Christmas Part II

As promised, I have the rest of the Christmas pictures!  Things are starting to get moving at work, and we had a nightmarish two weeks at our new daycare, but now I finally have time to share them with you! Don't worry about the daycare fiasco, we got it taken care of, and are starting in a new place Monday that we are very excited about.

As you know, my Mom is usually busy on Christmas day, seeing as she is both the choral director and the organist at her church, but she was able to come out to TX to help spoil her granddaughter for a few days after Christmas.  

Leading up to the visit, she mentioned that she was working on a surprise for Cora, but wouldn't give me any clues.  Finally, the day before she flew out she made me promise that I won't hate her for how the surprise turned out.  Now I'm not a hating person, but this made me worry!  I harassed her for a while trying to get some info from her, but to no avail.  Janna was a little more informative, but not enough for me to be ready for this.  

Christmas with Cora

This year we travelled to Texas for the Christmas holidays. Since we've never had a holiday just the two of us, we usually don't make much fuss about presents and whatnot. In fact, I don't think we even bothered to wrap them last year. But, as Christmas this year meant presents for Cora, we decided we should actually do something. 

So the Saturday before we left for TX we woke up, got donuts, and had Christmas. Cora enjoyed all her new toys and books. (And doesn't her stocking there on the right look nice? I managed to finish it on time!)

The Tale of the Five Filter Wrenches

Once upon a time, I decided to work on my car. The highly anticipated, yet greatly dreaded 100k milestone had been reached, and it was time to make some changes. It was also time for a oil change on Gena's car, so I went to Oreilly's Auto and started buying parts. Half the things on my list were not in stock, so I was told to come back the next day to pick them up. The fuel temp sensor that also needed changing on my car was not available at any of the local parts stores, so I ordered that from the VW dealer.

Marshmallow pictures - Month 4

My fall semester has ended, and I am looking at 5 weeks off to stay home with Cora!  We decided to change her daycare to a site closer to home, so if one of us is late coming home, the other doesn't have to drive an extra hour to pick her up.  With the timing of the change, we decided just to keep her out of daycare for the month I'm home so I can spend some time with her, and so we can save a few bucks.  So far, things are going pretty well.  I'm learning my way around full-time daycare, and Cora's learning her way around full-time Dad.  After a rough couple of days, I think we're finally coming to an understanding.  Of course as I type, she is fighting going down for a nap, so maybe we're not as understood as I'd like to think!

One perk of being home is having time to take pictures.  Once again, we are a little behind, but here are a few of Cora's 4 month marshmallow pictures.  I believe she was actually 4.6 months old when I took them, but who's counting?

Thanksgiving

True to form, I am now writing about Thanksgiving.  Three weeks late.  Oh well.

This year for Thanksgiving, we flew to Indianapolis to be with my side of the family.  My brother and his wife, Peter and Alison, recently bought a house there, and decided it was the perfect place to host this year.  My mother, Paula, flew in from NM.  My sister and her husband, Janna and Ryan, flew in from CO, and the three of us came up from LA.  This trip marked a very important occasion, not only as it was Cora's first holiday, but it was the first time my siblings had a chance to meet her!  Cora loved being doted on all weekend, as evidenced by these photos.

Ok, that last one's not fair, she just wasn't in a picture taking mood.  I was sorry to find we had no pictures of Janna holding her, but I have two theories: One, Jan was behind the camera for much of the weekend; Two, Cora was usually passed to her from Peter, and it turned out that when Janna was holding her, she needed a diaper change.  I draw no solid conclusions, but it seems Peter has a strange effect on our daughter...

After all the travelling, Cora and I were pretty tired, so this is how we spent a large part of the weekend.

The trip was a blast until the final descent on our flight home.  Cora did great on the first three legs, but on the way down into New Orleans she realized how much her ears hurt.  It was a little ironic, as the 4 month old behind us had just finished crying about 10 minutes earlier.  I'm sure the other people on the plane were very ready to be home!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and thanks Pete and Alison for having us over!