Nights like these...

A couple of things to note tonight.

1. After MONTHS of on and off bed times/night time routines, Hayden has been sleeping IN her own bed by HERSELF all night long for the last 3 nights. For her, this has been huge. The first night she cried for an hour and 45 minutes, and then eventually fell asleep. She woke up around 3 but cried herself to sleep again. The last couple nights it has only taken 10-15 minutes to cry it out before she gives up. We have been SOOO proud of her. She is quite proud of herself as well.

2. I finally cleaned our house today...I mean DEEP CLEANED the thing from 10:30 am to 6:00 pm. My friends, I am sore....and disgusted that I have been living in such filth:) Sarah was amazing to come play with the kids for most of the time. They were great. They played in the playroom almost the entire day. It was like they knew the house was that dirty.

3. Tonight was a great night. My parents, grandma, and sisters plus Hali came over for the IU basketball game. Nic had picked up pizza. The kids were quite the entertainment and kept us laughing the entire night. I absolutely loved having my family at our house. It was special to spend that time with my family in my own home. Hayden found a new bf, Hali. She talked her head off most of the night, poor Hali.

 Nic even attempted to curl Hayden's hair

Merry, Merry Christmas!

Apparently I forgot to post this after I wrote it the other day. My apologies.

December 25th:

Ok, so I realize I have been lacking here a little bit over the Christmas season with the whole recording-every-single-moment in fear of forgetting one little detail. However, I blame it all on my sinuses. I do. This past week went in a blink of an eye. I was sick most of the week with a sinus infection and even left work early Wednesday and Thursday, which I absolutely hate doing. I finally got on an antibiotic and am starting to feel better. I know you wanted to know that.
This year just seemed a little weird. It was great, just a little...I don't know. Maybe it is because there was no snow. Maybe it is because school went all the way up to 3 days before Christmas. It was, however, such a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day, being surrounded by family and remembering the birth of our Savior. I have said this before, but I do pray that as our kids grow up, they remember that the reason for Christmas is not because of the gifts (although they still received more than our house can hold), but because of Christ's birth.
Here is a quick rundown of the last 2 days:
On Christmas Eve we woke up and had the kids open their gifts from Nic and I. It was so much fun watching them opening their presents and seeing their smiles. We were surprised by Kris and dad when they showed up with donuts. It was a wonderful surprise. We spent most of the day with Nic's dad, eating lunch, and then going back to his house for presents and football. We later went to the Christmas Eve service at Granger and then to my parents' for pizza and movies.
We spent the night at my parents' and got up early (thanks to Kristen) and opened presents. After presents, we headed to church. We ate lunch and did presents at Nana and Papaws house and then returned to my parents' for dinner and more movies:) All in all, great, great Christmas spent with family....but I did miss my brother, sis in law, and niece like crazy!! We did get to Skype with them for awhile which was an awesome gift.
Although I would love to sit here for hours and record every detail and every moment of the past couple of days, I will just show with pictures. As you will notice, there isn't one single decent picture of my little family (although there were many attempts)...I am just going to wait until they are around 10 or so before even trying for a family picture:)  I apologize for the clarity of these pics...they are from my phone:)

 Yes, that is my son walking around with his onesie hanging out:)

Merry Christmas, my friends!!!

Anniversary Surprise

Do you ever get to the point where you ask yourself, "how much am I am able to handle until I break?" I was definitely in that place on Friday evening. It was an exhausting week with sleepless nights, working all day, and then coming home to CRABBY children. I was beginning to break. Moms, I am sure you have felt this way before.
Friday was our 5th anniversary. We barely spoke throughout the day due to Nic's busy day at his school. He had to work security at the basketball game. To be honest, I was VERY bummed. Every year before we had gone away for at least one night on our anniversary to just be with each other. Nic told me he would take me to Hacienda before the game (I was going to the game with him...now that is one hot date). Because of some situations that happened, we only got 30 minutes to eat before the game. Ladies and gentlemen, this did not put me in a great mood, as you could imagine. After the game, we got in the car and Nic asked if I wanted to go out for a little bit before going home. It was 9:30. I wanted to go home, go to bed, and sulk. As we were driving down the road, I received a text...from my husband...who was sitting right next to me...that said, "Wanna go to Chicago?!" I almost punched him (I thought he was joking). He drove past our road and headed to the toll road.
I cannot tell you the excitement that ran through me in those five minutes. I asked him every single question...who's watching the kids? What about the dog? What about clothes? What about....EVERYTHING?!?!?! Ladies, the thought that went into this little get away was amazing. He had his sister pack for me and then snuck the bag into the car. His sister and mom stayed with the kids Friday night. My parents picked them up the next morning and kept them until Sunday. Brooke packed the kids. I still just can't believe everything Nic did to make this weekend special.
We got to stay at a hotel that had a view of the river and was a couple of blocks away from all the shopping.
We slept in. We didn't have to rush. We shopped. We took a nap...AMAZING. We walked hand in hand. We shopped again. We ate some awesome food. We didn't have to rush through our meals. We talked...a lot. We laughed. We...well...you don't need to know that part;)

 Our View:)

 Half of our lunch at Su Casa...we devoured it before I thought of taking a pic!

 View of Navy Pier from our room

 Dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery...proud of myself for trying something new!

 Our hotel

Ended with some The Hangover...oooo Bradley;)

I kept telling Nic that this get-away couldn't have come at a more perfect timing. Just the two of us. I can't thank him enough for this time that we had together. It was a time to reconnect. A time to really just be together. I can't even put into words what all of this meant to me...to our marriage. I am blessed to be married to this man.
Starla, Brooke, mom, dad, and sisters...THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for taking such good care of our babies while we got to get away! You have no idea what this meant to me.

On a totally different topic...today was also Christmas with my dad's side. It was a great day, but we missed a lot of our family that couldn't make it! We missed you guys greatly!! Hayden couldn't wait for Coco to get here!