Happy New Year!

We have had a wonderful, but busy, holiday season! I think it's just going to be this way with three kids from now on! My mother visited us for three days right after we got out of school on Dec. 18, then we went down to Camden, AR, for two days to visit Stuart's family. The kids enjoyed seeing their cousins who were in from Ohio, even though it was a whirlwind trip. Arden is finally starting to travel better and is enjoying sitting in her new booster seat instead of the toddler convertable car seat. I think she's a lot more comfortable now.

We enjoyed a low-key Christmas in Bentonville where the kids woke up in our house to open stockings and gifts on Christmas morning. Hudson's best gift was a Wii Poke Park video game while Owen's was an XBox360 Madden '11 game. Arden has enjoyed her new dollhouse and Melissa and Doug wooden doll bed and highchair for her baby dolls. Santa brought Stuart a Kindle electronic reader, so he has been enjoying figuring it all out!

My Christmas dinner didn't turn out very well, as Stuart informed me that my turkey breast tasted "funny," so we weren't sure if maybe the meat had started going bad after thawing several days in the fridge while we were traveling. So, we packed up the kids (still in their Christmas pjs) and headed towards the only restaurant open on Christmas Day -- IHOP! It was a long wait and totally packed, but it made for a fun event to eat breakfast food with a full restaurant of people on Christmas Day! We might make IHOP an annual Christmas Day tradition while the kids are still young. They enjoyed Make-a-Face pancakes a lot more than mom's turkey meal!

This week of our Christmas break has been full of appointments with four dental appointments, Arden's birthday, and some playdates with the kids' friends. Arden did so well at her first dental appointment, and she is in the 85th percentile in height and weight at her 3 year old check up.

Arden got her twin bed assembled right before Christmas, too. I had purchased the sleigh bed frame from Craiglist almost a year ago for $50 and kept it in the garage until Arden was ready. She was a little fearful for the first few nights since it is such a tall bed, but she is now completely adjusted to it and enjoying it. I was a bit sad to pack up her final remnants of her infancy, but her twin sleigh bed is so adorable that it has been fun to see her progress to this stage. I gave away her crib and sold the baby mattress, and I'm still trying to sell her crib bedding on Craigslist.

We have enjoyed spending a lot of time together over the break, and we have been staying up too late and sleeping in, so now we have to get back to the reality of our regular school schedule over the next couple of days. I'm sure we will have a few days of adjustment next week! I don't think the boys are looking forward to doing homework again, but they are excited to return to school to see friends. If this January is anything like the previous two years in northwest Arkansas, I'm sure we will have some snow days to enjoy at home in the next month!

Happy New Year!