Christmas Happenings

December felt like a very busy month to me, too busy.  I'm not sure if it was the normal rush of Christmas with the addition of a newborn or if I was just crazy, but it felt busy.  I really tried to enjoy the month with my kiddos, but in the back of my head was the list of things I still needed to do and wasn't getting to!  Next year I'm planning a different approach to the month of December.  

We did enjoy making chocolate dipped pretzels for our neighbors and teachers.  The kids were great at helping out, following the rules, and felt so big helping make the treats.  This was a fun night making pretzels and watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids, a blast from the past that my children loved!

 Our gingerbread house night was fun as well!  There was a lot of licking and eating involved, the kids loved decorating their own gingerbread man/woman.  We got pretty silly, it was fun!

 We were worried we weren't going to have snow for Christmas, but it arrived just in time!  The last day of school before break it was snowing and for some reason the school lost power.  The kids came home early and we had fun building snowmen, snow forts, and then drinking hot chocolate.  What a perfect way to start Christmas break!
 

We also enjoyed going to the Fors' Santa party once again!  We had a nice dinner and then Santa came to visit!  The kids had fun taking a turn on Santa's lap and it was pretty exciting to have the jolly fellow show up at our friends' house!

This is such a magical age!  While the month felt busy, I kept saying to Mike that I wanted to freeze time and enjoy their excitement, innocence, and pure joy associated with Christmas!

MBA Christmas

 We love getting together wtih our MBA friends here in Michigan!  The Christmas season can be busy, but we were happy it worked out to have most of our friends over for dinner and a white elephant gift exchange. The kids were pretty cute and there were minimal meltdowns.

Clark

I've got to take a moment and post about our sweet Clark.  I can hardly believe how fast he's growing!  I love these pictures capturing some of his first smiles and giggles.  Clark is such a sweetheart!  Truly, he is a delightful little guy, very content, easy going, and sweet as can be.  I love finding moments to just sit on the couch and enjoy his chub and his smiles.

 Clark is adored by Amelia and he handles her sometimes smothering affection surprisingly well.  It's pretty cute to see these two together.  I hope they always enjoy each other this much!

Clark loves to be swaddled and is a snuggly little guy!  He is quick to give smiles to anyone who'll give him eye contact, melting hearts each time.  We love this little guy!

December Starts

Bear with me, attempting to catch up...

 I love how Amelia's boys are usually very willing to play babies with her.  Not sure what the game was this time around.  It involved Amelia being the mom wearing high heels and carrying her baby, Reid the dad, swinging the Angry Bird.

 Everybody loves a little Clark time!

 Tanner stayed home sick one Sunday and I have to admit that I loved it!  While medicated he felt fine, so we played a few games together.  He wore his sweater backward and was so cute having some one on one time with mom.  Then his medicine wore off and we snuggled up for a little nap.  Love this kid.

Thanksgiving

This year we debated hosting Thanksgiving, or letting someone else do the heavy lifting and we just bring a few things to dinner.  I love hosting for holidays, but I was so glad we chose to join our MBA friends for turkey day!  

The day before Thanksgiving was beautiful and Mike was home from work.  The boys headed out to Big Boss (the huge dirt pile on the construction site across the street from our house) for some good old fashioned fun.  I LOVE these pictures!  I love how a pile of dirt can bring such joy to children and provide hours of entertainment.  

The next day, we drove to Grand Rapids and joined the Conrans, Vachs, and Ormes for amazing food!  It was a great afternoon/evening, but was cut short because Amelia and Reid both spiked fevers while there.  We had planned to spend the night and do some after Thanksgiving shopping the next day.  I felt so badly for our sickies, and so sad we couldn't stay and play.

Our project for Thanksgiving weekend was to build shelves in our toy closet in the basement.  Mike and I realized we don't do these kinds of projects often enough to be good at them.  It took much longer than we thought, the chaos was much more than we thought, and the mess during the process was much bigger than we thought.  The kids, however, were very excited about our project and were happy to pitch in when needed (and also when not needed).  I thought they were pretty cute.

Poor Reid was still fevered and miserable.  He just lay on the couch and watched the happenings.

Reid asked when we were having our special dinner.  When I told him that we had already done it at the Conran's he gave me these puppy dog eyes and said how much he liked having our own special dinner for Thanksgiving.  He completely pulled me in and it did sound fun, so I indulged him and we put on another Thanksgiving feast.  The kids were cute and helped make dinner and Andrew knew exactly what tablecloth he wanted to use and which decorations we'd put on the table, etc.  They did a nice job working in the kitchen and preparing for our feast, I was impressed.

"Happy Thanksgiving back!"  I'm so grateful for our sweet little family and grateful that we get to experience life together.  Sometimes it's a little crazy over here, but it's my crazy and I love it!