Christmas morning

Merry Christmas! We had a fun morning opening gifts and enjoying breakfast. We missed church because Ian had a fever the night before and all day. He was not feeling well, but the presents perked him up. Anyway, it turned out to be nice and mellow. We enjoyed Christmas dinner at our home with our friends the Croxalls. I made my first turkey (delicious) and all the food was really great (except the gravy, my personal cooking curse...). I love Christmas with kids. Thank you to all our awesome family for sending such great gifts. You outdid Santa for sure. :)

Fun with friends

During Christmas break, Amber and I added our five-year-olds to the kid swap. They were pretty fun at our house. Princesses (and the boys had to "ruin" the princess pose, Ian's look I captured separately, below), decorating Rice Krispie treats, and I even got a sweet shot of Declan.

Another day during Christmas break, we had a wonderful visit from the Wolfers! I really enjoyed seeing Tracy, and Audrey and Carlie were instantly inseparable.

Bonus story/picture: a couple of days ago Ian came running up to me with this ball configuration. He excitedly told me, "Look, I made a SQUARE! A ball square!" Love this guy.

Dr. Brien

This week, Mr. B graduated from Georgia State with his PhD in Public Policy. We are so proud of him and all his work and achievement. We went to two ceremonies, where he was hooded and recognized. I guess I can now refer to him as Dr. B instead of Mr. B. Weird. Great job, babe!

To congratulate him, I made Dr. B a pie and bought him a treadmill. He's a happy man.

Dr. B with his parents.

My husband is freakin' awesome!

Pre-K party

I was fortunate to go to Audrey's class holiday party and help out. I love the kids in her class and to be involved. Mr. B's parents are in town, so it was easy for me to take off for a couple hours. Audrey loves school, but we are both happy for a two week break. We leave the house at 7:30 and that feels too early sometimes.

Audrey with her friend Austin from church and class. Apparently Austin and another boy, Blake, spent the greater part of first semester fighting over Audrey. They both thought that she belonged to them and didn't want to share or let the other sit by her or talk to her. I know Austin's family from church; he always tries to kiss her. I met Blake's mom today and she told me that he tells her about Audrey every day after school. He really likes her hair, I learned from the teacher at P/T conference. Audrey has been unfazed by the attention and never told me anything. I learned it all from Austin's grandma and then later from Audrey's teacher. Both of these boys have some classroom behavior issues. I just hope this trend of the bad boys in love with my daughter is not a continuing one. For now, it's just amusing.

Santa

Our church Christmas party had a great photo op. They even took the photo and emailed it to us. Nice. This was Ian's first time sitting on Santa's lap. He was totally into it, ran right up there. This is only Audrey's second time, and the first time she needed lots of encouragement. Ian's a lot bolder than Audrey.

Audrey's birthday

Audrey turned five. We had a fun party at McDonald's with some of her friends and their families. The kids ate happy meals and played, we had cake and presents. We were done in an hour and had very little prep or clean-up. Good party. This is the cake she requested; she's still our princess.

Those are supposed to the number five, not the letter S. I'm not a pro. But Audrey loved it, so what else matters?

Goings on

Audrey put this outfit on, hid behind the toy box and said, "Look, I'm using camouflage!"

He melts my heart, I love spending my days with him.

You two better get married. This is getting too serious.

Learning letter I. Failed Igloo, should have used a Styrofoam cup.

A mommy daughter date to the holiday lights at the Gardens. It was supposed to be a mommy DADDY date, but Ian got sick and the tickets were non-refundable. I had a great time anyway.