Life Is Just So Daily

Friday, January 31, 2014

Christmas with Darnin & PawPaw, 2013 (Part I)

Late in the afternoon/early evening on Christmas, we loaded up and headed to Tyler to see Darnin & PawPaw for Christmas...



We had shepherd's pie for dinner, and it was delicious!
We sat around and watched "Christmas Vacation." Clearly, I made sure that my family was Griswold-ed out for the occasion. {You serious, Clark?}
Darnin had a cocoa-bar all set up for us. Or rather, all set up for Gage, and others were welcome to enjoy it also. Hot chocolate at Darnin's is kind of one of his favorite things.
So happy to be together...

 Darnin had this old mixer/beater/whisk thing. Gage was happy to give it a try.

It proved to be a bit harder than he thought it would be.

Gage was happy to knock around his little wrestling buddy, Rey Mysterio. {Do not ask me how or why he's into wrestling. Boy thing, maybe? I dunno. It's not something we watch around here, but he checks out the books at the library about all of the different wrestlers. We've read them all, I think. Rey's his fave. Wrestling: yuck.}
We set the living room up for the boys to sleep in there....and well, I slept in there on the couch too.
Eliette got to sleep with Darnin & PawPaw, and Daddy got one of the guest rooms all to himself.

 ....and that marks the end of Christmas Day, 2013. Gage and I fell asleep in the living room, and Trystan and Carter came in and slept in there too, at some point. We just know that they were there when we woke up!

Part II coming soon!


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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Baby-Dog-Riddle.

What do you get when you take the front half like this:


And combine it with a back half like this:
????????

Baby-Dog?
Bab-og?
Eliette-Ranger?
Eli-anger?
A Rang-ette?

I don't know....But I know that before this little one could crawl forward, she could back herself into the most precarious of situations:
{Just look at that little face! "Yup. I'm stuck. Again."}
 (Pictures actually are from 12/25/2013.)

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Friday, January 24, 2014

Santa came!

Christmas morning, 2013.
Gage's 9th Christmas morning; Eliette's first.



Gage woke up first. He checked out his Santa stuff briefly....

Without any prompting, this sweet little boy just had to go wake Sister. He was so excited to show her what Santa left for her.

How blessed am I that he loves his sister so? How blessed are we that we have these two amazing, beautiful, and healthy children??? So blessed! And I am so glad that I have these pictures of Brother waking Eliette up on her very first Christmas morning. So sweet!

Under the tree with gifts and toys and merriment!









For Christmas, Baby Girl got her very first baby doll.... At first, she wanted NOTHING to do with it. Truly, if you put a toy in front of her, her hands would come together to touch, grip, and grab the toy. You put this baby doll in front of her? Her arms would swing out to the sides and upward, as if to say, "I'm not touching that! What is that!?" So funny!
Eventually she touched the baby doll....even if it was only to say, "Take that, you imposter! I'm the baby around here!"

...but then, she came around. She was curious, but ultimately, she's all 'take-it-or-leave-it' about the baby doll at this point...


The late morning chaos:








...and last but not least: Gage's GrandDaddy Longhorn spent the night with us. He scattered Gage's Christmas gift throughout the tree. Gage was thrilled!
We finished the morning up with a big breakfast. GrandDaddy headed out, and we all got to nap and rest. It was wonderful!

Ahhh.....what a great Christmas morning.


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Thursday, January 23, 2014

Christmas Eve, 2013

Last year on Christmas Eve, we went to the "Children and Family Candlelight Service" at our church, and we enjoyed it so much, we said that we'd try to do it every year while the kids are young. This year, GrandDaddy Longhorn was spending the night with us, so he got to go with us. Gage thought it was such a treat!

Before we headed out to church:

 Here we all are before the service:
The service is always wonderful. I couldn't help but get all choked up this year with Baby Girl at church with us. A year ago, I was pregnant with her, and had just found out that we'd have a daughter. Two years ago at Christmas, I was an anxious hormonal mess in the throes of fertility treatments and spending what would be our final Christmas with Allen.

Anyhow....it's just.....different. Our lives have changed. Life has changed us.
...every good and wonderful thing, I just want to soak it up like a sponge, and never forget.

So, just being there, at that church service with our perfect little family, it's like I wanted to freeze time when Eliette was rocking out to "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" while standing on Daddy's knees, and Gage was snuggled in the bend of my arm. I can say that I truly appreciated every bit of that moment, and I wanted it to last forever.

Eventually Eliette fell asleep. We listened to the service and watched as the Nativity was acted out by children we know. Having just had a baby myself, I wanted to cry to think of Jesus as a baby, being born in a manger. I wanted to cry for Mary and how scared she must have been, and how just grossly inadequate that seems for our Lord.

It was just a very thought provoking service for me this year in particular.
Like I said, I just wanted to soak it all up with a sponge.
I was acutely aware of how very blessed I am.
So blessed.


* * * * *


After church we headed home and had buffalo stew for dinner. We then went over to James & Jessica's for a quick visit and to give R1 & R2 their gifts. Love these sweet boys!
Jessica and her mom were making cookies, and Jessica gave Eliette her first mixing lesson.
:)


Then what???
Hubby wanted us all to load up and go look at Christmas lights in the neighborhood. Apparently one neighbor had his/her/their lights set to the tune of "What Does the Fox Say?" Unfortunately at this point in the evening, I was starting to really have a headache creep in.

Eliette didn't last long in looking at the Christmas lights, and with her crying in the car, the flashing holiday lights, and being a passenger in the backseat of my own car---my head was ready to explode!

We got home quickly, and I was able to get in bed. Oh, my sweet husband. Truly, as I post this, I cannot remember if I put Eliette to bed or if he did. I have no recall of tucking in either of my children or getting Gage into his Christmas jammies. What I do remember is my husband finding the super-strength ibuprofen left over from my c-section, and him helping me into bed with my eye mask. I vaguely recall a conversation about gifts, and I was soon asleep.

....for a little while at least.


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