(read below post first) Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a Baby Shower

Olivia waiting to open the Christmas gifts.
Showing us her new cowgirl boots and princess jammies.
Carley and Emily. Carley is wearing her new jammies, holding her new puppy and sitting in a shoe box! She fit just right and loved for her aunt Melanie to push her around in it!
Finally to the Baby Shower! Stacy, who is my younger sister by 17 months, is due with her first baby (a girl..Amy) on Feb. 21 (my birthday!) Since we were all together (minus my youngest sister Amanda and her husband), we decided now would be the time for a baby shower.
We had a good time and all the little nieces and nephews thought that Stacy was going to have the baby at the shower!

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a Baby Shower!

Welcome to the bi-annual the Ealey Family Thanksmas! This is the year when the Ealey Family gets together for Thanksgiving and also celebrates Christmas, since most of us will be spending it in other places. We spent the day at "Gammys" house, which was a little sad since she has recently passed, but it was also nice because we know that she would have loved to have us all there! Eric, Carley and cousin Emily playing and waiting for the yummy food!
Olivia, Emily, and Chloe "It it ready yet?!"
It is a tradition in our family to have homemade noodles ( with broth) on top of mashed potoatoes. We have had these as long as I can remember, and I still love them, they are really a highlight of the year for me! Olivia enjoyed helping her aunt Melanie while she made the noodles. Olivias' cousin Parker kept getting long noodles during dinner and would tell us it was an Olivia noodle, because she stretched them out while she was "helping".
Eric enjoyed the time and relaxed.

Too Elfin Funny!

Check it out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1161249212

I've been tagged!!!!

I have been tagged....so here are the 6 things about me!

1. I love to bake...anything really, cakes, cookies, breads. I don't know why I just love it. The only real problem is that I have no self-control, so what ever I bake I tend to eat!

2. I am afraid of doing things wrong or not following the rules. I will wait forever for someone to help me, instead of just finding someone to help...I don't want to go anywhere I am not supposed to and get in trouble. (crazy, I know!)

3. I am a control freak.....not a super organized one, just one that feels like to world is ending when I am not in control. For example, when my oldest daughter won't take her nap and I have been looking forward to her nap all day, I need to be in control of the situation at that moment and I am not,,,it really feels like the world is ending.

4. I am not afraid of driving on bad ( 4 wheel drive type) roads. In fact I am proud of how well I drive on them!

5. I love to be artistic and creative. I think of things all the time that I would like to do, but unfortunately I lack the motivation to do most of them.

6. I love to kiss my little girls right between their eyes, on the bridge of their noses! Try it, it really is the sweetest place to kiss a little kid!

So now I tag . . . Erin , Shauna, Shannon

Good luck!

Fun at the zoo!

You wouldn't believe the weather this November! Typically November is the 2nd snowiest month for Colorado, but this year we have had only a little skiff of snow and the rest of the days have mostly been in the 70's! We took advantage of the beautiful days and headed for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs with my sister in-law Erin and her kids Ellie and Benson. The highlight of the day was being able to feed the giraffes. Carley LOVED it and as you can see, she would stick her tongue out as far as she could! I was surprised that she was not one bit scared to feed them!
Olivia on the other hand was a little shy at first, but I think she did manage to get one cracker in their mouths!
The Cheyenne Mountain zoo is really a great place. It is smaller than most other zoos and is nestled in the mountain. It is a perfect place to take small kiddos! (picture: Carley and Olivia checking out the meerkats)
Look at those eyes! Watch out boys!
The Bringhurst Cousins!

Carley, Ellie, Benson, Olivia

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Carley
Olivia washing toys for her preschool
my Mom and I at the Air Force v Army football game.
our friend Zed cheering at the game.

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Carley really loved the Children's Museum! There were so many things that she could touch and do!
We had a really fun Halloween this year! Olivia decided that she wanted to be the same chicken she was last year and Carley was a little skunk. We celebrated Halloween by going to the Larkspur Elementary school (this is where the girls will go when they are older) carnival. They hold it each year and the Renaissance festival park...so it is really fun. They held a costume contest and Olivia won a prize for the funniest costume!

Has it really been almost 2 months?!

I love to make cakes and had the opportunity to make a Spider man cake for one of our good friends son, Seth. It was his 4th birthday and he was very excited! The birthday party was held at a local bowling alley and every one had a blast, especially when spider man himself (aka Steve Hillman, Seth's dad) showed up to the party! Tragically Steve was in a horrible ATV accident later that evening and passed away the following day. He was a great friend and we miss him very much. We consider ourselves very lucky to have known him and to have been his friend.
The Hillman Family ( Steve, Andrea, Seth and Amber)
Sadly, we also lost our Gammy on October 15. She had been sick in the hospital since the end of June. Although she is missed dearly, we know she is in a better place and out of pain now. October also greeted us with a trip to the hospital with Carley. I thought she just had another run of the mill virus and really wasn't too worried, but took her to the doctor anyway because it was Friday. I am so glad I went! Carley had pneumonia and could barley breath by the time we got to the hospital. We spent 3 days and 2 long nights! We were both very glad that when she got to come home, even though she was still on oxygen. You would think that a baby her age would hate that thing being up her nose and pull it out. Not Carley, she was very protective of her oxygen and did not want any one to touch it. She stayed on the oxygen for a week and is now back to her normal, busy self.
We made our first trip to the Children's Museum of Denver with Melanie and her boys. The kids had a blast...too bad we had to hurry back home for a doctors appointment :( Next time I promise to make a whole day of it.

More Camping Pictures

This is how Olivia and her cousin Chloe like to fish!
Olivia has had her fill of camping!
Carley and her papa!
Flying!

Camping we will go!

Getting ready to est some yummy camping food!
Olivia held a dead grouse!
Carley loves to camp!
Carley loves her aunt Mel!
Olivia and her 1st fish! Grandad helped her!

Our family went camping for labor day. We went up to the "shed" near my home town of Rye, Colorado, we had tons of fun and it was nice to relax a bit.

3 years old!

On August 28th Olivia turned 3! My girls are getting so big! For her birthday, Olivia requested a Strawberry Shortcake party with mule rides, so that is just what she got. I made her a cute little Strawberry shortcake cake and we invited family and friends over for the mule rides. She had a fun birthday!

Olivia is a BIG Girl!

Olivia is a big girl! She recently decided that she is big enough to use the potty all the time! (sighs of relief from her mom) For months I would try to play potty games, give rewards, do the potty dance, and give stickers to try and convice her to go potty on the toilet all with no luck. Then, one day the lady who lives above our garage, and who Olivia adores, took her potty and gave her some stickers (the exact ones I had been giving her) and she was potty trained!

Oliva also started her 1st day of preschool. She absolutly adores her teacher Mrs. Wendy! She came home the other day and told me that " A is for apple, A is for Ant, A is for Crocodille!" I think she meant alligator!

Oliva and Carley love to play together!

Oliva likes to feed her little sister hot chocolate while Mommy takes a shower! FUN FUN

"Hey Mommy! Look where I put Carley!"

Olivia really loves to "play" with her little sister Carley. I think that Carley loves is too....well most of the time.

Carley is ONE!

On July 30th Carley turned 1! I really can't believe that she is already one, the time has gone so quickly. We celebrated her birthday with a fun party attended by family and friends. I think that Carleys favorite part was the cake, she ate almost half of hers!

More summertime fun!

Olivia and her "Grandma Chicken" and cousin Ellie, at the Renniassance Festival.

Olivia and Ellie waiting to ride the elephant!
Auntie Erin, Olivia, and Ellie on the elephant!

Olivia and the purple fairy. She gave olivia a fairy bubble and it made her day!
Carley, not too sure about the purple fairy.