Happy New Years Eve!!

Hope you all are having a fantastic NYE! I am starting mine by going to the lady doctor. I know, TMI.. But, I love seeing my doctor! Dr. Hearn is so much fun, I love him and he loves me (he told me so!) :) Actually, he said, "you are a like a daughter to me, I love you" it meant a lot to me, because BTB and I really do love and respect him so much!

After my appointment, I am heading to the grocery store and a drive thru to get BTB a biscuit. Once home, the plan is to start cooking, cleaning and decorating for our 3rd annual NYE get together with Ray and Heth. This year we are including Timothy in this very VIP party! We think he's earned the right to attend. Have no fear, Heth and I will both be sporting our fancy new cameras, so hopefully we will be able to show off all the yumm-o's we have made and our fun themed decor! I want to surprise yall, so I won't spill the beans on the theme and decor yet!

Also, our Clemson Tigers play today! I love my team, and I always want them to win, but this season they have not set my expectations high..so...hopefully we will pull it out! :)

Again, hope yall have an incredible NYE, and have someone special to kiss when the clock strikes 12:00!

Timothy is Nine Months Old!

Two days after he was born. I like this one because the HUGE paci makes it hard to see the feeding tube.

Today my sweet little bear is nine months old! I know I probably say this every month, but I really really can't believe it has been nine months since I had him.

I was looking at my c-section scar last night, and it finally is starting to blend with my skin. I actually looked at BTB and said, "can you believe our boy came out right there?" he smiled and said "no, he sure doesn't weigh 3 pounds anymore does he?"

My big boy has his 9 month appointment today too, so I will fill yall in later with the stats. But, I have a good feeling about this appointment, because guess what? He is wearing nine month clothes!! I mean legit nine months, not six to nine! :)

I hope y'all have a great day, please pray...he is getting shots today too! :(

"Quality of Life"

So last night I had a girls night. Which I hardly ever, ever do-- it was a blast!

Myself and four of my beautiful sorority sisters/bff's all met in Greenville for dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Papas and Beer. The food was really good! They even made the table side guacamole that I love so much! On top of that, the portions are ridiculous! Really, a restaurant shouldn't be allowed to serve any one person that much food. If I can ever eat that all of it in one sitting, please wheel my fat butt over to Jenny Craig..pronto!

Lauren, Lindsey and Whitney

The insane fajitas! I mean have you ever seen so much meat?!?

Me and Sam :) 

But the dinner wasn't about food completely (I mean, I think a big reason we are so close, is our love of food, so it does get some credit.) But we all are just trying to make a better effort of hanging out like we did in college. I think we all realize we can't hang out as much as we did in college (all of our apartments were literally like 50 feet from one another), but just trying once a month to get together gossip, talk about silly/funny things we did in college and just pretend for a couple hours that our life isn't complicated and full with jobs, husbands and little ones. It was really great! My cheeks hurt from laughing last night when I got home! And I think it made us all appreciate one another a little more too, because we have been texting most of today too!

And I think getting away like that makes me a better mommy and wife to my sweet boys! They will always be the two most important people in my life, but I can care for them so much more when I am in a good place with me! When I got home last night, I hugged Brandon and thanked him for letting me go. NOT because I needed (nor did I ask) for his permission to go, but, I wanted him to know I appreciate him understanding that I needed last night.

Tonight, BTB is at a Clemson basketball game with two of his friends getting to hang out with the guys. I think doing things like this it's just like a reset button or something, but whatever you call it, my "quality of life" has def. improved because of it!

The face I loved on when I got home!! :) 

We Didn't Have to Dream of a White Christmas..We Had One!

The weather folks got it right! They said after 12:00 pm we should start seeing flurries, and boy did we! But more on that in a bit.

Timothy slept until about 8:30 that morning and by the time we did his treatment and fed him, it was about an hour or so later that we got started opening our gifts.

What kind of toy is this?

His stocking is bigger than him!

What I wore almost all day! Sorry, no makeup! 

 This year for the Blackwell family, it was the year for technology. Here are some of the highlights:

A camera! Nikon D3100. (Whoop-whoop!)
A HD video camera!
A Kindle (this is all mine!)
A 32 inch LCD flat screen (Timothy's. No, I am not joking, totally for a 9 month old!)
A portable DVD player (again, Timothy. I have a drop-down DVD player in my SUV, but it can't leave the car, this way we can entertain Timothy anywhere!)
A Garmin (all hubby! He gets lost everywhere! And again, my car came with one, so Tbird and I decided daddy needed to find his way home faster!)
Lots of Timothy's toys are also chalk full of technology (thank you Discovery Channel for making toys!)

After we opened gifts Timothy, without fail, took another nap! Meanwhile, dad made us his traditional Christmas Day omelets! Yummy! We then all started getting things together for dinner that night. The guys chopped veggies while mom and I prepared the turkey and all the sides.

Dad was talking during the photo

Yumm-o

How great does that turkey look?

Once we finished, I took a cat nap with Timothy, while my dad and BTB played pool and watched the snow fall. We ate dinner about 6:00, which is early for us, but we did so because all my parents neighbors come over for a Christmas night dessert. This year we had two new additions to the mix: Timothy and sweet baby Lily! Timothy was so good with her! He just stroked her little sweater and smiled at her. He is way rougher with our dogs! This year we also had fun snow to watch and play in! Here are some pictures from that night.

Sweet Timothy and Lily

This is right when the snow started, it wasn't sticking yet.

Daddy and Timothy in the snow!

Our sweet fam.. see how hard the snow was falling?

Me and baby boy

Henry got into the snow

Harper did not like snow

Sunday we woke up 10:00! ALL of us! That is the latest he has EVER slept. We got up shocked and well rested. After giving T his treatment and bottle, we had some coffee and showers and the whole family went out in the snow. After the nice photos we also had a snowball fight, not pictured because I had Timothy and everyone else was too busy throwing snow at one another!

This picture of the house looks like a painting

Afterwards, we headed to the country club for a late lunch. On our way home, we decided we would build a snowman when we got home. BTB and I talked about and we had no where to be Monday, so we decided to stay another night with my parents. So while my dad, BTB and I built the snowman, Timothy and mom were inside making dinner plans for us. Here is  a photo of our small snowman.

He loved the snowman!

Apparently, snowman building and watching; makes everyone tired, because once we all came inside, the WHOLE fam, took a nap! After a refreshing nap for all, we headed over to my parents friends house for dinner. We ordered three pizzas and watched the bowl game. We had a great night!

Playing at the Palmers

Timothy loves Fowler Palmer! 

Monday, Timothy slept until 9:50! Can you believe it! He really spoiled us! BTB went on home with the pups and Timothy and I stayed and had lunch with my mom. As soon as Timothy and I got home, I got in my pj's and have been there ever since! Yay!

Last We Spoke it was Christmas Adam..

After my post on Christmas Adam, I FINALLY finished up all my last minute shopping! Also, I went to Hobby Lobby with a goal: find a better way to display my Christmas cards. Well, I found one! And a pretty good one if I do say so myself... Here are the before and after pics of the Christmas Card Tree by Tiff!

*Before* Cards everywhere. Super hard to keep them all up too!

*After* This isn't the best view. But you get the idea. All I did: Small tree from Hobby Lobby with small colored clothes pins to hang on it! :) Easy Peasy! 

 Christmas Eve morning came before we knew it and there we were opening our gifts we got each other and all the toys we got Timothy! Can I just tell you, ( and I never thought I would say this)it is so much more fun being Santa than getting Santa! Seeing the joy in a ( 5 days shy from) 9 month old, so incredible! Timothy loved opening presents! Boxes and the wrapping paper were his favorite parts of course, but it was too much fun! :) Apparently though, opening gifts takes a lot out of the boy, because he took a two hour nap shortly after we opened gifts! Which was perfect because it allowed me to finish cooking my two sweet potato soufflés.

Love this expression!

He loves our remote, so we got him one! :) 

Him ripping the paper.. he really got into it! 

That afternoon we headed first to BTB's parents to do Our Christmas with them and Kyle and Sonya.

Loving Uncle Kyle! No, I did not have my child in shorts.. In the last two weeks he has grown completely out of 6 months into 9 months, but only in the length! (he's got my legs!) 

Later that afternoon we went over to Brandons grandparents to celebrate Christmas. Oh my goodness, it was one for the books for sure. BTB's papa is a character, and never one to hold his tongue. When we get there, he is all upset because no one made deviled eggs for him. He pointed at the Mac and cheese (which he doesn't like), and said, "next time if I don't have eggs, no one gets any of this!" Apparently, Granny was supposed to tell someone to bring eggs, but forgot! Honestly, we were all sort of laughing- deep down, because he was just so disgusted with everyone because of these eggs! Ha! Anyway, after we finished up the gift giving at Granny and papas we slipped home to pick up the pups and head to Greenville.

Papa after the Christmas Egg Drama of 2010..ha!

Asleep again on Nana after opening gifts! :) 

When we got to my parents house they were still out to dinner. So we went ahead and brought all our stuff in, got the presents under the tree. Then called my parents to tell them we were there. They come home about ten minutes later and we did our traditional eat pop corn and open one gift on Christmas Eve. Timothy loved this! It was his fourth time opening gifts that day! Haha! He was again worn out went to bed promptly afterwards. And the rest of us weren't far behind him!

Merry Christmas Adam!

Hey Yall!

I just wanted to wish each of you a Merry Christmas Adam!

I knew nothing about Christmas Adam until I started dating my hubby. He and one of his best friends Charlie every year growing up and in college, would have a Christmas Adam party.

In case you don't know or haven't figured out what Christmas Adam is....it's the day before Christmas Eve.. You know, Adam & Eve!

No party this year, Charlie and his wife had a little baby girl about 6 weeks after we had Timothy. We just don't think Timothy and Sydney are really ready for a Christmas Adam celebration! :)

I will be spending Christmas Adam day finishing everything I didn't get done yesterday. In case you are wondering, we did get to go home early yesterday!! But I still didn't get everything done. Brandon also had some last minute stuff to do, so he is gone right now and Timothy is taking nap! Tonight, we will probably continue our Christmas Adam celebration in our pj's!!

Finally, I haven't wanted to post this yet, because the chance was so small, but we may get SNOW on Christmas!! It hasn't snowed on Christmas here since 1963! I have had a white Christmas growing up in Ohio, but this would BTB's first. And I think it would be pretty special for Timothy to have snow on his first Christmas! They have increased the odds to 60% now!! So keep your fingers crossed!! :)

Have a fantastic Christmas Adam!

The One Time of Year I Bake....

Good Morning!

I hate that I did not get to post yesterday, but I was a busy bee. Heth and I ended up eating at Two Fat Kids yesterday because they were closed on Monday! I got the burger, Heth got a massive plate of chicken tenders and we split the fried pickles! Yumm-o!! The only downside to the new restaurant- we had to wait, a LONG time! Here are some pictures of our lunch..

Seriously, the biggest plate of chicken tenders EVA!

This was an amazing burger!!

We had eaten about half of them before I thought to take a picture!

Then after work I had to go to the grocery store and get everything to make oreo balls, chocolate candy cane cookies, chocolate covered pretzels and Danish wedding cookies. Timothy helped me by sitting in his bouncer and played and danced to the music I had playing. {His fever broke late Monday night, so he starting to get back to himself.} I also got cute tins and put cute labels from Natalie, at Pretty Paperie. Here are some pictures of the process and end result of the tins and goodies I made for my co-workers.

White Christmas Theme Treats

I just used a lil stick glue, so they could take it off the top and use it again if they wanted to.

Mommy's little helper! :)



Henry and Harper helped too! Please pardon the hair! It had been a long day!


Every year I have been working here, our President sends out an email around noon on our last day of work before Christmas telling everyone to go home and enjoy the holiday. We all have our fingers crossed that this happens again this year! I desperately need to finish my shopping, get a manicure and get cards for everyone.. So everyone send positive thoughts my way!

Tonight we are going to our Christmas service at church. We attend a LARGE church, so they do a few different services to accommodate everyone and the crowds of people. So whenever I get off today {hopefully early!} I am either going straight home to meet Brandon at our house to go. Or {my hope} I get off at noon and get to go to shopping then go home. And a dear friend is going to church with us tonight too! I love bringing people to church!!

Timothy says, "have a great day!"

Plans...With a 8 Month Old!?!?

Hope everyone had a nice weekend. Ours did not pan out the way we had anticipated.


Friday, our plans did go accordingly. I went to Greenville and had a great time with my co-workers enjoying great food, fellowship then I got to shop!

Our group at lunch

Group

Everyone outside the Pointsett Club

Friday night we dropped Timothy off at Brandon’s parents went and enjoyed a great dinner at the Blue Heron. When we went back to BTB’s parents house, Timothy was running a low-grade fever. So we took him home and we ended up staying up with him the entire night. At about 4:30 his temperature was up to 103.8 and I called the doctors answers service. They called us back in less than 30 minutes! Dr. Hart wanted to see him so we brought him in at 10:00 am Saturday morning.

Ready to see Dr. Hart (yes, we realize you just saw this outfit, but we needed something light and cotton because of his fever)

Saturday was a lousy day for us. Timothy was so pitiful, Dr. Hart found that he has an ear infection. So we are back on the ear medicine. It started helping immediately. His temperature is done to 99.8 or so for the last day and a half. Dr. Hart also said that it may take a 2-3 days for the fever to break completely. He was warm this morning when I left, so it isn’t gone yet.

Sunday, my dad invited some friends over to their house to celebrate moms birthday. Timothy felt well enough to go to Greenville so we went. He got to be passed around from one lady to the next. All my mom’s local friends are still waiting on grand kids, so they are living vicariously through her-ha! Timothy wasn’t his normal self, but he wasn’t bad either. He spent time jumping in his jumper, he then took a nap, then came back out to see everyone at the end of the night!

With momma kitty. Right after this he sneezed, and Brandon declared that he was allergic.

Timothy couldn’t have picked a better time to get sick though; right when Brandon had some time off. So Tbird and daddy get to stay home together today! Meanwhile, I am eating lunch today with Heth! We are going to Two Fat Kids and a Grill. I love eating lunch with Heth, one of life’s little pleasures! I am also taking an hour today at the end of the day to get home and have time to get to Greenville, so we can take my mom out for her Birthday! Timothy’s spending the night with the in-laws, and we are staying with my parents. I love my sweet baby, but I am really looking forward to a night out and a good night’s sleep!

Anyway, I am already behind and my day just started! Hope you all have a great day!!

What Do You Call It??

Dirty Santa, White Elephant, Chinese Swap… There are many names for the game, and many ways to play. And at Brandon’s work party last night here were the rules: If you wanted to steal someone else’s gift, you had 10 seconds, and you also only had 10 seconds to pick a gift under the tree (we were doing this with 67 people, so we had to speedy). After any gift had been stolen 3 times, it was dead, and could not be taken again. In this version, which they called “dirty santa”, some people gave some really nice $5.00 gifts (gift cards and such) some were seriously raunchy, then some were just junkie funny $5.00 gifts. I know you are all sitting in anticipation wondering, “What did you get Tiff?” I was one of the few lucky ones that got a gift card to dunkin donuts!! And I was the third person to steal it, so it was mine no matter what! BTB did not make out as well as me though, he ended up with a raunchy gift, which he quickly slipped into his bosses gift bag! Ha-ha!


We didn’t end up sitting at the table with the other administrators, so I got to know some of the other folks on staff with Brandon a little better. And I am pretty sure we were at the cool kids table, because everyone kept coming over and talking to everyone there, and when our table introduced itself, most of the introductions were pretty hilarious and the room filled with laughter. BTB even got a chuckle out of the crowd because he hesitated when he introduced me (like he forgot my name or something!) The food was also very good. They had Chicken Marsala, Prime Rib, Green Beans Almadine, Rice, and a really good salad, and chocolate dessert. Honestly, the salad was soo good, I could of just eaten a huge one and been satisfied. It was a nice time of fellowship and for everyone to unwind a little.

They also had a slideshow that had some funny pictures in it (photoshop was in full effect), then peoples baby pictures, and family pictures, and also wedding pictures. (I still can’t decide what I think about the wedding picture thing. A part of me thought it was neat, because most of the people had changed so much and some of the 80’s dresses and hair, are just too funny, but another part of me thinks it’s sort of odd. If you do a slideshow every year, I think you should show pictures from that year and things happening that year. Does that make sense?) But regardless, it was a good slide show and I know the lady that did it, worked hard on it.

The party ended about 9:30, but they had rented the country club until 10:30, so all the administrators and their spouses stayed and hung out longer. We got to BTB’s parents about 10:45 and got T. He was sleeping in the swing the in-laws have for him. It was so cute, I made BTB take a picture!

Sorry for the low quality... but you get the idea.

When we got home Timothy woke up and was a little ray of sunshine for 11:00 pm! We played with him for a little while before I gave him his treatment and attempted to give him a bottle, which he did not want. This is becoming a reoccurring theme, I am thinking about just cutting out the 11:00 bottle all together. He just ends up wasting it. And he slept until about 6:30 when he woke himself up coughing. We are thinking that we are going to have to up his treatments to four times a day again. Boo! So please pray for him to get rid of this thing!

Today I am headed to Greenville and the Pointsett Club for lunch and shopping. I think we should spend a workday like this once a month, not once a year! What do yall think? I am looking forward to getting my Christmas/Moms birthday shopping complete today. Fingers crossed it happens, because I really have no other time to get it done between now and Christmas. Anyway, Hope you all have a great Friday!!

This is from this morning. Pardon the face, he was trying to watch TV while I was trying to make memories. He refused to look and or smile at me! Such a guy, soon enough it will be football instead of cartoons!