Why We Almost Went to the ER

Tilly has an "innie" belly button. (Random, I know, but it is an essential part of the story.)

Tonight, Eric, Tilly and I were just playing in the living room like any normal night. Tilly was playing, and for some reason, Eric picked her up. When he did, he happened to touch her belly button. (She was fully dressed.) He said "man, Tilly's belly button feels really hard. Then he kind of held her up, and I noticed through an outline in her onesie that she looked like she had an "outie" belly button. My initial thought which I expressed to Eric was that it may be a hernia. I've heard these are not uncommon in children. Tilly was in no apparent pain or distress, so I did not panic. I just asked him to take off her clothes and look at her belly button. He pulled off her pants (never an easy thing because of her ham bone thighs) then unbuttoned her onesie. When he raised the flap of her onesie to see her belly button, he turned four sheets of white, quickly covered her back up and said "something is really wrong....something is really wrong....it's gonna be okay, but something is really wrong." I scooted over to her to see for myself. Indeed, it did not look right.

There was a pink substance in her belly button. I felt of it, and it was hard. When I touched it, she didn't even flinch. Then, I pulled out a pink, pea sized piece of some sort of CANDY!!! Eric fell out on the floor as if he had been holding his breath throughout the entire ordeal.

Don't ask me how that candy got there...I can only assume she got it from one of the kids where she stays during the day. I think that someone else stuck it in there, because I know my child, and she would have EATEN candy--NOT put it in her belly button!

Eric said, "Leslie, it is a good thing you were here when I noticed this. Otherwise, I would have taken her to the emergency room! I thought her intestines were coming out of her belly button!!"

Oh dear.

The Prodigal Blogger Returns...with presents! (At least a few pictures of them...)

It already seems like Christmas was about two months ago, but I wanted to share a few pictures of how ours went.

I was able to take off work the whole week of Christmas--joy to the world, for sure! :) We went to watch my sisters play basketball (they play for Arkansas Tech) on the Sunday before Christmas. My Nana and Paw Paw came to the game, then we all went back to my parents to do Christmas with them. (I HATE doing "Christmas" on any day but Christmas, just so you know--I'm such a brat, but I can't help it!) Anyway, here are a few pictures from that night. Tilly is wearing her Tech basketball shirt--so cute!

Here she is in the hat Nana and Paw Paw gave her. It had matching gloves too!

Not exactly sure what Tilly thinks, but I'm pretty sure her face here says, "get the camera out of my face and give me more presents!"

Here is my Paw Paw sitting beside me. I'm sure we are watching Tilly. You know she is the center of attention around grandparents and great-grandparents!Here is my Nana with my dad (her son-in-law.) She was clearly very excited to receive a new digital camera!

After our Sunday before Christmas events, I was able to get several things done around the house. I even stayed up ALL Tuesday night wrapping presents, making presents, and taking care of some chores. Christmas Eve was somewhat of a blur. As you can see, Tilly was a big help with the laundry...

On Christmas Eve, we went to my parents to do our Christmas with them.

We had a fun night! Once we finished exchanging gifts, we did some prank Christmas carolling. Let me explain. We knew some friends were having a really big Christmas party. I would imagine they had somewhere around 30 people there. Anyway, we all went to their house, got out of the cars, stood right out of their front window (where they could see us as their blinds were open) and sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in the most awful, off-key, shrill way you can imagine. It was so much fun, and was very well received! Maybe you had to be there.

Here is my sister Ashley as she is about to open her gift from her fiance. Hmm...I wonder what it is??

Here is what my dad gave Tilly for Christmas. Very interesting.

I'm not sure that why Tilly is holding this bag, but I know she didn't get anything from Victoria's Secret!
My favorite Christmas present:

Sadly, for some reason, we didn't take any pictures on Christmas day. I'm sure someone did, and if there are any good ones, I'll post them. MY camera was MIA for about a week beginning on Christmas day. We did Christmas with the Warfords, and had such a fun time. We played games (which is quite the Christmas Day tradition) and had a hilarious time. Since I don't have any pictures from their house, here is a picture of Eric and Tilly at his aunt and uncle's house a few days ago.

This is what Eric fondly refers to as "The Titanic." I'm not sure which one of them enjoys it more. I do, however, know that it makes me a nervous wreck!

Sarah and Jordan are Married!!

This weekend, my good friend from college, Sarah Opitz, got married! Sarah and I met the very first day we moved to college because we were suite-mates, then we pledged EEE together and have stayed friends ever since. She married Jordan Bone who she met at OBU as well. What a sweet couple!
I love a Christmas wedding, and this one was done so well. Sarah was gorgeous and so was everything else.

Here is a picture of our fam with the Bride. (Disclaimer: Tilly attended only the reception. I'm not a believer in babies at weddings--always a pet peeve of mine for so many reasons.) So, it's not the best picture of Eric--doesn't he look sissy-prissy! (Good thing he doesn't read this blog!)
Here are a couple of us girls (Terry, Sarah, Hilary, Rebecca, Katie and myself) at the bachelorette party which was about 2 months ago. Gotta love a good reunion like that!

Mandy, Katie and I at the rehearsal dinner.

Here is another group of us girls at the reception. Jennilee, Ashley, Katie, Amy, Laura and me.

Now, when I said "A Christmas wedding done right," I meant it. Check out this centerpiece. The picture doesn't even do it justice. There were so many neat things done at the wedding. My favorite was the artificial snow used on all the tables which was also used to throw in the air when sending off the bride and groom. How beautiful it was!

Congratulations to the happy couple! Have fun in St. Lucia!

Isabel's Birthday Party

Now that I have let you know about Tilly's birthday party, I want to share about Tilly's friend Isabel's first birthday party. The girls are 13 days apart--Isabel is older. Her mom Holly and I have been friends since the third grade and got very close as we were pregnant together and now that we have these girls at the same time. Lots of fun!



Now, here is what a first birthday cake should look like. Isn't this precious??!!! The top was Isabel's to eat all by herself.

Here's the fam...Chris, Isabel, and Holly. (Just FYI: The bow she is wearing was one of her gifts from us. I made her a bow hanger and about 4 or 5 bows.)

Well, you know I had to put a picture of Tilly on here too!


Here the girls are playing. At a glance, it kinda looks like Isabel is choking Tilly! However, they played nice, and Isabel shared her toys.

Tilly's First Birthday Party

It is hard to believe that it has already been a YEAR since Tilly was born. Even though her actual birthday is not until the 20th, we went ahead and had her party on the 14th. It was a great party, and I think Tilly had a pretty good time. Here are some photographs from the party:



Here is Tilly before the party--looks like she's really fired up, huh?!

One of our latest "tricks" is asking Tilly, "How old are you?" And she puts up one finger, then we all clap and say "Yay!!!" Here she is mid-performance:

Here is the food for the grown-ups...we only had 3 kids there, and of course, all they cared about eating was cake and crackers!

Here is a picture of the 2 cakes...Looks okay from a distance, right?Here's a close-up. NOT SO GREAT! Let's just say that I was less than thrilled, but of course, it was eaten anyway!

Here is one of the highlights, which made me forget about the big cake. It was no surprise that Tilly tore in to that sucker! Here she is doing one of the things she does so well:
How thoughtful, she's trying to share...uh, thanks, but no thanks!!!

The aftermath....anyone for leftovers???

Here she is opening some gifts--there were TONS, and they were all wonderful! She didn't really rip any open like I thought she would. However, there were about 30 sets of eyes on her, so maybe it was just stage fright... These are the ear muffs we got her in hopes to help with ear infections. (We are getting tubes after the first of the year--turns out she even had an ear infection at her party.)

Happy Birthday, Tilly!

PS: I was almost afraid that the blogger.com people would fire me from this since it's been so long...sorry!

Fancy Photographs

Of course, when I say "fancy photographs" I don't mean any that I have taken!

We had Tilly's one year and Christmas photos taken last week at Amber McAdoo's studio. Amber did our wedding, and now she does all of Tilly's portraits...we've gone full circle people! If you have never seen Amber's work, you should check out her website. It is www.mcadoophoto.com. Amber is incredible, and we are so proud of how well the photos turned out. If you want to look, go to her website, click on "enter site," then go to the bottom and click "clients." The password is warford (all lowercase.) I think they will only be on for like 7 days. You should also check out Amber's work--you'll want to schedule a session immediately I'm sure!

Let me know what you think!

Sad Stocking

Poor little Tilly is just tormented that she can't touch her stocking. I would like to say she is sad because Santa has not yet filled her stocking, but honestly, she is throwing a fit because I said "no" when she tried to touch the sequins on her stocking! Then, she sat there just looking at it and acting totally pitiful. Good thing she knows nothing about Santa or I would have had to really say the mom thing like "Santa doesn't bring toys to bad girls and boys..."

Anyway, here is the picture of the aftermath...How rotten is this girl?!
Just pitiful, I know! My mom will say "bless her little heart" when she sees this...I guarantee it!!