I'm BAAACKKK. ;)
I can't believe it's been almost a month. I never intended to go that long, but you know what? It turns out that managing a national company, a household of three very active kids and a big trip to Disney World... well, it kind of keeps me busy! Life has just been running on high speed lately, and I need more hours in the day more than I ever have before. But I am absolutely determined to keep this blog going - mainly so that I am able to document memories of Kaitlyn as a little one just like I did with the boys. So even if no one else is still reading this... I'm not going anywhere. ;)
Today, I'm taking us all the way back to Christmas season and the months of November and December. Here we go...
|| I decorated extra early this year because quite frankly, it's a LOT of work, and I want to be able to enjoy it all for as long as possible. We started with the kids' bedroom trees during the first weekend of November and progressed from there. We weren't able to keep the pretty ornaments on Kaitlyn's tree because she was messing with them too much, but after we removed the ornaments, she behaved very nicely with her tree this year. Jaden has a tree in his room, too, but he's progressed past the point of letting me take a picture of it. ;) Lots of pictures and books by the trees this year...
|| We saw Santa a few times this year with only one meltdown! We headed out to the Christmas tree farm one morning for snacks and cider and had Santa all to ourselves. Kaitlyn was skeptical, but cried zero tears, and later enjoyed the outdoor fire pit, a walk through the tree lot... and Danny's dogs running around. :)
|| We spent one morning at the library, and Kaitlyn was a big fan! Though I thought she'd be pulling all the books off the shelves, she was much more interested in climbing everything instead. ;)
|| Our gingerbread house tradition continues. This year, Brandon insisted on decorating a gingerbread "mansion." And Jaden managed NOT to eat parts of his this year. ;)
|| My birthday gift to myself - a new e-reader and reconnecting with an old love. My goal is less TV time after the kids go to bed - and more time between the pages of books!
|| We managed to get our Christmas cards designed and ordered at the very last minute. Family pictures were an adventure this year - we had to reschedule three times due to weather, and when we finally had a night without rain and extreme wind, it was FREEZING cold. Kaitlyn wasn't the happiest little girl for pictures, but we still managed to get some good ones. This year? We're taking the pictures in August. ;)
|| With a newly refinished basement family room, I had so much fun decorating it for Christmas for the first time!
|| We finally took advantage of a Thursday night on Main Street in December and enjoyed hot chocolate, a trolly ride and all the happy, festive people that flood our cute downtown on Holiday Hoopla nights. This particular night was the week just before Christmas, and our streets looked like the scene from movie. I literally saw numerous kids skipping down the sidewalks with Moms and Dads grinning from ear to ear just watching their kids' spirits glow.
|| We decorated sugar cookies, and these are some of my favorite pictures of our December.
|| And we combined two of our favorite things on the Sunday just before the big day - UNI basketball and Santa all in the same place! Kaitlyn, however, decided Santa was not okay after all. ;) I know the grandmas don't love this picture, but Mommy and Daddy sure do. It's like a right of passage, isn't it?!
