Hold on to your hats!

This is Ayla's FIRST smiling picture with Santa. She was still in the NICU for her first Christmas. At 14 months she sat straight faced not quite understanding the whole thing and the past two years have been screaming and crying. She loves Santa this year though and I'm so excited to have a smiley picture of my girl with Santa.

Speaking of Santa, Westroads Mall has the best.santa.ever. Seriously, the BEST. He's the kindest and gentlest guy with a soft sweet voice. His beard is real and his cheeks are rosey. He Ho-Ho-Ho's perfectly. He may truly be the real Santa. He even sang to Ayla...Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. It was in a low, perfectly in tune Santa voice. You could hardly hear him standing 4 feet away but it gave me teary eyes and goosebumps to see my sweet three year old (who believes with everything in her) snuggle in to his warm Santa beard. Thank you Santa!

I'm recovered, we've moved, had a lovely Thanksgiving and it's almost CHRISTMAS!!

Yep...we've been busy! My neck has healed well. It's a little ugly but I am off all of my heart/thyroid meds and feeling better than I have in months. I do take one tiny little thyroid supplement each morning but it's NOTHING like the 14-16 pills I was taking before.

We are finally out of our apartment and into our new home. It's fantastic! We're waiting on the invisible fence people(who seem to be quite busy) to come and install so the dogs no longer have the freedom of our entire circle.

Thanksgiving was so nice this year. We had our newest niece, Alivia to be thankful for along with all of our health, well being and numerous other blessings. John and Carol were here and able to stay with us again!!! They'd been staying in hotels for each of their visits since having the house on the market/living in an apartment. They have their own little "suite" downstairs. We refer to it as the MIL suite but allow John to stay too :) They'll be coming for a week at Christmas also!

Unpacking is a BIT**, really. We're getting there though. John and Carol were soooo much help while they were here. From moving boxes, cleaning the apartment, unpacking, buying towels and rugs for the downstairs bathroom....they blessed us in a big way and gave us much to be thankful for.

Our Christmas decorations are up and the tree looks great. Ayla is really excited about Christmas this year and that makes the season so much more fun. She is talking about Santa and the naughty and nice lists which cracks me up. She "sees" him flying by on his sleigh multiple times a day....checking on the kids of course, to see if they're naughty or nice. This works to our benefit in a big way!

When Darren is able to set up the other computer, I'll be able to post more pictures. I will try and get her Santa picture on here since we got the cd!