December

We started our December in the ER with Brooks. He was complaining of his stomach hurting. No fever or any other symptoms. I got him on the toilet incase that was the issue but I didn't have any luck. He couldn't sit still and was rolling around in pain for about an hour before his pediatrician told me to take him into the ER. We couldn't go to urgent care because they don't do ultrasounds and she was worried it was appendicitis. We were there for 4 hours and they did 3 ultrasounds and an xray. The only thing that came back was a possible hernia. We did an enema and decided it was just back up bowels. It was a very odd and sudden thing to have happen. Brooks was exhausted from the day but felt much better going home. Now he's been on medicine to help him bowels shrink so it doesn't happen again.

Other than that little scare, we had a wonderful December! After we got home from Missouri we pulled out all the Christmas things and put the lights on the roof, got the tree up and decorated it. Then Carson undecorated the bottom 1/3 and it stayed that way the rest of the month ha!

Becuase I do my Christmas shopping early we get lots of boxes early December. Brooks needed some time where Carson couldn't roll all over him so on the kitchen table it is to decorate his rocket ship!

Carson learned how to walk at 10.5 months! It only took him a week before he was CRUISIN and by the end of December crawling is a thing of the past. It's so sad my baby is getting so big but I LOVE watching babies learn how to walk! It made my December magical!

Brooks grew out of his warm jams so new firetruck ones were ordered.

There was a big sale on turkeys so we bought some and smoked one and had another "Thanksgiving" of sorts!

We decorated out gingerbread house which was so fun! Brooks was really able to take the wheel and do most of what he wanted himself. Having children around the holidays makes it so much more fun!

My little elf!

Homemade ornaments! Brooks painted a candy cane and I stamped Carson's feet for Mistle"toes" he was so confused when I was painted him feet with a cold brush! It took my quite a few stamps each foot to get a decent one.

Look at this transformation! Baby (formerly known as bronco) was looking pretttyyyy sad. So I bought a bag of stuffing, made a hole, stuffed him up and sewed the hole shut and now he is STUFFED. I tried to over stuff him because with how much we wash him he'll deflate soon!

Free ice cream from CFA

Our church had a drive in movie for our Christmas party. Santa came to out car and gave us candy canes and we watched to short films. Brooks' friend AJ gave him a Sonic gift card for Christmas and he fell asleep holding it on the way home

We also went to TMS Gift of Lights like we do every year and that was fun. It didn't seem AS good this year but for $20 we think it was worth it. We made sugar cookies of course! Brooks was the best helper. We invited friends over to decorate them and boy was that fun.

Our HOA made a fun "Snowglobe" lights exhibit out of our gazebo so one night we walked around to go see that. It was very beautiful and very well done! Brooks didn't want a pictures so just me and my sweet babe!

Brooks trying on my boots!

Carson loving the Christmas lights AND destroying all the ornaments he can reach.

How is he 11 months!?

Carson, Me, Brooks. This facial expression must be genetic. Wonder were it comes from?

Baby mohawk!

These Christmas jams are my favorite! Festive, so so soft and dinosaurs- the best!!

Christmas Sunday with the family. I have to bribe Brooks with anything he wanted to get this smile. Out of the dozen pictures I took, Carson's face was like this in ALL of them haha!

Baby needed a picture.

Then MY baby :)

Dan took 2 weeks off and we had a lot of fun together. We went to Bicentennial Park, Dove Park, the trampoline park, Kid Mania- all the things together!

Making cookies together!

Haslet park Christmas lights

Sylvia makes these stockings for everyone and we got Carson's in the mail! I love how it turned out. Oh I just love these kids!

On Christmas Eve we went to Cabela's to see Santa and it was so fun and COVID safe. Carson was a bit confused and Brooks was nervous. Love that Santa wears a cowboy hat in Texas.

Christmas movies with my favorites.

Decorating cookies for Santa

We had our Christmas Eve steak dinner, read the scriptures, talked about the Christmas story, sang our favorite Christmas songs and dealt with some 'too much sugar' melt downs (keeping it real!). Left cookies and milk out for Santa and put the kids to bed. 

Brooks got a Thomas the Train Walking Bridge set, Paw Patrol Launch and Hauler and a Scooter. Smaller gifts included true metal paw patrol, air flight paw patrolers, clothes, a construction set, RC monster truck, a nerf football and puzzles.

Carson got a wagon, activity cube, sensory stacking blocks and a farm puzzle. Smaller gifts include clothing, pull back construction trucks, soft cars, a ball popper, puzzles and food. The way to Carson's heart is food.

Carson didn't care about his gift though. All he wanted to do was climb on presents...

Sit on this sheet pan

and pull all of the trash out of the bag repeatedly.

For Christmas I got jewelry, new cookie sheets, mixing bowling, a cake pan, air popper, cookbooks, a jewelry case and a new water cup. Dan got huge baking sheets and cutting boards for his BBQing, accessories for his smoker, some spice rubs and books about officiating football. We all had a wonderful Christmas and felt so loved by so many. I loved being watching to watch the kids discover new ways to play with their new toys and discovering all the fun things they do.

We went to the trampoline park as I mentioned before and there's a platform you can climb up and jump off into the foam pit. Brooks climbed up there but wouldn't jump off. Dan told him that if he jumped off we would buy him an Grave Digger RC Car. I said I'm buy him ANYTHING because it was SOOO unlikely Brook's would jump. Dan and I both would have bet money that he wouldn't do it. But after a bit he did it! I didn't see it but it Dan hadn't saw it with him own eyes I wouldn't have believed it. So off to Target.com I went and bought an RC Grave Digger. We were so proud of him for being to brave!

One of the last things we did in 2020 was Dan got LASIK! I didn't take any pictures of anything but I dropped him off, went to Trader Joes and distracted the kids for a bit until he was done, picked him up, got lunch and headed home to send him to bed. By that evening he was basically fine. He drove himself to the appointment the next day and had 2020 vision. AMAZING! I'm so glad he was able to do it and that he has had amazing results. He's pretty much back to normal now just some light sensitivity and lots of eyes drops. While he was getting the procedure done the kids and I had time to kill so I went to Trader Joe's!

Carson's hair is getting long and he has these CURLS in the back that are darling! He's kind of growing a mullet now..

 Oh here is the one LASIK relate picture I took of Dan's eyes shields he wore at night for the first while.

I did my nails. I LOVE colorstreet!

For New Years Eve we didn't have any extraordinary plans. So I whipped up a plan to open a bag every hour that had a fun activity in side. Sticker books, playdough, dance party, playing with balloons and then using a paw patrol video on YouTube and apple juice, we counted down to the new year at 7pm with our kids. Brooks LOVED the packets and even though it was so simple I felt it was a big win!

After the kids went to bed we had the Leopolds over for our yearly Game night plus eating all the yummy food. It never disappoints, good food and good friends. Even thought 2020 was an awful year for many, and for good reasons! We actually had a very good year. I know I'm blessed to be able to say that but something about having a new baby and having that new joy and light in our lives truly made this year so good for us. Having Dan work from home was so helpful to me and he got to see his family more often. Dan found a hobby he loves, officiating football and the pandemic has helped us remember what's truly important and what's worth spending our time on. We're excited to 2021 and hoping it'll bring a controlled pandemic, peace in our country and love towards all of God's Children.