'tis the season :)

I have a 2 year old on my lap at the moment, we'll see how long this lasts......

 

Above is Aubrie's first bite of rice cereal, I didn't realize I had tons of pictures on my SD card until today. So far she's just getting it at dinner time and for the most part that is working through the night, kind of. We've had some rough nights and I'm determined to not make a habit of waking up in the night.

 Tis the season already! I kinda like this new child every Christmas thing we have going on :) Should it be a regular tradition??? ;) Ha! Get no ideas, no Christmas babies next year is the plan. Anyways, we headed to our annual tree far aka Lowes to find the perfect tree :)

 

 We found the perfect tree and headed home. Ready for a warm soup dinner, cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas music and decorating. Sounds fun and perfect, right? I imagined a perfect night teaching Brody how to hang ornaments on the tree, a happy smiling baby girl, Auntie Meghan at the house and Mike and I just watching in shear delight. The night was terrible! Really what was I thinking? Really, a two year old knowing how to hang ornaments on the tree without trying to pull the tree over or poke himself with the ornament holder thing mixed in with a super fussy girl who decided not to nap. I forced it too much. I wasn't greatly let down, in fact I was able to laugh at my high expectations. I found myself telling Auntie after the kids went to bed, "Just put the ornaments on the tree." Which in fact did turn out to be fun as we laughed at how life has changed and how we have entered into the decorating for Christmas when the kiddos are sleeping phase. I know in maybe 5 years it will be fun again :)

 Due to not getting any decorating pictures we snapped some Christmas tree pictures today after church (the one time during the week we all look presentable and out of our jammies, true story!) I love how Aubrie just stares at her brother :)

 There are such stressful, tired filled days to parenting. Some days I just want to lock myself in my room and scream. Some days seem like A and B both got together before the day started and plotted to do everything that makes me go crazy. I love being a momma though! And so even in the middle of the absolute craziness (like Christmas decorating night) I still would never trade those moments because when there are terrible days there are also REALLY, REALLY good days! :)

 We also made a leaf pile today, Aubrie like it more than Brody.

Brody was having too much fun playing fetch with the pups. He loves being outside and so it was such a nice relief to finally let him play outside this afternoon. It's been so cold! We hung some Christmas lights in his room along with a couple other decorations and he LOVES it :) Also another side note....Brody is obsessed with the movie Cars. So much so that I'm thinking I might have to change the theme of his birthday part from Thomas the Train to Cars. We've had to place a limit on how much we watch the movie. I promise you Mike and I have the entire movie memorized. The crazy thing is that it really is such a good movie, we aren't tired of it yet :)