Busy Christmas

Since our last post, we have been busy trying to prepare for our Christmas Celebrations.

We've been to Raleigh / Liberty, NC for my dad's family Christmas, to Greenville, SC for Matt's mom's family Christmas, we've had a friends Christmas dinner, been up to Jojo's for her family Christmas and then around back and forth in Chapin for our families Christmas' . . . whew. Not to mention a few Christmas 'parties' here or there.

I have photos for 'most' of our Christmas events . . . to be posted soon. But, till then, we just wanted to wish you all a VERY (late) Merry Christmas!

I've been sick with a nasty virus of some sort that has made Christmas quite 'blurry' due to meds and such . . . but, overall, it was a wonderful time with us Billingsley's. Matt was off for 5 straight days and we LOVED every minute of daddy being home with us!

Houston got more than enough for Christmas! Although, he could careless about the opening of gifts . . . he was quite excited at each new toy that was presented to him. 

We have also been accused on 6 different accounts to being pregnant since my nasty virus is making me feel so sick . . . but, I can assure all of you that is NOT the case! Our little Houston Monster is just enough for us!! AND, not to mention, he will be turning TWO in just a couple of weeks!! So, details on his birthday party will be soon to come!!

My, lots to catch up on. Seems like I never get a break! j.

We've got a Monster.

Before you read and view the image below . . .  P-L-E-A-S-E don't pay attention to his outfit - -which now you will cause I said not too -- But know, it was hard enough just to get the 'mismatching' clothes on him that day.

Anyways . . . Houston's BIG thing now is to 'scare' you. He will jump out from a corner / hide behind a door / squat down beside the couch just to 'jump' -- in his case, big step -- out in front of you and say, 'ARRRH' -- and he says it pretty loud . . . several times in a row . . . and then he screams at you and run . . . Just to come back and do it again . . . and again.

Please take a look at this face you get to see when he is being his 'monster'.

New Addition(s)

When Jackson went missing, Matt and I started to get lonely. Mason, our other kitty, mainly stays outside . . . so we N-E-V-E-R see him. We wanted a kitty to snuggle with and show US some attention! So, Matt started looking . . . we looked at several places (5, I think) in Columbia and didn't find any kitty that 'clicked' with us. Finally one night . . . Matt saw 'Jewel' -- renamed to 'Millie', and still being discussed -- in Aiken, SC. Of course, he always finds the good cats at some shelter where we have to drive an hour to get there! Mr. Zoe came from Newberry and Jackson came from Camden . . . and now, our new addition was coming from Aiken.

So, one Tuesday, Houston and I set down the road, on our journey to bring home 'Millie'. The only problem was . . . I found another kitty I fell in love with! Whoopsie! I couldn't help it! He was so cute!! His name was 'Xane', renamed to 'Sloan'. He had these puffy big eyes and was just staring at me! And playing with 'Millie' . . . I couldn't resist! I texted Matt if I could bring home two -- his response -- 'NO!' -- And so I did anyways. Whoopsie. BUT come on! I couldn't resist!

Look how cute they are! And they are best buds! They cuddle together and play together . . . How could you split that up! Not to mention, Houston is in LOVE with them!

22 months

It is hard to believe that I have a 23 month old 'beebee' boy. Yes, I said 'baby' . . . because after all, he is my baby. And yes, I now know why mom's don't let their little boys grown up - Sigh - because it all goes w-a-y to fast. It just seems like yesterday that Houston was born . . . and we were welcoming our first born into our home. Now, a month shy of TWO years, I have a toddler.

As we enter the Holiday Season and a New Year, Houston's birthday will follow shortly (2 weeks, ahem, who's counting?) after . . . and I will officially have a 2 year old toddler. I have been excited for his second birthday for months . . . another party to plan, invitations to make, ideas to gather . . . but all the excitement is slowly slipping away. I am beginning to feel a bit sad. Sad that my baby boy, isn't a baby any more. I see all of our friends starting their 'new' families . . . and watching 'beebees' pop out left and right . . . it's making me want another one --- scrrrrrch (as Houston would say) ---Whoa Whoa. Hit the breaks . . . I was just kidding.

In the meantime, watch my lil' beebee grow!

*22 months

Jackson

As most of you already know, our second kitty to the Billingsley family, Jackson passed away. It has been a little over a month now. I haven't had it in me to actually post this . . .  Because for some strange reason, I keep thinking he is out there somewhere.

Our neighbors behind us said that he got hit by a car and they threw him in their back yard. We didn't have it in us to go back in their yard to find / see him because at that point, it had been a little over a week since he had gotten hit. God only knows what he looked like / what had eaten him. I saw Mr. Zoe after he got hit and I think it took me a really long time to get over that . . . so, it was best for us to not look.

I like to keep thinking that he is out there somewhere chasing rabbits. And maybe he is in 'Kitty Heaven'. Rest in peace our lil 'Jacks'.

Wild Ones

Just wanted to share a couple photos of our wild monkeys for Thanksgiving. I am pretty sure the 'hype' of 'Turkey Day' had them all in a different world.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wanting to wish our blog readers a Happy Thanksgiving, from our home to yours :) Photos to come soon. Not many were taken - whoopsie. I get bad at that when it comes to busy family days.

But, the Billingsley Household wishes you all a wonderful / warm / safe Thanksgiving with lots of laughter and smiles with your families.

We love you all!

- the Billingsley's.

Red Sunday

This weekend, I had planned with Tomme Hilton (my photographer that I work with) to do some family portraits for Matt, Houston and I -- since I am always the one behind the camera, I never have any decent photos of Houston and I, much less Matt and I. So, after weeks of planning and two days worth of shopping. . . we were ready . . . and drove two hours to Summerville this Sunday. Well, us adults were . . . Houston, not so much! He wasn't too interested in 'listening' and 'the camera' . . . he was more interested in running around like the banchee that is has become. Which worked out, because Matt and I were finally able to have a 'moment' and get a few of ourselves! Take a look! OH -- and yes, we did get a few images of the three  of us. However, you can see the struggle and attempts to 'bust' out of our grips. Laugh.

Not only did Matt, Houston and I take family portraits, we drug Jess along with us for a Sassy Twin Session. Laugh. Yep, we wanted twin portraits. I have only posted a few of Jess and I . . . If you would like to see more, you can look at them in our photos on Tomme Hilton Gallery's fan page.  I will set up the link to the blog once we get more posted :) Enjoy!

Birthday Message

We used to send out special birthday blogs to those in our family who are having a birthday . . . and when we fell off the blogging wagon, we obviously didn't continue with our blog celebrations.

So, we now continue our blog birthday celebrations!

Happy Birthday to my uncle Stan. We hope that you have a wonderful day! And if we were there to blow out candles on your bonfire of a birthday cake, Houston would have blown them all out before we could make it to 'Happy Birthday'.

We love you!

Rockstar Friday

As you have seen before, Houston LOVES these Rockstar glasses . . . And so does Josie, Wes and Jessie.

Oh my. What a group of kids.

Welcome Fall

This past weekend our Billingsley household went to NC for the weekend to spend some quality time with my dad's side of the family. We had planned a nice 'vacation' -- yea right -- for a long 4 day weekend. We decided to go up Thursday, spend the night Thursday and Friday with my Uncle Stan and his wife SueSue; then spend Saturday and Sunday with my Aunt Carol and her hubs Eddie.

Well, that was our 'plan'. And all went well up until the first night. j.

Thursday:  Matt, Houston and I drove up Thursday afternoon to Raleigh, NC in hopes of H to fall asleep during his 'naptime' and sleep 2 hours of the 4 hour drive. But, why would he want to sleep on such a fun, exciting car ride! I mean really, an hour was PLENTY for him. . . pssht. In Houston's defense, we did have the TV plugged up to sit right in front of him -- and I must say, it's a LIFESAVER for long trips. We hardly heard a peep from him -- so with the TV being right there, it was too much fun for him.  He watched Cars 2 and Ice Age going up the road. But, once we arrived to our Destination - 5 hours later - it was all down hill from there.

Houston wanted to climb the stairs - up and down, up and down - then he wanted to eat in their living room - yikes! their WHITE rug! - then he wanted to jump up and down on his bed - it was an air mattress - then he didn't want to take a bath - because the stairs were way cooler - and then we stayed up A-L-L night. Yep. Bath was at 8:30 and he fought sleep till 11. Finally we got him down and he slept till 3:22am. Exactly. I woke up at 3:22 and said, 'Really Houston. Really' -- Houston sleeps thru most nights. It is VERY rare that he stays up . . . and when he does, it's HELL. I'm not used to it, Matt gets cranky and Houston is tired. Bad combo. Bad combo. -- So, after his 3:22 wake up call . . . we stayed up till 6:30. I tried everything I had. I rocked him. I gave him milk. I rode in the truck around the neighborhood at 4:30am. I let him watch cartoons. I let him cry it out. I held him down. I read him a book. You name it, I tried it. But at 6:30, he walked right up to me and put his sweet little head on my shoulder . . . and OUT. Whew. I was glad.

After our first nights sleep - if you call it that - I was ready to turn around and drive back. Honestly. It's hard to socialize / spend quality with your family when your child is experiencing devilish acts and is sleep deprived - and 'you' are too. Hell, if I wanted to be sleep deprived, I would have had another baby. wink.

On to Friday: We all decided we would do whatever it took to get H worn out. . . except it was raining. Crap. So, during his nap time we starting to discuss some neat places around the Raleigh area that he would enjoy. And SueSue mentioned a neat Museum called Marbles. Marbles is located right in downtown Raleigh - not far from their home. When H got up from his nap, we left as soon as we could! We didn't want to waste any more energy! Laugh. As soon as we walked in, he was down on the ground running. He LOVED it. It had so many neat things for kids. I would go into a long explination of what all was there . . . but it would probably need to be a seperate blog. It was HUGE and fun.

And of course I forgot my camera . . . so all my images are on our camera phones. Not the best of quality, but still cute pics!

We came back and ate dinner at a great buffet place. Now, I'm not usually big on buffets, but this place was one of those 'natural / organic / healthy eating' places. And it was SOOO Good. I think it was called Sweet Tomato. Yum. They had the best salad I have had in a while. Yummy. Yummy place.  But, while we were eating dinner, Houston looked exhausted. You could tell he was 'done'. I thought his head was going to hit the table with each bite he took. Laugh. - AH. Love when he is like that - And thankfully, we were right. He was worn out! Because he slept thru the night!  He slept so late, he didn't wake up till 9 the next morning!

With Houston's late sleeping, it put us behind for Saturday. But, Saturday: We had about an hour drive to my aunts house. And we were almost there when up behind us came . . . Blue lights. Yep. A State Trooper. DAMNIT. We didn't even see him. We didn't even know how long he was following us. Whoopsie. But, he clocked us going 69 in a 55. Hello speeding ticket. We haven't seen one of you in . . . 5 years? But, we were too busy looking for our turn, that we didn't even recognize the speed limit change. Much less, we were going down hill!! Ugh. Oh well.

So, with a little change of mind and direction . . . we headed to Carol and Eddies. Only 10 mintues or so away now. We arrived to a cold, windy welcoming from mother nature! Burrr.

Carol and Eddie had just got some new babies . . . baby cows, 3 to be exact. And Houston was in LOVE with them. He didn't want to leave them. He wanted to jump thru the electric fence and point at them all day while saying, 'boo. a boo, ma ma.' -- 'Boo' is Houston's 'Moo'. Not sure why he has it switched . . . but he does.

After a long walk to their pond, visits w. the cows, a very short nap . . . Matt and I made a decision to go home. We had already contimplated going home . . . and unfortunely that meant we would spend less time with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Eddie, but sometimes we just have to weigh the odds and make the best decision. We knew H was exhausted . . . and another house change would only make it worse.

And sure enough. On our drive home, he took an hour nap. And as soon as we arrived home . . . his eyes were so tired and heavy and red, that he slept till 9 the next morning. A full 12 hours of sleep. He even crashed that Sunday for a long nap. And slept another 12 hours the next night to catch up. He was pitiful.

So, needless to say, our 'vacation' wasn't so much of a 'vacation'. But it was a great trip to spend time with my family. We don't get to see them much, but when we do, it's so much fun.

Love yall!


*Take a look at our pretty fall pics! We loved driving and seeing the tree colors! Houston could careless . . . But, Matt and I enjoyed :) We even drove over to see my Grandma and Grandaddy's grave. Thought I'd share a picture of the pretty setting they had when we went :)

Our recent lives.

Blogging hasn't been on our minds lately. . . as we have a VERY active toddler on our hands. And, I am not afraid to admit, that our child has entered the 'terrible twos'.

I used to get comments from many people, about how good my child was . . . whether it was in the store, walking around the neighborhood, eating out, etc . . . it didn't matter. He would always behave. Sigh. Where did those days go? Now, he runs around like a banchee. A crazy kid. If he didn't look so cute, I'm not sure I would claim him. j. But, he has indeed made a deal w. the devil . . . I am just praying this 'deal' doesn't last a full year . . . or longer.

I would really like to get back into my old routine of blogging. It might help my mental state of dealing w. my devilish child. Or better, I might get some ideas on 'decipline'. Sigh. Because spankings and timeout is all we get into in our household! For instance, the other morning, my sweet devil woke up in the worst mood . . . oh wait, that is most mornings. j. He pitched the biggest fit, just to change his diaper. I was tempted to leave it on, poopy and all. Why not, right? But I didn't have it in me to leave something that smelly on him. However, I did have to spank him twice to keep from rolling over and running away . . . AND put him in timeout twice because he didn't respond to the spanking as well as continued to run as I was dressing him. Sigh. His morning routines are quite traumatic. All he wants to do is wake up and sit in my bed naked and watch TV.

I mean, I get it. It's comfortable. Why not do all the things you can't do as a grown up. Right? It only makes sense. BUT, where do you draw the line? Ya know? Let's face it, we all want to do the things we can't. Life sucks sometimes, Get over it.

Laugh. I'm awful.

On another note . . . a side my venting of my wild child . . . our lives are pretty good / normal. We have been doing the same ole thing, working and parenting. Not too many exciting things in our household. We have planned a little vacation to NC to see my dad's family . . . should be fun! We are excited to spend some quality time with them. We do not see them but maybe twice a year, so we are excited.


 Well, thanks for listening / reading my venting blog . . . I know it's been awhile since you last read about us . . . and the first thing you read in  - - um, 2 months is a venting blog - - I promise they wont all be like this.

Laugh.

Take a look at our banchee for Halloween. It was hard to even get a decent photo of him cause he was . . . well . . . running wild. DUH. 

Rockstar Friday

Fridays are our Rockstar moments! We loosen up from the week... and have fun!

Take a look at my lil' Houstonie...

... ain't he cute! Such a stud and ROCKSTAR!

long time, no post.

Hello all! Sorry the Billingsley family has been 'MIA' on our blog for a while. A lot has been going on with us! But, before I begin to catch you up w. many many new posts, I wanted to leave you all w. the most recent of our TODDLER.

Yes, I did say Toddler. Houston is now 19 months (in human years that is 1.5 years)... laugh.

to shave or not to shave.

I think he is too young to start shaving. But he sure likes to play with the foam.

ear.in.fection.

Thankfully my baby has been lucky the past 14 months... no sicknesses other than common colds or a stomach bug here or there. But, Monday lil' H woke up with a 101.3 fever -- I gave him some Tylenol and 30 minutes later, his fever was up to 102.5 -- so, I called the doctor. We went in and she told us he has his first ear infection. Boo. However, she was proud that we made it 14 months and this is his first antibiotic! 

However, the past 36+ hours has been pretty hectic. Last night after his second dose of his antibiotic he threw up all over my pillow before bed. All night he tossed and turned, was sweaty, was cold. Then his temperature spiked to 104.3 -- YIKES! I was scared... so I called the doctor at 4 a.m. -- sorry Doc. -- doc. just upped his dose and told us to call if it hit 105.0 -- Seriously?

Thankfully his fever broke this morning. He napped all day and was playing a little. But, now his fever has gone back up to 103.2 -- Great. I hope it's not another night last night.

Check out my lil' boo boo all sick. 

The Hawk

For those of you who don't get to see our lil' Houston much, the last time you saw him he probably had little to no hair... but now...

It's beginning to look like a mess after a bath...

so mommy brushes it into 'the hawk'.

Houston Love?

Happy Valentine's day from Houston!

left over cake...

This is Houston eating his left over birthday cake. Laugh.

a late birthday SHOUT OUT.

Last year, I tried my best to send Birthday [SHOUT OUTs] to our family members... So far, I have missed both Josie's {sunday, 1.23} and Uncle Eddie's Birthday {friday, 1.28} SHOUTS. so, in the best 'typed singing voice' ....


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR JOSIE AND EDDIE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, BOTH!

The Billingsley's hope you have a great Birthday!

School

Our lil' Houston has started School. Well, not 'real' school, but it's the Mother's Morning Out program at Lake Murray Presbyterian Church. Monday was Houston's first day... and he LOVED it. The teachers said that he was the 'hit' of the gym. And that everyone wanted to take him home of course!

When I dropped him off today, he immediately ran over to the toys saying, 'ball. ball.' He could care less that his mommy was leaving him! Laugh. My lil' monster. And then, when I went to pick him up... he just turned his head, looked and me and went right back to playing.


It's very comforting to know he loves it so much. And its relieving to me when I see this in the back seat of my car...

... this was only after being in the car for 2 minutes. It wears him out! And I LOVE IT. Sigh. My baby is growing up.

Please Pray.

Our JoJo is having heart surgery today. Please say many prayers for her.

birth.day.parties

This Saturday, we had our munchkin's birth.day.party. AND I must say... it was a success!

WHEW.

I had been planning it for a couple weeks. And started the decorations / party favors a week in advance.  I had talked my self into doing most everything solo... with the help of Jess of course [she also blogged about H.'s birthday party]. She came over twice to help me decorate / prepare for H.'s party -- we even made a midnight trip to good ole' Wally World -- who knew we still had it in us. While everyone else in the family [mom, brandy, jojo, donna] helped make the food. We were all assigned something yummy to make for the 30+ guests that were to show -- yep, you heard me -- 30+ guests... in our [new] home. sigh. It was a tight sqeeze, but we fit. [i want to add that it was ALL family. minus 3 friends + 1 baby]


Over all, it was GREAT. And Houston enjoyed it -- I think. 

[After all, our family doesn't have just ONE birthday party... we have several. Mom decided to have her 'own' party for Houston today for lunch w. josie + wes. Then, Matt and I celebrated w. our monster for dinner. Over all, he had THREE birth.day.parties]

SPOILED. j.

Take a look at the past couple days.

 

Thank you all for making Houston's birthday so special!!