It's a busy time of year

We've had a busy few weeks since Thanksgiving and thought we'd share the latest update on what we've been doing.

One week after Thanksgiving Grammy and Grandpa Thomas came to visit. We had a great visit with them although mostly we just sat at home and chatted with each other. We visited Rice University so they could see where Paul goes to school and Paul and I employed them as a babysitter so we could get some Christmas shopping done for the boys, but other than that we just hung out and let them hold the baby.

They must have brought their Utah weather with them because the day after they got here it snowed. Really snowed - in Houston! The boys were pretty excited to have us build them a little snowman and throw some snowballs. While it's nothing compared to what Grammy and Grandpa get in Utah, it was one of the biggest snowstorms we've had in Houston in many years.

The real reason for Paul's parents to visit was for Dave to participate in Christian's baby blessing. Sunday afternoon Paul, his father, our home teacher and our Bishop stood in a circle and gave Christian a name and a blessing. Chis cried throughout the blessing, but it was still a beautiful blessing and a beautiful event for our family. My mom and our friends Julie and Justin were there too and we all had a nice dinner at our house after. It it always fun to celebrate with family and friends!

This past Tuesday was Brian's preschool Christmas Program. He sang "Joy to the World", "Santa Clause is coming to town" and "We wish you a Merry Christmas." He did a great job and it was a lot of fun to see all the 3 yr old in his school singing and behaving as 3 yr olds often do!

Wednesday was Chris' 1 month birthday. I can't believe he's already a month old. He's getting bigger all the time and is doing great. He has more awake periods now and we've been able to see several genuine smiles which we love. He sleeps a lot better when he's upright (in his car seat or swing, or in the baby sling I wear) so we have started putting him to sleep in his car seat so that I can get more sleep at night. When I wake up every 2-3 hours to feed him, the sleep deprivation starts to add up and I turn into a grumpy mommy, but when he gives me 4 hours at night I become a better mommy and am much more patient. He's a joy to have in our family and both boys love him a lot!

Thursday night we woke the kids up shortly after we had put them in bed so that they could see Santa Clause riding through our neighborhood on the local Firetruck. He was checking to see if our boys were naughty or nice, and I guess they are nice cause he threw out candy to them and they were really excited about it!

Lastly, today was our Ward Christmas Party and our boys were one of the 12 talents for the 12 days of Christmas. The two of them stood at the front of the congregation and sang "Joy to the World" for everyone to hear. They did a great job and I was really proud of them.

We're almost ready for Christmas and I'm looking forward to having all 4 of my boys home the week before and after Christmas. I'm sure we'll update you then on everything we did.