Today is in memory of Elizabeth Anne, Danslen's best friend who went to be with Jesus before they got to meet. We had a reserved place for her in our double stroller, so we are heart broken to say the very least. Our hearts are with Erin and David during this difficult time. Even though the loss is great, we look forward to having lots of fun with Sarah Katherine in the future.

Ok I promise I'm NOT trying to give my Grandmother a heart attack (nor any of the other grandparents). But when she hears it crank she wants to get on. We just rode around the house...I know regardless she needs a helmet and we'll work on that!

A Friday or two ago Aunt Brooke invited us out for a play date. We went to the park and rode tricycles, and since LeLe lives just a short walk from the park she joined us too. We had a GREAT time just taking life easy.

Does anyone see anything unusual? We're really into Hide & Seek right now. :-)

Last week Daniley was in Columbiana's Cowboy Parade. She was an Indian with LeLe. After the parade, she rode horses. We tried to get Sarah Katherine on the horse but she would have nothing of it. :-)

As Dan left from work yesterday, his buddy asked him, "Is that your ride?" Dan said, "No, although it IS my anniversary my wife is way too cheap for that." Here he is, talking smack. I was hiding inside watching. Here is Dan, after he got far enough to think he was free and clear, being called back. Chauffeur to Dan: "Mr. Connell, this ride is for you." (Couldn't turn on the flash, sorry it's blurry.) In he hopped and we were on our way. Details undisclosed but it was a very romantic evening and here are a couple of pictures to prove it. :-)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO MY LOVE AND BEST FRIEND!
Today, Dan and I have been together for 9 years, and married for 7. (We got married on the anniversary of when we met.) For whatever reason, this anniversary seems extra special to me. I don't know if it's because we are in the midst of completing our family, or if that it's just we made it to the 7 year itch and we aren't itching. (Dan did buy a motorcycle a couple months ago so maybe that will get him by for another 7 years.) :-) This is the first anniversary that we have not traveled, so this is the first time we are at home celebrating our anniversary.
Dan is one of the best things that ever happened to me. We are blessed to have a good marriage. I often hear people talk about how hard marriage is and how you have to work at it, and I've never felt that was true for us. We have the same goals and we think mostly the same. He's a perfectionist and I'm far more laid back than I used to be (two perfectionists can't co-habitat). I hope our next seven years are as great as the first seven. Dan, I do not know how I would make it without you! I love you!! Thank goodness we are home this year. There was no chance I forgot to pack our wedding video. When you get home, we can watch it, your favorite!!!!!!!!!! :-D

Valentine's Day, for whatever reason, was highly overrated this year (for me anyway). My focus was more on Daniley, the way it should be, in addition to the baby I have on the way, in addition to our anniversary that is one week later! Dan has given me some great presents this last year, including more for Christmas than I ever dreamed for! (Think quality here, not quantity.) As I felt he'd given me enough lately, I just didn't want anything for Valentine's Day. I didn't even want to go out to eat, due to the crowds. Dan surprised me with the most beautiful card with rhinestones and hearts on the front that he and Daniley made, and inside was one of his original poems, the kind he used to woo me with when we were dating. LOL. He also got me some tulips, my favorite flowers, which was a real treat. It was a real surprise. I felt most loved. These are the gifts that matter the most. :-)
I didn't get anything for Dan....I'm in the hole in guess. :-(
Here we are on V-Day morning, eating strawberries and cream. This is about 5:30am, before personal grooming. LOL.

After celebrating Valentine's Day a day early (so we had more time to enjoy it), we went over to James' and Eli's house to ride and play. They had a great time cruising around the cul-de-sac. They are so cute!!

Saturday we went to such a fun little Valentine Party. My friend was showcasing her Chez Ami clothes while at the same time letting our little ones decorate cards and cookies. Daniley LOVED it. She played so sweet with the other little girls there. It was such a great time!! Daniley made two cards and two cookies.

SNOW!!!!!!!
It began snowing at night and Daniley HAD to get out and play in it! She rode her tricycle around for 30 minutes, no lie. That is a LONG time for her to do any one thing. It's mostly flat but not exactly so I know it was some work on her legs. She has PLENTY of leg we probably just need to work on the muscle part. Haha. Here she is when it started snowing.


Then the next morning, we had to rush off to work, but we couldn't RESIST playing with her in the snow, so we went out again....at 5:15am!!!!!!!!!! That gave us a good 30 minutes of playtime. :-) Then off to Mawmaw's she went where she played some more!

I LOVE the way our yard looks at night when we turn all the floodlights on. You can see our beautiful cedar tree and all our landscaping. Here is our dogwood covered in snow!

Daniley is like me in so many ways, outside and in. She likes nature, isn't afraid of getting dirty, would rather lay on the ground than stand on it, and is content doing her on thing. Here is some proof. In her dad's honor, notice the wrench she has in the last picture working on her tricycle. She thinks she's big stuff!

My SWEET baby.... this was part of my maternity package....that's a little too unclothed for posting. We'll try to cover myself with photoshop and get something on here soon! They are too cute not to share!
www.photoshootusa.com Langley Studios

It's been a nice weekend. Thursday Daniley spent the night with Honey. Honey spoiled her for sure. They went to Cracker Barrel and had breakfast and then I think Daniley took Honey shopping where Honey bought her whatever she wanted, including plenty of CANDY. I picked her up Friday morning where we continued our day with fun journeys. At one point I was carrying a 30 lb. baby (two of them actually), 4 huge baby shower gifts, a bag, and an umbrella, wearing heeled boots, down wet stairs outdoors, and in the rain. I don't know how I survived.

We did lots of playing around this weekend. Daniley was an absolute angel. She kept hugging me and kissing me. I can't get enough of that. Well maybe she wasn't an "absolute" angel...because last night I told her, "If you do that one more time, I'm gonna SPANK YOUR TAIL." She replied, "Mom, I don't have a tail. I have a butt. Cats have a tail." She told my grandma a similar story last week, except the left off the butt part. We spend a lot of time laughing at her!

This weekend we got the baby swings, stroller, and car seat washed. So far I really haven't done anything to prepare for new baby. The furniture is together and the room is already painted, and almost everything I need is already in the attic. So what's there to stress over? All that's left for me to do now is pull out some clothes and wash them. Maybe I will...in April! ;-)

I AM GONNA BE AN AUNT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!
And I am sooooooooooo excited about it. I've been an Aunt twice before but there's something different when your BABY BROTHER (age 24 ;-) ) is about to become a father, especially when it was a surprise. Well maybe he shouldn't be too surprised, since he did participate! I can say for Danson and Brooke this is a little sooner than they wanted, but they were being responsible and accidents happen every now and then. Danson and Brooke have been together for over 4 years (heck maybe over 5 by now) and married for about, oh, 3 months. LOL!!! But they have a nice place to live, good stable jobs/income, they are mature and responsible, and have a great family support system in place. They live in the perfect place to raise children. So even if it's a little soon, what's the big deal? God knows every plan. They'll just have to make some accomodating adjustments. :-)

I think over the last few weeks the SHOCK has turned to excitement just as I knew it would. Now I have 5 of the 10 kids I need. If I count JoAynn's boyfriends' boys and Sarah Katherine, that gives me 8. So Brooke, you only need to have two more. Then I'll be all set! :-)
CONGRATULATIONS TO MY BABY BROTHER!! (aka DORK) (aka LD) I know by your uncle-ing you're going to be a GREAT FATHER! (Wait, now I'm crying again. I should not have typed that "Father" word. Oh dear Lord Jesus please help me.....)

:-)

I don't know what it is about seeing my baby on a tricycle that I can't get over. She just looks so big. The only way she can get on this is to climb up the back (and I never even knew kids used those steps...I thought they were for Big Sister to push Baby Sister around). Well Daniley went down this slope and then quickly turned sharp. Needless to say there was a major crash. Here she is just 2 seconds before the crash. I barely got the camera button down before I heard screaming. I looked from the camera view to find her on the ground, trike upside down. That was FAST. (Click the picture to see just how big she looks!) I know it will be no time before she's riding a big girl bike. :'(
This is 30 seconds after crashing. I can't remember what I said to distract her but it was probably "Let's go get a snack." Instant turn-around.

This was a mostly good weekend. Friday we had lunch with Honey at ACIPCO. Honey is retiring today!! We got in one last visit to her office before she departed. We are most excited for her and hope she finds lots of new and fun hobbies to occupy all her free time. :-) WE LOVE YOU HONEY AND ARE SO HAPPY FOR YOUR RETIREMENT.
Saturday I was feeling artsy so I made up a few things. The first is a sign for Danslen's door in the hospital. I used my Silhouette to make it and I even glittered the stork blanket. (I love glitter!) We will write the baby's stats on the bottom left hand corner. :-) The second thing is a little mailbox (the other side says "Special Delivery") and it houses a shower gift. If Momma Massey happens to be snooping around on here, well I guess your only surprise will be the contents. ;-) The last thing is a onesie for Danslen. I embroidered the front but it's a surprise so you have to wait for hospital pictures to see what I did. This will be the first outfit she wears (but probably not the most important). This one is just for a cute photo opportunity. :-)
Saturday night we went to eat with my coworkers (about 40 of them). We took Daniley. She ate well and behaved well too. It was very nice.
Sunday I don't know if I was nesting or just tired of clutter but I cleaned out two closets and was happy to be organizing a few things. I got some junk out and re-organized Daniley's next season/size of clothes. I'm not sure how I'll organize clothes for TWO babies but one thing is for sure, I'm NOT stressing over it. I'll just figure it out as I go.
Finally on Sunday I had to attend a funeral for a dear person I knew as I grew up. Melvin was the dad of childhood friends, and the husband of my mom's best friend. It seems that I've been attending a funeral every two weeks for the last year. Perhaps that is the cost of having a big loving family and a lot of friends. It is sad to see my dear friends and family passing away. It reminds me just how short life is and that you best make the most of it while you can. Don't sweat the details...live large and love larger.

Over the last two weeks I haven't done much blog updating. I've mostly been lazy. I haven't felt my best, although I haven't thrown up in two weeks almost. At times I still feel nauseated and I was feeling very tight...but I must have stretched some more cause now it's not too bad again. After long days in the office my back hurts, but Dan helps pop it and massage it when required.
A couple weeks ago we went to Katie's birthday party where I found myself in the top of a blow up jumper pulling kids up a ladder. We all had a really good time. We dropped by Honey and G-Paws for a surprise visit but they were gone. It was ok, I enjoyed eating my pizza AND THEIRS TOO. haha.
This past weekend Sarah Katherine spent Friday night with us. I didn't take a single picture. I just don't have the energy to do it all right now....so we had our fun times and their brains will house the only memories from this visit. This was Sarah Katherine's first bath at my house that she hasn't screamed and cried. LOL. Both of the girls enjoyed the bath. Daniley loves having baths with other people. She gets to splashing and laughing and I have to say it's pretty fun just watching. Every time she gets in she invites me in too. I used to get in more but at this stage of my pregnancy (6 months) I don't feel like her crawling all over me. I can't wait til the baby is out so I can get back to my regular self and have the energy and motivation to be the Mom I want to be. At times I feel depressed because I just can't give what I want to. But all it takes is a plan for somewhere to go and my sorrows seem to disappear. :-)
Saturday night Daniley spent the night with Honey and G-paw. I think they spoil her pretty bad (like give her lots of candy and ice cream and all the other things grandparents do under the table) so she really enjoys a trip to their house. I have to say after Friday night with 2 girls I needed the break extra bad. Dan and I went to dinner on a Groupon and then to run some errands at the mall. I got me some more maternity pants and all I can say is thank GOD that I can wear comfortable clothes to work. :-)
Lastly, I failed my glucose test, which isn't a big surprise. I was gestational diabetic with Daniley so I was pretty much expecting this. I have to eat peanuts and such for snack instead of say, Reese's cups, and that does really suck. But it will help me maintain my weight and it's only temporary, so I'll manage just fine.
Thanks for stopping by my blog....it's 5:00 somewhere (like HERE) so I'm splitting! Toodle-oo!
PS. Blogger needs to update their clock. I don't care what time zone you are in, the last two digits right NOW are 02. (5:02, now that I had to come back and write in the PS.) :-P

New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve, we stuck with tradition, well kind of. We always go to Stix, usually with Daniley dressed in something really fun (last year she was the cutest astronaut!). Well I didn't plan the outfit in time so we just went to Stix dressed in normal clothes. And to top it off, I forgot my camera. :-(
After dinner, one of Dan's friends was having a party in Hayden. It was a little farther than we wanted to drive home from after midnight, especially in the rain, and with drunks on the road. So Dan decided that he wanted to get some fireworks for Daniley and come home and shoot them with her. He was so excited to share some mild explosives with a child that's probably just a little too smart to be fooling around with them. He and Daniley would go light the fireworks then RUN back to the garage to watch. Daniley liked them, for about 10 minutes.


Then she was just back to her usual exploring nature, seeing what she could find around the basement to get into. Check her out on her tricycle. I can't BELIEVE she is big enough to ride that thing. She steers and pedals quite well!

If it's not one kind of mess, it a kind of another. Oh well. Who expected to have kids and not have messes?
With that said, do note the Vaseline there on the nightstand. I had been sick and my nose was SO DRY that I had attempted to put some Vaseline in it, just so I could breath comfortably. This baby powder gave me a very nice reminder--the Vaseline has got to GO! (Click the picture to enlarge the mess.)