Our Christmas weekend was full of:
Caroling with the Kjar family at 2 retirement homes. I love Christmas music...and seeing the smiles on the sweet elderly peoples' faces was magic.
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Putting Brooks to bed veeeeery late on Christmas Eve (was it because he was so anxious for his presents the next day, or because his nap schedule that day was all sorts of crazy?)
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After placing the presents under the tree, Adam and I snuggled up to a movie and shared a pint of Haagen-Dazs.
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Opening presents with Little B!...that took fooooorreevver because he wanted to play with each gift before opening the next ;)
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Making a breakfast of french toast from Kneaders cinnamon bread. SO GOOD.
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Getting our wiggles out before church. Jumping on the bed with Dad is always a winner.
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Enjoying a beautiful church service. Brooks gave Adam and I a little present and slept the whole time in my arms. Loved the messages of celebrating Christ's birth, listened to beautiful musical numbers, and soaked up every minute of my sleeping babe in my arms.
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Brooks getting his first hair cut...he did great! Mom did not...more on that later ;)
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A lovely Christmas dinner at Mom & Dad Kjars.
(During one of Brooks' melt downs, his Aunt Katie came to the rescue and let him share some of the Christmas ham with her sweet dog Milo. Brooks & Milo both loved it!)
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Talking to Danner!! (Adam's brother who's serving a mission for our church in California)
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Face-timing with my family :) Can't wait to see them this upcoming weekend!
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Going to see a movie Monday afternoon in our PJ's..."We Bought A Zoo" was darling.
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Brick oven pizza, games, and dancing at the Kjars. Such a fun night!
And do you know what?? While we were able to enjoy a beautiful weekend with our family...there were certain plans/traditions that fell through and didn't happen, and for whatever reason Brooks was having a really hard couple days. Christmas was wonderful, yet it wasn't quite as I had hoped. Through tears (pregnancy hormones anyone?) I expressed my selfish feelings to Adam Sunday night...he was so sweet and just listened...and by the end of my little crying session I felt such a strong feeling of the Savior's love for me. I told Adam that even though it wasn't a "perfect" Christmas with our normally cheerful boy, all those little things didn't matter. This incredible holiday is dedicated to celebrating Christ and His miraculous birth into the world. I love Him. And I'm so grateful for His example and unconditional love for me. And because of Him and His gospel, our little growing family of 3 (almost 4) can be together forever! I love Christmas and how it reminds our hearts of what's most important!
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Spiritual Health:
Read "What Happily Married Couples Do" in the January 2012 Ensign magazine.
Loved it, and I'm excited to read it again with Adam tonight :)
Physical Health:
Going to the gym...kind of excited because I haven't done anything really physical over the past four days, yowza.
17 comments:
Haley, I too felt that Christmas wasn't what I had thought it would be. Being a mom to a toddler (or to two of them, haha) is exhausting. Christmas is a fun time and kids can feel the excitement and so they sleep less and are just tiring. I fell asleep at 9 pm Christmas night I was so tired, haha! We can have quite, spiritual, serene Christmas's when our kids are grown and moved out, for now we get to enjoy the crazy times!
I want to see Brooks hair!!! How did it turn out?
I'm craving Kneaders now... thanks a lot.
You're so lucky Brooks slept at church, I was stationed near the drinking fountain with Avery :)
Where in CA is Adam's brother serving? I have family in CA, north and south.
I want to see "We Bought a Zoo" is it worth seeing in theaters or should I wait?
Sounds like a wonderful Christmas and I enjoyed looking at your pictures. Enjoy time with your family this weekend!
All these pictures are darling!We have that same picture above our bed too!
Haley,
What awesome pictures! And what a fun weekend you had! I'm reading and viewing the amazing pics of all you pulled off-----HELLO!!---you are a mother of a busy, active, healthy toddler, and you are an amazing homemaker, holiday planner, and an angel making a baby inside you! You are an incredible woman. A getter-done kinda gal. You planned and made a beautiful weekend possible for your darling famiLY. My brother Adam is the luckiest Guy. Can I tell you what a blessing you are to him?! And--your presence at our family gatherings (although not always the most stellar activities) is always a positive contributing part. I love you, and appreciate all that you are. You're a BEAUTIFUL PERSON.
Love you--
Your sister Kates
ps. I LOVE, LOVE LOVE! your pics on your bed! The colors are classic and capture your faces so well! What a treasure!
Sounds so lovely! I cannot wait to hear about the haircut! You should have kept some of his curls! My husbands mom used to do that because she loved Zack's curly hair so much!
That looks like one mighty fine Christmas!
Haley you are so cute and inspiring! I admire your firm grasp on what truly matters in our short mortal experience. I seriously hope to be just like you in so many way when I grow big... =D
Our christmas wasn't picture perfect either, both of our boys hardly slept at all.... maybe the excitement of Santa had to do with part of it. I know I got an average of 4 hour of sleep the previous week beofre, but I left all those things out of my post, because even an imperfect (is that a word?) Christmas is still a good one.
AHHHHHHHHHHH! His first haircut!?! Those lovely locks are amazing! Did you cry? I probably would have.
Christmas can easily look perfect in a picture but it rarely actually is. All that matters is grasping the true meaning of Christmas, you seem like the kind of girl who would be pretty good at that.
Your Christmas looked absolutely wonderful though! Merry (late!) Christmas to you guys!
Ok, first- as I scrolled through each picture I would think "AH! Cutest picture ever!" and then I'd come to the next one and think the same thing! haha! Second- i saw we bought a zoo yesterday... LOVED it so so much! Third- you are just the cutest family and I love brooks' chubby cheeks! haha!
Looks like a perfect holiday.
Oh hunny I'm totally with u about plans falling through and having crabby babies. Adams huge family has so many traditions and even though there are 9 little grandkids we just HAD to do all of them. And with all the preparations for making those traditions happen, by the time we got to finally doing them Jude was asleep for the night. I didn't get to read him the "My First Christmas" book I got him or put him in his Christmas jammies-- and I rarely even saw him Christmas Eve! I was ticked. But ur totally right. I had to be reminded that this season is about Christ and He loves us and wants us to have a peaceful, relaxing season full of good will to men.
But it sounds like u had some great memories still! Love the pics of ur boys jumping on the bed and B's excitement with his new toys! Priceless.
Sorry for the novel! I just totally feel u on this one!
oh my gosh, that french toast looks amazing. i will have to try that! also, that pic of your boys laughing in the mirror is darling. glad you had a wonderful christmas!
This is a lovely little post, I am loving all of the pictures.. especially the one of daddy cutting little brooks hair - HOW SWEET IS THAT?? melt my heart..
ps I wanted to say that toddlers are sometimes so tough to deal with :( I feel you my liv gives me a run sometimes.. I can only imagine being pregnant and chasing after her.. - lovely post because of your honesty
Whew! So many wonderful memories packed into one Christmas....haircuts and caroling and presents and an afternoon movie and MORE! When you look back on this holiday season, I totally know that you'll forget about the plans that fell through and the tears and all the not so great little details. Look at all these beautiful happy photos you got! :D
I'm a strong believer in the fact that SOMETIMES it takes a few tears flowing to feel better and realize all of the good things that surround you, even in times when you feel like stuff is falling apart. Just like the way you felt a strong feeling of the Savior's love....maybe all these little "uh-oh's" happened so you could feel so peaceful and complete in His love, and so fortunate for your beautiful family. Yeah!
You and your family are truly beautiful....and no matter what, you always seem to live this wonderful life to the fullest!
p.s. pregnancy hormones are rough. :( I remember those. I have enough trouble with my regular hormones. HA!
You are so inspiring! You are so right. Those little things don't matter in light of the gift of Christ.
This whole post was so sweet. I love that you got to have your own little christmas in the morning...just the three of you. So so special. And brooks haircut! It makes him look older...in a good way :) So glad you had fun holidays hales! Miss you.
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