The Little Whiles: Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

How's that for catching up? It's not that I have been slacking lately, it's just that I have this baby that seems to have an unquenchable thirst. It is near impossible to take photos while nursing... at least not the way I like to take them, and it is really a challenge to type, eat or really get anything done with one free hand and a baby in the other. Maybe I am just clueless, but I have no idea how other mom's of newborns keep their families, houses and even blogs in tip top shape. I choose to believe their kids are not as hungry as mine, and this ought to prove it; Clark was 8 lbs 10 oz when he was born 6 weeks ago and he is now a whopping 13.5 lbs! That means he has been gaining over a pound a week. So please forgive my lapse in keeping it all together, I have been busy with this cute snuggly baby of mine :)

So this is what our story has been over the last 6 weeks...

We managed to keep the tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving this year, albeit not as charming as usual. Norah was just starting to display the effects of having a new brother.

She was oh so excited to trim the tree though! Here is one of mommy's Starbucks ornaments :)

Grandpa and Nona came over and helped her decorate her gingerbread house after they took her on a little sledding expedition down the block. She came home with a red face from the nose down and a story that went something like: "I went down de hiiill and den I felled!! Like dat! (demonstrating how she fell) And den Grampa picked me upped and I was OK! I not cold."

This year we also got to see The Nutcracker ballet with Grandma. Norah had the time of her life! She was mesmerized for the first half hour or so and continued to watch the entire ballet. She did have lots of snacks to help sustain her, but I was mighty impressed. I hope we can make this a new tradition! I would see the Nutcracker with my aunt Kathy every year when I was young and it always made the season that much brighter :)

Christmas Eve morning we made gingerbread cookies for Santa

Stick-on Christmas earrings!

Then we spent the evening with the Landers where Norah played with Grandpa, I nursed Clark and Colin relaxed before we stuffed ourselves silly and opened an insane amount of gifts!

Late that night when the kids were asleep, Santa spent countless hours wrapping gifts and arranging them under the tree just so. He had big expectations for Christmas morning excitement. The next morning, as we were making our way down to the living room we asked Norah if she thought Santa had come. She had no reply, so we asked her to go check. She slowly walked to the living room and looked right at the tree as she said in an irritated tone: "NO! Santa didn't come!!" What!?! What a let down! We asked her to check again and we got the same response so we said "well who do you think put all those presents under the tree and ate the cookies you left?" She took one more glance and finally said "Oh! He DID come!".

After we opened Santa's gifts we made graham cracker waffles and got all dolled up to spend Christmas day at Aunt Kathy's. We had another wonderful day of Norah playing with Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunts and Uncles, me nursing Clark, and Colin... I'm not sure what Colin was doing :)

Norah and Great Grandma "Nana" looking at Aunt Kathy's nutcracker collection

Clark sleeping with his finger in his mouth

We spent New Year's Eve at a friends house where all the kids went crazy playing a dance party game on the Wii... I now want to buy one of these just because I had so much fun watching the kids! I've never seen Norah go so wild dancing and having fun!

This girl is a twirling fool!

If that wasn't enough fun, we had two more Christmas celebrations! One on New Years Day with Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Leesie and Uncle Joe (of course I forgot to charge my camera battery so I don't have many shots from that day!) and one the very next day with Gram! More fun presents, more outrageously good food and more time spent with family. What more could we ask for!?