December Part I

Life isn't bad when this is your view.  I love this boy and his big cheeks and rolls.

And life is great when your mother makes all your meals.  I'm supposed to be loosing weight but not with my mother's good cooking.  But that's the nature of the work.  If you diet too much, you have low quality milk and you dry up early.  Not to brag to much but I was able to keep nursing my Roro until he was 2

 One week after Darion was born my friend Amada came and took our pictures right in our bedroom.  She just started picking up photography so we gave her a chance at taking our pictures.  I gave her a $100 tip for her work and time.  We got a few good pictures for keepsake.

I was going to use some of these for our a Christmas card but one day when I was changing Darion's diaper he was smiling a tons and I happened to have the camera nearby and I snapped what I think is an awesome picture.  It got some raves on FB and I quickly got our Christmas cards out early this year!  No newsletters since almost everyone know of our blog and we love digital files over papers.

Reena had market day at school and she and her partner Hope got together and made stuff to sell.  I was very grateful to Hope's parents for taking Reena to Michael's on several occasions to accomplish this task.  It was a very fun event for me to attend.  We also had parent teacher conferences with the girls teachers and they all got good reports.

December 11th was the Zillow Holiday party.  Dan and I left Darion home with grandma and went on a date.  They gave Dan an Apple TV and some gift cards.  The food was amazing and I got to meet some of his co-workers.

This year's neighbors gifts

Being a parent is a lot of work but the reward is high.  Our goal in life is to give our kiddos the best of life.  We want to show them the world, and all its beauties.  There are many beautiful cultures out there and being open and knowledgeable about them makes you less closed minded.

It's a happy month for Reena.  She lost so many more teeth and her braces are off!  She had to get impressions for retainers but are much happier with them.  This picture cracks me up

And since we're talking mouth and teeth, check out Brie's funky adult teeth growing behind the baby teeth!

We had 2 weeks without visitors besides my mom and then my sister came for a visit with her family.  My newphew Zach also brought his two friends Cold and Conjunctivitis. He had a terrible cough and runny nose for days and his cold and pink eyes spread to my mom and Ronin and Debrie.  I was scared to death the baby would pick it up.  Baby spent days in our room and that was miserable for everyone.  But with lots of Lysol and washing we got through it.

Then our lovely Astle cousins came with some gifts and snuggling with the baby

The day they came we got a little bit of snow in the Highlands.

That made everyone pretty happy and hopeful for a white Christmas