Christmas with the Yates :)

We flew into North Carolina this year to spend Christmas with Phillips Mom, Pal Pal , and the rest. The original plan was to go up to his Pal Pals house in VA, but the day before we were supposed to arrive a huge snowstorm hit. They live on top of a mountain, so of course they were snowed in, we were snowed out, and they had no power or electricity. Plan B went into action, and we stayed with Rita, where she had gotten a second round of baby necessities (the first round were at PalPal's) so that we could settle in with Cayleigh as nicely as possible. Pal Pal and Dorothy were able to drive down for an afternoon on Christmas Day, and we were so thrilled to get the chance to see them again! Cayleigh ate it all up, and the two had a very hard time saying good-bye to each other:) We missed the other aunts, uncles, and cousins, but we did get to spend time with Rita's sister, Aunt Jen, and her husband and two sons (Kevin and Kenny). Stephanie and Mikayla (Phillips sister and her daughter) also stayed with Rita, and I got the chance to introduce baskin robbins mint-chip icecream to Mikayla and now have her hooked :). Mikayla and Cayleigh LOVE each other, and it was so sweet to see the two cousins together! We had SUCH a nice time, and can't wait to see everyone again!
The last night before leaving the next morning.

The two most beautiful girls in the world :)

Mikayla opening up her presents!

The real picture :)

We're a very serious family, especially on Christmas, as you can see....

Phillip with PalPal and Dorothy :) See a resemblence?

Sorry Stephanie, I HAD to do it! It's just too flippin funny! Center stage is my sister-in-law revolting against all the pictures! :)

The Yates and Spolorich family (some of them) L to R: Phillip, Rita, Mikayla, Dorothy, PalPal, Uncle George, Aunt Jen, Stephanie

Having a blast with her men!

Cayleigh with her great PalPal and Nana!

She loves her PalPal!

Playing by the presents and tree with Nana!

Checking out the scenery with Pal Pal and Nana Dorothy

I see food Pal Pal, let me at it!!!

My gorgeous niece Mikayla on Christmas Eve....think she's excited for presents? :)

Cayleigh with her Aunt Snuffy (Stephanie)

I got my shoe Mommy!!!

Cayleigh with Aunt Jen....always a busy body trying to make a break for it!

Cayleigh with Cousin Kevin (Aunt Jen's son, Phillips Cousin)

Ewwwww, cooties!!!

Cayleigh just loves earrings....and necklaces, and buttons, and bracelets, and hair....

Mommy and Me on Christmas Eve :)

Cayleigh getting kisses from Cousin Mikayla

Two cousins playin' together! Awwwww :)

We, um...we try not to strain ourselves in the morning....

BBQ chips for breakfast, who knew?

Phillip with his Momma

Daddy hasn't had his coffee yet!

Mmmm, Octopus!

Mom's Birthday (From June)

It only took me six months to do it, but here are pictures from moms big 5-0 birthday and the visit from Aunt Sandy just before it!

A Magnifying glass b/c she's old and can't see....

A photo album of her life (Noah's ark was a honeymoon cruise, dinosaurs were school chums, a cave with cavemen was her first house, a trip to the colosseum to see the gladiators was a first date, ect.... ) :)

blowing out the candles

The Cake!

Birthday smooches My brother totally embarressed by the birthday pranks pulled in public :) Can't wait till he turns 50!

A bib (a garbage bag with ruffles) to catch her old person drool and food. LOL!!!

Love Bugs

Awwww :)

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

So this year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house. I should be more correct...we hosted Thanksgiving on the Saturday after Thanksgiving b/c my brother and his wife attend her families annual family get together on Turkey Day, and my mom worked the day after, so we had the day after the day after Thanksgiving :). It was perfect, but busy, so there's only two pictures. Cayleigh smiling at all the food, and a carrot cake I made that was very pretty but never eaten b/c there we also six home-made pies to choose from. For dinner we had all the fixins....Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, swt. potatoe casserole, green bean casserole (courtesy of our friends Whitney and TJ), corn, collard greens (courtesy of my mom!), crescents and two loaves of homemade bread (I'm talking hand-kneaded here folks, yummy!). Oh, and gravy. We ate ourselves into a comma...literally for my father who took up a whole couch laying on it asleep, LOL!

I later ate the carrot cake and it really was delicious...I had with some sweet potatoe pie :)

I also did black friday this year with my dear friend Whitney, and one of her friends Lisa. I hope Lisa doesn't think poorly of me; I met her for the first time at 3:00am on our way to Old Navy and I'm not exactly what one would call a morning person. I did better after our 4:40AM run for coffee. So much better in fact, that when driving through the Target parking lot pointing and laughing at the people standing in the cold without deliciously warm coffee, I fully supported Whitney's excited proclamation that she was going to take pictures of the people like they were a zoo exhibit! So caught up in the moment was I that I felt the need to capture the moment of her capturing the moment...about 4 feet away from the people we were making fun of! Fortunately everybody seemed to groggy to notice (much) our bold-faced fun at their expense, and we made it in and out of Target alive. :)

Whitney, taking the picture of the line...with the flash on so that NO ONE could ignore it.

Still taking pictures....

Adjusting the flash to get the "perfect shot"

She Stands!

Cayleigh has been standing for about a month now! I'm so proud of my baby girl!


Standing!

About to be distracted away from standing, lol!

Noooo Mommy!!!! You have coooooties!!

She has conquered the rainforest....almost. :)

Playing with the tiger .

Being tickled!

Crazy girl was attempting to fit the entire play set in her mouth!

Recovering from the fall...you can see she's devastated!

And a new era begins.....

I find her like this pretty much after every nap time and first thing in the morning. Either this, or I find her gnawing on the crib like a rabid animal and banging the rails with her hands making "music". Of course, when caught in the middle of it, she simply turns her head and flashes one of those melting smiles at me as if to say, "What mommy? I thought that my crib was meant for this! What's that you say? Sleep? But this is so much more fun!" :) Gotta love her!

A favorite activity: Fingerpainting with food coloring and rice cereal. She's gotten so into it now that it's more like "whole body" painting, so I strip her down to her diaper and let her at it! She has SO much fun!

See? Hog Heaven!

Rice Cereal Angels! Kind of like snow angels, but much, much messier!