hubby in bed and yes catching up on the 'ole blog. Boy, do I ever have some catching up to do!

I will start with Christmas. For those of you who aren't in love with looking at pics of my child, you should probably stop reading right about now. Mama got a new camera from Santa this year and oh you know I have lots of pictures to share!!

So, normally we would celebrate Christmas Eve with David's family, then head up to Fort Payne to wake up Christmas morning, but we decided to do it a little different this year. Since Hayes is older this year and understands how this Santa Claus thing works, I really wanted him to be home on Christmas morning. So, Mom headed down here on Thursday, attended David's family Christmas with us and stayed until Sunday. Dad and Maw Maw Bailey came down Christmas morning and spent the day with us! So glad they made it, because we were worried they wouldn't make it because of all the snow in Fort Payne, and Hayes' Christmas just wouldn't have been the same without his Paw Paw!

This Christmas was just so much fun! I just love Hayes' age right now (ok, not all the time) and he really got into the Christmas spirit this year. He loved talking about the real reason we celebrate Christmas and it just melted my heart every time he belted out, "Hopppy Birfday, Jeeesus!" Last year he couldn't have cared less about opening gifts, but this year he was ALL about it! We had to watch him like a hawk to keep him from sneaking off and opening everyone else's gifts, as well. And Santa Claus, oh Santa Claus. This is all David and I heard for a month! The first thing Hayes said every morning was "I love Santa Claus!" So, we couldn't wait to take him to meet Santa Claus and....

Seriously? So after we peeled him off David and made it to the car I asked him if he still loved Santa Claus. His response was, "No, Santa Claus loves me!" From then on every morning when he woke up instead of saying "I love Santa Claus" he said "Santa Claus loves me." :)

Some pics of the Gardner (plus my mom) family get together..

 Singing Christmas carols....

And Uncle Channing taught Hayes how to play paper football...

So, you all know that it is a constant battle to keep Hayes' clothes on. He will disappear out of sight for a second and return naked as a jaybird. So, why should Christmas or family get togethers be any different, ya know?

And some pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning...

 Of course that sweet boy had to give Ella Bailey Christmas kisses!!

Wow, what an amazing Christmas it was! There is nothing better than seeing the pure joy in your child's eyes on Christmas morning. It is hard to believe that next Christmas we will have two little angels to celebrate the holidays with. It is also hard to believe that as I am typing this there are only 3 hours left in 2010. God has blessed us so incredibly this year and I can only imagine the sweet blessings he will place in our lives in 2011. After all, what could be better than starting a New Year knowing that in approximately 10 weeks I will be holding the little girl that I have been praying for and dreaming of in my arms. Happy New Year and I wish for you all the love and joy that your heart can hold in 2011!!

27 weeks!

I am sitting here today wondering where the time has gone. It is the day after Christmas and I can't help but think that means that 2011 is almost here, which means that Baby Ella Bailey is almost here. Ahhhh!!! Next week I will be able to count on two hands the remaining weeks until my scheduled c-section. Nine (really ten) months seems like an eternity, but it truly flies by!!

I know that my blog has been neglected lately, and there are several Christmas posts to come in the next few days, but I wanted to post some pics of my 27-week-belly. Please say a prayer for me this week, because I have my gestational diabetes 3-hour-test on Thursday. I know a diagnosis of GD is not the worst thing that can happen in a pregnancy, but I truly feel like I am at the end of my rope right now. My kidney stones situtation is getting very bad and we are all worried about the next couple of months. The pain is incredibly worse the larger I get and to make matters worse, Ella Bailey stays on the side where the stone is stuck and kicks it constantly. Excruciating pain!! There has been a lot of discussion about doing surgery to put in a stent, but I just don't want to take any chances with surgery for Ella Bailey, especially since there is only a small chance it will even help. I just feel (and hope and pray) that I made it through the pain. I did it with Hayes and pray I can do it this time, as well. I just REALLY don't want to have to deal with GD on top of all this, so we are praying for good results on Thursday.

On a much happier note, we will be having our 4D ultrasound on January 4! Hayes looked JUST like his 4D pics when he was born and we simply cannot wait to see Miss Priss!! Here are some pics of my big'ole belly this week.

Deckin' the halls....

We are finished with all of our Christmas decorating....finally! We got a late start this year, since I was in the hospital all last week, and I was beginning to think we would never get everything finished. I LOVE our real tree, but it almost caused David and I to get divorced last night :). He couldn't get it straight in the stand and my big pregnant self couldn't hold the darn thing up straight for two hours while he worked underneath it, then Hayes had his hammer trying to help, and I had to have it perfectly straight and blah, blah, blah. Two trips to Wal-Mart, some help from the neighbors and a roll of duct tape later, we finally got it straight in the stand. AND I would like to give a big shout out to the person who invented the tree skirt.

After all that, this girl was hitting the sack, so the decorating of the tree had to wait until tonight. We had a great time decorating, and of course, Hayes had some decorating ideas of his own....

After untangling the kid and the dog, we finally got to work on the tree.

And the finished result.....

And with the lights off....:)

Of course, we had to get Ella Bailey an ornament. Can't believe she will actually be here to enjoy Christmas with us next year!

And here is Hayes' favorite ornament....

Finally, we have a  house that is decorated inside and out, which means we also have one tired mama. Night!!