The Monhaut Family: Catching Up

Happy New Year! Yes, we are still alive! Sorry for the lack in blogging lately, November and December have been crazy months. Good crazy, but definitely busy. I admit I have went to update this blog several times over the past few weeks but have been so overwhelmed by the number of pictures to upload that I have not followed through. So, I am going to try to give the best wrap up of our last month and a half...

November/Thanksgiving:
We had a really great Thanksgiving this year down in Indiana with the Monhaut's. It seems like forever ago! We left Wednesday afternoon and headed down. Brad and I ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning with my sister in law and mother in law, which was a lot of fun. Okay, maybe not while running, but definitely afterwards! We went to the annual Monhaut Thanksgiving lunch/dinner that was fun as always. John was a real trooper (no nap) and had a lot of fun, although he really wasn't into the food...someday!

The rest of the weekend was fun as well. The weather was so nice all weekend, so we took advantage on Friday and went downtown to feed the ducks. John loved it. We also got to see Lisa and Greg's new building, which was awesome! Overall we had a great trip and headed back home on Saturday to get caught up around the house. Here are some pics from the weekend:

John and Aunt Lisa...he loves his "neighs!"

Thanksgiving with Aunt Lisa and Uncle Greg

Papa!

John and his cousin Bailey

Feeding the ducks

December:
December flew by so fast because we were so busy. December is always the month that I seem to sign up for more than I can take on. Our school always does a Families in Need program in December for our students, and I have always "shopped" with donated money to help out. This year I was a little overwhelmed because I was hosting our annual neighborhood cookie exchange at our house, so we just adopted our own family from the school's list and I was going to leave it at that. However, I ended up helping out last minute by shopping for 11 extra kids. I was so happy I did it though. As stressful as it can be, it is the time of year to do it and very rewarding. I also saw several students today wearing clothes I had purchased, so it makes me happy to know their Christmas was a little brighter! Our cookie exchange was fun too, and we celebrated Brad's birthday that same week. Don, Nan, and Lisa all came for the weekend which was great. Add in two adult work parties, parent group party, daycare party, Gingerbread party, and holiday family celebrations, it was a busy month!

We have started our annual tradition of having "Brunch with Santa" to celebrate my sister and Brad's birthdays with my parents and Jenny, Doug, and Libby, so we had a lot of fun again this year. John wasn't too sure of Santa, but he did stand by him.

I had the entire week of prior to Christmas which was great. Great because I ended up with a horrible sinus infection and felt yucky. So it was nice to lay low with John and have some cuddle time! We celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family that week too, which was great. My family (parents, Jenny, and Doug) adopted a family of our own as well for Christmas. We delivered the gifts the Sunday before Christmas and it was so great. The woman was so humbled and couldn't stop crying. It really was a highlight of the month.

i also got to meet up with my great friend Angie, who is a college roommate. She lives out in Boston now and I haven't seen her since my baby shower. We met at Bronner's where she got to meet John and we caught up. I miss you Ang!!! John actually sat on Santa's lap at Bronner's, so I was able to get some great pictures.

Christmas Eve was at our house this year and it was a lot of fun. I wasn't too stressed out because we usually have a pretty low key evening which is perfect. My cousins and their young kids all came and the kids were hilarious running all around. After they all left, we celebrated Christmas with my family. John and Libby were fun opening presents. I wouldn't say John really "got" it, but he definitely enjoyed opening things!

Christmas morning was also a lot of fun. Again, it took a while to get through because he wanted to play with things, or randomly go into the other room to play with toys. It was so much fun though, and I really can't wait until next year when he "gets" it.

Christmas morning we headed to Indiana to celebrate with the Monhaut's. Again, it was a great weekend and John did awesome. I had so much fun with him over the past two weeks. Brad also took the week off after Christmas, so when we got back on Tuesday, we had a few days to just hang out. It was so hard t go back to work today! He has been talking and communicating so much, and just keeping us entertained. We all had so much fun!!

We celebrated New Year's at our house with my parents and Jenny, Doug, and Libby. it was fun as well. My mom, sister, and I have become addicted to Words with Friends, so I'm sure the guys thought it was a great time to watch us all play each other! Ha!

Well, that is the past month in a nutshell. Sorry for the long post, if you are still reading! Just wanted to get it documented before it all becomes a blur. How is it that time is going by so fast now? Is this what happens once you have a child??? Well, if you kept reading, thank you! If not, I don't blame you! Hopefully you scrolled down to see the pics.