Twas the Night Before Christmas

Daddy reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas'

Baking cookies for Santa with Arden

Mike with baby Audrey - it looks like Roxy is curious

Riding in the wagon inside the house because it was too cold outside

Snuggling with Daddy

Matthew likes to help put hats on Audrey

Audrey buckled up for her dr visit

It is Christmas Eve today and the winter weather is here in Dallas, 40's and rainy. It has been a busy week since we brought Audrey home from the hospital 2 weeks ago. She has been a relatively easy baby so far. She started off with the days and nights mixed up but she seems to have that straight now. I feed her every couple of hours during the day and many times I have to wake her to feed her (this never happened with Matthew). At night, she will go 4 hours between feedings sometimes and when she wakes up, I am shocked that she doesn't even cry. The first couple of weeks tend to be easier because babies sleep so much. The challenge will be in the weeks to come when she starts to wake up more. We shall see.

It has been a rough transition for Matthew. He had a cold on the day that Audrey was born and it escalated into 2 ear infections with a high fever. We took Audrey to her first dr appointment on Wed, Dec 15th and we probably should have taken Matthew at the same time. We took him to school and later that afternoon, they called and told us to pick him up because he had a fever. Thankfully, Andy stayed home the entire week because he was a big help with Matthew. Poor Matthew was not feeling well and he wanted Mama all the time but my time was devoted to the baby. It seemed that every time I went to feed the baby, Matthew wanted to be held. It was a long week and by the time Friday came around, Andy says "That's it. No more kids, no more pets. I'm at capacity!" It was funny because Andy was constantly on his toes tending to Matthew and Rusty to a lesser extent. We joked that the baby was the easy one.

On Friday afternoon, my parents and Mike arrived in town. Andy said "Bring in the reinforcements, we need it!" They cooked meals for us, entertained Matthew, and helped with laundry. Matthew did not sleep well at night because his nose was stuffy so he was not his normal self and we had lots of temper tantrums. My parents shared a room with him at night and after several days, my dad started feeling sick. They were supposed to stay through Christmas but they left early on Tuesday so that they could go see a doctor and get some rest. As bad as it sounds, there were some fun events during their stay - Andy, Papa, and Mike went to the Arkansas basketball game on Saturday and on another day Mike and Papa hit some golf balls.

Matthew is finally feeling better. He went to school on Wednesday and Thursday this week. He came home in the best of moods. On Thursday night, Arden came over and they baked cookies for Santa. Matthew is learning about Santa Claus in school but he didn't get a chance to go see him in the mall. Andy read the book, Twas the Night Before Christmas, tonight as a start in our family tradition. I decorated the stairwell with lighted garland earlier in the week and Matthew came home from school and said "it's beautiful!" I bought some stockings and I have not hung them up yet. Matthew tried to put them on his feet. We have lots of gifts under the tree from all the grandparents. Matthew wanted to open them early when we received the boxes in the mail but we made him wait. He hasn't touched the gifts since.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We are truly blessed with our new addition, Audrey. And we are very grateful that Matthew is feeling well in time for Christmas.