the last few weeks...

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! I went back to work, Dhillon got to stay home with Aunt Karri, we celebrated Christmas with family, and now it is time for the new year! whoa! So...here is a recap...

Dhillon was very lucky to have the pleasure of hanging out with his Aunt Karri for three weeks.

When I went back to work, we were going to start Dhillon at daycare, but all signs pointed to that not being the best choice. Instead, Aunt Karri was able to fix her schedule so she could come to our house and keep him here. It worked out so wonderful! Honestly, I did not worry at all. It felt so great knowing that he was home and safe. I knew that Karri would take care of him and she would know exactly how to help him if he was upset. She was so wonderful to work around our crazy schedules, stay until we needed her to, and just be his security blanket for those 3 weeks without mommy. (I think he enjoyed seeing Mikaila and Makenzi everyday too!) Thank you to Aunt Karri for making Dhillon laugh, taking awesome care of him, loving him, holding him, keeping him safe and healthy, putting him down for naps in his crib, visiting Granna and Nanna, and continually texting pictures of our little buddy during the day. We are most thankful (and grateful) for this time that we will look back on and know that he was VERY WELL LOVED and TAKEN CARE OF.

School was out and I got to spend some time with my little man too! I honestly LOVE my Dhillon time! Sometimes we just hang out at home and snuggle or play or giggle or napped. Other times we were out and about meeting friends for lunch, shopping, or just enjoying a drive in the car. Either way, I wouldn't trade it in for anything and most days I wish I could have Dhillon day, EVERYDAY.

Of course we had many Christmas celebrations to attend with friends and family; however, we quickly found out that is not easy on Laela. She is so much of a routine kind of girl that starting on Christmas Eve, she was horrible! Laela acted out so much for two days that I was ready to turn in my mom card and hang her by her toes from the ceiling fan. One funny thing that happened…Laela was being so bad on Christmas Eve, but she finally started to calm down that evening when we were all home and settling in and getting ready for Santa. Well, she asked us to open the gift she made us from school, so we did! Too ironic… Yes…it is Laela’s picture on an angel that she made out doilies and what-not. Super cute. Ro and I looked at each other when we opened and we just laughed! What a wild ending to an awful day!
We did make it through the weekend, with some memorable moments. Here all of the kids exchanged gifts with each other at Granna and Gramps' house. What fun! Laela left Santa a wonderful plate of cookies and big cup of milk! (Thank you to Mikaila for making the reindeer cookies. Laela said Santa would LOVE them…and he did!) Oh and don’t forget Santa’s reindeers. Santa specifically told us that they like to eat carrots during their travels. :) After opening gifts from Santa, Christmas morning was spent with Nanna. We ate an awesome breakfast with Nanna, LeAnn, and the Fatheree’s. YUM! Here is Laela rockin’ her Tinkerbell shirt from Mik and Mak. She loves it and wore it two days in a row (Yes. I said two days in a row. If you know me, even half way know me, you know that we would never wear something twice in a week, much less two days in a row. That is how beaten down I was. I didn’t even argue with her. I just let her do it. I succumbed and hey! Everyone is still alive.)
Just the other day, we wanted some Laela time, so we hit the zoo! Mikaila and Makenzi joined us, while Aunt Karri spent time with D. (They were both thrilled to be back together again!) Anyway, the Dallas Zoo was AWESOME. We went one morning and it was such beautiful weather. Sunny and a high of 65 in Decemeber. WOW! Perfect weather for the zoo and that is probably why they sucked us in with the year long meembership! All three girls had a blast! We got to see many animals, including penguins, chimpanzees, elephants, and zebras. We fed the giraffes and we all rode the mono-rail together. So much fun! (Oh! btw...We decided our next trip would be somewhere on an airplane!) All in all. Wonderful day with the girls!

In just a few hours it will be 2012. This year has flown by. Once again. One year gone and a new year is beginning. We had a crazy year and I am glad to be starting a new one. Several tough, testing, real-life, figure-it-out, kind of moments. We are very thankful that Dhillon joined our family and we couldn't imagine it without him.

Here's to 2012....a year full of happiness, prosperity, hope, helping others more than helping ourselves, friendship, laughter, and love.