Time to play catch-up... Brace Yourself this is going to be a long one!

As always my pictures are totally and completely out of order!!! So just read a long and hopefully you will understand the pictures and their order!

It was a busy holiday season for us! A week before Christmas all three of us came down with this crazy bug that is going around. Josh had it the worst-for several days. Kaylee had it during the night and then was fine and I had it the easiest... or so I thought. We were all excited to be visiting with family come Wednesday but I came down with that mean old bug again on Tuesday. I was bummed but I fortunately felt better enough and we were able to make it out to Josh's parents church for Christmas Eve Service and then for one of my favorite meals (roast!!!!). My mother-in-law always makes it best. No matter what I do I can't get it as good as hers!

So anyway... the church service was nice although I had to take Kaylee out at one point. She kept tickling me and saying "Tickle, tickle, tickle" while the pastor was speaking. It was cute but I didn't want to distract others so we hung out in the lobby and hallways with cousin Kellan who wanted to move around. He's a little crawler now. Then I decided to try and bring her back in for the candle light singing of "Silent Night" Well... it wasn't so "silent" with Kaylee there (again) so Josh and I both took Kaylee out in the hall and sang there. Oh and by the way candles and a one-year-old don't mix so well.
Below is a random picture from Josh's parents place. I thought we took more pictures from our Christmas with them but I guess not so you will just have to check out my sister-in-laws pictures on their blogs!

Then on Friday we headed to my parents for my dad's side of the family's Christmas. We had an amazing meal at my parents house. Seriously, when my mom makes a meal she makes everything to go with it that you can think of. Seriously. We had every meat, veggie, cheese, dip, crackers, fruit, and dessert known to man! It was a great time.
My Aunt Jo and Uncle Fred came in from Ocean City Maryland and my Aunt Joyce and Uncle Marc came in from Nashville, TN. We had a great time and Uncle Marc busted out his guitar to sing some old country gospel songs (He is a country gospel singer and comes from a long line of country gospel singers- the Speers Family). Kaylee got brave and wanted to touch his guitar (above). I normally don't like to sing in front of people but it was so fun and neat like something from a movie. I feel like that is how family should be, just hanging out and singing old country gospel songs. It rocked!

Above is a silly picture of Kaylee climbing under the table to be with her friend Jordan. She WILL NOT leave him alone!!! I just thought that picture was funny and the one below is cute of her and her daddy. She loves to climb right now and has no fear what so ever. She loves her sliding board from Aunt Jan. She will climb up the ladder to the top and stand straight up on the top of the slide part without holding on. Mind you this is a pretty small platform she stands on and it is a far drop if she decides to flop down. This is not a toy we leave her alone with yet! She is our rock climbing princess ballerina!

Below: I LOVE this picture! Haha! She was so silly just walking around holding this up- as a shield???

Below: Kaylee's new hobby-making mommy go crazy. So really it was my fault. This same day I decided to teach Kaylee how to feed Jordan a treat. Shortly thereafter this is what happened. It started out real cute. After she gave Jordan his treat he went over to his water dish and drank real fast. Kaylee squatted down and watched real close as he drank. Then he started to eat and Kaylee just felt as though he needed some assistance. So she started taking one piece of food at a time and handing it to him to eat. Then she moved on to taking handfuls and throwing them at him (hitting him in the face and head) and then suddenly went the dish EVERYWHERE! I think I had already cleaned up the mess on the carpet when I decided it was still pretty cute and I thought I'd take a picture.

Below: (out of order) This picture is from New Year's Day. Happy New Year. Kaylee loves sitting in her portable highchair seat. She likes to put her baby in it and put the tray on and she loves to sit in it too. Here they both are trying to squeeze into the seat.

If there is one thing that never fails to cheer Kaylee up it is her Uncle Kenny. Sorry everyone else but along with Jordan, Uncle Kenny is her favorite relative! She loves to watch him dance silly and make funny faces and just act crazy. Below is a picture of them playing on the couch together.

For New Years we went up to Camp Hebron with my family and Aunt Jan and Pa. Camp Hebron is a Christian camp that my sister Karie used to work at and we used to go to as kids. Kenny still goes to their soccer camp during the summers.
They had a bunch of activities for the families to do while we were there for the New Year. We started out with a nice warm meal and then headed off to play some shuffle board and listen to some worship. Next we headed over to the gym where we played Vball, girls vs. guys (We had the whole gym to ourselves, everyone else was still at the praise and worship or something). The women totally whooped up on the men. Even Aunt Jan played although she may have broken her wrist! Josh's vball skills were no match for our girlpower!

After we were done with vball and some basketball too. We did ROCK CLIMBING (indoor of course)! Coolest and scariest thing I have ever done. I made everyone get their picture taken doing an America's Next Top Model pose when they were repelling down (Have you seen that episode? The pictures were taken with Katie's camera so I will have to post those later). Josh forgot his sneakers back at the cabin but I climbed two walls. First I did the easiest one and I had so much fun. I got really scared when I got to the top but I made it! I was so proud of myself but I was shaking a lot because I had been so scared that the ropes would let out when I reached for the bell at the top. So after I got down to safe ground I had so much adrenaline I decided that I wanted to do the medium wall which was a flat wall of just little graspy things but my sister Karie who was scaling the walls like some wild monkey or something along with Kenny convinced me to try the hardest wall which at one point you are like upside down going up the wall. So I started it and thought for sure I would have to quit when I got to the upside down part but people started to cheer and I pulled myself up over it and I went quickly up the rest of the way. Kenny started climbing next to me like a pro and so I was pushed to hurry up. I didn't want to be showed up by my little bro. Haha!
The cool thing is that even my mom did the wall. She was awesome and climbed almost to the very top. It gets so hard going up though when you can't find good footing! This is definitely something I want to do again. I had a blast!

After that we went over to the lodge and did some country line dancing as well as some square dancing. There were a lot of old people but it was so much fun. Instead of a drink toast they toasted marshmallows. I thought that was a cute idea!
After midnight we headed over to the cabin and stayed up until two or maybe even later just talking and making up silly things (Kenny, Josh, Karie and me). Kenny had an animal book and we picked out animals that everyone looked like. It was a fun New Year celebration. We were sad that Audrey had a bad earache so she had to leave to go back home. We missed them!

Below is Christmas at my family's house. Here Kaylee climbed onto her gift to her grandpa.

My mom REALLY surprised me with a new Dooney and Bourke purse. I was shocked. I actually teared up. See... a couple months ago my Dooney was stollen out of my car. I goofed up and left my purse in the car and the car unlocked. I am guilty of leaving my purse in my car other times but I NEVER leave my car unlocked. Well, it just so happened that this night some hoodlums came into our neighborhood and stole my purse out of my car. I NEVER buy things full price and certainly not things so expensive but that purse was my one special thing that I used Christmas money and gift cards to buy for myself last year. It was my one brand new non-sale thing that was all mine and special to me. I can't believe I teared when I opened this gift. I guess I was just so surprised and happy to have something so nice again. Thanks mom and dad!

My dad said that all he wanted from us kids for Christmas was for us to sing some songs. Now, if you know me... I almost never use my real voice when I sing (I wasn't exactly blessed with pleasant vocals-as you can probably tell by my low, man-ish, scratchy voice). I usually do a silly nasally singing voice instead and my sister Karie also enjoys singing silly too although she does have a good voice!
Here was our "tuning up" or "tuning off" haha... We are laughing because Karie and I asked for a starting note (so we could get our harmony straight) from Katie and we sang a really out of tune note. It was funny but we did eventually sing seriously until I didn't know the words and then I just began to do interpretive dancing. I think my dad liked it. My dancing that is... haha... kidding the singing of course.

Cool gift for Josh! #1!!!

Kaylee got a swing and it came in this box full of packing peanuts!
I hope she's not allergic to peanuts!!!

Kaylee and Audrey had a blast playing in these peanuts for at least a good 10+minutes.

Below Kaylee is playing Grinch! Haha... this is her gift to Audrey but she is taking off with it. She is lifting it up off the floor which I thought was hilarious. She must be taking after her mommy with those power lifting skills.

Reindeer antlers for the girls...

Below is Christmas at the Kovalik's. I thought we had more pictures but I guess not. Kaylee had fun playing with her cousins and Grammy. Grammy is in the tunnel below. On Wednesday we had dinner and New Year's service as I had said before. Then we got up nice and early with the kids and opened gifts. Kaylee's favorite gift of the day was her stroller, playpen and highchair set for her babies. She loves pushing her baby in her stroller and throwing her into the playpen then throwing toys on her and a blanket/dishtowel.

After we opened gifts Jenn, Renee, Nolan, Alex and myself went over to the assisted living home where Renee's grandmother, Gigi lives. We brought the elderly folks cookies and hung out with Gigi in her room. It was so sad because all the elderly people were sitting on couches around a big Christmas Tree not talking just staring at the tree. It was so sad to see this on Christmas Day. We are so glad that we decided to go and we hope that we were able to bring them some Christmas cheer. There were a few of the older women that talked to us and one even gave Alex and Nolan a dollar each.
In the car Nolan who was sitting beside me looked at me with the sweetest eyes and said, "I love you." It was so sweet and so sincere it just made me so happy I almost cried.
On that same note... Kaylee has started to say "I love you" but this is how it sounds- "I bove eww ya eww". We love getting her to say this.

This tunnel was a gift from Grammy and Granddad. Kaylee was nervous at first but once Mommy and Daddy crawled through it she got the hang of it.

Cousin Kellan and Kaylee (above).

Above Marlon and Jon with their Nerf guns. The boys loved this prank gift from Jon's work.

Above is what happens when the women leave and the boys are in charge of the babies.
Below: This was before Kaylee opened her gifts. She looooved pushing around this baby in it's stroller (from Grammy's playroom). Such a little mommy.

Goofball Josh in the caterpillar tunnel.

Below: Kaylee's Christmas coat. I love this coat so much that I got it a size too big so she can wear it next year too (I never thought I would be that kind of mom who buys things real big so their kid can wear them longer. It's funny how you change your way of thinking).

Let me tell you how tall this child is. I went and put on her Christmas shirt which of course was the first time I put it on her and it was a belly shirt on her. So the poor child wore a belly shirt to the Christmas Eve Service. Haha. She is just so long in the torso that her 18 month shirt did not fit her! We definitely aren't going to be able to share clothes!

Below is a before picture of me... (it looks a little weird!)

After:

My friend Lacey was talking about getting her hair cut and I said that I could never do it because of my face being so big. Then a few days after, someone made a comment about how long someone's hair was and I for some reason was a little jealous about it because I thought my hair was nice and long too. Soooo... I was really bothered about my thoughts and feelings about my hair and after talking some more with my friend Lacey about getting our hair cut I decided that I should do it because I had enough hair to be able to donate it to cancer patients who need it. I realized how prideful I have been of my hair and I just felt like I needed to get rid of it and give it to someone who actually needed it. I felt a little like Britney Spears going in their and just having all my hair that I loved so much cut off. The girl asked me if I wanted to wait a few months for it to grow some more because if she cut off the necessary 10 inches it would put my hair up above the middle of my neck. I said, "Nope just chop it." I told Josh that I was going to hate my hair short but I felt like I needed to do it. I have never liked it short and I told him several years ago to never let me get it cut short again.
Josh loved my hair right away and it is continuing to grow on me. I just keep thinking that their could be some little girl that needed a wig and that maybe someday it could be me that needs a wig or maybe one of my children and I can only imagine how grateful I would be to have hair for one of my children who has lost all theirs.

Kaylee coming down the stairs for our Christmas at home. She loves her little baby doll.

Above: We got Kaylee a Tinker Bell Tea Set for Christmas.
Below: Her daddy bought her a giant super soft dog. We call him "Big Dog". She loved snuggling up to it. At first I think she was a little intimidated by it since she is used to only small dogs like Jordan and her fluffy Jordan substitute, Daisy.

Above: My best friend from college, Michelle came to visit and here is a picture of us making Friendship Bread. If you have never had this bread before it is absolutely amazing! Just like our friendship. Hehe. We had a great time shopping together and going bowling. We played 5 games!!! Haha! So much fun! I got worse and worse and she got better and better as we played.

Okay so here are some stories about Kaylee.

Things she likes to do and say right now:
"dog"
"I bove eww ya eww" (I love you)
"down" when going downstairs or when she wants down
"up" when she wants up or when she is going into her highchair
"shush" to Jordan when he is barking or "shhh" with one finger to her mouth
"Melma" which is "Elmo"
"pasbe" means "passy" like what we call her pacifier
"burp"

A funny story about "burp": Kaylee has been having these night terrors still. I don't know what to do so I just try to get her to calm down and then get her to go to sleep again. But the other night she woke up and she was tooting a bunch and then suddenly she burped. She then pulled out her passy and said, "burp". I put her passy back in and then tried to get her to go to sleep but she was wide awake and just kept pulling out her passy and saying "burp" . I kept telling her, "I know you burped." and I kept putting her passy back in. There was just no hope (But I was just happy that she was in good spirits and not screaming). So, since she wasn't going back to sleep and I still needed to get to sleep for work the next day, I brought her over to bed with us and laid her between us. After the three of us were lying still for a few moments in silence I hear the smack of her pulling out her passy. Then a few short seconds later I hear a little voice say, "BURP". Haha! I laughed so hard. Then I said, "I know you burped and I am proud of you. Now go to sleep." And she did. Haha! She just loves burping and hearing other people burp.

Kaylee is trying to say "potty" too. When I was home sick with her, every time I went to the potty she followed me and clapped and smiled for me.

Kaylee is still open mouth kissing Jordan. I am not sure what to do about this! It is so yukky! She loves just walking up to him on the couch, ripping the blanket off of him and giving him a big smooch! Ewww! She also loves to crawl under the table with him and just smack his back. I think she thinks she is petting him really nice but she hits him so hard! Haha. She also likes to sometimes tell him "Nonononono" which sounds more like "Na-na-na-na-na" when he is doing something that either he isn't supposed to do or that she isn't supposed to do. Like today she did it to him when he went for his bone. She knows that she is not allowed to play with his bone so she told him "Nanananana" Hahaha. Also, she has been trying to tell him to sit. She follows him around saying, "Sit. Sit. Sit." haha. She is just so much fun to watch and listen to.

Kaylee has been doing so many other funny things. I wish I could remember every last one of them.
We went to the rodeo at the Farm Show on Saturday but I will have to save those pictures for another time.
So long for now!
Here's a question for you. What was your favorite gift or gifts for Christmas?