New Year's Resolution about a month late!

So I guess I should resolve to update my blog a little more frequently!!! Here is a quick wrap up of the past month or so. We road tripped to mom's house for Christmas and New Year's and had great trips both ways. We had a great Christmas with Mom and Jason aside from the broken hot water pipe and flooding. But we made do. Reese cleaned up from Santa and then some. She's not spoiled at all! And Jason was super excited about his Wii, and I love my Hoodie Footie!!! I know it is a fantastic picture, right?!?!?! Thanks to Jason for a fun New Year's Eve, and to Nicole, Joey and Haley for letting the crew hang out at your house more than once. And Mom who swore no dog would get on her furniture had a nice nap with Reese on the couch. And she even let her sleep on the bed with her one night. Reese decided that since the windows were just too high for her to see out of, she would get creative. Any time we were not looking she was sitting in the suitcase to see out the window. We had a lot of fun.

Once at home it was back to work and playing catch up. My new assistant has been a great help and held down the fort. However she has battled the stomach flu, sinus infections, a nasty upper respiratory infection which all added up to lots of days off. Hopefully she is over the worst of it. We have had a nasty stomach bug which has hit the office on multiple occasions. I have been fortunate enough to miss it every time. But this past Friday night it finally got to me. And oh what fun it is. Thank goodness I got the weaker version but it still was no fun. I guess 5 1/2 years plus without being sick had to come to an end at some point. It's official I am the worst sick person. I have no time for that!!! Although I tried not to be too whiney!! Brandon says I was good!

We have also been working hard at cleaning out and packing up stuff we don't need or use anymore. And we have rearranged furniture to make room for all the new baby stuff. Brandon lost part of his "mantown" computer room so we could fit the guest bed in there. Guests welcome anytime :-) But all his Navy memorabilia still has a safe spot in there. And the former guest room is complete with some beautiful new furniture. Now we just have to wait to July to put it to good use. with Brandon leaving in about a month it was important to us to try and have at least the big stuff done.

This past weekend we hosted the Smith family Christmas and had a really nice day. Brandon's parents came in town on Friday afternoon and left this morning. We took them out to one of his mom's favorite places for ice cream on Friday, then Vanessa, James and the girls came down on Saturday for the day. Because I was under the weather Brandon took his mom and dad to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Saturday and I cooked for them today so they would have full bellies for their drive home. Since I was feeling better we made dinner and had a late Christmas dinner at the house. I love our big kitchen that accomodates two tables and seating for eight, plus a puppy quite nicely. Things turned out great, and Brandon's mom paid me the best compliment on the pecan pie. Brandon's Aunt Jennie is known for making the best pecan pie, and his mom told me that if she had a blind test taste she couldn't tell which pie was Aunt Jennie's. A big shout out to Miss Jane for teaching me how to make her pie crust and for all the times you let me help make the pecan pies growing up. I wouldn't have been able to pull it all off without all that you taught me. And Miss Jane you also get a shout out for always cleaning up as you went while cooking. It sure does make the clean up at the end a lot easier! We opened gifts (Reese helped Pop-pop with his paper and some boxes) and then Vanessa and her family went on home. The rest of us finished the evening watching Secretiat, an awesome movie. We were pretty worried about how Reese would handle the girls being here all day. She is good with kids but not used to them. And Ashley and Kathryn are a bit rambunctious at times. She was AMAZING!!!! We still can not believe her patience, and how wonderful she was with the kids. And Brandon's parents kept telling us how impressed they were with the fact that she was so tolerant. I think Reese is just happy to not have anyone hanging on her, playing with her toys today or calling her name over and over and over again. She is the best puppy ever. (I know we are biased!!!) And as for Jame's advice on our soon to be addition and Reese...sorry James but we are not getting rid of Reese any time soon. She is the first baby in this house!!!

I think that gets everyone up to speed and here are a few pics from the past few weeks. Hope everyone is well and 2011 is treating you fabulously!!!