[2011 IN REVIEW]

2011 has been the best year of my life so far. I started out 2011 about 5 months pregnant and I am ending it with a beautiful, perfect, amazing, healthy, smart, funny 7 1/2 month old little girl. I mean what could be more amazing than that? NOTHING! She is the most amazing thing in the whole world! She is the light of our life and such a blessing. I'm sure that every year to come will only get better and better because we have Maeleigh to spend it with and eventually we will hopefully also have other children to spend it with too... but that's still a few years away. This year also started with me and Chaz both working 2 jobs so that we could save money for our sweet baby to come, and now at the end Chaz has a great job that he loves and wonderful people to work with and I am a stay at home Mommy which is exactly what I have always wanted to be. So anyway... here is a time line/summary of  the things that happened in 2011. 

*January*

-5 months pregnant with our little blessing

*February*

-Chaz started working for CAMS

*March*

-I started only working 1 job

*April*

-I turned in my notice at Putnam General Hospital and had my last day of work

*May*

-Maeleigh Denise was born on the 19th at 7:28p.m. weighing 7lbs. 10oz. and was 20 1/2in. long

*June-August*

-We just watched our sweet baby girl grow and learn new things

*September*

-Maeleigh had her 1st trip to the beach at St. George Island, Florida

*October-December*

-We just watched our sweet baby girl grow and learn new things and spent Maeleigh's 1st major hoildays together
-I graduated college with my Bachelor of Health Science in December

And now here, New Years Eve 2011.  We are spending the evening with MiMi and Pappy at their house to ring in the new year. It has been a great year and I can't wait to see what the new year will hold :)

We hope everyone has a wonderful and safe New Years!!

[THIS & THAT]

There has not really been much going on lately...just a few random things.

I thought that Maeleigh had found her voice about 2 months ago...I was wrong. She has NOW officially found her voice...I hope. She has learned to babble and squeal quite loudly. I think it is hilarious. We went and ate mexican last night with MiMi and Pappy and she took it upon herself to entertain all of the people around us. She was squealing and talking and also doing what we like to call the "baby chicken dance". If you have not seen Maeleigh's baby chicken dance you don't know what you are missing out on. I don't even know how to explain it but it is the cutest thing ever! She taught it to herself about a month and a half ago and she just keeps getting better at it and will now do it when you tell her to. She is so smart :) But anyway...all of the people around us were watching her and laughing and talking to her and needless to say she LOVED the attention. She would look around and make sure that people were watching her and then she would show off her dance skills. She has pretty much mastered being able to maneuver her walker around places. She still sneaks up in Jett and Bullet and tries to run them over which is very entertaining to watch. She will be very quiet and move really slow until she gets right up to them (they are usually sleeping) and then she goes at them full force! They usually get away but she got Jett today and he took off running when she ran over him and honked her horn and then she started squealing. She knew exactly what she did and she was quite proud of herself for catching him. She actually walks really good in her walker and has now started running. I swear she is never going to crawl, she is just going to go straight from sitting to walking. And now she will run really fast and then pick up her feet and keep rolling across the room. It is just so funny to sit and watch her and the new things that she learns and teaches herself. She is just such a smart little girl. She has to go to the doctor on January 10 to get her booster for her flu shot, which I am not looking forward to. I just hope that she does as good as she did with her 6 month shots, she was such a big girl. She loves playing with all of her new toys that she got for Christmas and will just sit on the floor and play by herself, until she throws all of them out of her reach and then she gets mad. But I think that is about all that is new with her lately :)

I can't believe that in 2 more days it will be 2012!! And then I will have to say that my baby girl will be 1 year old this year!! I just cant believe that she will be a year old in 4 1/2 months. I know I keep say that over and over in pretty much all of my posts but I just really CAN'T believe it! I swear I just had her! But anyway...I have already decided on my new year's resolutions...I have a few...

1. Learn how to sew. 

2. Get caught up on Maeleigh's scrapbook and keep up with it from now on. 

3. Get in better shape, NOT lose weight because that never happens, just tone up a little bit so that I feel better about myself and don't hate what I see when I look in the mirror. 

4. Learn how to crochet.

5. Make all of the fun things that I really want to make on my Pinterest :)

But I guess that's it for now! Maeleigh is ready for her lunch so I better run :)

Please keep the Needham family in your prayers. My brother Trey's girlfriend Laura's niece Piper, who is 2 years old, has leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant this past Wednesday. She has a long road ahead of her and will take all of the prayer and support that she can get. If you want to you can keep up with her on their blog The Needham Family.

We hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!

[SHE SPEAKS]

I forgot to mention in my last post that Maeleigh is officially talking now. She started saying Da-Da on Christmas Day and has not stopped since. I keep telling her Ma-Ma but she just smiles and keeps saying Da-Da. She sounds so cute! Sometimes she screams it, sometimes she whispers, and sometimes she says it in a deep voice (which is hilarious by the way). I just can't believe that she is growing up so fast and is starting to do so many new things. I was buying her some new clothes today with a gift card that I got for Christmas, because of course I buy nothing for myself and everything for her :), and I was getting her some really cute summer stuff and realized that I needed to get 18 months size...this makes me sad. I can't believe that this summer she will already be a year old and in 18 months clothes! It just seems like I JUST had her and she is still supposed to be my sweet little baby, but she is quickly growing into my sweet big girl which is perfectly fine, I just can't believe how fast she is growing.

Yesterday was a great day. Maeleigh got to meet her Great Aunt Shelley :) If you don't already know she is not technically my aunt but her and my Mamma have been best friends since middle school so I have always called her my aunt. But anyway...she lives in Maryland is in town for Christmas so we went to visit her. Maeleigh loved playing with Aunt Shelley and she got some really cute warm, comfy clothes for Christmas too. I am so glad that she finally for to meet her, along with her husband David, son Josh and David's mom Ms. Peg. Josh had a remote control helicopter that he got for Christmas and Maeleigh LOVED watching him fly it all around the room. She would be so quiet and sit so still and just watch it fly all around everywhere. So we had a very good visit with them :) Hopefully we will get to see them again and let Maeleigh meet their other son Evan who was flying in today. 

But anyway...since I am completely consumed with planning her 1st birthday party now I am going to go goggle and pinterest to my hearts content, or until I get so tired that I can't hold my eyes open...which ever comes first :)

[CHRISTMAS 2011]

I cant believe that Christmas has already come and gone. We had a GREAT Christmas! Maeleigh got lots of presents from Santa and everybody else, she must have been a really good girl this year :) We got up at about 7:15 and Maeleigh ate her breakfast, then we went to Grandmamma's house to eat breakfast where Maeleigh had fun playing with Hayden, Gracie and Colton, she wanted to play with Lucas too but he was sleeping. Maeleigh really like Gracie's pretty velvet dress and kept feeling of it. After we left there we can home and Granny, Papa and Uncle Caleb came over and we ate lunch and opened presents. The about 4:00 we went to MiMi and Pappy's house to have dinner and open presents with them, Uncle Trey, Laura and Uncle Thomas. And then we finally came home to go to sleep. SO needless to say we had a very busy day  and Maeleigh was still worn out from it today, she took like 5 good naps...that never happens. All that opening presents and playing with her new toys really did wear her out, but she had lots of fun. And just like I thought she ripped open every single one of her presents all by herself! She is so smart! She knew exactly what to do with them. I didn't even have to show her not one time what to do. I can only imagine how fun her birthday is going to be. She is really enjoying her new toys since all of her old toys were "baby" toys she was getting really bored with them, so I'm glad that she has new stuff that she likes to play with. But I do know that we now need a bigger house, you cant even walk through the house for all of the toys everywhere. Who would have ever thought that somebody so little would have so much stuff that takes up so much space?! Haha.

We hope that everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did :)

Now that Christmas is over I have to start planning Maeleigh's 1st birthday party! But I am going to wait until after the first of the year...give myself a few days to recover. Haha. But I figure I need to start planning now 1. because it has to be perfect and 2. if the next 5 months go by as fast as the past 7 months have gone by her birthday will be here before I know it. I just want to make sure that I have plenty of time to get everything done that I want to do, and I think that 5 months should give me enough time. I sound crazy I know but I want her 1st birthday to be absolutely perfect :)

But anyway...I am still very tired too so I am going to try to go to sleep since the princess is sleeping good :) I will try to remember to post some pictures soon.

[ALMOST CHRISTMAS]

This year has gone by so fast. I cant believe that its almost Christmas and then its going to be 2012. Its hard to believe that last Christmas I was 4 months pregnant and now this Christmas I have the sweetest most adorable 7 month old daughter in the world! Its crazy how fast time flies.

Anyway...I cant wait until Christmas! I am so excited for Maeleigh's 1st Christmas! And whoever says that she wont really do much this year but next year will be fun doesn't know my daughter. This child LOVES to unwrap presents! Her eyes get huge and she starts squealing and doing her fake cough and frantically claws at the paper until she rips it. It has to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. She has already gotten presents from Susie, Lauren, Aunt Tiffany and Josh, and Shannon, Chaz's co-worker, and she opened all of them all by herself!!... well pretty much all by herself, I still had to help her a little because she thought that some of the wrapping paper would make for a good snack. So Christmas is going to be so much fun for us this year even though she is only 7 months old. I know that she is going to be so glad to get some new toys because she is obviously getting bored with all of her current toys.

From here on out, until Christmas Day, we are going to have a pretty busy schedule. Tomorrow we are going to Uncle Trey and Laura's house to welcome and show our support and thanks to Sgt. 1st Class Mark Allen as he makes his way home to Loganville. If you haven't heard about it you should plan on going, after all its the lease we can do for him after everything he has done for us [Allen Coming Home Friday]. Then on Saturday we are going to Nanna and Pape's house for Christmas Eve dinner as well as going to the Christmas Eve service at church. The on Christmas Day we are going to Grandmamma's house in the morning, then back to our house to spend the afternoon with Granny, Papa and Uncle Caleb and then in the evening we are going to MiMi and Pappy's house to do our Christmas with them, Uncle Trey, Laura and Uncle Thomas and eat dinner. So we are going to be very busy and doing a fair amount of running around. Thankfully Maeleigh usually sleeps in the car so hopefully she wont mind. And hopefully I can keep her on her schedule this holiday, she got really messed up over the Thanksgiving holiday and it took a while for me to get her back on track so hopefully that wont happen this time.

But anyway...I guess I need to try to go to sleep now...even though it probably wont happen. I just cant seem to sleep these past few nights, my mind just races about all kinds of random stuff as soon as a lay my head down and can go on for hours and hours before I actually fall asleep. Hopefully tonight will be better. Maeleigh is sleeping soundly after her second night with her cereal bottle before bed, so we will see how the rest of the night goes for her too. Goodnight :)

[LETS TRY THIS AGAIN...]

I am the worlds worst at this blogging stuff but I really think that it's a good way to keep up with family and friends and for them to keep up with us. I tried this before and completely failed but I'm trying again anyway, hopefully it will turn out better this time. I'm not going to go back to when Maeleigh was born because I will just get overwhelmed and quit again. So here we go...

Maeleigh is 7 months old today!! I can't believe that she is getting so big so fast! She is getting to be such a big girl and as happy as I am it still makes me sad that she is not my newborn little baby anymore. However, she is still my petite  but tall little girl weighing only 16lbs. 2oz. and 27.75in. tall : ) She is so sweet and gives the best kisses ever! She loves her food and has been completely sitting on her own for a little while now, however, I don't think she is ever going to crawl or get teeth. She hates to be on her stomach and would much rather be walking around in her walker. And she has been teething for 4 months now and I check everyday for those little teeth and everyday there is nothing. So she remains a little drool machine. She really babbles a lot these days and lets her voice be heard. Today she officially made both of MiMi and Pappy's doggies afraid of her. First she scratched Jett's ear when she was petting him and made him cry, then she tried to run over Bullet in her walker and made him cry too, so now they both run from her which is pretty funny. 

That's pretty much a summary of what has been going on lately, I would would write more but I guess I better go to sleep now since the princess is asleep. Sorry my first post was so short but I guess you have to start somewhere right? :)