December Recap

I'm going to get this blog updated if it kills me!  Let's go in our time machine back to December.  Our lives will forever be insane between Thanksgiving and Christmas due to two major holidays and both kids birthdays falling within 5 weeks.  On top of that I also hosted our December "girls night" at our house in early December.  I learned that James' birthday parties need to be celebrated before the calendar flips to December, and I won't be hosting any additional get-togethers going forward to maintain some sanity!  I did successfully keep Christmas under control this year using the "Want/Need/Wear/Read" gift categories plus one from Santa.  Santa did have a momentary lapse in judgement by waiting in line at Target (with hundreds of other crazy people) on Thanksgiving night to make sure he had the gift James really wanted under the tree Christmas morning.  Luckily Santa was in a perfect spot in line to score one of the last THREE Nintendo 3DS.  Santa thinks that even if Amazon costs a little bit more that it is well worth his time and money.  Santa also had to run out on an emergency shopping trip a couple days before Christmas due to a custom ordered doll (placed in OCTOBER) still not showing up.  That very special doll showed up around March, and is being kept in a safe location for this year.

We missed the Santa visit the village hosts this year (pretty sure it conflicted with nap time), but luckily our friends have a direct line to Santa and he showed up at our neighborhood happy hour!

 Obligatory crying child picture on Santa's lap

 But she's happy with her gift!

 

 

Contrary to what my pictures show, Honey and Papa joined us for Christmas this year!  We must have been having way too much fun that day, because I hardly have any photos : (

The day after Christmas more guests started arriving, in anticipation of Claire's first birthday!  We were happy to have Aunt Kelly, Uncle Scott, Tessa and Asher stay with us the rest of the week.  We kicked Honey and Papa out to a hotel, and took advantage of the indoor swimming pool.

 Tessa slept in James' room

We captured a pic of all of us the last night we were all together.  Pretty impressive considering we used a timer! 

The week after Christmas was very hectic.  We had my entire family, plus Chris' parents and sister Laura and her family in town (although they also stayed at the hotel).  I spent most of the time cooking and cleaning, cooking and cleaning, and doing that some more.  It is hard work hosting 11 people over multiple days!  But it was all worth it to have them here to celebrate with us.  For most of the year it is just us here in Chicago.  Our kids see their grandparents a few times a year, and cousins even less than that.  Family gatherings are few and far between for us, as it just isn't possible to spend every holiday together.  So the times when we do have them here, I want it to be perfect...or close to it.  And I make myself insane because it just isn't possible :)  So I hope everyone enjoyed themselves.  I won't commit to doing this every year, but everyone is always welcome to visit!    

Separate post coming for Claire's birthday - I may have taken a couple pictures.

Edwards Orchard 2012

Another year, another trip to Edwards Orchard! 

 

 

 

 

 

September Recap

Good grief, at the rate I'm going I'll be lucky to wrap up 2012 before 2013 comes to a close.  The good thing is I didn't take any pictures between Disney and May so I'm only about five months behind in terms of photos.   

Back it on up, we're talking about September! We road-tripped it to KC (oh, yes, we did!) and hit up every single relative within a two hour driving radius.  Lucky for us we coordinated our trip with Kelly (who blogged about it much more timely than me here and here) and we got to love on new baby Asher for a couple of days. 

First stop was the Overland Park Arboretum.  Can you find James in this picture?

bink

Learning about crab apples

no bink

 

The next day we got back in the car (theme for the week) and drove to Oswego to visit my grandma.  Such a bittersweet trip as she has now moved out of this house.  She and my grandpa lived in it for (close to) two decades together (for as long as I can remember), and she has lived alone for the last 14 years since my grandpa passed away.  At almost 93 she was finally talked into moving into an apartment.  There are many years of memories that I have in that house, so I'm glad that James (and Tessa) were able to hopefully make a few of their own. 

 

 

    wrestlemania

 

two teeth

 good baby

bad baby

A trip to KC would not be complete without a trip to the Deanna Rose Farmstead!

 Tessa loves chasing geese (any bird).  There was a lot of this

 

 

 She is totally freezing here.  It was so cold this day that I had to go buy us all extra clothing!

 Pretty sure these were around when I was this age

 Asher was the only one who was warm

We said goodbye to the McMillans and headed West for the Coleman portion of our trip.  First was a stop to further brainwash my children that they are JAYHAWKS and not Wildcats.  I am happy to report that it is working thus far.  

TOKEN MOMMY PICTURE!

We met up with Jayne, Laura and Ayana for lunch at Free State and then went to the Natural History Museum.  

We finished our trip in Valley Falls and were able to meet Rowan, who was born about 6 week before Claire.  Hilarious group photos of the Coleman grandkids - captions welcome.

Dueling play tables

 "You are a crazy lady"

 "Whah?" 

"You've got to be kidding me" 

"You can't pay me enough to take this thumb out of my mouth" 

"Is it over yet?"

"Okay, I'll give you a smile, but I am off this couch in 2 seconds"

"Seriously, get me out of here"

"You got me to take my thumb out, but no way do you get a smile"

"Could I be smiling any more fake right now?"

And I leave you with this.  James is now taking appointments.  

We spent the rest of September recovering from spending 30 hours in the car with one another.