THE NICHOLS FAMILY


Sunday, January 30, 2011

Little Shay and Little Denise

Little Shay.  Mary Selwyn has been called little Shay since the day she was born.  I will admit she might look a tad more like her daddy than like me but as I have mentioned before her personality is just like her mommy's.  Mary Selwyn is a social butterfly.  She loves to go, go, go.  She gets upset if we aren't on the go.  She loves to have her friends over to play and loves even more to go their house.  All she talks about all day long are all her different friends (she is slightly boy crazy, I'm afraid).  She has so many already it is hard to keep track. 

Mary Selwyn is already a people pleaser.  She hates for people to be upset with her and if we even raise our voice she immediately says, "Don't be mad at me."  This is not a trait of mine that I am proud I've passed on to her.  It isn't necessarily a bad thing to want others to be happy but lets face it, you can never make everyone happy.  If she truly is like me in this way then she has a long life ahead of her worrying about, stressing over and killing herself to make everyone else happy.  Oh how I pray this wont really be the case for her....not loooking good so far.  She is also extremely sensitive.  I should apologize to her for passing on all these traits....oops.

Mary Selwyn loves to play with barbies and little people.  She has a great imagination and can be very particular about the way she plays.  She loves to line them up or sit them all around tables and gets very upset when Adeline (her not as delicate little sister) gets things out of order.

Mary Selwyn is also a little fashionista these days.  She wants to get dressed immediately when she wakes up in the morning and she NEVER wants to wear "warm clothes."  This is a challenge since it happens to be WINTER right now.  She can put together some interesting outfits and she always has to have shoes on to complete her "outfit."  She also refuses to wear pants.  Only dresses and skirts!  I believe I have created a monster in her when it comes to dressing. (:

Our Melbo is sweet, smart, funny, silly and dramatic.  She still tells us she loves with almost every other breath.  She is a tad bit of a whiner but we love her anyway.  Since we have identical personalities there are many days we "bump heads."  She is growing so fast I can't stand it.  When I try to tell her to stop growing up she responds, "Mommy I have to grow up but don't worry I'll still be your little girl."  She is so right!!

Little Denise  Oh Adeline....my little mini-me in looks but such a little Shay is personality.  Adeline is such a hoot.  She is goofy and silly and always keeps you laughing.  She is messy and not nearly as dainty as her sister.  She is the opposite of Mary Selwyn in so many ways.  She has what I like to call an "irritator" type personality (not that irritator is a real word).  She picks on all of us but can't stand to be picked on....uh-um can you say SHAY!!  She loves to bust up in the middle of MSN playing so nicely and knock over her barbie house like King Kong.  She can infuriate her Sissy so easily already.  We are definitely in for it.  Mary Selwyn always wants mommy and daddy happy and Adeline, not so much.  She will probably be more of a challenge to raise, hope we are ready.

Adeline loves babies.  I mean LOVES babies.  They are the only thing she plays with gently.  She carries them around, feeds them, rocks them and soothes them.  She is always whispering when they are in her arms and says, "baby crying."  Her favorite baby these days is actually my baby doll, Elizabeth.  She is 25 years old and looks like it but both the girls love her and say she is "very special."  Adeline calls her "baby bis-a-beth."  It is the sweetest thing.  She holds Bis-a-beth's hands and makes her walk.  She is always so proud to show us her baby walking.  She is already a very good mommy!!

Liney has a serious temper and a very loud scream/cry.  It is like there is a mega phone attached to her mouth sometimes.  She gets frustrated easy and just does not understand when she doesn't get her way.  Sometimes you can't help but laugh but again, we know we are in for it.

She is still very much a "mommy girl."  Most days she is perfectly content being attached to me, sitting in my lap, ALL DAY LONG.  It makes it difficult to get things done some days but the snuggles are just so sweet.  There are literally days that she feels like an extra extremity on my body.  She is also very jealous and doesn't hesitate to yell "MY MOMMY!"  Sharing is hard for her when it comes to me.

Adeline is a dance machine.  She loves music and dances at the first note she hears.  She concentrates very hard on her dancing.  She asks for "songs" in the car so she can jam in her car seat.  We borrowed Just Dance on the Wii from my aunt and Adeline would beg to dance all day.  She sings a lot too and her real crowd pleaser is You Are My Sunshine, of course.

At almost 2 she can say any and every word imaginable.  She is a smarty pants too and is learning a lot from her sister.  She has a great imagination at such an early age because she is always playing with Mary Selwyn and her friends.  Adeline always has to be the baby when they play but luckily she has that role mastered.

Adeline is extremely loving and affectionate.  Her sister has taught her well.  Just like Mary Selwyn, Adeline tells us she loves us all the time too.  She says "Wove you the most...mommy/daddy/sissy."  I definitely hold on to every ounce of baby left in her because I know that she is my last.  Luckily she doesn't mind one bit.  I can't believe she will be 2 in April.  How does time go by so quickly???

Both of my girls are very polite.  MSN has her yes ma'am and sirs down and they are both great at saying thank you.  Mary Selwyn is a wonderful big sister and I love that Adeline wants to be just like her already.  What I love the most about having two girls is that not only do I have built-in best friends but so do they.  I know they will have times when they will be enemies but I believe their friendship will always outweigh that.  They are both as sweet as they can be and we are so thankful for both of them.  It is such a blessing to have two great, healthy and beautiful children.  Shay and I are very proud and pray that we can be the kind of parents they deserve.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

WAR EAGLE!!!!

To say that we are excited in this house today would be an extreme understatement, however, I think we may still be in shock!!  We had so much fun watching the game last night.  We let the girls stay up later than usual and all four of us were jumping and screaming and acting crazy.  It was so funny to see Adeline running around screaming, "Go, Go Auburn," like she actually knew what was going on.  We are so proud (and tired).   Of course we rolled our front yard at midnight last night, which seemed like a great idea at the time.  I doubt the home owner's association would agree!  It wasn't much and was done as tastefully as possible. (:  War Eagle!  IT'S GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER!

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

I'm behind....

....on my Christmas post so let me try to catch up.  I'll start with the happy news from Christmas.  My baby brother, Taylor, proposed to his sweet girlfriend Jess.  They have been dating about a year and a half I think.  We really love her and she seems to fit into our family perfectly.  She is so sweet and thoughtful and loves my girls so much.  She is very good to all of us and we are happy to have her as the latest addition of the Bohannan family. 

Unfortunately I have sad news from our holiday break as well.  I've mentioned the Matthews before in one of my Christmas posts last year.  They are Shay's distant cousins that we have been blessed to discover while living in Dothan.  The girls and I try and visit them as often as we can and we have really enjoyed getting to know them.  Sadly Mr. Matthews passed away last Thursday.  He had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and at 87 it took him quickly.  He was such a precious man who took wonderful care of his wife.  His love for her was definitely demonstrated in the way he waited on her.  She was always his primary concern.  When he received the diagnosis his only worry was who would take care of Mrs. Matthews in his absence.  The hospice nurse said that the last thing he said to her was, "Please tell Jeanette how much I love her."  That makes my heart swell.  I pray that I will have that same kind of marriage after 63 years as well.  My children adored "Mr. Mackews" as Mary Selwyn called him.  He would always fill them full of cookies and drag out blocks for them to play with.  I am very sad to see him go because we only had 3 years with him and I don't feel like that was long enough.  I am very thankful we have had the opportunity to get to know them and that our move back to Dothan gave us a little more time with him.  We will miss him dearly.

Okay, now on to pictures, pictures and more pictures.  These are pictures from Christmas Eve, which we spend with my family, Christmas Day we spend with Shay's family and then New Year's Day, we spent that with my family again.  Mary Selwyn was so sick on Christmas Eve she was hardly able to enjoy any of it.  So you will notice she looks pitiful in those pictures.  Thankfully she felt better on Christmas day.  Santa came to our house on Christmas Eve morning because he knows we are always out of town on Christmas morning. This is very helpful for mom and dad with all the traveling.

Trying to trick Santa by pretending to be asleep

So excited!  When I put Adeline to bed she looked up at me and said, "Ecited Mommy!"  She knew Ho Ho was coming.

Putting out cookies for Santa....Adeline might have snuck a little bite.


Getting ready to see what Santa left in the back yard

It was a playhouse from Nana and Poppy and Grandmother and Granddaddy.  They LOVE it.

My cousin brought his family in from Arkansas for Christmas this year.  This is his little girl Chloe with MSN and AWN

With Goon and Grampaka on Christmas Eve...can you tell Melbo isn't feeling well?


Christmas Day


Greatmama

Many of the cousins getting ready to open gifts.  My girls LOVE to be around all their Shackelford cousins.

Our only family picture...and its not even that great.

New Year's Day with Great Grandmother and Granddaddy


Great Granddaddy and his 3 Great Granddaughters.  Their mouths are blue from popsicles.



I have many many more pictures but since I'm a slacker there are too many to try and pack in to this post.  I will spare you the pictures of a few of us girls playing Just Dance on the Wii on Christmas Eve.  It is the most fun game ever, especially the Michael Jackson addition.  We played for 3 hours.  It was a great way to work off all the food we had just inhaled.  We had Christmas with Shay's sister and her family over New Year's weekend but all those pictures are on Papa's camera.  Overall Christmas this year was long and exhausting but good.  It was nice to spend time with our families and the few friends I got to see.  I'm not normally one to rush time, especially since I have had children but I will say I have never been happier to see a new year come.  I couldn't wait to kiss 2010 good-bye!  Hope everyone had wonderful holidays and is having a very happy new year thus far!!