Our holiday started with David, Kerri, and baby Lane's arrival on Wednesday. When Jerry got home from work, we went over to mawmaw and pawpaw's house for dinner and visiting with the family (including GG or Great Grandma). They were all enjoying a quiet evening, until our arrival of course. We tend to bring a lot of noise and activity with us everywhere we go. On Thursday, I spent the day at home with the kids and after their naps Jerry and I dressed them all for Christmas Eve Mass... My Mom cried with joy having all her kids and grandkids together for church services and Christmas celebrations. During Mass we told Kaylee she could go see baby Jesus in the manger after church if she was good, so at the end of services we walked her over to see Baby Jesus, but the manger was empty. Apparently, they weren't going to put him in the manger until Christmas morning. She was in tears.... but we got lucky. On the way out of the Church we saw baby Jesus tucked away for safe keeping and sneeked in a peek. After Mass, we loaded up and headed to Mi Rancho for some Mexican food. Addison insisted she sit by Aunt Kerri and Jadon by Uncle David. Upon leaving, I overheard another table comment that we had a lot of kids, then a few minutes later asked if we had triplets.... "yes, they are triplets. Yes, then we had another one. Yes, They are all mine, except the new baby which is my brothers." The standard spiel.
Addison and Pawpaw
Kerri and Baby Lane
Addison & Kaylee
Cody, our little drummer boy
Baby Lane
Addison sings Jingle Bells
Jadon sings Santa Claus is coming to "THE" town
If you have 6 1/2 minutes to spare, here is our Christmas morning..... from waking to stockings.
Loved one's have gone home, the gifts are all unwrapped, and we are once again settling back into a routine (as much as possible with the upcoming move on Saturday). But, I have to say it was a perfect Christmas!!! David & Kerri have a beautiful baby boy and this was his 1st Christmas and the triplets are at an age that Christmas is magical. It's that short time when they truly believe in Santa Claus, flying reindeer, and a naughty and nice list. An our little one Cody hung in with it all, never missing a beat. Magical!!!! Rather than one long post, I'll post our Christmas with pictures over the next few days.
All dressed up for Christmas Eve Mass... Jadon was soooo proud of his outfit.... "Look at me...I got a tie...."
Today, I cried.... Addison got a hold of some scissors on my bathroom sink and cut her hair along with her Ariel doll's hair. I first notice a small piece of hair on the floor and when I picked it up, I knew it was Addisons. I then began examining her hair and pulling out more and more pieces of hair entangled in the uncut hair..... Fear took hold as I tried to ascertain the extent of the damage. My fear turned to anger and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach which has yet to go away. Yes, she cut her hair.... but, fortunately it's not terrible.... well, not as bad as it could be. She will be wearing a lot of pony tails and barrette on one side until her hair grows out. I am trying to tell myself I should be happy this is the worse thing I'm having to deal with.... if this is our greatest problem then I give thanks to the Lord. And the damage is not noticeable to the average person, but I will notice everyday when I cannot put her hair in pigtails.... ARGGGG!!!!
Once again I pray.... "Dear Heavenly Father, Please give me the strength to cope with my blessings."
In the photo, I brushed the cut hair forward... you can see it doesn't fit into the ponytail, but brushed back with a barrette it will be ok. It could have been worse. I have to say Ariel didn't fare so well.
Well, Christmas is purchased except for the stocking stuffers and I continue to work on the move little by little each day. The biggest struggle is keeping the house somewhat under control during the move. Our official move date is January 2nd, but we aren't moving a lot of our furniture. We are leaving a lot of our furniture in the old house for "staging" until it's sold, so we will be camping out in the new house a while. Cody decided to help pack and cleaned out the bookshelf. What a little helper....
Jerry's company had a Christmas party on December 4th (the earliest snow in Houston history that night) at the Westin Galleria with a pre-party at Del Frisco's restaurant. We had my parents babysit all night, so after the party we were able to walk back to our hotel room rather than drive 45 minutes to get home. It was a great party and a great time.
We learned early in our house the importance of sippy cup control. I make four sippy cups of milk every morning, when the milk is gone, I clean the four cups and refill them with water for the rest of the day. At the end of the day, I wash out the cups and put them in the dishwasher. When we 1st started using sippy cups, I would make the cups, then my Mom and/or Dad would come over and make a cup, then Jerry would make a cup. Now, imagine one of those cups finding it's way into a drawer or under a bed and what it might look like a couple weeks later when found..... We now make four cups and ONLY FOUR CUPS so that at the end of the day we know when a cup is missing and right now, one is missing. It was lost yesterday. We looked and looked and will continue looking for that rogue cup until it's found TONIGHT!!!!
UPDATE... The missing cup has been found under a box in our bedroom.... we are moving so lots of boxes....
Thought I'd share a picture of our tree and some of our memorable ornaments.... I'd like to say I have Christmas under control, but honestly I am still buying gifts and haven't wrapped one of them yet. It will all come together before the big day I am sure....
The local golf club hosted Santa Claus today and we thought it be fun to let the kids see him again, so we decided to make an appearance. After all, Jerry was working when the kids got their picture taken with Santa a few weeks ago. We got up and got everyone ready. We started at 7:30 and left the house at 9:30. It typically takes us 2 hours to get the 6 of us ready. We headed over to see Santa, took pictures, and left about 10 minutes later. A lot of work for a few pictures with Santa, but the pictures were worth the effort. The kids were soooo excited to see Santa again.... but once we got there, Kaylee was too scared to get real close.... and the others were too scared to give smiles... Typical!!!
The only time Jerry and I can talk without constant interruption is when we load the kids in the car with a dvd. So often we load up when he gets home from work and talk about our day while the kids watch a short video. As a result, we have gotten to know our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods very well. I also get emails from Houston Association of Realtors when new homes go on the market to keep up with the area. As a result, we found a deal we couldn't pass up. One of the builders in a new subdivision next to ours is going under and dropped the price on a newly built home to try and sell it prior to foreclosure. The price was good enough to peak our interest. We looked at the home on Sunday, made an offer the next day and were told we had to close the following Monday or the home would go into foreclosure. So, one week later we closed on a new home. YIKES!!!! The home is beautiful and we are excited, but still a bit shocked. Now, I have triplets plus one, Christmas, and a move "Oh My"...... Lions and tigers and bears, Oh My!!!! Oh yea... I also have a home to sell.
