End 2011

I'm back from my unintentional intentional blogging break.  It's been an overwhelming and lovely few weeks.  Nate's been out of school and we traveled to St. Louis with both kids for (what was one of my favorite of all time) Christmas.  The baby is as dreamy as ever and I'm trying to enjoy the quiet and post-holidayness but struggling to balance it all.  I've been trying to carve out some quiet time to write and dream for 2012 but it's just not happening so I'm going to throw in the towel and PHOTO DUMP!  Who's with me?   

Pre-holiday preparedness complete with Nora's gorgeous stocking, a surprise shower of SNOW (we still have some in our freezer!) and Nate's bear suit on Nora Kate:

We had a Christmas in Little Rock before we headed out of town: 

NK and MK:

Ahhhh... a familiar site...Keeping Christmas classy with the nursing cover.   Still nary a bottle to pass this babe's lips.  I tried not to even think about it over the break. 

Hitting the road and stopping in BOOMLAND...which, clearly, is THE home decor fireworks gas station of the Midwest.  This is, apparently, my BOOM pose: (Also, for the record, both children were AMAZING on the six hour drive there and back.  Karl and I kept looking at each other wondering 'could it really be this easy?'  AND IT WAS!) 

Hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's on Christmas Eve morn.  NOBODY PUTS BABY IN THE CORNER. 

First Christmas without MY grandparents.  Tribute:  

Blacklight batting cage in my uncle's basement.  Pitching machine on SLOW. 

Mylee rolling up to Christmas... she wandered around like this not allowing anyone to speak to her for a solid 30 minutes... (WHERE ARE HER GOD DAMN CIGARETTES AND HER BLOODY MARY?) LOVE HER. 

Nate and Karl waiting on presents on Christmas Eve: 

Nate's idea for Reindeer Food: Four marshmallows, captain crunch, and (you can't see) a cup of sugar: 

Christmas morning with Big Daddy Finn (McMissile, British Intelligence) and Baby Finn.  He wouldn't sleep in these pajamas so Christmas morning we told him he wouldn't get any presents until he put on his Christmas jammy jams.  It's a cruel, cruel world he lives in. 

Looking forward to 2012...