Christmas in Indiana

Our first Christmas celebration was the weekend before Christmas when we traveled to Indiana to visit Matt's parents and family.  We rented a van to travel in since as a full family of six, we don't fit in either of our cars.  The 8-ish hour drive went as smoothly as could be expected; each big kid was in charge of a little kid and they were huge helps!  The boys rode in the way back and the girls rode in the captain's chairs in the middle.  We really only had one meltdown from Thomas when he started getting hungry.  Since we took breaks when we stopped to feed him, we didn't arrive in Indiana til well past dinner time.  And when we did, we were quick to put jammies on the littles so we could hang out for just a few minutes before they went to bed.

Lala and Poppa had their tree up and lit and it was FULL of wrapped packages!  There was an unwrapped gift - an ELMO! - that was just waiting to be found.  It did not take Katie Wynn very long at all to spot him and she, of course, wanted to have him right away.  Luckily for her, her Lala said she could go ahead and have him.  Grandmothers were made for spoiling, after all.  (I resized these pictures too small.  Oopsie!)

Like the two babies, Anna also had one-piece pajamas to wear!  I can't imagine why Wyatt didn't want to get in on that, too.

Matt and I put the kids to bed before leaving for the night.  When we arrived back later the next morning, I was shown these pictures of my innocent little girl drinking out of a fancy little wine glass!

It reminded me of a very similar picture of her from last year when she just played with the glass.  This year, Lala let her actually drink her apple juice out of it.  Anything goes at Lala and Poppa's house!

I think Lala and Poppa may have each gotten some quality time with my babies that morning before the big kids woke up.  I'm afraid they might've been up and ready to go pretty bright and early!

After baths and getting everyone dressed, we hung around and waited for Matt's sister, Jill, and her family to arrive.  Wyatt and Anna were determined to get Thomas mobile!

While waiting for Katie Wynn's hair to dry, I pulled it back to see if it was long enough for a ponytail again.  Pretty close!  What do you think - let it grow back out or bob it off again?  I can't decide.

Jill was excited to get her hands on Thomas as soon as she arrived.  This was their first time getting to meet our newest addition.  They all seemed to love him and he loved them back!

The kids were all eager to open presents, so everyone gathered in the living room so we could get after them.  The boys played Santa and passed out the gifts and then it was a free for all on opening them up.  We made quick work of trashing Lala's living room!  (Special thanks to her for taking pictures; I stole most of these from her.)

I opened the coolest gift ever from Jill.  It may have to have a post of its own one day...

Katie Wynn was much more into opening gifts this year.  Every gift that she opened, though, had to be completely opened so that she could play with it immediately.  I had to constantly remind her that there were more gifts to open.  

Do you think I'll ever get a decent picture with both of my kids at the same time?  Before they're young adults? 

Before going to bed, Katie Wynn modeled her new house shoes for us.  They're kitty cat boiled wool boot slippers from Garnet Hill and are oh, so cute!  She had the little piggies last year but outgrew them.  Thomas got a pair of the fox ones!  They love wearing them around the house with their pjs.  

The next day we had plans that we were really excited about...getting to visit with Granddaddy!  Granddaddy is Matt's maternal grandfather and, at 92.5 years old, is a new reader to the blog.  (Hi, Granddaddy!!!)  I was excited to visit with him since I hadn't seen him since last Christmas, plus this was his first time to get to meet Thomas.  He also hadn't seen Katie Wynn since last year and she has changed a whole lot since then!

Pat and her sister, Cindy, had reserved a parlor room at his retirement community for the afternoon so that we would have plenty of space for all of us.  The rest of the family had plans to get together back at the retirement community on Christmas day, so we were super grateful that they also got together the weekend before so we could see as many family members as possible.  When we arrived, Katie Wynn was sound asleep in the car so I stayed back with her to let her get a few extra minutes of rest.  Matt took Thomas and the big kids on in and, from the looks of the pictures, Thomas and Granddaddy seemed to hit it right off! 

It took Katie Wynn a few minutes to warm up to everyone after she woke up.  The thing that got her going was her Elmo book of stickers.  She passed them out to everyone there, but the real winner was Granddaddy - he got probably 12 - 15 stickers himself! Even Elmo ones, and those are her favorite.  

We grouped together  the great grandchildren that were present (two were missing) for a picture with the Christmas tree and Granddaddy.  

After the pictures, Katie Wynn ran and got her Elmo coloring book and gave it to Granddaddy so they could color together.  She was enamored with him!  Aren't these pictures the sweetest thing ever? 

Miss Sassypants also did a little bit of posing on one of the couches before we had to leave.  

We beat Lala and Poppa back to their house that afternoon and, in a spur of the moment idea, asked the kids if they'd all sit together for a quick picture.  I knew I was pushing my luck as they grumbled into place so I promised I'd be really quick.  Ad that's when Matt and I witnessed a true Christmas miracle...four smiles from four kids all at the same time!

That was out last night in Indiana but Lala still had one more surprise for Katie Wynn...she knitted her some socks!  Katie Wynn was appropriately excited and immediately put them on.  They are so cute! 

When you have brand new socks, the best way to really test them out is to put your shoes on too.

And then a good little girl takes off her shoes and asks for a Bible to read.  Yes, a Bible.  I'm not kidding.  I wish I could take credit for her wanting to read the Bible becaues we read stories out of it every night, but the truth is that I don't even know how she knows what a Bible is...

So that was our Christmas celebration in Indiana.  It started with my daughter drinking out of a wine glass and ended with her reading the Bible.  :)  

We had a great time; I just hate that it was such a quick trip! It was the perfect kickoff for all our Christmas events.  Now we just have to figure out when we're gonna get to see Lala and Poppa again!

December Fun

Before we get into all of our actual Christmas festivities, I want to document some of the other fun things we did during the month so I don't forget.  As hard as I tried to shop and wrap gifts early so that we could sit back and just enjoy the season, it still got really busy and crazy!  We had so much to do that there was little time for rest...maybe that's what we'll do in 2015.  

My aunt and cousin came to visit one Friday night so we joined them for dinner at my parents' house.  I didn't really take any pictures of us there, but earlier that day Katie Wynn and I went to the bakery to pick up some cupcakes and I snapped these of her in the car.  She requests "her" (my) sunglasses every time she's in her car seat so she can "see better."

That night was a big one for Thomas as it was the first time he got to sit in the real high chair!  This chair is the same one my brothers and I all used and Thomas makes grandchild number seven to sit in it.  We had to tie him in so he wouldn't slide down but he loved sitting at the table like a big boy.

We had friends over for dinner one night and Katie Wynn absolutely loved having friends over to play with her.  We brought out the big box of balls for them to play in which is always a big hit with our visitors.

What's more fun that three kiddos in the tub?  Three kiddos in the tub with GLOWSTICKS!

At one point in the night they got really quiet, so I went back to check on them.  I found all three kids in our master bedroom pulling out toys together.  And, the evening wasn't over without one more climb into the box of balls.

The only encounter we had with Santa Claus this year was at church.  There was a pizza lunch for the kids following the service one Sunday and Santa made a surprise appearance.  As we waited in line to have our picture taken, I really talked it up to Katie Wynn about getting to sit in his lap and tell him what kind of presents she wanted him to bring.  I also told her she'd have to be really brave so that Thomas wouldn't be scared.  She was all about it.  Until our turn finally came, that is...  Thomas went first and just laughed and laughed at Mr. Claus.

I had to peel a screaming Katie Wynn off of me to get her to sit in his lap.  Even with Thomas still laughing and having a good time, she cried and begged to be picked up.  We took a family picture to show her that Santa wasn't someone to be scared of.  (When KW recounted this experience in the car on the way home, she told us that she loved Santa Claus and that Thomas cried but that she did not.  If you say so, sister.)

Some friends invited us to join them on a trip to the zoo to see their Christmas lights.  Since it was cold out, we dropped Thomas off with my parents and just took Katie Wynn.  We took our wagon for the girls to ride in and they loved it.  It was perfect for the zoo!  

The picture below on the right is of lights hanging over the area of the zoo where we were married.  Had I known they could put lights up on these wires, I totally would've requested some twinkle lights up there on our big day!  Shucks!

After a ton of fun seeing the Zoo Lights, we went out for pizza.  The girls had fun admiring this little Christmas tree that was next to our table.

Katie Wynn had a Christmas party at daycare so we put together some gifts for all of her teachers.  I wanted to do something stress-free (no baking! no crafting!) and I think what we came up with was both easy and super cute.  We took Sonic cups, filled them with red tissue paper, added a Sonic gift card and some Christmas candy, topped them with a lid and straw, and added a cute tag that read, "Have a BLAST this holiday season!"

For her classmates, I just added a quick tag to a bag of Teddy Grahams that said, "Have a BEARY Merry Christmas!"  Gotta love easy.  We also made a little happy for our neighbors' mailboxes.  They were a bag of Hershey's kisses and a chapstick with a notes that read, "Merry KISS-mas and CHAPPY New Year!"  We added dog bones too to the neighbors that we knew had dogs.

You know, now that I think about it, I didn't hear from anyone that received any of these gifts.  I hope that doesn't mean they didn't like them!

For a few days in a row, Katie Wynn got on a kick of stealing Thomas's socks off his little feet and putting them on her hands.  She told her Daddy that they were keeping her hands "nice and cold."  She keeps us laughing!

I posted this picture on Instagram but it's worth re-sharing.  Thomas is officially crawling now but at the time this was taken, he was just scooting backwards.  He was busy scooting himself around the room when he scooted himself right into a little bit of a pickle...stuck under the bed! 

On the 23rd of December, we joined the Earls and Cooks for dinner.  My sweet Thomas is always a good poser for pictures.  

Things usually start to get a little hairy though when I add his sister in for the pics.  Is there some understood sibling rule about never smiling at the same time?

Baby Henry joined them on the couch for some pictures too!

And, you know, the photoshoot was going just fine until Katie Wynn tackled her little brother.  

Everett wasn't feeling up for pictures since he'd just opened up some fun new toys.  It didn't take KW long to join him down on the floor.  Toys are way more fun than pictures, I guess.

Here are a couple more random shots of Katie Wynn playing her version of dress up.  In one picture she's dressed as Santa Claus and the other she's dressed as Thomas...turns out putting his pj pants on instead of her own is kinda hard!

On the second to last day of December, I was lucky enough to get to sleep in with both my babies.  (No really, I'm not being sarcastic...they both slept til almost 8!)  We had fun lazing around in bed taking pictures.  By the time these were taken, Daddy had already gotten up, given Thomas a quick bottle and gotten him back asleep, gone for a run, and taken a shower!  (Showoff.)  My mom and I always joke about how KW looks like she's wearing a wig when her hair isn't pulled back with a bow.  I can't help but be jealous of her hair.

And on the very last day of December, my little munchkin pulled up to a standing position in his bed!!  This mama was not ready for this at all!  Especially when, while sitting on the floor taking pictures, I realized he was leaning over to see me and was about to fall out.  Woo - that would've been a major mom fail! Doesn't he just look so proud of himself in these pictures? He was able to pull up on his bumper because I sat him up in his crib.  Thankfully he can't get into a sitting up position from laying down yet, so we have a few more days before we really have to lower his crib for night time.  

Ok, I know I just made it through the whole month of December, but next I'll be back with four separate posts for each of our Christmas celebrations!

Lala and Poppa Came to Town!

The day after Thanksgiving, Matt's parents - otherwise known as Lala and Poppa - arrived at our house for a 12 day visit.  We were so glad to see them!  Not only were they coming to celebrate the December birthdays with us, but they were also doing us a HUGE favor by keeping our rugrats while we were in Palm Springs.  I was glad that Katie Wynn and Thomas would be in good hands while we were away, and I was also glad that we'd get to visit with them for a few days before we left!

Their first couple of nights here, we had the big kids at our house too.  The babies got to wear their Christmas pajamas for the first time and we started a new Christmas tradition - opening up a Christmas book each night during December to read before bed.

Each Christmas book was opened with much excitement by Katie Wynn was given to anyone (and everyone) in the room so they could read it to her.

We had a weekend of fantastically warm weather and were able to spend some time hanging out on our patio.

After we left on vacation, Lala and Poppa continued on with the weekday routines and opening one book each night.  I can't wait to re-wrap the books so the kids can open them again next year.  

Lala and Poppa left our house a day or two after we returned from Palm Springs, but we got to see them again less than two weeks later when we traveled to their house!  Pics coming soon...

December Birthday Party

I apologize; I am SO behind on blog posts!  I am going to try my best to get caught up in the next couple of days.  Wish me luck.  :)  I took over 500 pictures just in the 24 hours from Christmas Eve dinner to Christmas Day dinner alone, so it may take me a while to sort through everything!  We had an awesome Christmas and I can't wait to show you the pics, but I have a few other posts to get through before we talk about the visit from the man in the red suit.

So now, on December 31st, let's rewind all the way back to November 30th when, like last year, we had a big ol' family birthday party for all the December birthdays.  My sister-in-law Beth, Wyatt, and Beth all have birthdays during the first week of the month, and Anna's falls on Christmas day.  This year, we also added my father-in-law, Bill, to the celebration since he was in town visiting and has a birthday the last week of November.  

Since 8 of the party guests were already living at our house, we hosted the party.  It was an unseasonably warm day which worked out great because the kids stayed outside the majority of the time.  Nothing like taking the chaos outside.  :)  We kept dinner simple with a crockpot full of chili, plenty of hotdogs, and the makings for frito chili pies.  Patricia, Matt's mom, made delicious oreo cupcakes for dessert.  We had to drag the kids in from playing outside so they could eat and we could open gifts.  

After dinner we worked on some hidden talents.  I taught Bren how to do Monkey lips and Wyatt can touch his nose with his tongue!

These last two pictures are just so we have it on record that Uncle Nick [sorta] got a hug from Katie Wynn.  He was able to win her over by giving her a bandaid for her [nonexistent] boo-boo.

It was a good celebration and a great way to kick off the month of December!

Palm Springs, California

The first week of December, Matt and I were lucky enough to head out to Palm Springs, CA for a few kid-free days.  We planned this trip before Thomas was even born and have been looking forward to it for a while!  Matt had work commitments on two mornings so his travel was all paid for and I just tagged along for the ride.  :)

Palm Springs was nice, and we very much enjoyed our time away, but it's probably not a place we'd pick to vacation to again.  The area was inland - so dead smack in the middle of the desert instead of on the coastline like LA or San Diego.  There were no beach views but plenty of older people enjoying their retirement.  There was lots of new development too so plenty of shopping areas for this gal!

We technically stayed in Rancho Mirage right outside of Palm Springs in the Westin Villas.  It was all decorated for Christmas which was pretty but what I was most amazed by were the colorful flowers that were still in bloom.  You know I like some happy flowers!  I actually took lots of pictures of these so that I can hopefully have a flower bed of my own to match them this summer.   

These were our neighbors.  Lots of ducks!  They wandered around everywhere.  Even on our front porch, apparently.  We didn't see them there ourselves but let's just say we had to watch our step when coming and going.

We arrived late on a Wednesday evening and had a chill night after a day of traveling.  We only had two things on our agenda for the whole trip: see two movies and I wanted to get my nails done.  Two things we don't get to do often at home with two small kids underfoot!  

We knocked the first movie off the list Thursday afternoon and saw Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1.  I think I liked it more than Matt did, and I definitely liked it more than the first two movies.  I think since I was further away from when I read the books, I didn't remember any of the details and so didn't know what they left out.  l made the mistake of re-reading the first book the week before seeing the movie and learned my lesson!

Every Thursday night in downtown Palm Springs they have a street fair of sorts.  It was a much bigger deal than we were expecting - I bet it was a mile long!  We walked up and down it and perused lots of homemade wares before sitting down outside at a Mexican restaurant for dinner.  

Let me tell you about the absolute best part of our trip: cheesecake for breakfast in bed.  Yes, you read that correctly.  It was the most gloriously gluttonous thing that we did, and we did it not one morning, not two, but THREE mornings in a row.  Just trying to get a head start on the holiday weight gain I guess.  :)

What happened was that Wednesday evening we ate at The Cheesecake Factory for dinner and were so stuffed that we took our cheesecake dessert home with us.  We forgot to eat it that night before going to bed but we remembered it when we woke up on Thursday and knocked out half of it!  Friday morning we polished off the other half of it and then were so distraught that we wouldn't have any for our last morning there that we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory again and brought home another piece.  You only live once, y'all.  

Friday morning while Matt was speaking to a credit union board about something boring, I'm sure, I headed to the spa for a relaxing mani/pedi combo.  That afternoon we saw movie #2 on our list - Gone Girl.  I had read the book and knew what to expect, but Matt had no idea.  He loved it!  I usually don't love movies if I've already read the book but I agree, it was a pretty darn good movie.  The only things I can think of that were left out are completely insignificant to the story line.

With everything on our agenda already done, we decided to get up Saturday morning and drive up the mountains to a small town called Idyllwild.  When we got in the car and out on the road, it looked like we were just going to drive straight into the bottom of the mountain.  I couldn't see any roads.  But the road is there and it is curvy, I tell ya.  I usually don't get car sick at all but I definitely had to keep my eyes on the road during all the twists and turns.  

What do you do at a lookout point when you've got nothing but deserts and mountains behind you?  These days you take a selfie.  

After 22 miles of curvy roads, we finally made it to the mountain town.  We hopped out and were excited about the potential that the street full of stores had to offer.  I was excited to buy some unique Christmas gifts

After going through every shop, this sign was about the coolest thing we found.  Sadly, all the stores were more like junk/thrift stores (in a bad way) or just had tourist stuff.  We both bought shirts to remember our trip by but that was about it.  Matt commented that the mountain people of Idyllwild kinda looked liked they wanted to eat us.  They must not get a lot of preppy southern visitors.   

We took a different route down the back of the mountain (still curvy, still twisty, still car-sicky) and passed by a huge wind farm.  I thought this was so interesting!  And kinda weird.  Just rows and rows of different sized wind mills, some turning but some not, to create energy.  Definitely not the kind of farming we do where I grew up.  :)

It was nice to get away with hubs and get some good sleep and unwind, but we kinda missed our favorite little people!  We are so incredibly grateful to Matt's parents for keeping them safe and entertained for us, and most of all for sending us pictures every day.

How cute are they reading books together??

Jumping on Poppa - I can just hear the squeals of laughter in this picture!

Donuts for breaksfast!  I'm sure she was in heaven.  Is it just me, or does she kinda look like she's wearing a wig?

Playing on the floor with Lala.  We got a video of a dance party from this night too!

Opening one of her nightly Christmas books to read before bed.  

Thomas got to go on a road trip with Poppa to the grocery store. 

Matt and I both agreed that seeing him sitting on top of Lulu the Ladybug made him look WAY too big!

Dressed and ready for church.  Aren't you impressed with Lala and Poppa for going to church with two little munchkins?!

After being spoiled by Lala and Poppa, we were probably way more excited to see these two than they were to see us.  Katie Wynn did immediately eat the tangerines we hand picked for her though.  

Some quick pictures before dinner on Daddy's birthday!

So I think this post can easily be summed up like this:

• Palm Springs is ok.
• Cheesecake for breakfast is amazing.
• Time away from kids is good but we still missed them!