Christmas in Kansas 2011: Part III

We spent the day after Christmas celebrating again with my family. It was a wild morning to wake up to the excited and impatient sounds of 4 little ones. What a fun time to watch them all enjoy opening their gifts though! It brings such joy to my face to see the enthusiasm and excitement over little things.

Animal cookies!

Nora kept putting things back in after she took them out

Time of worship before we opened presents

One of my favorite moments of this morning was seeing my two sweet boys playing music together. Seth was leading us in a few worship/Christmas songs and Aidan was playing along on the drum.

Another great memory was the reindeer nose that would light up. Nora (as seen below) would take off running with her nose in the air. I love the action shot I was able to take of her. :)

Hat I made for Sarah

Pots and pan for our new kitchen!

Cousins playing together

Sweet boy taking a break with his Daddy

16 months

Happy 16 months little one!

We love you dearly. You are a delight and such a fun personality to be around. We are enjoying your new words and sweet chatter. We aren't minding the extra sleep you've been giving us either (12.5 hours some nights...and NO WAKING) Yes, I had to put that in caps. You see, baby girl, you are now 16 months and finally sleeping through the night. Your brother accomplished this at 8 weeks. It's been quite a journey with you.

We love watching you grow up. You are fun and have a lot of spunk. The tantrums have started and we are seeing that feisty side of you that we haven't met yet, but it is still a lot of fun.

Thanks for making our lives so much fun!

Momma

Aidan Town

Papi (Seth's dad) had an ongoing project with Aidan...making Aidan Town. They had a blast putting together model helicopters and boats and playing in their own little town. Aidan loved it and had such a blast working in "Papi's Shop" painting and gluing things.

Christmas in Kansas 2011: Part II

 After spending a few days with my parents, we went over to be with Seth's family for a few days. We had a good time hanging out the first night there. We watched Les Miserables: 24th Anniversary Edition (the concert) and it was incredible. Best 3 hours of music ever! And it totally makes me swoon to hear Jean Valjean and remember my own "Jean Valjean" singing "Bring Him Home" 7 years ago (the very start of our relationship). Good memories. Sigh.

Anyway, the next night we drove to Topeka for Seth's high school almuni night. We got to see lots of old Topeka friends and Seth got to sing with some alum from his madrigal group. The kids had a great time running around and promptly fell asleep in the car for the ride home

Love!

Baby Girl and her Daddy

We had a lovely Christmas Eve, went to a service together and then drove around looking at lights. It was a really nice night and the kids absolutely loved the lights. Aidan was especially sweet and having such cute conversations with us. I wish I could have recorded it all.

Christmas morning we woke up and had a yummy breakfast and then opened some presents. Nora was really really fussy this day in particular and was constantly grabbing at me and fussing. She was working pretty hard on her molars during the trip so that seemed to be the main cause of her irritability.

...and his partner in crime!

My sweet superman...

 We left Christmas night to spend the next few days with my family again. My brother and his family were also there, so the kids had a blast with their cousins....

More to come...

Christmas in Kansas 2011- Part One

We left around lunchtime to catch our flight from Charlotte to Kansas City. It was a long trip. The kids did pretty well. Nora was the biggest challenge of the trip, but I was expecting it, so it wasn't a surprise. She did sleep some and when she wasn't sleeping, she was either screaming or eating...I had tons of snacks prepared so I never felt out of my league. 

Our first day there we went to our very much missed Monday morning playdate with Davis and Isla (and little Ezra). It was really good to see some of our old friends and see how much the kids have grown. It is hard to believe that they are all 3 now and have siblings (Davis joined the sibling group yesterday!)

Best pic we could get of these three

Love the sweetness of this!

In awe of the tree!

Nora loved these sweet little elf dolls 

On Tuesday, we went to visit Seth at work and headed over to Bass Pro Shop to look around and play. Aidan had gone with my mom to Bass Pro on a few different occasions, but I had never been. They had a neat section set up for the kids and Santa was there (we don't really do the Santa thing, but we aren't anti all things Santa either) so we got a pic with the kids.

Aidan was having a blast "driving" the boats

We got an official Bass Pro picture that was better, but I love
the concerned look on Nora's face. She was good at first and
 then started to get upset.

One of my favorite moments was when Aidan said directly to Santa, "Nora doesn't understand." He wanted to make sure that Santa knew that Nora was too little to know about him. It was pretty cute. Also, I loved how he also told one of Seth's coworkers earlier in the morning that he was getting a "big boy bike, a motorcycle, and a tuba for Christmas." :)

The kids and Mimi

Watch out!

The kids had a great time and we ended our outing with a trip to Chick-fil-a (who would have guessed?).

Catching up with Christmas 2011

I have tons of pics to share from our trip, but it is going to take me several days and several blog posts to get through all of it.

We decided to celebrate our own family Christmas the day before we left for Kansas. We didn't do much. Aidan got one gift (an airplane he'd been asking for and that I got for a ridiculously good price from Kohls) and we got both kids, but primarily Nora, a play kitchen. I also got a steal on this and was super excited. Seth stayed up until 2am assembling it and the kids didn't even really play with it that day because they were too caught up in the craziness of packing for our trip.

 Aidan kept asking to open gifts, but he was really patient and waited until we were all awake. He was super excited about everything, even though most things he opened were boring (clothes, slippers).

 The amazing white vintage kitchen. Love it! And the kids are finally interested in it too.

 Is there nothing cuter than a toddler belly sticking out under a shirt? I think this is probably the only time in life where it is cute to have a paunch and let it hang out.

One thing I don't want to forget is how sweet and thankful Aidan was. He was so happy just to get his airplane and he kept thanking us for it. It is so good to see that grateful spirit start coming forth out of him.

Here's to 2012!

I have been making a running list of things I am wanting to see happen in this year and it seriously excites me!

1) Seek the Lord more
2) Enjoy my family
3) Become a wiser parent and a more loving spouse
4) Read lots of books
5) Grow in my crocheting skills, write patterns, and develop my business
6) Teach crochet classes
7) Get in really good shape
8) Visit the beach...often
9) Go on a weekend/week getaway with just my husband
10) Memorize more of God's Word and teach it to my children
11) Bake bread often
12) Go to the farmer's market regularly
13) Have a small garden
14) Develop good relationships
15) Blog, write, share
16) Pray more with my husband
17) Learn more about photography
18) Be more generous
19) Become more trusting of the Lord's direction and provision
20) Decorate my house
21) Sew a quilt
22) Choose joy at all times

I have already started some of these...praying with the hubs, setting up to teach classes at Hobby Lobby, and reading my first novel of the year (The House at Riverton by Kate Morton).

It is going to be a great year!