Norma May Flickinger Poling: 1/3/15-11/29/10

After a long and full life, my beautiful Grandmother passed away this past week just shy of her 96th birthday. She had been relatively healthy up until September- she had a serious brain infection that caused her to have a seizure and never quite recovered.

When it was evident she needed around the clock care, my family moved her to Manor Care down here in Elgin and I am so grateful to have gotten to see her multiple times in her last few weeks.

She leaves behind her four children (my Dad was her youngest) and their spouses, 7 Grandchildren and their (our) spouses, and 15 Great-Grandchildren. She was the oldest of 5 children and her 3 sisters are still living, but her brother passed away a while back.

I am so glad she was able to celebrate Max's birth with us and that, even though he won't remember her, he still got to meet and be loved on by her. His first overnight away from home was at her house when he and I drove up there :)

Meeting Mr. Max

My Mom, Grandma and I at Max's Baby Shower

Gram at our Wedding

I love you Grandma Norma. I hope you are dancing in Heaven, fully restored and enjoying being in His presence!

Max's First Thanksgiving!

I LOVE hosting Thanksgiving at my house, and this year was all the more special with our little guy. I tried to buckle him into his high chair for the first time, but he still is a bit too small:

And that concludes the pictures I took of his first Thanksgiving. Seriously. Bad Mom.

You may notice the teething toy and "cloth" I soaked in cold water... yes, my poor little not-even-four-month-old is teething. While I am proud he's such a little over-achiever, this is one thing I hate seeing him go through... so much pain, he just cries out and looks at me like, "Mom! PLEASE make it stop!" It breaks my heart into a million tiny pieces. Hopefully this first one will come through quickly and we'll have a break before more start.

Christmas is in full swing at our house, and Max is dressing accordingly:

He also had his first meeting with the Big Guy... he wasn't in a smiley mood so I didn't buy the pictures, but I snapped this sweet one to remember the event :)

We are going to attempt to take both Max AND the dogs for their picture with Santa tomorrow night at Springhill Mall... Crazy? Yes... but totally worth it :) Pictures to come FOR SURE.

Because I Can...

Max is starting to really find his little laugh, and he is SO funny imitating me or Ben when we laugh at him:

Shutterfly for All

Don't pass up this great deal: Bloggers can get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly: http://bit.ly/sfly201


I just started using Shutterfly when Max was born and have been so impressed with their service- great prints, fast turn-around, I'm always getting great deals/sales via email, and their customer service is amazing!


Here are a few of my favorite items:


I made a bunch of photo books for family of Max, and also made books commemorating my pregnancy too! Photo Gifts


I haven't decided which one we'll use this year, but we for sure will use them for our Christmas Card: Christmas Photo Cards 


Here is a link to the card we used for Max's Birth Announcement: Max's Birth Announcement

You should take advantage of there great offer, if nothing else, just to try it out! New members also get 50 free prints too!

GROUPON!!!

I love a good deal as much as the next person, but Groupon is seriously the best deal site EVER.

They have an App (for iPhone, BB, and Droid I think), or you can go online. Each day they have a different "sale"... for example, today's sale is $25 for a $50 gift certificate to Nordstrom Rack. You can keep it on your phone or print out your Groupon via e-mail and redeem in store. We've gotten Groupons for Gap, Build-a-Bear, Yoga (!)... it's seriously amazing.

Check it out via the link below:
http://www.groupon.com/r/uu3733631

Happy Shopping!!!

Sink Baths!

Cutest new thing is taking a bath in my parent's kitchen sink...

Well, not me, Max.

The kid loves bath-time:

Little tongue loves the water

Laughing at Grampa :)

Max's CYT Debut!

While I reallyreallyreally hope that Max wants to do shows with me one day, I am TOTALLY ok with him doing WHATEVER he wants- sports, dance, theatre, music... whatever.

However... since he is too little to express his desires, I am happy to put him in whatever shows ask for him :)

This weekend he was Baby Thomas, son of Pocahontas and John Rolfe in CYT Aurora's The Legend of Pocahontas. It was SO stinkin' cute... everyone said so.

My little Papoose... the Hitler mustache was his fault, he rubbed his face paint on his nose.

With his Pocahontas Mama

With Deanna, Jessica and Kayla

Getting ready to go onstage!

Beautiful Nicosia Girls (Pocahontas and Lead Dancer)

Nicosia Family (+Rachel, who is most definitely a Nicosia:)

With the boy who played Young Thomas... love his face:)

He was such a little champ, he did so good and was so interested in everything going on! He just looked up at the stage lights and looked out at the audience. He got to take a bow with Kayla (Pocahontas)... his first lead bow! It really was so cute and I was just so proud!