We Had Ourselves...

a merry little Christmas season.    Here's how we counted down the days till Christmas.  

Visiting Santa. But only once.  Whenever we encountered a Santa again at various events this season and I asked Holden if he wanted to see him Holden gave me an odd look and said "Uhh, no thanks.  I already did.  I told him I want Legos."    Can't argue with logic, I guess.

Making Christmas crafts.

Making impromptu Christmas food.

And purchasing some as well.  Mmmm, Peppermint milkshakes...

Having a Muppet Christmas Carol movie night/sleepover in front of the Christmas tree.

Partying with the family at a gingerbread house making party and cookie baking day.

Harper was rocking her Cindy Lou Who ponytail to add to the festivities.

Admiring Christmas lights

at the zoo (I am starting to look OLD, guys)

 and at random overzealous people's houses.

There was a preschool Christmas program that was so adorable I almost died.

And there was hosting Christmas Eve dinner/games at our house.

Later that night we prepared for hosting our next visitor.

And Santa did not disappoint.  Holden was so preoccupied with his Santa Pez Dispenser that it took him a good minute and a half before he said  "Oh, hey! A Bike!!!"

We saved the rest of our gifts for the present opening marathon with the family later that day.

Which proved to be just a little too exhausting for these two.

And on December 26th, we took it all down.  Because I love Christmas, and I celebrate early and hard, but when it's done I'm done.  Hence the unedited mash up of photos slapped into a blog post.  

Till next year, Christmas!

Thirty, Flirty and Thriving

 It's not every day a person turns 30.  It's especially not every day that event happens on a Saturday.  So when the stars aligned for Reo this year, we celebrated big...Okay.  We celebrated medium.  Here's what we did.

Opened presents.  Ummm, do you think Holden likes his dad much?

Saw Wreck It Ralph.  Along with some sort of ghost apparently.  Stupid iPhone.

We ate food.

A lot of food.

Here's Harper not understanding that no teeth = no pizza.  Poor girl.

Don't worry.  We saved room for cake.

And then we did it all over again the next day, at a joint family party for my sister in law Cami and Reo.  I have no pictures of Cami....Oops!  I do have one of Reo with his loot!

Happy Birthday Reo!

Nine

Fair warning:  This is one of those posts that really should be reserved for a baby book, since I'm not sure it's interesting to the general public.  But Harper's baby book exists only in my mind, and probably will for quite some time, so this is the easiest way for me to document.  Feel free to skip this one....I mean, look at the pictures first, of course.  This baby is adorable, guys!

Our sweet child is nine months old, and behaving more and more like a real live person every day.  

She's a tricky one.  She doesn't sleep.  Ever.  She's not a great eater.  She is developing a wicked case of separation anxiety that may have blackballed us among neighborhood babysitters.  But she is just so darn ADORABLE about it all, that not only does it make it worth it, you kind of catch yourself thinking maybe you are making it all up.

She's into everything, crawling like a maniac and cruising all over the furniture.  Her hair is wild, and reddish, and everywhere.    She is still totally toothless, although I accuse her of teething at least once a week.

She's 28 inches (65th percentile) and 20 lbs 11 oz (80th percentile) and the perfect little addition to our family.

We kind of love her.  A lot.