Thanksgiving and 10 Months

We spent Thanksgiving in Lubbock this year. Ryan and Luke had a blast with their cousins and Leah loved spending time with Nana and Grandad and Lucy.

Dinner with Aunt Jane and Uncle Charlie was great.

Crazy how fast 4 of these kids have grown up.

Leah at lunch while on the road.

Greg and I went to the TCU v. Baylor game the day after Thanksgiving. We stood through a torrential downpour and froze our toes off, but it was totally worth it to watch TCU win. It was a great game and the perfect birthday present from my sweet husband. Thank to Grandad and Nana for keeping the kids while we enjoyed our trip.

10 Months Old!!!

Leah's daycare person sends me pictures every day.. I love them!

She has already turned into a little bookworm.

Ryan built a snowman for his sister.

She has the best brothers.

This picture cracks me up - sledding while in shorts. Crazy Colorado weather.

Leah gets a daily report from daycare - each week has a theme and we know what books she read, games played, and songs sang. One report stated she had "free choice toy basket." Greg and I got a kick out of that-all Leah has at home is free choice toy basket.

Leah picked a night when Greg was out of town to have a party from about midnight to 2am.

She was wide awake.

And in a great mood.

I'll never get tired of this sweet face.

The Santa Talk

I will always love this picture - it captures the last day that the boys believed in Santa Claus. The conversation started when Ryan told me that he wanted to believe in Santa, but he really wasn't sure if it was true. For example, it doesn't really make sense how he is able to visit every house on Christmas Eve and why do all of the Santas look different. Luke started trying to explain that he thinks that the way Santa visits every house is through his elves and it's not really him going down every chimney. Ryan then said "I will be disappointed if Santa is not real, but I'll really be disappointed if I'm forced to believe something that isn't true." After some back and forth of saying that Santa is real when you want to believe he is real, etc. Ryan said that he gets it, but he still wants to know because he doesn't want to be "stupid" if Santa is not a real person. Greg finally told him that Santa is not 1 real person, but that there is a little bit of Santa in all of us. Ryan thought that meant that Santa told us what to get him and then we got it. Luke said, "No Ryan, Mama and Daddy order our gifts from Amazon. They are Santa." After the revelation, Luke pointed out a few times that he had found evidence that we had bought his Santa gifts (blue duct tape in the trash can from his R2D2 costume, a calendar that was left in an Amazon box that he later got on Christmas morning). We had been expecting anger or tears from Ryan, but he was fine with it. When I tucked him into bed that night he thanked me for telling him the truth.

Now there are 4 of us in the house who get to keep Santa alive and fun for Leah. Ryan and Luke are excited to get to help out.