Christmas 2008

I thought it would be fun to decorate some cookies... but we ended up decorating some rice crispy treats that I made. (Neilie calls then rice Christmas trees!)The girls helped me for about 2 seconds then all they wanted to do was eat the icing. I had a hard time putting any icing on the rice "Christmas trees". I don't have any pictures of the finished product but they turned out cute! My favorite was the train. We decorated the engine, a car and the caboose. It was really cute. We left the train for Santa. He ate all the caboose, the car and most of the engine. He must have been hungry at our stop!



Our family tradition is to go to Nanny's Christmas Eve evening and we eat finger foods... and lots of them. At 8:00pm we start watching "A Christmas Story". The whole family gets a kick out of that movie!
This ended up being a great picture. This is my Nanny and all her girls. I am the oldest granddaughter. Then Shelley is next oldest. She is sitting beside me. Then Haley is the baby (of us)... she is sitting beside Nanny. Then of course Claire is sitting with Nanny (no place she'd rather be) and Neilie is sitting with Haley. Haley was the first name Neilie ever said.


I think Santa did a great job this year. Both girls got an American Girl Bitty Baby. Claire loves hers... Neilie likes hers. She is more excited about the CandyLand game. They had a really good time waking up to Santa this year.



Ok after we see what Santa brought, we get ready and head over to MaMa and DaDa's house for a delicious breakfast. MaMa can really cook a fantastic breakfast!!! This picture is of MaMa, Autumn and Preston. What was funny about this picture is, I tried to take it several times and MaMa never would look at the camera, then one time she started drinking coffee. She said, "Oh you are taking a picture!?!?" We all just laughed. So this was the best I could do. Autumn said, "I think I am the only one who knew you were taking a picture!" HAHA! I love my fam!




Ok, Next stop is Noni and Poppi's house. This is Neil's mom, Noni. She and Poppi got the girls an "All in One nursery" for their new babies and an ironing board and vaccum. They have really had fun with it.

My Baby in the hospital!

Last week, Neilie (along with the rest of us) had the stomach virus. She started throwing up on Saturday and by Wednesday was hadn't stopped. I took her to the doctor and she was visibly dehydrated but the doc wanted to try some medicaition and lots of water at home before putting her in the hospital. By Friday, she was still throwing up so we went back to the doctor. This time, she was so dehydrated she had to be hospitalized immediatly!

She had to have an IV in her arm right away. She had some blood work done and it came back with elevated white blood cell count. She was also running a pretty high fever. These two symptoms indicated a slight infection somewhere. She was started on a saline solution through the IV.
After she had been on the IV for about 12 hours, 3:00am Saturday morning, she sat straight up in her bed and said, " Mommy, I need apple juice!" Those were her first intelligible words in days and days.

Dr. Haddad came in and looked at her blood work on Friday evening, then looked and both of us and said, "I am glad she is here!" He said that her electrolytes, potassium, calcium, etc... had all bottomed out. She literally had nothing left!



After a few days on IV and apple juice, she began sitting up on her on. Neil brought her tea set up to the hospital and she, Claire and Neil had a tea party. It was so cute!

This big pink teddy bear was brought up to the hospital by Ms. Julie from Sunday School! She brought her a pretty pink teddy bear, some pretty carolers, and a pink rose. Ms. Julie held Neilie's hand and prayed for her.

It was so sweet. Thank you Ms. Julie.

Neilie is now home and doing better. We are praying she never gets that sick again. It was just awful seeing my baby so sick. She is a trooper and really pulled through.

One evening, Dr. Berry was in there to check on her. As he was leaving, she said, "Dr. Berry... you have really cool stuff in your pockets!" The nurses said that made his year! They said he was out there talking about how cute that little girl in 620 is!

Stomach Virus... all of us!

My mom has been here all day caring for all of us who are sick with this terrible stomach virus. I can't even tell you how bad it is... like you want to know!

Anyway, just wanted to say thank you to my Momma without whom I would have no one to care for my sick family.

Thanks Momma!

luv u
mean it,
~ Abee

There is nothing more precious than FAMILY!

My most precious memories are hearing my DaDa playing the piano. In my grandparents' old house, he would play in the formal den and I would sit on the white couch and listen. This is a memory from my childhood that I will always treasure. I am so grateful that my children will have the same memories of listening to DaDa play the piano.



This is such a precious memory.



You all that read my blog know how important family is to me.On this day, DaDa was playing Jingle Bells and my girls were "playing" with him, rather than singing.

Thanksgiving 2008

What a joy it is to have family together. We weren't all together this year, the Fosters were celebrating with other family members. We missed them so much! We were happy that Shelley and Haley stopped by later on though, that was a nice treat.

Here are two very important men in my life, my hubby and my grandfather, Dada. I am so blessed to have my grandmothers (on both sides) and my grandfather (my Mom's father) alive and well.



...and here is the other important man in my life... my Daddy! Of course, he is hanging out with Claire Thomas. She LOVES her Papa!



Ok, this was great! Neil and I have a timer on our camera so we set it and I ran like crazy to be in the picture. It worked and this is the picture of the whole family (minus the Fosters).

From left to right: Robert, Autumn, Preston, Dada, MaMa, Nanny, Claire, Mom, Daddy, Me, Neil, Neilie.



This picture turned out fantastic! This is Preston and Autumn. What a great picture of father and daughter. My family is great. When so many families dread getting together for the holidays, we look forward to it. We were all so excited to be with each other for this holiday. I am so glad we could get together and make new memories. (Autumn, how does that tree in the front yard smell?)



After we ate until we couldn't move... we decided we would play outside with the girls. Here is Claire wanting Guh-Guh to chase her.

Keeping my day job....

So, I thought I would save some $$ by taking pictures of my girls in my church lobby in their Christmas dresses. I really wanted them in front of the big Christmas tree in the front lobby. That really didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. We did get one that we liked out of all these shots with the two of them together.



Oh and you'll notice the date is wrong on all the pictures... this is obviously last week sometime... not Jan. 1 2006 (or whatever date it says)

Here is the sweetest thing ever...
When you turn the corner, there is the biggest Christmas tree you have ever seen... my girls were more excited and more interested in baby Jesus!!! Isn't that precious?!?!

Here is Neilie wanting to hold the baby Jesus because, "He's so cute, Mommy!"





Claire was excited because Neilie was excited.

Here is Neilie showing Claire how "cute" the baby Jesus is.

This was Neilie's reaction to the biggest Christmas tree she had ever seen.

This is one that I thought was cute... the girls were laughing at my mom who was playing peek-a-boo with them through the stair rail.



Merry Christmas Ya'll!!!


This is my Claire Thomas... that little crooked smile...I could just squeeze her!

Better Late than Never... Halloween Pictures

Here are my girls on Halloween. We went to my parents' nieghborhood to Trick - or - Treat then to Amanda and Greg's for a Halloween party. We had a great time. At my parents, there was a guy who riding kids around on a hayride. In a couple of years that will be much more fun.

I am not sure why the camera says that the date is 01/01/2006... this was obviously 10/31/2008! I think it may have something to do with me dropping it and then Neil dropping it on the road and it rolling down the road. We thought it was okay... guess not!

This is a picture of Neilie and me just before we got on the ride.



This is a picture of Neil and Neilie...his little princess.




This is pretty much how Claire felt about the whole Halloween experience!

Here is Neilie... she said she was Sleeping Beauty. I think she looks the part! :)

Claire Thomas was Tinkerbell... this picture was taken before she saw anyone else dressed up. That is when the crying began. She looks precious with that KiKi... that is what she calls that pink blanket she carries around EVERYWHERE!
(see it in the Elmo bucket?)

It wasn't the ghost (or Fairy)

I had left the camera in a bag in the laundry room!

What a bummer... I wanted a good story.

I'll post with some Halloween pix soon.

~ Abee

The Ghost (or Fairy) of Wick Drive

So I haven't posted anything in a while...
Here's the deal:

I can't find my camera to upload the pictures from the stuff we have done lately... I am totally bummed about this situation. I will keep you all updated on the camera mystery.

Now for those of you who do not know this... we have a ghost in our house... well Neil calls the fairy because he doesn't want to believe that we have a ghost (but we do).

Here is the story about the ghost.

Before we had the girls, Neil and I went to the beach for a week of vacation. Before we left we dumped out our HUGE change jar that was so heavy it took both of us to carry it (that will be important later in the story). My mom was coming daily and feeding Sarge and Dilly (our dog and cat). The first day my mom noticed that the towel was missing from under Sarge's water bowl... no biggie she thought. A few days went by with no major events. The last day that she came over... she walked in to my kitchen and a crystal cake plate that was my Nanny's was shattered in the middle of the kitchen floor. Now if it had been sitting on the counter or something that would be different... but it was tucked away in the cabinet (for safe keeping)! Ok so, the change jar.... before we left we had left the change jar sitting on the dining room table. When we came home, it was gone and we have never seen that change jar again. Now remember we rolled all the change in it and used that as our spening money on the trip. It was basically empty. We asked my mom and she said she doesn't remember seeing it at all. Ok so...

anyway, I think the ghost (or fairy) has our camera and perhaps it will show up again.

... I hope

My baby is THREE!

I can't believe my babygirl Neilie is three years old. She was born at 5:41 pm on a Monday afternoon. I went to school that morning and told my principal that I wasn't feeling well but today was my due date so I was sure that I could not possibly be in labor. :)
Of course, I was in labor! I called my friend Rhonda Coffey who came to the school and confirmed that I was in labor... we went to the hospital and after many hours... I had my Neilie Carolina Chappell. This is a picture of Neilie and mommy leaving the hospital.



Here are a few more of my newborn baby Neilie!

This was Neilie's party at Chick-fil-a. It was actually on her birthday! She was so excited to be there and for her friends to come.

This is Ella Grace both Neilie and Claire were excited when the Skippers came.

Here is my Claire Thomas. She is never quite sure of herself around people and loud noise... but I think she had a good time.

Here are Kayla and Luke Chappell. These are Neilie and Claire's cousins. They hadn't seen each other in so long. They were so happy to get to play together.

My baby girl blowing out the candles. I can't believe she is three years old. She is getting to be such a big girl. Thanks to all who came!!!

I made it!!!!

This is Neil with big news. To all of my closest friends you already know about my promotion. To all of our other friends her is what happened: About 6 months ago i applied to the Sheriffs Office traffic unit. I was passed over at that time. Well recently I was approached about the same job again. This time I was accepted. I just want to make it known that without the support of my beautiful wife, family and friends I would not have been able to take the job. My new postion is in the Traffic Enforcement Unit of the Sheriffs Office. I will be investigating collison and DUI enforcement along with other traffic related enforcement. Thanks so much to all of you who believed in me.

Michael Buble Concert October 04, 2008

As you all know, a few weeks ago, Neil and I went to the Michael Buble concert. He surprised me with a limo and dinner at Soby's in Greenville.

This is a picture of us in the limo. We set the timer on the camera and set it up on egde of the bar in the car, and hoped for the best.

It worked!!!


This is a picture of the screen from before it started.
He was GREAT!


" Birds flying high, you know how I feel. Sun in the sky, you know how I feel. Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel. Its a new day! Its a new dawn! Its a new life for me...... and I'm feeling good!"



The next 2 pictures were taken when he was singing with a group...Naturally 7. They had no instruments... but sounded like it!!! They were unbelieveable! Together with Michael Buble... and unbeatable combination!


We really had a terrific time.
Thanks to my parents for watching the girls so we could go.

Our friend Adam's birthday party

Last weekend we went to Greer and celebrated Adam's 2nd birthday party. Adam's mom, Melissa and I worked together at Carlisle Foster's Grove Elementary (and left the same year as well, Praise GOD from whom all blessings flow!!!!!!!)



Anyway, Neilie and Adam are close in age and play together from time to time. We took a couple of pictures at the party and I thought I would share them with you all.


Here is Adam about to blow the candles out... look at the anticipation on Neilie's face!!!





Neilie is so excited about Adam blowing out the candles... Claire is thinking, "Let's Eat!!!!"





The friends discussing a party hat...




The cake came from publix, Melissa said... it was sooooooooooo delicious!!!




Happy Birthday Adam... we had a great time!