HELLO AGAIN!!!!

OK... So it has been almost a full half year since I have blogged. Crazy and I am sorry! I figure I need to get back to it because I still have people ask me why I have not blogged.

One reason, and I know it is not justified, is that Lily hates my computer. I must blog and check my email ONLY when she is not around, otherwise, the top of my laptop is shut by her. Another reason is that our camera broke (yes and we still have not gotten another one) and I don't think people want to read my blog with no pictures, we are not that interesting. Which brings me to my last reason, we really are not that interesting so I don't know what to blog about.

But here I am again, back to blogging. A lot has happened since NOVEMBER, which is when I last blogged. Lily has sprouted up like a bean but still has no hair. She has gotten so funny, talking about everything all the time, just like her mommy. I will post pics on the next blog when I get some from my mom (or figure out how to fix the camera). I have started selling clothes on Ebay, in particular new Gymboree clothing, so if you are interested and want a good deal, go to Ebay under kate889 and buy some up! They are just like from the store, but cheaper! Chesley has been the busiest of all of us.... He started graduate school in May and has been really busy with that and work.

OK, that last paragraph just sounded like one of those letters you send out at Christmas to update everyone on your life... what are they "brag letters". Sorry. But that is what we are doing... I am going to try and get back to the blogosphere and write some more, but that is about all I know right now!

Lily's Tea Party

So Lily just got a table and chairs set in her room so she could play tea party. Maggie was her first guest! Lily is an entertainer already and a good host!

Hope everyone is having a great Friday!

Poor Maggie!

As I mentioned before, we have 2 dogs, Maggie and Harlie. We have had Maggie our entire marriage (which will be 6 years November 30! Time flies by!) and have had Harlie four years. Maggie is a purebred Golden Retriever and Harlie is a beagle mix. Harlie had some issues when we first got her and continues to have them, though they are not as bad. Maggie is SO hyper, even at her age, and has never met a stranger... She loves anyone. Harlie, however, does not like strangers at all and you are lucky if she meets you and likes you. So they are pretty opposite personalities.

Even though they have their differences, Maggie and Harlie stick together. They are ALWAYS with one another. Now that they have a little "sister" (Lily) I will admit that they are not quite as spoiled as they used to be. They stay outside during the day and pretty much only come inside to sleep. Oh yeah, they used to sleep in our bedroom as well, but that stopped the night we brought Lily home from the hospital. Once all 5 of us got in our tiny little bedroom, I think they knew that it was time for them to sleep somewhere else... Then when Lily cried for the first time that night, they just left the bedroom, went into the den and that is where they sleep now.

ANYWAYS... Enough background history about my dogs and onto the real story. Like all sisters, Maggie and Harlie get in little arguments sometimes. I mean, how can you spend that much time with another person (or dog, in this matter) without fighting? So last night, around 7:00ish, I heard them fighting, but thought nothing of it because usually their fights end quickly with no injuries... Well at about 8:00 Chesley goes to lock the back door and he finds Maggie sitting there with blood everywhere... Seriously it looked like a murder scene. We found several places on Maggie where we thought there was injury, so we decided to take Maggie to the All-Night Vet down the street. Actually, just Chesley took her. The vet figured out there was only one open wound, and that was where all the blood was coming from, the bottom of her ear. So she had surgery. She was supposed to stay the night, but she was too nervous to spend the night there, so I had to go get her at about 11 last night.

She isn't doing much better today... She has the cone around her head and a big bandage, but I think she will make it. She has been moping around all day because she has to stay inside. Of course Lily just loves that she has a new playmate. Usually, Maggie is too hyper for Lily to be around by herself but they have been great together today. Here are some pics of her...

Lake Guntersville

Last weekend we took the Berryman family annual trip to Lake Guntersville. We go with 2 of my mother in laws sisters and their families. We usually go to Tim's Ford in Tennessee, but this was a GREAT place that we went instead. Now at Tim's Ford, we would have 3 different cabins for each family, but this year we rented a house so everyone could stay together. The house was incredible. It was two log cabins combined to make one huge house. I will admit I was a bit nervous because included in the group was a 4 year old, a 3 year old, Lily and Chesley's cousin's triplets.

The triplets were really good about sleeping, but Lily did not do too well, I think there was too much excitement that she was not used to, seeing that she stays in our quiet little house with just Chesley, me and the dogs. With the triplets it was go go go the entire time! Like I have said before, there is a special place in heaven for parents with multiples. They were great though... I am so glad we have them since Lily is an only grandchild on both sides so far, so she loves playing with her triplet cousins! We are actually about to go over there now. Here are some pics from the trip...

Grocery Shopping

Lily has always been a big fan of the grocery store and is usually quite happy sitting in the cart and looking around at everything. My mother and mother in law have both taken Lily in the little car while shopping. The first time my mother in law took her and Lily PITCHED A FIT about getting out. The pic above was taken my mom and she got out just fine. Maybe they stayed a bit longer.

We are back!!!

Hello! No, we have not gone away somewhere or fallen off the face of the earth... I have just been a BAD blogger the past couple of months. I am not even going to try to make excuses because everyone else I am sure is just as busy as I am, if not more. My one big excuse though, is I do not have any pictures from the past few months because I have a cheap camera that no longer will download pictures to my computer. I think I have figured out a way to download them now, so my next post I will have some to share.

Well, a little update from the Hugheses... Lily turned 16 months yesterday!!!! It is amazing how much she has grown, each and every day it seems like she is saying something or doing something new. She was a late walker, didn't start until she was about 15 months old... I attribute this to the way that she crawled. She crawled with one leg under her and actually scooted on her butt. She was FAST! Sometimes when she really wants to get somewhere fast she converts back to her crawl. But she is walking everywhere now and in to everything. Luckly she knows the word no pretty well, so she knows not to get into too many things.

The other big thing about Lily is that she is a TALKER!!! I was talking to someone at church the other day who had never met Lily and I said Lily was a late walker... The woman proceeded to tell me that late walkers are usually big talkers. This is a HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT for Lily. She talks constantly. The only time she doesn't talk is when she is asleep. Even while playing by herself she constantly is talking. (Wonder where that came from??? Maybe 9 months of being in my tummy listening to me???) In addition to her "Lily language" she has a huge vocabulary. She copies anything that you say, so her big things right now are War Eagle (not that that is helping this year), ball, swing, dada, mama, papa, baby, dog and paul. Yep, Uncle Paul made it first of all the aunts and uncles. She is just learning her Js, so John and Jenn Jenn are starting to be said more often. She even does what we call "Lily cussing", when she gets mad. She will just start talking in a mean voice to you.

Other news from us... Chesley's grandfather, Papaw Flur, who we have talked about and shown pictures of on our blog, passed away in September. It was really sad, but I am so thankful that Lily was able to have him in her life, if even for a short time.

Also, I have taken up a new hobby and hopefully will start a business with it soon. I purchased an embroidery machine a few months ago and LOVE it. Haven't done too much with it because I really just started understanding it really well. I also have started sewing so hopefully can do some of that as well. I have started an Etsy site but haven't put anything on it quite yet. I will definately let you all know about it soon.

Well I am going to work on getting some pics up, my next post may just be pictures from the last few months!

Hope all are doing well and would love to hear from some of you!!!

Lily's First Birthday!!!!

Hi!!! Long time no write! Sorry I have been so MIA lately... I had a small surgery, that went very well, but took a little more time to recover than expected, then the entire Hughes/Goodman clan came down with the tummy bug, So right after I recouped from my surgery I had to bug, now Lily has it. But anyways, miraculously, NO ONE WAS SICK for Lily's WONDERFUL 1st birthday! We had a great time. My parents just built a house in Mentone Alabama, so my mom, dad, Chesley, Lily, me, Chesley's brothers John and Paul, Paul's girlfriend Lauren and David and Cathy all spent the weekend up there for a family birthday! Jennifer and Todd were unable to come because of prior commitments, but we will be having another family get together with them, my grandparents and my aunt and cousins this weekend. The next weekend we are going to have a Kids Party at KidsGym. Cannot wait!!! It was great. Seeing that Lily was born the day after the 4th, our annual crazy beach trips have come to a halt for a while :(, but celebrating her and how wonderful this year has been was incredible. Chesley and I still look at her in amazement that Lily is actually OUR child!!! This year has been a whirlwhind of emotions, I have had the most amazing moments of my life along with the most down moments of my life this year (because of my PPD), but we are getting through it and it gets better each day.

Well, I do not have all my pics organized to post yet, but PROMISE I will today! It looks like I haven't posted since June 17, so I have a lot to catch up on. Well, Lils did not make it to her first birthday as a walker, but she JUST needs that boost of confidence!!!!! She is standing on her own, but then just sits back down. We have taught her to do the wave, where she will stand up and raise her hands, then sit back down. So whichever game we do decide to take her to this year, I hope they do the wave. Well, we are friends enough with our section, that we can have our own section wave just for her. Another one of her "tricks" is to "give love". You say to her "Give daddy love" or "Love on Aunt Jenn Jenn" or something like that and she will hug you real tight and give you her impression of a kiss which is actually just a big mouth wide open! So Flash (John's dog) joined us as well in Mentone and Lils and Flash were were playing on the porch and we said, "Lils, give Flash love".....

I cannot believe she is one! Yesterday when she was sick, she let me hold her like a baby. For all you new moms out there, don't take advantage of this!!!! It is the most precious moment between a mother and a baby. Most the time it is just go go go!!!!

OK, There is one funny story about the birthday party that I have pics for. Since we initially had not planned on a big party, I decided to go all out on a cake, get it custom made, everything. So as most of you know, I worked at Klinger's in high school and still know the cake baker and everyone pretty well. So she made me a cake that was three tiers, in squares caddy cornered (like those Allison Wonderland cakes), the lowest the largest, with white icing and pink decoration. The middle in purple with white decoration. And the top as "Lily's piece" in pink (of course) with white decoration. Well, Edith (the WONDERFUL cake baker at Klingler's) had it for me to see when I got there and it was AWESOME... just as expected. This was Thursday, to be used for Saturday and I told her I had to travel with it that afternoon to Mentone. Well, she packed it up for me and gave me insructions to lay it flat and freeze it once we got there until Saturay morning. Well, my mother and I decided not to leave until Friday morning, so we move the cake from my car to my parent's freezer, then moved it back again to the car Friday morning. Well when we got to mentone, this is what the bottom layer looked like....



Of course it was still wonderful, just not put together quite right. So I did some work on the top two layers, which gives NO justice to the original AT ALL, I still HIGHLY recommend Klinger's for their cakes, just go in there and look and you will see what I mean. But as an unskilled cake decorator, this is what we ended up with. Not bad, seeing that she just grabbed on it anyways!

I will say I loved all of Lily's presents but Gram's was the cuteset and most creative. She did an A - Z book of all Lily's first year and it is adorable. I am going to try to scan some in, because you all will just love it!!!

I will have some b'day pics up soon! Hope you are all doing well! BTW... if you are looking for some cute B'day supplies, they have adorable stuff at Klingler's, I got this cake plate for a great price and they had someother really really cute b'day stuff as well!!!