Ending 2011 with a trip to Memphis

On December 26th, we headed out to celebrate Christmas at Bert's mom's house in Alabama and my mom's house in Memphis.  We were so thankful that Beth and John offered us, not only one room for Bert, Elizabeth and me, but also their nursery for Caroline to sleep in. 

Caroline was so sick by the time we got to Memphis.  She spent the first night crying until about 6:00 am.  We seriously thought about packing up and heading home.  But thankfully, Beth's pediatritian agreed to see Caroline.  She said her ears were horribly infected with lots of puss.  That means that she has had continuous double ear infections since Thanksgiving.  There most likely will be tubes in her near future. 

It took a couple of days before she started feeling better.  You can tell how awful she still felt in these pictures.  But she was a tropper.  And Elizabeth had the time of her life with her cousins. 

Mom set up the basement for the kids to all make gingerbread houses.  This is something that Melanie and I use to do with our cousins, Amy and Molly, every Christmas.  It was very nastalgic.

After we ate and opened presents, we caught the girls downstairs eating their houses!  Needless to say, Christmas at my mom's was amazing.  Elizabeth is still talking about it.

Beth and John were the most gracious hosts, letting us come and go while putting up with our restless nights with our sick baby.  On Friday night, we dressed Meyers and Elizabeth in one of their many matching outfits and had a little photo shoot. 

Most of the time we were there, the girls played side-by-side rather than together.  Actually, Elizabeth would just take over whatever toy Meyers was playing with, without any resistance from sweet Meyers.  Which brings me to Elizabeth's behavior last week.  To say that Elizabeth pushed our buttons and tested the limits while we were in Memphis, would be the understatement of the century.

Her strong will has always kept us on our toes, but this girl brought me to tears with frustration and doubt about our discipline techniques.  It's been better since we got home, but the Kelly home is about to go through some tough love boot camp!

On to a happier note.  By the last day, these girls were having so much fun together.  It made me long to be closer to them so our girls could play like that all the time.  I know for a fact, that Elizabeth will always look forward to visiting her friend Meyers.

I couldn't resist putting this picture in because right after I took it, Meyers came over and said, "Are we done now?"  I guess we were "working" them too hard:)

This was our first trip back to Memphis in over a year.  It's always nice to go home to see our friends and family.  Driving down the familiar streets, I was reminded of how much our lives have changed changed and our family has grown since we left almost four years ago.