There's something so adorable about babies dressed up in ridiculously cute outfits. I bought a purple lamb outfit long before Leah was born never dreaming how cute she would look in it. See below for proof.
Monday, December 22 – Monday, December 29: Kim Freeman (Nathan's sister-in-law), her kids, and her favorite babysitter Kelsey came to San Diego to visit us for the week of Christmas. With Jacob (Nathan's brother) doing a tour of Air Force duty in Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, we were lucky enough to have Kim and the kids celebrate the holiday with us. Kim was so brave to drive her kids and Kelsey in her mini-van from Colorado Springs, including a nursing infant. Wow! We had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas. The girls decorated gingerbread houses and we ate lots of sweets. Kim cooked us delicious hearty meals (Are houseguests supposed to be cooking for their hosts??? We got lucky, I'd say!) and we played a lot of Carcassonne (strategic boardgame). Leah loved meeting her cousins and being surrounded by energetic girls. We met Joel for the first time and enjoyed his easy-going personality. He's just additional evidence that Jacob and Kim are fantastic parents and they turn out cute kids.
This Christmas was much more livelier with kids. Leah wasn't quite old enough to appreciate her gifts, but she'll figure all that out soon enough. Emily did a great job organizing the kids’ presentation of the Christmas story as told in Luke 2 of the Bible. Brooke, Rose, and Abigail were fantastic actresses in the play and expert shell collectors when we visited La Jolla Shores beach.
Friday, December 6 – After a long day and week of work, Nathan accompanied Leah and I to take our first formal family photo at Sears. Leah looked beautiful in her white blessing gown lovingly sewed by Grandma Peterson and Nathan looked handsome in his suit and wedding tie.
It’s a lot of work just to get us and one baby ready for a family picture. I tried to keep her in a happy mood all day and be well-rested. Despite my best efforts, she still fell asleep in the carseat on the way to Sears. We had to wake her from a catnap at the photo studio and it took a while before her smiley personality woke up too. I can’t imagine how a larger family manages to pull off such a feat! We're thinking we'll only attempt this once a year.