Lots has happened...

Lots has happened since my last post...

Dotty turned 2 years old! She is such a big girl! We had a family party for her and she loved the pizza but wanted to play rather than open all her gifts...and trust me she got a lot!

Dotty now loves pizza, chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, rice, corn...and that is about it! She is a picky eater just like her momma! Although I really think the problem is that she is just too busy playing to eat. I wish I had that problem. She is finally up to 26 pounds though (there for a while she kept losing weight).

Dotty has also gotten out of the crib for good and is in a big girl bed! We put her crib up and got my old full size bed out of storage. Dotty LOVES it. It has Dora sheets on it and she is in heaven. Although she wants a slumber party every night!

These days are a lot of fun. Dotty talks up a storm, can really "play" and she is just full of energy, love, and life. If we could just get potty trained life would be perfect!

Memorial Day Weekend...

Wow! What a way to start off the summer! We had "May Day" with the McGhee side of Tony's family on both Saturday night and Sunday. It was nice to get to see all the cousins from Tulsa but I think both Dotty and Tony were ready for a nap Sunday afternoon.

Then on Monday, Memorial Day, we loaded up two cars full of Nichols! The clan consisted of Howard, Ruth Ann, Lena, Ashley (Lena's Friend), Julie, Payton, Jarrod, Patti, Tony, Dotty, and me. We left Byers at 7:30 am and headed to the Fort Worth Zoo. We wanted to take Dotty to see some real elephants, zebras, lions, giraffes, etc. She loves to watch Madagascar now so we thought she would enjoy the zoo.

We arrived just as the gates opened and stayed almost 2 hours which was plenty of time for Dotty and really everyone. I have never seen so many animals so fast in all my life. It was like we were on the Amazing Race or something! I am sure some people thought we were in some type of competition the way we flew through there but we had a busy day planned.

Of course since then if you ask Dotty what she saw at the zoo she will tell you "cows". I am not sure if she is just not that bright or if she really thinks we went over 2 hours in a car to show her a cow! We could have saved $12 bucks for admission each and $5 on water and just gone to the nearest pasture in Byers!

After the zoo, the entire bunch headed to watch the Rangers play the Yankees (of course with a score of 11 to 1 I am not sure the Rangers actually knew they were playing a game). It was so hot that Dotty and I spent most of the time under the stands in the shade eating a Lemon Chill but with a score like that I don't think we missed much.

Even with the busy day and the hot weather we all had a great time. Dotty was a doll most of the trip and I only had to change her clothes 3 times...mainly due to sweat. Now if I could just have changed clothes too it would have been great!

Hope you all are having a great start to summer! Take care...Jill

Dotty Update...

Hey All,

Just wanted to post some news about Dotty. She is doing great. Getting bigger and talking more everyday. We are all having to watch what we say now because she is such the little parrot. No more secrets with this girl around!!!

She is even getting better about putting sentences together (although she does not always use the right tense for words...but so far the English Teacher in Tony has been held in check). Last Sunday at Church Dotty dropped her cookie over the back of the pew and she said, "Oh no. Where did the cookie go?" It was so surprising and so cute she had me, Ruth Ann, and Lena all talking about it...which I am sure our preacher did not care for. (He is young, not married, and no kids so Dotty's cuteness is sometimes lost on him.)

Dotty loves to be outside and she understands when it is raining and she can't go outside but she still does not understand mosquitoes yet...thus she has about a million bites on her because she refuses to come in when they start getting bad.

Hope everyone is doing well. More later...Jill

Dotty Pics...

Hey Y'all...

Sorry it has taken me so long. Here are some new Dotty pics. Hope you like them!

Playoff T-shirt...

The basketball team had playoff t-shirts made and Shannon Fleming was nice enough to make one for Dotty! Check it out...front and back!

Too cute!

Area Champs...

The Lady Hornets won Area on Friday, Feb. 20th by beating Blum 41 to 43. This advanced the girls to the Regional Quarterfinals where they faced Aquilla down at Millsap. With a slow start the girls kept the game close and even pulled ahead to get a 10 point lead at the beginning of the 4th quarter however the wheels began to fall off. The final score was Aquilla 45 - Byers 43.

It was a tough loss for both the girls and Tony. He was up until almost 3am that night rehashing the game to see where he could have done something different. He is still bummed about it right now but give him a few weeks and things will get better.

Dotty is just glad that her DVD player will no longer be taken over to watch game films and she can watch Barney to her little heart's content. She was a real trooper through this ball season. It is hard at her age to sit still and watch a game but with lots of help from Nana, PaPaw, Payton, Julie, Jarrod, Patti, and many others she survived the season (and so did my sanity).

Thanks to all those who came out to support the Lady Hornets and Tony. We truly appreciate all the efforts everyone made. We enjoyed the season and we are looking forward to next year.

Playoffs Time...

Hello everyone and welcome to the crazy world of high school girls basketball. Tony's team won last night to finish up district 9-3. This win pushed us in a 3-way tie for first place with Midway and Saint Joe. Lucky us. Tony had to go today to meet with the other coaches to decide how to figure out the tie...flip or play the games off. We will start the actual playoffs next week.

In addition to the drama that always seems to follow girls basketball, Tony's point guard and leading scorer got hurt in last Friday's game and is out for the rest of the season. Let me just tell you it was not fun at my house this past weekend.

Keep us and the girls in your thoughts and prayers. You don't have to pray that we win just that the girls stay safe and healthy and that Tony does not lose his mind (or any more hair) before all this is done.

Potty Time...

Dotty has pottied on a potty chair twice! She has followed me to the bathroom ever since she became mobile and we always have a "Potty 101" class while we are in there. (Moms really lose all sense of privacy once there kiddo is born...I am not sure how I will be if we ever have a little boy...I guess we will just have to wait and see on that one.) Thus now she has begun to ask to go to the potty.

Friday night my mom sat her on a potty chair and she went...a little. Then Saturday Dotty was with Ruth Ann and she asked to go potty so RA put her on a potty chair and (after a second attempt) she went...a lot! I was there to see the evidence and to congratulate the little sweetie.

I am going today to buy my own potty chair for the house...how exciting! My little girl is getting so big. I just can't believe it. Of course we are not currently pushing the potty program on her to hard but it is nice that she is at least interested. Now if she will just give up the bottle maybe we will be on a roll. Who knows...next we may even sleep all the way through the night!!!

Wish us luck!

Basketball Homecoming...

Byers is one of the few schools that has a "homecoming" for both football and basketball...mainly because they just got football this year. Dotty wore her football mum (with a few changes added by me and Kathy McGhee) to the basketball game Friday night. She also wore her cheerleader outfit...which is just getting plum tight on the little cutie. Hope yall enjoy the pictures.

Troll Doll Dotty...

Dotty was playing the other night at Howard and Ruth Ann's house and found a UT "crazy hair" hat that she wore around. I believe Ruth Ann said it originally belonged to Lacey and then Payton got it too but it was so cute on Dotty I had to take her picture and post it.

She reminded me of those Troll Dolls from the late 80s early 90s. I hope you know what I am talking about. I am so dating myself at this point. I remember those crazy dolls...I had tons of them to play with. It is amazing what becomes popular with children. Kids have zero taste in style through most of their childhood. At least I sure did.

Long time no news...

I know, I know...two months and no news from me. You have to remember that I was in the middle of pecan season and we had basketball going on too so I was lucky to know my own name much less blog.

Here is what has happened in the last few months....

Tony has been coaching b-ball games...he has already started district and we have won some and lost some. I will let you know how all that pans out.

I survived pecan season at the Pecan Shed. We started selling homemade fudge that we make at the store and for a while it was crazy (or should I say nuts) trying to figure out what we were doing but we got the hang of it just in time for Christmas. The fudge is really good and sold well. I love the peanut butter and chocolate layered...that is why I am going back to Weight Watcher's meetings starting tonight!!!

Dotty is getting bigger every day and learning so much. She can say almost anything you ask her to. She is learning colors and putting words together now thanks to the days she spends with Kathy Westmoreland...she is so wonderful with Dotty and I am so lucky to have her keep Dotty 2 days a week.

Christmas was almost too much for Dot. She got overwhelmed with all the parties and gifts. Several meltdowns took place but we all survived.

Still only 2 teeth on the bottom in the front. I swear she is going to start high school with only 2 teeth! They are getting so big she looks like...well hard to say...still cute but man those teeth are big!

She did not like Santa this year (or "Ho, ho, ho" as she called him). She liked him from a distance and on her Dora dvd but the one time we tried to get her picture made with him she cried big tears!!! Better luck next year.

Okay, okay...that is all the typing I am going to do now. I will try to post some pics. More later...I hope!