December 2014 Family Update

I tried breaking this month into four posts: Christmas Traditions 2014, December family update,  Christmas 2014, and Columbia Christmas.  SO much happens in the month of December and I wanted to include it all without overloading everything into one post.  

December is naturally a busy month...I imagine it's that way for everyone!  Our extended update is below all the pictures.  Enjoy our month in pictures (excluding Christmas pictures)!

Trader Joe's star cookies are yummy.  And messy.

To say he is a momma's boy would be an understatement.  He follows me most places...even when I clean windows.

Wesley started walking on Thanksgiving and has improved day by day.  He was walking with his arms out (mummy-style), but now is walking faster and with more balance.  Oh, and he also likes to climb on top of things at dangerous heights.  This will be a fun stage.

Pepere turned 60!  I have a separate blog post about the party, but wanted to include a picture.

The three stooges ;) 

Thing 1 and Thing 2

There are many faces of sibling picture moments...this particular one was too good to leave out.

The kids with Maverick.  Jimmy is always good about including the dogs!  Poor Ellie was probably outside chasing some type of small rodent.

Have I mentioned we are in a curious stage?  I guess I can't blame him...

"Haaaaaay!"

Uncle Jordan flew in from LA to South Carolina (where my parents live) and since Jimmy wasn't going to be able to come down to SC after Christmas (due to work) Jordan came up to visit us for a weekend.

It snowed one morning while uncle Jordan was visiting.  It was hard to capture with my camera, but there is proof in Grace's hair.

Uncles are the best

Speaking of uncles, my uncle Robin gave this chair to Grace one Christmas.  It was his rocking chair as a child so it's a very special chair to us!

Opening Christmas presents from uncle Jordan since he was visiting (and so we didn't have present overload on Christmas day).

Jump N Fun with the Watkins.  Lorelei and Wesley pictured here.

Grace and Ellory

I arrived to pick up the kids just as Grace's class was heading inside from the playground.  Grace just so happened to be the prestigious line leader this day, haha.  Look at that sweet class of children!  Thanks Diana for capturing this!

Apparently Grace can draw now!  We have been practicing letters, numbers, and coloring inside the lines, but I wanted to know if she could draw something besides shapes.  Sure enough she can!  I asked her to draw anything she wanted to and she drew some monsters for Mrs. Green's birthday card (one of my co-workers).

Anesthesia tacky Christmas sweater party.  We are missing a few people!

The fellas

Happy birthday Lorelei! 

Grace, Ansley, Wade, and Ellory pictured here

Cookie decorating party at the Watkins' house

Christmas story time (yep, that's me in the hat there reading...it has been awhile since I read to a group of kids haha!)

Wesley found Grace's plastic golf clubs in her closet and he thinks they are fun.  Jimmy would help him swing the club to hit the ball and Wesley would just laugh and laugh.  Now you can catch Wesley walking around the house violently swinging his golf club at anything.

Sibling giggles

Grace's great grandpa gave her a stuffed bear that says the Lord's prayer last Christmas, I believe.  One night after I put her to bed, I kept hearing her talk like she was reciting something.  Sure enough, I turned the monitor up to hear her reciting the Lord's prayer along with the stuffed bear.  It was precious!

I caught Grace off guard on Christmas Day because that's what parents are for, right?  She is insider her pop-up princess tent singing "Let it Go" on her Frozen microphone.  Too funny!

Family Update

Wesley is 14 months old now!  Gracious he is getting so big.  He walks fast, climbs, laughs, shares, hugs, eats weird food, loves his sissy, and talks.  Okay, he has a few words in his vocabulary, but mainly he copies things we say and it's quite adorable.

Grace is going to be 4 in April y'all...I just can't believe it.  She is an incredible helper and big sister.  We are SO thankful for her.  Grace is very social, in fact, she makes a point to meet just about every stranger in public and she learns all of their names, birthdays, and additional information.  My mom, aunt Cindy, and I took Grace shopping to Hammrick's in Columbia, SC when we were visiting.  I was looking at something and turned around to find her handing jewelry from the shelf to strangers and saying, "Here you go!  Merry Christmas!"  Giggles occur daily with this girl...she cracks us up and has such a sweet soul.

I (Kristen) have had a nice break from grad school!  I start my next class mid-January and it has been very weird to have some time to myself during nap time for the kids.   So far I have completed two classes and received an A in both so things are feeling great!  I took a short break from my part-time job as well, so the holidays have been quite relaxing.

Jimmy has had a terrible schedule since Christmas.  The actual rotation he is on right now (outpatient) is not bad, but it's his call schedule that was bad.  It kind of all got bunched together at the end of the month.  Jimmy had Christmas Day off, which was very nice, but then he proceeded to have three 24 hour call shifts within 5 days.  He is actually sleeping right now since it's his post-call day which is when he usually sleeps most of the day or until 2/3 p.m.  It's not easy keeping the kids quiet so we try to get out the house.  Fortunately the kids and I were able to go to Columbia to visit my family since Jimmy was either at the hospital or home sleeping during the day.  Jimmy has New Years Day off and this coming weekend so some family time is overdue!