Tatum

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior! We enjoyed time with family, good food and we did a lot of relaxing! :) (I'll get pictures up from our Christmas at some point!!)

Christmas Eve was rough, because our dog, Tatum's health took a turn for the worse. We'd seen the vet on the 23rd because among other things, she'd been lethargic and not eating and we made an appointment to go back and get her bloodwork done on the 3rd. On the 24th, we began noticing blood in her stool which got progressively worse- we ended up spending the evening in Cordelia at the emergency vet. ( which would not have been possible without the support of Grandma Sandy! Thank you!) After many hours, tests and tears, we were informed that she was in kidney failure and with lots of hospitalization and treatment we could lessen her pain for awhile. It would not have been a permanent solution, though and it would have cost an exorbitant amount of money- so we made the decision to have her put to sleep.

Tatum had lived with us a little over a year ( we got her right before we found out we were pregnant with Jenell) and we knew that we were her "retirement home" when we adopted her. She fit in like a part of the family from day one- she loved to laze on the couch, bark at dogs on the TV and get her tummy rubbed by everyone and anyone. Everywhere we went we got comments on how beautiful she was and how sweet and laid back she was. She stuck by me through Tim's deployment and even hobbled up into bed with me a few times when I heard "bumps in the night". We were so blessed to have her as part of our family and we will miss her dearly!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone's enjoying this Christmas season! I know we are! Tim is out of school for the next 4 weeks- awesome! Jenell is getting HUGE (as you can see) and we're not getting any smaller, either.

Oh-before I forget...LOL I wanted to blog this weeks ago.. we had a "bird" living somewhere in our home for about 2 weeks and we would hear it chirp every so often.. We figured since it wasn't dead after two weeks, it probably wasn't stuck somewhere in a vent or something where it couldn't get food... LOL One night, when Tim and Jenell were asleep, I decided to follow the noise... it led me to our coat closet- which happens to also be where we store our board games. Turns out our sweet little birdy was CatchPhrase turned upside down sitting on one of it's buttons.. so every once in a while it would "chirp"... :)

We're making a trip to Davis for my cousin's baby shower/housewarming on Saturday and then heading with my brother and his wife to Grandma Jenell's for an early Christmas in Shingle Springs. Both Tim and Jenell are sick right now so I'm praying we are ALL well on Saturday! :)

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks! Jenell is officially six months old now! :) It's happening so fast! ( Sorry for any typos... I'm rushing @ the library) ;)

Silly girl playing with her stocking

Can you even believe her?


Drinking "wa-wa" from the cup... it doesn't always look this pretty..

Yay for mixed vegetables!

I love her gummy, orange smile.

Being a sweetie in her silly outfit. It was COLD outside!

Giving everyone a big hug in the cute outfit that Great-Grandma Maybelle made for her.

She would have the other limbs out, too if it were possible. (SleepSack)

At the Paluck's Christmas party having too much fun!

Checking in!

Well, so far so good! We have enjoyed much more time as a family since we got rid of our Comcast! I think it's unanimous in our home that what we miss most is "Google-ing" something and Mapquest!! :) Jenell had her first big-girl bath, which was fun!

We spent Thanksgiving with Tim's parents and camped out at their house all day. :)
Here are some of the pictures from the last few days!

Jenell in the big-girl tub for the first time!

Doesn't she look like a toy doll here? Weird.

Looking at pictures with Grandpa Ron.

Jenell and Grandma Carol accidentally matched on Thanksgiving!

Daddy's Turn!

Tim got to take Jenell to the park on Saturday! So fun and a nice surprise since we thought he would be at work all day. :) They were so cute together.

We got to enjoy dinner, board games, and a late night with our sister-in-law Emily and our good friend Nicky! The cornbread tasted like cardboard, but the rest of the night was awesome! Happy Monday!

The park!

Our internet will be gone soon, but while I have it, I'm gonna blog! :) We got two boxes of clothes today from Great Grandma Puff and Grandma Marnee! I put her in one of the outfits and we went to the park for the first time! I also put her in her stroller without the carseat for the first time, too, which she LOVED. She got to see the world instead of mom's boring face! :) After the park, we took a trip to the library and got some more books! She slept through that part, though... Then we went home and sang songs and danced. Jenell didn't have much choice in the matter but I'm that's what she would've picked anyway. :) God blessed us with such an awesome time together, I didn't even miss the TV! :)

By the way, the SAME day I announced our decision about the cable and internet, our PC crashed. Not kidding. :) I'm using Tim's school laptop to post this.. :) Enjoy your weekend and get out before it gets cold!! It does get cold here, right? ;)

I threw that last picture in there just because it's cute..

Breaking the Addiction...

Okay... here it goes. We're CANCELLING our Comcast. Cable AND internet. Nope. Not a joke. Over the last few weeks, I've really been feeling led to do away with them and a conversation I had tonight finally drove the last nail into the coffin. Before you freak out, I promise I will still update the blog pretty often with new pictures. I can go to my in-laws or the library or anywhere that has wireless. It just won't be readily available to me and I know that's going to make a huge difference. I'm excited to see what God's going to do in our family now that we're not filling our free time staring at some sort of screen!

I'm actually SUPER excited about this decision, not dreading it like I thought I would. I'm just not able to do internet or TV in moderation and I want to give God and our family 100% and I haven't been doing that.

So anyway, that's the big news. E-mail is still fine but is no longer the quickest way to get in touch with me, so if you don't have my #, e-mail me at jayceeaf@aol.com and I'll give it to you!

Boy, what's next to go? Soothies? Um, yeah... no.