Better Late than Never

Well, I've joined the club - the "I haven't blogged in forever" club. But I think I take home the prize! Yes, the holidays were super busy and we made a quick trip to St. Louis for Christmas; and Shane didn't really have any time off except New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and I had to work part of those. (I did call in New Year's Eve though...oops). And I knew once Christmas was over I was going to hit "baby mode" and decide to face the fact that we have a baby boy due in February that we have to get ready for...

*switch around the kids' rooms. Avery downstairs to the once guest bedroom, Parker to Avery's room, and new baby to the nursery.

*so now Parker needs new bedroom furniture and we have to make that transition from the crib to the big bed. That's going to be interesting!

*got the furniture for his room; this was pretty easy. A twin bunk bed over a full size bed. So when we do have company Avery can go sleep upstairs in P's room and our guests can have her room.

*Parker's new bedding; not quite as easy. Initially I got lucky and found two quilts at Pottery Barn Outlet on sale with an additional discount. I was pumped. But I got 2 twin size, not knowing we would end up with a twin and full size bed; not the original plan. So I went back to PBO and they didn't have a full size. So I searched online. Found it on Ebay...another victory. 2 days later got an email from seller saying the quilt had already been sold. Back to PBO - do they have it anywhere else. The sweet sales lady looked it up for me, found inventory at PBO in California, but I would have to make the call. Called, they had it, it should be (and better be) on its way. Victory again!

*PAINT! Avery's room was painted bubblegum pink. Doesn't go with Parker's new bedding - ha! Shane's not real excited about this one.

*Another victory - in all my many trips to PBO I found a very cute quilt for Avery's new room, on sale plus a discount...a little something to make it her new room. No painting required.

*so now there's rearranging closets, reorganizing the playroom, putting away toys, and getting rid of toys (something I learned this Christmas...do the toy survey before Christmas b/c you have so much stuff after Christmas to add to the mess!), washing baby clothes, getting baby stuff...

DO I SOUND STRESSED? No, I'm good. One day at a time. That's all I can do.

So before I end, I do want to share some of our Christmas with you. We went to our church's Christmas Eve service and then out to dinner with the Reaves on Christmas Eve. Then we got up Christmas morning and opened presents with the 4 of us. We initiated Santa Claus this year and Avery "got it" for the most part. She had big eyes and a smile on her face coming down the stairs Christmas morning. It was sweet. And then we quickly hopped in the car and headed for St. Louis. I was dreading the drive b/c Parker is not a fan of long trips; he doesn't sit still for long. And our usual half-way stretch would not be happening b/c nothing is open on Christmas. But Praise the Lord, he did remarkably well. This was the result of many answered prayers; I had several prayer warriors on this one! We had a fun time with Grandma & Grandpa and PawPaw & JoJo and Uncle Shad...the kids racked up!

Here's Parker and PawPaw with his new truck

Parker was so tired Christmas day after our trip he was almost too tired to open presents.

Avery didn't miss a beat, though!

And here's our house Christmas morning. Parker was most excited about the strawberry Mentos that daddy put in his stocking. They were gone by the time we got out the door to St. Louis. Mmmm, Mentos for breakfast.

It was a fun Christmas. And best of all, we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus many times that day.