T G I F S!!!!

Thank Goodness it's Football Season!!!!

Okay so college football season doesn't officially start until Thursday night but the Nichols family can hardly wait!! We have been super excited for the last month just thinking about it. I've been planning out all my orange and blue outfits for the whole season....because yes I'm that big of a dork, but also because I have to look cute and school spirited. Today we tried on Mary Selwyn's cheerleader outfit just for fun. It has a turtle neck that goes with it but it is a little hot for that. She has a puppet and a football that play half the fight song and she loves to hit them and wave one hand in the air. So today I just gave her a shaker to let her practice. I think she is ready for football season too. We can't wait to take her to some games this year so she can enjoy the band and Aubie. We took her to the Alabama game last year but she was only like 4 1/2 months old and still a little young. This year should really be fun!

We have already ordered the game on paper view this weekend and invited a bunch of friends over. I wish we could be there but this year we are having to choose our games carefully so unfortunately the first game I will be able to attend will be LSU! I have to wait three whole games!! I would go every weekend if I could. I can't wait to get on campus and tailgate. Fall is the best time of year! I love it! In the meantime we will have to settle for some fun tailgates at the house.

I hope everyone is as excited as Shay, MSN and I are. If you can't tell we are REALLY looking forward to it!! WAR EAGLE!

Told you she was ready!

An Army Graduation

Well, He did it. Yesterday my brother Taylor had his official basic training graduation. He passed everything with flying colors and for the most part he actually enjoyed it. When I asked him if he was glad basic training was over and he said, "yeah but it was fun while it lasted." I think he is really a whole new person too. Apparently, he has become a real stickler for the rules. Who would of thought? My brother, Taylor, a rule follower? Something I would have never guessed he would be. He starts his Advanced Individual Training in a week and will stay in Kentucky until January. From there he is hoping to go to South Korea.

I'm so proud of him. I never doubted he could do it. I did doubt whether or not he would be glad he did it but he obviously never did. I cannot believe my baby brother is now a soldier. I know he is going to be a wonderful soldier. He is extremely proud of himself and very serious about his new job. He is really happy and that makes us all very happy! Congratulations Taylor, I love you, miss you and am super proud of you. Hopefully we will be able to head to Kentucky for a visit soon.

Taylor's graduation was actually supposed to be two weeks ago but because they started basic late it moved the graduation back two weeks. I was really looking forward to being able to attend graduation but because it was pushed back my sister had already started Jr. High. She couldn't possibly miss four days of 7th grade so early in the year. So someone had to stay behind with her and get her to school and I was the only choice. My parents headed to Kentucky on Tuesday for a week and Mary Selwyn and set up camp in Prattville. I'm disappointed it didn't work out so that we could all go but I'm glad my parents were able to go and enjoy the whole thing just the two of them. I know they are having a much better time getting to spend quality time with Taylor without having to worry about the rest of us.

So in the meantime we have been having a pretty good week with Daphna. We are missing Shay terribly but keeping busy. I've managed to squeeze in some time with two of my best friends Amber and Megan and a play date with the Underwoods. Last night Mary Selwyn spent the night with her MeMe and PaPa and Daphna and I went to the movies. We saw Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. I absolutely loved the first one and was super excited to see the second one. I was not disappointed. I am a huge sucker for a feel good friendship movie and that is exactly what it was. I'm not sure Daphna loved it, I think she was a little bored but I thought it was great. I would love to see it again. If you are thinking you might want to see it, I highly recommend it. Today we have a full day of shopping planned. Some good sisterly bonding time. Although we have had a fun week we can't wait to get back home to daddy and our normal routine!

Potpourri

Here are a few things I have been wanting to blog about but haven't got around to yet. Mostly random, unrelated happenings in the lives of the Nichols family these days that I wanted to share.

Our week in Prattville: Straight from the beach Mary Selwyn and I headed to Prattville to stay for a week to visit with my Nana and Poppy. They were in from San Antonio and they haven't seen MSN since she was a week old. I felt like it was important for them to get to spend almost the whole time they were here with her. So we sadly kissed Shay goodbye for the week and camped on an air mattress at my mom's house.

We had a really good visit with them. We went to Peach Park in Clanton and I had the best cookies and cream ice cream ever. I know, cookies and cream at Peach Park...I wasn't in the mood for peach ice cream but don't worry we took a huge peach cobbler home and I ate my share of peaches then I promise. We also took Mary Selwyn to the zoo for the first time. Our good friends Chad, Stefanie and Gavin joined us which made the trip even more fun. Unfortunately, it was hot and most of the big animals were too hot to be really entertaining. I think Mary Selwyn's favorite part was the stinky bird house where all the ducks were waddling around her. The kid loves a duck! Chad did however make friends with a feisty little monkey that played with us through the glass. I think they might have been soul mates. We had a ton of fun that definitely wore us out.

It was extremely sad saying goodbye to Nana and Poppy. They live so far and it will likely be another whole year before we get to see them again. It is just not fair but I don't think they will be making the move to Alabama anytime soon....no matter how hard we beg!

We did manage to sneak in a dinner visit with Ryan and K.K. too. It wasn't long enough but any time is better than nothing these days!

No more Ba-Ba: FINALLY, after a month and a half of crying, screaming and sadness Mary Selwyn gave up the bottle. It was quite possibly the hardest thing we have had to endure thus far. I know that sounds ridiculous but it turns out the only thing Mary Selwyn was truly attached to was her ba-bas. It hurt my heart to try and take them away from her for two reasons. First, the child loves them and she did not understand why one day they were okay and the next they were off limits. We tried to take it away cold turkey but after a weekend of absolute misery we broke down and gave them back. Bad parents I know. I always said that I wanted my child off the bottle at one year....I've also learned that what you say you want and will do before you have children goes flying out the window once those children arrive. This child did everything else so early and with such ease and I just could not understand why she wouldn't drink the same formula out of the cup instead of the bottle.

Before we left for the beach our new friends Kristen and sweet Owen introduced us to the Born free sippee cup. It has a very soft spout and is supposed to help with an easy transition. So I bought one and after offering it to her for a couple days MSN finally decided that this cup was worthy enough to replace the bottle. Born Free means they are organic cups with no harmful plastics so as you can probably guess they are not cheap. Of course the one sippee cup she choses would have to be the most expensive cups they make after we have spent a fortune buying every other cup on the baby aisle to try. At this point, whatever works...I don't care about the cost. For three full weeks now we have been off the bottle, praise the Lord! She also made the switch to whole milk with no problems. You do not know how relieved I am. Now she still calls them ba-bas but that is just a little technicality...not something I'm worried about!

Now back to the second reason that it totally broke my heart to have get rid of the bottle is silly and selfish. I felt like taking away that ba-ba meant I had to actually accept that Mary Selwyn is no longer a little baby! Ugggg, I still cannot stand that thought. I mean she's been walking for 5+ months now, she can say all kinds of words and make all kinds of sounds, she feeds her self and has become so much more independent. Don't get me wrong, I love all of those things, I really do but I felt like that bottle was the one last thing that made her a baby. Now it is gone! Apparently I was way more attached to the bottle than I realized. I'm lucky to have been blessed with such a loving and snuggly baby. Even without the bottle she will crawl up in my lap and nuzzle down and sit for long periods of time during the day. At least that makes me feel like there is still a little baby in there somewhere.

You wouldn't guess it by how pitiful I just sounded but getting rid of the bottle is such a relief. I'm so thankful that we were finally successful. These cups have been fabulous!

Chores?? Last but not least on my list of topics is Mary Selwyn's household chore. A one year old with a chore?? I know what you are thinking but this is not cruel and unusual punishment. She absolutely loves to help me with all kinds of household chores. For example she loves to put stuff in and out of the dishwasher. I don't necessarily love this help she offers but I cannot open the dishwasher without her little hands putting stuff in and out. She always gives me this look when I get frustrated like "I'm just doing what you are doing." She also loves to help with laundry. When I'm folding clothes she loves to try and tear them out of my hands....this she finds funny!

So Mary Selwyn has the weird love for Shay's socks. Sometimes I will find her walking around with one thrown over her shoulder. She loves them even more when I ball them together and will carry them around for hours. So one day I decided to put these busy little hands to work. I will roll up all daddy's socks and hand them to Mary Selwyn and say "can you put away daddy's socks?" Her face immediately lights up with a smile and she takes off running down the hall to daddy's sock drawer. His socks are located in a bottom drawer in our bathroom. The perfect place for Mary Selwyn to open the drawer, place the socks in one pair at a time very carefully with much thought and then close the drawer and clap when she is done. Then she runs back to living room to see if she can find some more socks and I have to say, "we have to wait for the next the load." I guess she understands because she doesn't think about them again until I pull another load out of the dryer. The fact that she loves this cracks me up. So this is Mary Selwyn's first (and only for the moment) household chore. It's not a chore if you love it right? I have to keep telling myself that so I won't feel guilty about making her put up the socks. I figured I better take advantage of her willingness to help while I can, even if she is only 13 months old, because I know the time where she no longer wants to help mommy will be here before I know it! (I know she doesn't look as excited as I described but that is because I had giver her a few to many pair of socks to carry that time and she had already dropped a few and was getting very frustrated!)

Family Beach Trip

The popular thing to do these days when you are at the beach is dress your family in white and head to the sand to take black and white pictures. So this year we took a trip to the beach with Shay's family and we decided to follow the crowd and take some pictures of our own. If you know Shay, you know that one of the things he hates the most is to be dressed like someone else. The second thing he hates is what he would call "cheesey" pictures. As you might have guessed these pictures of us all dressed in white were his two worst nightmares come true. He did however cooperate very nicely like the sweet husband he is and we got great pictures of our family and great pictures with his sister and her family. I think the pictures turned out really good and I even ended up liking the ones in color better than most of the black and whites. So here is an album from our trip!

Mary Selwyn and her cousin Kate. This is my favorite picture from the whole weekend. Don't they look like little angels??

These next few pictures of Mary Selwyn melt my heart. There are a ton more like this, I chose only four and that was hard for me to do because they are the sweetest pictures to me.The rest of these pictures are just fun pictures from our trip. We had the best time. The weather was beautiful and not at all too hot. Mary Selwyn was quite the little fish. She loved playing in the water.

She also enjoyed playing with her sunglasses.

So hollywood!

Shay and niece Kate.

Melly and Kate jumping on the bed.

My New Hobby and the Family Band

At the first of the year I decided I needed a new hobby. I had always wanted to learn to smock so I figured there was no better time than when I had a child of my own that I could smock for. I picked it up pretty quick and I don't think I'm terrible at it. I love, love, love smocked clothing. Mary Selwyn rarely leaves the house in an outfit that isn't smocked. I love that it is cute and sometimes fancy. If I could afford it, everything she owned would be smocked, but that just isn't possible with prices these days. Maybe by the time I have my next child I will be really good and super fast.....doubt it, but we will hold out hope.


Shay's cousin Eve is who taught me how to smock. She is so good, everything she does is beautiful and could sell in the stores for $80. We have the best deal going right now. She makes the dress or outfit and then I smock it and then she will finish it or put it all together for me. I pay her to do this but it is so much cheaper than buying them in the store. These first two pictures are of the dress that I did for Mary Selwyn that I am the most proud of. I love the fabric and the smocking and the colors. It is by far my favorite thing that I've done so far.


These are some pictures of some other things I've smocked. I did an Auburn and an Alabama Jon Jon as gifts. The Auburn one was so much fun for me to do, the Alabama one I had a little harder time smocking....maybe I'm a little partial...okay a lot!!! However, I'm pretty proud of both of them. It was a lot more stressful to smock something that is going to someone else. I wanted them to be perfect. Perfect they are not but I worked hard on them. The Alabama one we gave to our friend Gavin for his first birthday and the Auburn one is a baby gift for sweet Mac Ellis. I can't wait to see the pictures of those precious boys wearing them.


The last picture is of a purple dress I smocked for Sydney Soriano. The dress did not photograph as well as I would have liked, I guess because it is a light color fabric and white thread. I'm working on dresses just like this for Mary Selwyn and my niece Kate to add to their collection of matching clothes. They are really sweet. I wish you could tell better in this picture.

So I have sewing machine that does all kinds of great stuff. My mom bought it a couple of years ago for Mother's day and never used it. I was lucky to have it passed down to me brand new. My goal is to be able to sew and start putting all my smocked outfits together myself. I realize it will probably be a while before I'm good at it but I'm determined to do it. I mean if I could end up half as good as Eve then I could sell my stuff for way less than you can buy at these children's clothing stores. I'm also going to learn to monogram on my matching this next week. I'm so excited! I love monograms just as much as I do smocking. I can't wait to be able to do it myself. I also already have plans to learn to smock pictures and letters. The smocking doesn't take me long so it is the sewing and putting together I have got to catch up on. I'm no dummy. I know this probably won't be easy for me. I will probably give up a hundred times but I have always wanted to learn to sew. I may never get to the point where people will pay for my stuff but a girl can dream right?

The Family Band: For her birthday, my brother Bradley gave Mary Selwyn a harmonica and set of bongos. The gifts that every mother dreams of. Noise, noise and more noise. Mary Selwyn loves to beat on these bongos, what kid wouldn't? It took her a while to pick up on the harmonica but now that she has got the sucking in and blowing out down she is a harmonica playing fool. We had to buy a second harmonica when we misplaced ours for a couple of weeks but now that we have found it Daddy and Mary Selwyn play some nice duets every night.

We went home last weekend for a birthday party and a biscuits game and while we were staying with my mom Uncle Brad pulled out all of his musical instruments. He has a very large collection. From guitars to drums, harmonicas and other things that I don't know the names for. He even has a didgeridoo. I don't know how many people know what that is but is this long wooden thing that I think Australian tribes use to make music (I think). Brad is determined to make Mary Selwyn a musician. He brought out his harmonicas and tambourine and had Mary Selwyn play them while he accompanied her on his banjo. These are the short videos from their jam session. This is my first attempt at taking and posting these videos so forgive me for them not being more professional. I just wanted to share the early videos of our new family band so we can all say we knew them before they were famous!

Pictures from our 4th

Here are some pictures from our long independence day weekend. We spent the weekend with Shay's parents building our fence. Well, lets be honest, my contributions were very minimal. What can I say I'm not much of an outside, manual labor kind of girl, sorry. I do happen to have super sweet in-laws who are always willing to help us out, especially with outside jobs. They are the best. Mary Selwyn and I took some time out on Saturday to go to the Yates house so Mary Selwyn and Cohen could take a quick dip in the frog pool. It was not our typical river spent fourth of July but it was a fourth of July none the less. Hope you all had a happy one too!

After playing in the sprinkler we let MSN run around outside in her diaper....we can do that now we have a fence!

Busy Worker Bees.

Cohen was not real excited about pool time but Mary Selwyn had a surprisingly good time anyway. She climbed in and out of the pool over and over. That's right the Nichols family is officially fenced in!

One Year Ago Today

At this exact time last year I was being prepped for my C-Section. It had been the longest 26 hours. Shay was exhausted and pale from not eating and pacing all over the hospital for that whole day. We were both a huge bundle of nerves. It was the strangest feeling to say "good-bye" to all my friends and family as they were wheeling me down the hall. Even stranger to think that the next time I was wheeled down there I would have a baby. As we turned the corner of my room I burst into tears. I think the exhaustion and nerves just hit me all at once. My doctor was sitting at the desk and when he saw me coming and crying he made the nurse stop. I will never forget him looking at me and telling me to just relax it would all be fine (he was very good with me and knew exactly how to handle me through out the whole pregnancy). Before I went into that room I said a quick prayer just asking God to calm my nerves, and He did. As soon as we went through the doors I was completely relaxed. They were prepping me and I remember saying to the nurse, "Don't forget to get my husband before they cut her out." The nurse laughed and said "we won't, don't worry." A few minutes later, just like the nurse said they brought Shay in. From there everything went so fast. All of the sudden the doctor lifted my baby over the sheet for a very brief second and said "Happy Birthday." Shay immediately said, "She looks just like me." I was thinking there is no way he can tell that fast what she looked like, especially because she was covered in green stuff. He was right however, she looked just like him. They cleaned her up and weighed her and brought her to me to see. I obviously couldn't touch her because I was strapped down to the table. Then Shay and the baby were gone just like that. It felt like it was taking them forever to get me put back together. I couldn't stand knowing that everyone was outside with my baby, but me! I do not like to be left out of things, especially that! So I went to sleep and snored all the way through them sewing me up. After all, I had been awake for the better part of 26 hours.

I remember this all like it was yesterday. I'm sure it is something you never forget. And even with all the nerves and hard recovery it was still the neatest experience. It was so surreal. I would love to do it all over again, I'm just that crazy. I absolutely cannot believe that it has been a whole year since that day. I have been looking at Mary Selwyn all day and thinking there is no way she has been here for a year. It has all gone by way to fast. I try my hardest daily to enjoy every minute with her because they are gone before you know it.

This child is the light of our lives. She has this red hair and big blue eyes, with super long eye lashes. You cannot help but fall more and more in love with her every time you look at her....or better yet, every time she looks at you. She is so loving. She loves to snuggle and give kisses. I taught her to give kisses very early on. This was the first thing she learned. I insisted on having an affection child and I am proud to say all my efforts were successful. Most days she can't stand to not be in your lap or your arms. She is perfectly content just sitting, snuggling and reading books for hours and hours. That is for the most part our daily routine. The sweetest kisses are the ones right before she goes to sleep and first thing when she wakes up. These are the times that she feels the need to give them to you one after the other after the other. I can never get enough.

She loves baby dolls, purses, wallets, cell phones and books. Just like every girl should. She will carry a baby doll under her arm all day some days just patting it on the back. She is such a nurturing little "mommy" at such a young age. I hope that I'm a good example.

She also has a big bag of tricks these days. She can quack like a duck and roar like a tiger. She can say kitty and doggy. She can show you her nose, mouth, eyes and hair. She can also show you your nose, mouth, eyes and hair, and does so sometimes without much warning. She knows her fingers and her toes too. She can clap and dance and tell you how old she it. She is very smart. Mary Selwyn is also already an Auburn girl through and through. She has a tiger puppet that plays the fight song and she walks around making it sing with her other arm in the air flailing about in a dance/cheer motion. She makes her mommy and daddy very proud!

Seems like she can do 100 things and is learning new ones everyday but the thing she does the best is melt my heart. I just look at her and my heart swells and then overflows with so much love. Love I didn't know I was capable of feeling. I think to myself "does everyone love their child this much? Does everyone feel this way?" I'm sure the answer is yes even though to me it just doesn't seem possible that anyone could love someone else as much as I love her. I adore everything about her and I can NEVER get enough of my sweet Melly Sellen!

I cannot believe it has been a whole year. Shay and I are the luckiest parents to have such a precious little red-head. She is an enormous blessing and I hope that I am able to show her that everyday. Happy Birthday Mary Selwyn! We love you!

(Just some pictures from this last year. Same old story, more pictures to come!)