Busy, busy, busy

My goodness I have been so busy! I'm not sure who was the instigator but both of our families decided to have Christmas early!! Not everyone in Phillip's family was able to all get together on one weekend so we are having to do Christmas in "shifts" this year. Two of the siblings were able to get together this past weekend and the other two of us will get together New Years weekend. So I had to get all the gifts and stocking stuffers mailed to my in-laws this week. My Grandparents are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary this month so all of my Mom's family is getting together to honor them and will also have an early Christmas together. So now I am concentrating on our trip to Texas to see my family and Ashlyn's birthday party on the 29th.

I'm pretty sure this trip to Texas will be one for the record books. Before we had children Phillip and I would hop in the car and only stop for gas in which you also took a potty break and we ate in the car. This would take us about 10 hours. Then we had Ashlyn and we had to stop and change diapers and eat inside the fast food joint because I refuse to let my kids eat in the car and grind fries into their seats and carpet. It then took us 12 hours. (Her and I flew to Texas during her first year, so no car trips) Now we have a two month old along for this trip who eats every three hours. So if we leave right after her first morning feeding at 7am we may make it to Texas by midnight.

Last night we went to see Santa at the mall. Ashlyn was sooo excited. She didn't sleep during nap time and when she came out of her room "after her nap" she was wearing her outfit for her picture and went into Aubrey's room and was waking her up so they could go see Santa. When we got there she hopped right up on Santa's knee and told him what her and her sister's name was but when it came time to the picture she refused to smile. When we asked her later why she didn't smile she told us "because I had my mouth closed". He is a pretty authentic looking Santa if you ask me. I asked Ashlyn what color his beard was and she said "orange"! (His beard is real and was a little yellowed)


One of our favorite things to do is read books in bed. My brother and I loved reading in bed with my mom when we were young so this was something I wanted to do with my children. Aubrey kicks her feet and coos and grunts the entire time we are reading. The first couple times I thought she didn't like it because she is so squirmy but when you look at her face, it is completely lit up! On this particular night she was very tired and ready to get in her pajamas and go to bed. She was crying and carrying on but as soon as I laid her down and picked up the book she stopped crying and started kicking her feet with excitement.