Let's Finish off 2008... Part 2

Alrighty... Finishing off 2008...Part 2 will be for December 2008. If you haven't read part 1- you can find it below this post or Here!

December was a BUSY month! In fact, normally I relish Christmas time and try really hard to enjoy my tree and decorations, but this month- I just don't know where it went! I feel like I literally just put my tree up last weekend, when in fact I put it up at the very beginning of December- I think it was the first weekend in December actually... Now, my tree and all christmas decorations are down! Normally I don't take them down until after the new year, but I got some terrible news on monday- one of my former FAVORITE students was killed in Iraq- and I just didn't feel like being Christmasy anymore (more to come on my favorite student- I just need time to gather my thoughts and pics though...)

Okay, on to a lighter subject... our first big event during December was the Turlock Christmas Light parade! It was fun- we got to hang out with the Faddis family and Jon and Belinda's family on the street- however, it was FREEZING cold! I don't know how my child managed to keep from being fussy that night- I'm tellin' you- it was COLD! And the parade was SOOOOOO slow- an hour and a half long- bRrrrrRRR... Anyhow, booger really liked the lights and bands- Turlock High's Band rocked! They have a new band director (this is his 2nd year teaching) and he is Great with the students- so there's my very shameless plug for you all to go check them out some day! ;-)

See the mittens??? COLD!!!!!

See the man with the big blanket behind us??? SOOOO COLD!!!!

This is C and Sophie- aren't they the cutest together? Sophie is only 20 days older than C!

This is the Beautiful Faddis Family: Jimmy, Sophie, Kristy and Winnie Mae.

This is Jon with his adorable daughter Jayden:

SO that was our first fun Christmasy event as a family of 3!

Let's see the next thing that we did was exchange gifts with Andrew and Sandy Cantrell- they were out of town for the holidays and we got to exchange gifts and spend an evening with them before they left... it is always so good to spend time with them- we truly consider them part of our family! Sandy spoiled C and got him the *cutest* Roo stuffed animal and tigger hat from DisneyWorld- it will always remind me of what C was for his First Halloween home with us! That night we also got to congratulate Andrew on his biggest move of his life... he got engaged to the love of his life Gabby! Yeah Andrew!!! We wish you nothing but the best!

A got done with school on Thursday December 18 and my last day was Friday December 19. The 19th we headed to Disneyland... but the only peek you get at that right now is the picture of the 3 of us at the top of the blog... I told you- I will post about that next week! ;-)

Once we got home from Disneyland, I realized that we didn't have a picture of C with Santa yet! So, on December 23 we headed to the mall in the early am to get that done. I seriously thought we must be crazy- the mall 2 days before Christmas- YIKES! However, we got there at 8:45 am and Santa arrived at 9 am- we were the 1st in line! C was totally in awe as Santa came over to him and touched his finger to his- then when I handed C off to Santa this is what we got:

Poor Santa, it was his first picture of the day! Good thing he was such a great sport about it! I put this picture in a picture ornament and whenever we asked C where santa was he would run over to the ornament and touch it and smile! TOOOO FUNNY!

Christmas Eve was our next big day... I cooked most of the day- an 18.64 pound turkey- for 5 people and a 14 month old to eat! HAHA! Can you believe that? However, you can't beat a free turkey right? Who cares if we ate left overs for days!?! ;-) My parents and sister came over in the evening for dinner and dessert- Yum! Mrs. Prindable's Apples- they are GOOD! I bought them on QVC and I will probably start making that a tradition- thanks for that idea Aunt Jackie! After dessert we opened just one gift each- with the exception of C who got to open a gift from us and Nana/Papa. He had fun with the train that we got him from Disneyland! Then we watched our short videos from our Disneyland trip in which C had a blast seeing himself on the TV- too funny! (Don't you just love how I'm teasing you all with the Disneyland references???) Right after that we tried to take a family picture with the 6 of us and a camera with a timer- it was hilarious! Trying to get everyone to smile plus getting C to look at the camera had us all rolling on the floor!

This was the best picture of all of us- with the exception of me- just ignore me!This was my 2nd favorite shot- if A wasn't covering Jenn's face this would be my Fav picture! Silly, tall Allen!My parents weren't over for longer than 2 hours and then it was just us reading our Christmas Shoey & Dot book and the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Then it was bedtime for C and Santa time for us! We had a blast setting things up!

Our Mantel with our overly stuffed stockings! Thanks Santa!

Our tree and all Santa's gifts to Booger!

We didn't take pictures of C opening his gifts but did take lots of video- we just haven't uploaded it to our computer yet- sorry!

Christmas morning was fun, but took forever! At first C had fun opening a few gifts and then he got overwhelmed and had had enough! It took us 1.5 hours to open like 15-20 gifts between the 3 of us! Yikes! We then drove out to my parents house for a delicious christmas breakfast and more gifts. Again C did great for the first one or two and then he was done! We stayed at my parents for about and hour and a 1/2 then drove home for nap time for me and C! We were pooped! Around 12:45 we drove to Turlock to A's parents home to have a late Christmas lunch and to open more gifts. C did great! Allen and I could tell he was very overwhelmed but he showed every one a happy face! We were there for almost 4 hours and then it was time to end our day! We drove home and watched a movie and just tried to decompress from our very busy 2 days...

Poor C was so wound up and overwhelmed that it was much worse than A and I thought- he fought us (physically) while we tried to put him to sleep- there was lots of screaming and arching of the back- poor guy his body was just so wound up. He hasn't had a good nights sleep since Christmas day (I am talking NOT good; 5 hours sleep maybe?)- we are just so hoping that we can get him back on a good schedule- we have tried super hard to keep his world much smaller the past few days!!!

The day after Christmas we hopped back in the car and drove back to Grandma Alvernaz's house so that C could meet A's Godmother, Janet. We stayed for 45 minutes or so and C showed off his skills of being cute and climbing the stairs! Oh what fun he had as we don't have any stairs at our house- thank GOD! After that we went to our oldest and dearest friend Eric's mother's house so that C could FINALLY meet his Godparents: Eric and Dolores! Eric and Dolores totally spoiled C and showered him (& us) with gifts- C also played for a while with Eric's nephew and did great while there. He totally loved Eric and Dolores and I am so happy that now he can call them Aunt Dolores and Uncle Eric! Who by the way get married in less than 6 months! YEAH!!!!

Aren't they the cutest couple???

The last thing that we did this crazy busy month was have Aunt Jackie, Uncle Kevin (our best friends) and their children Josh and Joey over for a delicious dinner of hot dogs and chips! haha! We exchanged gifts and Aunt Jackie got C the cutest fire truck with MegaBlocks in it- he has had a blast playing with this toy!

While I am so very happy to see the year 2008 leave (so many sad things have happened to us, our family and friends) I have to be thankful for this year as well- it brought C home to us! We are INCREDIBLY blessed to have him as our son and we are also so blessed to have our family and friends in our lives- our lives wouldn't be the same without all of you!

So, Good Bye 2008- I won't miss you! And Hello 2009! Here's to hoping that everyone we know and love has a very Happy and Blessed New Year!

Love,
M