Christmas at the Fennell's

Christmas is so much more fun when you have a kid. I bet it will be even more fun when she understands Santa. Unfortunately, I had to work on Christmas Day but I did have Christmas Eve off. We had my side of the family (my parents, Tootie, Chad, Missy) over for a mexican feast of chicken tortilla soup, tamales, queso, salad, and tons of sweets. It was tasty and we opened prezzies afterwards. When Guen went down for her nap around 3pm, everyone left to go to church and other festivities but Ryan and I got ready to go to party number two. We went over Ryan's sister's house and had Christmas with them. We ate again an appetizer themed meal and all the cousins played together and we opened prezzies. Guen made it til about 8pm (an hour past her bedtime) and we went home and straight to bed. I worked the next day but Ryan and Guen spent Christmas day with my family again over at my parents house eating a big meal of turkey and then going to see a movie. I have been working ever since Christmas, so I am finally sitting down to write a little blog about our day. It was wonderful. I hope you had a great Christmas, here are so pics to see my family enjoying the day.

Busy Weekend

This weekend was quite busy. Let's start with my first day off Friday. My first day off, I ran errands and made an appetizer for our Bible Sunday School Classes Christmas Party. My parents came to babysit that evening and we had a nice time visiting in the beautiful house of the Sunday school teachers friend. We had to leave early because Ryan had to work on Saturday and we were both tired. Saturday, Guen and I ran errands again and that afternoon at 2pm we went to my coworkers babyshower. My coworker has been on strict bed rest since about 24 weeks pregnant. So far she is 32 weeks. She is living out our worst nightmare of having a premature baby. Luckily she is past 30 weeks and in our minds she is "ok" to have that baby now. But the longer in, the better and so far so good. She has a terbutaline drip that is going into her leg to keep her from contracting. Anyways, it was nice to see her and my other coworkers outside of work and visit. But we did not stay long because it was around Guen's naptime and she was getting cranksters, so we left. That evening Guen was up 4 times that night which is very unusual but I thought she was just teething, gave her some Motrin and luckily after the forth time of waking up at 3am she was down til when she woke up at 730am. We did our usual church in the morning and that afternoon we went to Amy Enger's kids, Ally and James, pirate themed birthday party, in the Woodlands. I got to see Amy and Barbie and Sarah (and all their kids), so that was fun. It was super cold but Guen was a champ and partied hard and played hard at the park. Unfortunately again that night, around midnight, she woke up again but this time I actually felt heat radiating from her and she had 102 temp. I gave her some drugs and she got up about 2 more times. I called in for Monday at work because after Saturday night getting up with her 4 times and then Sunday night getting up with her 2 times and a temp, I did not want to go in. On Monday I called the pediatrician and told them that Guen had been running a temp from last night of 102-100 but did not know if she was teething or what. The nurse at the office said to just watch her since she did not have any other symptoms. I should have gone with my gut instinct which would have been to bring her in. Because even though I was medicating her with Tylenol and Motrin every 4-6 hours, her temp never went below 100.5. In the past with her teething, she is usually 99-100.2 at the most. So that night, poor thing, she was up all night with temps now as high as 103. Luckily I was off today and took her to the doctor first thing this morning. The doc says that she thinks it is just viral but her urine did come back with a little something so she went ahead and gave her an antibiotic til the urine culture proves negative. This is the first time Guen has EVER been sick and it has been a learning experience. My parents have her right now so I can take a nap before having to go to work tomorrow. But I am so dedicated to this blog, look what I am doing!!! I better go catch some zzzz's. Hope you had a great weekend. Even though I had an eventful weekend, I took no pics, although I took my camera to each event. So just boring words for this report.

Thanksgiving Weekend Report

This Thanksgiving I was off!!! And I was thankful!!! My first day off, Thursday, I got up early to make some chex mix and green bean casserole to take to my parents for turkey day. After Guen's morning nap we went over there and had a delicious meal. Ryan and I were not thinking because Guen ate the messiest meal of her life. Worse than her birthday cake smash-in-ur-face messy. We needed an entire new outfit after our thanksgiving meal. We even needed new socks if that tells you how messy she got. Instead, my sister Tootie had voluteered at a parade that morning and got a free t=shirt, so the family photos we took after thanksgiving you will see Guen in her LARGE t-shirt. After thanksgiving we went home, Guen took a nap and then we were off to Ryan's side of the family Thanksgiving. We caught the tale end of it but that was ok because we were still stuffed from lunch. We hung out the Ryan's family for a couple of hours before getting home around 730pm. Friday, my sister came over to take our family photo for our xmas cards. She shared her stories of Tootie and her continuing with the tradition of hitting the outlet malls at midnight (except now in Houston instead of San Marcos) and seeing the movie Burlesque. Unfortunately when taking the photos, Guen was not in the best mood and my idea of taking outdoor photos was shot due to it raining. But below is one that will not make the card, but was funny! After that my dad came over and we got everything down from the attic to put up the xmas tree. I had planned on doing the BEFORE the photoshoot but it did not happen. So our xmas photos are not very xmas-ee. Oh well. We went and had lunch at Victor's Deli and then came home to decorate the xmas tree while Guen napped. For some reason that afternoon she slept for 2.5 hours so we got everything done! After her nap we went over to a family friends house, the Estes. We got to see Allison and Brendan home from Minneapolis. It was good to see them and Mr and Mrs Estes. Guen was on her best behavior after that long nap. We were proud parents. Saturday we got up and had some family time and around lunch time we went down to see the Homers in there new house they just bought!!! It is gorgeous and huge!!! It even has a library. I love the library. It makes me want to smoke a cigar, drink brandy next to the fireplace with my ascot attire. Yes it even has a fireplace in the library-fancy. We walked to Cafe Benedict and had bunch with the Homer family. Of course baby Kate is an angel while our wild child Guen was loud. It was such a pretty day. That evening Ryan went to the grocery and we watched a weird movie that I could not even watch anymore, I was so bored, called I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With. I had to work on Sunday so that was my Thanksgiving weekend. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, let me know about your more interesting life.

Before the mess:

After the mess, the t-shirt:

I am falling onto Ryan with a mad baby on his lap:

Cute Allison and Brendan:

Family Day

This Saturday we went to Hockley, Texas! Don't know where that is? I did not either until I received an email from The Mother's Huntwick Group about a place in Hockley, TX where there is this: www.hals.org It is a free place to take your kiddos with a free train ride. It is by a park, so we took our lunch and then rode the train afterwards. It was a little overcast and windy today so we ate quickly and stood in line to ride the train. Luckily it was pretty fast moving, and we only stood in line for about 15-20 minutes. Anyone knows that can be a long time with a 1 year old. The train ride is about 10 minutes long. It winds through the woods and over little bridges. It is really cute. So, if ever you are on the northwest side of Houston, going toward Austin, stop by, it is half a mile off Hwy 290 and well worth the trip. Especially since it was free. Guen had a great time and had fun playing for a little while running around the area with all the other kids. Gotta go to work tomorrow, so I need to go. I hope you have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Eating at the park:

Guen's little pink engineer hat:

The train:

Daddy reading to Guen her bedtime story tonight:

My little ballerina

I had every attempt to make a homemade costume this year. Yeah right, that did not happen. Instead, when I was at Academy picking up some workout wear for me, I saw a 8 dollar ballerina outfit, already had some pink tights and BAM, that was Guen's Halloween costume. Saturday consisted of two parties for Guen. The first was Wyatt's, Barbie's son, 3rd birthday party at the park. You could not have asked for nicer weather. Can you tell that Guen liked the birthday cake. Saturday evening, consisted of Ryan, Guen and I going to the neighborhood Halloween party. We did not stay long because the witching hour, no pun intended, came for Guen around 7pm (her bedtime) and we had to go. On Sunday, I had to work, but Ryan took her around our cul-de-sac trick or treating and said she hated it. We think it was a little to close to her bedtime and that is why she was not a happy ballerina. Here are some pics to enjoy of the weekends festivities...

My little Pumpkin...

Guen's first trip to the pumpkin patch:

Guen's first trip to Chick fil A eating ice cream:

Guen's 1st Birthday!

I have six days off and have I been busy. Thursday, my first day off, I took Guen to Mother’s Day Out and started running my errands, That involved getting Ryan's car washed, going to Walmart, going to Target, and going to HEB. Then I went home to make Ryan and I some lunch before running to go get Guen. That afternoon we went to Kohl’s to get Guen her new outfit for her birthday pics.

Side note: I was doing all of this stuff for Ryan not just because I am a wonderful wife, but Ryan finally had back surgery and is currently on the mend. Recovery has been a bit rough for him, but changes in his meds have improved things. It looks promising.

This weather has been gorgeous, so on Friday Guen and I went for a walk. Then after Guen's nap we ate some lunch and got her ready for her photo session at JC Penny. We went to another place in the mall, then to Hobby Lobby and CVS. Guen was tired and took another nap, while I ran to the grocery store again for some things I forgot for the party.

Saturday we woke up and finished decorating (Katherine and Chad added some great balloons.) and had the Mears’ birthday party for Guen over at our house. We had some appetizers and put together her hand-me-down slide in the backyard. She had some piña colada cake that my mom made. She gobbled it up! But Guen was a princess and did not smash it in her face. Instead, she wanted someone to feed it to her.

Guen was a little more hands-on with the gift opening though and she got a bunch of great stuff, including a lunch bag and a stuffed dog. For those counting at home Guen officially tries to carry all of these things at one time around the house:

Doll
Teddy Bear
Stuffed Dog
Lunch Bag
Plastic Chair
Dora the Explorer Birthday Card
At Least One Pacifier

Sunday was the Fennell side of the family’s turn to celebrate with Guen. It was a full house with family and friends of family. Guen made out like a bandit. There were wagons and toys galore. And since we were having cupcakes she decided to get her hands and everything else messy.