Oh Christmas Tree....

oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches!! Even if I do say so myself, the Christmas tree looks great! Kai and I set it up yesterday morning. Kai helped by being a good, happy little baby playing in his bouncer while I sorted through branches and tangled Christmas lights. It was all so very worth it, as I feel so much more in the Christmas mood now. I left the lights on the tree all day and just enjoyed walking by the tree every chance I got. Later today we're getting some snow and I'm looking forward to turning on the lights and watching the snow fall behind the tree (the tree is in front of one of our large sliding glass doors with mountain views) while drinking hot chocolate and maybe even turning on the fireplace. Now, if only I can figure out how to hang the stockings. I may have to resort to tape as I can't find any push pins in our stuff anywhere and I have yet to see a stocking holder in the stores that I like.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here! I'm so excited to let Kai rip open all of his presents. We're going to celebrate here on Monday, opening presents and enjoying our time together before we get on our 4:30 flight to Chicago. And then we'll do Christmas all over again on Tuesday with Reid's family!!! You can never have too much Christmas (at least, not with a baby in the house). I finally feel ready for this holiday and I finally feel as if we're at home, at least a little. While I still miss the familiarity and comforts of Virginia, we're slowly but surely settling in. What would really help would be to find a good girl friend out here, which is one of my New Year's resolutions. It should be interesting as our ward is mostly middle-aged, with very few babies. In fact, I'm the ONLY nursing mom in the entire ward!! So strange, when I'm used to being one of about 15 in the Centreville Ward. Oh well, maybe I'll start a trend or something.

Well, as Ty Pennington would say, there's only one thing left to say--Merry Christmas everyone, Merry Christmas!!

Weekends

I wish we had some more pictures to upload, but sadly we have been slacking in the photo sharing department lately. We've taken some pictures of Kai but we just haven't had the time to upload them from the camera. So once again, this post will be long and pictureless. Sorry!

Anyway, we just live for the weekends around here. That's the time when we all get to be together and when Reid and Kai really get to enjoy playtime together. This past weekend was no exception. We had lots of playtime and also got a good deal of unpacking done. Sunday is always a great day to do nothing....uh, I mean relax. :P This Sunday was a little different, however. I don't know how many of you heard about the shootings in the area, but for those who didn't there were two shootings at religious organizations on Sunday killing four people. I saw something about the first shooting online Sunday morning and didn't think anything about it. However, once sacrament meeting came to a close it was announced that the there had been another shooting at New Life Church. There was no further information available at that time but as this was the second church shooting in one day our bishop felt it was best to lock the doors and have the high priests guard them. (I personally find that entertaining!) About half way through Sunday School, our bishop gathered us all into the chapel and said that he felt that we all needed to go home, just to be safe. So, with that, church was dismissed. Very unsettling if you ask me. It turns out the gunman took his own life in the 2nd shooting and so we were safe. But I appreciate that the bishop was being cautious.

Well, Kai is calling. Just thought I'd share an interesting event from our weekend!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

First, I have to start by mentioning Happy Birthday Wendy!! Yes, I know it was yesterday and it was great to be able to talk for just a little bit. I want you to know that I wish you the best of luck with everything that's coming up for you.

Okay, now I have to admit that I haven't quite been in the holiday spirit lately. The move has really distracted me from all of the normal holiday routines and excitement. While I make sure to always have Christmas music on in the car and while I do notice the decorations, etc. in the stores, I have yet to fully grasp that the holiday has arrived. There were so many things that I wanted to get done before December ever came, things that still remain undone. The most important of those being getting the house decorated for Christmas. But if there's one thing I know, we will decorate. Even if we do it on the 24th, the house will be decorated. Reid wouldn't have it any other way. Speaking of the 24th....

We're Chicago-bound!! We didn't think that we'd be able to afford the time off of work or the plane tickets this year and so we had resigned ourselves to our first Christmas ever without extended family. But Reid found 3 vacation days that he had forgotten about and I stumbled across the best ticket deal ever yesterday--and so we will now be celebrating Christmas in style. Or at least in numbers!! Almost all of the Jones family will be there. Unfortunately, we will be missing Reid's sister's family, the Neuenschwanders, but I guess that just gives us even more reason to take a road trip out to Utah sometime soon (I still haven't even met them!!) Somehow we will be squeezing in 2 grandparents, 5 sons/son-in-law/daughters/daughter-in-law, and 8 grandchildren in one house! I have a feeling poor little Kai won't be taking very many naps! We will be in Chicago from Christmas Eve to New Year's Eve and we'll return to our home in time to ring in the new year in our new home. Very fitting I think.

Well, Kai's down for a nap so I better capitalize on this time. I've been enjoying the view from our living room, watching as the clouds roll in, (a good reminder that we're at an elevation of 7,000 feet!) and drinking my first seasonal cup of peppermint ice cream hot chocolate. As I would say to Kai, "Yum yum!" I hope the day will clear up a bit as I really don't need to be in this contemplative-type mood that the dreariness brings all day. As always, there is too much to do!! Cheers.

Mexican Jumping Bean

I can't believe it's been almost a month since our last post. But then again with everything going on, the days are gone just when I feel they've started. So, what have we been doing?? Well, the moving company brought our stuff out of storage and to the house on Monday!! Yippee!! No more saying, I wish I had (fill in the blank). But on the downside, I have never seen so many boxes in my life! Nor did I ever imagine we had so much junk. :p I blame it all on Reid. Just Kidding!! So, as we sort through our boxes we have revisited sleep training with Kai. Due to the moving, staying in hotels and apartments and everything else over the last two months (yes, it really took two long months!) his naps had dropped down to a pathetic 20 minutes and he was absolutely dependent on me holding him until he fell asleep. To top it off, his nighttime sleeping had become, well, bad. I don't know how else to describe it except to say that he was waking up between 5 and 8 times a night. Poor kid, with all of the doors slamming and neighborhood ruffians out making noises at all hours, who could blame him. Monday night was our first night in the house and his first night back in his crib. Poor thing was so happy to be in his crib, he didn't even wake up once. I actually woke him up checking on him once and all he wanted was to go back to his bed. Last night (once I actually got him settled) was the same. So maybe sleep will be in my near future!! What's even more promising is that bright and early yesterday I restarted my naptime rules (aka sleep training). When we did this in September it took about 3 to 5 days before we started to see results. Today, day 2, has been amazing. He's been down now for almost an hour and a half and is still sleeping!! I feel so incredibly blessed. (if you think I'm being a bit dramatic, you must have angel babies who sleep like rocks!)

Anyway, Kai has recently been dubbed the mexican jumping bean. He loves to bounce, bounce, bounce. Anytime I hold him on my lap he starts bending those little legs and smiling and squealing in delight. He's such a joy and it's so much fun. My arms are getting the best workout they've had in over 5 years!!

Outside of Kai's world, although let's be honest, that is the world I live in these days, we are enjoying the house. It's fun to think of all the projects that we'd like to do and to see things slowly come together. All of our new appliances have been installed and a few have been tested. I'm still waiting to run the inaugural load of the dishwasher and clothes washer but that's not too far away. Kai's out of clothes and the dishes in the sink need some attention. (for those who think that I might have been slackly on my house wife duties, please note that both of those appliances were installed just a few hours ago and I was told to let them warm up--it was below freezing last night here--before I use them. Joe, that disclaimer was for you. :P)

Well, I better get back to being productive. I've enjoyed this respite during Kai's nap long enough. Long enough to find out that Lockheed is having a special Toys 'R Us Saturday this weekend at 7am. Sounds like a blast to me!! We'll have to see if little Kai thinks an early morning trip to a toy store is in his schedule. :P Hope all is well!!! And Happy Holidays!