For the first part of December, my sweet husband was still out of the country.
We stayed at my parents house until the day before my sweet husband came home.
That last week we ran some errands with my Dad and Grandpa,
sweet girl really is a champ in the car!
Sweet girl did her fair share of cuddling
We visited
Made funny faces
Sweet girl loves to look herself in the mirror,
although I don't think she realizes that the person she is looking at is her yet.
Then we drove home on Thursday
so I could play for my sister while she sang at our Relief Society Christmas Activity.
She did a beautiful job!
The next day we unpacked and decorated for Christmas
so that it would be festive when my sweet husband finally got home!
He was able to catch an earlier flight so he got home a little earlier than he was supposed to,
which was really nice! However, it was still 11 PM at night, but way better than 2 AM!
My sweet husband brought back this adorable beenie for our sweet girl!
The next week, my sweet husband had ANOTHER work trip!
BUT we were able to go with him on that one, so that was nice!
We got to spend pretty much the entire week together,
which was so great after being apart for three weeks!
We left Monday night for the trip and drove as far as my parent's house.
We stayed the night there,
then in the morning we continued heading north.
We met up with my husband's younger brothers and one of our sister-in-laws for dinner,
it was fun to eat and chat and laugh.
Then we headed up to our friends' house and another friend and his family were there too.
It was fun to catch up with them!
All the men were on the same floor their freshman year of college,
it's crazy to see them all married with kids now!
I knew all of them when they were freshmen in college,
they have grown up but they are still fun and crazy!
Sadly, I forgot to take pictures at either of those places! I kicked myself after I realized!
I swear I realize 20 minutes too late all the time!
Then we headed up to our hotel.
The next morning while my sweet husband was at his work meeting,
sweet girl and I headed to my grandparent's house!
We had fun visiting with them and with my youngest sister!
While we were there, some of my aunts came and visited with us as well!
It was fun to see them too!
Then we went and had lunch with one of my second cousins!
She is so sweet and I was so excited to show her our sweet girl because she has been one of our biggest supporters throughout our journey to become parents!
She held our sweet girl the whole time we ate! And Sweet girl watched EVERY bite our cousin took! Lol! I think she is definitely ready for some baby food! I will be asking about that at our next appointment for sure!
And despite this picture, sweet girl had a good time.
She was just super tired by this point, she had fallen asleep but woke up when we took this picture.
My youngest sister came to lunch with us too,
but left early to go with the sister missionaries to teach a lesson.
After she got back we went to the fairy village with my sweet grandmother.
Isn't it so cute?!
Apparently the lady that does it changes it out for different holidays and such.
It even had lights! I wish we could have gone at night too.
We needed to pick up my sweet husband from the hotel since we had the car,
so on our way up there we stopped by my aunt and uncle's house and visited with them.
It was fun introducing Sweet Girl to my cousins who hadn't met her yet.
Another one of my aunts and her girls came over too and one of her boys.
One of my uncles and Sweet Girl
Shout out to this birthday boy!
It was his birthday, so we celebrated with cake and ice cream while we visited!
Then we picked up my sweet husband and went to dinner with his uncle!
It was delicious!
At the hotel afterwards, Sweet Girl was giving awesome smiles to her funny aunt!
Apparently all the smiling tuckered her right out!
Daddy too, but I think that was mostly jet lag still lagging around.
The next morning we got some really sad news that my sweet husband's sweet aunt had passed away.
So Sweet Girl wore the flower our sweet aunt gave her in her honor.
She was a great lady and will be missed!
She was always a huge support throughout out journey as well!
She was the one who lined us up with the first birth mother that contacted us!
We are so grateful for her and for her wonderful example of Christlike love!
We love you Aunt Lori!
We drove back to my parent's house that day and headed home the next day after we found our Christmas tree. More on that to come!
