December Wrap Up

Longest post ever - and the new Blogger bar doesn't have SPELL CHECK so I am not making any promises to the spelling or grammar mistakes in this blog!  :)  XO-Hillary

December was a whirl wind.... I cannot believe how fast it went by!  Unfortunately my job requires me to work lots of hours over the month of December  - there were several weeks that I never saw Parker awake for more than 20 minutes in the morning - SAD!  I hated it - BUT - it's over!   And life is getting back to how it was pre-December craziness!

First - here are a few pictures of our first Christmas decorating in our new house!  I LOVE decorating for Christmas - however - after all the craziness that WAS our lives over this past month - I took our decorations down as soon as possible after Christmas.  For the first time since I have been decorating our house for Christmas - I tore down our Christmas decorations before mid-January.  Most of the big decorations came down the week after Christmas (BEFORE NEW YEARS EVEN!) and the small stuff and the outside stuff will come down this week.

Tree #1:

Tree #2:

A few weekends ago we had our Christmas party for our small group at church!  I was late - of course - due to work - so Chris was in charge of picking Parker up from the nanny, coming home, feeding Parker, cooking the lasagna that I had prepared the night before and getting to the party by 7... he got there around 7:45 I think.  Anyway - even though I was late I still got to enjoy some awesome lasagna (one in which I cooked - with the help of my awesome neighbor Robin - which was loaded with greasy, fatty cheese and meat and all the YUMMINESS that is lasagna - and another that my super awesome healthy doctor friend Kristin made.  I was REALLY worried when I heard she was making a whole wheat/meatless lasagna (I was like - oh no - no one will like hers and everyone will want to eat mine and she will be sad) but that was SO not the case.  Hers was AWESOME and I have to get her recipe.  Anything that is  made to be healthier and still tastes awesome deserves a gold medal in my book!  Thanks Kristin!  Here are some pix from that night...

The host and hostess - Kristin and Tyler.

Jon and Robin - our awesome friends/neighbors!

Our Growth Group leader - James and his wife Jenny.

All the GG Girls MINUS Angela (who left just a few minutes before I remembered we needed to take pictures!) and Amy (who had a baby a few weeks prior!)

The GG guys..... take one....  and take two.....

And us of course....

The weekend before we all got sick - we drove to Indiana and Cincinatti for a 48 hour whirlwind trip.  We had so much fun catching up with Chris' family (which I haven't been able to see for at least 2-3 years) so that was incredible!  Chris' brother Jeff and his wife Leigh Ann and their son Griffin - who is 28 days older than Parker - drove the hectic trip with us.  Here is a short example of what our driving experience was like....

After I got off work Friday night at 9:30 pm - we went 1/2 way to IN which ends up being my parents house in Clarksville!  We get there around 2 am - praying for at least 5 hours of sleep so we can hit the road again the next morning to make it to the Hull Christmas around noon.  Well - Parker decided after sleeping for most of the way to TN - he would be WIDE awake to see his Nana and Hoppy.  He pretty much screamed ALL night long (we found out a week later that the poor thing had an ear infection, the beginning of pink eye and a really terrible cold) - so Chris and I got a total of about 45 minutes of sleep in little spurts here or there.  The only time I got any sleep was when Chris sat on the toilet (not going to the restroom) but rocking back and forth with Parker.... We woke up and seriously debated turning around and going back home.  We were exhausted - I still had another LONG week at work with late nights and busy days and and we had so much further to go in so little time.  After MUCH healthy debate - we decided to go on.  Well - we took a wrong turn somewhere in Kentucky and ended up taking a detour down a road that was closed - so we took another detour down what our map thought was a red line highway (one of the biggest highways in the state) and it ended up being a VERY  TINY CURVY, hilly, terrible road that I thought I was going to get sick on.  Around noon - we were still very easily 2 hours away so I settled with McDonald's for my lunch of choice - the others were able to wait.  We finally got there - and I honestly don't remember a thing.... scary.  Thank goodness my zombie state of mind thought to take some pictures...

I actually have bangs now - FUN! - but for some reason a long peice of hair kept falling down and wanting to be a part of the other bangs so it looks like I have bangs with one long peice of hair that my stylist forgot to cut.... not the case :)

Our family in the snow!

Aunt Phie and Parker........ then with Campbell

Grandpa Hull with Campbell and Amy

The Hull's grandkits... Parker, Campbell and Griffin.

Moose, Camo and Griffopotomaus....

Scott and Parker

The grandsons and Parker with  Grandpa Hull

Me Chris and Parker with Grandpa Hull

Parker was beat!  It was snowing in this picture - pretty good snow too - but it's hard to see....

In OH - with Papa

Papa and all his grandkids!

On our trip home... Parker decided to take a few minutes to learn about how to save us some money....

I only wish he was comprehending the important money saving lesson in this book...

After the 2nd or 3rd bout of crying by both babies - we gave both babes a teething cookie!  AWESOME idea for quietness - TERRIBLE idea for cleanliness.... my car seat has still not recovered - 3-4 weeks later...

Some snow....

.











Their favorite playtime = bathtime!  Can't wait to bring these pix out when they are in their teens!

Several weeks ago - probably in October or November we had growth group at our house - well I was SURE Amy was going to pop that night - so I had to take a picture of her last belly shot!  Sienna Li didn't end up coming that day - but she did a few weeks later!  Here is Amy and Sienna Li.

And here we are!  With Sienna Li!  BEAUTIFUL!

The first week of December - Chris and I went to his company holiday party at the Crowne Plaza - it was INCREDIBLE - and we even went all out and got a room there that night!  We had a blast - here is a picture of us - in the mirror! Classy I know...

Ahhh - what else happened last month... Oh geez - was just scrolling through and realized I hadn't even gotten to Christmas yet.  Okay - so here that goes.

The week after we got back from our crazy trip - I came down with a TERRIBLE virus - started off with an achy body which turned into all sorts of other issues that I won't share with you.  Parker also had a double ear infection, pink eye and the beginning of a terrible cold that later turned into the beginning stages of RSV so now he's on a breathing machine 2x a day... not just an inhaler or something like that - A LOUD MACHINE that sounds like a machine gun - that shoots medicated vapor in his face.  He seriously needs to get a job to pay for all this :)  Just kidding - kinda.... 

Check out his poor little face at the doctor's office... poor baby!  Does he look sick or what!  I felt like a terrible mother - this was also the day that I was feeling TERRIBLE - I literally described to Chris that it felt almost as bad as labor - and I stand by that statement.  It was an awful sickness... so here I am in the waiting room - Parker feeding himself a bottle - me curled up on the waiting room chair with my head in my lap so that the room will stop spinning and Parker spits up on himself and I don't even bother to clean it up.  When the nurse called my name to come back to the room - thank goodness she read my body language and helped me grab all my stuff to go back in the room.  Ugh - everyone was just staring at me like I was crazy... 

Anyway - this is his swollen face/pink eye/double ear infection look....  not his best look ever...

Chris also got the same virus I had - as did my sister, her husband, their baby and my parents - all within a week of each other.  AWESOME Christmas - I know.  So - anyway - we DID manage to pull it together enough to open some presents  on Christmas day.  Parker got a sofa chair - just for him! 

Buddie likes the chair more than Parker does....

We did manage to go over to Whit's house Christmas Day for some yummy food!  Turns out we gave them more than some Christmas presents - we gave them the virus we had had the day before and that morning.... which they in turn gave to my parents the next week.  Here is Whit and Kayley dancing in the living room to K's favorite song - I gotta feeling by BEP.

 Chris and Parker dancing....

HATE this picture of me - but it's too cute of Chris and Parker so I am taking one for the team here...

Just in case I ever forget his name....

We headed over to Nano and Pop's house the weekend after Christmas - here is Poo with his Poppy....

About to take his temperatue for the up-teenth time that week.... Parker was so excited as you can tell...

The Christmas gifts I got for the Hull side of the family... SO cute!

Parker on Christmas Eve - Daddy was upstairs throwing up - but we still managed to have a good night together!  I read him 'Twas the night before Christmas - which is a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember.  We said our prayers and then I told him the Christmas story of baby Jesus before bed.  So sweet....

Dada was feeling much better the day after Christmas :)