Decorating the house for Christmas is one of my favorite things ever! We still were not 100% unpacked and settled into our new house, but I wasn't going to let that stop us from putting up Christmas decor. We had to do a little rearranging to fit the tree in our living room, but we made it work. I love the gingerbread cookie Christmas ornament G-Ma got for us this year! And I also found a "New House" one too. Sometimes I wish I had white lights and a "beautiful, elegant" Christmas tree, but then what fun would that be?! Our tree has colorful lights, shiny beads, and so many ornaments that they barely all fit on the branches. The kids put most of them on, it looks completely chaotic, and its just as it should be! We are really excited about our first Christmas in our new house!
Now that the tree is up, let the month of magical Christmas memories begin! It's the most wonderful time of the year!
Jonah was helping Daddy fix the tree stand.
I looked over and this is what the tree looked like! I let the kids help for the most part, but this is where I draw the line! This is why I put on the beads, they put on the ornaments!
Every ornament tells a story and holds a special memory. That's why we have so many of them!
There was much fussing over who would get to put the star on, so we decided to let Daddy do it!
I touched on this in my post about Thanksgiving in Colorado, but I thought it deserved its own post, because it was such an ongoing issue even when we got back home. Like, for WEEKS. The title says it best...Lice is from the devil. Seriously, having to comb microscopic nits out of hair for hours on end, day after day, is surely a form of punishment. I realize the picture above makes me look like a cyclops, but I don't even care. It is totally a great depiction of how awful this was. We discovered lice in Madison's hair first...she definitely had it the worst. Mackenzie also had it, and because I had been using my brush on their hair in the midst of our move (because we couldn't find theirs), I had it too. While we were in Colorado, we did the first treatment and comb through, and then once we got home we did a natural olive oil treatment overnight just in case the shampoo missed any. A week after the first shampoo treatment, we spent another $50 and did a second treatment. I combed through the girls hair every day for two weeks, making sure there were no more nits. Brian was good to help with my hair. Thankfully, I didn't have it anything like the girls did. I have always been thankful that the girls (especially Mackenzie) have such thick beautiful hair, but this whole experience made me ready to cut it ALL off. I remember people talking about how awful having lice was, but I have a whole new understanding and appreciation of it. When we got back home from Colorado, I had an email from the school saying that lice had been reported, so I guess that is where the girls got it. On top of treating it and combing through it over and over, we also had to wash EVERYTHING in the house. Now, some things I read said this wasn't necessary, but I wasn't taking any chances. I bagged up anything and everything that had fabric, fur, or hair and it went into the attic for the next three weeks. I took every article of clothing out of the closets and drawers and washed it all in piping hot water. This was all in the midst of getting home and unpacking and decorating for Christmas at the same time...there was stuff EVERYWHERE. As if we needed more chaos in our life, we got LICE. Why, just WHYYYYYY?????!!!!! Several months later and I still don't find it very funny. I'm just thankful it went away and we didn't have any recurrences! I hope and pray that we NEVER have to do this again.
Now this part IS really funny...one of our children approaches things like her Daddy...with a laid back attitude and a smile on her face most of the time.
The other one has the disposition of her Momma...need I say more?!
We were all so excited to spend the week in Colorado with Danny and Amy and their family for Thanksgiving! We were originally planning a trip to Disney during this time and didn't think we would be able to go, but since we postponed that, we were in! Let me start by saying how much we loved being with family, before I talk about the negatives of this trip. For the most part, we had a great time. But, there were definitely some bumps in the road.
Bad thing #1: A $183 speeding ticket in Kansas on our way there. Apparently, going 90 in a 75 isn't acceptable. Lesson learned. (cough, cough...Brian!)
Bad thing #2: On Wednesday, we discovered that the girls had lice. EEEKKKKK!!!! And let me just say, it was a NIGHTMARE. We ended up having to treat pretty much all 20 people that were staying at Danny and Amy's house. (YES--ALL 20 OF US!) The whole head lice thing is another post all on its own. However, I will say that everyone was so sweet and understanding and helped me not to flip out too severely. I really felt sooooo bad though, that it was affecting everyone. =0(
Okay, enough of the BAD!
Here is the GOOD:
1. Quality time together.
2. Playing Nertz! Even Grandma Baldwin played, and we discovered that her hours of playing Solitaire have made her into a pretty good Nertz player!
3. Danny & Amy's house is absolutely beautiful and the scenery out their big windows was amazing!
4. Riding the train downtown & going to Starbucks. (The part prior to discovering the lice, makes it onto the "good" list anyway!)
5. Jonah and Olivia are the absolute cutest together!
6. Margaritas & Wine =0)
(Probably the only time I will ever include anything about alcohol on any of my blog posts!)
Hey---the lice thing sent me over the edge. That's my story & I'm stickin' to it!
7. A delicious Thanksgiving meal.
8. And last, but certainly not least...in fact, it's my favorite memory of the whole trip...playing Pictionary on our last night there. I have not laughed that hard in a very, very long time! Amy is such a good sport & I will never think of the words "Iron Man" in the same way again!
I love the Baldwin family I married into so much! Despite the craziness, this was definitely a fun Thanksgiving and also one that none of us will forget anytime soon! Like in this lifetime! LOL!
This made me laugh so hard! We were full of Thanks & Giving! We shared our lice with everyone!
I love their house!!
Madison loves playing school with Jonah and Olivia. =0) Probably because she gets to boss them around!
Madison fixed my hair and put her glasses on me. Not sure I like this look!
Cousins!
We woke up to snow on Tuesday morning!
Danny & Amy's house is so beautiful!
Amy and Grandma Baldwin were trying to teach the kids a card game, but Jonah and Olivia were making it very interesting. I just sat on the couch and laughed!
Yum.
I bought Jonah some cute "Colorado" clothes to wear while we were there!
Olivia is about 6 months younger than Jonah, and they are best buddies!
Waiting for the train to take us to downtown Denver on Wednesday.
There were a bunch of us!
Blurry, but too funny to delete!
I remember this from when I came to Denver for CBA when I worked at Mardel Corporate.
Starbucks!
Look at this hottie with the Spiderman backpack!
In between these two pictures was when the lice were discovered in the girls hair. Things went from happy to very upsetting within a matter of minutes. Once we made it back to the van, after riding the train back from downtown, we went to Walgreens and spent $80 buying lice shampoo and then spent the next 7-8 hours in the upstairs bathroom treating and combing through hair.
Warning: These are some of the ugliest, most awful pictures you will ever see posted of me. You've been warned.
Look how happy I was! LOL!
It couldn't be helped.
Madison was pretty upset when we first discovered that she had lice in her hair. By the end of the night, once her hair had been treated, combed through, and dried, she was smiling again.
That is until we told her that Pony had to be put into a plastic bag for an extended period of time. That was a sad moment. Poor Pony!
Madi was very worried about Pony being able to breathe in her sack, but I assured her that Pony would be okay.
Thanksgiving morning started off a little rough for me. I was just stressed out from the craziness of the day before and overly emotional. After a bit of a meltdown, I got past it and then we had a great day.
All I have heard about from Mackenzie since we got back is Minecraft!
Jonah and Olivia had this little hideout in the corner behind the couch.
I don't know what was going on here, but it looks like Olivia was taking good care of Jonah!
Elijah isn't too sure about Uncle Brian!
My instagram post about this picture was this:
"I really hate this picture of me...but I love the story that it tells...you know, the one where things don't always go a planned, you get tired & overwhelmed by life and spend the whole morning in tears, kids get sick, financial issues arise, arguments are had, and sometimes things just stink...but then you stop and remember that "this too shall pass," and "after all, tomorrow is another day." And as I lay here on Thanksgiving night, I sure am thankful that through all of life's ups and downs, I get to walk through it with you by my side @briantbaldwin82. Thank you for being right here beside me..."
All of that good food just wore him out!
This is how every Thanksgiving night should be spent...having fun and laughing with family! This was even better than going shopping, but I did miss Black Friday with my mom.
Headed back to OK...we managed to make it without any speeding tickets this time!
