December 2011

December brought a ton of fun!  I had my company's holiday party and we made a date night out of it.  I had never spent the night away from the kids, but we planned it so they could stay the night at Nana and Papa's house and Daddy and I stayed the night at the hotel.  It was great!  And just down the street from their house in case anything came up, which was great for this mommy's peace of mind.  We had a wonderful time and so did the kids.

We celebrated Daddy's birthday by going out to dinner in Southlake then walking around afterwards.  Dinner was yummy and I got the sweetest picture of the Birthday Boy and his baby girl.  It was verrrry cold that night so we bundled up and enjoyed taking in the sights.  We attempted visiting Santa, but the kids were having none of it (fine by us!).  We visited with the horses pulling the carriages and enjoyed looking at the fountains.  At one point, we walked by a couple just getting engaged!!  I butted in on the special moment, offering to take a picture for them to remember by.  I think (I hope!) they were happy about it and not annoyed. 

We helped out with distributing toys to children in a lower income area.  We are always looking for ways to teach the kids about serving others as Jesus did, and to be thankful for all the blessings we have.  Prior to the event, I was able to snap this picture which I used on our Christmas card.

I managed to squeeze Jasper into the Max pj's that Mimi got for Harper before she was born.  He loved them!

We each made our own little Christmas trees as a family craft on Christmas Eve.  Everyone enjoyed them!  In December Harper developed a rash that was a bit concerning for her doctors.  We had blood work done but thankfully everything came back normal.  It's still a bit of a mystery, though there are several theories about what caused it.  We probably won't ever know, and she might just always be our little mystery girl.

Christmas Day was a blast.  The kids opened their stockings then Nana and Papa got to our house shortly after that.  We opened presents, ate lots of food and played and played.  Here is a picture of the disaster the living room soon became, as well as the tower Daddy helped the kids make with Harper's new blocks.  They got so much stuff, we ended up converting the office into a playroom later that day.  The day after that, we went to Ikea for goodies to put finishing touches on the room.  It's been fun to have a room designated for all their toys!