Christmas Time is Here

Two weeks before Christmas the building where Tanner has been working was in survey mode, so Tanner was working long hours. They did phenomenally well and I'm so proud of all their hard work!  

The week before Christmas Tanner received a phone call and was asked to take over a building in Vasalia... the next day. For at least 6 weeks. Sooooooo, it was a wild and crazy Christmas but we still loved every second of it.

It's a good thing I'm used to all this single parenting. The day Tanner left he had his administrators holiday party. They went to Sanoma and raced cars and gave each other lavish gifts. Seriously. It was like the Bachelor only there was no date. Just dudes. That night he made the drive down south. I wasn't feeling well when he was preparing to leave and VERY nervous about him going but I am a firm believer in the power of prayer. It all ended up ok. And we are surviving. :-)

He had to work over Christmas Sunday weekend so I took the kids to church for the first time all by myself. There was no way I was going to miss Christmas Sunday! We set the self timer and snapped a couple of pictures when we got home. We did it! I was so proud!

When Tanner came back it was all we could do to give him room to breath! We LOVE him!!!!

And I love this girl's sweet snuggles

And her cute Christmas outfit. She looks like a little elf!

Sad face. It's pretty much adorable...

I know these pictures are random but we are kind of random people who do random things... like play basketball in the house with the yoga ball...

And jump really high outside because it was snowing! Thank goodness it was only for a minute. I love California weather!

We crashed Kyle's ward's Christmas party one night. Hey, free food! Kyle took pictures of all the kids and families with Santa. It was fun getting to know more people and letting Parker run around with all the kids!

Baby girl was tired...

But she looks so darn cute!

That night she fell asleep in her car seat so we left her in it for a few minutes while we cleaned up and got ready for bed. Such a tiny thing. Yet she's our whole world.

Oh! And Happy found us! He is our Christmas Elf and he came from the North Pole to spy on Parker and make sure he was a good boy. Every morning Parker raced all over the house looking for Happy. He was pretty sneaky sometimes! Like hanging Parker's unders from the mantle!

Or TPing our tree!

Or getting cozy with our angel

Or trying desperately to be part of our family.

Or zip lining in our living room!

We had to try and keep busy while Tanner was away. I made a goal to set up at least one play date a week for ME to try and get to know people. Everyone here has been so kind. It really is a great place! But since it gets dark so early we had to be creative. We played lots of games...

Parker had a cute holiday program at school! They did the Gingerbread Man play and it was absolutely adorable. I stood in the back with Rayleigh (she fussed so out of desperation I gave her a bottle which she threw up all over me and then immediately fell asleep. I had to just smile and keep standing there!) Even from WAY in the back I could hear Parker's loud singing voice! It was so cute!

Oh! And while I was cleaning out old documents and things I came across this lil beauty! Bow chicca bow wow! Josi's comment was, "Who in the world did we send them out to?" ha ha

My cute little elf again... I couldn't get enough of this darling little onesie!

Bless you! She has the sneezers a LOT! And she ALWAYS sneezes twice. Always.

Love this Christmas Card from Josi! I used this picture and a few others to make my mom's Christmas card for her this year. :-)

I wanted to take a picture of Rayleigh in this fancy outfit she wore for Tanner's work holiday party which was held at a hotel in downtown Sacramento. She was not so into it.

We enlisted Parker to take a picture for us...

The party was fun! The food was delicious and it was fun getting to know some of the other administrators and their wives. There was super loud music and dancing and around 10pm it started to get real cra cra. That's when we decided to leave. Kyle's wife held the baby so Tanner and I could dance and we took pictures in the photo booth. It was a fun night out! And a big thanks to Rachelle for letting Parker crash at her house and use her babysitter. :-) Isn't Rayleigh such a cute party animal?

Our ward's Christmas party was nice. We went to the Baldree's for dinner before hand. The ward held a special little program and then we had cookies. It was a great evening.

Love this sleepy little face!

On the last day of school before winter break Parker had a Polar Express party and was allowed to wear pajamas to school! They had a pancake breakfast and watched the movie. When I dropped him off at school the conductor handed each kid a ticket before they went inside. For some reason it totally made me cry! I guess it was all so magical!

Parker is so excited to see his baby sister every morning! He always tries to climb in bed with us for some morning snuggles. :-) And she is  just so smiley in the morning that it make us all feel so happy. It's a great way to start the day!

She's still too small for the jumper... Since Tanner has been gone I've tried everything I can think of to use as an extra pair of hands!

More sleepy angel faces

This was us at church on Christmas Sunday.

All bundled up for a chilly day!

Morning snuggles

We can't complain about the weather! That's for sure! We've enjoyed many park days this Christmas season!

I can't get enough of my baby doll!

And we had to take some pictures of Rayleigh in this outfit from Kassidy and send them to her in Spain. :-)

I'm sure I've been taking way too many pictures of Rayleigh but I can't help but feel there is never enough! I don't want to forget one tiny detail of her miraculous life!

This Christmas season we didn't have much extra money to spend on gifts since we've been focusing more on things for the house It was actually really nice. It allowed us to spend more time and energy thinking about and celebrating the true reason for the season. This year especially I am overwhelmed with gratitude for my many precious blessings. And so thankful for Christ's atonement and the healing balm of his love. There's no better way to remember that sacred, holy night then holding and rocking my own miracle baby.