Redneck Boat

So... Andy bought this boat off Craigslist. Who knows why. The girls and I have named it The Pickle. It is a motorized fishing boat and a tad rednecky if you ask me.

 However the girls did like riding in it around the pond and maybe one day we will take it out on the Neuse River.

But here is the really rednecky part.... can you tell what is going on in this picture?

Yes, he is pulling the boat behind the lawnmover... oh my, oh my! He had to go around the pond, through the other neighborhood, out onto the main road and then down through our neighborhood. Yes, he has become THAT guy. Does that make us THAT family? Oh no!



Daddy/Daughter Dance

The gym/pool we belong to hosted a Daddy/Daughter Dance on Valentine's Day weekend. Andy took Emily there and they had a wonderful date.

Emily was so excited to dress up like a "princess" for the "ball." Andy came home from work while she was getting ready and she yelled down to him to NOT come upstairs because she was still getting ready. She wanted to make a entrance, I guess.  She loved the flowers he gave her.

I couldn't help but think about her getting ready for the prom. She is growing up so fast!

They went out to eat with two other couples and then headed to the dance. They danced the night away and Emily whispered to me when they got home that Daddy gave her a kiss at the dance. Awww!

Of course, Sarah wanted a kissing picture too.

Sarah and I enjoyed a night at home with pizza and a movie. I thought she would be upset about not going to the dance, but she was very happy to have mommy all to herself!

THE PINKY!

I am sure many of you know all about Andy's horrible injury... to his pinkie finger ( I am not sure if you spell it pinkie or pinky). Anyways, he hurt it playing church basketball while trying to deflect a pass. It was dislocated and he had to pop it back into place while there on the court. OUCH!

On the way home, he and his friend stopped by the friends' dentist office to do some Xrays. They determined it was not broken, so we thought it would be fine. Well, it wasn't! After a week or two of wearing homemade splints, he went to the orthopedics. They tried numerous casts and physical therapy and finally an MRI showed that the tendons were torn on both sides of the finger. By the way, he said the MRI was the most uncomfortable thing. He had to go in the tube in a "Superman" position and stay that way for an hour.

They finally decided surgery was the next step. Here are some pictures before the surgery...

The day of the surgery seemed to last forever! The doctor got held up with a patient before him so we were waiting for hours in the pre-op area. They finally let us turn the TV on because they felt bad for us. Ironically we watched an episode of Raymond where the family gets news that the nurses were having a hard time waking Raymond up after a minor surgery, so for 30 seconds the family thinks he might die. It was a tad unsettling since Andy was about to go under in about 30 minutes! 

Thankfully he did wake up from surgery and was quite loopy. He was saying all kinds of crazy stuff and was very giggly. He kept asking the same questions, so I felt like our conversations were all on rewind. I was laughing so hard, I was crying. He asked if I was his FIRST WIFE. What's that supposed to mean??? And he was trying to figure out who was his favorite child. Oh my!

I was so very grateful to my friends Rebekah and Angie who watched the girls the ENTIRE day since it ended up taking so long. 

Recovering from the surgery was not pretty. He was really sick the next day. We thought he was having an allergic reaction to the pain killers, so I got them to prescribe him something else. He was still sick. After a day of laying flat on his back and throwing up every time he moved, he just switched to ibuprofen and things were much better.

Here is Andy with the monster cast after the surgery.

During the surgery they put metal wires on both sides of the bone and put a screw in the bone.

After 10 days, he got the stitches removed, but still had the wires in. The wire was sticking out of his finger and would be pulled out in a month.

OH SO GROSS!

 Don't worry, the pinkie is usually wrapped up, so everyone doesn't gross out.

The finger is still not 100%. He will be starting physical therapy soon, so hopefully that will strengthen the finger.

In case you can't tell, this has been quite the ordeal!

Crawling

Abby crawled her way into the new year. She has been army crawling and rolling around for a while, but now she is up on her knees. She also does this funny thing where she is on her toes and sticks her bottom way up in the air. Too cute!

Yes, I did kind of go picture crazy trying to capture the moment. But I couldn't help it, she is so dang cute and loves to have her picture taken!

Layni and New Year's Eve

The day after Christmas we went to my Dad's and helped him moved. We picked up Layni and brought her home to stay with us for the week.

They spent the week enjoying Christmas presents.

Andy got some pretty cool cornhole boards from his brother.

They also spent more time driving around the jeep.We did have one traumatic accident in the jeep.... and now Emily will long ride in it. I wasn't outside, but I heard Emily drove off the driveway and flipped into the ditch with Emily and Sarah underneath it. No bumps or bruises, but hopefully she will get back in the jeep sometimes.

A few Jenga games. Don't ya like how Layni is hiding under the table fearing for her life??!

 For some reason, Emily was dying to get some doughnuts on New Year's Eve, so that night we enjoyed a movie and doughnuts. We may have started a new tradition for New Year's Eve.

Then we did a countdown to 9:00 and threw confetti. Layni was the only one that really understood the countdown and throwing the confetti. So of course, we had to do it over and over again once the girls understood.

We topped it off with a little bubbly!

2011 was a pretty good year,

but I am excited about 2012 and spending it with my hubbie and girls!