More photos and fun from December

David's company had a family Christmas party at the office with Santa so we got a second chance to get Noah and Santa photos. No big smiles, but once again...at least he didn't cry!






A FREEZING COLD day at the park









I know I'm gonna get grief from Noah some day for taking a picture of him wearing these pants...but it is hard to pass up a matching outfit when it involves a cute sweater vest! Hopefully he'll forgive me.



The "Kiddie Table". Noah sharing a meal with his 4 Hollis family cousins including Christian (age 4), Samantha (20 months) and twins Cameron and Lauren (11 months).



Noah and his first gingerbread house





















Noah and cousin Samantha

'Tis the Season

This past weekend was super busy and full for us. First we had David's office "holiday" party on Friday night which was actually a Hawaiian Luau...yes in December. It was interesting trying to find something to wear to that this time of year. It is usually formal holiday attire but they wanted to do something different this year...and that they did. Sadly we did not win the hula hoop competition or the free trip to Hawaii...sigh. And I have no pictures from any of that....sorry. Saturday was the SEC championship game held here in Atlanta where "my" Gators got to compete for a chance to go to the National title game...and they won! My darling husband was saavy enough to get us company seats AND kind enough NOT to sell our tickets since there were eager fans willing to pay up to $1000 a ticket...but I would not sell out... I wanted to go! It was an awesome game. But, I have no picture of that either. What I do have to share is a TON of awesome holiday pictures taken over the course of the weekend of mostly...none other than...Noah of course. We got him all dressed up to take some pictures in front of our tree and fireplace at home for potential holiday card photos. They turned out great if I must say so myself! The ironic thing is a fewe months ago you couldn't PAY me to attempt photos of Noah--he was impossible in front of the camera--crying, kicking, screaming and running away. Things have apparently changed because after I was done taking his pictures and had put his play clothes back on he ran over and got back into the rocking chair and kept saying "cheese more!, cheese more!" I finally realized he wanted me to take more pictures so he could keep saying "CHEESE!" What a turn-around.
The rest of the pictures are from Saturday morning when we headed to a friend's house for brunch with SANTA!! We had NO idea how Noah would react to Santa but surprisingly he did quite well and quite willingly sat on his lap. Enjoy the photos!







Yes he is simultaneously twisting the noses on the nutcrackers. No, I don't know why!



















Sadly I cut off the top of David's head in this picture, otherwise it would have been perfect. It was a spur of the moment picture and I didn't have time to back up any further or I would have missed the photo completely. David would like everyone to look at the previous picture so they will know that he really does have more hair than it looks like in this picture. Men and their hair...







"Hey Baby, You got plans Friday night???...Can I have your number??"







I just LOVE those blue eyes!

School pictures

Noah's preschool had a photographer come in October for school pictures. I almost didn't even take him that day because a photo shoot with him is usually a nightmare but surprisingly we got 2 good pictures. I was relieved. I just got the pictures a few days ago and of course want to show them off!

Um....Where did November go?

The last 2 weeks of November are all but a blur! To sum it up as briefly as possible...the highlights are that we took Noah to the ENT finally for his restricted airway problems (massive tonsils) and they all agreed that despite his young age he needed his tonsils and adenoids removed ASAP due to him not eating or sleeping well and having bad sleep apnea. He was losing a lot of weight due to not being able to swallow food easily. You know your kid is an "impressive" patient when the expert surgeon of 30+ years shows off his xray to other physicians and says he is a "13" on a severity scale of 1-10! We are so proud...ha ha. "yep, that's our boy!" So they scheduled his surgery for November 20th. On November 16th we started coming down with the dreaded stomach flu...all three of us simultaneously. Yeah, that was about as much fun as it sounds. Nothing like arguing with your spouse about which one of you is the least closest to death to prove that they need to be the one to get up and care for your child. So my sweet, caring, nurturing mom drove up from Florida to help take care of us while we were all sick and to be here for Noah's surgery and recovery but of course, right after she got here we all got better and they cancelled Noah's surgery because they didn't want to operate on him the same week he had the flu. My mom left on November 20th to drive back to FL so she could be ready to come back up for the real surgery date. She got about 3 hours down the road at 11pm and suddenly came down with a much more severe case of our stomach flu..compliments of her grandson. She was stranded at a flea bag motel on the side of the road as sick as could be until the next evening when the "Nelson Ambulance" could get there and bring her back to "The Nelson Infirmary". She finally recovered and we finally got Noah's surgery re-scheduled for November 25th, after much arguing with the doctors. Noah did awesome with the surgery and his recovery has gone smoothly, except for the fact that the prescriptoin pain medicine they put him on made him bounce off the walls and more hyper than that time I let him eat nothing but cake and ice cream for dinner. I now know first hand what the term "hanging from the chandelier" means. Other than that he is doing great and even eating more now (just a few days post-op) than he was before the tonsils came out. I am so happy to see our scrawny little boy eating finally! So life around our house is slowly getting back to normal but we all feel like we have cabin fever. I think David was probably happy to even go back to work today! I will be happy when Noah gets the "all clear" to go back to preschool so I can leave the house myself!