Busy and cold

We have been busy, busy, busy and cold, cold, cold.

 

I know that every Christmas season seems too short and there is always too much to do, but I am definitely feeling it this year.  Maybe because we also have about 7 million birthdays to celebrate this month as well.

 

It has also been really cold for the last week.  Not as cold as a lot of places, but for the Phoenix area, a week of highs in the 50's and lows in the 30's is coooooooold. 

 

Here's a recap of our last week or so.

 

Last Monday, the 2nd, we took our first walk around the neighborhood to look at lights.

 

I thought Elliott looked so cute in his new hat.

On Tuesday the 3rd I stopped at Babies R Us on the way home from work.  I had a $10 gift card that was going to expire.  I found some adorable shirts for $5 each.  Done and done.

 

We took pictures with those shirts on the 4th.  Can you see why I couldn't say no?

Thursday, the 5th, was the 2 year anniversary of when I went into labor with Elliott.  I only have 2 December 5ths to make this analysis, but each year I felt sick all day.  I don't think I will ever enjoy that date ever again.

 

Things were much better this year when compared to 2011 though...

 

December 5, 2011

On Friday the 6th we had Monica and Rick over for dinner.  They took our family Christmas picture.  I can't show you yet, but I can show you Spencer's 6 year-3 month picture.

On Saturday Spencer and I were up bright and early to go to the birthday party of one of his classmates.  It was at Skate Land.  Spencer has never been in skates before so we went to the hour long lesson that was held before the party started.

 

He was pretty excited. 

Right after I took that ^ picture he tried to go out into the rink, promptly fell in an awkward position (one leg forward, one leg back) and started sobbing.  A very nice instructor came over and told us that we needed to find the class on the carpet because the rink was much too slick for a total beginner.  Then I felt like crap for not knowing that.

 

So, we found the carpet class, which consisted of the 3 kids from the party that were there.

 

The first thing Mr. Chuck taught them was how to safely fall and safely get up.

 

Then they practiced baby, baby, baby steps.

 

And going down an incline.

Towards the end of the hour he took Spencer onto the rink, but had him stay right by the wall.

Spencer was still pretty nervous about being alone, so I paid $5 to rent one of the skating walkers.  It was money well spent.

 

With the birthday boy.

We were at Skate Land from 9 to 12:30 and Spencer went around the rink a grand total of 1 time.  Except for that 1 time he stayed on the carpet, played games, ate pizza and ate cake.

On Saturday night I went with my friends to the Phoenix Botanical Gardens.  Every Christmas they have beautiful lights and a bunch of different musical acts set up around the garden.

 

 We had a blast.

The night ended with us in a hut doing tribal dances in total blackness.  Totally normal behavior.

 

In the hut.

 

My hair was kind of a mess when I took my ear warmer off.

 On Sunday we headed to birthday party #2 of the weekend.  It was a Mickey and Minnie theme.

I love, love, love being busy, but this past week and what we are facing for the rest of this week are insane.  I was only at home for a total of 3 hours on Saturday.  That's not enough!