blue skies

...smiling at me, nothing but blue skies...

Every day we see more and more of this. I love it! She has been a real challenge the past several weeks- I guess people would call it colic. But now we get tons of these gorgeous grins and lots of sweet little baby cooing. It makes me feel like singing!

Good Times

I'm so behind. I'm probably the only person anywhere still talking about the holidays. Such is my life these days. Despite my "behindness," I did want to share these pictures of our visit from Ev's brother and his family. It was especially fun to see the little cousins interacting now. We got some really sweet pictures. Others, would be in the recycle bin if my vanity had it's way. But, you know, I think photography is all about capturing life as it is. Dark eye circles and funky smiles included. (By the way, I have updated our shutterfly site with the most recent pictures, so check it out if you're interested.) We had a great time showing them around Y-town; picking oranges, eating dates, and chillin' at home together while they turned us all into i-Pad junkies. Thanks for brightening our holiday!

Wrapping Up Christmas

I'm still getting accustomed to it being just the 5 of us at Christmas time. I'm used to lots of people, lots of activity and lots of food. Well, the food we had. Like I said, I'm used to there being lots of people, so I still bake for lots of people. Other than that, Christmas is pretty much like I remember it from childhood: opening stockings in our jammies...looking for our Christmas orange, even though we have no intention of eating it.




Then it's on to Christmas breakfast, and the previously mentioned copious amounts of baked items. This year, we decided to read the Christmas story before we opened any presents from under the tree. Even though we talked about it all during December (and all year round) Everett and I wanted to remind the kids that Christmas isn't about just getting presents. Still, Christmas does bring presents, and we had a great time seeing each other open and enjoy them.



After all the other presents were opened, Daddy and Braden used Braden's new walkie-talkies to radio an urgent message to Trevor. "Trevor, come out to the garage!"

A Visit

Right before Christmas, we had an extra special treat. My sister, Kristen, came to visit for a long weekend. We had a great time just spending time together. We went to a local tamale festival, and tried all different kinds of tamales.



She's an experienced mom and aunt, and she came prepared with some special fun things to do with the kids. They painted wooden ornaments to hold their pictures, and did a super cute felt ornament craft.

I had decided ahead of time that it would be a good chance for us to decorate our gingerbread houses- since we had an extra pair of adult hands.


We went for walks and did some Christmas baking. She helped with laundry (woohoo!) and gave me some grown-up company and conversation. Most of all, she did a lot of baby cuddling. Miss Fiona was feeling very fussy, and Auntie Kristen patiently held her and soothed her so that I could have my hands free for other things. Thanks for visiting us! We miss you!