The days leading up to Christmas...

We had a fun-filled month of December.  Everyone got to chose a couple of things that they wanted to do during our 3 WEEK WINTER BREAK!

Fondue night.  I heard Tessa telling my brother, "When we're good we get to Fondue, when we're bad, we Fon-don't."

The boy that was sick the whole of December.

We had a friend over for ribs one night, and I thought I'd made plenty.  Clearly not, because Emory proceeded to clean all of the ribs we'd already eaten.  In her own words, she's a Meat-a-tarian.

Once upon a time I got sweet-talked into participating a Synchronized Swimming Skit for the Ward Christmas Party.  

The End.

We saw Santa at the Party.  We're 3 for 3 on our babies liking Santa.  Fischer just sat there, stroking his beard and staring at him.  I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried about that?

We also had a few snow flurries in December, but sadly, nothing stuck.

Tessa had a Winter Dance recital, and showed off her amazing moves.  Well, the moves actually scare the crap out of me.  No five year old should be able to move their hips like that!

Her poses kill me!

Besties!

She was overjoyed that I did her hair fancy and that I also let her put on a little make-up.

I was so proud that Emory decided to come to the Recital over a Birthday Party we were invited to.  I didn't even have to "help" her choose ;)

Tessa was so happy that her daddy took time out of his busy schedule to come.  He even brought her and her friend roses!

We also had a Friend Christmas Craft Day.  This was lots of fun!  We did an experiment to show how Santa gets down the chimney, but didn't get any pictures unfortunately.

Sunday before Christmas.  My mom made these dresses for the girls.  I'm so lucky that I can say, "I really like {these} dresses from {this} place," and she says, "Oh, I could make those."  Love my mom!

November

We were without a camera for most of November.  We continued to unpack, organize, and Cory worked a lot.  We had another fun filled Thanksgiving with friends, no pictures of course.  The week after Thanksgiving my parents visited for a few days after driving my brother up here for interviews for residency.  (We're crossing our fingers for OHSU!)  

Yes, Emory is rock climbing across Cory's dream skin.  Zits, blisters, and scabs galore!

These are some pictures at OMSI from my mom's phone.  The girls reveled in some Grandma, Grandpa and  Uncle Josh time, and Fischer eventually warmed up to them too.  

We finally got the new camera and are slowing learning how to use it.  Cory wanted a DSLR (whatever that even means) but I felt a little hypocritical getting one because I've always made fun of the "Camera Moms" with their ginormous camera on their hips, trying to take profession looking photos.  So he got one anyway, but at least it's small ;)

We worked on a fun Christmas project for our cousins.  

Since we don't see them very often, maybe once a year, so we made them a Cousin ABC's Book to help them know their "long, lost Oregonian Cousins," as Emory would say!

The Move

We bought a house!  Like way back in September, but we bought a house!  We'd been looking for awhile and just hadn't found a good fit.  We made an offer on a new build we liked, but the seller wasn't willing to budge, so we kept looking.  Then I had a baby and the house hunting slowed down.  After seeing a lot of houses during the summer, our realtor told us the guy who built the house we had made an offer on had come back to her, wondering if we were still interested.  Strangely enough, 2 nights before that I'd had a dream we'd bought that house and were living in it, and the day after my dream, Cory was so frustrated about the lack of housing in the area we wanted to be in said, "We should just by Muirfield!!"  (That's what we called the house.)  Done and done.  Well, not actually, but essentially.  Millions of hours of drama and paper work later and the keys were ours!  We love it and so do the kids.  The girls have huge bedroom that has plenty of room for all of their stuff.  We have a guest room and Fischer finally has his own room.  I think my favorite part of all is our backyard.  It's a pretty good size, but it backs up to horse property so it's a view of beautiful trees and horses.  We've also learned the pains of home ownership like purchasing a lawnmower and window coverings, which we still need, and never ending attempts at decorating, but it feels like home.

We were so lucky that Cory's amazing Grandma was able to come and help us move and unpack.  I can honestly say that I might still be in boxes up to our ears if it wasn't for her!  We would wake up each morning and I'd be so tired from getting up with Fischer during the night, that all I wanted to do was nothing, but Grandma Hulse the Slave-Driver-Un-Packing-Woman would just start unpacking boxes and handing the stuff to me.  She would hold the baby while I was organizing entertain the girls and just help endlessly.  Now we need her to come visit so she can have some fun instead of work the whole time!

Here are some pictures before the move and during the move.  

We ate at Wendy's a lot.

I cannot even express how grateful I am for her help!

Obligatory stroller picture.

And here's Tessa. 

I love when my kids take pictures of me doing my job, folding laundry while catching up on my DVR shows.

And these are the last shots before the camera died.  

It seems suspicious that it was the girls who were last to take pictures before it stopped working...