Happy New Year! It has been over a month since I've written anything. How can I possibly summarize our last month in one (semi-concise) blog post? Here goes:
- The kids enjoyed the month of December and the anticipation of Christmas. In addition to using an Advent calendar to countdown to Christmas, I put a small piece of paper in the calendar with a different activity for each day (make cookies, shop for a child in need, watch a Christmas movie, see a light display, etc). Taylor and Matthew could not wait to do the Advent calendar each morning and learn of the day's activity. I think this is a tradition we'll continue for years to come. They also enjoyed looking for Elvis each morning (our Elf on the Shelf), reading the stories about Christmas, and tearing off links on their countdown chain before bed.
- Taylor and Matty both sang in their preschool Christmas program. The program itself was pretty bare-bones, but watching them on stage was priceless (as any parent would say). Tommy and I especially loved watching Matty go up on stage and immediately run over to wave at his sister.
- We hosted our annual Christmas Eve-Eve party (this year it was an Eve-Eve-Eve-Eve-Eve party due to our trip to Indianapolis) for Tommy's high school friends, their parents, and their children. We had 37 in attendance this year. Now that all of the weddings and baby showers are over, this is one of the only opportunities we have to get this group together every year. It is fun to catch up with everyone and watch our children interact with each other.
- We fly to Indianapolis on 12/22. Due to a flight delay in Chicago, we did not get to bed until 3:30 AM Eastern time (yes, that includes all three kids). The exhaustion set the stage for our visit. The kids had an absolute blast staying at Mimi and Baba's house, seeing their cousins, and meeting new friends, but we were operating on very little rest the whole trip. Highlights include Christmas Eve at my parents' house with my whole family, Taylor and Baba's outing the Children's Museum, another Christmas party with my extended family (including my 90 and 93-year old grandparents!), a road trip to Louisville for New Year's Eve, a slumber party at my best friend's house, bowling with my brother Scott and his family, and last but not least, the snowstorm!
- When Tommy heard about the approaching winter storm, he booked an early flight home. He had a huge meeting at work and could not afford to miss it. Since Brayden is still young enough to fly on a parent's lap, Tommy took B with him so that I did not have to fly home with all three children by myself. My flight on 1/6 was canceled and Taylor, Matty, and I were stranded in Indy until 1/10.
- We returned to Seattle last Friday after 19 days in Indianapolis! I've spent the last five days recovering - doing laundry, going through mail, taking down Christmas decorations, trying to find places to put/store all of the kids' Christmas gifts, going to the grocery store, and putting my house back together (I should mention that we had our hardwood floors re-done while we were gone, so all furniture in those rooms was moved - including all of our china/crystal/wine!)
- It has been good to get back into some semblance of a routine. The kids and I all slept in until 7:30 today, which is a real treat!
On to some pictures to document our December/Christmas/Trip to Indy:
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| Taylor's letter to Santa |
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| Sibling harmony - in B's crib |
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| Dinner with my best friend Sara and her family. Taylor and Tatum became fast friends. |
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| I hope this is the first of many pictures of these six. |
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Bowling with Uncle Scott, Aunt Mandy, Alexa and Casey
Matty stood like this every time he bowled. We were able to program the game so that guard rails came up every time Taylor and Matty bowled, so they never had gutter balls. It would take 30 seconds for his ball to slowly roll down the lane, but Matty would turn around with the biggest grin once his ball made contact with a pin. His excitement was contagious. |
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| One more cousin picture. |
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| A sweet moment between Casey and Brayden. |
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| Snowmaggedon 2014 |
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| Matty did not believe me when I told him that snow cones are made from snow... |
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| It was a winter wonderland. |
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| Snow ball fight with Baba! |
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| Last, but not least, a happy reunion with Brayden when we finally returned to Seattle. |
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