Black Friday--No Pun Intended

A few years ago, Jason and I experienced Black Friday for the first time. We stood in long lines in the middle of the night in freezing cold weather and braved the mass of people crazily hunting down their prizes. We learned our lesson. Now we just go if there is a really good deal on something we really want, and even then we don't normally go when the store first opens. We go once the madness has died down. It's usually just Jason who goes since we have kids now.

We weren't planning on doing Black Friday shopping last night (especially since lots of stores opened at 8:00--that disgusts me). We looked at the ads yesterday just to see if there was anything good and we did find something exciting--a bike for Callie, but we were worn out once we got home last night. I went to bed around 10:30, but Jason wasn't tired yet, so he stayed up. Some time later, he came into our room and told me he was going to go get that bike. He was successful and even got a couple of other things. Callie will be sooooooooooooo excited.

This morning, we joined my Aunt Nancy, Uncle Mike, and my cousin, Alyssa (from my dad's side of the family--the Black side of the family--hence the title of my post) in their yearly tradition of going to a Christmas tree farm. They've been going for about 23 years now! My family joined them a couple of times, but I don't remember. I've just seen pictures of myself, all bundled up in a big coat and gloves, with my cousins, in front of uncut trees.

The farm was over an hour north of Dallas out in the middle of no where. It was a beautiful drive and it was so nice to get out of the city. They had a hay ride and a really fun play ground with swings, slides, a maze, Christmas decorations, and picture-taking spots. They even had a little train ride for the kids (water barrel seats, pulled by a tractor). We had such a great time! Callie loved touching all of the trees and her favorite things at the playground were the play car with a Christmas tree strapped to the top and the airplane swing.

Both of our girls loved Alyssa!

 

Uncle Mike, Aunt Nancy, and Alyssa holding the tree she cut for an elderly lady from church.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We got together with my sisters and their families. It was the first time we had all gotten together since the summer. My sister, Melissa, hosted our feast, and we got to eat on her beautiful china. We had tons of food and it was all delicious, especially Melissa's stuffing and Andrea's sweet potatoes and pecan pie.

We had 8 kids present, ranging from 6 months to 12 years old. Callie always loves going to Melissa's house because they have lots of babies, baby toys, and her fun cousin, Hailey. Hailey will be 3 in February, and those two girls play so well together. At one point I saw them both taking a toy shopping cart around the house, filled with babies. Callie was pushing from one end and Hailey was pulling from the other.

The men watched football while my sisters and I chatted. It was so fun to be with them again, because it's been a while since that's happened.

Yesterday, I started following President Monson's advice from General Conference to take an inventory of the blessings, big and small, that have shaped my life. It's been amazing to look back and recognize so many blessings that I hadn't realized before that have helped bring me to where I am now and make me who I am.

I am so thankful for my family. I'm thankful for my sweet, loving husband who is so patient and forgiving and who works so hard for our family. I am thankful for my sweet girls who mean the world to me. I am thankful to live close to my sisters and to have this time to spend time with them.

I am thankful for my amazing parents who have always been so loving and supportive. I was especially thankful for them as I thought back on my childhood, counting my blessings and being reminded of all that they have done for me to make sure that I had the best life possible. I miss them so much. I miss having them just a few hours away, but I am thankful for the time we had to live so close and to spend  time together.

I am thankful for this phase in my life. That I get to stay at home with my girls, that Jason has a job, that we live in a great place. I am so thankful for the ward that we live in now where I feel so welcome and valued. I am so thankful for my knowledge and testimony of the gospel and for the peace and joy that it brings to my life.

I am thankful that I have so much to be thankful for.

We Bought a Christmas Tree!

Last week, we picked out our very own tree. The past 4 Christmases, we borrowed a tiny table-top tree from Jason's parents with the exception of one year when my Grandma lent us one of hers. 

I've been so excited for Christmas this year, because Callie is excited and is understanding more this year. Every time we go to a store that has Christmas trees and decorations, she exclaims, "Christmas!!"  We've been asking her what she wants, and she always says she wants a baby and a teddy bear. Babies are her favorite thing so that was not a surprise (although she has plenty of babies already). She wants a teddy bear because of one she saw at Sam's Club that she likes.

Even though it was still a little early for a tree, I just couldn't stand my anticipation of seeing the look on Callie's face when we lighted our own tree at home, so we bought one. We were originally going to buy a cheap, small tree and add a decent tree to our what-we-want-to-buy-once-we've-bought-a-house list, but we caved and bought a 7.5' tree. What we didn't think about in the store was how we were going to fit the tree in our already full car. This is what we came up with, but the picture does not do it justice.

The tree took my seat in the front and even took up space in the back. I was squished between the girls. The few times I've given people rides in my car, I always send a tiny kid to sit in the middle, and it's usually cramped for them. My left leg and hip were under the side of Callie's seat and my torso was forced to the right, next to Maddie's car seat. In other words, my spine was forced into an S shape. It was hilarious and, at the same time, pretty painful for my back (especially when our trip to a drive-through on the way home took much longer than expected).

We set up the tree the next day. Aside of being excited to see it, there wasn't really room to store it without rearranging our whole house.

Lately, Madison has been doing lots of...

sitting,

 standing,

(Sometimes she'll even let go for a couple of seconds before falling.)

and crawling.

Madison's Stats

This week I finally took Madison to her 6 month check-up. Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lb (15%)

Length: 25 1/4" (25%)

Head: 17" (75%)

She grew one inch taller, one pound bigger, and her head is 3/4 inch bigger around. 

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this on my blog yet, but Madison started crawling last Wednesday! I told the doctor that she had started crawling, but I don't think he believed me because he said, "she's too young to start crawling! She must be getting ideas from [Callie]." About 2 minutes later he told me that in the next couple of months she'll start crawling and proceeded to tell me all of the steps leading up to crawling. I wanted to call him out on it and I wanted to prove it to him, but I didn't; however, I did run home and take a video of her crawling, but Blogger keeps having errors when I try to upload the video, so for now you'll just have to take my word for it.

Family Staycation

Jason got an extra week of vacation because of how crazy busy season was, so this week we had a family staycation! Here are some of the things we did...

Train Ride and Lunch in Downtown Dallas:

This was Callie's and Madison's first train ride! Madison slept in her car seat the whole time, but Callie really enjoyed it.

Then we had lunch in the Plaza of the Americas. Callie got a Happy Meal while enjoying watching the ice skating and the glass elevators going up and down.

Ward Halloween Party:

This was the best we could do to get a picture of Callie in her costume. She was a princess. Her tiara broke a day or two before (I think I was more upset about it than she was).

A few hours before the party, Callie woke up from her nap really grouchy. She didn't want to dress up, eat dinner, take pictures, or go to the party. She did finally come around, so we went to the party, but she didn't last long enough to do the trunk-or-treating. It was sort of a bust, but oh well. I've learned that toddlers just won't always cooperate, no matter how fun you think something will be for them.

Visit to Whiterock Lake:

We live close to Whiterock Lake, but hadn't seen it since moving here. We played on the playground and then checked out the lake.

 Fort Worth Zoo:
We visited the zoo on Halloween, so the girls wore Halloween shirts. We had a great time at the zoo. It was so fun to show Callie all of the animals she sees in her books and to see her reactions to things.

Madison was a trooper. She slept, played, relaxed, and only cried for a few minutes the whole 3 hours we were there.

We didn't take Callie trick-or-treating that night, because they don't really do trick-or-treating in our community of apartments and I'm pretty sure Callie would have been too shy/scared to do it. Maybe next year.

Date
For the first time in months and months, Jason and I went on a date--just the two of us. My good friend and neighbor came over to be with the girls while they took their naps. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch, and then we did some Christmas shopping for Callie. We even held hands!! We don't get to do that very often since we're always holding children and pushing carts/strollers. We felt young and carefree. It was a really nice break.

Neighborhood Searching
We've done this many other times over the past few months. It's pretty fun. We pack up the kids and some lunch and drive to cities within a reasonable distance to look at neighborhoods, trying to find places we'd like to buy a house in the future.

Other than the things I've already mentioned, we played games, watched movies, went on daily walks, slept in (until around 7:30 or 8:00 most mornings!!!), ate pancake breakfasts, and thoroughly enjoyed each others' company.