A Few Pictures from Christmas-time

Jumping with Grandma in his bouncy toy Grant and Jaybin opening presents Emma Lou taking a snooze while we opened presents Grant's first experience at Starbucks. He loved it! Opening gifts as a family Kinsen, Jaybin, and Grant playing the piano Grant playing in Grandma and Pa-Pa's change bucket.

It's about time!

It is so hard for me to believe that it has been nearly 2 months since I last wrote anything on here. Amazingly, a lot has happened since then - I just haven't found much time to blog about it. The end of November was full as we travelled to KY and IN for Thanksgiving. We got home, and had only a couple of weeks at home before we returned to KY and IN again for Christmas. During this time, we had to pack for Christmas, pack Chris to leave for Honduras, where he'll be for the entire month of January, and pack for Grant and I for IN where we'll be for the month while Chris is gone. Plus, I'm trying to get a headstart on packing up a few things for our upcoming move in May. It was a whirlwind...we didn't even get to put up our Christmas decorations because we were so busy. We made it to KY around the 19th of December and had a whirlwind stay there. Between all the Christmas parties and trying to see some of Chris' high school friends, we were kept very busy. Grant did very well, although he came down with a nasty cold. Chris and I did well, too, and really enjoyed seeing everyone. We had lots of family get-togethers, and managed to see most of Chris' family while we were there. Christmas Day dawned bright and early. We were so excited to watch Grant open gifts, but I think he was a little bit overwhelmed by it all. He acted a little bit scared and didn't get in to it as much as we had hoped. But he got some really fun toys and lots of new clothes, so he's set for a while. We had some friends from Med School come through the evening of the 25th and spend the night with us on their way back to VA, which was a lot of fun. It was so nice to see them, and allow our little boys (only a few weeks apart) to play together. We came up to IN on the evening of the 28th and spent the evening with my entire family, including siblings, which was fun. We got up on the 29th and went up to South Bend, IN (about 2 hours north) to my grandparent's house for our Christmas celebration there, which was fun. Of course most of my family was there - aunts/uncles/cousins/etc. We had a lovely Christmas there, spent the night, and went to church with my grandparents the next day. After lunch we went to my grandma's house on my mom's side and spent a few hours there. By this time, I think Grant has hit his waterloo. He's tired of people, very clingy to Chris and I, and extremely tired - so much so that he won't sleep. He screamed most of the time at my grandma Morgan's house, which was disappointing. Christmas at my family's house was lots of fun as usual. Jaybin and Kinsen (my niece and nephew) played with Grant so well this time. It's so much fun now that they're getting older. Grant got a jumpy goy for Christmas, and all three kids had a blast jumping inside together. It was very cute to watch. Of course my family always does something crazy - this year we put tatoos on each other, painted "sea-scape" scenes on the windows, played silly games and took everyone out on a Starbucks field trip. It was fun. Chris, Grant and I had just about had enough of people by this point. We were enjoying everyone so much, but also had been with people non-stop for nearly 3 weeks. So I think we were all looking forward to a little bit of quiet. It has been difficult, but lots of fun. We got Chris off to Honduras early on Thursday morning. Grant and I are missing him like crazy, but we did hear from him yesterday, so we know he's there safely. Only a few more weeks without him, and then back to VA for another whirlwind - new baby, packing, finding a place to live in Jacksonville, moving, and graduating - all in just a few short months. Yikes! Wish us luck!