Christmas with the Holland Family 2012

We made it into NC early Christmas Eve evening and we were pretty tired. Unfortunately we still had to wrap all of our Christmas presents for everyone since they had been shipped there. (thank you Amazon) The next morning we got moving as quick as we could because we had a jam-packed day of Christmas fun.  

We headed over to the Holland's house and when we got there Nana and Pop had set up Ryan's old train for James. Needless to say he loved it but boy was that thing loud! They are definitely better parents than Ryan and I because I don't know if I could handle that thing all the time. Haha! 

Then it was time to get ready for presents. 

Nana got James a pair of reindeer antlers 

A little help from Aunt Whitney 

 Wow! Pop made James (and all future grandchildren) a train table and bought a whole train set to go with it.  He even painted it purple and gold! How cool is that? 

Best thing of all is that it kept him occupied for the rest of our trip

Hanging out in the tent

It was a beautiful day so we headed outside 

What else do you do on Christmas besides take a walk on the golf course? 

Not sure what he is doing here...

After presents, etc. we had a yummy brunch and got to just hang out together. It was a great way to start off Christmas! 

Shreveport Christmas 2012

I have said it many times but this Christmas was SO much fun with James.  Since we were going to be in NC on the actual day of Christmas we decided to have our own little family Christmas the weekend before.  After it was all said and done I did ask Ryan why exactly we decided to put ourselves through that...lol. No, it was definitely worth it to have a family Christmas but boy did it make for a few hectic crazy days!

The night before Santa was coming we went to sprinkle out the reindeer food. He was SUPER excited.  The funny thing is a few days before we had eaten a snack outside and James had dropped a cheerio on the ground. I told him not to pick it up and he replied that the reindeer could come get it.  He still talks about sprinkling the reindeer food AND that crazy cheerio that he left for them to eat.

Sprinkling the food took all of five seconds, but it was fun

 I have quickly learned that growing up with a dad as a doctor for our children is going to be somewhat of a different experience than I had growing up in a non-medical family. We seem to have some bad luck when it comes to taking call and working around the holidays so are new motto is going to be something like: "Don't make a plan because whatever you plan will definitely not happen". Or maybe "go with the flow" is a better one. Apparently my type-A, need to plan everything personality is going to be challenged through this.  Anyway, poor Ryan worked an extremely long day/night that Saturday and when he finally got home he had a nice box full of many pieces and several hours of train table construction.  Bless his heart, I just said good luck and went to bed and left him out there.

Super Dad 

 We had plans for a special Christmas breakfast but then learned there was going to be an emergency surgery for Ryan to do. So we decided that we would do Christmas lunch and thankfully James gets up so early that we squeezed in Christmas presents before Ryan headed back to work.

Maybe one year I will finally get the names put on the stocking 

James was much more excited this year than last. Last year when he saw his presents he
started crying! 

He loved his new train table from Nene and Pappy 

Ryan loved his ornament that James painted for him 

A griddle! I have wanted one for so long

Our next blog book. I'm sure that is exactly what Ryan was hoping to get for Christmas...

Checking out his stocking 

M&M's! 

 This next picture made me laugh. Out of all of his new toys and things he got he was most excited about what he could eat: M&Ms, a purple "squeezer" and magic straws (turn milk into chocolate milk). The kid is such a little hog when it comes to food.

Trying out his bike from Santa 

Nana and Pop sent him a grill so he cooked us some burgers and hot dogs! 

James and I headed off to church a couple of hours after Ryan left. While there I got a text from Ryan that said his one surgery turned into three. Christmas breakfast/lunch became Christmas dinner.  It all worked out though and we all thoroughly enjoyed our special breakfast food that night when Ryan finally got home.   Even with the work interruptions it was so nice to celebrate with just our little family and since we were leaving very early the next morning for NC it was a great incentive to get all the wrapping paper, etc. cleaned up! 

Exciting News

Though pretty much everyone knows, it's now officially on the blog. We are going from a family of 3 to a family of 4!  In early October we found out the family was growing so when Sara came to visit in November she took a few pictures of the soon to be big brother. 

After telling James he was going to be a big brother we needed to celebrate with some ice cream cake. We are always willing to celebrate with cake around this house! :)

The night Ryan found out

If I had to sum up this pregnancy up until this point in one word I'm afraid I would have to use miserable.  Poor Ryan has had his hands full with a VERY sick wife. I know a lot of people have it worse but it has definitely not be fun. But we are just thankful that so far everything has gone smoothly, and now that I am at the half-way point I am finally feeling better. Praise the Lord!

The day before we left for our Christmas trip to NC Dr. Tynes was sweet to do an extra ultrasound to see if we could find out the gender. I have to admit that I am really spoiled when it comes to ultrasounds. Next week I will be having ultrasound number 5 for this baby.  Since Ryan has an ultrasound machine at his office when we were pregnant with James we would just sneak in after hours whenever we wanted to see him. I think insurance normally only pays for a couple so we are really fortunate to get so many sneak peaks. 

The night before the ultrasound I had almost decided that I didn't want to find out. When I mentioned this to Ryan he informed me that the fact that he was able to get off work for the appointment, we had found someone to watch James, and we were actually going to be able to go together meant that yes we would be finding out.  I love it when Ryan suddenly gets opinionated! When that ultrasound machine came on within two seconds Ryan yelled out "Boy"! I guess its a good thing we weren't trying to be surprised because there was NO denying what we were looking at.  Hooray!  I love being the mom of boys and this also means I get to continue to be the only woman of the house for at least awhile longer. :) I was going to be creative and make our families wait to find out what the gender was but then I decided that since they had to miss so much living far away that that wouldn't be fair. So we told them right away and they were excited as well.

Jennifer was so sweet to let James hang out with Taylor and Reece since I couldn't find a sitter. When I went to pick him up I convinced her we needed to go to lunch to celebrate. Where else do you go with an almost 1 year old, a 2 and 3 year old? Chick-fil-a of course! 

So thankful and excited about our growing family. It's going to be a big year! 

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We have had so much fun this past week doing all sorts of exciting Christmas activities. I made a little list of things ideas for us to do throughout the month and it has been fun (and exhausting) to do some of them over the past week.

We have painted Christmas ornaments- fun, chaotic, messy, but memorable. 

This year I was able to participate in an advent ornament exchange. Basically 24 ladies each made a specific ornament that corresponds with a daily devotion to do with our kids about the true meaning of Christmas.  We had a fun get together where we exchanged our ornaments and got our devotion books.  I don't know how much James is actually learning at his age but it has been special to do each night as a family. 

We needed a tree for our advent ornaments. We all went to Hobby Lobby and it was probably the craziest day ever in there.  Ryan quickly determined we needed to get out of there ASAP and informed me that this was the perfect tree for our purpose. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind but considering we got it for less than 7 dollars and it got us out of Hobby Lobby, I think it will be fine for this year.  

Helping put on our daily ornament 

We worked on our letter to Santa.  This is exactly what he told me but later he clarified that he really wanted a purple train table. Don't think that is going to happen...

Our church had a birthday party for Jesus with a Polar Express theme.  I was super impressed with how thought out they had done everything. James was SO excited when he got his invitation in the mail. 

Wearing his conductor's hat that he was given 

Working on a craft 

Building trains 

James was excited that his buddies Brown and Briggs were in his group

I wasn't so sure if he would like riding in this train. I made sure his seat belt was tight! 

Hang on buddy! 

Taking a ride on the track 

Bean bag toss 

Yum 

 At the very end they lit candles and sang Silent Night. I wasn't so sure about my two year old holding a lit candle...  As everyone started singing Silent Night all soft and beautiful James started singing Happy Birthday at the top of his lungs.  Hopefully we didn't ruin the mood for everyone, just those around us. 

That night we decided to go to Christmas in Roseland.  It was kind of a crazy, packed weekend but Ryan is on call most of the rest of the month so we had to maximize our time. James went CRAZY at this place.  He ran around non-stop the whole time we were there. 

Snow! 

Getting on the Roseland train 

Looking back at this post I realize that it has been a really busy week! Looking forward to lots more fun in the weeks to come.