Bringing Up Boys

12 Days of Christmas

December.  Typically the craziest month of the year for me.   Work is always nuts.  The kids are typically a little nutty themselves.  And travel we must as we enjoy seeing both families for the holidays. 

I'm pretty sure we couldn't possibly have packed one more activity into the Christmas season.

Here's this month in pictures and video too....

1.  The Best Christmas Pageant Ever...starring Beckett as a King.

 

2.  A night out without the kids?  That's not allowed!  Except when Dad and I have our yearly father-daughter date.  2010 served up gourmet at Lindey's!

 

3.  Meet Annabel!  My newest niece and sweet little bundle of baby love.

 

4.  60-years young!  My father-in-law celebrated his 60th Birthday with his five grandchildren in tow.  Happy Birthday Mike!

 

5.  Let it snow!  We had our first snowfall of the season (and it still hasn't melted).

 

 

6.  Zoo lights!  Possibly my favorite Christmas activity.  It involves zero cleaning up and always includes hot chocolate.

 

 

 

7. What holiday table is complete without a gingerbread train? 

 

Our creation was a bit bare since someone (who shall remain nameless) kept eating all the ingredients.

 

8. Uncle Clark left 75 degree temperatures in Houston to visit snow covered Ohio. 

 

And he brought 2 lovely ladies with him.  Welcome to Ohio Lauren and Rachel!

 
 
 
9.  Gifts at Christmas are the best.  But when the gift is something made with love, it lasts a lifetime.  These blankets my Granny knitted for the boys are already on their beds.

 
 

10. Christmas Eve!  Carrots for the reindeer, cookies & milk for Santa!

 

11. Christmas night.  Ho, Ho, Ho...meet the Walsh family's Santa.

 

12. Christmas morning!  The chaos began bright and early.  And continued all.day.long.

 

Christmas.  Such a fabulous holiday.  Friends, family, food, gifts, love. 

Christmas.  Such an immense amount of work for every mother out there. 

Christmas.  Glad to see you come.  Glad to see you go :)

 

Half Cooked

We're halfway there!  20 weeks cooked!  20 more to go.

Each time we get to sneak a peek, our baby boy looks more and more babyish and less and less fetus-like.

 

He's developing perfectly weighing about 11 ounces and measuring 6 and a half inches long.  I won't bore you with dozens of new ultrasound photos but I do have one shot that was sort of out of the ordinary.

An awesome shot of both baby feet together!

 

I started feeling those little suckers kicking around in there a few weeks ago.  At the moment, they are resting right on my bladder.  I figure if this baby is anything like his brothers, those little feet will probably stay there for a few more weeks before he shoves them into my ribs for the duration of his stay :)

I encourage sharing, but this is ridiculous!

Sure, sometimes you REALLY have to go.  But this is a situation in which I would prefer the boys actually take turns instead of sharing.