December 2011

We kicked off December with our church's Christmas party.  We all had a great time.  They had the Polar Express playing when we walked in so Luke didn't move until the movie finished.  I spent the evening trying to get Leta to get her face painted and was never able to.  Her bible class teacher, Shelby, was able to however.  Leta got a snowflake and Kelli Mitchell and I were Santa Clause and the Mrs.  I'm shorter, so I was deemed the Mrs.

This was our year to spend Christmas with Kyle's side of the family.  One week before we were set to leave I started having a lot of tooth pain.  I was pretty sure it was my bottom left wisdom tooth that was the causing the problem, and after a few days of pretty decent pain and not much sleep, I went to the dentist hoping I was wrong and it was just a cavity that they'd be able to fill and I'd be on my way.  It was my wisdom tooth.  After arriving home from the dentist I called the oral surgeon to schedule my appointment.  I was able to get in two days later since they'd had a cancellation and I'd already had my initial visit with them (and they still had my paperwork).  I was to have my wisdom teeth out almost 3 years ago now, but in between my initial consultation and my scheduled wisdom tooth removal surgery I found out I was pregnant with Leta and had to cancel the appointment.  I had the further put it off wanting to be done nursing when I had the procedure done.  Well there was no break between that and Max and now I had no choice.  Kyle had a hard time when he had his out and was sick etc. and I was so nervous about caring for and feeding Max after the surgery.  Turns out I didn't need to worry about a thing!  It went great and I recovered very quickly and felt pretty good when I wasn't sleeping.  Side note: Lorotab will make your 4 month old baby nap really well, too ;).

So I had my wisdom teeth out Thursday and we left Monday for Ruidoso, NM.  It was a 9 hour drive.  Kyle's grandma Peggy rode with us. It was her 80th birthday so this was to be a Christmas/Birthday celebration.  We got our own little cabin for sleeping purposes and everyone else was in a larger house about 1/2 mile away.  We didn't have time for anything besides supper and bed Monday night.  Tuesday morning Kyle took Luke, Leta and Kaleb sledding and we mostly hung around.  We also went out to eat at a really nice restaurant at a local casino to help Grandma Peggy celebrate.  Our kids did NOT belong here, but despite the late hour and being overly tired they behaved wonderfully.  Wednesday morning Kyle and Luke met with a ski instructor, Mr. Al, who taught Luke how to ski.  He said Luke was one of the better 4 year olds he's ever taught, mostly because Luke wanted to learn.  I forgot to send the camera with Kyle, so no pictures from this event.  I am SUPER bummed about that.  Luke did awesome and only fell down once.  He started on the bunny slopes and was skiing on the greens by the end of their time.  He knows that you do a big piece of pizza to stop, a small piece of pizza to slow down and french fries to go fast.  Wednesday evening we opened presents and then Thursday we came home.  We were all glad to see our own beds again.  The kids did pretty well sleeping.  Luke did perfect, but I ended up sleeping with Leta every night.  The good news there is, she will actually sleep with you unlike Luke who thinks sharing a bed is PARTY TIME!

We got home from Ruidoso Thursday evening and had a couple of days to decompress and get ready for Santa by making Christmas cookies.  It was nice to have a relaxing Christmas day at home.

Santa did not skip our house and the kids (especially Luke) was very excited for his arrival.