A Month to Remember

December is a busy month for everyone. Throw in a December birthday on top of all the holiday stuff and it gets crazy busy. As always, I've had lots of things I wanted to sit down and write about, but never got the chance to (or made the time for). Soooo, here it all is in a nutshell of bullet points:

• We had family pictures/3 year pics done on the 3rd. What a crazy day that turned out to be. The photographer had another client after us that wanted their pics taken at a local tree farm. I didn't really care where we got them done, so thought that could be good. We got our tree there last year and really liked them. They were warm, and friendly. They also have several activities, including pony rides and a hay ride which the kids would love. We did not get the same welcome this year. Part way into our photo shoot, one of the owners came up and kicked us out. Well, to be fair, we could have stayed if we were willing to pay $50 each (us, the photographer, and her next client) to park! Let's be clear here, they don't charge for parking. Even though we told them we were planning to get our tree there and participate in their activities, they did NOT want us having our pictures taken there unless we were willing to pay the astronomical price of $50 each for parking, in addition to buying our Christmas tree and paying for the rides. Soooo, we left and finished our photo shoot at a different tree farm. *Please note that the photographer DID call the day before to ask permission to take our pictures there. While they weren't pleased about it, they did say we could do it for $6 parking (yes, the price changed drastically). We didn't pay it when we arrived because nobody was there to take our money. Because they don't charge for parking!!! Oh well. We got phenomenal pictures anyway, despite the drama.

• The following weekend, was a crazy busy weekend. First, we had a breakfast with Santa event that we attended. Then we went Christmas tree hunting for our perfect tree (not at the same above mentioned farm!). That night, we attended the annual light parade here in town.

Rylee couldn't take her eyes off Santa! She was so excited. Ayden was intrigued by his belt. lol

All the kids were given a stuffed puppy from Santa.

They definitely think Santa is a very cool dude.

• That night, Tony and I got the tree set up in the living room. We got the lights and garland put on, and set the stage to look like Baby Elf brought the tree, along with a couple Santa hats for the kids, so it was ready for the them to finish decorating in the morning. They were so excited to see the tree in the house when they woke up! About 20 minutes into decorating it, the tree came crashing down! Thankfully, nobody got hurt and we only had a few broken ornaments, none of them glass. We had water everywhere (from having just watered the tree the night before), along with a lot of pine needles. We got the tree upright again and I got everything picked up, but we decided we were done decorating. Right as soon as I swept the last of the mess into the dust pan, the tree came crashing down again!!!! This time we weren't so lucky, and we lost a few of our glass ornaments. The good news was, we hadn't put very many on the tree yet, because well, toddlers and glass ornaments don't mix. I went in search of a new tree stand that afternoon.

Before catastrophe hit.

After the first fall.

• Ayden and Rylee had their very first dentist appointments last week. Ayden bit the dental assistant several times while she was trying to get the x-rays done on his teeth. After the 6th time he bit her, she gave up and had someone else come do it. He wasn't doing it on purpose. He just didn't understand what he was supposed to do. Rylee did pretty great through everything. Ayden did too, until the gal brought out the little water sprayer and sucker-thingy to rinse out the fluoride. That scared him and he had a little meltdown. Overall, it was a successful appointment and neither one of them had any cavities. Both will eventually need braces, which we suspected. Rylee's teeth are very close together, so there's not a lot of room for the bigger adult teeth to come in, and Ayden has a major overbite.

• We had a winter storm come through the valley. Just north of us had quite a bit of snow, but we were hit mostly with freezing rain. Many people went without power for quite awhile. We lost power last Wednesday for 9 hours. We were lucky it was during the day and it finally came back on just before putting the kids to bed. The temp inside our house got down to 59 degrees and the low that night was 26 degrees, so it would have been very cold.

Checking out the ice on the trees outside.

The neighbors behind us had a tree fall over our back fence. The kids thought it made a fantastic tunnel!

• Last Saturday was Ayden and Rylee's big 3rd birthday party! We had a great turn out with a lot of friends and family, even though several people ended up not being able to come due to weather conditions.

It was a dinosaur-princess party!

• And now tomorrow is there actual birthday! Or, I should say today, since we're now past midnight. Ugh. With that said, it's way past time for me to go to bed. Tony has the day off work and we have a full day of activities planned!