Christmas in a Nutshell

Well Christmas has come and gone and as much as I LOVE celebrating the birth of Jesus, I am ready to get things back to normal! As most families, December is a busy time for our family... spending time with family, get the house ready for the holidays, cooking, parties, and lots of shopping! 

Derek and I enjoyed the Ugly Sweater Party at our friends house and can't wait till we all get together again next year!! I found an idea on pinterest and gave it a try... I didn't win the contest, but it was a cute idea! 

Derek's family always gets together and plays dirty Santa and this year we had a Great time!! We even got to watch the Auburn game on a tv while there! A family member, (who works at a nail salon) really wanted a frame so we worked together and so I ended up with some nail work and she got her frame! HA!! 

This year we waited to the last minute for pictures for Christmas cards... I really wanted to take them with this quilt since Derek's Bigmama made it for him. It was really special to us!! So here are some pictures from our photo shoot...

I love this man...

And I know that Derek won't be happy about me posting this picture... it embarrasses him but it is too cute!! Baker was tired of pictures and ready to go lay down and I saw the opportunity for a cute picture!! 

Christmas Eve

Katelyn, Mom and myself after Christmas at Gradparent's house

 Big Happy Family!!! Minus a few

Baker got a recliner from my grandparents, but they got him another small gift for him to open!

I mustache you to stop taking pictures, Mom...

Then that night we had to get ready for Santa's big arrival. Milk and cookies...

... and reindeer food...

Christmas Morning...  Baker must have been very good this year!

I got many wonderful gifts, but I LOVE my necklace!! Thanks Mom and Dad! 

Later that day, my brother and his family came over and Nana had to get some love from her boys...

And Nana and Grandy with the grandkids...

And of course, me and my love!! 

Playing Catch up... AGAIN

I know, I know... I am not the best at keeping this blog up to date, but I am in nursing school and it takes up so much of my free time. Hopefully, if the good Lord willing, I will finish in one more semester with my LPN and can begin work before I start back into my RN. I really enjoy this and can't believe that I wasted so much time doing other things, but I feel the timing is now perfect and soon I will be doing my dream job! I pray that the things I do in my patients life would bring Glory and Honor to God in some way! Please pray that I would excel in my finals this next week!! I have one final, one Kaplan, and one conversion test... 

Now to update: I guess I need to start with Halloween!! We had such a great time!! This year since Baker is fascinated by anything Spiderman or IronMan, we decided to do a Marvel superhero theme... Baker would be Spiderman and we (I really mean Derek) would make him a Spidey-mobile. Here is Derek hard at work!

The paint job was awesome, but it needed decals and spider legs... 

So here is the final product!! Derek is AWESOME!!! I just told him my idea and he made a box into this!! #1 Dad Award goes to... DEREK!!!! 

And the back!!

 Baker LOVED his car! And he couldn't wait to drive it around!!

We waited for JW to show up because he was our Hulk. Then the photos started!! 

This picture is so sweet to me. Baker really loves JW and watches everything he does!! 

And of course this cool mom and dad had to dress up too... Ironman, SpiderMan and Captain America make a pretty amazing family!!

After our pictures, we walked over to my grandmother and granddaddy Mikel's house before heading to church. Our church likes to do something together so that all the kids can be at the same place to see everyone's costume. This is Baker trunk or treating with Aunt Mary Anne and Rylee! 

This was my car and THANK YOU NANA of manning the Superhero Headquarters so we could walk around with Baker!!

And we had to have a picture with Hoss... I mean Thor! Derek and Hoss worked on the spidey-mobile together and then they built Thor's hammer! Thanks Uncle Hoss for the help!! ;)

We really did have a great time... it was crazy busy and super dark and started to rain, but Baker loved seeing all his friends at church and driving his car around! 

Some of the other things that have been going on... School stuff. From football games to dress up days, Baker is loving school! He really has grown up so much in the few weeks that he has been in school! I am so thankful that God saw us through this transition and has kept his hand on Baker through it all! 

Here is me and Baker on the way to a football game!! Baker LOVES going to the games. Of course his favorite part is the Band. He gets that honest with all the blood, sweat, and tears that Derek and I have put into that field! HA! 

 

Some of the dress up days made Baker very happy... He was able to dress as Iron Man. Of course we didn't have the costume and with Halloween over, I wasn't gonna find one. So we used his shirt that he had! And his mask! And of course Iron Man doesn't have a cape, but BakerMan does!!!

And this was one that was fun for me!! We were Advertising Good Books and had to make a walking/rolling billboard. This is one of my favorite books to read to Baker!! So I made the cover and back page of the book... And glued toys on there to make it cuter!! HA!

For anyone that doesn't know the story, the point is that the little boy has so many toys and has to clean some out... He and his mom go through and put some toys in a box and when the mom comes back, the little boy had dumped all the toys out and was playing like he was an austronaut in the box... and it was the Best Toy Ever!!! So I put Baker in his Buzz costume in the box!! 

 They lined up and all the kids had a parade of books thought the halls!! Baker lead the pack!!

 And this is some of the Kindergarteners!

Another exciting thing that has happened was we celebrated my Grandmother Meadow's 90th Birthday. I wish I had the picture of Baker and Grandmother, but it is on another disk right now. But here is some decorations...

Mom and I spent so Mother-Daughter time together and went to a paint Class... It was mom's first time doing something like this and I think she did great! Here are our turkeys...

Oh and Check Baker out in these pictures... He is getting so much stronger and I am so proud of him for wanting to spend time sitting up. Now to strengthen that core so he can sit with no help!! (PLEASE excuse me in these pictures...And Baker's Moppy hair...)

I know there is more that I want to update, but this gets me to December. We have had lots of elf fun around our house and lots of decorating, so I will get to that soon!

Pumpkin Patch Trip

This was something that Baker was looking forward to for weeks!!! And to be honest... so was I! We had talked about going and picking a pumpkin and sunflower and all the animals he would get to see. So he was pretty excited! Mainly for the animals, but also because he knew his class would be there!

Since I didn't want the school to have to take the bus with the wheelchair lift, I offered to follow the bus and drive Baker myself. This allowed him to play his ipad on the way and allowed him and Christy (his nurse) to ride with me and not the bus! 

I wish I had a close up of his shirt that was made in class but maybe you can see in some of the pictures! Enjoy!!

The first is the spider that Baker kept driving to! He LOVED it!! If you look, notice his hands doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song!! HA!!

 And Baker with his whole Class!!! Minus the ones that were sick! :(

Finally it was time to load up on the wagon to go pick pumpkins... It was easier for us to pick him up and his vent than pick him and his wheelchair up! As you can tell, Baker was having fun on the ride!! 

We tried to get a good picture of me and Baker. I wanted to print it out and give it to Derek for an early birthday present, but Baker didn't really cooperate! So this is the best I could get!! 

Once we got a pumpkin and sunflower, we loaded back up on the wagon to go back to the farm. It was time for the animals and Baker couldn't wait!! Here he is with the animals!! 

I think this is TOO cute!!! 

After the animals they went to the barn to pick eggs and pick apples! Oh and Milk Cows!! 

 

We had to maneuver his chair around to let him milk the cow... He really wanted to try! ;) 

Then lastly, we went through the corn maze... We didn't go all the way through it because it was a bumpy ride, but he had fun anyways! 

Baker and his buddy Eli! 

Then they took a class photo, I couldn't get them all in it so I just went for Baker and his teacher! We love her!!

And a few more shots infront of the big scarecrow... thing! HA!