We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years! I told Daniel the other night that this was my best Christmas yet. This was our first Christmas at our home! My family came to us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day- and it was so great! We went to Christmas Eve services at OUR church for the first time ever, and enjoyed food and fun at our place. It was definitely a full house, but what more could you ask for on Christmas?

An impromptu family photo after church- we got home just in time for the blizzard to come snow us in! (See Ellie in her dress that Grandma Marcia made her!)
Caleb did surprisingly well at church- thumbs up to our church for providing little bags for the kids, complete with animal crackers and stickers)

Caleb dancing to his own music:
Some of his many Elmo presents:
New firetruck! (looks like we lost a sock somewhere...)
Ellie and Grandma Janet on Christmas morning:Christmas Jammies:

She LOVES her new dolly:
Ellie and mommy:
Caleb and Uncle Thomas, his new BFF:
Like father, like son:
Sam even got a Christmas haircut! This is him before- very shaggy!

We went to Emporia the weekend after Christmas and had such a fun visit!! We are blessed to have such great families.

Caleb and Grandpa opening stockings:
Four generations in this picture:
Caleb hanging out with cousin Courtney:
Ellie tried out her walker for the first time...Caleb was supervising, of course...

The weekend before Christmas, my cousins Whitney and Shelby came for a visit. We had so much fun baking and shopping and exploring KC. And they got to finally meet Caleb and Ellie. Caleb has been talking about them ever since- I think he had just as much fun as we did!

We headed to the Plaza and had dinner at the Melting Pot. There is nothing like big pots of chocolate and cheese!!!! :
The girls with Caleb and Ellie (Ellie is sporting her new outfit they got her, complete with pink leopard print coat!)

Our new years was also eventful, but in other ways. Dan and I had to skip the parties and enjoyed take out and a movie this year. Caleb has been sick this week, so we were at the mercy of his stomach bug.
This last week has been a reminder that nothing could have prepared me for motherhood! Having a family of my own has shown me love deeper than I could have ever imagined, and brought me to moments of intense frustration. I have found myself in states of total joy and total exhaustion, sometimes simultaneously. There are certain moments when I have to step back and say- 'no one told me about THIS!' and 'where is the manual??' I could use a chapter on "how to survive the 2's" or "helpful hints for when your kid has some sort of undefined stomach bug". Last week, I received the dreaded phone call at work from Caleb's preschool: "Caleb got sick this morning and we think you should probably come pick him up." It turns out Caleb threw up all over his teacher (poor Miss Kristin!!). So I went and picked him up and took him to the doctor- they suggested just keeping him hydrated and that it would probably clear up in a few days. When we got home, Caleb had only 2 requests: he asked to put on his "elmo shoes" (new elmo slippers he got for Christmas) and his Jayhawk shirt. He could have asked for anything in that sweet little "sick" voice and I would have agreed :) So I got him all dressed and situated on the couch with his Elmo DVD playing. Just when things seemed under control, I was in the process of putting down a towel just in case.....he got sick again- which resulted in a change of clothes for both of us, lots of upholstry cleaner, and trashing one of my decorative pillows (that I really liked!). I will spare you the rest of the details but it has been a humbling past few days. He was doing much better by Friday, so I decided to go ahead and take the kids to Wichita as planned. On the way home today, I heard the dreaded two words "I pooped". Again, no details, but you can only imagine the mess we had to clean up when I got home- the carseat may never be the same :/ Thank goodness for my awesome husband, because I was definitely teetering on the edge of a breakdown by the time I got home!! C has been so cranky and irritable, not to mention destructive! He totally ripped my mom's wallpaper off the wall near her kitchen- I can't take him anywhere- haha :) And other times, he is the sweetest most precious little pumpkin ever!! Like I said, nothing could have prepared me for this roller coaster of motherhood- and we are only just beginning :)