I was pretty nervous about the holidays this year. We go and do a TON during Christmas and I didn’t know how it would all go with a baby who wasn’t even three weeks old yet and a mommy who surely wasn’t through all the “fun” postpartum healing and hormones. Zach and I agreed that the kids come first. We were going to do whatever it took to make sure Brittlynn was able to eat and sleep when needed (at this point she was falling into her own schedule beautifully, which I’ll discuss more in the weekly summary) and that WE got the rest WE needed. We skipped the big Parker dinner on the 23rd because it simply didn’t make sense to load her in the car and take her just to turn around and come back to feed her again. I suggested letting Kye spend the night at Mrs. Charlotte’s like we usually do but having us three come back to the house. However, Zach is hardcore about that tradition (even though all we’d be missing was the sleep) so we packed up all our stuff to spend Brittlynn’s first night away from home!
Kye and I have a tradition together of doing our countdown calendar and getting a picture on the last day before Christmas 🙂 Excited for them to take turns putting one up each day this next Christmas!!!
While I was nervous about how all the activities would go, once Brittlynn fell into her schedule it worked out so perfectly with the things everyone already had planned. We got up on the 24th and I fed her while Zach gave Kye breakfast then we used that nap to all get ready and loaded up to go. As soon as she woke up we tossed her in the car and headed over to Mrs. Charlotte’s (they live 25 min away so you gotta plan for that trip!). When we got there I nursed her while we all decorated our ginger bread houses. Usually it’s pretty stiff competition but this year the kids were old enough to be involved so it turned more into helping them and attempting to prevent them from eating all the candy…we weren’t very successful on that one!
Payton and Kye
Zach was still trying to be all hardcore about his house…c’mon Daddy let Kye help!
When she got done feeding Daddy got to hold her and Kye and Mommy got to decorate
Our family!
Everyone had planned to go to Little Mama’s for lunch then come back to the house for a bit and go back to Little Mama’s that afternoon to exchange gifts. That was too much for us, even though they live literally around the corner from each other. We opted out of the lunch so our kids could both get solid naps (before his nap Kye wanted to play outside…here’s a video of his batting skills). It worked out great and after Brittlynn’s 1:00 feeding I was able to go out and watch a little bit of the annual Parker football game.
OUT! What I love to see 😉
After both Kye and Brittlynn woke up we got ready to go to Little Mama’s to do the gift exchange with the big family. I pumped and took her a bottle (her second time eating from one, that will also be mentioned in the weekly post!). We got over there and Mr. Rusty, of course, wanted to feed it to her. She downed 4 ounces in like 3 min flat!!!
Kids got to open their gifts
And Big Daddy got to hold Brittlynn for the first time
This is them “closing” their eyes for a surprise gift haha
Look at Kye’s hand obviously not covering his eyes!
Aunt Karen got them a wagon! Fun!
This picture of Casey reminds me of her in high school for some reason
The older kids wanted to play outside so we took Brittlynn out to enjoy the pretty weather!
Zach and I had to go back to put her down for her nap (we were there for right around an hour and that was it…just enough time to do the gift exchanges) but Kye was having so much fun in the leaves with Colt that he stayed longer to play
Bath time!
We gave them an early bath and early dinner so there would be time to watch a Christmas movie together. I brought our cookies and letter to Santa from home. Kye’s letter was precious…and yes, I asked him what he wanted to say to Santa and he told me what to write. Here’s what it says:
Dear Santa: Ho! Ho! Ho! And ROAR from Kye! Kye as been a good boy. Please bring him Lightning McQueen, a choo choo and a choo choo track. Please bring Brittlynn and giraffe and bring Sadie a Lightning McQueen car. Mommy and Daddy would like an alligator this year! Enjoy your cookies! We love you!
On a pallet on the floor to watch the classic “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer”
Reading The Night Before Christmas
(and you can tell Brad was LOVING it hahahahaha)
so sweet with G-Mama
I crack up at this for two reasons:
1. It was like 7:00 and all the kids wanted to eat bananas
2. During the movie Mrs. Charlotte said randomly “oh no problems!” and we all couldn’t stop laughing about it…it looks like she’s saying it in this pic 😉
Banana heaven
Colt really wanted to hold Brittlynn before bed
Ready for Santa to come!!!
All the kids were in bed by like 7:30 (Colt takes awhile to go to sleep and even he was asleep by like 8:45) so us adults were able to enjoy some quality time before going to bed. I nursed Britt while we enjoyed hot cocoa and cookies and talked a lot. Mr. Rusty, Mrs. Charlotte and Courtney finally looked at Brittlynn’s birth pictures (I’m telling you they are not a very tech savvy family haha) and Zach and I shared Hallie’s Christmas story with everyone. She was such a perfect Christmas miracle and a wonderful reminder of what the season is all about! A wonderful way to end a fun (and a little bit crazy) day 🙂
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