The Perfect Christmas

I love Christmas.  I love the decorations, the cold weather, the way it feels and spending time with my family.  This year was our second year of just our little family for Christmas.  We didn't really want to travel with Callie and Nate didn't have any time off anyway so we stayed.  A week before Christmas we started hearing rumors of a winter storm that was supposed to hit on Christmas day but since we were still playing outside in nothing but sweaters I didn't want to get my hopes up.

 Kenna really got the concept of Santa this year and asked some pretty insightful questions like, "How does he get back up the chimney?"  She also watched an episode of Mickey Mouse where they called for Santa, so on Christmas Eve day she asked me to open up the blinds for her (which I did) and then I see her there with her dressed in Santa clothes with her telescope yelling, "Santa! Santa! Ho! Ho! Ho!."  I realized she was calling for Santa which she confirmed but then asked, "Yes but why he's not coming?"

 

 Nate had to work part of Christmas Eve so Kenna and I cleaned and got ready for dinner.  We had some friends and family over for a who-feast and the little kids got to exchange presents.  They had a good time running around together and even got to play outside a little since it wasn't too cold.  When everyone left Kenna was all business.  We read about baby Jesus being born.  Kenna still doesn't quite get that.  She thinks that Mary in the nativity is 'Mary had a little lamb' and that since there are 'wisemens' in the nativity there must also be 'foolishmens'.  Well, we tried.  We read some Christmas stories and Kenna got out a tray to leave cookies for Santa.  She picked out exactly which ones she wanted (about 6) and even left him some chocolate pretzels.  She went to bed and Nate and I got to hang out.  We'd wrapped everything earlier so we didn't have much to do.  Callie is still fussy at nights so our nights consist of holding her while we watch movies or talk or whatever.  We stayed up watching 'Arrow' a new find of Nate's.  It's addicting and we had a good time. 

 

After we went to bed it started raining and then thundering.  Kenna woke up and Nate had to go sleep with her and hold her hand so she wasn't scared.  Callie was coughing the thunder was noisy.  It wasn't a very restful night. 

Christmas morning was awesome.  Kenna was so excited that Santa came.  She came down the stairs, looked at the presents and said, "Mommy do I get to open those?!?"  She opened hers and helped Callie open hers.  Every time she opened a present she giggled and got all excited.  Nate brought Callie out to feed her when she woke up.  She knew something was going on and spent all morning craning her neck to see what was happening.  We headed to Lixi's for breakfast in the pouring rain and Kenna decided she wanted to stay and play while Callie came home and had a nap.  Nate and I got to relax in sweats and watch more Arrow.  It was almost like we didn't have kids.  It was nice.  At one point I looked out the window and saw that the rain had turned to snow!  It was a Christmas miracle!

 Kenna picked a snowman cookie jar for me.

  Kenna picked out Jake and the Neverland pirates for Nate so he could play with her.  Originally she wanted to get him a ninja but changed her mind when she saw those.

 

 

 

 The giggling face we got to see all morning.

 

Kenna and Jenna came to our house and were so excited that it was snowing.  Since we had no appropriate snow gear we put on cowboy boots, princess gardening gloves and coats and went to play on the driveway.  The girls got to throw some snowballs and make a mini snowman then came in and had a hot bath, then went outside again, then sat by the heater, then went out again.  Kenna LOVED it and how could I tell her no when we will probably never have another white Christmas in Texas?

 

 

Nate took her out again after dinner and she got to make a snow angel.  She had been asking all month if she was going to get to make one.  I was really happy she did.  We skyped, watched some home movies, had hot chocolate and called it a day.  It couldn't have been more perfect.  I was so glad that we got to have a white Christmas and we had such a fun day.  As an added bonus Nate got to work from home the next day.

 

 

The snow has melted and its business as usual again.  Kenna has been happily playing with her new toys.  Unfortunately, Callie has RSV.  She's got a really bad cough and stuffy nose and is on a nebulizer.  I took her to the doctor and her oxygen was really low.  She said that albuterol didn't always work with RSV but luckily it did and her oxygen went back up and she didn't have to go to the hospital.  She started trying to talk and smile again.  Now we just wait and hope she gets better soon.  That poor baby has had one thing after another.  All things considered she is a very happy little bug.

 

4 Months

Well, little Callie is 4 months old today.  I wasn't sure we'd ever make it, but here we are.  She is is a whopping 11.10 lbs!  She's jumped up 2 percentile points in weight.  She is not rolling or laughing consistently (though we have gotten a few chuckles out of her and they are adorable) but she is using consonant sounds in her vocalizations so she's at the 6th month mark there.  Go Callie!  She has the most beautiful smile.  I can't help but smile when she does.  She's a very smiley baby when reflux isn't interfering.  She knows when we are talking to her and gets a big grin and talks right back.  Hopefully we can get her interested in rolling soon.  We are still working out the reflux mess (we're moving on to a third medication), but as a whole she is doing better.

 

 

We finally blessed her last Sunday.  Halfway through it we heard her say, "hurry up dad."  Okay, so maybe it wasn't that bad but she was pretty big and almost didn't fit into Kenna's white dress.  My parents came out for the occasion and Kenna had a great visit monopolizing their time away from Callie.  They made a gingerbread house, saw a movie, went to the park, fed the ducks and had good times playing hide and seek, dollhouse and the cooker and eater (kitchen set).  Nate and I took advantage of free babysitters and went to see the Hobbit at 315 on a Friday afternoon for our 7 year anniversary.  Romantic, I know, but we were both really excited to see the movie.  It did not disappoint.  It was nice to get out and good to talk to each other like adults again.  I don't think we've really done much of that since Callie was born.  It was nice to find out we could each name 7 things we still liked about the other person. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 grandma brought cloth snowballs so kenna gets to have a snowball fight in 60+ degrees

Today was Kenna's last day of ballet before the winter break so parents got to come observe.  It was AWESOME!  Kenna is so adorably uncoordinated and she did everything with her tongue hanging out of the side of her mouth.  I smiled for 45 minutes straight. 

 ignore the blurry pics and focus on the tongue hanging out...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are all excited for Christmas and Kenna is still hoping Santa will bring her a potty for her dollhouse and a new Olivia family.  She seems to have miss placed her old one.  Oh, Alixa also was able to make Kenna's day today.  She found an Olivia t-shirt which Kenna has not yet taken off and has informed me she wants to sleep in it and wear it to preschool tomorrow for her 'gift change.'  She's really excited for that and Nate is going to surprise her by showing up.  It took 20 days but it finally feels like Christmas and we will start our cookie baking tomorrow!

 we've had a rash of super heros in our house

 kenna's new trick