photo shoots

The cousins had a little Christmas photo shoot today. The girls wore dresses that my sister in law, Paula, made. She is awesome. Kyleigh's has a K embroidered on it and Zoey's had a (you guessed it) Z. They are so adorable.

Sweet cousins snuggling on the couch. Notice how adorable my niece Kyleigh is. These have to be three of the cutest kids in the world!

The grandparents with the grandkids.

The mommies with the babies. Zoey was holding on to Garrett for moral support.

After behaving for the photo shoot, Zoey felt she had earned a dig in the toy box. Please notice the Wii Fit in the background. That really just completes the picture.

We had a little family photo shoot at the railroad tracks (we made sure no train was coming) for our Christmas card. We had a lot of fun, but it got pretty warm outside, so we had to cut it short. We got some pretty good pictures anyway.


I love this picture. Zoey looks like she is grossed out because her parents are smooching.

I am thankful

Today was a good day. I so enjoyed spending time with John's family. I feel so blessed to be a member of a family that enjoys being together. We weren't always that way. It took a lot of prayer and patience to become, well, a family. So, the food was good, the company enjoyable, and best of all, Zoey slept through the whole meal, so John and I both got to eat at the same time. Blessings upon blessings. Here are some pictures of my sweet little turkey on her first Thanksgiving:
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Venom

I like to think of our house as the Knippers family infirmary right now. We all have nasty colds. It all started with Zoey, of course. Last week, the snotty nose just hit out of nowhere. I kissed a clean, shining face when I went to work, and by the time I got back, the snot had taken over. It was almost as if this cold had a mind of its own. If I didn't know better, I would think it was some kind of intergalactic parasite come to feed on the snot of the innocent. She was, and continues to be, a complete mess. It was so bad for awhile that she had to figure out a new way to keep her pacifier in her mouth. She kinda let it hang out of the corner of her mouth like some half smoked, soggy cigar. Thankfully, she has improved enough to stop channeling Groucho Marx. However, the parasite has found two new hosts. John and I have drank our weight in hot tea trying to ward off the inevitable, but, alas, all that managed to do is severely dwindle our tea supply. However, if anyone needs a tea sommelier, John and I are now experts. Thanksgiving break could not have come at a better time. I am hoping that this parasite will find a new host soon, so whoever wants to come over is more than welcome. Enter at your own risk.

An active and sad imagination

I have been so looking forward to seeing Twilight. I mean, I have literally been waiting for years for this movie to come out. It is finally here, and what I am I doing right now? Sitting all alone in my house. I had the strangest notion that John would have some big date planned for us to go see this movie that I have so anticipated, but well, he's not even here. I am sad. All the way home from school, I imagined being whisked away to the movies; I mean, I really had this whole scenario playing out in my head. It was great. He was going to have dropped Zoey off with the parents and surprise me with tickets. Then, I opened the garage door and all my air let out. He wasn't even home. Not only did he not plan anything for what is to me a big night, no one was here to even care that I was home. So much for the night. I am feeling completely sorry for myself, and John will ask me what is wrong, and I won't tell him. I wish he...well, I wish the above mentioned scenario had happened. Oh well.

Selfish thoughts

Sandra Cisneros states that people are like onions-when you grow up, each year just layers on the previous one, and at times, layers you thought were deeply buried emerge. I believe this with all my heart, because tonight I am 6. All I can think about are the things that I want. And since I didn't eat dessert tonight, I think I will indulge myself in a different way. This is my grown-up Christmas list, and I have half a mind to sit on Santa's lap and read this to him (he does live across the street-literally). I want a pedicure so bad I can taste it (I wish that was a better phrase, because that would be really gross). I want new living room furniture. I want to lose 30 pounds tomorrow. I want someone to babysit Zoey all weekend so I can spend time in my former life. I want my damn shoulder to stop hurting. I want Toni to come visit. I want to sleep in tomorrow. I want a $100,000.00 gift card to Target. I want a new car that doesn't have squeaky breaks. I want to eat ice cream everyday. I want a reason to dress up. I want a tummy tuck. I want a boob lift. I want fake nails. I want my students to be perfect angels tomorrow. I want to skip PLC time tomorrow. I want my husband to take me out on the town. I want to see Twilight right now. I want the chiropractor to fix me on Friday so I never have to go back. I want John to stay home with me every Wednesday. I want to go camping. I want to spend some time at a spa. I want a massage.


Okay,

Post Script

Could all this scattered deliriousness stem from the fact that my bugaroo is getting her first tooth? I have a sneaky suspicion that somehow they are related. Also, I am watchin Kevin Bacon play a mentally challenged person. It is just sad. A handicapped skeleton.

So little

There is so little to say right now. My brain is an empty rattle. I am tired to the bone (mainly my shoulder bone which is constantly in pain). I think two dinner parties in two days may have been too much?? I feel like I just said a dirty word. How can anyone celebrate too much? However, its the cleaning up afterward that exhausts me. Tonight I didn't do much of the cleaning due to the stupid and excruciating shoulder pain. John did almost all of it. Just like he did almost all of the cooking. Where was my role in the night you ask? I made a cake. And, I, dishwasher loader extraordinaire, loaded and started the dishwasher. So I am not as completely worthless as I feel right now.
Here's the thing about the shoulder. First of all, I am being a complete and total baby I am sure. But, after the shingles fiasco of 2008, I am always on guard for seemingly unrelated and weird symptoms. So, my shoulder has been hurting for about three weeks, and it has progressively gotten worse. It hurts when I move it in certain directions, like trying to reach up or back or leaning on it just to name a few. John keeps telling me to go to the doctor, but my greatest fear is I will go there and it will end up being nothing. If I go to the doctor, I want it to be for good reason. Plus, if I am being honest, and I am, I haven't even tried ice or heat. Instead of doing anything constructive, I have been researching shoulder pain on the internet. According to one site, my shoulder is probably going to fall off, which is unfortunate, because I really use this arm to pick up Zoey (I know what you are thinking, but stop with the logic. It is probably shoulder cancer) Anyway, tonight John made me an ice pack and then helped me stretch, and even though I wanted to cry at a few points, I have to admit that the shoulder does feel a little better. Which is embarrassing, because like I said before, I have been a big baby.
As I said before, there isn't much to say these days, but I haven't said anything in awhile. I will apologize for this post soon by posting more pictures of Zoey, which, if we are being honest, and we are, is the reason anyone probably looks at this blog anyway. Oh life; it is so...(wipes eyes in delirious laughter). I will leave you with one small confession. In that other sentence, I didn't use the contraction I meant to use, because I couldn't remember how to spell it. And yes, I do call myself a Language Arts teacher. I just never said I was that good. So there. Class dismissed.

Dedication pictures

Please take note of the headband that I worked so hard on. These pictures don't really do justice to how cute Zoey looked. Oh well. Take my word for it!

John looks overjoyed the whole time. I was in heaven. This was so special.

The sweet girl on the left is Zoey's BFF, Lexa. All the babies that have been born in the past two years have been boys, except Zoey. I prayed for a girl that Zoey could play with; shortly after, the Vargas' joined our church and brought their two girls, Bella and Lexa. What an answer to prayer! They love each other!

The inevitable

Last night I thought the world was going to end. I have been sick with worry about this election, because, well, I suck at change. I am scared at the direction that our country is going in. I feel like it slightly resembles good 'ol Sodom and Gomorrah. So, I as I lie in bed last night, I could not stop myself from having a full fledged freak out complete with kicking and screaming at John, ending with him fleeing for his life upstairs. I am pretty sure that he was completely baffled by my insanity, but we eventually worked out our communication, and my sweet husband wrapped me in his arms and allowed me to sob out all my anxiety. And, when I went upstairs to get Zoey this morning, there was a note waiting for me at the top of the stairs (and in my purse and in my car and on the bed). I had to sit down and really soak it in. Here is some of it:

"God is our refuge and our strenght,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah
...'Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted in the earth!'
The LORD of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress."

Psalm 46

I needed to hear that word. I know that I know that I know that my faith is not in my president; it is in my God. And, he is the one that put Obama in office, so I need to support my president, but I need to trust my Lord.

The things we do for love and good fashion

Today my little Zoey girl was dedicated at church. This is a day I have been looking forward to for some time. The initial date was set for the Sunday after Ike, but clearly that fell through. Then we were going to have it another day, but someone was going to be out of town, so we settled on today. Phew!
I have this sickness where I need for Zoey to look adorable at all times. Some might say this is simply being a mom, but I have to admit that this can become a compulsion at times. For instance, I searched high and low for the perfect dedication dress. "Doesn't she already have a million cute dresses?" you might wonder. Well, of course she does, but none of them were "the dress." So, on Wednesday, I packed Zoey up and we started on our quest for the perfect dress. Being thrifty minded mommy that I am, I started in Kohl's-nothing. I moved next to TJ Maxx-nada. Target-zilch. I was crushed, especially by my one true love Target. I have never been let down there. I was about to resign myself to her wearing something she already has (as if!), when N.K. decided that we search one more time on Friday. So once more, we loaded Zoey up and headed into the wild blue yonder. Our first stop was Babies 'R Us. I did find an oh-so-cute little black jumper that I could have paired with red tights, but in Kelly's words, I was "settling." We decided that if we could not find anything else, we would come back. Our next stop was Old Navy. This time we even made Zoey go into the dressing room and try stuff on. Could I be any more ridiculous? O.N. was a flop, so we moved on to my last resort-the mall. We tried Palais Royale-less than nothing. Horrible. We moved on to Gap Kids where I found THE perfect dress. I was happy, I shrieked out loud (and received some pretty humorous looks I might add. What did I care? When I experience elation, it is hard to keep it to myself). Did they have it in her size? Of course not. Sheer and tortuous devastation. Finally, battered and broken and STARVING we hit Dillards. There in the children's section, I saw her. She was beautiful and perfect, and best of all, she was Zoey's size. It was not as cheap as some places, but by this time I really did not care. So, I bought the dress, the tights, the shoes and the bow. It was great. I was ecstatic. So, that brings us to this morning. Everything was going so smoothly. The time change didn't hurt us too much and Zoey was in a great mood as her dad pulled on her tights. However, before I had a chance to do my make-up and hair, the bottom fell out. We could not find Zoey's headband (the one her bow attaches to). I was frantic. John and I scoured the house-nothing. I frantically called N.K. hoping to get some insight-nothing. I was on the verge of tears. I had worked too hard and too long to be taken down by a headband. John said, "It is not that big a deal. She just won't have a bow." I was shocked and appalled by this smug simple solution to my plight. What is a mommy to do 10 minutes before church and hours before a store opens? The only thing I could do. I took out my Spanx (the uber tight under shorts that suck everything in) and cut off the lace band at the bottom. I then poked Zoey's through the lace holes, stuck it on her head and headed out the door. The girl stayed precious and pristine the entire morning (she did manage to spit up all over John during the dedication prayer, but he just held her against him a little higher and no one saw the huge pool on the front of his shirt), and she got so many compliments that all the fashion hardships we had to overcome were completely worth it.