Of all the months to get behind on blogging, December is a tough one to recap!  We arrived home from our Utah trip to a beautiful sunset and 60 degree weather.  That can only mean one thing for the next day:  snow!  Anthony braved the terrible roads to go get our Christmas tree (Home Depot has the best live ones for half the price of tree lots!).  It's a family affair to get our nine-footer up!


That night, as we let the tree fall, our elf Tinsel returned and brought the kids their Christmas jammies so they could wear them throughout the season.


The next night, we decorated the tree.  I don't think I've fallen into my 3-kid groove yet, because everything seems way more stressful, especially in the evenings.  Maybe next year we'll have the idyllic Christmas decorating night.


Yes, this photo is out of focus.  I'm also out of my photo groove, which totally bums me out.  My arms are just usually full with baby instead of a dslr!  I'll be better by the end of the month, I promise!


The kids wanted to transform themselves into Christmas trees.  Connor tree!


Alaina tree!


We hung Christmas lights for the first time!  Of course it had to be on the day with a high of 9, but since Thanksgiving was so late this year, they had to go up as soon as we bought them!


My favorite thing on this earth right now is seeing how Connor and Alaina love their baby Harrison.  Alaina says things like, "He's my baby, not yours!" and "I didn't think he would be so cute, Mommy!"  and this morning Connor corrected me when I didn't refer to him as "Big Brother" when talking to Harrison.  Here's Connor showing him how to play Minecraft. :)


Sometimes it still blows my mind that we are a family of five!  Three kids watching cartoons with Daddy.


We decorated gingerbread houses at Ryan's girlfriend Amanda's house with her kids, their friend Sarah, and her parents.


I didn't realize that our gingerbread house kits were the only one in the bunch that weren't preassembled!  After fighting with the frosting for about an hour, I decided to recreate the sugar glue we would use at the Gessels'.  I thought I remembered just melting the sugar, so that's what I did, but I was silently praying that I wasn't about to ruin Amanda's pot!  I totally saved the day by making it we got the "houses" assembled.  Alaina had a mini village of four houses and Connor had a train set with an engine and two cars, so it was a big deal!  I was proud of myself!


This picture cracks me up.  We all got together again to decorate sugar cookies, but it was kind of spur-of-the-moment, so Amanda and I had the bright idea to just by the Pillsbury dough to save time.  This is what happens when you try to cut Christmas corners! :)  Luckily, we were able to salvage them by hurrying and cutting them out while they were hot out of the oven.  Thank goodness the kids couldn't have cared less!




Cookie decorating is still Alaina's absolute favorite thing.


Meet Zack.  He's Connor's age and they're really starting to play well together.


Q:  How do you identify a photographer's child?


Meet Noah.  He's Daynarae's age and a funny little spitfire.


This is what happens when all the other kids leave Alaina to decorate cookies by herself.  Six in the belly and feeling a little gross.


Anthony hates this picture, but I think it's cute, so up it goes.


On our anniversary, Papa watched Harrison (my first real time away from baby!) while Nana and I went shopping and out to lunch.  That night, they watched all three kids so that Anthony and I could go on a date to celebrate our 9 year anniversary.  Fort Collins lit all the trees in Old Town, so we walked under the lights and had a wonderful dinner at Sunny Lubick's.  When we got home, Connor asked, "What did you guys do on your date?"  I said, "We went to a restaurant where we had a nice dinner and just talked and talked and talked."  Alaina, quite disappointed with our choice, said, "THAT'S a anniversary?!".


It's not a date if there's no creme brulee!  (Obligatory but subtle ring shot.  See what I did there? :) )


On the last day of school before Christmas break, I volunteered in Alaina's classroom and we made candy houses.  It was fun to see her in her element and interact with her friends.


Alaina with her best buddy, Mady.


Alaina and her teacher, Miss Beveridge.  I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful teacher.  She has a little girl in kindergarten herself, and her love for her students is evident.  She finds constant humor in the funny things the kids say, is so patient, and always smiling.


At the beginning of the month, Harrison found his hands (which are apparently delicious) and he has a vice grip (demonstrated with his other hand).  This picture was taken right before he decided to roll from back to belly for the first time (average age for that is usually about 6 months).  He's now working on tripod sitting.  We've never had such an active, strong baby, so this is new territory for us!  With all of these physical and mental advancements, he's had absolutely no time in his schedule for sleep.  If he wasn't such a happy guy during the day, I'm sure I would have been admitted to the looney bin by now, but he is sure sweet and generous with his smiles!






Rolling!


On days where I'm half asleep, I may bribe the kids to clean my house.  Next up:  the week of Christmas!