La felicidad que se encuentra: Kyle, Jenny, Alexa, Tyler, Tad, Liam, Nathan, and Audrey

Aunt June joined us for Christmas Eve dinner, making and decorating cookies for Santa, and acting out the nativity.  June was an angel, I was a shepherd, Tad was Joseph, Alexa was Mary, and Tyler wanted to be a donkey.  Alexa rode into the living room on Tyler's back until he collapsed and she smashed him into the carpet, resulting in some mid-nativity tears.  Tad ran around like a crazy person.  As usual, it was very entertaining.  But wonderful to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and spend it together as a family.  It was soooo nice to wake up in our own house Christmas morning, the first time since we had kids!  I loved not having an agenda and just spending the day together as a family. Alexa's favorite Christmas gifts included a dollhouse and a rainbow leopard beanie boo.  She asked Santa for an art set and a beanie boo. Tyler was very excited about a bow and arrow and remote control car.  He picked out gifts for ev...

What an expensive month!  We paid for the delivery of our sweet new bundle, we upgraded to a minivan, a couple weeks later our washing machine kicked the bucket (which is being used frequently with a new baby!), then our furnace died.  We traded out the Mazda CX-9 for a 2016 Toyota Sienna.  We miss the amazing handling of the Mazda, but traded it out for easier access to the kids, back seat, and more storage space.  We strongly debated the 7-passenger with all wheel drive for our frequent road trips through the mountains vs. the 8-passenger for our growing family.  So much for our pledge to never own a minivan.  Sigh.  Good thing Liam is so cute, we happily cuddle him all day. All the grandparents came to meet baby Liam this month.  We had a quick visit from Kyle's Dad when he came for Paul's mother's funeral, and Grandma Sweeny came straight from her cruise to stay with us the second week of November.  Marmie and Grandpa Swingle came u...