christmas at the zoo

Unbelievable! It felt a bit surreal!










a live female reindeer outside.

ho ho ho 2011

The kids are in full excitement Christmas mode!!!! Juliette "ooooooooo"s over every light, Allie asks me ten times a day how many presents I have wrapped for her, and Isabelle loves to write out her Christmas list and send Santa letters too. They are also having a great time attending so many wonderful events around the city. This weekend we took the older 2 to see the Nutcracker at the Scottish Rite Cathedral with friends and then Saturday evening we went as a family to see the lights at "Christmas at the zoo" which was so fantastic! It was pretty amazing and I think has many more lights then I have seen in past years. It had a few light shows with music and was packed with people! The tigers were out and prowling and the snakes were very alert, but a lot of the animals have been put away for the season or were asleep.

Gingerbread house

candy, candy, CANDY!

Playing with their gingerbread girls.

Putting the finishing touches on

Allie had fun with the icing.

One for the house, one for me, one for the house....

The 2 older girls couldn't wait to decorate the gingerbread house while their little sister was asleep on Sunday! They both ate a ridiculous amount of candy and frosting. It definitely wasn't to share when you consider how many licked fingers went into making this masterpiece. After, we met some friends and went to the live nativity at our church, St. Luke's.

Yuletide Celebration with the ISO

Monument Circle

Tap dancing Santas

"Twas the Night before Christmas"

The girls with Rudolph before the show


Jamie and I took Isabelle and Allie to the Yuletide on Saturday downtown. This is the 3rd year we have gone and it is a holiday tradition for many. We had a great time listening to the symphony and watching the wonderful and talented singers and dancers. I think this was my favorite year yet! After, we walked a bit downtown and ate at P.F. Chang's.

Seeing Santa at the Children's Museum on IUPUI night.

"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh". Thank goodness Santa is paid for being a good sport.

"I want games and for my family to be together".

Allie must have forgotten to tell Santa that she wants everything for Christmas. This girl has worn the Toysrus ad thin and has circled almost every item twice in different colors.

"I want a REAL live kitten and Rebecca's bed".

Santa knows that Isabelle has been such a good girl this year!

Silence

When all is quiet with a 17 month old you get a tad nervous. Usually it means that she scampered up the stairs, is eating cat food, that I left the pantry door unlocked and she is dumping anything and everything on the floor, she found a marker and a wall, or some other sort of mischief that she always is in. When it had been silent a bit too long on Sunday I searched everywhere on the 1st floor for her when I found Juliette quietly sitting by the tree arranging and rearranging these little signs that came with the train...over and over again she would stand them up in a row and then grab them starting all over again. The concentration across her little face was priceless.

New cast

Oh Miss Juliette! Leave it to you to wriggle out of your long leg cast! On Thursday, her little piggies started to disappear and after a long and fitful night of rest for her and I, her casted leg was about 1 foot longer then the other after getting her out of the crib on Friday. She was getting a pressure sore on her little heel and so I am grateful that the cast came off! She did however have to go back to the clinic to be re-casted. Although she was so happy to be free, I did notice that she wasn't still using that leg like she should and was guarding it a bit as well. This one is much more bent at the knee and she crawls lightening fast with it too.

serious girl

ibaby

The girls just love the lights, ornaments and tree. I don't dare to actually put wrapped gifts under the tree...that would be just too tempting! Putting up our Christmas tree is so sentimental. Jamie's mom was a huge fan of Christmas and would get us each our own ornament every year. We have wooden ones from Germany, all sorts of baubles from various other cities and countries we have visited, and of course the hand-made ones from the kiddos that make our tree complete! Such a hodge-podge tree but full of memories and treasures!

We are also thankful for open ERs on holiday weekends...

An unfortunate mishap with a cousin sent Juliette to a local ER. After some Xrays, they found her to have a small tibia buckle fracture on her right leg. :(! Poor little monkey! I knew something was wrong when she didn't kick the ER doc! When the full length cast was placed, I could tell that Juliette felt better having it stabilized. And the tylenol with codeine and motrin probably helped a little too. The past few days, she has been one angry baby....squawking, perfecting the girly piercing scream, crying out. I can tell she is miserable not being able to be mobile and destroying the house...especially since the Christmas tree is up! She has started to crawl and drag her leg and can also pull her self up. On Monday we see the Ortho doc and I hope we can get the cast off!

Thankful

There are so many things that I am thankful for, our health, family, friends, little girls giggles, toys that litter my house that bring joy to my children's day, a roof over our heads, cabinets and a fridge full of food, air to breathe, seasons to look forward to, freedom, a past career that I could go back to, education, a great community and state, loved ones that are now looking down from heaven, a camera to document our lives, so many many many more things that I give our God thanks for every.single.day.

Juliette is full of life and looks at 17 months! She is talking a bit, "nigh-night, buh-bye, NOOOOOOO, yuck, yum, bubba (for her blanket) to say a few. She still has a lot of nonsensical ramble! She loves bath time, being outside, going buh-bye, her daddy, dollies, books and cookies. A few of her favorite books include, "5 Little Monkeys", "Goodnight Moon", and "Moo, Baa, La, La, La".

on the move!

In the past 2 weeks, Juliette has finally decided to walk! Never mind her first "step" was more like 10. You can tell she is so proud of herself by the wide-eyed stare that she gets....like she can't even believe that she is doing it! And for the record...Juliette does wear clothes on occasion. :)