merry merry merry christmas

 

we had a WONDERFUL week.  for memory book purposes, here's a recap.

we started christmas with dinner at babe's in arlington on wednesday night with most of my family, then christmas with the link family on thursday morning, our family football game that afternoon, and more good homemade food that evening.  friday evening we had dinner with the pritchards and link's great grandmother, meme, at colonial and christmas at their home.

saturday was christmas eve and jay's parents (nana and poppy) and grandmother (meme) along with my parents (hunny and papa) celebrated together with us at the christmas eve service at our church, wilshire.  our little family even lit the christ candle, and link did great.  he loves light and candles and proclaims it all "HOT" which was hilarious. we had tamales and chili here that night and enjoyed a beautiful night.  christmas day we all joined together again along with my brother, jarrod's family here at our house for brunch and a few more gifts.  lots of fun, lots of family, and lots of worship - of that miracle baby, jesus.  talk about amazing.  thank you, God, for the gift of your Son.  thank you, Jesus for your gift of love.

fall on your knees
oh hear the angel voices
oh night divine
oh night when christ was born...

some pics from our christmas week-

reindeer games

link fam

football boy

finley "walking the aisle" to link.  adorable!

post xmas eve service romp!

stocking stuffers

little drummer boy

wow!  cool!  reaction to the farm...haha

tired little boy

he loves, loves airplanes.  future pilot?!

with daddy celebrating a much needed night out, just us, christmas night at snuffer's.  what a great way to cap it all off!  yum!

much love to you and yours - merry christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!!!!

a lover of christmas already...

a trophy, a broken tent, screaming santa, and a choo-choo

i haven't blogged since thanksgiving, so i'll do a "quick" recap before christmas is suddenly upon us.  :)

jay and i went to waco with some friends to cheer on the bears against our hated longhorns, and they did not disappoint!!  and of course this week i made sure link saw the heisman trophy presentation and he chanted, RGthreeee!  so cute.  amazing to watch the baylor nation accept their first heisman.  love it!

courtney was thirsty ;)

we've also visited santa with jay, papa, and hunny (my parents) and gone to see the trains at north park with one of link's very best friends, finley.  let's just say the trains were the hit, as was time with finley.  as to santa, i LITERALLY do not have a picture (with santa) that doesn't have me in it, trying to keep link calm.  so at this point, we have no pic with santa.  happy family pre-santa pics will have to suffice.  :)

isn't finley precious?  no wonder link has a crush.  he RUNS to hug her every time they see each other.

 HOLDING HANDS.  adorable. :)

he clearly had not seen santa yet in this photo

my dad has white facial hair, so this may have to be our santa photo this year!

and on sunday, link busted out of his crib tent.  he has already pretty much completely broken his pack and play crib tent (yes, we had both.  don't judge. :)), so we decided it was time.  wow.  i had no idea what i was in store for...these last few days we have been operating on very little sleep in this household.  what is up with waking up early once you aren't confined?  this morning he was up at 3:45am.  and the last few, 5:30...what gives??  and of course he just climbs out of his crib and comes in and jumps on our bed, shrieking with laughter.  suggestions??

anyway, today we decided it was time for a big boy bed. we already have a set of twin beds, so it was just a matter of mattresses and bedding.  we pulled it together this morning and had him in his new digs by nap time.  funny that it took me three months to decide on crib bedding and one morning to pull together this ensemble.  pregnancy must make me lack in decision making abilities.  :)

oh, he felt like such a big shot.  first he got to sit at the counter for the first time at HP pharmacy for lunch, then he got a big boy bed, and all this just in time for his afternoon nap.  quite the afternoon for the little man!

you see that finger he has up in the last photo?  probably not a coincidence that he spent the following hour NOT listening to me and getting out of bed at every opportunity.  haha.  but, now, he sleeps.  amazing to think someday he might actually choose to go get in bed on his own.  ah, this too shall pass.  it's so hard to keep a straight face with some of the antics he tries to pull getting in and out of the bed.  and even through the exhaustion, i know i will someday miss the fact that right now he wants nothing more than for me to come in and lay next to him, play with those precious blonde curls, and tell him, "mommy is here."  and i do. and i love it.  sigh.  :)