Me Lee and Mr.C: December 2011

Actually, truth be told, it's January 1, 2012. But, I WILL get this posted one day late and I am determined to do better in the new year. This has been one crazy year....building the house, moving, dealing with the never ending house punch list, the landscaping fiasco (never imagined that would be the hardest part of home building), kids starting a new school, then transitioning to another new school, meeting new friends.....all while trying to figure out our whereabouts here. Oh, and raging case of plantar fasciitis that has kept me from the one true form of stress relief I enjoy- running. It has certainly been a challenging year, but it's also been a good one full of positive changes. We hope to be here a long time, so it's nice to feel like we can really settle in. (In the 6 years Lee and I have been married, this is the 4th city we've lived in....although calling this a city is a stretch!)

Colby and Miller are having more good moments than bad together....that's something! This was from a photo session in November.

I just love this picture of Colby. Can't you just see the twinkle of mischief in his eyes?

We even got a good one of all the cousins (no small feat)

Santa came to the local coffee shop, and shockingly, Miller was ok with it.

We were in town celebrating Pop's 70th birthday and had a nice visit with Peepie Miller.

A rare picture of me and Lee dressed up

and an even rarer picture of me and Nan. (I'm wearing heels....I'm only a couple inches taller)

Our house got all jazzed up for Christmas...

and the elf Kix made his arrival and left a letter from Santa.

The kids enjoyed Lego advent calendars this year.

Nana and Granddaddy came for Christmas, and a good time was had by all.

The kids (and someone else) loved decorating cookies with Nana.

Christmas Eve

SO EXCITED!!!

Colby and Miller waiting anxiously at the top of the stairs Christmas morning.

WAIT...did anyone notice that Colby has on different pajama bottoms? Well, funny story about that. At 3AM, Colby came wide eyed and bushy tailed into our room and said loudly "Is it time to get up yet?!?" Lee walked him back to his room, and noted that he was naked on the bottom half- no pull up or pajama pants, which is very odd. So Lee gave him new pants, got him back in the bed and tucked him in. As he was saying good night, Colby said "I hope Santa brings me a Nerf gun." Lee thought that was odd, or maybe just a coincidence....until Colby said "and a Tie fighter that shoots missles". GAME OVER. Busted. Lee knew at that point that Colby had already been downstairs, which explains why he had no pants on. When asked why he did that, Colby said that he "heard a noise". Well, normally when he hears a noise, he screams for us in his room....he does not take his pants off and go downstairs to check it out. So, we know that this was all fabricated....he just could not wait until the morning.

When Lee got back into our room, he told me what happened, and I was devastated. After all, what parents look forward to most on Christmas morning is seeing the faces of excitement and surprise on our children. It's truly magical. And, well, we knew it would not be the same the second time around. We went downstairs to see what Colby had done, and all of his toys had been fondled and moved. (Santa had arranged it JUST SO) We suspect he may have been down there a good 10 minutes just admiring and touching all of his new toys. As we talked about how sad it was, I told Lee that maybe one day, we'd think this was funny. As it turns out, when we told the story the next day, everyone thought it was funny. In fact, Pop said he did that every year. (no surprise there) All I know is that next year, this place will be booby trapped with fishing lines full of jingle bells and there will be no sneaky peeky!

Back to the pictures....