December

Here is a quick recap of our December with mostly pictures!

The day I came home from my second hospital stay. I kissed every inch of this baby!

Our friends have this cute farm and organized a Christmas market with vendors, photos with santa, feeding their farm animals and bounce houses. Carson learned here that he isn't a fan of santa. 

My boys!

Gingerbread house decorating. Brooks decorated, Carson mostly ate the candy.

How to do laundry and hold a baby.

First bath! He loved it!

Super dad right here. Dan is the absolute best and supports me so well when we have a new baby.

December was oddly warm in Texas so we went on a beautiful hike! 

Gift of lights at Texas motor speedway

Christmas Jammies! 

We went to our Ward Christmas Breakfast. They had Santa come and Brooks was excited but nervous to meet him. As soon as Santa walked in Carson yelled NOOOO so he stayed in the gym. Nate got to meet Santa too! I knew this Santa and felt comfortable letting him hold Nate :)

More sleeping baby

We bought the boys a bunk bed while it was on sale for black friday! I wanted a low set and the bottom one to be on the floor since Carson is not even 2 and I wanted stairs. Brooks was so excited for them! Dan built them over 2 days and when it came down to sleep in them then Brooks changed his mind and was sad about his old bed. But he agreed to give it a night and he LOVED it (like we knew he would) and all is good in the world. We've been working on Carson sleeping in the bed for naps and overnight and he's actually doing pretty good. It'll be a work in progress over the next month.

I got an email from the school nurse saying Brooks had a visit. When Dan brought him home it was pretty obvious why. He fell at recess and got a nice goose egg. He was just fine, it looked worse than it was.

Santa hats at Walmart!

Seeing the light display at our local park

These boys love Nate and are always asking to hold him. They constantly love on him and have been so excited for the little smiles and coo's we're starting to get.

We went and played at Dove Park and I couldn't help recreate this picture for Carson when Brooks was about his age. Carson 2021 and Brooks 2018

After the park we went and had a quick dinner at Braums then drove to the Gaylord to see their Christmas lights and decor. I have never been there except to attend ICE one time. It probably not something we do every year unless you pay to do another event there (they have countless Christmas events) but it was cool to see their lights and lobby this time. The boys loved the train set!

It started 'snowing' inside! It was actually cold and wet, I'm not sure how they made it happen but they did and my kids loved it!

More baby snuggles. Nate has been sleeping well at night- he usually gives me 3 hour stretches, I've even had a couple of 4hrs! But during the day he can be a bit cranky and needs to always be held. I'll take it if he sleeps at night!

Brooks' class had their Christmas Party and I got to go! This is totally a new thing for me and it was so fun to visit Brooks at school. We made reindeer pancakes, reindeer headbands. we gave his teacher their gifts and then I got to check him out early and take him home. It's hard to send part of your heart to school but it brought me so much joy to see him loving his teachers and school.

Spending time with Carson and Nate

Christmas Sunday!

Brooks and I made Crinkle Cookies!

This is how you bake with a newborn that must be held!

Nathan was a month old! Everyone wanted a photo with him 

So smitten

For Christmas Eric and Sylvia came and it was so fun to have them! 

She brought Nathan's stocking AND I got him to smile!

We played lots of games, watched shows and movies, enjoyed the beautiful weather outside.

Dan found an amazing deal on prime rib so that's what we did for Christmas Eve this year. It was so delicious! And Dan's Parosmia has continually gotten better so he could eat most things around Christmas, yay!

We let the kids open the gifts they got for each other- small Skye (paw patrol) car and a mario car.

We read scriptures, talked about the nativity, sang Christmas songs, put out cookies for Santa and put the kids to bed. The adults watched It's a Wonderful Life then we made the magic happen.

The kids got beans bags and new boots. Brooks got a Chase patroller and Carson got a strider bike. Brooks received an awesome space book, a space puzzle, lots of new games (he's obsessed with games lately), a Monster Jam hauler, a vet kit and airplanes. Carson got a doodle pad, a fishing game, sticker activities, an interactive book

I spent a lot of Christmas day nursing of course.

Lots of playing with new toys and enjoying the warm weather outside

Grandpa bought all the boys a BYU shirt

One day we went and hiked at Eagle Mountain Lake. We went pretty far and I was proud of the boys for doing so well.

For New Years Eve I put together simple bags that had an activity to do every hour. 4pm was silly string fight! Brooks loved it, Carson was very indifferent about it.

5pm was playing with balloons and 6pm was a glowstick dance party. Nate slept through most of them haha

Then at 7pm we used our noisemakers and wore funny glasses to countdown to 2022 and 7pm and put the kicks to bed! I was lame and went to bed before midnight but I was up nursing at midnight so it counts!

We had a great 2021 and even with some unexpected bumps in the road we have God's love and have been so blessed. I wonder what 2022 will bring!