Happy, happy birthday Jared dear...

Poor Jared with his December birthday. I feel bad every year that we squeeze it in quickly amidst all the holiday celebrations.

The night before his birthday, Jared let the dogs out front to go to the bathroom like we have done EVERY. single. night for the past 9 years! And Porter took off and never came back. If any of you know Jared, you know that it was like losing a child for him. All night long we searched in ditches, yards, drove around the neighborhood. We woke up every hour and checked on the porch hoping he made it back. When Jared woke up on his birthday, we both were pretty heartbroken and figured he was gone. Jared was getting ready to go look for him again when I hear him say, "There's Porter!" Apparently our neighbor two houses down found him and brought him inside for the night. She had taken him running at the park off leash and he was just following her right back to her house without even looking at our house. So much for loyalties! Jared started calling to him after he ran past and he couldn't decide if he wanted to come home with us or with our neighbor. He must have gotten pretty spoiled over there...

So luckily his day turned out well! The kids & I made him a candy poster along with his gifts. Jared & I had a wonderful date with sushi at Sonoda's downtown and wandering the Tattered Cover. That was our first ALONE date for months. I finally got that sweet baby boy to take a bottle!

We just loved to be able to talk without interruptions, hold hands and really enjoy our time together. When we got home we sang "Happy Birthday" and had cake with the kids. Grey was pretty upset when I told him Jared wasn't having a birthday party, so we had to make sure to celebrate a little with the kids.

Happy Birthday Lover...

Gingerbread Houses

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions--mostly because I love eating all the candy. It is the only time I ever buy spice drops and I love them. Although we all had stomach aches afterwards from eating so much candy.

Cole sat in his bumbo watching us and drooling all over his toy the whole time.

It is serious work...

Elise was so proud of her creation

 The finished gingerbread village

Mommy's Snow Day

Now that I said how much I love the snow, I had a really rough day with Grey's school pickup after the snow. I kept Cole in his car seat because it was FREEZING. Elise wanted to be carried. So I had my 15+ pound baby in his car seat on one arm and my 25 pound girl in my other arm trekking through the snow and ice. Halfway to the back door I learned they did not clear the sidewalks so it really was a trek. I got to the door and it was LOCKED for the first time all year. I had to stand there knocking for a while with my kids crying until someone heard me and let us in. I was a little tired...

Long story short, I took a snow day on Tuesday. I told Grey that we could build a snowman together instead. He actually went for it. I loved the alone time with him. I don't get enough of that. I put the other two kids down for naps and we bundled up to build our Mr. Snowman. Oh and the snow was really dry and not packing together well, so he is more of a lump.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Last weekend was AWESOME! I love, love, love the snow and we had days of snowy cold. It really gets me in the Christmas spirit. We drank lots of hot chocolate, made gingerbread men, wrapped gifts, baked & decorated sugar cookies and just had a lot of fun family time at home. I did escape briefly to meet the girls for a matinee showing of The Nutcracker. Amazing as always!!!

This is really what a perfect morning looks like to me... Snowing outside, listening to Christmas music and relaxing at home with my family. It doesn't get better than that.

The girls at The Nutcracker--with some weird girl on the left whose mother LET her stand in all of our photos. That is why we have strange looks/laughs on our face. Wondering when her mother was going to tell her to get out of our photos.

Making our sugar cookies--look how cute my kiddos are in my aprons. I love it!

Black Friday

I did not do any shopping the day after Thanksgiving. I debated, but I am getting way too little sleep as it is and my Christmas shopping is already done!! We had a wonderful family day going to the gym together, meeting my parents & brother at Sweet Tomatoes for lunch, pulling out all the Christmas decorations, hanging ornaments on the tree, heading to downtown Littleton for their annual tree lighting and topping the evening off with some hot apple cider and hot chocolate. I love days like that. If every day could be like that, life would be perfect!

Thanksgiving

This year was the FIRST year in like eight years that I broke tradition. I was too sick to run the Turkey Trot. I'm not going to lie... I cried a little/a lot. So Jared went by himself.

We went over to Ken & Jodie's for an incredible feast. It really was amazing. I am so grateful for his family and my family and that they (almost) all live nearby so we can enjoy these wonderful moments together.

The family pictures before dinner:

(Elise was going on no nap-obviously)

The rest of November...

I took some 3.5 month pictures of Cole. That boy is growing like crazy and his grin just gets bigger and bigger!

Then I took some of sweet baby Allie before they left town. (*tears*)

They are going to be the best of friends whether they like it or not
(at Costa Vida with Grandma)

Elise decided to start feeding her baby a new way

Cole upgraded to more sitting-up in his tub & loves it

Grey played dress-up with Jared's new shoes, etc.

I got to pull out Grey's old 3-6 month clothes

I had a wonderful dinner @ Cheesecake Factories with my besties from high school. Have not laughed that hard in a long time...

We went to a school family reading night where Grey ate pizza with his crush. We think it is really funny that she looks just like him.

Elise fell asleep at dinner. She has been fighting naps but really, really needs them still.