Christmas in Kansas - Part 2

It was pretty cold while we were in Kansas (but no snow!), so we stayed inside most of our trip.  But we entertained ourselves with cooking meals, baking cookies, watching fun movies, playing games, and taking care of the little ones.  We really enjoyed hanging out with everyone, and shared a lot of laughs!

 

Christmas in Kansas - Part 1

On Friday, we drove to Mesa, flew to Wichita, ate dinner, and then drove to my parent's home in Chanute (over 8 hours door-to-door).  It was a very long day of travel for the kids, who missed their afternoon naps and don't especially enjoy sitting.  Still, they did pretty good with all of it - Henry napped for a little bit on the plane, and Evie fell asleep in the car on the drive to Chanute.
We were so thrilled that we could spend Christmas with my entire family this year!  Kevin, Sabrina, and their sweet little Hannah drove up from Houston for the week, and it was so great to spend time with them.  It was pretty crazy much of the time, with 4 little ones under the age of 4 years old.  But they had a great time playing together and we had so much fun visiting with everyone!!

Christmas Festivities at Trish & Marshall's

On Friday evening, we met up with Trish & Marshall, Kelsey & her college roommate, and Marian & Rick to watch a really great Christmas program.  Evie loved all of the singing!  We spent the night at their house and after breakfast on Saturday morning, we made Christmas cookies!  We had so much fun with everyone, it was such a blast!

Henry's First Haircut

Henry's cute, Beetles-style mop has started getting a little too shaggy, and we're planning to get some professional family photos taken when we're in Kansas for Christmas.  I've tried trimming Henry's hair before and it's been next to impossible.  My friend Erica has a friend, Chad, who is a great hair stylist and really good with kids, and they agreed to drop by today and give Henry a quick haircut.  Chad worked very quickly and the whole thing was over in less than 10 minutes.  Henry did not enjoy any part of it, but seems to be feeling fine now and his haircut looks so adorable.

A Quick, Mid-Day Bath For Henry

It was one of those diaper-changes that required a bath afterwards.  Henry was so amused by the running water that I wanted to get some photos.  Also, I don't think we have any pictures of his cute, chubby, naked butt so this should be a fun one for when he's older.

APS Christmas Light Parade

This is quickly becoming one of our favorite holiday activities!  This year, we invited our friends Charlie & Christy to join us.  It was super crowded as always, but Joe put our chairs out in the morning to save our spot (so nice!).  Evie and Henry really enjoyed the parade, the lights, the marching bands, the group of baton twirlers, old cars, floats, and music.  It is such a fun parade, and Evie especially loved the guest appearances by Mickey & Goofy.  At the end of the parade, Evie tells Joe that we need to go find Mickey.  Joe tells her that he is going home to sleep.  Evie responds with "well, we can wake him up!"  And for the entire car ride home, she continues to repeat that we need to go wake up Mickey, it was hilarious.
After we got home, we put the kids to bed and had some fun adult-time by the fire pit.  Such a fun night!!

Henry Is Messy

We ate pasta tonight, and this is what Henry looked like by the end of it.  Joe made me a deal to wash dishes if I would clean Henry up.  And I think I had to use three wash cloths to get him just mostly clean.  We make spaghetti with penne pasta because it's easier for the kids to eat, so luckily there were no spaghetti noodles in his hair, just sauce.  Such a cutie!